User talk:The Duke of Earl

Dulston group Check

The Browncoats are still very much active there, although we do not stay in Dulston permenantly. We pop in every few months to blow away the DA idiots. --Blanemcc 09:58, 8 February 2009 (UTC)

Thanks, Blanemcc.--The Duke of Earl 00:02, 10 February 2009 (UTC)

Dulston Map

The map you're making looks interesting, may I enquire as to what you are trying to make it do? Looks like something that would be awesome on the BIC for individual suburbs. --  RoosterDragon  13:06, 8 February 2009 (UTC)

Hello, Rooster. I got the idea from the Phone Mast Status on the main Suburb pages. It's really nice to be able to see it right away without going to the Building page its located on, so I thought that having a map to see the Status of all the buildings in a Suburb would be convenient as well. Basically it works just like the Phone Mast, it pulls Status info from all the individual DangerReport pages automatically. Course its only as good as the people who update the individual DangerReport pages, but I though maybe people would be more willing to update if they had one central location to work with in stead of having to rummage around in 100 different (minus Streets and the like) pages to check a buildings Status. So I tried to add links from the Map directly to the individual DangerReport Update pages for each building. I added the User info as well, so you could see the date of the last report and how old and unreliable/fresh and reliable the report might be.

I don't know much about wiki code, I just monkeyed with the codes for all the Phone Mast pages and templates until it somehow worked and I still don't really know HOW it works. The main Map is really too large IMO, but I cant figure out how to squeeze all that info into a smaller block. Someone with real wiki code skills might be able to figure it out.--The Duke of Earl 13:38, 8 February 2009 (UTC)

The MPM system is the most complex and brilliant system currently in use on this wiki. It uses specialized danger reports, works around two special cases (a NT and a mall with masts), uses several different templates to format itself on various pages on the wiki, uses a bot to update old statuses and is also featured on its own map. To say the least, we need some documentation for anybody not familiar with the system to have a hope at understanding it all.

Anyway, I think that the Category:StatusMap system could be adapted for a suburb scale pretty easily. Imagine the NT Status Map but with only the buildings for one 'burb. The size could be upped a bit of course. This would provide a nice colour based system, which I always like to think is the fastest way of conveying things. Otherwise if you're going for something similar to the suburb navigation map you find on each suburb page already but with the status image added, like what you're aiming at so far, I could try whipping something up along those lines in my sandbox. What do you think is the better option? --  RoosterDragon  14:32, 8 February 2009 (UTC)

Hmm, I think your idea of a color based system would save space and be easier to read. Maybe with colored borders to reflect each Building type, background colors to indicate Danger Level. Would make the links fit in easier I think. If there was some way to cut out some User data, that would be nice too. Only the Date is really important, but I could not find a way to cut out the extra data.--The Duke of Earl 14:53, 8 February 2009 (UTC)

Yeah, I don't know how that would be done, or if it's even possible. I once tried using a tooltip to display the whole user bit, but the markup tags kinda ruined it and caused plenty of problems of their own. Also, I'm wondering how building's without reports would be treated. There's a lot without them. Might just be easier to ditch a map and use a compact danger report system for the important stuff (like the BIC for each suburb, but with a compact report. I up an example of something like that ages ago. See here. It's just been sitting there ever since. I did use tooltips for the comment's here (mouseover anywhere on the report), you can see the markup in some of the current ones. --  RoosterDragon  15:04, 8 February 2009 (UTC)

Yeah, I had the advantage of Mobius187 having already gone through and given every building in Dulston its own DangerReport already. Would be a major workload to do that across the entire city. Mainly I like the strategic "bird's eye" view the Map gives, which I think might be helpful to new players or casual players who just don't bother to memorize locations. As long as locations were updated, it would let you track Zombie/Survivor movements in a more intuitive format as they trash/fix buildings. Ideally, some sort of way to input Zombie/Survivor population data into the Danger Reports, that could then be automatically called by the Map would make it even more like a "real time" tracker. Suppose it could even be tallied for total population. NT scans are nice and all, but there's nothing like on the ground data gathering.

Anyway, I like the compact nature of the your system there, and yeah, something like that would probably be much more suitable than a Map for a Burb that does not have every single one of its buildings outfitted with a Danger Report function.--The Duke of Earl 16:15, 8 February 2009 (UTC)

Yeah, the wiki doesn't get enough updates for that, not be a long way. I mean, most reports for TRP's and minor building's are either unmade or go months between updates. Even the important NT buildings get only sporadic updates. That's why I'm not as sure about a map, it would almost always be out of date. Whereas you could have some danger reports for the main things; malls, NTs and forts. Such buildings tend to be good indicators of the suburb's condition anyway. --  RoosterDragon  19:50, 8 February 2009 (UTC)

Update. I've further refined my old hat system for mini danger reports, and included a version of Dulston's BIC. It's here. My extreme compacting efforts have produced a template not even 30 pixels tall per report. Not overly wide either. I could go insane and go for something maybe sub 15 pixels a report, but the current size allows for the main buildings to be added without eating up all the room. Adding all the reports would probably be a bit much though (I think there's some missing from the list anyway....) I was looking for some more input in relation to if it's a better option in all cases over a map, or just in cases where a map is currently impossible due to missing reports. --  RoosterDragon  22:25, 9 February 2009 (UTC)

At the moment I think your Mini Danger Reports are a better option in all cases. I just feel like trying to refine this Map idea a little further for my own pleasure. I'm still interested in what effect the Map may have on drawing more people into making regular reports. Not really expecting much, but we'll see.

As far as Dulston, I think both the Map and the Mini Danger Reports can compliment each other. I think perhaps that the Mini Danger Reports will be more convenient for those who are updating a lot, while the stripped down version of the Map without a lot of extra data and info would give a nice tactical view of the situation.

For a City Wide plan though, I think the Mini Danger Reports are the best option.--The Duke of Earl 23:22, 9 February 2009 (UTC)

Two old pages

PANTHER/IntellMapLg and PANTHER/IntellMap are both blanked. Do you want them deleted? Linkthewindow  Talk  10:28, 18 March 2009 (UTC)

Sorry for the late reply. Yeah, they can be deleted.--The Duke of Earl 12:00, 25 April 2009 (BST)