Talk:Item Template

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Per the discussion between myself and Karuberu, I agree with him on the grounds that there should be distinction between the display of Armor(displayed with brackets) and Weapons/Other Items(displayed parenthetically). This should also be reflected on the Item Template Guide as well. --Charitwo 19:05, 7 May 2007 (CDT)

I believe this is too difficult to incorporate into the Item Template itself. I can put a note on it in the How to Use guide, and you can feel free to change the existing armor items to use the brackets, but I think it would just make this template too messy to include it. It already doesn't include details about how to use the template for non-armor and non-weapon items, so I think I'll just add a note to the guide and a hidden note in the code of this template about armor using brackets instead of parathetics. --Chrisjander 19:42, 7 May 2007 (CDT)

References in both the guide and the template have been added. --Chrisjander 20:02, 7 May 2007 (CDT)

I agree that the brackets look better and are more correct (plus it's already being used on many Armor Set pages), but just haven't been using them because of the need for the awkward NoWiki tags. But if people think it looks so much better with brackets, good luck with the tedious task of changing almost every armor piece :P --Eithin 04:34, 8 May 2007 (CDT)

It's not really about changing all of the pages at once, but about changing them slowly over time, without people reverting your edits. Really, the best way to go about things would be to use the armor template and create similar templates for the other item types (Template:Weapon exists, but is locked and outdated). ~ Karuberu 16:55, 8 May 2007 (CDT)

Chocobo Digging
The bore and burrow notes need to be updated (possible templated, like monster notes) to the new, colored dot version used on the Chocobo Digging and zone pages. ~ Karuberu 15:52, 20 May 2007 (CDT)

How to Obtain
Forgive me if I'm overstepping my bounds as a relatively new editor. I apologize that I only recently came across this template after I already had made a number of edits to pages as I went through the items that can be obtained via Chocobo Digging. (I know, I know, /slap .) A number of the formatting edits I made were, thankfully, in line with what the Item Template suggests, but others were made based on pages that did not follow everything properly.

Comparing the template to the formatting standards I based my edits upon, there were several things I wanted to point out that could be potentially useful changes:

1) Merchants
 * (Minor) Under the Location heading, the position is not surrounded by parentheses, but the standard convention in the game when using   is to display the position as (?-?). Many pages already do it this way, which is not to say it needs to be changed, but I wanted to confirm that you really did not want to use parentheses for some reason before I go off and edit any more pages in this manner.


 * Under the Type heading, some pages go on to list additional information.
 * For example, Regional Merchants are followed by their region. This is usually on a separate line in italics, but I think linking to just the name of the region afterward in parentheses &mdash; Regional Merchant (Zulkheim) &mdash; should be sufficient and would save on some vertical space in the table.


 * Another case is when an item is not always available. Some items are only sold by the vendor when the nation is first or second in conquest &mdash; could be denoted as Standard Merchant (2nd+) &mdash; while others can only be purchased by citizens of that nation and only when they are first in conquest &mdash; could be denoted as Standard Merchant (Windurst citizen, 1st).


 * I realize this is adding more data to the tables, and for people working at lower resolutions it would probably cause that particular column to be broken up into multiple lines. I also realize this data is already included on the merchant pages (or should be) and is just a click away. However, I believe it's useful information to have on the item page as well, similar to how the Used in Recipes and Obtained From Desynthesis sections work: I shouldn't have to go to every merchant's page for a particular item to see whether I can buy it from them.

2) Chocobo Digging (and other Hobbies)
 * (Minor) Many zones used the term Abundance in place of Rarity, which is why I've been using it on item pages as well. This is just a semantics issue, really. When I looked up both words on Merriam-Webster Online, rarity was only used to describe items that are rare, while one of the uses of abundance demonstrated that it could be used for both plentiful items and rare items, which is the range we're dealing with in this column. Not something I want to quibble about, just wanted to explain the reasoning behind why I was making that change. I can revert to Rarity if that is the preferred heading.


 * (Minor) I never understood why this type of table has more cellpadding than the other tables, and using the indents at the beginning of lines only adds more padding to the cells. It also encouraged some people to add multiple zones within those two cells instead of creating new rows for each zone. I was also splitting each line at 50%-50% width instead of 60%-40%, but that's probably not something that needs to be changed. =) (See Acorn as an example of the formatting I've been using.)


 * (Chocobo Digging only) Up to this point, I had only been putting in the ability key as needed on items and only listed the ones that applied. I would be happy to make a template for it, similar to Template:Monster Notes, and include that on all pages I've already edited. If a template is deemed excessive, should I go back and add in all four conditional dots in a key on every item anyway?

3) Gardening
 * (Minor) Again, this is just a matter of formatting and happens to be the first way I saw it done. I put extra priority on the width of the Pot and Seed columns because they had the potential to contain much wider text than the other three. I also templated the names of the crystals and centered the final three columns. (I guess technically the rows are centered as default, and the first two columns are left-aligned.) You might want to note somewhere what to do with the single-crystal seeds as well as when no crystal is used; I've seen "---" under Crystal 2 for the former and "None" in either column for the latter. (See Fire Crystal as an example of the formatting I've been using.)

4) BCNM/ENM/KSNM
 * The Level Cap heading seems a bit ambiguous. Some people interpreted it as just containing the level cap (e.g. Level 30), while others put all three restrictions in that column separated by commas (e.g. Level 30, 30 minutes, 6 members). I came across a page that broke the "restrictions" into three separate columns, which is the formatting I started applying to other pages as I went along. I think there was also a row above those that indicated they were all restrictions, similar to the Price row on top of the Merchants table, but I left that off; it could be added back on if the current headings aren't clear enough. (See Adaman Ore for an example.) If you'd rather stick with the current three-column format, perhaps the heading should be changed to Restrictions so that it encompasses all three. *shrug*


 * (Minor) It seems like there should be a distinction between a "cap" of Level 75 and "No Level Restriction". I know there are cases when you can enter an uncapped KSNM without buffs being removed, but there are other cases (Assault comes to mind for me) where your level isn't restricted but buffs are removed as they would be if there was a restriction. Do any uncapped BCNM/KSNM/ENMs work in this manner?

In the case of 3) and 4) and potentially 1) if the additional information is added, I noticed some follow-up edits that made the table widths wider for some pages. If 60% is not sufficient for lower resolutions, that could easily be bumped up to 70% or 80%. (Even though that's crazy wide at the resolution I'm running at. XD)

I'm sorry for taking up so much space with all of this, but this seemed to be the appropriate place to do it. I realize this is a lot of information to read through, and I tried to whittle it down as much as possible. I tend to be verbose when explaining things if I'm not careful... Mostly, I want to avoid making changes that don't conform to the template and make more work for the people who revert it back to what it's supposed to be. I really hope I don't come across as being arrogant, sounding like I think my way is the best way and that you should conform your template to my wishes; that's certainly not my intention. I would appreciate it if at least the non-minor issues could be considered, or at least an explanation could be given as to why they should not be changed.

Also, disregard the darker color changes I made to the blues on some tables in the examples I linked to. That was the color I saw being used on zone pages and some item pages, so it's one of the things I put in to be changed for each page I edited for the sake of consistancy. In the future, I'll stick to #e3e6ff;. ^^;

Thank you for your time. =) --Tinuvael 13:03, 2 June 2007 (CDT)

Whew... that's a lot... let's strike out parts as they're resolved.

1) Merchants
 * The standard/guild merchant revisions are mostly by rogue editors (not to say it's not a welcome change, it just hasn't been discussed before). Personally, I like the way those pages are, with the extra info in italics on a new line; they conforms with the unwritten "notes and supplemental text should be in italics" rule.

2) Chocobo Digging (and other Hobbies)
 * I have no idea why the Hobbies tables has the indent... never understood it either.
 * Two templates could be created and used for the chocobo digging; one for the icons used in the table (one template with multiple  arguements could be used), the other for the explanations.

3) Gardening
 * Your formatting for the gardening table looks good to me, though some may want "None" in italics.

4) BCNM/ENM/KSNM
 * I'm for splitting the table up into more sections; if the information is going to be there, it sould be organized.

~ Karuberu 15:55, 2 June 2007 (CDT)


 * Thanks for taking the time to go through all of that. =)


 * I'll concede on the convention for adding additional information to the merchants. It might add more space to the table, but it follows what is done in other places on the wiki. When I get back to editing pages (probably Monday), I'll go fix the ones I've already done, provided I get the go ahead to continue doing so.


 * I like your idea for an additional template to be used within the tables themselves. Right now, there are only four conditionals: Burrow, Bore, Egg Helm, and Night. The only others I can think of (Crystals/Clusters/Elemental Ores) are complex enough that I didn't add them to the tables, so I don't think we need to worry about Weather/Moon Phase to be added in.


 * Putting "None" in italics in the Gardening tables makes perfect sense. Is there something better to use other than "---" that would be more consistent as well? "None" wasn't being used in that case, since it's on rows for single-crystal seeds.


 * --Tinuvael 20:38, 2 June 2007 (CDT)

For those with single crystal feeds, keep the "---" as opposed to None. This indicates that there is no second feeding, rather than "don't feed it a crystal". Go ahead with making some templates for the Chocobo Digging section, as well as formatting pages to use the standard of "second italicized line" for Regional Merchant info. The italicized region name could use with some linking, so link the whole phrase to the region (e.g. Zulkheim Region). -- 23:26, 2 June 2007 (CDT)


 * I created Template:Chocobo Digging and Template:Chocobo Digging Notes tonight and learned all about ParserFunctions! :D I went ahead and tested them out in the main Chocobo Digging page. I'll go back through all the zone and item pages soon. --Tinuvael 01:35, 3 June 2007 (CDT)


 * Good work. I had forgotten about ; it works much better there than  s would. My only complaint is that   is a little lengthy to write; I would have chosen a shorter name for the template (Digging,CD, etc.). As for the Gardening tables, a mdash (&mdash;) would look more professional than several dashes, and would take up the same space. ~ 15:01, 3 June 2007 (CDT) Karuberu 15:01, 3 June 2007 (CDT)

Line Breaks
All the need to be changed to , the forward slash is mainly used for XML and serves no purpose here at the wiki. is perfectly acceptable. -- 16:54, 4 June 2007 (CDT)

I agree. ~ Karuberu 17:11, 4 June 2007 (CDT)

Used in Quests
I think the change to "Used in Quest" should be reverted; it creates unneccesary irregularity between pages (not worth it for a singularity/plurality issue). I wouldn't be against it if we had bots that could change it easily and quickly, but changing it manually is far too slow and would make the wiki look dirty for too long. ~ Karuberu 17:22, 5 June 2007 (CDT)

We're already making a ton of edits (linking most of the items in Other Uses section, adding the AH template), so what's one more little thing. With all of these differences, what's one more little change? With all the pages we haven't changed, that makes them look a whole lot more dirty than the absence of one "s". -- 17:26, 5 June 2007 (CDT)

Yes, but now we'll have to go back and change all the pages we've already changed. The idea of "starting over" is not a good one. ~ Karuberu 17:34, 5 June 2007 (CDT)

I agree, it was fine the way it is, both myself and Karuberu have collectively changed thousands of pages to include Quests. I do not like this change at all. -- 17:43, 5 June 2007 (CDT)

Then don't change it, no one's making you edit. I'm going to pluralize items used in multiple quests, and get rid of the "s" on singles. -- 18:02, 5 June 2007 (CDT)

The colons should not be bolded. -- 14:20, 9 June 2007 (CDT)

We've always bolded the colons. The ones you find without them aren't supposed to be that way. -- 14:23, 9 June 2007 (CDT)

I am aware, I am saying it looks wrong and needs to be changed. -- 14:24, 9 June 2007 (CDT)