Talk:Main Page

Mod Spotlights Discussion

Currently the main page requires a fresh mod spotlight every month. Please discuss suggestions for this below.

May 2007

Time for a new one, suggestions? --Perikles 15:14, 12 May 2007 (CDT)

Anybody? Nobody...dust! --Perikles 11:06, 15 May 2007 (CDT)

how about deus lo vult or scicillian vespers? move things away from the holy land kinda thing Jebus

They need a 'decent' wiki article with at least one picture. I'm away for a few days now so I'll see if there are any suitable articles or suggestions when I get back. --Perikles 11:18, 16 May 2007 (CDT)

Neither of those has pages at the moment Sicilian Vespers forum doesn't look that easy to 'borrow' stuff from to make a page - but deus lo vult has some pretty pics and fairly clear info we could use (were you volunteering Jebus?) I did start of page for Stainless_Steel which might not be too bad - and if anyone wants something a little unholy I'm about to try and update EoD's!

I know it would get a bit long but could we keep list on this page of which mods were featured and when - I'm already forgetting who's been there recently! --Makanyane 05:53, 17 May 2007 (CDT)

So far we have had: Rise of Persia, FATW, Broken Crescent, and now The Long Road. After that we can have Stainless Steel. --Perikles 05:27, 20 May 2007 (CDT)

June 2007

As The Long Road has been on since 20th do you think we should change at the weekend, to Stainless Steel as suggested? Two weeks in spotlight seems reasonable. --Makanyane 10:58, 1 June 2007 (CDT)

I agree the stainless steel would look good in the spotlight -- Leonidas The Lion 13:50, 2 June 2007 (CDT)

OK, need new mod spotlight suggestion for next weekends change over - could someone suggest a good one we haven't had so far (or make new page for something) thanks --Makanyane 13:33, 11 June 2007 (CDT)

I was sure i already posted this, apparently not though. In any case, I've always liked Blood Broads & Bastards, a mod for Medieval 2. Its a fairly new article so it's quite small, but the point of the spotlight is to show off the best mods rather than the best articles i think.--Spiff 17:31, 11 June 2007 (CDT)

OK, also probably good idea to have one that isn't in hosted section. Pinched their sig, added template and links into page, if you know it well and can think of anything else to add (or to do the guys profiles) that would be good.--Makanyane 18:37, 11 June 2007 (CDT)

Who's idea was it to rotate mod spotlight every two weeks?! anyone got any preferences for next one? I did do page for The Sicilian Vespers which was mentioned earlier. Page isn't that wonderful though! --Makanyane 08:38, 23 June 2007 (CDT)

July 2007

In absence of other suggestions I'm about to put Sicilian Vespers on. Could do with more participation in this - unless you want to be seeing a lot of End of Days! --Makanyane 03:00, 1 July 2007 (CDT)

How about Aevum Fidei for the next one? It's not released but they have been working on own page which is nice :) --Makanyane 01:03, 7 July 2007 (CDT)

Aevum Fidei is up, suggest possibly Invasio Barbarorum next (released RTW mod) as they have been putting a lot of work into page etc. could do with more suggestions for released M2TW mods though...-Makanyane 00:02, 16 July 2007 (CDT)

Invasio Barbarorum is up - if no-one helps come up with some suggestions for future spotlights, I really am going to put End of Days on it and leave it there till someone VonC's me -Makanyane 00:44, 29 July 2007 (CDT)

Kisses! Professor420 14:17, 1 August 2007 (CDT)

LOL , thanks but I'm about to revert that! we were trying to keep spots on for two weeks and IB only just started - will pinch your EOD version from history for next one if there isn't anything else in queue, have been avoiding putting EoD on as I'm involved, but it probably deserves a turn (especially as page is nice ;P) -Makanyane 14:25, 1 August 2007 (CDT)

Oh my bad, I read Aevum Fidei as Ivasio, didn't realize it was only so recent. - Professor420 17:05, 1 August 2007 (CDT)

August 2007

Due to request sent to me and due to fact its a nice new page for a released M2 mod PRO DEO ET REGE is going on when IB's had its two weeks, if no-one has any objections. --Makanyane 13:53, 6 August 2007 (CDT)

September 2007

I think we should have a new spotlight by now.. also since we have a new front page. Any ideas? Apparently Deus lo Vult 4.0 has just been released (that new recently released mods cell is handy..)--Spiff 09:54, 11 September 2007 (CDT)

December 2007

Hmm, Arthurian would appear to have been in mod spotlight since September. If no-one else claims spot quick I'm going to pinch it for Multi-Mod Sampler, http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?p=2497655#post2497655 which does at least promote various different mods. -Makanyane 11:16, 21 December 2007 (CST)

March 2008

The Multi-Mod Sampler has been out there for a long time. Perhaps it's time for a change? I was thinking maybe one of the newest mods? Broken Crescent?

-Scorch 23:01, 16 February 2008 (CST)

Should we be taking initiative and change the spotlight or should we wait for you(scorch) to do so? --Roy34543 23:38, 16 February 2008 (CST)

Well I was planning that, since we were going to be working on a monthly basis from now on (as was done previously, since the modding spotlight has been neglected, lately), that we'd wait until March 1st to change it, then change it on the 1st of every month. So I'd say wait until then and see if Makanyane has an opinion to add.

Scorch 00:06, 17 February 2008 (CST)

August/September 2008

Is anyone still paying attention to this? Lycan Rising has been on way too long, even though I say it myself... could someone put something else up that has a decent Wiki page? -Makanyane 20:18, 28 August 2008 (UTC)

April 2009

*Cough* For King and Country has been on since last October - any ideas? "News" section looks slightly pre-empire release too... -Makanyane 10:15, 16 April 2009 (UTC)

I suppose an ETW mod would be good; Imperial Splendour seems quite nice, although I have not tried it myself as I don't have ETW yet. I Am Herenow ^{t / c} 08:43, 17 April 2009 (UTC)

I would rather like to see a major mod like Third Age being put in that space. But Mak is right, King and Country has to leave >:( Oh and I'm going berserk on the wiki atm, I hope nobody minds. Mollsomg 15:31, 5 May 2009 (UTC)

Third Age sounds like good idea, embarrassingly it doesn't seem to be mentioned anywhere on wiki yet. We started off trying to use spotlight for mods that had nice page on wiki, but at the moment anything to get that section refreshed would be good! Nice to see someone working on this :) -Makanyane 15:53, 5 May 2009 (UTC)

It is done! Mollsomg 07:29, 6 May 2009 (UTC)

Nov 2011

PKH has been on far too long (it's getting embarrassing!) Anyone got any ideas for a replacement - pref' something recently released -Makanyane 12:46, 16 November 2011 (MST)

Yeah, you've got a point there, I'll have a dig around this weekend and find another mod we can put up. Tango12345 11:15, 18 November 2011 (MST)

مواقع تورنت

General Updates Discussion

Post your suggestions here, please avoid making large changes to the front page without first gaining permission of the Wiki Editor, or a general consensus of contributors.

Someone mentioned to me that the week commencing date on the front page should be commencing from a Sunday not a Monday - anyone have any objection to it changing to that system?

Also if anyone doesn't fancy doing DIY editing of front page could they dump ideas for news changes etc. in here? --Makanyane 11:03, 1 June 2007 (CDT)

Regarding the Mod Spotlight image, it occurred to me today that it the image size should probably be standardised to prevent the image overlapping onto the news section below in the future. An embedded image set to a specific size would have probably done the trick, but it looks pretty ugly against the colour of the background, so I've left it as a standard image for now (though i shrunk it a bit and added a border with matching colour). --Spiff 12:45, 17 July 2007 (CDT)

Thanks Spiff. Think there might be some differences in how things display between browsers. Old size looked fine to me and don't understand what you meant about overlap, could you view the old version from history and give link to screenie somewhere? Also as its similar does Medieval_2:_Total_War look right to you? --Makanyane 18:00, 17 July 2007 (CDT)

Hmm this is what i mean [1] (sorry apparently photobucket resizes images now). I run my desktop at 1400x1050 and the old image kind of fell down onto the news section below it. It will depend on the resolution the page is viewed at more than anything i suppose. Also that Medieval 2 page looks fantastic to me.--Spiff 18:45, 17 July 2007 (CDT)

Ah that explains re-checked mine which was [2], smaller does look better anyway as text is now less squished on mine. I just couldn't work out how it had got into news section. Must depend on size of pic, relative to amount of text, relative to screen resolution, which would be fun to work out permutations for! Current revised size (about 320 x 180 pixels) looks like good bet so will aim to stick to that. --Makanyane 19:09, 17 July 2007 (CDT)

Picture of the week?

I had planned on updating the main page to this: http://www.twcenter.net/wiki/Spiff_test, i was wondering if anyone had any thoughts? If no one really thinks it looks worthwhile then ill just leave things as they are for now.--Spiff 14:25, 10 March 2008 (CDT)

Looks good, not sure if it could do with a bit more space though, how about swapping it with the TW News section in the middle column, which doesn't get much action in it. Or even put the PotW where Mod spotlight is, Mod spotlight under it and shift the news section to the right.... then the bit that should change most often is given the most prominent spot in the middle? -Makanyane 16:11, 10 March 2008 (CDT)

Im not sure if it would look too good in the middle, its kind of a small thing and doesn't take up enough space to justify that amount. The most prominent bit i tend to think of is the top of the page, probably top right - at least that's where i figure my eye would be drawn to. Since i cant really put it at the very top right, i figured one down would be best --Spiff 18:01, 10 March 2008 (CDT)

Anyone want to change the title of Marquis de Sade to Octy?

A New Style?

I was considering the portal style templates used on the Modding_Portal page, perhaps it would be a good idea to use this format for information on the front page? Essentially we could have 2, one which replicates the current table which was recently added with regard to modding tools etc, and another below it regarding the Total War community. -Spiff

As purely personal opinion I think idea could work, would you be able to do bit of draft using the Modding Portal page? so more complete version can be seen - also wasn't sure about that one in terms of colour / style as it seems a bit alien from rest of wiki pages and side bars atm, would you propose changing that? -Mak.

Well since i was up late tonight anyway, i wrote up and half finished a possible new outline over at Spiff_test - let me know what you think. It doesn't use the modding portal template, i borrowed the style from another wiki (first one i found on google that looked good). On the plus side, it is easy to edit/understand. -Spiff

Good to see it implemented. A thread should be pinned in the Medieval2 Mod Workshop forum (or somewhere similar) saying that the wiki is a good place to start for tutorials and such --Spiff 10:26, 17 April 2007 (CDT)

I did add a note in the Tutorial section http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=92488. under Trajan's pin so we shouldn't do any-more spamming in that specific section. Could try in the workshop as well but don't overstate the case, we're still rather light on content, so need balance between advice to look here and appeal for help adding content. Makanyane 11:05, 17 April 2007 (CDT)

May I proudly announce that TWC's 5. Portal has taken it's place on the main page? :) Mollsomg 15:27, 9 May 2009 (UTC)

Re-designing Left Side of Main Page?

Something to discuss amongst the Wiki people, but I think the left bar could use a thorough re-thinking and design. It hasn't been of much use to date, can something else go there instead? Maybe links to how to better help the Wiki? Since this is a wiki for a forum-centric site, most of the impetus to fix comes from the site and not directly from the Wiki, so I think... something, not sure what. Its late. Anyway, I'd suggest replacing High Quality Articles with a small article spotlight for the week so there is some sort of turnover, and the rest can be important Wiki links. I think things like the FAQ and ToS should be linked to from the main Wiki page, as well as the Modding Portal and Say Cheese Index and other central "hubs" that are on the Wiki and nowhere else. Maybe some Most Wanted articles on the bottom, but (maybe this is where the forum-centric comes into play), I don't see what can really go there that someone not coming from the forum for a specific reason could contribute. - Professor420 00:55, 1 September 2007 (CDT)

agreeing with that in principle, in terms of detail, see what Scorch and others come up with as suggestions - all the bits that need regular updating really need an individual to agree to look after them to make sure they actually happen, in past we've decided it would be nice idea to have most recent...blah, but then it doesn't get updated! What I'd personally like to see really prominent in that side bar is links to portals Category:Portals those two for M2 and RTW (or whatever they become), could start something for ETW Portal (though its only got the one page atm), the Modding_Portal as soon as its populated, and could probably do with a TWC Portal as well to organise entrance to that area a bit better. Could even shift some of the most wanted / most popular stuff to a "Wiki User Portal" ala: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Community_Portal, to give link in to the stuff in TWC Wiki: - that depends if that side is worth developing, the fact that this IS forum centric makes it a struggle to get people to use that sort of area! -Makanyane 01:25, 1 September 2007 (CDT)

Shogun 2 Support

I'd like to gauge a reaction to updating the current main page to something along the lines of User:Spiff/Spiff test I know it's slightly inconsistent in that all the other links are to 'portal' style pages while the shogun one links to a specific page, but on the plus side this is overall a more efficient use of space and will help efficiently channel traffic regarding Shogun to the most relevant page on the wiki --Spiff 12:37, 9 June 2010 (MDT)

Anyone? --Spiff 15:09, 19 June 2010 (MDT)

Bumping again...

Think it would obviously be better to have something on the 'menu' about it than not... link can always be changed to portal when someone makes one later. Suggest taking no response as no objection! Makanyane 13:11, 28 November 2010 (MST)

General talk/off topic

Oh my god... You have any forums left professor? I heard that you were banned from SCC as well... What are you going to do?

Also stupid as I am, who is Besin and what exactly is ogres. Is it like EZboard? Also does anyone rank above Besim?-Angmar nite

Yes, I was banned from SCC in similar circumstances. An administrator that was extremely detached from the community, who refused to listen to his members, and was destroying his site. And where is SCC now? Its lost its hosted mods and its lost its moderators and many of its members. Before you speak you should have an idea what you are talking about.

Amir created a duplicate account and claimed it was mine, and banned me. Can I be at fault for my permaban when the cause was something I didn't even do? Its what he had to do to get rid of me, because I had the support of almost all of the top 20 posters on the site, he couldn't just say 'I banned him because I didn't like him." Now shush. -Professor420

Holy poo diss bring out the burnage machine!

-.Socrates

Hi guys, I found so much useful things here. Thank you.

most of this talk doesn't seem to belong to this page anymore - could it be deleted / moved?

off topic talk was re-organised instead

Can someone please change the title of the article Dorian Gray to Marquis de Sade?

yep, done, but you should really put request on the articles discussion page not here-Makanyane 03:02, 26 August 2007 (CDT)

Query on TW Game

first time:: I'm not sure if my input/ ideas fit here but here goes..........

Has there been any thought or movement to revamp the Shogun series? if not I have a request ---- thought as to its rebuilding and re-introduction with a Korean / Chinese mod with the Asia's own 7years war between Korea & Japan with the Chinese intervention added in with there own agenda all sides had gun powder (LIMITED)in use, but only the Japanese had hangunners initially with the Koreans just stating to use cannons eventually then they put them on ships this was the time when they developed the "Turtle ship" look it up It's a great stra game mod waiting to be written. I think it would be a great mod that would get alot of attention if done right. If theres any interest in doing this please get back to me. Thanks for the time..........hastati_ad

Hi, have moved question down page as that section meant updates on the Wiki Page not the TW games... you're unlikely to get answers on gaming/modding discussion here its not really designed for it, try either Medieval/Shogun forum on TWC or Shogun forum on Org - there is still some life in the communities for the older games, but not a lot! -Makanyane 02:53, 1 January 2008 (CST)

Anti-spam bot measure added

I've just enabled a newly-written extension by Nick Jenkins, CommentSpam. This should significantly reduce if not eliminate the gibberish bot spam we've been getting. For now, all denials are logged at Special:Log and so should show up on Special:Recentchanges with edits and so on: if it seems to be working well, that can be disabled to stop the page from being clogged up. —Simetrical (talk • contribs) 13:16, 1 November 2007 (CDT)

Testing . . . —Simetrical (talk • contribs) 13:35, 2 November 2007 (CDT)

This isn't working. I have to look at it at some point. —Simetrical (talk • contribs) 21:03, 5 November 2007 (CST)

Heh, actually this actual page got attacked. But yeah, this seems to be working, it just isn't catching everyone. It's blocked a couple hundred edits so far. —Simetrical (talk • contribs) 19:02, 17 November 2007 (CST)

Software update

I've added a few months' worth of software updates. If things go wrong, PM me or post on my talk page or something. —Simetrical (talk • contribs) 18:01, 25 March 2008 (UTC)

Front Page Change - Very Important

ATTENTION

This is a two week trial, and these edits will be reversed by ultimation if a large amount of complaints are received as to the disappearance of the RTW section. Please do not revert the edits, as this is a trial. Thanks Ultimation 10:41, 14 April 2010 (MDT)

Rome has now been removed on a trial basis to fit in NTW, RTW's code for the front page is below

|style="width:25%; padding:0.5em; border:2px solid #B0B3D8; background-color:#E6E9FF;" valign="top" | <center>{{clickpic|Rome: Total War Portal|http://www.twcenter.net/w/images/b/b8/RomeText.png}}</center> ---- === Overview: === *[[Rome: Total War Portal|Rome: Total War Portal]] *[[Barbarian Invasion|Barbarian Invasion Overview]] *[[Alexander|Alexander Overview]] === Information: === *[[RTW_Factions|Faction List]] *[[RTW_Cheat Codes|Cheats]] *[[RTW_Patches|Latest Patches]] === Modifications: === *[[:Category:RTW Mods (Released)|Released Mods for Rome]] *[[:Category:BI Mods (Released)|Released Mods for Barbarian Invasion]] *[[:Category:Alexander Mods (Released)|Released Mods for RTW:Alexander]]

Spam cleaned up, more anti-spam measures added

I just mass-deleted 1500 or so pages added by a spammer. I added the following protection for the future:

I enabled Special:Nuke. This allows sysops to easily delete all pages created by a single user. It's useless in this case, because each user only created one page, but it might be handy in the future. Use with care!
I fixed the spam blacklist so it actually works. Now all URLs at the Wikimedia spam blacklist should be blocked, and so will all domain names at MediaWiki:Spam-blacklist. I added the spammer's domain name to the list, so it won't be able to create any more pages with those links. Previously, the spam blacklist was set up incorrectly, so it didn't actually work – I've tested to confirm that it now works as intended.
I changed the captcha to generate images rather than simple math problems. This should make it much harder for robots to do anything. As before, the captcha kicks in only if you're creating an account, failed login, or are adding a URL to a page; and only if you're not logged in.

The Honeypot thing didn't work because it's configured to affect only anonymous edits, and these edits were made by logged-in users. There's probably no point in blocking all the remaining unblocked accounts, because they most likely won't do anything, and if they do it will probably be to try adding something with the same URL, which is now blocked.

If something like this happens again, procedure should be:

Add any domain names that are being spammed to MediaWiki:Spam-blacklist. This should stop any given spam attack immediately, if they're adding URLs.
If one user added a large number of pages, try Special:Nuke.
If there are lots of pages that were created, ask me to fix it. Shell access is necessary to run the relevant script.
If it was edits, not created pages, try using the "rollback" links on Special:RecentChanges if it's a manageable number. If it's an unreasonable number, tell me and I'll figure something out.

If we have a significant amount of more spam, then I'll look into further measures that we can take to foil spammers. —Simetrical (talk • contribs) 12:38, 5 May 2010 (MDT)

Expanding the wiki regarding tactics and general information

Before I start, I wish to apologize since I know this is probably not the right place to post this. If this indeed isn't the right place, I would be grateful if someone could point me in the right direction. I'm new to this wiki, so please be patient with me.

I'll be blunt. Most, if not all, of the articles here (regarding Empire: Total War at least) are literally directly copied from the game descriptions themselves, and put under sections called "Overview"s. Firstly, I would argue that such passages are not overviews, but would fall more under the category of "Game Description"s since they are directly copied from the game without any elaboration. Secondly, I would like to point out that the goal of wikis is to inform the public (gamers) of their topics. If the readers had wished to see the unit descriptions, word to word from the game, they probably need to look no further than the game itself. I believe that articles should provide additional information, including supplementary historical facts for those interested (several of the unit descriptions are just copies of each other, although historically they were all unique), as well as at least some gameplay information which can answer basic stuff such as "What are grenades and their applications?" and "What is canister shot?". The pages even lack some of the information provided directly in the game, such as charge bonus, defense bonus, firepower, etc. I understand that there is a fine line between explaining the application of tactics and weapons and opinionated information not suitable for wikis, but it's certainly better than nothing at all. Finally, in the few places where the editors have contributed their original work, spelling and grammatical errors are very common.

I also believe that individual articles about the classes (as opposed to the individual units) of "Line Infantry", "Light Infantry", "Artillery" etc. should be added since they cover information regarding all the units in those categories, rather than exclusively for the generic units named after them.

To sum up, I believe substantial editing of the existing articles is required, to transform them from simple restatements of game descriptions into informative and easy-to-read articles. The formats of the boxes under the unit portraits should be edited to include game stats such as charge bonus etc., existing grammatical and spelling errors should be corrected, and individual articles summing up the uses for the basic unit types. Please write to me directly for your thoughts and, if you have the authority, to recommend me to get to work on such articles (or not).

Sincerely, Frederick 09:50, 31 July 2011 (MDT)

Please be more accurate!

I have noticed that on some Medieval 2 toal war articles, some people do not specify whether a certain faction is playable or not, or give information on how to unlock them. If anyone knows how to unlock the Moors, for example, then please tell me. Cheers, guys. Wolfman498.

wolfman498 07:39, 29 September 2011 (MDT)

@Wolfman498

Didn't notice your question otherwise i would've replied long ago. We generally derive info from the mod articles that authors have published, if someone has stated that something is playable then it will get mentioned. If it's not mentioned then most likely the info isn't available. Anyways this is very easy to find, if a mod is from M2TW then you guys can ask me directly and i will correct that entry.

As for unlocking factions then it's quite simple you actually have to edit a file called descr_strat.txt in the imperial_campaign folder, from your mod folder, and add those factions in the playable list. That's it. There are more ways but lets just mention one.:P Ishan 20:19, 10 July 2012 (MDT) (Chief Wiki editor)

Annoucement: Work has finally started on Fall of the Samurai

Honestly speaking, I cannot believe that no one has stepped up to the plate in regards to providing information on the 2 Expansions for Total War: Shogun 2. TWC seriously needs a very sharp influx of activity. --Arima 04:15, 3 August 2012 (MDT)