BattleTechWiki talk:Project Planets/Planet Overhaul

Era Specific Data

This is a great idea for a project! Is there any formal consensus on adding time periods to the displayed information, especially for the nearby planets section? With the new handbook series, a lot of the written history has been canonized with really nice maps by Øystein Tvedten. Among the many potential periods not displayed, nearly all Inner Sphere and (near) Periphery planets (excluding the Draconis Combine, which has not been published yet) have faction info for:

The birth of the Star League (2571)

The end of the 1st Succession War (2822)

The end of the 2nd Succession War (2864)

The beginning of the Jihad (3067)

...and this list does not even mention Dark Age dates or maps at the founding of each Great House. The Succession War data may be really vital to add, since borders really change and planets disappear (albeit over the course of decades). I realize this is a huge amount of work if done by hand, but I just though I might ask.--S.gage 02:21, 20 August 2011 (UTC)

Eeeeh, I'm afraid you may be a bit disappointed in us, S.gage. We're actually going to be doing away with those massive nearby planet/ownership tables because we know the current ones are as flawed as the coordinates and 2-jump maps also being used. The intention right now is to replace the 2-jump map with a cropped image of one of Øystein's maps, so that neighboring worlds are easily identified in a manner that is recognizable to anyone who has ever seen an official BattleTech map. The coordinates will be using an extrapolated method that matches up with Øystein's maps and the tables are being done awy with because we just don't have the capability to check each planet within 2 jumps and for each period. I'm not ruling out the possibility someone may want to do that work and re-add them in, but the Overhaul is going to clean up all suspicious data and either correct it or remove it.

Ownership is still being worked out: BrokenMnemonic has been doing extensive prep work for the Overhaul by reviewing (and uploading) maps, and then re-writing the Ownership section to reflect more periods of who owned what when. Ideally, we'd use concrete dates to indicate a change in ownership, so the traditional ownership list may make way for a narrative form...but we're still in the early stages on that. So, in that way, we hope to make ownership data more informative and complete.--Rev ^{(talk|contribs)} 11:42, 20 August 2011 (UTC)

I'm not disappointed in loosing the 2-jump maps, on the contrary I'm really happy there is a reasonable consensus on what to do with the history of planets on BTW. Ownership can get pretty complicated, so may I propose a solution (one that I don't particularly like but I'll propose anyway)? On worlds with little change in ownership (ex: El Dorado), we could just put the date of ownership change (although by the same token, a planet that never changes hands might be confusing if there is only a founding date...).--S.gage 16:05, 22 August 2011 (UTC)

I don't think it's much of a secret that many of the initial policies on here I derived directly from Wikipedia, and even now, the admins often refer to existing WP prolicies to help guide BTW. I've been looking at w:Puerto Rico, as an example. As an island, it's changed hands a number of times. Instead of a list of ownership change-overs, the article breaks up the history section into periods of control, which makes sense to me. However, as many (if not most) planets don't have canon histories, just representative maps, these sections could start out quite bare. For example, using your El Dorado) reference (not a true recounting; for example purposes only):

==History==

===Federated Suns===

El Dorado was founded prior to 2750, by which point it fell under the adminstation of the Federated Suns' Draconis March.

===Federated Commonwealth===

The system was incorporated into the Federated Commonwealth in 3040.

===Federated Suns===

The system reverted to the Federated Suns in 3067, upon the absolution of the Commonwealth.

Now, El Dorado, of course, has a lot more information to put in the three respective sections, but many systems won't. However, the presumption is that 'someday' more information will become known and included, and this format will help guide it into the respective location, right? Your comments?--Rev ^{(talk|contribs)} 16:28, 22 August 2011 (UTC)

With all the lost worlds I've been adding in courtesy of the new Handbooks, there are also a lot of worlds out there that have entries like the one for Conwy - which makes for sadly sparse entries. BrokenMnemonic 17:23, 22 August 2011 (UTC)

ETA: You can see a prototype of the kind of local region map I've been playing with on the Joyz entry. BrokenMnemonic 18:14, 22 August 2011 (UTC)

Joyz is a great example. The red dot shows thru clearly from the thumbnail and the surrounding region, thanks to your shading, makes it clear as to its general location to all but the least familiar readers of the Inner Sphere.--Rev ^{(talk|contribs)} 19:48, 22 August 2011 (UTC)

System Naming

Okay, I expect ClanWolverine101 to chime in here, but I'm seeing a potential issue: in the mockup for Sarna, the existing article does not provide the star's name. As the Overhaul is primarily transferring existing data from one format to the other, it is not up to the Overhaul team to research the stars' names. So, since these are system articles, what is Sarna's star's name, if unknown?
I'm thinking that CW101 was on the right path: the default should be the famous planet's name, with the famous planet taking on its orbital number, until the star's name is determined. Once that is known, the famous planet looses the orbital number, all other unnamed planets get renamed to the star's name (with orbital number) and "bob's your uncle". For example: Unknown Star Name:

• Sarna (star)
  • Sarna I
  • Sarna II
  • Sarna III (famous)
  • Sarna IV

Discovered Star Name:

• Omri (star)
  • Omri I
  • Omri II
  • Sarna (Omri III)
  • Omri IV

Comments? --Revanche ^{(talk|contribs)} 18:43, 23 August 2011 (UTC)