OpenRA - Red Alert Wiki created

Discussion about the game and its default mods.
SafwatHalaby
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OpenRA - Red Alert Wiki created

Post by SafwatHalaby »

EDIT:, as of 2018, the Unofficial OpenRA - Red Alert Wiki is fully functional and has nearly all the needed information.

Hello!

I am a casual OpenRA player. I usually play by the handle "saf".

I've created a Wiki for "OpenRA - Red Alert" at Wikia 4 days ago, and I'm aggressively adding content. I've added 75 articles already! (Along with images)

I intend to document just about everything over the coming weeks. The Wiki aims to document gameplay mechanics and tactics.

Here's the link: http://openra-red-alert.wikia.com/

The WIKI differs from the official documentation project in goals.
- It is focused solely on "OpenRA - Red Alert" and not other mods
- It is focused solely on gameplay, and solely aims to document facts about units, unit behavior, and tactics.

Feel free to contribute, but when doing so, please adhere to the guidelines, and please discuss before making non trivial changes. (Particularly to templates, categories, and major structural changes).

Please note that this is an unfinished project. The Wiki was speed-built. Mistakes and imperfections may be present. I'll refine it gradually and add more details.

I'll leave you with a riddle: How does a War Factory decide whether it's Soviet or Allied? Answer here: http://openra-red-alert.wikia.com/wiki/War_Factory
Last edited by SafwatHalaby on Sun Apr 08, 2018 9:42 pm, edited 2 times in total.

noobmapmaker
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Post by noobmapmaker »

Very nice! Do hope it will expand to other mods as well and people keep fine-tuning the articles. Good job tho!
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FRenzy
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Post by FRenzy »

Nice job !

I've seen the building durations are wrong, you don't mind I correct them ?

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SafwatHalaby
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Post by SafwatHalaby »

noobmapmaker wrote: Very nice! Do hope it will expand to other mods as well and people keep fine-tuning the articles. Good job tho!
Thank you!

I think other mods should have their own dedicated wikis. e.g. openra-td.wikia.com. However, since I don't play the other games myself and I don't have the time to learn their gameplay mechanics, I think this job is best left for other people.
FRenzy wrote: Nice job !

I've seen the building durations are wrong, you don't mind I correct them ?
I do hope you mean /some/ building durations are wrong. Feel free to fix them! It's a wiki after all ;)

___________

I think others may be wondering why I didn't contribute to the official documentation instead of making a new Wiki. The main reason is the scope of the project as mentioned above, but there are technical reasons too: The Github Wiki is suited to store large, mainly independent documents. If something fits a Microsoft Word document, it's okay on the Github Wiki.

But the MediaWiki system is better optimized for quickly getting facts and quickly contributing, and is more fine tuned for managing a huge armada of smaller interlinked articles that share similar patterns. It has features the Github Wiki lacks such as InfoBoxes, templates, categories, anonymous contributions (no account required), and an interlink and redirect system.

Also, I don't know what revision system the GH wiki uses, but if it's Git, then it's overkill, and the mediaWiki revision system is more convenient for article management.

SafwatHalaby
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Post by SafwatHalaby »

@FRenzy: Important! Please remember that building durations are reduced if you have multiple conyards. So please make sure you have 1 conyard, because the Wiki has the basic durations.

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FRenzy
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Post by FRenzy »

Ok all done ;) it is mainly the infantry and vehicles that I fixed

Btw, small detail : "Sandbags" is for Allied only, Soviets have "Barbed wire", if you want to change that ^^ I wasn't sure how to do it

(Same characteristics, just different name/visual)

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SafwatHalaby
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Post by SafwatHalaby »

It seems I was writing down times while on low power, that's why they're all wrong.

But your times have a problem too: I think you had multiple barrackses, so some times are a bit less than they should be.

I will fix the sandbags/barbed wire issue. Thanks!

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FRenzy
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Post by FRenzy »

Yup, I checked your comment indeed, I actually have some of them wrong on my own spreadsheet lol
Thx for pointing out :)

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netnazgul
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Post by netnazgul »

Code: Select all

&#91;06&#58;40&#58;55&#93;	<abcdefg30> uh, we even got http&#58;//openra.wikia.com/wiki/OpenRA_Wiki about the engine
&#91;06&#58;41&#58;03&#93;	<abcdefg30> over 3 years old though 
maybe something can be salvaged there

SafwatHalaby
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Post by SafwatHalaby »

That wiki is about the engine itself. This one is about "OpenRA - Red Alert".

Also, I am not interested in duplicating the original C&C wikia articles nor the official documentation project, so non-gameplay information is mostly out of scope.

Lastly, there are exactly 6 pages, 4 of which have a single sentence. The OpenRA - Red Alert Wiki already has 75 articles. There isn't much to salvage.

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anjew
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Post by anjew »

SafwatHalaby wrote: That wiki is about the engine itself. This one is about "OpenRA - Red Alert".

Also, I am not interested in duplicating the original C&C wikia articles nor the official documentation project, so non-gameplay information is mostly out of scope.

Lastly, there are exactly 6 pages, 4 of which have a single sentence. The OpenRA - Red Alert Wiki already has 75 articles. There isn't much to salvage.
That wiki is about all aspects of the engine, like being a player on it. While you're right that there is minimal information in some sections of, the reason is because someone needs to fill in and maintain the wiki. If you want to have your unofficial side project I don't see a problem, personally, but I think your efforts might be more productive going into fleshing out the official wiki. It's been well discussed now that it is quite out of date, especially the new players guide and I'm certain no one would object to someone making it more consistent and informative. Some of the work you have already done may also serve as a nice foundation for: https://github.com/OpenRA/OpenRA/issues/3788

also, all those pages in wiki have much more than 1 sentence.
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SafwatHalaby
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Post by SafwatHalaby »

Anjew,
I think the different Wikis have been mixed. Let me explain again more explicitly.

There are actually 3 wikis: Why I chose not to contribute to openra.wikia:
  • It is not specific to a single mod, and I think that's messy for a Wikia site.
  • It's about the engine, so its scope overlaps with the official Wiki and I don't like duplication.
  • It has generic C&C articles so its scope overlaps with the huge http://cnc.wikia.com/ community, and I don't like duplications.
Why I chose not to contribute to the official Github Wiki:
  • It has large step-by-step articles, which are long reads, but my vision is a site where you get simple facts and tactics quickly about Red Alert. It'd consist of many small to medium (e.g. unit-specific) articles.
  • The GH markdown is technically inferior to the MediaWiki system when it comes to what I'm trying to do. I'll quote myself from a comment above:
The main reason is the scope of the project as mentioned above, but there are technical reasons too: The Github Wiki is suited to store large, mainly independent documents. If something fits a Microsoft Word document, it's okay on the Github Wiki.

But the MediaWiki system is better optimized for quickly getting facts and quickly contributing, and is more fine tuned for managing a huge armada of smaller interlinked articles that share similar patterns. It has features the Github Wiki lacks such as InfoBoxes, templates, categories, anonymous contributions (no account required), and an interlink and redirect system.

Also, I don't know what revision system the GH wiki uses, but if it's Git, then it's overkill, and the mediaWiki revision system is more convenient for article management.
Because the Wiki does not deal with the engine itself and solely focuses on RA gameplay, and because it's not intended for big guides, there's no major content overlap with the official Wiki, since the goals are different. So I think they can coexist nicely and there will not be major duplication.

SafwatHalaby
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Post by SafwatHalaby »

I wouldn't mind trying to update some of the official wiki guides, regardless. I'll see if I can do that.

Again, I think the projects' aims are different.

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anjew
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Post by anjew »

SafwatHalaby wrote: -snip-
My apologies, I'm not good at reading, i thought you were referring to the official GH wiki which easily has at least 10 sentences per page :p

I do still have certain concerns. I'm not against this at all. There isn't an overlap in the overall scope but the "Players" part is meant to outline the gameplay, units and their uses as well as tactics, primarily for new players. While it doesn't deal with just the Red Alert mod, that is 1/3rd of the work that needs to be done. I'd argue there is a little bit of an overlap.

Anyway, I just feel there is a more productive, or at least, symbiotic way to use your enthusiasm about the subject. I recommend going onto the OpenRA IRC and discussing with developers how to go about this if you want it to become official. They are usually quite flexible, especially when it comes to things like this. They may be willing to entertain some changes to how the GH wiki is set up or implementing a Wikia.
I hate to be blunt but I feel if you make an unofficial effort, it will probably be as popular as the wikia with one sentence per page.
Just my opinion.
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SafwatHalaby
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Post by SafwatHalaby »

As of now the overlap is minimal, but I agree I should coordinate with the devs long term.

GH Markdown is poorly optimized for handling what I want to do, which is having many, many pages that use templates, and have interlinks, redirects, etc. And it's not something the devs can fix on a technical level. I'm unlikely to move the wiki there, but perhaps there are other things that can be done.

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