Help talk:Quest chain articles

Creating this article on request. Please note! This article/boilerplate has not yet gone through a lot of review. Many innovations may be possible and/or useful. Please do speak up. --Eirik Ratcatcher 23:13, 6 August 2007 (UTC)

My Take

Okies, I created a quest chain page using most of Eirik's ideas: Freedom for All Creatures quest chain. Let me explain the reasons for the changes I made when compared directly with his example page, Defias Brotherhood quest chain.

1. Introduction: Defias Brotherhood quest chain doesn't have one, though I notice now that in the preload it does recommend one. Anyway Freedom for All Creatures quest chain's introduction states "out of character" facts about the quest: why it is important, a little bit of background, a common reason people fail to complete it. I think this summary information is useful to players and will likely not appear in any of the individual quest pages.
2. Pictures: Since the quest chain pages read like a story, I felt it would be nice to include some pictures. Purely my aesthetics here, and not something that should go in the boilerplate (though it might mention that people can include pictures if they want).
3. Headings: I made a few changes from the original heading style, but the order is the same.
   • I chose not to use bullets for the quest headings as I simply didn't like the way it looked. Instead I used questlong, which almost looks like a bullet on its own. However, I would understand if this cuts into the "story" aspect of the page (since it lists the level), so I'm not sure about this one.
   • I dispensed with H2 heading with the quest chain name and instead just made the "Part 1/Part 2" headings H2. I also didn't call them Part 1/Part 2, but that is simply personal preference. I'm not sure how I would change this if there was only one part to the chain, though.
4. Rewards: I included total experience and rep gain (and if there was gold I would include that too) in the final section, in a bulleted list. I like these listed as bullets, and personally would like to see them listed as such in the boilerplate, but no big deal.

Sorry for being so long-winded! Hope these ideas help, please share your thoughts! --Jiyambi t || c 21:35, 7 August 2007 (UTC)

To cover your points: Intro and pictures - no contest. See "The Lescover Incident quest chain" for an example of mine with an intro.

Headings: Looking at the remade Freedom for All Creatures chain. I like the look - and content much better. Ain't I a stinker? :) Questlong instead of bullets works. Makes me think, though, that we should have something at the top to represent whether the chain is Horde, Neutral, or Alliance, for easy recognition (ala questbox).

Rewards as bulleted list: I prefer that style myself, as a general rule. Lootbox can work for reward items, but there are so many other reasons you would do a quest chain...

Really, no complaints. --Eirik Ratcatcher 22:21, 7 August 2007 (UTC) EDIT: might close your bolding tags (''' '''), though my browser seems to roll 'unbolding' into whatever questlong does to the style. --22:24, 7 August 2007 (UTC)

I agree completely about having something at the top to indicate alliance/horde, perhaps some sort of characteristics box? It could also indicate the level range of the quest chain, and perhaps other significant characteristics, though I can't think of anything for sure at the moment. I will fiddle around with this idea later :) Oh and I will fix those tags, thanks. --Jiyambi t || c 22:26, 7 August 2007 (UTC)

I added a little box to the corner of Freedom for All Creatures quest chain. I'm not entirely sure what it should contain, so for now I kept it very simple, though I can add to the template later (I also need to work on the template page and explain it if we are planning on keeping it). The template is Template:questchainbox. Please let me hear your thoughts on this. --Jiyambi t || c 04:05, 8 August 2007 (UTC)

I like-a da box. Was considering "primary zone/other zones", but that quickly dives into "what's primary?". Easier to list the more important zones first. --Eirik Ratcatcher 20:28, 30 August 2007 (UTC)

I like-a da documentation :) --Jiyambi t || c 21:14, 30 August 2007 (UTC)

You really want me to gibber and such, no? "Quest Chain:" is a no no. Period. End of story. I'm the one who threw up Namespaces, so I'll not sit by and watch another faux namespace be created. I don't mind Quest:x/Chain, and I certainly don't mind "x quest chain". The latter of the two seems the better (I'm not sure what to name x, but you seem to have started working that out). I know I've spoken with you before on it Eirik.
In other news, like the template. Infoboxes are good, imo. --Sky (t · c · w) 21:21, 30 August 2007 (UTC)

I have started using "X quest chain", I prefer that method. Example: Freedom for All Creatures quest chain. --Jiyambi t || c 21:33, 30 August 2007 (UTC)

Love that page, though I'm gonna' toss a couple of the clrs i think. --Sky (t · c · w) 21:42, 30 August 2007 (UTC)
And I think I'm going to add an {{{ss}}} to the template, too. --Sky (t · c · w) 21:43, 30 August 2007 (UTC)

In some cases, I've reverted 'Quest Chain:The xxxxx' - which had been moved to 'xxxx quest chain' - to 'The xxxx quest chain'. In others, I've not bothered. I'll make it up as I go along. As you've noted, Sky, I've capitulated on the faux namespace issue. You'll just have to get used to my giggling over " 'Quest:' is Okay, 'Quest Chain:' is not", though. :)

... it's not without an upside, though. On the quest category pages, this naming scheme makes the chains stand out more. A good thing, IMO. (Don't get me started on the Quest Chain category, though...) --Eirik Ratcatcher 19:35, 12 September 2007 (UTC)

Links

So busy giggling at Sky (if you don't know, don't ask!) I forgot what I came for. The above conversation makes much less sense, all in all, if I were to correct the links. And some of those links are going away as names are being changed. Just FYI --Eirik Ratcatcher 19:37, 12 September 2007 (UTC)

Pah, meanie. just having them in a separate category from quest chain is the answer. :P --Sky (t · c · w) 19:02, 22 September 2007 (UTC)

Chain Style

May I suggest a standard naming convention - I've come across so many different types, makes it hard to find for other quests. May I suggest that we name them all something like "Quest:Name of Quest/Quest chain". where name of quest is the first or other appropriate quest part.

Can I also suggest we head each of these Quest chain pages with <noinclude>{{Transclude|Quest:Name of Quest}}</noinclude>

Finally, can we indent each step so that it is easy to identify where multiple same steps are available, such as the quest Well Watcher Solanian, which has six different quests for one step depending on the class.

User:Sanderdolphin/sigSanderdolphin 22:39, 28 December 2007 (UTC)

• Quest chain naming style has already been discussed above, and the convention decided on at the time was "<NAME> quest chain". If there are some pages not following this convention, they may have been created at an earlier time and have not been changed yet. I'm not saying this is set in stone, but you may want to review the points. If you still have a good reason to change the convention, let us know. If not, you can help by changing the pages whose names don't fit this convention to conform to it.
• I'm not sure about that heading, since I'm not really familiar with the transclude code. What does it do?
• See Help talk:Quest articles for the discussion and vote about the quest chain format (indent vs. number). If you want to change that convention, we can discuss it. The main reason given for the numbered format was that the indents became very messy and confusing for long quest chains. Might I suggest the following for what you are talking about:

1. One of the following:
   • <First quest option>
   • <Second quest option>
   • <Third quest option>
2. <Second quest in series>
3. <Third quest in series>

I hope this is helpful. --Jiyambi t || c 06:34, 1 January 2008 (UTC)