Creating shipset pages for SEIV
From SEWiki
Please find below some notes on the creation of wiki pages for shipsets. Although the point of this article is to keep these pages running to more or less the same format, no-one wants all shipset pages to end up looking exactly the same as one another. Please excercise the same creativity in building your wiki page as you did when creating your shipset.
If you find all this daunting, take a look at some of the other shipset pages. You can click "Edit" to see how they are put together and then click "back" on your browser to leave the page without changing it. This is a good way to copy/paste wiki code from one shipset page to another.
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Creating a new page for your shipset
A good place to start is the Shipsets (SEIV) page, or Shipsets (SEIII), Shipsets (SEV), Shipsets (Starfury) as appropriate.
Edit the shipset page, and add a new link, with the name of your shipset, to the list. You can use the links around it as a template. Now save the edit, and click on your new link. It will take you to a blank page, ready to be filled with your shipset information.
Categories
To add a shipset to a category, simply use the word 'Category', followed by a : and then the name of the category (see below). Put the whole lot in double square brackets. You'll need a set of double square brackets for each category. Be careful with capitals/ lower case. All SE4 shipsets fall into the following three categories:
- Encyclopedia
- Races
- Space Empires IV
In addition, please use as many of the categories below as are approporiate:
- Aquatic For species who live underwater.
- Asymmetrical ships For shipsets feature ships without symettry.
- Bugs For insect/ spider/ bug-like species.
- Carbon Dioxide For races with CO2 homeworlds.
- Crystals For beings composed of crystals.
- Energy beings For beings composed of energy.
- Felines For cat-like races.
- Fully Neo-standard For shipsets with all the neo-standard images.
- Fully Neo-standardPlusPlus For shipsets with all of the neo-standard++ images.
- Gas world For races that have gas giant homeworlds.
- Gaseous beings For beings composed of gas.
- Human For shipsets representing human societies.
- Hydrogen For races with hydrogen homeworlds.
- Ice world For races with icy homeworlds.
- Lost shipsets For shipsets that aren't hosted anywhere and considered 'lost'.
- Machines For robots/ androids/ mechanoids/ AI and the like.
- Methane For races with hydrogen homeworlds.
- No atmosphere For races with airless homeworlds.
- Oxygen For races with oxygen homeworlds.
- Partly Neo-standard For shipsets with some of the neo-standard images.
- Partly Neo-standardPlusPlus For shipsets with some of the neo-standard++ images.
- Plants For sentient plantlife.
- Reptiles For reptilian/ lizardine/ snake-like/ dragonish species.
- Rock world For races with rocky homeworlds.
- SW For Shipsets based on the Star Wars films, books, comics and whatnot.
- TDM For shipsets that are part of the TDM modpack
- Trek For Shipsets based on the Star Trek universe.
Create more categories if you need to, but please don't do so frivolously. If you don't think your new category will ever have more than one or two entries, you probably shouldn't add it. If you add new category for shipsets, please also add it to the list above.
"Races" & "Shipsets" vs "player empires"
There is little real difference between a shipset and a race in this wiki. However, player empires are not the same as shipsets. For example, the Tura'amni are a player empire. They are defined by their race description and the roleplaying that goes into them. However, the images used to represent that empire are from the Leonine shipset, which is an entirely independent entity, deserving of its own page. The Leonine shipset can be (and in fact is) used to represent more than one player empire. Consider whether your page could actually be split into a player empire page and a shipset page.
Images
The convention so far is to have a flag image near the top left of the article and a race portrait near the top-right. Additional images (a ship portrait from the set or extra graphics from another source) are entirely optional. Please don't go crazy though- don't upload previews of your entire set to the wiki. User:Fyron won't be happy if you do. Try to use nicely compressed formats (png, jpg, gif) rather than the bandwidth-hogging bmps the game uses.
General information
Include whatever information you feel is important. A link back to the Shipsets (SEIV) page is a good idea, and it is fairly conventional so far to mention pertinent details from AI_General.txt - for example homeworld type and any racial techs taken by the race. You might also consider saying something about the inspiration and process that went into the shipset's creation, or the behaviour of its AI, or whatever else grabs your attention. If the set's author has a user page about themselves on the wiki, why not link to it? Some sets have all this information copy/pasted from AI_General.txt, some don't. It's up to you.
Links to other shipsets
If your shipset borrows images from or is a recoloured/ reworked version of another set, please credit the the original and link to its wiki page. If it doesn't have a wiki page yet, perhaps you could make one. Also, if your race's backhistory crosses over with that of another set, a link would be good.
Copyrighted material
The odd race picture lifted from your favourite sci-fi show is probably OK under fair use laws, but it's common courtesy to credit your source. Same applies to images taken from games, books, websites... anywhere at all, really. You can add captions to pictures, and you can also make a note about a picture when you upload it. For an example, look at the race pic for the BunBunn shipset. A shipset's readme file should have this information if you can't find it elsewhere.
Related Fiction
If your set has starred in any SE4-related fan fiction, then that piece of fiction should have it's own wiki page. Note that a wiki page is not the right place to upload your *entire* story. If you want examples, look at the KanesS and xenology pages. Note that this is a Space Empires wiki, so the fiction should be SE-related. There's not much point pointing linking to generic Star Trek fanfic from your Klingon shipset page.
SEIII, SEV and Starfury versions of your set
If there is a version of your set for one of these other games, then each version of the set should have its own page. For instance, compare Memnorak_for_SEIV with Memnorak_for_SEIII. Note that the Memnorak page (without suffix) simply points to the various versions.
External links
Please provide bulletted links to:
- Your set's homepage/ shipyard where it is hosted.
- Anywhere else it might be hosted (for instance PBW, Tescosamoa.com, SotAS)
- The Shrapnel or other forum thread where the shipset was announced or where discussion is encouraged.
