Board Thread:Suggestions on Baldur's Gate Wiki/@comment-3234315-20190528181438

The item infobox currently offers to list the areas the item can be found in, as well as a field "Obtained from" which shall list related creatures and/or quests. However, there's no mention of how many things could be listed here, nor about the formatting of the area section that additionally shall show the area code and coordinates. (What the documentation shows now as formatting example was added by me just today.)

So, there's potential for improvements. Here's my ideas, many of which serve the purpose to not blow up the infobox, as shown, too much, but they will blow up the infobox's base code by adding parameters:
 * Add "Reward for" if the item is acquired as a quest reward.
 * In this case, don't add the rewarding character to the "Obtained from" list, even if it could as well be pickpocketed – the latter info should be noted in the article main space's section "Locations" instead.
 * Don't restrict number of creatures/quests; don't make them a bullet point list, rather separate them by semicolons. (Semicolons are better than commas, in case the e.g. quest name contains a comma; also there might be future features on the wiki that can read data from the infoboxes, but might have issues with commas – semicolons are the preferred separator.)
 * Possibly add "Sold at", referring to areas, not the merchant. Unrestricted list as well, and not mentioning them under "Obtained from".
 * Don't list any area for an acquisition that's covered in the above mentioned fields.
 * Restrict areas to one for each game, with separate mentions for expansions but no distinguishing between editions. If there's more than one place in any game, omit the field completely and not, as I'm currently doing it, link to the article's "Locations" section.


 * As for the area parameters and the formatting
 * Add the following parameters to infobox code
 * Each one with a prefix for the games:,  ,  ,  ,  ,  ,.
 * Leave the current parameters untouched, until all infoboxes are updated.
 * Each one with a prefix for the games:,  ,  ,  ,  ,  ,.
 * Leave the current parameters untouched, until all infoboxes are updated.
 * Each one with a prefix for the games:,  ,  ,  ,  ,  ,.
 * Leave the current parameters untouched, until all infoboxes are updated.
 * Leave the current parameters untouched, until all infoboxes are updated.

My vision of the formatting would look like this: Baldur's Gate

High Hedge

Tales of the Sword Coast

Durlag's Tower

Shadows of Amn

Brynnlaw

Either centered (perhaps title only) or left-aligned.

If it appears in only one installment, the game title won't be shown.

The formatting is handled by the infobox, only the parameters have to be filled.

The by-game separation with titles could also be done for the other sections, though that would require more additional parameters: again each field with a game prefix.

We could as well decide to mention more than one area, perhaps two or maximum three (with the above mentioned five parameters doubled or tripled). But keep in mind that that could create a list of up to twenty-one entries on the page.

Another option is to restrict the overall number, but that requires complexer coding.

In case of more than one area, I'd prefer the game titles centered and the areas with bullet point list.

These things would then also apply to spells and can in a similar way be implemented for creatures, though with less restrictions.


 * Suggestions, regarding other fields
 * Special, all "… abilities": use hyphens and manual line breaks instead of bullet point lists; CalOkand, if I remember correctly, has done so sometimes – a creator of many, many item articles; it would also reflect the notation in-game; and it would make a particular thing much easier for me to achieve, regarding protection from critical hits for headgear.
 * "Combat type": I'd like to expand the use of this field and also include things as The One Gift Lost or wands, but have yet to think about good and consistent wording for them.


 * Other news, regarding this specific infobox
 * Auto-categorization for all weapons and many other categories is implemented for those items that have the "general" parameter correctly set – see the list here.
 * This expands to automatic categorization for non- and enchanted weapons, as well as for normal and magical weapons and those made of cold iron or silver. So, it's easier to find the appropriate weapon for certain creatures with immunities if linked on their articles. (The creature categories have to be filled as well, yet.)
 * Some parameters for this to work were added. See also the expanded (only a start, yet, down to areas) "How to fill" section for the infobox and the topic Item header flags.
 * The icon row between infobox title and description image is enabled. I'm aware that this looks bad on many non-updated articles, but each item that has any of the infobox's top parameters for game appearances set will show icons now, which is intended to replace the "Appears in" field.
 * The number of those parameters has been expanded by "cut_" and "mod_content", so it's now possible to mark things not appearing in any game accordingly (exclusive use only of these), which can currently be done also for areas and creatures, while quests and spells will be added later.
 * There's a list of new damage type templates to be used in the infobox's "Damage" field and which automatically add the item to the according damage type category.
 * Further auto-categorization, provided, the parameters are set correctly:
 * adamantine and cursed items
 * still working if not already replaced by the above templates: damage type (deprecated parameter)
 * items by game; requires the game appearance parameters
 * the parameter "critical_item" (not shown in infobox) adds it to items needed in quests and dialogues (which I'd like to be a replacement for quest items
 * Some fields are filled automatically, some will show content with a different capitalization than what's entered; will be explained on the infobox's documentation over time.
 * Take also a look at some new data templates: the "em.." ones can be used to easily display a note about the item's enchantment and magical status, while simultaneously linking to these articles; and the item artwork shall replace the description-image/icons galleries on item articles.

A note about auto-categorization: this works only if a field contains a plain value (currently only without link brackets, though that feature could be added and links would work, too). If there's a note to be made, e.g. about a bug, or if multiple values for multiple games have to be given, then categories still have to be added manually. (Same thing for the connected auto-link feature.)

But back to my initial request: what do you think about the item acquisition restrictions and expansions? 