Help Requested for Pedia articles

[Dilvish]

As Adrian has pointed out, new players are sometimes quite lost when starting up FO, even regarding some of the most basic UI elements. To help alleviate this problem, I've made a couple intro Pedia articles in a new "Guides" section, and created an intro Greetings Sitrep which to help direct new players to the Pedia. To help ensure new players see this Sitrep, the initial Sitreps will now always show on Turn 1 if the max AI aggression is no higher than typical.

For the links in that intro sitrep to work properly for you, you'll need to recompile or wait until the next weekly build, but even without that you can just directly access the guides via the Pedia.

The initial guides I made are pretty bare-boned, though, and could really use some work. Some of that can just be summarizing key aspects of the website quick play guide. I had also previously started an 'Interface" article which should probably be moved over to this guides section, and of course also be expanded quite a bit (ideally with brief explanations and then links to more detailed articles for the more important UI elements).

Any help with these guides would be much appreciated.

[Geoff the Medio]

Is the sitrep window supposed to pop up on turn 1? (It's not for me... but when I open it the greetings message is there...)

[Dilvish]

Is the sitrep window supposed to pop up on turn 1? (It's not for me... but when I open it the greetings message is there...)

did you both recompile and then for the game set aggression to typical or lower? Without recompiling the sitrep links won't work right and it won't come up at turn 1.

I'd be fine with it automatically coming up on turn 1 no matter what the aggression setting, but I seem to recall that it used to always come up & people hadn't liked that, so I gated it by aggression.

[MatGB]

did you both recompile and then for the game set aggression to typical or lower? Without recompiling the sitrep links won't work right and it won't come up at turn 1.

That's what I forgot to do *restarts with aggression lowered*

Yup, there fine. Definitely like the idea of expanding on this, will have a play when I've time.

I'd be fine with it automatically coming up on turn 1 no matter what the aggression setting, but I seem to recall that it used to always come up & people hadn't liked that, so I gated it by aggression.

Vezzra and I were talking about using his scripted events thing to always pop something up independently for first turn, this works as well though.

Is a reminder we'll need to change the default aggression for the Release though.

[Sloth]

I've created a PR that Adds a Fleet Movement article to the new Interface section of the pedia. I hope it's helpful for new players.

[Vezzra]

Is a reminder we'll need to change the default aggression for the Release though.

Keep in mind, this is something that has to be done on the release branch, not master.

[Ouaz]

In *Game Concepts* Pedia section:

It would be good to have a little Pedia article for "Damage", obverse of the "Structure" article (which is currently: "Structure is amount of damage that ship can take until it is destroyed. Structure can be restored by repairing.")

To better explain in one article that Damage amount is dependant of Shields defense too (with a pedia link to Shields).

Same for "Armor Plating" that can improve a ship's Structure.

In order to complete the Structure article: "Structure can be improved by Armor Plating -pedia link- and can be restored by repairing".

[Ouaz]

I wrote three new pedia articles that could be useful into *Game Concepts* section (with Pedia links added afterwards in some Pedia articles).

Can someone check if my english is correct (I know it isn't at all ^^) or if the articles can possibly be improved (I think so).

Thanks!

--- en.txt ---

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DAMAGE_TITLE
Damage

DAMAGE_TEXT
Defines the amount of damage inflicted by an armed ship in one combat round. This value, equal to the strength sum of all weapons mounted on a ship, is substracted to the [[encyclopedia STRUCTURE_TITLE]] of an enemy ship after each combat round, destroying it when reaching zero. If a ship is equipped with [[encyclopedia SHIELDS_TITLE]], the damage sustained by each hit will be reduced by the strength rating of the shield part.

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ARMOR_TITLE
Armor Plating

ARMOR_TEXT
Allows to increase the [[encyclopedia STRUCTURE_TITLE]] of any ship by the strength rating of the armor plating part. Unlike ship [[encyclopedia SHIELDS_TITLE]], armor plating does not protect from [[encyclopedia DAMAGE_TITLE]]s caused by enemy weapons.

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SLOT_TITLE
Slot

SLOT_TEXT
A slot is where can be mounted a [[encyclopedia ENC_SHIP_PART]] on a [[encyclopedia ENC_SHIP_HULL]], like weapons, shields, armor plating, engines and various other devices. There are three slot types: external, internal, and core slots. Each of them has a different shape, which can receive a different type of ship part. Larger is a hull (and expensive), bigger is the number of different slots which can receive various ship parts.

--- encylopedia.txt ---

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Article
    name = "DAMAGE_TITLE"
    category = "CATEGORY_GAME_CONCEPTS"
    short_description = "DAMAGE_TITLE"
    description = "DAMAGE_TEXT"
    icon = "icons/meter/damage.png"


Article
    name = "ARMOR_TITLE"
    category = "CATEGORY_GAME_CONCEPTS"
    short_description = "ARMOR_TITLE"
    description = "ARMOR_TEXT"
    icon = "icons/tech/armor_plating.png"


Article
    name = "SLOT_TITLE"
    category = "CATEGORY_GAME_CONCEPTS"
    short_description = "SLOT_TITLE"
    description = "SLOT_TEXT"
    icon = "icons/ship_parts/external_slot.png"

Thanks!

[Dilvish]

I wrote three new pedia articles that could be useful into *Game Concepts* section (with Pedia links added afterwards in some Pedia articles).

Hi, yes, I think those are useful topics. On substance, I think the Damage article should be generalized a little to talk both about Ship weapons damage and Planet Defenses damage, and should also be clarified regarding total ship damage (which shows on the fleet window ship panel), versus individual weapon damage which currently must be looked up and which is what matters regarding ship shield damage reduction. Also, regarding that latter point, rather than trying to explain it in detail both here and with shields, perhaps there should be a Combat article (or guide) which both of them link to for explaining the details.

Regarding all three, they need a bit of editing, but that's a little bit of a nuisance in this format. Perhaps you could make the above changes and then submit a PR, and someone can either suggest edits there or just merge it and then make the edits themselves (which I think would be the easiest).

[Ouaz]

Regarding all three, they need a bit of editing, but that's a little bit of a nuisance in this format. Perhaps you could make the above changes and then submit a PR, and someone can either suggest edits there or just merge it and then make the edits themselves (which I think would be the easiest).

Thanks for the answer.

Well, I will submit a PR with what I've posted above, saying that's it's not intended to be merged like this, given the obvious clumsy english and the fact there can be a little more informations (with a link to your post).

[Ouaz]

I wrote a Pedia article about the Environment game concept (Planetary Environement types + Suitability concept + Terraforming).

Needs obviously a better english writing.


---- en.txt ----

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ENVIRONMENT_TITLE
Environment

ENVIRONMENT_TEXT
'''Eleven different environments can be encountered when exploring the planetary systems on the galactic map: Inferno, Radiated, Toxic, Barren, Desert, Tundra, Swamp, Terran, Ocean, Asteroids, and Gas Giant.

Each [[encyclopedia ENC_SPECIES]] has its own environmental preferences, which determine the planet suitability, according to the following list (from worst to best):

Uninhabitable < Hostile < Poor < Adequate < Good

The planet suitability report can be displayed by right-cliking on a planet in the system sidepanel. A green number following the suitability data indicates the max population bonus value if the species colonizes the planet, whereas a red number indicates that the population will stay idle or will decrease, to finally perish if the species attempts to colonize the planet.

When terraforming a planet (by research or if the planet has the [[encyclopedia GAIA_SPECIAL]] special) in order to better suit the species' environmental preferences, the planet's original environment is modified by stages, until it finally reaches the Good suitability for the species who wants to live on the planet. The terraforming stages can be checked on the suitability wheel displayed in the Planet Suitability report.'''

---- ENVIRONMENT.focs.txt ----

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Article
    name = "ENVIRONMENT_TITLE"
    category = "CATEGORY_GAME_CONCEPTS"
    short_description = "ENVIRONMENT_TITLE"
    description = "ENVIRONMENT_TEXT"
    icon = "icons/tech/terraform.png"

Thanks.

[Geoff the Medio]

Each [[encyclopedia ENC_SPECIES]] has its own environmental preferences, which determine the planet suitability, according to the following list (from worst to best):

Uninhabitable < Hostile < Poor < Adequate < Good

This doesn't really make sense to me. The ranking of the habitabilities is shown, fine, but that ordering doesn't "determine the planet suitability". Maybe say something like "Each species has environmental preferences, which determine what planet types it can inhabit and how well the population will grow on each type. The habitability of planet types for a species is ranked on this scale: ..."

[Ouaz]

Each [[encyclopedia ENC_SPECIES]] has its own environmental preferences, which determine the planet suitability, according to the following list (from worst to best):

Uninhabitable < Hostile < Poor < Adequate < Good

This doesn't really make sense to me. The ranking of the habitabilities is shown, fine, but that ordering doesn't "determine the planet suitability".

Oh, yes... The original sentence was:

"Each [[encyclopedia ENC_SPECIES]] has its own environmental preferences, which determine on each planet type the suitability for the species, according to [...]"

But I wasn't sure it was a correct english style (with "species" repeated twice), so I shortened the sentence. Reading it again, yes, it doesn't make sense.

[MatGB]

Theoretical correct English would have you use "them" instead of "the species" for the second mention, but I generally much prefer clarity over theoretical correctness (remember, English has no formal rules, only guidelines that should be broken if it works better).

But I like the article in general, thanks.