Calling all SoaSE modders - Modding Wiki needs contributors!

good ldea

 Well... i don't know if i would call myself a modder, maybe a file tweaking/resizing/experimentalist maybe,    

But this sounds like a wonderful idea to bring all the available knowledge into one place for everyone to see, use and learn or post to.  

Thanks for a superb idea!

-Teal

7DS has one, but it's pretty much just a copy-paste of existing resources and cluttered with 7DS specific information.

And you're right - the crappy search, lack of interest of mods to sticky relevant resources (and unsticky stuff that hasn't been updated for a year), and the insular sort of development process has made it difficult to find info. So I'm all for this in theory.

I'd be more than happy to host a Sins modding wiki and keep it reasonably updated. They tend to die out in activity after a while, but the time it'll save even myself when I'm looking for threads around here would be enough to give it a shot.

Would you guys contribute?

I'd be willing to contribute a bit, this would be great to have, especially as the fine points of abilities can be quite cryptic and some should even be explained line by line. Though it may prove difficult to keep it current, as Sins is still updated fairly often. Maybe we should wait for Diplomacy, as their might be some major changes as with Entrenchment?

Something i'd use, but as i've never modded before, contribution would be immpossible for me.  I'd be happy to pass along information i stumble across accidentally in other sources, though.

Alright, I set up a subdomain for now, once that propagates I'll install MediaWiki and start making some pages.

That's the idea - anything to correlate existing information other than these forums.

 Could you post the URL for that?

When it works I will New subdomains don't propagate over DNS for about two hours, so you'll probably have to wait a little.

hmm In a way it will be a good idea, but I am unsure how well a "wiki" would be/do. The problem with it is that it is hard to make modding of sins generel, as it is a lot easier to explain when you want to do something certain. The wiki could come with a description of the different enumeration with abillities/buffs, when to use what finishconditions, what kind of starbase upgradetypes (most likely not the right word) enumerations there is (I think a lot of modders would be grateful if you could list them Blair) and so on. On the other hand it would be harder to make a wiki on abilities as a whole.

Well that is just my thoughts.

 ~ gruntmaster1

I am willing to supply what little info that I have found/tested

harpo

I imagine doing a page on every single modifier etc would be pretty annoying, but the ones that are a little confusing might benefit from it - it's not as if all of em (ApplyBuffToSelf is pretty self-explanatory!) have to have information.

I am willing to supply any knowledge or resources that I have at my command.  Most of my experince lies in coding . btw great idea

Make the wiki and ill post all i know.

shoots bradah, sounds good eh!

So much for "two hours", I guess: Dreamhost's DNS is pretty slow. I'll keep you guys updated and link it when it's up.

OK - it's up at http://sinsmodding.dreamhosters.com. Be gentle with it, I'm going to set up categories and stuff so it can be better organized.

I will try and add that which I can, though anyone can feel free to edit that which they think should be editted.

btw. I love the confirmation mail especially the "probably you" line:

Someone, probably you, from IP address **.***.***.***,
has registered an account "Gruntmaster1" with this e-mail address on Sins Modding Wiki.

EDIT: Right now I will just add stuff to the discussion board and then you, or someone else, can add it at will.

Also, I am currently adding info for frigates (in the discussion section of Frigates people can then edit it over to the actual page), just so we won't do double work. - added the info I could.

Wow, I come back a day later, and there's already a Wiki up and running.  Awesome, Carbon016! 

I'm currently working on documenting Particle Forge and, by consequence, particle files.

sweet carbon! 

Drag~

Nice, getting to work on it right now! 

BTW: Can we allowed to upload pictures, or link articles to pictures?

Whoops, didn't know it was turned off by default. Will get uploads working momentarily.

If anybody has a copy of that old Sins modding logo (there was a black, white, and transparent one, iirc, in large and small), let me know.

edit: uploads working properly (i think), i think i'll also enable uploading .entity and .particle files.

edit 2: done

Normally, the page for upload will be http://sinsmodding.dreamhosters.com/index.php?title=Special:Upload but upload are dissabled for now...

By the way, good luck... i have try to make a similar thing on the 7DS wiki... but a lot of modders have not the time to create page on the wiki, too much busy with their own mod...

Anyway, it is a good idea... since Blair have made recently a few post related to sins limit and other thing, it will be interesting to add the info in the wiki...

Since these wiki use the same engine that the 7DS wiki, i am ready to help people who create page or Carbon016 who have setup the new home...

So let begin with the upload problem... File uploads are an often-used feature of MediaWiki, but are disabled by default in all current release versions. To enable them, first make the upload directory (default images) writable by the web server (chmod 777 or allow the Apache user to write to it, etc.) then set $wqEnableUploads to true in LocalSettings.php ( "$wgEnableUploads = true;")...MediaWiki requires that allowed file upload formats are specified using the $wgFileExtensions configuration directive. Usually this directive is situated in LocalSettings.php in the root of your MediaWiki installation ( $wgFileExtensions = array( 'png', 'gif', 'jpg', 'jpeg', 'bmp', 'tga' ); )...

Very important, take a look at http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Manual:Combating_spam#IP_address_blacklists ...

Ill work on getting some tutorials on there. Linking example pictures will be a great help.

Thoumsin, thanks for your pledge to help out.  I had no idea that a Sins modding wiki was already in existance, and I'm glad that you don't seem put off by this new attempt.  As you say that wiki was mainly for the 7DS mod, hopefully one with a more general focus will draw broader contribution.

Carbon016, sweet!  I hadn't even tried to upload pictures yet, but glad you got that working, as it was certainly something I -- and evidently quite a few others -- was thinking about.

To everyone:
What I would recommend first is building up a robust reference.  Tutorials are great for getting people's feet wet in unfamiliar water, but on the other hand, tutorials often skip certain detail for brevity's sake.  Ideally, this wiki will be a resource for all modders, experienced and new alike, and I think that the best way is to first make it the "official unofficial" documentation to Sins' guts.

As stated, I'm starting on Particle Forge and .particle files.  Take a look at that as-yet-unfinished entry (http://sinsmodding.dreamhosters.com/index.php?title=Particle_Forge) for a sense of this robust reference idea.

For example, other areas I'm imagining are documentation on the .entity format in general, further narrowed down to the various .entity types, with each parameter explained.  Each parameter hardly needs its own wiki page -- I wouldn't recommend it -- but certainly at least a sentence of description.

That said, all knowledge contributed is useful.  If it's tutorials or nothing, then by all means, tutorial away!

And, most importantly, feel free to let all ideas/comments/suggestions fly.  For what is a wiki about, if not collaboration?

The 7ds wiki was not really a wiki for mod... i have simply copy tutorial who already exist on these forum... why ? Because the search function on these forum is a hell...

And seriously, i am happy with these new wiki... now, if someone ask me something, i will be able to put something in the wiki and send the guy with question to it... After one year, i become tired to repeat a lot of time the same think...

Mainly, i will contribute at the modeling level... it mean creating the model, segment it, optimize the UV and basic texturing... by example, recently, i have explain in the B5 mod topic on 7DS ( yes, 7DS is not only a mod but more a group of modder who help each other ) how to segment/UV, this based on a koobalt model... it cover almost everything for tec type of ship... but it is very heavy, 10 or 20 page of topic... maybe i will create a specific model for these wiki... from the begin to almost the end ( i have always problem with the XSI stage, i need a good tutorial about it )

Almost all mod have genious in their rank... some can make moving part with particule effect, some other can create fully original ability code, some are able to paint in a wonderfull way... time that people share their knowledge... for the benefice of all modders... hmmm, i forget these who are good at programming and who have give us lately a set of very good tools...

For example, other areas I'm imagining are documentation on the .entity format in general, further narrowed down to the various .entity types, with each parameter explained.  Each parameter hardly needs its own wiki page -- I wouldn't recommend it -- but certainly at least a sentence of description.

You will need some administrator for the wiki... these can create template page... by example, you can create a top list with link to other place on the page... a little like how i have made at http://www.sri-corp.com/mkportal/modules/mediawiki/index.php/Planet_bonus ... or make a general page like at http://www.sri-corp.com/mkportal/modules/mediawiki/index.php/Planets where group send to a new page ( in my example, only the sub page for the star type was made )...

Template are really needed... it will add some coherence in the wiki...a example of page not following the template at http://www.sri-corp.com/mkportal/modules/mediawiki/index.php/Federation , and one following a template at http://www.sri-corp.com/mkportal/modules/mediawiki/index.php/Rogue ... now, we cannot ask everybody to know the markup language for a wiki... so, you need a assistant who can receive the text and picture related to a topic from a modder and the job of these assistant will be to create a page who can be read in a easy way by wiki visitor...

In fact, your first job is to create your wiki team... and it is where i have fail on the 7DS wiki... a guy alone cannot make all the job needed...