Talk:NecroWatch

Join NecroWatch... NOW!

Interested in becoming a full-time NecroTechnician? Of course you are! Who wouldn't want the fame and glory commonly associated with publically posting NecroNet scans, fame and glory lost on those survivors who scan and fail to report their scans. What's up with that? Just be sure to read the FAQ first so you know exactly what you're signing up for. Anywho, if you still want to join then just sign on the dotted line and provide the following information:

User Name - Who you are on the UD Wiki. Sure you could just sign your post and I would know, but this is more formal. What? I'm ALL about formality.
Profile(s) - Provide links to the characters you wish to dedicate to the job of providing NecroNet scans for NecroWatch. You are not limited to just one character, obviously, so long as your alts are not working together or within close proximity. But that just goes without saying.
Group Affiliation - Feel free to plug the group(s) associated with your character(s). I fully support shameless advertising.
Suburb(s) - List the suburbs you plan to cover. If your character(s) is mobile/nomadic then you can simply state "Malton". It's not necessary to report which characters will be reporting scans from which suburbs... after all it's healthy to be paranoid.

Please add your entry to the bottom of the signup list and that's it. Simple right? After that your name will be added to the Members List in the appropriate rank/alphabetical order and then you're official. Of course you don't need to become a NecroTechnician to report scans. In those instances please refer to the appropriate section (below) where you can post links to your NT scans.

User Name - Dr Mycroft Chris

Profile - Dr Mycroft Chris

Group Affiliation - MEMS

Suburb(s) - Planning to visit every NecroTech facility in Malton, have done SE, working on NE now.

--Dr Mycroft Chris 06:26, 31 March 2009 (BST)

User Name - Red Hawk One

Profile - Red Hawk One

Group Affiliation - KRFR DJ
Suburb(s) - Rhodenbank.

--Red Hawk One 09:07, 31 March 2009 (BST)

User Name - Cpl Adrian Shephard

Profile - Cpl Adrian Shephard

Group Affiliation - Freelance
Suburb(s) - Malton.

--Cpl Adrian Shephard 01:58, 6 April 2009 (BST)

User Name - Lorddragonfang

Profile - LordDragonfang

Group Affiliation - Randoms
Suburb(s) - Buttonville, Williamsville.

-- Lorddragonfang  Talk 02:49, 28 April 2009 (BST)

General Topics

Do you want to chat with the people running Project: NecroWatch? Looking for an outlet through which you can express random thoughts and ideas? Well then this is the place for you, unless of course your post is of a more technical nature, in which case check the next section. But if your comments are generic, then just post them here being sure to keep the newest posts at the top.

ARCHIVED

Hi, I archived a lot of stuff that was no longer important. The cleaner this page is the better, I think. Just letting everyone know. CITIZEN VI 04:56, 2 May 2009 (BST)

Quarlesbank

Has 4 Nt's and some of the oldest recorded scans. 404 barhah not found are in the process of securing them, so now would be a perfect time to get those scans! --Rosslessness^{Want a Location Image?} 22:30, 1 May 2009 (BST)

I'm moving up to Judgewood with the MCM, so while I'm there I'll be able to get scans from the local suburbs. CITIZEN VI 04:33, 2 May 2009 (BST)

Gone Fishing

Well I'm going fishing, for a while... maybe forever. I like fishing, what can I say? But seriously I can't say if I will be gone forever, as I returned once before, but for the time being I will be away and as a responsible adult I felt I was obligated to let everyone know. In the meantime, feel free to continue having fun with NecroWatch and try not to burn down the house while I'm gone. I expect the dishes done when I come back and I'll bring cake. Just joking. There will be no cake.

For those of you wondering why I'm departing UD (again), well UD takes up a lot of my free time, which by definition is "free" and thus available, however my friends have interested me in an old/new game that requires a lot of effort on my part to run. So as I have to choose one, I went with the ones my friends favoured... as none of them play UD (anymore). Anywho, I'm sure you'll all do nicely without me regardless. So good luck everyone and keep up the great work! --Mobius 13:16, 20 April 2009 (BST)

Free time is our only valuable asset. A game, or metagaming, by definition should be fun. If it becomes work, it's time to take a break and try something else. I hope your old/new game is not really about fishing, though ;) -- -Alka Selzer- ^{[ Talk - Map - Stuff ]}  18:35, 20 April 2009 (BST)

It was fine having you here and it shall not be the same; it's true you know...one man can make a difference, that's why we will never forgive you for it! ha ha ha !! Seriously, you set a high bar and we'll carry on, stiff upper lip and all that.--Dr Mycroft Chris 18:36, 20 April 2009 (BST)

Promotional Ideas for NecroWatch

CONCLUSION

1.We will use the template HERE created by Alka Selzer for suburb NT scan updates so that it will garner us more attention.

{{{loc11}}} 0 zombies	{{{loc12}}} 0 zombies	{{{loc13}}} 0 zombies	{{{loc14}}} 0 zombies	{{{loc15}}} 0 zombies	{{{loc16}}} 0 zombies	{{{loc17}}} 0 zombies
{{{loc21}}} 0 zombies	{{{loc22}}} 0 zombies	{{{loc23}}} 0 zombies	{{{loc24}}} 0 zombies	{{{loc25}}} 0 zombies	{{{loc26}}} 0 zombies	{{{loc27}}} 0 zombies
{{{loc31}}} 0 zombies	{{{loc32}}} 0 zombies	{{{loc33}}} 0 zombies	{{{loc34}}} 0 zombies	{{{loc35}}} 0 zombies	{{{loc36}}} 0 zombies	{{{loc37}}} 0 zombies
{{{loc41}}}	{{{loc42}}}	{{{loc43}}}	{{{loc44}}}	{{{loc45}}}	{{{loc46}}}	{{{loc47}}}
{{{loc51}}}	{{{loc52}}}	{{{loc53}}}	{{{loc54}}}	{{{loc55}}}	{{{loc56}}}	{{{loc57}}}
{{{loc61}}}	{{{loc62}}}	{{{loc63}}}	{{{loc64}}}	{{{loc65}}}	{{{loc66}}}	{{{loc67}}}
{{{loc71}}}	{{{loc72}}}	{{{loc73}}}	{{{loc74}}}	{{{loc75}}}	{{{loc76}}}	{{{loc77}}}

2.A promo ad is up at Recruitment and will link to Extropymine's Beginner's Guide

...Needs YOU! Zombies just don't count themselves, we need YOU to scan & post those scans to help the fight against BARHAH & disorganization And there is delicious cake for those who qualify...just ask A.L.I.C.E. ...she's watching right now If you think you got what it takes (sheer indifference to all other concerns, lone wolf type personality, a tad bit vain, a taste for cake) contact NecroWatch today, we'll set you on the road to fame & glory tomorrow! To learn more review the complete README.TXT file stored on the root directory before proceeding.

I just went ahead and made it happen, if anyone has issues with the copy, I'm fine with that. If you can write funnier/more engaging copy...have at it--Dr Mycroft Chris 06:23, 22 April 2009 (BST)

Don't forget to timestamp the ad. I'll try to keep an eye on it. Linkthewindow  Talk  07:53, 22 April 2009 (BST)

I thought I did...I'll check it, thanks--Dr Mycroft Chris 09:32, 22 April 2009 (BST)

Medal/Trophy Ribbon Suggestions

Everyone wants a pat on the back for a job well done. As some of you may have been around the proverbial block a few times and collected most or all the medal ribbons offered to date, you might be thinking it's time for NecroWatch to add some new medal ribbons. This is the place to discuss these suggestions. As always post the more current topics at the top of this section.

Suggested Ribbon Summary

NOTE: The following is a summary of existing ribbon suggestions after the debate over them has ended. These suggestions may have already been moved to the Archive, but in order to track them a summary is listed below. This post is not to be archived (obviously). If you have further comments on a suggested ribbon please start a new thread in this section titled after the ribbon.

Endurance Ribbon

• Name: Ironclad Scanner
• Category: Medal Ribbon
• Description: A medal ribbon awarded to the NecroTechnician who reports 7 scans, 1 per day, from the same NT building (selected by the NecroTechnician) in a "red" (Very Dangerous) suburb. The suburb (i.e. Eastonwood) and/or NT building (i.e. The Blackmore Building) may, or may not, be predefined requirements for the ribbon.
• Concerns/Alternates?: If famous locations are selected, this may cause ribbons to overlap, such as the Blackmore Watchkeeper or Eastonwood Tour of Duty. Perhaps it would be better to target suburbs based only on their danger status.

Marathon Ribbon

• Name: Four Corners
• Category: Medal/Trophy Ribbon
• Description: A medal, or maybe trophy, ribbon which requires NecroTechnicians to report scans from the NTs within specific suburbs scattered across Malton. The NT reports may also be required in a specific order, similar to points in a race course. The first such ribbon would be awarded to any NecroTechnician who reported scans from the NTs located in each of the four corner suburbs (Dakerstown, Dulston, Miltown, New Arkham).
• Concerns/Alternates?: Any NecroTechnician who has already reported from these 4 suburbs will automatically earn this as a medal ribbon.

There should be a time limit on this run, this way it has to be done anew regardless of previous scans;Flinley in Milltown, Trood in Dulston, Pask in Dakerstown,Mitchner in New Arkham for the circle but you could also criss-cross them too to make it intresting...8 days?--Dr Mycroft Chris 07:02, 4 April 2009 (BST)

Most Crowded Scan

• Name: Mob Chaser
• Category: Trophy Ribbon
• Description: A trophy ribbon awarded to the NecroTechnician who reports a scan with the most zombies (total). This is a competition that runs through the entire year (January 1st to December 31st) with a winner declared on the first day of the new year. All reported scans must be made/linked via iWitness as proof. This trophy ribbon will be awarded on an annual basis and a list compiled of past winners.
• Concerns/Alternates?: A year? Will people be interested in it for that long? How about running it for a month, annually, and the NecroTechnician who reports the largest total at the end of the month wins for that year.

Whoever has the highest number gets the ribbon, regardless of contest or time limits. Current winner has a the standard ribbon, past winners are allowed to keep the same ribbon but it is muted in brightness or somehow different but still recognizable as that ribbon. OR have a basic design that can be augmented like our NT scan # ribbon for the total number of zeds scanned. Over 100? 1 gold bar, over 200? 2 gold bars, etc...and of course, a magical over 1000 zed scan just so that we got something to reach for LOL--Dr Mycroft Chris 04:18, 4 April 2009 (BST)

Twin NTs Ribbon

Here's a thought, how about ribbons to celebrate scanning from Malton's "twin NTs", namely the Cheeke Building and the Haslock Building? As any NecroTechnician worth his salt knows these are the only NT buildings that share the same names in all of Malton, with their locations being in: Eastonwood, Ruddlebank, Chancelwood and Quarlesbank. The only overlap we would be looking at is with the NT in Eastonwood, as currently we have the Eastonwood Tour of Duty ribbon, which requires this NT to complete. As there are only 4 NTs, and 3 of them are relatively close together, I figure it's best to create one ribbon for all 4 of them. --Mobius 16:03, 6 April 2009 (BST)

Got my vote--Dr Mycroft Chris 03:46, 7 April 2009 (BST)

South Malton NT Ribbons

I am going to re-post this here as I think it deserves another chance to be discussed. It was pointed out a while back that most of the popular NT buildings which had their own ribbon (for when you report a scan from it) are all in north Malton. As such, I wanted to hear everyone's thoughts on what NTs in south Malton deserved credit for being famous in some way, and thus, deserved their own medal ribbon awarded to whomever posts a scan from that location. --Mobius 13:53, 1 April 2009 (BST)

I would love to nominate my home 'burb, Penny Heights, but for the life of me, all I got is that it is the only 'burb with 2 malls and always ends up being very attractive to both zombies and the PK crowd. Whittenside has a better reason as it is the home of the Feral Undead and Fort Perryn; getting scans there can be regularly difficult--Dr Mycroft Chris 22:47, 5 April 2009 (BST)

Hmmm, you may have a point with Whittenside. What we want are NT buildings that have historic value to them. Of the three NT buildings in Whittenside, which one do you believe should be the one most likely deserving of the ribbon medal? The Malcolm Building is the closest to the fort, but the Colglough Building is next to a hospital. I'm not familiar with the suburb myself, so I can hardly say which is the more famous location. --Mobius 14:03, 6 April 2009 (BST)

For South Malton, I am definitely picking Malcolm then. It was a constant struggle to get that scan which took me over a week for just one NT. The area is forever in an uproar between survivors & zeds. Must admit, I don't know if there is a dedicated NT crew there but if there was, they would have their work cut out for them. It's not as deadly as Blackmoore in Ridleybank...but its close--Dr Mycroft Chris 15:08, 6 April 2009 (BST)

Without having much history in UD - give the NT Buildings closest to both Forts a ribbon (maybe another for getting both Scans); and give the NT buildings in all 4 corners (farthest from center of map) a ribbon (maybe another for all 4). Seriously, it is not THAT hard to travel around in Malton. And it is fun, i must say. Remember, people tend to collect all they can get - they will still try to get "northern" ribbons as long as they exist. -- -Alka Selzer- ^{[ Talk - Map - Stuff ]}  23:11, 5 April 2009 (BST)

I take it then you are recommending ribbons for the Malcolm Building (Fort Perryn) and the Farmer Building (Fort Creedy). Then again there is already a ribbon medal for [the Morrish Building]], so I think Farmer NT wouldn't make the cut. There is the Maine Building... I suppose, but is that grasping at straws? For now maybe we should just consider the Malcolm Building in terms of Fort NTs. On the matter of 4-Corners, well, we have one already for the Pask Building in Dakerstown (mission accomplished). I cannot speak for the two south corners, but I do know a lot about the northeast corner. If there was a medal ribbon for Dulston it would most defeinitely be for the Whitlock Building, aka "The Fortress of Science". The key factor is that we want the ribbons to be associated with historic NT locations. --Mobius 14:03, 6 April 2009 (BST)

Hey Buddy! This is the SOUTH Malton thread, let's keep it straight...LOL:D, Anyway, joining in as well, I would recommend The Mighty Haslock in Chancelwood, I know, I know...it's way up North. But the scene of ever present zombie sieges because of THEM. Talk about an organized group of survivors, damn! They put a lot to shame--Dr Mycroft Chris 15:08, 6 April 2009 (BST)

Wait. You admonish me for talking about Dulston, and then you bring up Chancelwood? Not cool dude. ;P

I agree, Haslock has come up before primarily because of THEM running the show from Haslock NT. Huh. I just had a thought... Haslock is famous for something else too, it's one of two sets of NT buildings that share the same name. Now that may be worth considering for a different kind of ribbon medal... but on the matter at hand, yes, we should find out which NT building "south of the border" are worthy of praise. --Mobius 15:52, 6 April 2009 (BST)

The Impossible

I see that the thread got moved to the Archive, but what if one were able to get scans from 'burbs that didn't have any NTs? Would that be worthy of a special commendation?--Dr Mycroft Chris 00:18, 1 April 2009 (BST)

Hmmmm. You're going to have to explain your method. --Mobius 13:19, 1 April 2009 (BST)

With science, anything is possible...LOL! I'll demonstrate it in a day or two--Dr Mycroft Chris 14:20, 1 April 2009 (BST)

DONE! Maybe we can call it the "Dedication Ribbon" or maybe "Lucky 7" because it's 7X7, or maybe "Miner 49er" because 7x7=49 and you have to "mine" the data to get this type of scan...whatever, simplest would probably be "Scout Recon" and you have to do five burbs that do not have an NT to qualify--Dr Mycroft Chris 03:35, 4 April 2009 (BST)

Okay. I like this idea, but let's see if we can't make it a bit more interesting. How about we make it harder in terms of commitment involved in acquiring the ribbon medal? Let's say to earn the ribbon you need to report a 7x7 grid for every suburb without NT buildings, namely:

• 1.Crooketon

36% NecroNet Coverage, suggested Scout Location=The Antell Building

• 2.Dentonside

36% NecroNet Coverage, suggested Scout Location=Denner Towers

• 3.Galbraith Hills

63% NecroNet Coverage, suggested Scout Location=The Singer Building

• 4.Gatcombeton

40%, NecroNet Coverage,(53% of this suburb is empty space!) suggested Scout Location=The Pounsett Building

• 5.Greentown

83% NecroNet Coverage, suggested Scout Location=Lerwill Towers

• 6.Havercroft

41% NecroNet Coverage, suggested Scout Location=The Axworthy Hotel

• 7.Lerwill Heights

39% NecroNet Coverage, suggested Scout Location=The Hayler Building

• 8.Mockridge Heights

36% NecroNet Coverage, suggested Scout Location=The Shuttle Building

• 9.Mornington

0% NecroNet Coverage, suggested Scout Location=Millington Towers

• 10.Pennville

70% NecroNet Coverage, suggested Scout Location=The Wagland Building

• 11.Reganbank

24% NecroNet Coverage, suggested Scout Location=The Lantrowe Building

• 12.Rolt Heights

62% NecroNet Coverage, suggested Scout Location=Mare Towers

• 13.Vinetown

31% NecroNet Coverage, suggested Scout Location=The Yapp Building

• 14.West Boundwood

24% NecroNet Coverage, suggested Scout Location=The Lapley Building

• 15.Wykewood

42% NecroNet Coverage, suggested Scout Location=The Skilliter Motel

That's 15 suburbs and it should take a bit of time to perform the task, meaning the ribbon is more worthwhile to claim. For clarity perhaps we should mention it should be a 7x7 area from the center of each suburb, and for added difficulty perhaps we should opt for a larger area than 7x7... maybe the whole suburb? As for the name of the ribbon that may take a bit of time to work out. It should probably be connected with the fact that you are providing recon for suburbs without NT buildings. --Mobius 15:43, 6 April 2009 (BST)

It should also be determined if it is enough to run around taking screenshots or if you have to enter all open buildings to make sure you also count the zombies that hide in ruins... -- -Alka Selzer- ^{[ Talk - Map - Stuff ]}  17:59, 6 April 2009 (BST)

True... true. In an NT scan you actually capture the total zombies in a block regardless of whether they are inside or outside. If the recon is only from the outside then you potentially run the risk of reporting only half the story (i.e. there are no zombies in sight, when in fact 20+ zombies might be inside a building... that would be bad). As the whole point of reporting scans is reporting zombie numbers I might be inclined to agree with Alka Selzer. However, if we are making the NecroTechnician perform 2 sets of scans, one compiled from outside screenshots and one from inside each building... I would only ask for a 7x7 grid taken from the center of suburb. This would no doubt make the ribbon medal a more veteran-level honour as this would take a fair bit or work to accomplish (if just the copying/pasting to compile the "inside" recon). Of course if there are no, or few, zombies inside buildings then this task becomes somewhat simpler. --Mobius 15:07, 7 April 2009 (BST)

That was my basic idea, take a 7x7 from the center of the burb. Usually from the phone mast in each suburb because all 'burbs have one, they can be scouted from and they all are as centered as possible in their respective 'burbs. Just doing that it is already expensive AP-wise. If you were to do both in & out, you could easily use up an entire day's worth.--Dr Mycroft Chris 02:58, 9 April 2009 (BST)

So the question here is, would it be worth it? Is gathering zombie recon from both inside and outside a 7x7 grid worth the extra work required to accomplish the task (14 times)? Does it make the ribbon too annoying to bother acquiring or does it make it more challenging? Will there be too few people who bother going after the ribbon, or will there be enough that those who do feel privileged to have their ribbon while others do not? --Mobius 14:33, 9 April 2009 (BST)

I think it's a nice "hard to get" ribbon. To ease the task a bit: You can screenshot 3x3 outside, so we could reduce the task to a 6x6 image located in the center of the suburb. For example, to scan Havercroft, you'd make screenshots at Rolls Cinema, St. Callistus's Church, Shalle Plaza and Junkyard 33,46 for the outside view. For inside, you only have to check ruined buildings and TRP which are not caded. NT Scans also are not perfect, they only scan DNA-Sampled zeds, so we can live with some zombies not found. -- -Alka Selzer- ^{[ Talk - Map - Stuff ]}  14:44, 9 April 2009 (BST)

I've added some stats to the above list. Namely, the % of each suburb that is covered by NecroNet scans and a suggested NecroWatch Scout Post. I had to balance the picks with how each burb was already partially scanned by neighboring NTs and where any tall buildings were located in each burb. In some cases, there will be overlap of scans & scout reports, but that is unavoidable in certain cases. Also, there are certain spots on the map that can not be scouted from any building whatsoever. All this had to be balanced against where the NTs were located, tall buildings in the "blind" areas, etc... Significantly, there are suburbs that have an NT but still have significant "blind" spots, e.g. Dakerstown, over 40 % is unseen by NecroNet! (See gribligs.net/UDmetatac/)--Dr Mycroft Chris 08:11, 11 April 2009 (BST)

More Tours of Duty

We could possibly combine East and West Becktown, a total of 7 Necrotech facilities, and North and South Blythville, for a total of 5 Necrotech facilities.--ChuckWade87 14:12, 15 March 2009 (UTC)

That's certainly possible. --Mobius

Updating Old Scans Ribbon

Maybe also Assignments or "Missions". If a suburb or two are really, really outdated, NecroWatch offers an assignment to "go to suburb XYZ and update all scans, report back if done". Whoever volunteers first has 7(14?) days to complete this assignment and report back. Completing Assignments may also earn special ribbons. -- -Alka Selzer- ^{[ Talk - Map - Stuff ]}  19:41, 31 March 2009 (BST)

I think that this is a fine idea and an easy to one to accomplish. For example, when I was away from the game and returned in Feb '09, no one had updated the scans in Penny Heights' Rothwell NT since August...that's right, August of '08. This ribbon would be one of the easiest to get. Call it the "NT Reviver" kind of like the Ghost Ribbon but...oh! I got it..."The Flying Dutchman!" Always chasing the ghost NT buildings that never appear operational--Dr Mycroft Chris 10:23, 6 April 2009 (BST)

Now how did we move from more tour of duty ribbons (via combined suburbs) to chasing down NT buildings with old scans? This gets its own section. ;)

In my opinion there are usually two types of ribbon medals, the kind that was set in stone (i.e. the Blackmore Watchkeeper) and those "situational" ribbons that require proof the task was accomplished (i.e. Ghost Recon). Both require set rules, but especially in the case of situational ribbons, otherwise you may find out the ribbon's requirements were interpreted incorrectly. In this case it would make sense to possibly have a ribbon where you need to locate one or more NTs which have not had their scan image(s) updated within an extended period of time. As we already have Ghost Recon, which has a similar requirement, I would suggest the one for this ribbon have a much larger period... 6 months perhaps? An NT that hasn't been reported to in such a long period needs an update, and a ribbon would be the reward. Possibly the ribbon could have ranks, as suggested by Dr Mycroft for the "Most Crowded Scan". For example, 1 new scan (to replace a 6-month old scan) would give you the base-level bronze ribbon, >10 scans earns the silver ribbon, >20 scans earns the gold ribbon. That, or bars to signify ranks. --Mobius 16:17, 6 April 2009 (BST)

Just out of curiosity, when is an old scan replaced by the "missing" scan gif picture? -- -Alka Selzer- ^{[ Talk - Map - Stuff ]}  18:00, 6 April 2009 (BST)

Officially? We originally set it to 6 months. That was due to the fact that we had fewer hands on deck at the time and didn't want to be constantly viewing static. ;)

However that deadline could be shortened if we decide that we are providing scan more often. However, will that mess with your scan recon map? Since when a static scan is placed the signature often is updated, which might fool your template into thinking the scan was updated. Of course I have not examined your template closely, but I'm assuming that's how it works. If that's the case it might be better to leave it at 6 months and aim to have NecroTechnicians update the scan before then... still, it's debatable. --Mobius 15:14, 7 April 2009 (BST)

My script only cares about the Signature of the last scan to determine age. As static has no Signature with a timestamp, it assumes 90 days age for calculation and reports "90 days or older", but this can be changed. -- -Alka Selzer- ^{[ Talk - Map - Stuff ]}  07:02, 8 April 2009 (BST)

So what you're saying is if we blank the signature when a static scan is placed then it will default to 90 days? That works. We would only need to express upon everyone to not sign the template if they place the static, but rather either leave the old signature or delete it altogether (i.e. leave it blank). --Mobius 13:11, 8 April 2009 (BST)

Discussions: Improvements & Issues

If you're interested in NecroWatch, are full of new ideas or perhaps want to discuss existing ones, this is the place to do it. Here users can also post about any issues they've encountered, in the hopes of working out fixes. As always post the more current topics at the top of this section.

Redesign NecroWatch

By now many of you are familiar with the look and feel of the NecroWatch wikipages. However I would like to take a moment to propose a somewhat radical shift in the current design/layout. As you all know the current theme of the wikipages is a camo-green background, with shades of lighter green and banners which use a dark burgundy. Interspaced on each wikipages are A.L.I.C.E. template talk boxes. Then there is the NT Index wikipage. The theme on this wikipage is best described as "old school computer". What I am suggesting is recomposing the entire NecroWatch so that its style is similar to that of the NT Index wikipage (black background with neon-orange Courier text). I was also planning to keep the A.L.I.C.E template talk boxes, but reformatting them to give them the look of a pop-up box on top of the "window". Obviously this is just the early stages and I wish to get a general consensus on what everyone else thinks about this kind of change. Should we do this, or should we leave it "as is"? --Mobius 15:26, 7 April 2009 (BST)

Ah, oo, I have to say I really like the pages as they are. I've always thought they were some of, if not the best looking pages on the wiki. I guess the old school terminal style isn't really my thing. Of course, it's your project, so whatever you want to do... VI 00:50, 8 April 2009 (BST)

Thanks for your input. --Mobius 13:08, 8 April 2009 (BST)

Same here. These pages are absolutely great as they are. Easy to read, mostly, and beautiful to look at. The "Old School Computer" look is, in my opinion, ideal for "data entry" and gives me a feeling of nostalgia, but I wouldn't use that for the entire site. I used to do ad design for a newspaper for a few years; things like readability, font, layout, color are important considerations to me. You did an amazing job with how they are now, I wouldn't want to lose that. The only critique I would have is that in areas that have large amounts of text, it should be made easier to read; Not enough contrast e.g. Resources.--Dr Mycroft Chris 02:38, 9 April 2009 (BST)

Not sure how Ribbons or the rank stars will fit in the Console/DOS Window style. I played a bit with the idea here, and found that Courier bold is a good font (not Courier New, it is not monospaced on all systems, on my Linux Box at work for example it is not). Still have no idea how to create ranking tables with that style, or a recon/scan map. -- -Alka Selzer- ^{[ Talk - Map - Stuff ]}  13:32, 8 April 2009 (BST)

Your pages are: Fucking. Awesome. Do nothing to rectify this. That is all.

Ok, ok. In seriousness, your page styling is great and the theme is also great (Nothing like an ALICE dialogue to brighten up the day) You just need to do a basic tweaks, like the contrast thing Chris mentioned. Finding something to break up the text-based wall of doom that is your FAQ would also be nice. --  RoosterDragon  03:15, 9 April 2009 (BST)

In reference to the contrast comments, yes the black on dark green does have some issues mostly due to the large quantities of text involved. One way this could be resolved would be for me to use a lighter shade of green for the background colour. As I'm at work and my PhotoShop is in a far away land right now... I shall have to wait on this, but anyone else who wants to suggest a HEX code for the new background colour is free to do so. Keep in mind that we probably don't one want so light that there is no real contrast between the background and our "table background green".

In reference to the FAQ text wall, I'll try a few ideas there too. Mayhaps I'll try placing them in tables... --Mobius 14:09, 9 April 2009 (BST)

MUCH nicer, Thanks!--Dr Mycroft Chris 14:04, 10 April 2009 (BST)

Things To Do?

Hey all! With Alka burning up the maps and with my field guide nearing completion, I wanted to post something about some changes I'd propose for the NecroWatch pages and stuff. Let's talk about it.

1. Changes to the NecroWatch menu bar. I made a new one here that makes some minor formatting changes and adds "resources" to the main nav bar. However, my wiki-fu failed me a little and I have no idea why the black background behind the NW logo doesn't extend the length of the nav bar. You'll see.
2. Creation of NecroWatch/Resources. What I think we ought to do is move the instructions for taking and posting scans to Resources, along with an include for the Recon Map and the Field Guide. That leaves the FAQ page to act solely as the FAQ, rather than part FAQ and part instruction manual.
3. Update the FAQ. There are one or two questions that were asked here on our talk page (I'm mostly thinking of the "do you defend NTs?") that should find their way into the FAQ, I think.
4. Move Alka's recon map from his user space to Templates. It's done, so it should be in the Template namespace.
5. Move ALICE's "test" to somewhere more noticable in the NW space, so more people see it.

So... What do you think? ~ extropymine ^{Talk | NW | 4Corners} 20:15, 29 March 2009 (BST)

1. -> Fixed your Navbar (a bit) by using width=100% for the inner table.
2. -> Well i'm new but I'm also experienced user, programmer and gamer - Most people by chance will be not. We need step-by-step instructions how to update scans, reminder to also update building status, and instructions for this. Also, tell new people what they can (but by no means have to) do - posting news etc. If someone don't want to post news, maybe make a queue for "News to write", so not everybody need to watch all NTscan: namespace pages.
3. -> No comments on the FAQ as i'm too new around
4. -> Yep, don't think I will do more work on this, except when suggestions come in.

-- -Alka Selzer- ^{[ Talk - Map - Stuff ]}  22:44, 29 March 2009 (BST)

I checked a couple of those items off the list. As for ALICE's test, well, that's fine where it is... for people to find or not. That's part of the fun. Also, feel free to include your new FAQ's here for review. --Mobius 02:30, 30 March 2009 (BST)

I'm bringing the "Things to do" stuff up again. Mobius left for fishing (...) so now we have a big gap missing. He did a lot for NecroWatch, updating scan counts for people who didn't do it themselfs, posting news, etc. Either the remaining active people take over now, or we try to automate stuff a lot. For example, a script could look at the uploaded scanimages every 24 hours and note difference, updating scancounts for users automatically, determining ribbons and creating a recon map for every member. Thoughts, ideas? -- -Alka Selzer- ^{[ Talk - Map - Stuff ]}  08:53, 26 April 2009 (BST)

If you can create scripts...sign me up. I have no idea about that sort of stuff and do not have the time to manually track down each and every change to make sure things are up-to-the-minute done. On that note, I would like to suggest that we also clean up this page to make it easier to navigate. God help the poor newbie trying to get an understanding of what goes on around here. BTW, glad we resolved the other stuff about Recruitment.

Also, I am working on the new ribbon designs. If no one has any reservations, I figure we can just posto-facto approve the ribbon suggestions and clear that area out.--Dr Mycroft Chris 13:51, 26 April 2009 (BST)

No problems with that. I am a programmer and can write scripts, but I'm terrible with Artwork. I'll think about a way to get scancounts automatically. Also, i should register a second account for those Botscripts, maybe i should register A.L.I.C.E. :D -- -Alka Selzer- ^{[ Talk - Map - Stuff ]}  18:03, 26 April 2009 (BST)

I have some skill with artwork, should it be required. CITIZEN VI 05:01, 27 April 2009 (BST)

Thanks, I may hold you to that...LOL!--Dr Mycroft Chris 11:49, 28 April 2009 (BST)

Creation of "NecroWatch/Scans" or something similar?

To prevent the future deletions of "unlinked" image files for NT scans. Read the details here and let's talk about whether its worth the effort. ~ extropymine ^{Talk | NW | 4Corners} 06:54, 5 March 2009 (UTC)

I'll take it that's a no. It'd probably be a lot of work for minimal payoff, anyway. ~ extropymine ^{Talk | NW | 4Corners} 05:56, 9 March 2009 (UTC)

I'll do it, once I've done a few other things IRL... if I haven't done it in a few days, just leave a message here. Linkthewindow  Talk  05:59, 9 March 2009 (UTC)

Oh! Thanks again, Link! You're a peach. ~ extropymine ^{Talk | NW | 4Corners} 06:00, 9 March 2009 (UTC)

Boy, a guy overlooks a topic for a couple of days and everyone assume he just doesn't care. It's a shame that the category we created doesn't count towards "linking" the image, as right now each scan image was linked to Category:Necronet. Even so, I agree that we should try and keep older scans, especially in the case where they are temporarily replaced with the "static" GIF. There was a time when someone wanted to actually create trending reports with all the scan images for each location, so people could see, via graph, how many zombies were in the area over time. Of course that was a while back and the effort was killed off when another Wiki Mod stepped in and deleted the wikipage/scans... something about the images being too large. It was a while back (2006?), so I don't recall the exact details. But yes, feel free to create a wikipage to store all the scan images. We certainly appreciate the effort. --Mobius 14:17, 9 March 2009 (UTC)

I've done about a third of all the scans that must be done. It's going to be a big page. Linkthewindow  Talk  10:41, 13 March 2009 (UTC)

I know the feeling. When I created the alphabetical listing for each suburb's NT scans it just seemed to take forever... which of course wasn't that big a surprise for me since I had already gone to the trouble of revamping the wikipages for every NT building in Malton prior to starting this project. Good job so far. Let us know when the images have been safely stored. --Mobius 12:39, 13 March 2009 (UTC)

Ah, I'm sorry. This is probably my fault, since I was the one who thought it would be a brilliant idea to clear out the older scan images in favour of the scan missing image. Apologies. -- CITIZEN VI 14:13, 16 March 2009 (UTC)

I don't think it's your fault at all. Updating everything with the missing scan was a good idea, and we should probably do it more often than we do, or maybe even get a bot to do it. However, when the images ended up being linked to no pages, they inadvertently were removed. The page Link is working on will make sure that doesn't happen again. ~ extropymine ^{Talk | NW | 4Corners} 04:35, 18 March 2009 (UTC)

I haven't forgotten about this - editing and loading big pages is hard when you've been shaped. Linkthewindow  Talk  11:06, 21 March 2009 (UTC)

"Field Guide"

Hey guys. I have started poking around with a NecroWatch Field Guide in my sandpit. I'm looking for input, chiefly on whether or not it is necessary and could be useful, and if so, then what else should be included to make it better? It's a work in progress, but I guess I'm curious to know if it's something I should keep working on. Thanks! ~ extropymine ^{Talk | NW | 4Corners} 07:15, 28 February 2009 (UTC)

This is an excellent idea. If I may make a suggestion, it would be very useful to have a section on surviving and getting scans in totally destroyed suburbs. I recently had to figure out a way to make my way through a ruined wasteland filled with zombies to gain a scan from a NT facility that was utterly gutted and full of zombies. It was only because I came prepared for the task and armed with the knowledge of how to survive in ruined suburbs that not only did I get my scan but I also came away completely unscathed. -- CITIZEN VI 19:31, 28 February 2009 (UTC)

VI, I made a section for that here. Do you want to take a whack at it? If not, I'll try to get to it this coming week. ~ extropymine ^{Talk | NW | 4Corners} 08:18, 1 March 2009 (UTC)

No constructive comments from me at this time, I've been a bit busy with two competitions (one of which just wrapped up yesterday). When I have some more time I'll take a closer look. The only thing I keep thinking is maybe turning that wikicode suburb/NT map into a proper template, one that's more user-friendly. Something to think about. Anyway good job with the guide so far. After you're done we'll have to see where we can place it. Maybe a "Help" section. --Mobius 18:38, 1 March 2009 (UTC)

I made a fresh round of edits, but I'm still interested in someone more veteran than me taking a first crack at the "surviving in ruined suburbs" section. ~ extropymine ^{Talk | NW | 4Corners} 09:40, 5 March 2009 (UTC)

I would offer, but I never actually stayed in a ruined suburb. It was all sunshine and happiness for me. Hopefully though someone here has and can offer some suggestions. As for second-hand advice, I commonly hear people using strategies like hiding in ruined non-resource buildings with open doors, or even dropping a generator, repairing and barricading, and then destroying the generator to kill the light. I suppose it depends on the resources and AP of teh person. Also, I used to always keep 10 AP on me at all times, just in case I needed to exit a building. What else? Oh, always keeping 1 FAK on you at all times and using it only to heal yourself from infection. Then when you do, head to a hospital to get a new FAK to replace it. That's about it for me. --Mobius 13:33, 5 March 2009 (UTC)

Okay, take a look at this rough draft and tell me what you think. I'm still very open for input. ~ extropymine ^{Talk | NW | 4Corners} 08:37, 18 March 2009 (UTC)

For me as a new player, i like it a lot. Very helpful. I only wonder why i should carry revivication syringes, is it wise to waste 10 AP on a revive when doing a scanning tour? -- -Alka Selzer- ^{[ Talk - Map - Stuff ]}  09:55, 18 March 2009 (UTC)

Depends, I guess. I always carry at least three because I also help to reclaim NTs and drop by revive points whenever I'm in a moderate or safe suburb (since I'm not needing to spend AP looking for generators). If you're just intending to sprint from one facility to the next, I wouldn't worry about it. ~ extropymine ^{Talk | NW | 4Corners} 02:06, 19 March 2009 (UTC)

Yes, i usually help and/or revive too. But your guide seem to focus on scanning only, so I'd maybe list syringes as "optional" -- -Alka Selzer- ^{[ Talk - Map - Stuff ]}  09:37, 19 March 2009 (UTC)

Good point. I think what I'll do is point that out, and remove them from the suggested "pan and scan" inventory. I'll leave them in the "reclamation" inventory. Thanks! ~ extropymine ^{Talk | NW | 4Corners} 15:46, 19 March 2009 (UTC)

I like to carry at least 3 jabbers if I need to CRAP a zed who is standing in my way...you never know--Dr Mycroft Chris 07:55, 31 March 2009 (BST)

The Team Listing

This List - Like err, what the hell is that thing supposed to be sorted by? It seems an indecisive combination of by scan count, alphabetically and order of joining. I would think the best method is by total scans, anybody have an opinion? --  RoosterDragon  01:25, 20 February 2009 (UTC)

Saw that too. I think some order is in order. Eh, eh? :P --Met Fan ^F 01:39, 20 February 2009 (UTC)

I *think* it's by rank, then alphabetical within each rank. Though I'd have no objections to simply sorting it by # of scans. ~ extropymine ^{Talk | NW | 4Corners} 09:34, 20 February 2009 (UTC)

Yet another Scooby-Doo mystery solved. Extropymine is correct. The Member list is sorted by Rank as the primary index, and then within each of those rank sets it's sorted alphabetically. Originally the list was sorted alphabetically, but as member gained ranks I opted to keep those higher ranked members at the top of the list, as those ranks grew I sorted them alphabetically as well. --Mobius 13:40, 20 February 2009 (UTC)

Since ranks are just scans count but grouped arbitrarily, would it not be better to go straight by scans anyway? The table looks a bit odd otherwise. --  RoosterDragon  14:01, 20 February 2009 (UTC)

I agree. ~ extropymine ^{Talk | NW | 4Corners} 21:05, 21 February 2009 (UTC)

Well I'm game. Like I said, the original sort order was more a factor of how the list evolved as more members joined. Still, I cannot help but sense this request was not motived so much by the need to order the list, so much as finding a way to actually get to the top of that list, am I right? The only problem I forsee is that I have a lot of overhead tasks these days, and not every member updates the member list. Rather than see myself get roped into updating the list for these individuals I have come up with an even better solution. The member list sorts itself now. You heard me, and all at the touch of a button. High-fives for everyone! Alright... --Mobius 23:24, 21 February 2009 (UTC)

I love it! That's a good feature! ~ extropymine ^{Talk | NW | 4Corners} 03:01, 22 February 2009 (UTC)

On the subject, it might be worth "resetting" the leaderboards annually. A lot of the high-ranking people on the list don't seem to be scanning much anymore. Maybe an archival 2008 sub-page? Since part of the appeal of NW is the "contest" of getting scans (a very good way to trick people into helping the survivor community at-large), maybe having new contests every year would keep a steady flow of recruits? Alternatively, we could make some new ribbons to encourage people to keep on scanning, or maybe contests to earn a ribbon for the most scans during a given month. ~ extropymine ^{Talk | NW | 4Corners} 21:03, 21 February 2009 (UTC)

The contest is more of a ploy actually. Everybody loves to be a winner. Everybody loves cake. The winner gets cake. Bam. You're signed on for life. I do however see a point to perhaps removing some of the "low performers" who signed-up and have since done dididly-doo. I recall doing that once before. On the topic of recruiting, it's limited to whoever I spot posting scan updates, which in turn is spurred by the fact that I report scans in suburb news, which in turn advertises NecroWatch by default. Hence we reach Step 3: Profit. I do however agree... like Pokemon once you've collected them all you just don't feel as inclined to keep re-collecting them. It's boring. Rather we need new ribbons as you suggested. I was planning on creating a series of Trophy ribbons, like one called "Mob Chaser". It would be similar to Combat Recon, only instead of requiring a set number of zombies in the scan it requires you to beat the last "high score" (score = maximum numbers of zombies in a scan). The I create two versions of the ribbon, one for the title holder and one for former title holders. The idea behind this ribbon goes back to the old "Most Crowded Scan" thread. I'm also open to suggestions, so long as they are scan-themed. --Mobius 23:24, 21 February 2009 (UTC)

We're all winners, because we're here. I was thinking about things like month-long "scan drives" or something-- little mini-contests to award a ribbon for (most scans in April 2009, or most NTs visited in August 2009, etc). Assuming I'm still here in 2010 (and it seems likely), I'll be starting a new ribbon counter for myself to push myself to keep going. ~ extropymine ^{Talk | NW | 4Corners} 23:32, 21 February 2009 (UTC)

That might be interesting too. I'm just trying my best to avoid commiting myself to anything that would require me to work on a cycle-based task. Ribbons, by and large, resolve themselves as you generally know when you've earned one. Monthly contests would mean I would need to monitor a thread here, or something along those lines, and officiate a winner each month. I do still like the idea as, just maybe on a more limited scale. Maybe connected to a zombie-related event? Like who can post the most scans during Mall Tour. Then we just base the start-end time on when they say they started and ended. Another idea for a Trophy ribbon, largest number of zombies inside a mall scan. I might associate that with Mall Tour... --Mobius 23:42, 21 February 2009 (UTC)

EDIT: A further thought on "Mob Chaser", I just realized that it might be too cruel for newer members if the "bar" is set so high that no one can ever claim the trophy ribbon. As such, I've decided that the ribbon will be an annual trophy with a winner for each year, and each new year the limit is reset to 0. However, the trophy ribbon will not be handed out to its next winner until May 15th of that year. This gives people a chance to one-up each other with new maximum zombie totals, driving it up to a more reasonably high number before it's handed out. Now the option here is, if it's annual do we want there to only be one winner per year, or go with the whole "former title holder" ribbons? Meaning, several people could win the ribbon, but at the end of the year it's the last "winner" who has the formal ribbon and the others just have a lesser version.

I don't see any reason to take away a ribbon from someone who won it previously. So I'd support the idea of the "former title holder" ribbon-- of if it's going to be annual, the ribbon(s) themselves could be subtly different, with "2008" or "2009" or something built right into the ribbon? ~ extropymine ^{Talk | NW | 4Corners} 03:00, 22 February 2009 (UTC)

Actually, to clarify, each person who would win the ribbon would keep it. There wouldn't be any ribbons taken away. That would just be cruel. What I had meant, in part, was as you yourself suggested, namely that the ribbon is awarded on an annual basis and that each winner has a ribbon for that specific year (2008, 2009, 2010, ect). The ribbon would be neutral, but I would create a list showing the winner for each year, that way you can tell which years you had won the ribbon. What I had meant by "former title holders" was that I had considered giving a ribbon also to anyone who topped the current high score during the course of the year, but then didn't end up winning the ribbon because someone else reported a higher zombie count in their scan. That way you would still earn a ribbon for your efforts, even if you did not "win" for that year. It's like those participation ribbons that they hand out during track and field meets. Bottom line, all I need to do is create 2 ribbons, one for the winner and one for participants. Then I'll need to tweek the template to allow one or the other to be displayed. If that doesn't work out we can always just go with there being only the winner's trophy ribbon. --Mobius 17:44, 22 February 2009 (UTC)

So basically, a ribbon for "record-breaking scan" (which anyone can win and keep by breaking the current record, and can be won by several people over the course of the year as the "record" goes up and up), and then "most crowded scan 2009" (which is awarded at the end of the year to whoever is the leader at that moment). Sounds good! ~ extropymine ^{Talk | NW | 4Corners} 04:38, 23 February 2009 (UTC)

Now I just need to design it, set the rules, and update the ribbon-displayer template wikicode. I'll probably get a better chance to do that this coming weekend, as this week I'm still overseeing the Hang 'Em High competition for the Dulston Alliance (it has nothing to do with NecroWatch). That competition ends on Saturday. So I might have time on Sunday after I hand out the trophies. --Mobius 13:21, 23 February 2009 (UTC)

Is the left-alignment necessary for the sorting feature? I notice that the list has changed from center to left alignment, and that the date of this change coincides with the implementation of the sorting function. Also, is there a way to insert a time stamp without having to type the four tildes? VI 00:48, 6 March 2009 (UTC)

Actually I compared the BEFORE and AFTER, but I do not see any alignment changes. The first 4 columns were left aligned and the last two are centered. Of course if you would prefer one of the left-aligned columns be centered, let me know and I'll take it into consideration. In truth, except for maybe Rank, I'm flexible as to whether a column is centered or not. Of course I prefer Research Area and Total Scans stay centered, as in the first case it works best for the Master Recon ribbon, and also for the scan totals.

In answer to your second question, you can sign a post with one fewer "~", but then you lose the timestamp portion. But you probably knew that already. In truth I tried to code the four tildes into the template, but the bloody thing just kept inserting my signature. There seemed to be no way to preserve the wikicode and still get it to activate. If I were the hazard a guess... maybe it could be done if we could determine a way to assign the four tildes to a variable, or parse the value into the signature field, but only at the moment after the template is used. It's been a while since I last experimented with it, but I'll take another look. Anything to make your jobs easier. :) --Mobius 13:08, 6 March 2009 (UTC)

Are you using Firefox? Check out this screenshot:

http://img15.imageshack.us/img15/6086/stuff.png

See what I mean? VI 03:04, 8 March 2009 (UTC)

Actually I'm using IE. For some reason I thought you were talking about the text inside the table being left-aligned... so I kept comparing the two images. Then it dawned on me that you meant the entire "table" was left-aligned. Okay. That doesn't happen for me, but let me try this. I placed center tags around the table. That should center it... in theory. Let me know if that doesn't fix the issue. As a note, should you ever spot anything else that looks strange let me know, as there might be other "works only for IE" issues that I am unaware of. --Mobius 03:49, 8 March 2009 (UTC)

Looks centered in Safari. --  AHLGTG THE END IS NIGH! 22:49, 8 March 2009 (UTC)

It's fixed. Thanks. VI 02:16, 31 March 2009 (BST)

A Customizable NT Map?

Mobius, I know you're quite skilled at Wiki, so I'll direct this question to you-- how hard would it be to make a customizable version of the NT Status Map for NW users to copy onto their userpages to track our scans? Instead of using colors for suburb danger and NT status, it could use suburb colors to signify whether or not we've "finished" a suburb (grey for no NTs in suburb, red for no NTs in suburb scanned, yellow for partially complete, green for all NTs scanned), or dot colors to show if we've ever scanned at an NT (red for not scanned, green for scanned). Each NW user would need a different map based on the same template. Just wondering. Thanks! ~ extropymine ^{Talk | NW | 4Corners} 07:37, 16 February 2009 (UTC)

The NT Status Map is comprised of several templates, which if you wanted to replicate would require you to re-create them, potentially as sub-pages of your own userpage (and just including your userpage prior to the template name). The key difference being that you would not want to link to the NT's status, as dictated by its danger report. Here is a list of the template wikicode you would need to copy:

1. Template:StatusMap_NT - This is the primary template where all subsequent templates are linked.
2. Template:StatusMap_SuburbDanger - The suburb danger report (colour coded chart) and is a sub-template in the StatusMap_NT template.
3. Template:StatusMap_SuburbLinks - This is where each of the suburb wikipage links are organized and is a sub-template in the StatusMap_NT template.
4. Template:StatusMap_Formatter - This is the wikicode that displays each NT location's Danger Report-based "status" and is a sub-template (code) in the StatusMap_NT template.
5. Template:StatusMap_Legend - An index of all the possible NT statuses. You won't need this, but feel free to replace it with one of your own design.

Now to create the map you want this is what you are going to have to do.

Step 1 - Copy the wikicode for templates 2 and 3 onto new sub-wikipages created under your userpage, with each subwikipage named after the associated template (i.e. User:Extropymine/StatusMap_SuburbDanger).

Step 2 - Copy the wikicode for template 1 onto a new sub-wikipage created under your userpage, but you are free to name it whatever you want (DO NOT save it yet).

Step 3 - By using the template code for the StatusMap_Formatter template, hardcode it into your new StatusMap_NT template (or whatever you decided to call it). This process will be lengthy as you will need to replace the wikicode for every NT building. Unlike the original StatusMap_Formatter template you will need to make some adjustments as we will not be linking to the Danger Report after all. Here is a sample of the wikicode that you should insert:

BEFORE:

<div style="position:absolute; left:777px; top:1px">

{|{{User:DangerReport/The Trood Building|template=StatusMap Formatter}}|

|}</div>

AFTER:

<div style="position:absolute; left:777px; top:1px">

{|title="the Trood Building" style="width:7px; height:7px; background:red"

|}</div>

Step 4 - Scroll to the bottom of the code for template 1 and remove the following:

<center>

{{Z|large|'''For further information, see the [[Necrotech Information Center]]'''}}<br>

[[Image:Necrotech logo.png]]

{{StatusMap Legend}}

</center>

As you can guess the background: value mentioned in Step 3 is where you will set the NT's colour, red or green, depending on whether or not you have scanned the location yet. As noted, to adjust the original wikicode for template 1 to use this new hardcoded method will take some time for you to complete. Obviously as you progress with your scans you will need to edit the template to account for each NT building you have scanned from, but that's to be expected. And there you have it. --Mobius 17:19, 16 February 2009 (UTC)

A simpler solution might be to use a list and basic key style map like I used on The Culture Tour 2008. Individual NTs can be checked from the list as and when they are completed and the map can be used as an easy identifier of completed/semi completed/unstarted suburbs. I used grey (ghost town) to indicate suburbs without locations, green (safe) for completed, yellow/orange (dangerous) for semi completed suburbs and red (very dangerous) for unstarted suburbs. This meant I could use existing templates to save myself the confusion and hassle of coding my own, something that I think could put people off. I'd be happy to code up this simpler version if people would like it, I had started on the idea for my Necrotechnician before he idled. -- . . <== DDR Approved Editor 17:28, 16 February 2009 (UTC)

Could you not use this map? --Rosslessness^{Want a Location Image?} 17:34, 16 February 2009 (UTC)

Now that map is easier to manage. You could then use 4 colours (red=no scans, yellow=some scanned, green=all scanned, grey=no NTs) for each suburb. As for the # / # in each suburb, that could denote how many of the NTs in the suburb you have scanned to date. While not as specific as the NT Status Map idea, it at least would give you an overhead view and not be as large a wikicode monster. From there you could always keep a journal of the specifics associated with this map. --Mobius 17:51, 16 February 2009 (UTC)

That's the map version people have been using since...forever really. You don't need to mess about adapting the NT Status Map. Check out Morgan Blair's awesome page which has entries for each building, and also that style of map at the bottom. It has a few more entries than it needs (only 213 NTs after all) but you get the idea. --  RoosterDragon  19:13, 16 February 2009 (UTC)

Thanks for the ideas, everyone. I think for now I'll use Ross' map, but it might be a neat long-term project to do it the hard way. It may well require better Wiki skillz than I possess. Thanks! ~ extropymine ^{Talk | NW | 4Corners} 20:11, 16 February 2009 (UTC)

I cleaned it up and blanked it out, and posted it below. It's all formatted and just needs the danger levels and x/x's changed to be useful for anyone in NW. If we want it somewhere else, go ahead and move it. ~ extropymine ^{Talk | NW | 4Corners} 02:20, 18 February 2009 (UTC)

Might be worth marking it a template, with express instructions to subst whenever used. Anyone agree with that? --  RoosterDragon  18:28, 18 February 2009 (UTC)

That sounds like a good idea. I'll play with it to try to include a "key" to help people use/understand it, if we want. ~ extropymine ^{Talk | NW | 4Corners} 16:05, 19 February 2009 (UTC)

Okay, I screwed up the key, as anyone can see below. My wiki-fu is still weak. I was trying to put the key inside the dark box, in its' own lighter box, centered. I have somehow managed to *not* do that. I'm almost positive there's a simple fix, but I just don't know what it is. If someone knows how to fix it, that would be great. Otherwise, I'll drop the key tomorrow and we'll move forward from there. Sorry. ~ extropymine ^{Talk | NW | 4Corners} 16:28, 19 February 2009 (UTC)

Kicked into shape. --  RoosterDragon  18:15, 19 February 2009 (UTC)

Thank you so much, Rooster! ~ extropymine ^{Talk | NW | 4Corners} 18:45, 19 February 2009 (UTC)

If someone is interested, i made a Template from the map below. Just pass username, gender, and subburbs with number of scans to the template. Maybe this is useful. See Link for examples. --Alka Selzer 20:26, 12 March 2009 (UTC)

Good job. If anyone needs one then they can borrow your template. :) --Mobius 12:40, 13 March 2009 (UTC)

That's great! When you're comfortable with it, we should move it off your sandpit and into template history! ~ extropymine ^{Talk | NW | 4Corners} 07:11, 19 March 2009 (UTC)

Okay, i cleaned the template up (removed linebreaks to keep table height), put the header in a table too and added an align= parameter so users can decide if they like the map left, right or center on their page. I moved it to User:Alka_Selzer/Templates/Necroreconmap. I think it is ready. -- -Alka Selzer- ^{[ Talk - Map - Stuff ]}  09:10, 19 March 2009 (UTC)

Looks good to me. How does everyone else feel? I think it should be moved to the main Template: namespace so everyone can use it and it can get easily categorized. I'd suggest calling it Template:NecroWatchMap or something, to easily distinguish it from the NT Status Map. ~ extropymine ^{Talk | NW | 4Corners} 05:18, 20 March 2009 (UTC)

Minor edit: Noticed that the Header table background is the default white, so i changed it to a color more in tune with the rest of the map. -- -Alka Selzer- ^{[ Talk - Map - Stuff ]}  09:16, 20 March 2009 (UTC)

Almost forgot this one: it is now here: Template:NW_Recon_Map. -- -Alka Selzer- ^{[ Talk - Map - Stuff ]}  15:33, 2 April 2009 (BST)

2009 NecroWatch Recon Map

A.L.I.C.E. has thoughtfully assembled this map to track the progress of licensed NecroTechnician NAME's progress as HE/SHE reports NecroNet scans from the many NecroTech facilities spread across the city of Malton.

Dakerstown 0/1	Jensentown 0/2	Quarlesbank 0/4	West Boundwood None	East Boundwood 0/1	Lamport Hills 0/1	Chancelwood 0/2	Earletown 0/1	Rhodenbank 0/4	Dulston 0/4
Roywood 0/4	Judgewood 0/3	Gatcombeton None	Shuttlebank 0/3	Yagoton 0/3	Millen Hills 0/5	Raines Hills 0/5	Pashenton 0/2	Rolt Heights None	Pescodside 0/3
Peddlesden Village 0/1	Chudleyton 0/2	Darvall Heights 0/2	Eastonwood 0/6	Brooke Hills 0/2	Shearbank 0/4	Huntley Heights 0/2	Santlerville 0/2	Gibsonton 0/3	Dunningwood 0/3
Dunell Hills 0/1	West Becktown 0/3	East Becktown 0/4	Richmond Hills 0/2	Ketchelbank 0/3	Roachtown 0/2	Randallbank 0/1	Heytown 0/1	Spracklingbank 0/1	Paynterton 0/5
Owsleybank 0/2	Molebank 0/6	Lukinswood 0/1	Havercroft None	Barrville 0/4	Ridleybank 0/1	Pimbank 0/2	Peppardville 0/2	Pitneybank 0/2	Starlingtown 0/2
Grigg Heights 0/1	Reganbank None	Lerwill Heights None	Shore Hills 0/3	Galbraith Hills None	Stanbury Village 0/2	Roftwood 0/2	Edgecombe 0/3	Pegton 0/1	Dentonside None
Crooketon None	Mornington None	North Blythville 0/1	Brooksville 0/3	Mockridge Heights None	Shackleville 0/1	Tollyton 0/1	Crowbank 0/4	Vinetown None	Houldenbank 0/4
Nixbank 0/3	Wykewood None	South Blythville 0/4	Greentown None	Tapton 0/1	Kempsterbank 0/2	Wray Heights 0/3	Gulsonside 0/3	Osmondville 0/1	Penny Heights 0/2
Foulkes Village 0/1	Ruddlebank 0/4	Lockettside 0/1	Dartside 0/2	Kinch Heights 0/3	West Grayside 0/2	East Grayside 0/1	Scarletwood 0/3	Pennville None	Fryerbank 0/3
New Arkham 0/4	Old Arkham 0/1	Spicer Hills 0/1	Williamsville 0/3	Buttonville 0/4	Wyke Hills 0/4	Hollomstown 0/2	Danversbank 0/1	Whittenside 0/3	Miltown 0/3
Key for NecroWatch scan progress map is as follows. No NTs in Suburb All Scans Complete Partially Complete No Scans Complete

NecroWatch Scan age map

As I'm targeting on NT Buildings with outdated scans, i used my leet Scripting skills™ and created a set of scripts using shellscript and perl. These scripts are fetching the scan image pages, parsing the last scandate, and calculates average scanimage age for all suburbs. It tags suburbs with average scan age up to 14 days as recent, average scan age up to 45 days is old, everything else is outdated. Combined with a variation of my NecroWatch scan map, it can create a "Scan age map", see here for an example with recent data. Would that be of use for the NecroWatch pages? -- -Alka Selzer- ^{[ Talk - Map - Stuff ]}  13:02, 26 March 2009 (UTC)

Admittedly, I'd find it useful, although not so much for my way of handling things. I've been tending to make swings into other NT buildings to grab scans, then try and grab as many as my route will allow before returning to relatively familiar surroundings. Keep it up, though, since it will help me remember which ones in my area I haven't managed to grab lately. --BLusk 13:30, 26 March 2009 (UTC)

It's definitely a good idea that I'm sure will be useful, but the main hurdle here is that in your example you're using the Suburb Danger Map template as your base and unfortunately it covers each suburb with only a single colour-code. The problem with that is if you have NTs in the same suburb with different scan ages then you would have trouble determining which colour to assign it. The better option here would be to adapt the NT Status Map for your project, as it allocates the colour-code to the status of each NT building, not the whole suburb. I hope that helps. --Mobius 12:05, 27 March 2009 (UTC)

So far the script is assigning colors on average scan age of the whole suburb (using 90 days age for missing scans), but I'll take a look at the NT Status Map, looks interesting.-- -Alka Selzer- ^{[ Talk - Map - Stuff ]}  12:48, 27 March 2009 (UTC)

Oh yes yes YES! This is brilliant! This is perfect! Thank you! I've a few questions: how often does this script update? Is it automated? How long will it last? Where is it hosted? VI 04:19, 28 March 2009 (UTC)

So far it does not update automatically, my "testing" version updates User:Alka_Selzer/Necrowatch#Scan_Age_Map daily at the moment. It runs on my local Linux server, but could be installed on any machine running perl with the CMS::MediaWiki extension. -- -Alka Selzer- ^{[ Talk - Map - Stuff ]}  10:16, 28 March 2009 (UTC)

I love it! My only suggestion would be to include a fourth color, orange. Make green 7 days (truthfully, scans are outdated even after just a few days), yellow for 21 days, orange for 45, red for 46+. Great work! ~ extropymine ^{Talk | NW | 4Corners} 04:35, 28 March 2009 (UTC)

As Mobius said, I'll first take a look at a NT Status Map like variation, but more colors never hurt :) -- -Alka Selzer- ^{[ Talk - Map - Stuff ]}  10:16, 28 March 2009 (UTC)

New Scan Map. This is based on the NT Status Map, but the suburbs are colored by combined average scan age, the buildings last scan on mouseover. I also used Extropymine's time suggestion - up to 7 days = Green, up to 21 days yellow, up to 45 days orange, else red. -- -Alka Selzer- ^{[ Talk - Map - Stuff ]}  13:39, 28 March 2009 (UTC)

Notice: The 2nd map on the page is auto-updated every 3 hours by script (i.e. User:Alka_Selzer/Sandbox1#Test:_Scan_Age_Map_update). It only updates if there is a change, so technically it may not update every time. But with >80 NT Buildings and players from all timezones, probably one scan will age by 1 day every 3 hours so it should update every 3 hours. This update will work until my local server dies or my account on the wiki is gone. -- -Alka Selzer- ^{[ Talk - Map - Stuff ]}  23:04, 28 March 2009 (UTC)

Brilliant. Mobius, what say we integrate this into the NW page somehow? Alka Selzer: would you mind making the map into a wiki template so it can be inserted easily into other pages? Thanks. -- CITIZEN VI 02:12, 31 March 2009 (BST)

I'd say I copy the Template to a NecroWatch Subpage along with Documentation and Perl/Shellscript sourcecodes. It may be useful to create a new wiki user for the external updates. After that, anyone could insert the map with a {{NecroWatch/Somesthing}} tag on any page just like the NT Status Map and can setup external updating if for some reason I stop doing it. At the moment, documentation is lacking a bit (documentation? what documentation?); I'll see to that. -- -Alka Selzer- ^{[ Talk - Map - Stuff ]}  07:20, 31 March 2009 (BST)

Ok... i have created a Template Template:NW Scan Status and a page NecroWatch/ScanStatus. I'll update the scripts to modify the NecroWatch/ScanStatus page every 3 hours. So you can include the map everywhere using {{:NecroWatch/ScanStatus}}. -- -Alka Selzer- ^{[ Talk - Map - Stuff ]}  09:59, 1 April 2009 (BST)

So, Mobius, what do you think? Will you put this on the main page or somewhere? VI 03:28, 4 April 2009 (BST)

I added it under Resources, below the other recon map. I'm not sure if Alka Selzer wanted it there or not however. This strikes me as falling under Resources. But I do agree, it needs to be posted, and maybe it should have its own wikipage. Let's debate it. :) --Mobius 15:19, 6 April 2009 (BST)

I think it belongs to Resources. Anyone who is interested in updating "red" suburbs can put a copy on his user page (like I did). -- -Alka Selzer- ^{[ Talk - Map - Stuff ]}  18:03, 6 April 2009 (BST)

Actually I think it would be better placed on the main page, like this, but of course a little more fancied up. It is, after all, a visual representation of the combined efforts of the entire NecroWatch, and as it stands now the main page is not particularly useful. -- CITIZEN VI 20:56, 6 April 2009 (BST)

Looks nice too. How about adding the timestamp of the last update and a legend, like this? I'll need to change the scripts and templates a bit, but that wouldn't be too much work. -- -Alka Selzer- ^{[ Talk - Map - Stuff ]}  11:45, 7 April 2009 (BST)

Hmmmm. I agree it is important. This however does touch on two topics, the first being that I had hoped not to create a situation where the main wikipage would need to be scrolled. It was more of a welcome page. However that does not mean I would not be willing to change its layout for the NT scan map. The second topic, as this would involve changes to the layout, has to do with the overall "style" of the NecroWatch wikipages, as discussed here. --Mobius 15:18, 7 April 2009 (BST)

Yes, I agree about the scrolling thing. It would be excellent if there were some way to work around that. Mm, nothing springs to mind at the moment. VI 00:52, 8 April 2009 (BST)

Report NecroNet Scans

Do you have a NecroNet scan you're dying to share with NecroWatch? Too lazy/evil to update the it yourself? We understand, and in some cases, our sub-goal is to discourage people from thinking this job is easy so all our NecroTechnicians are treated almost like gods for performing actions that, without all the smoke and mirrors, are fairly straightforward. But rather than lose precious scan information we're stepping up to do the job for you. Just post a link to the iWitness report or image/screenshot with the scan. Be sure to date it, or else your timestamp will be considered the date/time the scan was taken. In the case of iWitness reports we use the provided MT (Malton Time). You will of course be given credit for any and all scans you post here. How awesome is that? No, don't think about it! Just believe us. Excellent.

Dr. Asoka Wu's Scans

6/26/08 Pursey Building, Lockettside (27, 84) Pursey Building

Asoka Wu

6/26/08 Brockliss Building, Spicer Hills (25, 90) Brockliss Building

Asoka Wu

6/24/08 Button Building, Old Arkham (19, 97) Button Building

Asoka Wu

6/23/08 Mitchener Building, New Arkham (1,95) Mitchener Building

Asoka Wu

6/17/08 Wreford Building, New Arkham (5, 98) Wreford Building

Asoka Wu

6/15/08 Harford Building, New Arkham (8,99). Harford Building

Asoka Wu

6/13/08 Denty Building, New Arkham (7, 99). Denty Building

Asoka Wu

Iscariot's Scans

If you are searching for Iscariot's older NecroNet reports, you can find them here.

The Henley Building http://iwrecords.urbandead.info/02-23-08_2100hrs_PUBLIC/IN_8-88_Henley_8c8-dae-a14.html

-- Iscariot 22:07, 23 February 2008 (UTC)

Uploaded. --Mobius187 13:18, 25 February 2008 (UTC)

The Blackmore Building http://iwrecords.urbandead.info/04-30-08_1800hrs_PUBLIC/IN_55-47_Blackmore_1e6-e63-7b9.html

-- . . <== DDR Approved Editor 18:19, 30 April 2008 (BST)

N00bert Scans

If you are searching for N00bert's older NecroNet reports, you can find them here.

In all seriousness!! SilwoodBuildingNT in Wray Heights.--N00bert ^F 21:35, 13 February 2008 (UTC)

FramBuildingNT Wray Heights

DarnellBuildingNT Wray Heights

TelferBuildingNT Ketchelbank

Good night.. --N00bert ^F 05:00, 14 February 2008 (UTC)

Updated all scans. Keep up the good work. :) --Mobius187 13:08, 14 February 2008 (UTC)

InmanBuildingNT Pescodside --N00bert ^F 04:59, 3 April 2008 (BST)

GracewoodBuildingNT Paynerton--N00bert ^foxhound 00:06, 7 April 2008 (BST)

You boys still doing this NW thing? If so; MorrishBuildingNT Pitneybank --N00bert ^foxhound 16:08, 7 April 2008 (BST)

CannerBuildingNT Gibsonton

DucatBuildingNT Gibsonton

HallBuildingNT Santlerville

TroodBuildingNT Dulston

There's my contribution. :) --N00bert ^foxhound 21:05, 20 February 2009 (UTC)

theshinysword's scans

If you are searching for theshinysword's older NecroNet reports, you can find them here.

Sexualharrison's Scans

If you are searching for Sexualharrison's older NecroNet reports, you can find them here.

Nisbet building----Sexualharrison 19:25, 14 March 2008 (UTC)
whippy building----Sexualharrison 12:52, 15 March 2008 (UTC)

Done and done. But not exactly in that order. --Mobius 03:47, 16 March 2008 (UTC)

ZS Revitech Scans

If you are looking for ZS Revitech's older NecroNet scan reports, you can find them here.

Ghita's Scans

If you are searching for Ghita's older NecroNet reports, you can find them here.

Mr NoName Scans

If you are looking for Mr NoName's older NecroNet scan reports, you can find them here.

Lufio's Scans

If you are looking for Lufio's older NecroNet scan reports, you can find them here.

February 23, 2008 - After today, I'm going back to uploading my own stuff. This will be the last Iwitness links I'll be putting up here for a while. Heh, I can't believe those zombie guards in the McCullock Building are just now finally getting around to damaging the Portable Generator I set up days ago.

• Miltown - successful NecroNet scan at Fliney NT and at McCullock NT

Anyways, with Miltown done, Fryerbank is now the last suburb on my list. Once I have those 3 NT Buildings, I will have taken a scan from all the NT Buildings in the SE sector of Malton. That SE ribbon will be mine! --The Masked Lurker 00:36, 24 February 2008 (UTC)

Many zombies lack the same work ethic common to members of NecroWatch. They're all like, "I'll destroy that generator... later... after my lunch break!". Unionization destroyed many a zombie's will to destroy things now. It's sad really. Oh, and I uploaded those scans and good luck with the SE Master Recon ribbon. --Mobius187 13:29, 25 February 2008 (UTC)

Wan Yao's scans

A scan from the The Copeland Building in West Grayside. Too lazy to crop a photo tonight :) --WanYao 06:36, 6 April 2008 (BST)

Moar skanz I'm too lazy to crop ;) The Delay Building in Nixbank. And the Selway Building in Ruddlebank. --WanYao 23:22, 9 April 2008 (BST)

Nitro378's scans

Here you go. Fliney Building. For some reason it took like 3 days for someone to put up a genny. [1] --Nitro378 ^{T JNL} 11:47, 22 June 2008 (BST)

[2] Here's A report from The Hosken building. It came out a little weird with the UD toolbar on.... --Nitro378 ^{T JNL} 16:36, 26 June 2008 (BST)

SPC MadDog's Scans

Millen Hills: 1.) http://iwrecords.urbandead.info/02-17-09_1500hrs_PUBLIC/IN_54-19_Millen_Hills_1_0af-650-373.html

2.) http://iwrecords.urbandead.info/02-17-09_1500hrs_PUBLIC/IN_55-17_Millen_Hills_2_cab-23b-35c.html

3.) http://iwrecords.urbandead.info/02-17-09_1500hrs_PUBLIC/IN_55-13_Millen_Hills_3_7f5-5ec-933.html

4.) http://iwrecords.urbandead.info/02-17-09_1600hrs_PUBLIC/IN_59-10_Millen_Hills_4_e2f-0fc-98b.html

Ack! I've seen this happen before. You're using FireFox, am I correct? The last time this occurred a FireFox tool was conflicting with the browser. I believe Kikashie might have a solution, or at least I always assume that. You see it's almost like I'm Felix and Kikashie is my magic bag... of solutions. --Mobius 18:40, 17 February 2009 (UTC)

Well thats not good.

5.) http://iwrecords.urbandead.info/02-17-09_1700hrs_PUBLIC/IN_56-15_Millen_Hills_5_aaa-ed0-5fc.html

I also updated the Building Status, Necrowatch on their individual pages. Check if you like. What do we need to do to fix it? --ChuckWade87 19:05, 17 February 2009 (UTC)

I was thinking, I could post the images like I do with the Necronet Reports on the NT facility pages, What Do you think? I'm pretty sure someone else has done the same. --ChuckWade87 19:12, 17 February 2009 (UTC)

Actually you don't need to worry about posting the reports here, if you are already updating the scans for the individual NT buildings. This was more for users who wanted to report NT scans, but didn't have the time to post the scan image themselves. I would do it for them. Although these days I'm happier to work with users who know how to do that as it saves me a lot of time. --Mobius 21:32, 17 February 2009 (UTC)

*salutes* ~ extropymine ^{Talk | NW | 4Corners} 07:13, 18 February 2009 (UTC)

BlackReaper's Scans

Sheppard: http://iwrecords.urbandead.info/04-06-09_0200hrs_PRIVATE/IN_48-7_Sheppard_Buildi_eb7-dfe-a7a.html -- T^HEL^ORDG^UNS^LINGER 02:47, 6 April 2009 (BST)

Archive

Bored? Or maybe you just want to help clean-up the NecroWatch Talk wikipage. Either way, if a post thread is more than 6 months old then it deserves to be moved to the Archive. Feel free to do so yourself. It's a free world after all, and if there is one thing I support, that's freedom.