Merits and Shards

[Sekoia]

Okay, we need to decide on a consistent way to display Incarnate Shards and Merit Rewards. Right now, I've encountered at least four different ways of displaying Shards and two for Merits.

• {{MeritAward}} was originally intended for Merits, but now has Shards tacked on
  
• {{ShardAward}} was created modeled after Merits, but as a separate template
  
• {{Infobox TF}} has a field for Merits, which I've seen used for Merits, but also used for Merits + Shards
  
• {{Infobox TF}} has a new field for Shards as well

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We need to collapse that down a bit.

If we want to use a single template for Merits+Shards, we need to create something new. {{MeritAward}} is a bad fit: the name is wrong, it focuses primarily on Merits with Shards just tacked on, and the syntax/code for it is going to get awkward if anything further gets shoehorned in.

Or, we could simply use two separate templates (ie {{MeritAward}} and {{ShardAward}}) though that is going to add a love of visual clutter for little gain.

Further, if we should decide whether we want to use something like {{MeritAward}} to display the counts on TF pages, or if we want to just put the tally in the {{Infobox TF}}. It seems pretty redundant to use both, since they're both at the very top of the article.

[eabrace]

If we want to remove one or the other on pages, I'd prefer to keep the info in the Infobox TF template.

I think we ended up where we are right now because the MeritAward template was added to make the TF articles more consistent with the normal contact story arcs.  In the case of normal contacts, it makes no sense to put the merit awards for an arc in the Infobox.  Normal contacts might have multiple arcs, and it might be misleading to put the merit info in the Infobox.  And then there's the difference in the amount of merits for some arcs when run in flashback.

Anyway...

If we just want to collapse MeritAward and ShardAward down into one template, maybe something like ArcAward (as it would be used both by TF and normal contact pages) that takes arguments for both awards.  However, I think it would be difficult to come up with a set of  parameters that would allow us to simply substitute the new template for the old one without breaking existing articles.

[Aggelakis]

I prefer to keep the {{___Award}} template on the TF pages, as it is consistent with contact arcs - however, it can be moved down to under the "Missions" header to make it even more consistent with contacts. That way it's not all the way up at the top, too.

TalKaline already added an option in {{MeritAward}} for Merits+Shards... we can move MeritAward to ArcAward, find a better icon (or have no icon, though I prefer having an icon for visual emphasis), and add a Shard-only option. Probably thus:

m=# (merits) (if m=0, say it doesn't award any merits, as this is sometimes important to people completing arcs)
s=# (shards) (if s=0, it's not important to say it, so suppress this part)

Important to answer with one template:
- does it award merits? if so, say number.
- does it award zero merits? if so, say it.
- does it award merits only through flashback? if so, say it.
- does it award shards? if so, say number. if no, omit.

I really need to get a "wikimedia syntax for dummies" primer because I'm not sure what all the switches/ifs/whatever would be needed for that.

[Sekoia]

However, I think it would be difficult to come up with a set of  parameters that would allow us to simply substitute the new template for the old one without breaking existing articles.

That's easy, actually.. Create the new template the way we want it to be. Then we update {{MeritAward}} to call it; no matter how different the syntax is, we should be able to adapt MeritAward to call the new template. Then I can sic SekoiaBot on updating the old calls to the new ones. (With that in mind, don't move MeritAward to the new name.)

Does anyone prefer a name other than "ArcReward"? Once we have a name, I can set up the template using options m= (merits), s= (shards), and f= (flashback), as Agge is suggesting.

[eabrace]

Then we update {{MeritAward}} to call it; no matter how different the syntax is, we should be able to adapt MeritAward to call the new template.

I'm always a little embarrassed when I don't think of an obvious answer like that.   

[Sekoia]

Okay, I drafted something up here: User:Sekoia/Sandbox/ArcReward. It has a suite of test cases showing how it works under various input; some of the test cases use valid but non-realistic input just to give complete coverage.

I made the way m= and s= are handled consistent with one another. I do not like the idea of m=0 displaying something while s=0 does not; that kind of inconsistently is confusing, and may later be undesirable. So leaving either blank suppresses it, while setting either to 0 gives a message. I also put a singular case in so that it won't say something like "1 merits".

I made the Flashback option fb= instead of f=, I thought that a bit more descriptive. Leaving it blank omits the Flashback text, setting it to anything will trigger its inclusion. I am assuming Flashback only applies to Merit Rewards and not Incarnate Shards.

The way I laid it out should make it easy to extend if they add more rewards in the future, too. We can just add additional rows to the table.

[Aggelakis]

Looks good! Can't think of anything to add/change.

[eabrace]

Yeah.  Looks pretty good to me.

[Sekoia]

Okay, I created {{ArcAward}}. I also updated all uses of {{MeritAward}} and {{ShardAward}} to use {{ArcAward}} instead. I deleted {{ShardAward}}. I didn't delete {{MeritAward}}, though I did note that it's deprecated on its documentation and slapped {{delete}} on it so that it can be deleted later.

I don't think we have really come to a consensus on what to do with respect to duplication against {{Infobox TF}}. I could agree with Agge's suggestion; moving {{ArcAward}} down into the missions at least puts some distance between the two instances of the information, rather than having them both up top.