Talk:EU Main Table/Scratchpad

Good idea. I was just thinking that some changes would be necessary to the EU table. I think there should be a section about Economics just like TFTD. I also think that the link to the Field Manual should be removed from the table since it is fiction and some parts of it are not very relevant. Hobbes 18:12, 6 January 2011 (EST)

Good point. Stuff like the field manual/data canisters, Mysteries of X-COM, Sightings in other fandoms, Murphy's Law, Realistic Equivalents, etc could be bundled together. But what would be a suitable category to file them under? Besides 'Fiction' - I'm a bit wary of using that term. -NKF 18:48, 6 January 2011 (EST)

Looking at the Miscellaneous category it strikes me that most of the topics, if not all, could be grouped into a section/table regarding X-COM in general, rather than EU. Some of those subjects were not actually meant to be fiction but rather to try to explain some aspects of the series (CFN, Mysteries, Cultural Influences) by analyzing and comparing them with reality. The EU table was always the place to drop everything that didn't belong to 1 game in particular. One idea I've just had would be to group together the pages that cover the series and also place there the discontinued titles and possibly the Interceptor/Email/Enforcer sections since no one seems to give any attention to them. Hobbes 23:36, 6 January 2011 (EST)

Just had a closer look at the structure. Overview, Geoscape and Battlescape sections already exist, so no change there. I wouldn't put the Terrain in Geoscape (it helps to know where the UFO has crashed but it belongs more in the Battlescape section since it will affect more squad movement. To me it is more logical to continue using the current division of X-COM and Aliens, rather than to create new categories for Craft and Soldiers/Aliens (which would also later require changing the TFTD and Apoc tables) Hobbes 23:43, 6 January 2011 (EST)

I was thinking of the divisions to be subdivision under the X-COM/Alien sides rather than as main headings of their own. I just lumped them together for the time being. As for the Misc category, a separate table would be a good idea. They are articles on the X-Com world as such. -NKF 02:22, 7 January 2011 (EST)

seems like the current table does a pretty good job, it just needs tweaking to deliver efficiently. Not entirely satisfied with the importance of the xcom and aliens being low on column 1. Madned 17:07, 7 January 2011 (EST)

The idea here is to move to the front page just being a directory for the three games, with separate full-page menus for each of the main games covered. This way we can break away from the rather constricted 3 column table and spread out a bit and go with a much richer menu for each of the games. Not everything, but something that gives easier access to the rest of the articles. -NKF 17:33, 7 January 2011 (EST)

Can you exemplify in a graphic way your idea NKF? Easier to see :) Hobbes 21:14, 7 January 2011 (EST)

Well, there's not a lot to illustrate. it's just to take the menus away from the main page and simply make it a gateway to the separate menus for the games, rather than cram everything onto the one page. It's already like that with the game listing down the side menu. The Mock main page has, well, a start on it.

Or if you meant how the individual menus are to be structured - I haven't a clue. That's why I started it off bullet pointing the groupings rather than work the directly into a table.

Major topic title (Research, etc)

•Topic •Subtopic •Subtopic •Subtopic • Another Topic • Something Else

Some Other Major Topic

•Topic •Subtopic •Subtopic •Another Topic •More Topics •Fake Topic

Okay that looks awful - and no that's not how I'd like to see it look in the end. But I was thinking that we could make more use of horizontal space and spread out a bit which would be good for items that can be grouped together like mission types, map terrain, etc. Our current menu doesn't have much room for that. -NKF 22:11, 7 January 2011 (EST)

Where to go from here

I've done a bit more thinking on this. Perhaps UFO's table doesn't need too much altering besides some reshuffling of topics and adding/removing a few topics like we've been brainstorming so far. Format-wise it actually isn't that bad, and a bit of reordering will improve things immensely.

What I think now needs some attention on is expanding the TFTD and Apocalypse tables to make their information more readily accessible like they are in UFO's table. For example, TFTD does share a lot of information with UFO, but it also has its own brand of information like the stat data tables, and these aren't readily accessible from its menu. -NKF 01:38, 13 January 2011 (EST)

Part bump to keep this from being buried, part lightbulb flicker moment.

Would it be a better idea to separate off these articles that are shared by UFO and TFTD and put them in a separate table that is transcluded into the complete main tables afterwards? Perhaps not that great an idea as it could break up the groupings.

One other handy widget that came to mind as an alternative to that was a UFO/TFTD article switcher for some pages where there was a UFO or TFTD specific version of the page. Very easy to implement as a template, where you'd only need to feed the article name in. Unfortunately it would only work as long as the name and suffix formats are consistent, which they aren't. -NKF 04:45, 25 January 2011 (EST)