Talk:Main Page
Main Page Table Proposal
By the way, we'll keep the table specs templates as well. In the future, we may want to change them a bit. Maybe even give them construction paper or graph paper backgrounds! Gasp, shock. Just a thought. For now, we can use the specs templates as another site-wide template for all spec tables.
So now we've got {{StdTable}}, which contains:
cellpadding = "4" style = "border:1px gray solid; border-collapse: collapse;"
And {{StdTable Heading}}, containing:
style = "font-weight: bolder; color: white; background: #bbb;"
I haven't created a sub-heading template for the moment, as I can't see any place in the main menu to stick one for the moment.
But when it's created, it'll look exactly like heading only the background colour will be set to #EEE.
- NKF
P. S: You can see what templates are used on a page when you enter the edit screen just under the save and preview buttons. This will be templates that were in the page in the previous save. Not in the current edit in progress. I think. Still, handy to know.
NKF, the main page looks great IMHO. Clearly you took many things into consideration, including the "oomph" factor. The only thing I can suggest is that, in that very first full sentence in the top of the Main Page, have e.g. an underline link (no reason to change a single word!) to the main wikipedia XCOM link. Some folks will drop in totally out of the blue - that's their release valve to see, "ah, they're talking about a game".
As for the major re-write of main page, and lack of discussion here past my last post - whatever happened was always up to, the person that chose to sink the time into it. We all had time to say our peace. NKF, you did a great job as far as I'm concerned.
---MikeTheRed 00:27, 14 January 2006 (PST)
I took the liberty of removing most discussions on this page as many seem to be resolved. Issues relating to organization are pretty much complete. I think we can all agree that NKF did a terrific job pulling it all together! Thanks! The issue of color is technically still open for discussion, though for the time being, monochrome works just as well.
I switched the word "X-COM" to link to the wikipedia Xcom page. It's only a temporary change as I'm still not convinced that it looks "proper" - especially for the opening of a main page. Some of you may feel differently, so speak up. Otherwise I might just switch it back in a week. Anyone can freely remove my comment. :) --Zombie 20:34, 18 January 2006 (PST)
Oomph? Rubbish. It was just a few minor tweaks, is all. Ha!
I've nudged the standard heading a bit so that it's a little lighter. I think it looks much better now. I'm trialling TFTD's blue-green theme colours, and it doesn't look too bad. I'm still undecided on Apocalypse, as it never did quite have any particular theme colour for most of its screens - not counting chrome. Maroon still comes to mind.
The badge icons I made look a bit out of place. Too vivid. Perhaps monochrome insignias would look better?
- NKF
Wow! Now it's actually starting to look slick, NKF! Who would've thought, given our humble beginnings.
I personally don't care much about colors. Although come to think of it, I wonder if the golden wheat color of XCOM 1 farms might not be a nice background for the box header of EU.
Also a tiny note, what do you think of a slash (/) instead of an "or" for the "Enemy Unknown or UFO Defense" header. The "or" might confuse newcomers - is it one or the other or both? Which also reminds me - "General Information" could say somewhere up front and obvious, concerning the nature of the two names, U.S. and European.
Did you clean up all the small pages that were making for so many multiple main-page entries as I advised, NKF? If so, I would like to buy you a great meal. It's easy to make a lot of suggestions... but all the ones I made would've taken 2-6 grueling hours of clean-up and linkage. I figure the price of some good beers or a nice meal is worth less than me spending approx. 4 hours on that, lol...
I'm still deep into Civ4 but it won't last forever. XCOM has appealed to me across 10 years, and continues to do so. I'll be back some month in force. In the meantime, thanks for all your great work, NKF! You can delete some/all of this comment after reading.
---MikeTheRed
Ok, now I'm double-dipping. On review, I would say that the "Battlescape Overview" and "Mission Types" categories could be melded into one "Combat Overviews" section. It doesn't have to be, but again I work on the principal of how, at various stages in their knowledge of XCOM, folks will want to look up one thing, and then another thing. And the Main Page should be intrinsically and entirely succinct.
To me, "Missions" is something that mainly noobs look up - the definitions of the mission types. Whereas "Overview" is something that intermediate and vet players want. Which is to say, you're one or the other - and one or the other of these two Main Page categories is irrelevant to somebody who frequents our pages to look things up. So I would meld them all into one place, and I suggest calling it "Combat Overviews".
One category in it would be Mission Types, and under it would be what is now called "Mission Variants" under "Mission Types". Otherwise have "General Combat Concepts" with such things as "Damage", "Explosions", and "Night Missions". "Aliens Missions" should have their own category - a contrapoint to "Mission Types" a.k.a. XCOM Missions.
Once again, I ask a lot and do almost nothing, laugh. I leave it in your hands. If/when I have lots of time to spend, I'll dive in again. One good thing about this place being less busy is that one can be less worried about making major, reasonable changes... who's going to object? laugh
BTW I like the link to the wiki on the game itself, at the top of the Main Page. Can I suggest having those parens saying "(a PC game)" instead of "(X-COM)". The link symbol shows folks that they're linking, and for all the other folks who drop in here accidentally wondering "what the heck is this page about", well, now they know. Look at it with outsider eyes... while the Main Page makes total sense to us, outsiders wonder, "do these folks believe in UFOs??