User talk:Dmon/Archive 2018

Minor units[edit]

Can you give me some tips on which kind of ammendments are you doing to the units I've been adding? Just to avoid double work.

Hey Pserratv. Mostly small things like adding in parent units or merging units that you created that already have a page (First Ramsau Irregulars but we already had 1st Ramsau Irregulars), keep up the good work though man, it is really cool to see how much stuff you are hammering out.--Dmon (talk) 15:26, 11 January 2018 (EST)
Now that I've been working a bit with all these Militia units... I'm unsure of which could be the correct approach: having a parent page for the militia, and then another for the specific sub-units?? Technically speaking, the units are never mentioned, only the sub-units. The "units" for me represent the real global militia, but opinions are welcomed... I could go back and arrange this, no issues.--Pserratv (talk) 09:48, 12 January 2018 (EST)
The way I look at it is that the units are the front line units of the militia who are on station at the time. If you look at the support commands category of any nation state you will find militia units attached to 'Mech regiments. I personally believe that some of the militia units will be "out on loan", this is further supported by some militia units haing quite high numeral unit designations. So I would treat the Militia page in a similar way to a Brigade page. Especially since we know that Militias will often have several regiments of infantry in addition to the forces listed, the militia units are actually quite large..--Dmon (talk) 09:59, 12 January 2018 (EST)
And there is a disparity in the fluff because the Clan Wolf sourcebook lists nearly everything as just "whatever planet militia" but invading clans and the jade falcon book go as far as naming units. I think it comes down to militia units being written off as minor secondary units where in actual fact they likely make up a vast majority of a states military power. Just not 'Mechs.--Dmon (talk) 10:04, 12 January 2018 (EST)

My Bad[edit]

Sorry man, I accidentally reverted your edit while learning my new admin options. 100% my fault, nothing you did wrong. Just re-edited the article. --DragonoftheRust (talk) 00:33, 22 January 2018 (EST)

James Davion[edit]

Hi Dmon, quick question for you - I'm slowly slogging my way through the House Davion personalities as part of hacking back the updates needed list, and I've just got to James Davion. The infobox for James Davion indicates that he had a son, Albie Davion, but I can't find anything in House Davion (The Federated Suns) or Handbook: House Davion about an Albie or Albert Davion, either independently or in any of the text dealing with James Davion or Janet Solway. I went back through the article history, and it looks like you added the detail on Albie - can you give me a steer on where I can find a citation for Albie? Ta! BrokenMnemonic (talk) 04:18, 13 February 2018 (EST)

Hey BM, A lot of the time when I am creating the Character Infobox data I just use a combination of the info that is in the article (and the articles that link), and I have a look at S-Gages House Davion Family Tree that was originally created from the tree published in the back of the House Davion (The Federated Suns) book. If you are using the PDF version of the book (like I do) the family tree is not included so is kind of hard to verify for myself. Dmon (talk) 04:49, 13 February 2018 (EST)

Bloodnamed Famous[edit]

Question: I was reviewing Clan Troops (and still doing), and I decided to add as notable bloodnamed holders the Elementals I'm finding in that book. Not sure if that was your idea. Indeed they are quite minor, maybe not even worth their own page... your comments on this?--Pserratv (talk) 04:55, 28 February 2018 (EST)

Although quite minor in the grand scope of things a bloodnamed warrior is technically still quite important from a Clan cultural aspect. So if there is no better home feel free to put them under the bloodname article and retitle the section as known bloodname holders possibly. We can look at rehoming them again in the future if need be. Dmon (talk) 06:14, 28 February 2018 (EST)

Project Bloodname Assistance[edit]

Hey Dmon, I have been taking a second pass at the bloodname articles you started linking them to the Bloodname tables. This project was one I was going to be doing once I had all the bloodnames sorted, but alas I didn't get to it so cudos to you!

I have been editing them also to reflect the current known status of the Bloodname, in addition to its current location in the Clan engenics program. Be it with another Clan, Reaved, or Tainted via Society interference. Those names that have been absorbed by other Clans I have detailed as well, but of course there is little history or anything that explains what has happened to minor and unused names. So most of the articles state this. Anyways thanks again for starting this, and I will attempt to help when I can. Deadfire (talk) 10:02, 28 February 2018 (EST)

All good Deadfire, I believe that it is a project that the wiki needed (Along with my other one Project House) as we already have all the planets, 'Mechs, vehicles and broad strokes of history. It is time to start digging into the stuff that links everything together. Any help is appreciated. Dmon (talk) 10:17, 28 February 2018 (EST)

Canonicity section[edit]

Cough cough... when creating a new article with an Apocryphal tag you're supposed to include a Canonicity section in the article that explains the subject's apocryphal status. Like for example being featured solely in an apocryphal source. ;). Frabby (talk) 08:04, 25 March 2018 (EDT)

Sorry, will go back and add them in now ;-)--Dmon (talk) 08:06, 25 March 2018 (EDT)

Solaris VII Dark Age Products[edit]

Don't you have by any chance the Dark Age material related to Solaris VII? Maps, histories, basically the Solaris Action Pack full kit

I think I have the Medium and Heavy packs but that is it. You looking for the fluff from them?--Dmon (talk) 20:39, 29 March 2018 (EDT)
ANy way you can share map photos, card scans/photos or whatever? By the way,. the 1992 flyer if you share e-mail address I send it to you

Tormano Liao[edit]

Confused: Why did you remove the (canonical) image from the character infobox in the Tormano Liao article? Frabby (talk) 03:57, 25 April 2018 (EDT)

It was showing up as a broken link, I had every intention on coming back and sorting it out but got distracted doing other things.--Dmon (talk) 04:36, 25 April 2018 (EDT)

Capitalizing Operations[edit]

Hi Dmon, I noticed you updated Operation SWITCHBACK by capitalizing the name of the operation. Should we do this for all "Operations", i.e. Klondike, Revival, etc? I know many of the sourcebooks do, at least in regard to Operation REVIVAL. Wanted to hear your thoughts. Thanks. JubalHarshaw (talk) 22:58, 1 May 2018 (EDT)

Yeah there was a conversation about a year ago about the fact that some are capitalized and some are not. We decided to capitalize as standard. As with all things wiki it just takes a time for everything to catch up.--Dmon (talk) 02:42, 2 May 2018 (EDT)

Noble Houses[edit]

Great addition, Dmon. This is a informative and inclusive category, which will really highlight related articles--most notably biographies--Sarna needs to fill in. Please accept my gratitude on your efforts on that endeavor. --Revanche (talk|contribs) 17:01, 20 May 2018 (EDT)

Thanks Rev, I am having a lot of fun building it all up, due to the information being scattered in little bits all over the place it is really slow going but really rewarding at the same time.--Dmon (talk) 17:12, 20 May 2018 (EDT)
Finished House Youngblood. Great idea, I hope I've added something of value.--Pserratv (talk) 12:31, 24 May 2018 (EDT)
The articles for the five Great Houses currently redirect to the respective Successor State, while separate articles exist for their family trees (e.g. House Davion redirects to Federated Suns, while there is also a House Davion Family Tree article). I feel the redirects were never quite accurate and need to be replaced by proper articles, and the Family Tree articles should also be merged into these. Or have you deliberately left this structure in place?
Further, speaking about family trees: Shouldn't all House articles be organized to contain a family tree by default? House Grimm and House Humphreys, for example, could (and imho should) totally get family trees. If known House members exist that can't currently be placed in the tree, they can still be mentioned in a section of their own. Frabby (talk) 07:24, 22 July 2018 (EDT)
I have left the Great Houses as redirects on purpose, I wanted to begin defining the line between house and state a bit before I did, I have done things like migrate all the "House Character" categories into state based ones and I have slowly been editing unit and character articles to illustrate affiliation with the nation states and insert house links at the mention of various families. It has taken me a couple of years to instigate this subtle shift in dynamic. If I had changed the redirects a year or more ago I probably would of met resistance but now that the project is starting to become something with its own value I will be changing the redirects some time soon.
I would love to include family trees in the articles but currently most of the houses simply do not have enough information to create one just yet. House Sandoval, House Humphreys, House Kelswa and House Allard-Liao are likely the best bets for actual family trees in the future. The current plan is to try and create at least a stub article for 95% of all named noble families in the universe within the next 3 weeks, then I am away on holiday for a week, when I come back I am going to start trying to track down various family members and try and figure out whom is related to whom and how. That will likely take me until about Christmas, if things go well I will also get enough information to develop a few trees.--Dmon (talk) 08:28, 22 July 2018 (EDT)

Award[edit]

Dmon, the Awards Committee is, well, "awarding" you the first Tireless Contributor award for your efforts in enhancing Sarna through the creation and population of the various Noble House category and sub-categories. From the award nomination (paraphrased):
Nomination for Tireless Contributor award to Dmon

He has worked for quite awhile (since opening the category in 2012) on identifying, standardizing, and filling in the various houses, and each of the articles--some much less stubs than would be expected--are well cited, often with multiple sources. The category now has 80 individual articles associated with it, with two subcategories.

The committee thanks you for your service.
Tireless Contributor Award, 1st ribbon
--Revanche (talk|contribs) 18:02, 9 June 2018 (EDT)

Thank you very much. despite being a minor project for 6 years now I still feel that the project is still in its infancy and hopefully will grow into a source of useful information that would otherwise remain dispersed throughout the wiki.--Dmon (talk) 04:56, 10 June 2018 (EDT)

What's a House?[edit]

Me again. I don't want to throw a spanner in the works, but do we have a definition somewhere (anywhere) as to what is considered a "House" in BattleTech context? Typically, the term seems to refer to noble houses, i.e. it is associated with some form of herediary noble title. If this is a defining criterion - and I'm definitely not sure, me not being a native speaker of English - then some families arguably don't properly qualify as a House. Kerensky, for example. Frabby (talk) 07:46, 4 August 2018 (EDT)

That I am aware of we do not have a definition of what a house is within a strictly BattleTech context, likely the best description is the MechWarrior (2nd Edition), titles and nobility chapter and that is pretty broad so it is a huge grey area as to what actually qualifies as a house.
I personally am working on the basis that anybody with a noble title is automatically being considered as part of a "House" (so that is the usual suspects of Duke, Marquess, Count, Viscount, Graf, Baron and Mandrinn). I do not think I know of a single example in the fiction of anybody being granted the title of "Knight" (everything in the Knight disambiguation is a self proclaimed knightly orders), but we know from various sourcebooks that every house has something that is essentially "knight" as the lowest form of nobility. Given that we have families who have hereditary 'Mechs and a lot of them have been fighting for the Great Houses for centuries and often have land grants. I would put my money on these Martial families being those knights, the vast majority of Barons and a good number of Counts.
This is where it gets even more of a grey area. House McKinnon are a great example as they have Land grants, not only a hereditary 'Mech but a whole unit with hereditary 'Mechs and Martial families also with their own land grants. This leads me to the conclusion that although never stated the McKinnons are likely the holders of at least a County and vassal House Lytton likely a Barony. Other notable martial families like House Zibler are bound to have more land grants than just a Barony granted in 3010. All this leads me the idea that although the title granted to the Kerensky family has not been noted as having land grants or any real value beyond prestige, that the title is essentially a hereditary knighthood. So I chose to include them in the list. Even if they are not truly a "noble house" they are influential on the whole universe so I think we might get away with it.--Dmon (talk) 08:58, 4 August 2018 (EDT)
Fair enough, thanks for your answre. Will have to read up on things in MW 2nd Ed then. Since you mentioned knights, may I point to Sir Paul Masters. While he was a founding member of the Knights of the Inner Sphere, he was already a retainer MechWarrior for House Marik before that, having inherited the status and PXH from his mothers who remains unnamed but was apparently a fairly famous or at least successful FWL MechWarrior. What little is known abotu his background is given in Ideal War. Frabby (talk) 09:07, 4 August 2018 (EDT)
I will add Masters to the list of people to investigate.--Dmon (talk) 09:32, 4 August 2018 (EDT)

Grafina?[edit]

Saw you created redirects to Nobility from both Graf (German for "Count") and Grafina. If you meant the latter as a female form of Graf then be advised that this word doesn't exist (except perhaps if someone made a blunder in BattleTech canon - is there a source?). The female form of Graf is Gräfin. Frabby (talk) 09:03, 18 July 2018 (EDT)

Hey Frabby, I am reading Handbook: House Steiner and can confirm that the term used in the book is "Grafina" (I am using the ebook version available on Scribd as I am not at home), I am not sure if the issue is isolated to the one book but I think House Steiner (The Lyran Commonwealth) simply used Graf regardless of gender.--Dmon (talk) 09:14, 18 July 2018 (EDT)
<facepalm> Oh my, that would require an explanation somewhere in the article then. "Grafina" is totally made up and has a slapstick vibe (speaking as a native German). Google doesn't seem to know the word. Frabby (talk) 09:38, 18 July 2018 (EDT)
Just checked and the term does date back to the original Steiner house book.--Dmon (talk) 10:32, 18 July 2018 (EDT)
A BattleTech quirk then. Funny I didn't freak out about it 25 years ago. Thanks for looking! Frabby (talk) 11:45, 18 July 2018 (EDT)

Minor character help[edit]

There are still 7 characters assigned to Minor Category:Minor Characters I have not been able to assign them anywhere... Can you help?--Pserratv (talk) 03:21, 14 August 2018 (EDT)

I will have a look and see if maybe the source material can yield more information.--Dmon (talk) 04:23, 14 August 2018 (EDT)

Years pages[edit]

I've seen the policy on years that says that it should only point to the relevant event... not sure I like it, I would prefer it to link everywhere... but being a policy, which is the actual feeling on it?

I believe it is to prevent pages ballooning out into huge lists. I think of the year pages a bit like Newspaper Headlines. 3058 is a good example, almost everything on that page I could inagine reading about in a newspaper. A snapshot of what happened that year. I very much want the wiki to be EVERYTHING BattleTech with every little scrap of lore being included, but we also need to keep it easy to use and fairly quick.--Dmon (talk) 05:58, 7 September 2018 (EDT)
I was thinking to link them all but I'll stop that idea.--Pserratv (talk) 08:24, 7 September 2018 (EDT)
What exactly where you thinking? From your initial post we would have for example the Character section would have every birth and death we know about?--Dmon (talk) 10:08, 7 September 2018 (EDT)

Playable Characters[edit]

Hi Dmon, what do we consider Playable Characters? I've seen you have been "deleting" some of them from the mechwarriors from the new video game.--Pserratv (talk) 03:08, 28 September 2018 (EDT)

In truth I am not really happy that the category exists at all because it is tied exclusively to one media format (something I have mentioned too you before). I know that it was me who listed characters in the BattleTech (Video Game)/Characters as playabe, but if it is to spread out of the specific video game articles then it needs to be better defined. Thinking about that I came to the conclusion that it should be "player Characters" as the MechWarriors in BT(VG), MechCommander and MechCommander 2 still speak to you when given an order so you are still commanding from first person perspective rather than actually playing as said character.
Point taken for the criteria. As for the category, let's take a decision and then we can act on it :)--Pserratv (talk) 04:52, 28 September 2018 (EDT)

Battle Templates[edit]

I've been changing the battles and adding the template to them... but now I'm facing operations, where I'm not sure if the template is valid. Examples are:

  • Operations Ambush and Riposte
  • Operation Götterdämmerung
  • Operation RAT

Do you have any suggestion on this?--Pserratv (talk) 03:26, 16 November 2018 (EST)

I am in work right now so can't spend too much time having a look. What exactly do you see as the problems or at least parts that could be better?--Dmon (talk) 03:49, 16 November 2018 (EST)

Help With Infoxbox[edit]

There something wrong with the stupid Info box. I tried adding new product. The infobox keeps breaking for some reason for Turning Points: Orbisonia -- Wrangler (talk) 10:22, 17 November 2018 (EST)

Sorted. There was a bit of missing wiki code that was messing it up.--Dmon (talk) 10:25, 17 November 2018 (EST)
Thanks. What was it i was not seeing. It's so frustrating when it happens. --Wrangler (talk) 10:27, 17 November 2018 (EST)

Categories for transcripts[edit]

Umm. I don't quite understand why we've installed transcript categories for individual games, given that these "categories" are really finite lists with a defined content that's not going to change? Category talk:Media Transcripts#Why Categories? Frabby (talk) 06:37, 24 November 2018 (EST)

Not entierly sure really, ease of navigation is the only arguement I can make. I added in the Video Game Resources category because I created the category for the game derived meta-sources. We have several game guides for example. So as such I think if they are to be in a category, this is the one.--Dmon (talk) 08:35, 24 November 2018 (EST)