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[ral]

I've been messing with rewriting the page for Fortress Mode on the wiki so that it looks more like the current page for Adventure Mode and I could use some opinions. (I asked about this on the wiki forum a while back but I guess not that many people are into reading that forum so I never got any answers.)

Basically I feel like we need a sort of root table of contents that mostly just points into other articles on the wiki and provides some UI documentation (keys, etc). The idea is to basically make one page that's sort of structured the way an actual printed user manual might be, but with links into other articles replacing most of the actual information.

Here is what I have now:

http://df.magmawiki.com/index.php/DF2010:Dwarf_fortress_mode

Basically I tried to create an outline of everything in a fortress mode game, then I started collecting links to the various pages that already describe those things. The idea is that after you've gotten through a tutorial this is the next more self-directed place to go to find out what sort of things you can do in the game, a brief description of how to do them, and where to go to get more information. It's designed to bridge the gap between a tutorial and the full documentation spread all over the wiki.

[darkflagrance]

Even what you have now looks very practical to me as that reference index you talk about. I'm sure many beginners will appreciate having a single reference page that can be navigated with ctrl+f and suggests/gateways to other potentially interesting topics, even if they do not verbally or otherwise express their gratitude.

[Reelyanoob]

The only thing I'd suggest is to make the contents a right-aligned side bar, just to speed up ppl who want to skip the intro and find the links. It would also reduce the amount of white space, and make the text near the bottom quicker to access

[ral]

darkflagrance: I wouldn't expect everyone to say something but I can at least get some idea. Perhaps for every one person who thinks it looks like a good idea, there are another 10 or 100 who think the same thing but just didn't see or respond to this thread....

The only thing I'd suggest is to make the contents a right-aligned side bar, just to speed up ppl who want to skip the intro and find the links. It would also reduce the amount of white space, and make the text near the bottom quicker to access

That's a great idea. It hadn't occurred to me that I could do that but then I realized that there's this __TOC__ thing and I can use HTML/CSS. So I used this:

<div style="float:right; margin:1.5em">__TOC__</div>

Let me know if there's some better way.

[Trickysticks]

Mmm, it being on the right seems just so out of the way. I have to practically strain my eyes to see it . Maybe you should leave it in the normal position.

[forsaken1111]

Mmm, it being on the right seems just so out of the way. I have to practically strain my eyes to see it . Maybe you should leave it in the normal position.

You have to strain your eyes to look at the right side of the screen? 

[Trickysticks]

Mmm, it being on the right seems just so out of the way. I have to practically strain my eyes to see it . Maybe you should leave it in the normal position.

You have to strain your eyes to look at the right side of the screen? 

Wide screen is wide ;P.

[ral]

I think I might actually like it better on the left, but since it's a wiki, I can just let editors fight over it after I'm done....

[wuphonsreach]

As a practical note, there are still a lot of 1024px wide screens out there, so any webpage that is designed to be a fixed width should plan on 900-1000px wide view areas.  (The rule of thumb used to be to plan for 800px wide screens, but there's not many of those left.)

I still prefer designs where the page looks okay at anything from 750 up to 1250 px wide.  But that can be tricky.

(The current layout looks fine in terms of width.)

[JmzLost]

This looks good, very helpful for new players.  Keep up the good work.

JMZ

[ral]

Thanks. Ok, it is basically done at this point. I'm just looking for spelling errors and other minor stuff and then I'll copy it into place.

[krenshala]

I really like the page, and while I've been playing since 31.11 I'll probably still find it useful.

I think you can shorten the intro some, and a link over to Adventure mode sooner (more convenient for folks that find they are on the wrong page) if you move some of the final paragraph into the first one.  I was thinking you could probably drop the third paragraph entirely, and change the first to read something like:

Fortress mode is a popular mode of gameplay in Dwarf Fortress and what most people are thinking of when they talk about the game.  Unlike Adventure mode, in which the player controls a single adventurer (character) who travels around, takes on quests, fights, dies, visits your abandoned forts, etc, in a turn-based (rather than real-time) manner, Fortress mode provides a sort of real-time strategy sandbox where your simulated dwarves dig out and build a settlement for themselves, mine ore, craft items, trade with caravans, produce food, eat, sleep, drink massive amounts of alcohol, socialize, throw tantrums, get married, have children, and occasionally fight off invaders using a combination of military units, fortifications, and devious traps. Rather than control individual dwarves, you design everything and your dwarves go about implementing your designs on their own.

(Used underline to simulate the link.)

Regardless of whether you include my changes, very nice work.

[ral]

Regardless of whether you include my changes, very nice work.

thanks! I've moved the content into the real location:

http://df.magmawiki.com/index.php/DF2010:Dwarf_fortress_mode

Feel free to make your proposed changes yourself. They sound good to me. The "intro" stuff is a bit of a mess because I put it together partly from what was already there.