Civ4 documentation wiki

rkyte

Chieftain
Joined
Apr 18, 2004
Messages
72
Location
Chicago, IL
There has been some interest in having a wiki for documenting the XML, python, etc., but so far nobody has put one up. So.... :mischief:

http://www.civ4wiki.com/wiki/index.php/Main_Page

If there's enough interest to get this rolling, this could turn in to a really good resource for understanding/documenting the game files.

Adding a new article to a wiki is easy, simply append the article name to the wiki URL and it will take you to a blank article where you can begin editing. For example, the Main_Page article uses this URL:
  • hxxp://www.civ4wiki.com/wiki/index.php/Main_Page
So if you wanted to start a new article on some random topic you would go to:
  • hxxp://www.civ4wiki.com/wiki/index.php/SomeRandomTopic
You can begin editing from there.

Each article has 4 tabs along the top of the page.
  • article
  • discussion
  • edit
  • history

The article tab lets you read the latest version of the article. The discussion tab is where people can talk about article content and modification. Edit is where you go to update the page. History contains a list of every article revision ever made, and you can do version comparisons. If the article hasn't been created then history will be missing.

Editing can be tricky if you don't know the markup that mediawiki uses to display the page. The page can simply be text, but if you want to add headers and a table of contents you'll have to read up on page markup: http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Help:Editing

If you've never seen a wiki in action before, head on over to wikipedia.org

Edit: The new domain is up and running. Make sure to update your bookmarks.
 
snepp said:
Curious, but why am I able to go in there and modify/delete anything that's there?
Because that's how wikis work. Anyone can contribute/modify/update. You can't really delete anything because all old versions of an article are kept in the history. If you do something silly (like replace an article with your life story) anyone can revert it to the last "good" version. And then an administrator can ban you IP address. ;)

Articles on wikis tend to evolve, not get overwritten, so that's why there is a discussion page attached to each one.
 
rkyte said:
Because that's how wikis work. Anyone can contribute/modify/update. You can't really delete anything because all old versions of an article are kept in the history.

Yeah, I realized this after I posted. :)
 
Holy crap, I thought of the EXACT same idea! I never thought it would kick off though. And I don't have any webspace of my own.

But my idea was basically, an online civilopedia. You would have the basics, and each page would be cross-referenced well.
At the end of each page was the wiki part: the commentary and discussions on how to use each unit/tech.

I have a lot of experience with MetaWiki and modding it, so maybe I can help about.
 
And I have very little experience with admining/modding wikis, so any help/suggestions would be greatly appreciated. :lol:

A civlopedia wiki isn't a bad idea.
 
vbraun said:
Now if someone were willing to buy webspace and a domain name, www.civ4wiki.com could become a reality! It could be the center for all Civ4 knowledge!

That would be pretty cool. :)
Oddly enough I scoped that out a few days ago. That's why I chose the name. :lol:

I just wanted to see how many people were receptive to the idea before taking the plunge.
 
rkyte said:
Oddly enough I scoped that out a few days ago. That's why I chose the name. :lol:

I just wanted to see how many people were receptive to the idea before taking the plunge.
That would be a truely great idea. Maybe to help pay for it you could throw in some google ads?

This would make such a great community resource. :)
 
Hm, I whipped up something really really rough and qiuck for archers.

The template really needs work. I just did a rough draft tongith. I'll fix it up tomorrow after some sleep.

The main body page would detail uses and tips for using the archers. That's the wiki part.

I noticed that you don't have an Image Upload section for people to upload straight to the Wiki. This part is essential! Why don't you have one yet?
 
If we can get a template layed out for this I can probably write a script that will pull a lot of the information straight from the xml files.

Sorry about the image upload thing. I disabled any kind of media because I was only thinking about file documentation. I'll try to get that resolved after work tomorrow.

Actually, I already registered civ4wiki.com, so the name servers should have updated by then. I'll have to reconfigure the wiki software anyway. Take a look at http://civ4wiki.kyteland.com/index.php/Main_Page to see why. The paths are messed up because cPanel is using the civ4wiki folder for the subdomain.

/off to bed.
 
I have just added my first wiki text :) UnitMeshGroups

I think this is an absolute must have, the forums are just simply too messy, I can see myself constantly referring to this wiki in the future.

Let's get push this further, make it more useful, so that other people will be encouraged to add their knowledge on XML and Python.

I am currently learning the nearly impossible to understand Formations xml file, so once I have worked that one out, I will upload what I have learned.
 
This is a superb idea. I will contribute what I know of xml so far and we should addin Dales guide to the wbs file too.

EDIT: Should I add a section called other_files where we can document the wbs file structure?
 
hey, i just added a short part to unitinfo part. As this is my first wiki experience i'd like to know if it is ok that way... formating and so on
 
I'm also adding bits to the unit info at the moment...

Seems like this is the one that most people know about :p

EDIT: Added a fairly large bit about the XML format. Would appreciate it if somebody could go over it for me making sure I haven't got anything wrong. http://www.kyteland.com/civ4wiki/index.php/XML_basic_format

EDIT 2: Hmmm, seeing as this idea looks to be going ahead, and chance we could have a sticky from a mod?

Also - will the URL change to www.civ4wiki.com?
 
Hmm, just out of interest - is this page going to inclue all things Civ4, or just modding things?

I can see it getting rather large if it gets to all things Civ4, which, although would be awsome for the community, might get a bit expensive for you! I can see that some people have already added stuff about units, and unit abilities. I've kinda changed the front page to reflect this :mischief:

Google ads are definately a good idea!
 
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