Template talk:InfoBoxCharacter

BattleMech

I'd prefer to see the BattleMech field be less specific, or see more fields, to allow for people associated with other equipment to have that equipment listed in the infobox - I'm thinking of notable AeroSpace pilots, WarShip commanders, Elementals/Battle Armour pilots, etc. In theory, we've got hundreds of the buggers already just from the TRO notable pilots entries in every TRO. BrokenMnemonic (talk) 07:00, 3 October 2014 (PDT)

Yes. Now that you mention it, I'm obviously old-fashioned. You're absolutely right, especially in the Dark Age where any sort of vehicle can have a signature pilot. Only I can't think of a suitably encyclopedic word to name this category after. "Ride" sounds too casual. Suggestions? Frabby (talk) 07:10, 3 October 2014 (PDT)

"Unit"? Best I can think of. Also, we must remember that many characters changed 'Mechs/etc. Kai Allard-Liao used like, five different 'Mechs just in the novels. ClanWolverine101 (talk) 02:28, 4 October 2014 (PDT)

"Preferred or signature unit(s)" - but as I write this I realize it's so generic that it should perhaps better be left out of the infobox altogether. Then again, the fields are conditional, i.e. they don't show up if there is no content. We could have one field for "Preferred or signature 'Mech(s)", another for vehicles, fighters, and whatnot. I'm afraid I'm overthinking it though. Thoughts? Frabby (talk) 16:04, 4 October 2014 (PDT)

Yeah, we gotta remember the can of worms we're opening, here. Lots of famous MechWarriors used more than one 'Mech. It only gets trickier with the other units. ClanWolverine101 (talk) 20:05, 4 October 2014 (PDT)

I need to get out of bed, have breakfast and log into my desktop, but I've been thinking about this, and with a little kludging I think I can set up a line in the info box that allows you to configure both the displayed name of the field and it's contents, so the user can tell the template both the name of the character's ride and the class of equipment it was. Let me wake up a bit and I'll do some coding. BrokenMnemonic (talk) 23:26, 4 October 2014 (PDT)

OK, I've done some fiddling, but I've not updated the help section yet in case you aren't content with the changes. You can now specify up to 5 associated rides with a particular person, although I think only those of some significance should be listed, rather than simply listing every single BattleMech or tank a person has ever been listed as driving at some point. I've added the template to the page for Aleksandr Kerensky to show how it can be used to detail someone with more than one commonly-associated major bit of kit - his Orion and his WarShip - but the infobox could maybe do with being resized a little. I thought it useful to include both the name of the type of equipment and the name of the equipment itself so that individual rides can be specified, like Kai-Allard Liao's Yen Lo Wang and the WarShips associated with all those Admirals. Plus, the older TROs often give names to individual 'Mechs and tanks, and it seemed relevant to include them in the infobox by default. BrokenMnemonic (talk) 02:37, 5 October 2014 (PDT)

I've gone ahead and removed this entry altogether. It's not something that really defines a character (most of the time at least), and whenever this field is actually relevant the article will invariably have a section called "Signature BattleMech" or somesuch anyways.
BrokenMnemonic, I appreciate the coding you did (and may steal it in the future). But having several distinct fields/rows on the off chance that a given character is associated with a range of vehicles is just... wrong. Frabby (talk) 12:27, 13 October 2014 (PDT)

It might be better to perhaps have a field called "Military training", where if someone has been trained in a primary combat discipline that they're strongly associated with, it can be listed. Although yet again, that's detail that should be in the article.

If you need another example of this sort of code, I used it in the template for academies and training schools, to allow the primary course training types to be listed and associated with particular eras. BrokenMnemonic (talk) 07:41, 14 October 2014 (PDT)

Image

I'd prefer it if the image (when present) was centered, rather than left-aligned. That may just be a personal preference though. BrokenMnemonic (talk) 07:02, 3 October 2014 (PDT)

That wasn't so much a conscious decision as something that happened during copying & pasting. I'm an idiot when it comes to wikicode and hardly know what I'm doing, operating under trial-and-error protocol here. Feel free to change it as you see fit. Centered image certainly sounds more reasonable. Frabby (talk) 07:10, 3 October 2014 (PDT)