Formatting dialogues

[Aggelakis]

That's why the green says "might need ltgreen template". Not sure about the red, I can read it fine but if it's difficult for others, we'll have to think of something for it.

[Aggelakis]

Did quickie (REALLY quickie) templating for mission objectives and clues to match up with the contact dialogue boxes. This makes them not fade into the background!

However, now it's big blocks of color followed by more big blocks of color, followed by more big blocks of color... Need to choose a color scheme for each one that complements the others but allows a user to find the correct block of color at a quick glance. Don't know what colors to suggest. Recommend keeping the "title bars" the same through each template, just changing the background/"body" text colors (meaning it needs to play friendly with whatever color is chosen for the "title bars", currently goldenrod-ish).

Also, need better icon suggestions for the title bars. :p

(view)

[taosin]

> now it's big blocks of color followed by
> more big blocks of color, followed by
> more big blocks of color

Yes it is! I'm so used to the current wiki I'm having issues imagining how this might look when widely implemented, and what impact (if any) it has on the usability and feel of the wiki. I'd imagine a good ToC on each page will become even more important ???

In your example, I'd prefer the Mission Objective to be left justified rather than centre-justified.

Again, my $0.02 worth!

[Aggelakis]

Sample page from a multi-mission, multi-arc contact that includes all of the quickie templates I made for all of the other, non-dialogue templates. Still needs A LOT of work on colors and emphasis, as I think the {{Mission Objective}} box needs to be the most obvious box on the contact page, but right now it's vying with {{Contact Dialogue}} for impact, since they're using the same coloring. I faded out {{Clue}} and {{Ambush}}, and once I can figure out how to twiddle with {{NPC Text}} without ruining the collapsability, it will also be faded like Clue and Ambush, since those are not *as* important as Mission Objective.

EDIT: I figured out the {{NPC Text}} thing. I was having trouble figuring out where to put the style bits, but it's all figured out now. Preliminary color choices made, can probably be made better.

[taosin]

Sample page from a multi-mission, multi-arc contact

I would still have a preference for:
• Dialogue boxes the same width as Mission Briefing, Mission Debriefing, Souvenir, Ambush and Clues
• The contents of Mission Objectives to be entirely left-justified

Having come back to this after a break of a week or so, I'm firming up my opinion that changing the UI of the wiki so radically is a backward step; and that the wiki doesn't need to bolt-on a game-mimicking look in order to be effective.

[Zombie Man]

I would still have a preference for:
• Dialogue boxes the same width as Mission Briefing, Mission Debriefing, Souvenir, Ambush and Clues
• The contents of Mission Objectives to be entirely left-justified

Rather than the Mission Objective be left-justified, I think it would be better for the main Objective to be indented, and the specific goals to be sub-indented under that.

I would like to see the the dialog boxes, ambush boxes, and clue boxes be indented under the mission box, since they all 'belong' to that mission. It would make scanning past them easier if one is only interested in the mission objective, which is probably the most common reference made to these articles.

If one looks at the ambush box, one sees that "Ambush" is not on its own line with a line divider and text underneath it. I'm wondering if some of the other boxes or sections could follow suit so that there's not so much white space?

Having come back to this after a break of a week or so, I'm firming up my opinion that changing the UI of the wiki so radically is a backward step; and that the wiki doesn't need to bolt-on a game-mimicking look in order to be effective.

Actually, it's growing on me. It's showing graphically the main sections: each mission is clearly delineated, and, under each mission, the dialogue is clearly distinguished from what happens in the mission. Again, the most common use of the mission articles is to look up what's happening in the mission and its objectives... not to read all the contact dialogue or NPC dialogue or read the clues. This formatting style is accomplishing that, IMO.

[Aggelakis]

I have twiddled with my mockup (other mockup). I have implemented:

• Faded out the contact dialogue so that Mission Objective is the most emphasized template
• Replaced "Mission Objective" at the top of the template with the actual mission objective (tentative suggestion)
• Left-aligned the mission objectives inside the template
• Made Ambush and Clue thinner than Mission Objective and Contact Dialogue to de-emphasize them
• Centered and basically-matched NPC Text width with Ambush and Clue (slightly smaller boxes at high resolution -- use of {{hidden}} makes it hard to match exactly)
• Changed "Unnecessary Solicitation" to "Check-In Text" (aka "Still Busy Dialogue" in MA, but the wiki uses "busy" to mean "too many missions open" already, which would make "Still Busy" confusing)

Regarding white space, none of the other boxes (except maybe MeritAward) have content that works all on one line. They all really need their descriptive titles. There isn't actually a lot of white space unless there are short sentences within a box (creating right-side white space).

EDIT: Regarding {{Mission Objectives}}, how the heck do I get rid of that ugly white padding around the image thumbnails (other mockup)? It's only present if using "thumb" inside [[File:]]. It is ugly!

[Aggelakis]

Doodly doodly dooooooooo

[eabrace]

Cool.  I think that'll work most of the time.

(Prometheus is still a "special" case.)