Glest Wiki - Full Glest documentation, modding, downloads, and more

[John.d.h]

Hmm... Wikia doesn't seem to be letting me upload images for some reason<plug> while creating the new page for Project Green</plug>.

[Omega]

Hmm... not sure why it did that. My best guess is either a script got corrupted when downloading or something. Even when Wikia is doing maintenance, you can upload new files (but can't move or delete them, oddly enough, as I discovered when redoing the maps page).

However, it looks like its working now, as Ultifd has uploaded an image to that page.

Thank you for making the page though. Now, if only more modders...

[ultifd]

Yeah, sometimes the uploading tool on wikia doesn't work...after a few refreshes and cache clears, it eventually works.

[Omega]

Yeah, sometimes the uploading tool on wikia doesn't work...after a few refreshes and cache clears, it eventually works.

Occasionally, I've seen that in the editing screen, though, I've uploaded hundreds of images and only had problems once or twice like that, which usually worked by closing the popup (for lack of a better word) and retrying. The nastier problems is when it complains that the MIME types don't match (which is expected when converting a JPG to a PNG with alpha, but very difficult to get around, as you must delete the JPG, upload the PNG, and edit all pages where the old image was found. Fortunately only had to do this once.


For posterity:

Here's a few helpful pages [for learning to edit the wiki]:
https://docs.megaglest.org/Glest:Policies
https://docs.megaglest.org/Glest:Style_guide
https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Help:Contents
https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Help:Getting_started

As well, because this is the same software as Wikipedia (Mediawiki), most formatting for it works here as well, and Wikipedia has some very good guides and policies, many of which are used on our wiki, but not directly mentioned.

What a page must have:

• At least one internal link. If a page does not have an internal link, Mediawiki does not consider it a page (and thus, it will not appear when searching, nor on the page counter in the sidebar). Internal links are easy, as Glest, Tileset, Faction, Mod, Map, and many more very popular keywords have pages, and if there is no way to add an internal link of at least some kind, you are doing it wrong.
• It must be linked from another page, anywhere. Pages can be imagined as a web, starting with the main page, which links to most of the popular pages, which in turn will link to all the individual pages. If a page does not have anything linking to it, it is considered an Orphaned page, which also annoys Mediawiki. Factions/Techtrees can have pages linked from Mods/List, while maps have Maps/List, and tilesets have Tilesets/List. Even scenarios have a page at Scenarios/List.
• An introductory paragraph. This is something many older pages lack (and I add it as I find pages that lack it). This is the first paragraph in the article and is NEVER preceded by any type of header. This paragraph (or paragraphs) should summarize what the article is about, or the point of the page. Please do not start pages with a header. Even if the page would seem obvious by the title what its about, always start with an introductory paragraph. It doesn't have to be long. It can be one sentence, but it's gotta be there.

What a page should have:
^{These are not necessary when creating a page, especially if the page is a stub or there is insufficient data to expand the page, but you should try to get these anyway.}

• If the page is a faction, map, tileset, techtree, or unit, it should have the associated infobox at the very top of the page. This summarizes the page, and, like most templates, you will have to use code display to insert them, so you can't use the WYSIWYG editor (I strongly recommend that if you are experienced enough, to set the code version as the default by disabling the WYSIWYG editor in your preferences). They are all named accordingly, so the infobox for factions is found at Template:Faction. Likewise, maps is Template:Map, etc. The instructions for using these templates can be found on the associated page, along with examples. Even more examples can be found by looking at pages that are using the template (every template is used in at least one page). Please avoid making new templates for any of these categories (for example, I noticed GIS made a unit template, which, ironically, has not been used on any pages). Sure your unit might have more features, but those can be discussed in the actual article. The infoboxes are meant to summarize the faction/unit/whatever in a standard (meaning the same across all like pages) way.
• Avoid using external links in the body of the article unless necessary. Try and group the external links at the bottom of the article, under a new level 2 header "External Links". Whenever possible, link to an internal page. So if you mention GAE in your article, do not link to the sourceforge page of the GAE project, but link to the actual GAE page.
• Relatedly, try and have a "See Also" section at the bottom of the article (above external links) that links to associated pages (even if loosely). This gives the reader more pages to read when they finish reading one page, and is an easy place to add internal links (for the minimum one internal link rule previously mentioned). Even if the link was mentioned multiple times in the article already, post it again, because people tend to read other pages after they finish reading the current one, rather than while in the middle of it.
• The Glest Wiki is known as the "Glest Wiki". Wikia is just the host, who modifies the MediaWiki (note the absence of the trailing "a") software on which the Glest Wiki runs on. The MediaWiki software is the same software used to run Wikipedia, and thus the origins of the word Wiki (I could go into a long dialogue on what Wiki means, but just to sum it up, it means "fast"). This might sound a bit of a nitpick, but no more so than those folks at Lua.

[John.d.h]

Handy reference.

[ChupaReaper]

When updating the Malevolent Rising mod page I stumbled across the 3DS Max page and noticed it was kinda small so I decided to buff it up and include MD5 info as the bridge between Max and Blender or other applications such as Lightwave as md5 can store, textures, triangle meshes, skeletons and skeletal animation. I then decided to make a whole page about the MD5 format, stating it is not currently supported by any version of Glest but that it is useful for moving animated models into Blender for G3D exporting.
https://docs.megaglest.org/3DSMax_Modelling
https://docs.megaglest.org/MD5

[Omega]

When updating the Malevolent Rising mod page I stumbled across the 3DS Max page and noticed it was kinda small so I decided to buff it up and include MD5 info as the bridge between Max and Blender or other applications such as Lightwave as md5 can store, textures, triangle meshes, skeletons and skeletal animation. I then decided to make a whole page about the MD5 format, stating it is not currently supported by any version of Glest but that it is useful for moving animated models into Blender for G3D exporting.
https://docs.megaglest.org/3DSMax_Modelling
https://docs.megaglest.org/MD5

Thanks for your edits  . Please try and keep the external links and internal links separate though. The "See Also" links should only link to other wiki pages, while the following external links can go to the other sites.


Oh, and from my earlier post, it seems I have forgotten one of the other very important "thing pages should have":

• Categorize pages - All mainspace pages should be categorized. This can be done at the bottom of any page, by clicking the add categories button. This can also be done on the edit screen (note that you must be editing the whole page. If editing a section, it will not remember existing categories!). The edit screen also lets you remove categories if a page is incorrectly categorized. Alternatively, you can type [[Category:Category name]] somewhere on the page and it will be added to that category (also note that if you want a link to a category page, you must put a colon after the braces. eg: [[:Category:Category name]]. This also works with linking to images and videos. You can read more about using categories on the wiki here, as well as see a full list of categories available. You can also always create your own category if none of the existing ones will work for you (be sure to check if the category exists first! Duplicate categories are hard to fix). Note that the category link at the bottom of the page will be a red link, even if you added a page to it because you still have to edit that page to "sumarize" the category. This can be a one line summary, it doesn't matter, though it should have one to prevent red links.

[ultifd]

Hmm...I can't find the template for the (dates) in wikipedia...I wish we had that. Is that possible?

Code: [Select]

[URL=http://img801.imageshack.us/i/ss232.png/][IMG]http://img801.imageshack.us/img801/7764/ss232.png[/img][/URL]So I think we should have a page request page or a page to keep the list of pages that should be made (that's just a bit different)...
So currently on my list it's
Stub or regular pages for:

• Animal Cruelty
• Glest Total War
• Whimsical Forest
• City
• jglest https://forum.megaglest.org/index.php?topic=4831.msg35854#msg35854
• Ancient Tileset
• Other old mods
• Megapack
• GlestNG
• GCDM
• Vbros packs (maybe)
• Other Vbros factions
• Mailing Lists
• Farmer
• Glest Cards
• luften, shontuz, and wandergart tilesets
  Code: [Select]
  http://www.glest.org/files/contrib/tilesets/
• Tilesets
• G3D Viewer
• shibboleth/reference faction
• MG and GAE Map editor and G3D comparison
• Media?Like wallpapers etc...Unofficial Fan stuff...(modman and little helper's work mainly)
• Annex and Chasm...I believe it's best if he adds the info himself though...

[Omega]

I'll look into the date template sometime next week. Too busy this weekend.

@Page requests:
I don't think we should even make pages for the old terrible mods. I purposely removed all listings of such mods when I redid most of the list pages, such as Mods/List. Namely, these pages should never exist (imo):

• jglest https://forum.megaglest.org/index.php?topic=4831.msg35854#msg35854
• Ancient Tileset
• luften, shontuz, and wandergart tilesets
  Code: [Select]
  http://www.glest.org/files/contrib/tilesets/Why? Well, all those tilesets are just retextured, and not even well retextured at that. I do believe they were created before the G3D exporter was even made public. As for jglest, it is incomplete and abandoned.
  
  I also still think all units should have individual pages on the wiki (as per Tech, Magic, Military, etc) listed on their faction pages instead of having a large table. Tables have disadvantages in loading, as well, we strive to keep pages as small as possible. Besides, tables have issues with the extremely small size that wiki gives us for editing.
  
  
  Edit: added in the date template you requested.
  https://docs.megaglest.org/Template:How_long_ago
  
  Example:
  https://docs.megaglest.org/Glest_Advanced_Engine
  
  Code: [Select]
  [IMG]http://img23.imageshack.us/img23/9959/samplehowlongago.jpg[/img]
  Edit2: Hmm, those links don't look too good when broken like that... Maybe they should be shortened down to a display text? Also, uh... the forum link on the GAE page linked to the MegaGlest forum page. Fixed that too.

[ultifd]

Thanks for the date template! Very useful.

I also still think all units should have individual pages on the wiki (as per Tech, Magic, Military, etc) listed on their faction pages instead of having a large table. Tables have disadvantages in loading, as well, we strive to keep pages as small as possible. Besides, tables have issues with the extremely small size that wiki gives us for editing.

Yes, I still think this as well. But I also think tables are OK...for me, the wiki is there to find info...so that's why I  think tables with description and a screenshot.
 
Another thing: for the mod list page, I feel its best to not include information that isn't currently true...so what I mean is no stats for upcoming techtrees, tilesets, maps, etc...or else later on it'll be messy and etc.

[Omega]

Another thing: for the mod list page, I feel its best to not include information that isn't currently true...so what I mean is no stats for upcoming techtrees, tilesets, maps, etc...or else later on it'll be messy and etc.

I think the only one that holds future information is Mrising? Go ahead and remove the future based content. Later, once that part of the mod is complete, we can add it back in (only a few words anyway).


And as a reminder, when using {{How long ago}}, the order must be year, month, day. If you switch the order of any of the two variables, the function will not work correctly. For example, 12 March 2011 would be: {{How long ago|2011|3|12}} (the 3 is because march is the 3rd month of the year).

[ultifd]

Right...But can't we just change the official format of the dates to be by month date, year? I always found this annoying...

[Omega]

Right...But can't we just change the official format of the dates to be by month date, year? I always found this annoying...

Nope. The international date format is Day Month Year, so it should always be output as so, and without any commas. So "March 12 2011" is wrong, as is "March 12, 2011", etc. The correct way to do it is "12 March 2011". Why? Because the wiki, and Glest itself, is an international project, and at the moment, the americans, the majority of the users who would use "Month Day Year" are outnumbered by the other countries.

As for the order inside the actual template, I did not create this template. It is copied from wikipedia, and the order is used in the calculation, so can't really be changed. There's other ways to input the fields though, as shown on the template page (read the documentation).

[Zoythrus]

I tried updating it recently, but I had some problems so I couldn't update it...I'll try again later.

is it because you cant edit nor can you sign into facebook? yeah, it's doing that for me too....

[ultifd]

I tried updating it recently, but I had some problems so I couldn't update it...I'll try again later.

is it because you cant edit nor can you sign into facebook? yeah, it's doing that for me too....

Well, for me, I couldn't edit/I couldn't publish or preview...Then I cleared my cache, it was fine for one preview; then I couldn't press Publish or Preview. Hopefully it'll work for me now. Perhaps we should check the Wikia Blog, I guess. 
Edit: same thing...

Code: [Select]

[URL=http://img218.imageshack.us/i/ss238.png/][IMG]http://img218.imageshack.us/img218/6279/ss238.png[/img][/URL]

[Omega]

Hopefully whatever issue you guys were having is cleared up now. I am having no troubles at the moment, though we seem to be missing the toolbar in plain text editing mode (which is sorely missed, as its the easiest way to add a new image).


And our newest template is the Upgrade template!

Template Page and Documentation:
https://docs.megaglest.org/Template:Upgrade

Example:
https://docs.megaglest.org/Advanced_Tactics


In other words:

Code: [Select]

[URL=https://docs.megaglest.org/User:Hofmic][IMG]http://img806.imageshack.us/img806/6480/prooo.png[/img][/URL]
Pro (the rest of ya all have been slacking ).

[Omega]

There, major revamp to Modifying Glest at last. I think that one had the cleanup tag there for longer than any other page. It could use some further expansion, as well, the spacing looks bad with all the "Main article" links. I'll update that tomorrow with a template (which is what wikipedia and most other wikis do) to fix that problem in a clean fashion, so please do not tamper with those quite yet. It is also the first place to have proper documentation of the addon folder structure, though that should probably be split into it's own page and expanded (the file formats for archives are not mentioned).

https://docs.megaglest.org/index.php?title=Modding#Addon_Format


Maintenance:
Priority for editing on the wiki:

• Orphaned Pages (pages that are not linked from anywhere [and thus will never be seen!])
  
• Dead End Pages (pages that do not contain any internal links)
  
• Uncategorized Pages (pages that are not in any categories. If you can't fit the page into any existing categories, make a new one)
  
• "Wanted" pages (this is the only way to find red links. Check what links to these pages and either remove/repair the link or create the non-existant page)
  
• Remove Unused files. If the image doesn't appear in an article, it shouldn't be on the wiki. Delete it. Don't have deletion rights but think you're trustworthy enough to deserve them? Post on this talk page.
  
• Consider expanding Short Pages.
  
  And a few more ground rules for clarification:
  Please do not create pages that only consist of an external link. If you truly must use an external link (whenever possible, use internal links instead. You can also always copy from wikipedia or other wikis as long as you credit them (ALL wikis are CC-BY-SA), and wiki code is pretty consistent, with some small exceptions in coding). Instead of having a page consisting of an internal link, make all the links to that page the external link (bearing in mind the external links should generally be pushed to the bottom of the page, and clearly labeled as so).

[ultifd]

If I wasn't busy and if I didn't have that problem (Hopefully it's OK now) I would have done a lot more editing.

[Omega]

Hmm? What problem are you having?

This weekend in History:
All maintenance reports fixed, all dead end pages either had links or were removed, all orphaned pages became linked to, all unused images were either used or mass deleted (I deleted over 100!), all pages and images are categorized, and much, much more. At the moment, I have 2084 registered edits, an increase of more than 500 from last week.

Our/my next major project: redoing the XML pages. All of them.

[Ilyevarno]

Hi!

I am a "Glest newbie" and need to know if I can play "Glest" as a single-player without Internet connection?

Awaiting for your kind and timely response...

Thank you very much in advance.

[ultifd]

Hi, welcome to the forums!
Yes, of course you can. No internet connection is required for Glest.
Have fun.
P.S. You might want to check out the two forks of Vanilla Glest, as it's not being developed anymore.
MegaGlest and the Glest Advanced Engine

[Omega]

XML definitions underway! Albeit, they take longer than I thought... 2 hours to make the menu XML page, albeit, that was a lot of debugging due to problems with the (fake) code box (be sure to copy its exact syntax of the div tag if you are planning to make any of the other XML documentation pages, otherwise links and HTML tags won't work inside a code box (<pre>).

https://docs.megaglest.org/Menu_XML

It's a new style of formatting, but one I think will be the easiest to use for the wiki. Generally each item would be its own header, but for the camera rotations and positions, they were so similar it made more sense to combine it into a table. To maintain usage of links, you'll have to manually add an "anchor" by giving the title an id, which you can link to with "#id" at the end of the URL. Note that all IDs must be unique!

[Omega]

A new poll has been added to decide when listing units/buildings/whatever to faction pages on the wiki, should we list/table all units together or break into different headers for "Ranged units", "Air units", etc?

My opinion: I think grouping into Units and Buildings is better because it lets us easily classify units without trouble (if it moves, it's a unit, if it doesn't, it's a building) and is the simplest and easiest to read. Having it grouped by how it attacks leaves out unique units like the workers and adds unnecessary length to the page.


In other words, modders, please come and create pages for your mods. Japanese, Imperial, Constellus, Dwarfs, and many others already have a page, but YOU need to make pages for every individual unit. Forget filling in the tables about units, create pages for each individual unit (see the UNATF page for dozens of examples) and link the pages together. Constellus has a few unit pages started, though has hit a slight lapse, Japanese has fleshed out tables, but should move into expanding into individual unit pages. If your mod doesn't have a page, go ahead and make one. Don't be afraid to make mistakes, they're the only way you'll learn.

https://docs.megaglest.org

[ultifd]

(And if you don't have the time to create pages for every single unit, create tables...at least.) 

[Omega]

(And if you don't have the time to create pages for every single unit, create tables...at least.) 

I'm gonna be blunt, sooner or later, you're going to have to make time. Making a mod is a big commitment, and it doesn't take too long to at least spur out a quick fill in the blanks of a unit template coupled with a description.

For example, the tech worker could just be:

Code: [Select]

{{Unit
|Unit Name = Worker
|Image     = Worker.png
|Health    = 600
|Resources = 75 gold, 1 food
|Armor     = 0 (leather)
|Faction   = [[Tech]]
}}
The worker is the most important unit in the [[tech]] [[faction]] and is capable of constructing buildings and harvesting resources.
There, done. That's the simplest form. Sure, my examples for Military are more advanced and explain everything it can build, usage, production, etc, but that's all optional. At the core minimum, just slap on the unit template and a one sentence description (be sure that there's at least one internal link on every page!). Yes, I wrote that real time (not copied or pasted) in less than 5 minutes, no real effort put into it. You can too. All fields in the unit template are also optional, so if a unit doesn't use energy, you can exclude that attribute, just as I did with the worker above. Of course, you'll have to use code view.