Author Topic: About the wiki.  (Read 13418 times)

Offline CaptainTaz

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About the wiki.
« on: May 29, 2015, 02:12:51 pm »
I've heard/seen the Wiki has been... not in the best condition as of late. I'm willing to devote some of my time this weekend to help remedy that, like fixing stats, replacing crystal/metal costs, adding pages for units that have not been cataloged, etc. However, before I do, I need to be sure that I won't be putting half-correct information into it, because the last thing I wan't to do is make the situation WORSE.

If anyone knows a good procedure to help me get started (like, how should I set up a game, does AI difficulty matter, etc.) That would be great. I will most likely be focusing on minor factions and units, their stats, costs, effects, how they behave, etc.
Just that guy who hides behind walls of death hoping that they stay up.

Offline Radiant Phoenix

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Re: About the wiki.
« Reply #1 on: May 29, 2015, 02:48:46 pm »
I don't think AI Difficulty changes things, but cap scale (ultra-low vs normal vs high) and game speed (Epic vs Normal vs Blitz) affect stats.

Stats can be exported with F3, CTRL+SHIFT+F8, but I think that's in Epic speed + Ultra-high caps. You'd need to check, though, because that is based on a thing I vaguely recall reading somewhere on the forum.

Offline CaptainTaz

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Re: About the wiki.
« Reply #2 on: May 29, 2015, 02:52:18 pm »
I don't think AI Difficulty changes things, but cap scale (ultra-low vs normal vs high) and game speed (Epic vs Normal vs Blitz) affect stats.

Stats can be exported with F3, CTRL+SHIFT+F8, but I think that's in Epic speed + Ultra-high caps. You'd need to check, though, because that is based on a thing I vaguely recall reading somewhere on the forum.

gotcha. I'll have to keep an eye on my CPU when testing caps and stats, seeing as normal makes things laggy after a while.
Just that guy who hides behind walls of death hoping that they stay up.

Offline Chris_Stalis

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Re: About the wiki.
« Reply #3 on: May 29, 2015, 03:40:25 pm »
If you go into the message log (top right of the main screen during gameplay), you can find the full reference sheet as a tab on the pop-up (top row of tabs, second from the right). You can export the whole thing from a button on the bottom left of the reference sheet. It's a bit of a mess, but a little excel knowledge can narrow down to the ship data. By default, it exports to "%AI_WAR%\RuntimeData\ReferenceWindowBalanceStatisticsExport.csv"

If you've tweaked where your steam games are installed to, that "%AI_WAR%" will be dependent on the scale of your tweaking. For a totally default steam & AI War install, it will be "C:\Program Files\Steam\SteamApps\common\AI War Fleet Command" on a windows machine.

Be aware that, when exported, the data sent is calibrated to the game speed, cap scale, and number of selected homeworlds for the game generating the export. It will also be limited by what expansions you have installed, but it doesn't care what's actually active in the other settings as long as you clear all the filters. "default" data is therefore normal speed, normal cap and 1 homeworld. There's presently 1857 entries in that database :P

If you fiddle with the in game filters before exporting and find a collection of combos that narrows it down effectively, please post back here as I'd appreciate it for my own referencing. The 700 flavors of module build options, for example, aren't really interesting to me :)

Offline CaptainTaz

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Re: About the wiki.
« Reply #4 on: May 29, 2015, 03:43:07 pm »
If you go into the message log (top right of the main screen during gameplay), you can find the full reference sheet as a tab on the pop-up (top row of tabs, second from the right). You can export the whole thing from a button on the bottom left of the reference sheet. It's a bit of a mess, but a little excel knowledge can narrow down to the ship data. By default, it exports to "%AI_WAR%\RuntimeData\ReferenceWindowBalanceStatisticsExport.csv"

If you've tweaked where your steam games are installed to, that "%AI_WAR%" will be dependent on the scale of your tweaking. For a totally default steam & AI War install, it will be "C:\Program Files\Steam\SteamApps\common\AI War Fleet Command" on a windows machine.

Be aware that, when exported, the data sent is calibrated to the game speed, cap scale, and number of selected homeworlds for the game generating the export. It will also be limited by what expansions you have installed, but it doesn't care what's actually active in the other settings as long as you clear all the filters. "default" data is therefore normal speed, normal cap and 1 homeworld. There's presently 1857 entries in that database :P

If you fiddle with the in game filters before exporting and find a collection of combos that narrows it down effectively, please post back here as I'd appreciate it for my own referencing. The 700 flavors of module build options, for example, aren't really interesting to me :)

I'm assuming that also takes into account the Expansions that are enabled.

I'll definitely take a look into it!
Just that guy who hides behind walls of death hoping that they stay up.

Offline paeniteoazrael

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Re: About the wiki.
« Reply #5 on: June 18, 2015, 06:57:47 pm »
So, I would totally be interested in helping make the wiki look... less desolate and confusing.

There should definitely be a page of strategies (though those strategies DESPERATELY need to be updated), which is where most of the wiki should be right now. Otherwise, there's no real easy way to look through the bulk of the wiki (ships and structures, which is where all the useful information is).

Anyone else want to help with the project? Make it look like a proper wiki page rather than an index of various oddly interlinking pages?

Offline Tolc

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Re: About the wiki.
« Reply #6 on: June 18, 2015, 07:45:51 pm »
There were some efforts lately (see: http://www.arcengames.com/forums/index.php/topic,17164.0.html), but many of those involved haven't been posting much lately... and the rest might currently be busy testing SBR.

I'm not an experienced player of AI War by far (2 games played to completion only, sadly...), so I can't really help with anything other than really basic stuff. Good luck though!

Offline Captain Jack

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Re: About the wiki.
« Reply #7 on: June 19, 2015, 12:30:28 am »
There were some efforts lately (see: http://www.arcengames.com/forums/index.php/topic,17164.0.html), but many of those involved haven't been posting much lately... and the rest might currently be busy testing SBR.

I'm not an experienced player of AI War by far (2 games played to completion only, sadly...), so I can't really help with anything other than really basic stuff. Good luck though!
Work commitments. June was supposed to be less intense. It was more. I'll be back one way or another come mid-July. I think.

Offline paeniteoazrael

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Re: About the wiki.
« Reply #8 on: June 19, 2015, 01:31:32 pm »
Yaay work.

I've been updating Ship references. I'm of the opinion that the references should be based on the Debug Mode ship stats, because the reference journal is... wonky. For instance, on a Normal/Normal game, the STATS reference says that a Bomber has a shot strength of 24, 1 shot per salvo, and a 12 second reload time. And that with a 96 ship cap, the Cap DPS is 768. Which is... not correct. I'm pretty sure the base damage is the issue here, but the Debug Mode reference sheet seems to be correct.

Offline Pumpkin

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Re: About the wiki.
« Reply #9 on: June 20, 2015, 07:09:36 am »
There were some efforts lately (see: http://www.arcengames.com/forums/index.php/topic,17164.0.html), but many of those involved haven't been posting much lately...
Hey! I'm still alive!
(Any news of Red.Queen?)
Anyway, yeah, I should go back to both my AAR and the wiki.

You are more than welcome, paeniteoazrael.
About the debug mode, unfortunately, I think none of us is able to make the automated link with the wiki. Dominus Arbitrationis would be, I guess, but he will soon be unavailable.

I'm working (err, was working) on a refactoring of the front page, aiming for more facts than advises. See my WiP proposal. I'm trying to unearth old topics that are linked nowhere and to create missing ones, and organize them thematically. Suggestions are more than welcome!

The other big problem of the wiki is the outdated-ness of the strategy bits. I wouldn't mess with them because I feel opinions are less reliable and strategies are better developed by players themselves rather than scavenged. (I love this game because many different styles are totally valid.) However, if you feel like updating the strategy or write your own, feel free.

Anyway, welcome, and be brave; the task can feel daunting.
Please excuse my english: I'm not a native speaker. Don't hesitate to correct me.

Offline Tolc

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Re: About the wiki.
« Reply #10 on: June 20, 2015, 08:27:24 am »
Hey! I'm still alive!
(Any news of Red.Queen?)

I didn't say anything about that! I just said "not posting much" ;) Although Red.Queen is really MIA...

Offline Dominus Arbitrationis

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Re: About the wiki.
« Reply #11 on: June 20, 2015, 04:38:18 pm »
About the debug mode, unfortunately, I think none of us is able to make the automated link with the wiki. Dominus Arbitrationis would be, I guess, but he will soon be unavailable.

If someone is able to make a bot that puts the data somewhere, I'll grant bot rights for it so it can run. Even though I'll be gone for a bit, minor stuff like that I can still do. Its the major stuff, like site formatting, error pages, site going down, etc. that I can't do anything about. :)
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Offline paeniteoazrael

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Re: About the wiki.
« Reply #12 on: June 20, 2015, 10:58:37 pm »
Ooo that would be interesting... And much faster to create a bot which sc cuddly hug s the data files from the game and edits the wiki...

Hmm...

I could definitely write a bot for this.

Also, really? You might want to make the forum filter change that SPECIFIC word to something that isn't "cuddly hug."
« Last Edit: June 20, 2015, 11:02:10 pm by paeniteoazrael »

Offline Toranth

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Re: About the wiki.
« Reply #13 on: June 20, 2015, 11:31:28 pm »
Also, really? You might want to make the forum filter change that SPECIFIC word to something that isn't "cuddly hug."
Or at least don't change subsections of dictionary words to "cuddly hug".  Even if it does provide unintentional entertainment value.

Offline Radiant Phoenix

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Re: About the wiki.
« Reply #14 on: June 21, 2015, 02:35:41 am »
Also, really? You might want to make the forum filter change that SPECIFIC word to something that isn't "cuddly hug."
Or at least don't change subsections of dictionary words to "cuddly hug".  Even if it does provide unintentional entertainment value.
It took me a while to figure out that what it was filtering.

"Wine is fermented grape juice."

 

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