User talk:BrokenMnemonic

Revision as of 09:29, 22 May 2015 by Wrangler (talk | contribs) (Task Force Serpent)

Archive - 2012 - Factions, Project Planets, mapping, SLDF units
Archive - 2013 - Individual Ship work, Project Planets work, mapping, template work
Archive - 2014 - Sources needing updates, sourcebook searches, ships needing articles, new infoboxes

Welcome

Welcome, BrokenMnemonic, to BattleTechWiki!

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Again, welcome to Sarna's BattleTechWiki!

*******Be Bold*******

Leftover To-do List

Ships to Write Up

Awards Log

Rev used to keep a log of awards given throughout the year to use as a reference when it comes to the Founders Awards each year - not that I'm all modly, I suppose it'd be a sensible idea to do the same thing.

20-Feb-2014 All Purpose Award (I) - Aldous - St. Ives
27-Feb-2014 All Purpose Award (I) - Panzergraf - Adding to individual ship articles
27-Feb-2014 Random Act of Appreciation (I) - Silverwolfsigil - First dozen spelling fixes
28-Feb-2014 Casual Edit Award (I) - BobTheZombie
24-Mar-2014 Assistance Appreciated Award (III) - BobTheZombie - tracking clarifications from TPTB
03-Apr-2104 Casual Edit Award (I) - Kharim - Avatar edit
16-Jun-2014 All Purpose Award (VI) - Cyc - Policing article change
22-Aug-2014 Helping Hand Award (I) - Doneve
10-Sep-2014 Vandal Cop Award (I) - BobTheZombie - spambot
08-Nov-2104 Image Import Award (I) - Cache - updated unit images

Planets/systems that need updates

BrokenMnemonic,

There are only a couple planets that need updates from a single source, so I've also included some systems that need updates from two sources. Hope that's OK.

A Time of War 
Ovan
A Time of War Companion 
Karachi
Historical Wars of the Republic Era 
Irece, Itabaiana, Menke, Trondheim (FRR), Victoria (CC), Zanzibar
Historical Operation Klondike
Arcadia (Clan), Babylon, Circe, Dagda (Clan), Eden
Historical Liberation of Terra 1 
Apollo (planet), Odessa (also ISP3:Interstellar Expeditions)
Historical Liberation of Terra 2 
Capolla, Fletcher, Saffel, Small World
Necromo Nightmare
Necromo
Total Chaos 
Tharkad, New Earth
Historical War of 3039 
Sadalbari
The Star League 
Zebebelgenubi
OTP REVIVAL Trials 
Foster, Hoard, Homer (Clan), Marshall

Is that enough or do you want some more?--Mbear(talk) 05:42, 9 December 2014 (PST)

Also the Rasalhague (Leviathan) and Winds of Heaven needs a Wars of Republic Era update. Single source! Yay!--Mbear(talk) 05:45, 9 December 2014 (PST)

Thanks for the list - I'll make a start when I've finished the DARW(3130) updates for Dieron and Epsilon Eridani. I'm not going near the Op KLONDIKE updates though - those are basically half of Historical: Op KLONDIKE, and I really don't enjoy reading or writing about the Clans enough to put myself through that... BrokenMnemonic (talk) 06:55, 9 December 2014 (PST)
I found a lot more, but i dont want to overhelm you with this now, but later hmmm :).--Doneve (talk) 12:38, 14 December 2014 (PST)
Uh-oh - how worried should I be? I'm hoping to start rolling out the new planet article template in the new year, and I can see that taking a fair while. BrokenMnemonic (talk) 12:57, 14 December 2014 (PST)
Iam on fire how to see the new planets template, my sarna edits go in the new year only to planet and manufacturing center pages, but when i have a eye catcher i will do to fix it or soms or ect. --Doneve (talk) 16:34, 14 December 2014 (PST)

Nearby System Table

Hi BM, from which source you added the Nearby Systems. I had in the past a list from Volt, i lost the document and Volt had deleted the document.--Doneve (talk) 01:44, 26 December 2014 (PST)01:42, 26 December 2014 (PST) Hi Doneve,
I'm using a copy of Volt's distances spreadsheet dated the 7th of March 2012 - is that the version you were using? BrokenMnemonic (talk) 02:48, 26 December 2014 (PST)

I got only the System database spreadsheet, not the distances (lost), can you share the distances sheet for me, thanks.--Doneve (talk) 02:53, 26 December 2014 (PST)
How you extrapolate the nearby system distances, from the main name (example: Zvolen).--Doneve (talk) 03:06, 26 December 2014 (PST)
I've uploaded a copy of the spreadsheet here: http://www.mediafire.com/view/p9d1q19qd2av791/distances.xls - It's got all the distances calculated in it already, you just need to sort the table by the planet you're working on. It's very handy, but it's also about 160Mb in size because of the amount of data in there. BrokenMnemonic (talk) 03:20, 26 December 2014 (PST)
Thanks, now i can help you, i go back to [A] and check the nearby system tables.--Doneve (talk) 05:38, 26 December 2014 (PST)
Thank you :) I'm plodding away slowly backwards from Z - it's not all that exciting, but it helps with rolling out the new article template if the systems tables have been updated. BrokenMnemonic (talk) 06:16, 26 December 2014 (PST)
I've just spotted that the spreadsheet isn't completely up to date - Dalmantia in the Draconis Combine is missing, which makes me wonder if some of the other SL-era DC worlds are also missing. BrokenMnemonic (talk) 11:26, 26 December 2014 (PST)
Happy holidays, kiddies! Distances Matrix The original file made use of a distance formula to measure the distance between systems, but in order to keep the file size to a minimum (88-89MB) I replaced the formulas to the final values instead, rounded off to three decimal places.-Volt (talk) 03:59, 28 December 2014 (PST)
How splendid! Just what I needed for Christmas :) I've had a quick look, and I think this has the Combine Star League era worlds in too? I do have one (tiny) problem though - I don't have the right version of MS office to run it. I've opened it in openoffice, and that truncates the number of columns at AMJ, which is Galuzzo, so I'm missing about half the worlds... is it possible to get a version for OpenOffice? BrokenMnemonic (talk) 01:10, 31 December 2014 (PST)
According to the wiki for OpenOffice here the maximum number of columns is 1,024, that would be the column for Galuzzo. The XLS version of Excel (2003 and earlier is only up to 256 columns, that would be Azha. Only the 2007 and later (XLSX) version of Excel can handle more than 256 columns. I tried splitting the matrix into four sheets of about 1000 columns each. You can try downloading the file again in about 10-15 minutes (file is currently still being uploaded on Dropbox) and see if you are able to view the remaining systems.
Alternatively, You can download the Systems By Era.xlsx file (link is on my User Page here in Sarna). On that file you can Enter the Base System on Cell E2 and then the cells on Column E will display the distance between this base system from all the 3,139 systems (including itself, which of course will be zero). The file will calculate the distances as you enter the reference system so this might be a bit slower than having all the distances printed out already, but it's a viable alternative.
Also, you will notice that some of the coordinates have changed because I used the 2764 map as the base map because it is more accurate, and I've fixed some transferring errors that I found here and there. Let me know if either of the two files work for you. Happy New Year!-Volt (talk) 06:36, 1 January 2015 (PST)
I see you start from [A], okido i go back to [Z], but before i prepare the spreadsheet to highlight only systems from 0-60 distances, what a hell of job.--Doneve (talk) 05:16, 3 January 2015 (PST)
Between that and the new article layouts, I think we're looking at a year's worth of work. BrokenMnemonic (talk) 10:02, 3 January 2015 (PST)
I could probably update the extrapolated coordinates on my free time. 20 edits a day will get the job done in about 5+ months' time. And that's only one pair of numbers' worth of editing on each page, won't take more than a minute a page-Volt (talk) 17:54, 3 January 2015 (PST)
That would definitely help, thank you - when you update the coordinates in an article, can you change the phase in the Planet Overhaul template at the top of the page to 2? That'll help us track how many articles are in each stage - I've rewritten the various project phases so that we can make some progress, rather than being stuck at phase 0 for another few years before jumping straight to phase 6... BrokenMnemonic (talk) 01:39, 4 January 2015 (PST)

Issues

Yo its a lot to do. But i look on the template and have some issus, i think we are go step by step. At first how we manage the infobox, as example some sections from the infobox like notable rulers, moons, or geographic's like capital citys etc. can we add on the article sections (you do this) but need we this in the infobox? Now is the answer, must we revamp the infobox, or go with to use the template you created.--Doneve (talk) 14:26, 3 January 2015 (PST)

The overall article layout took ages to agree, and I'm a little reluctant to change it, but there are a couple of things in there that make me uncomfortable, like having to define the location of the system as at a particular year in the intro. You're right about there definitely being some duplication between the planet infobox and the article. I think it's reasonable to have some duplication between the box and the article - I don't think it hurts to have something like the planetary capital in the infobox, because the box works quite well as a quick reference. Same goes for the name and number of the moons, because the main article body is where we can put any extra detail we have on them other than the names, like whether they're inhabited, or there are bases on them or something. I think we should do something about the planetary rulers, though - most planets have no detail listed, some have one or two, and a few have lots. I think they make the infobox cluttered when there are too many - perhaps if there are more than three, the infobox should refer to the article body, rather than trying to list them all with dates? BrokenMnemonic (talk) 01:47, 4 January 2015 (PST)
Ok! I agree with you, but can we remove the notable rulers from the infobox, and added only in the article.--Doneve (talk) 14:18, 4 January 2015 (PST)
Ah its a pain, i go to read my BattleCorps stories, and there is so much planet info, i don't know how we handle this.--Doneve (talk) 07:27, 5 January 2015 (PST)
I managed to get as far as logging in this morning, checking the recent changes page, and then work went nuts and stayed that way. I'm glad to get home so I can sleep some more!
I don't have an issue with taking planetary rulers out of the infobox - I think it's a long enough text field that it would be better if it were covered solely in the main article. I'd like to add a continents field to the infobox though, for listing the names of the continents. What other changes do you think would make the boxes better? BrokenMnemonic (talk) 09:26, 5 January 2015 (PST)
For what it's worth, I've always been opposed to the inclusion of time-period specific information in infoboxes. Frabby (talk) 10:34, 5 January 2015 (PST)
I'd be inclined to agree in general, but I think with planets there are a couple of things that should be exceptions to that rule. The first one is the USIIR codes, because they're literally an unqualified 5-character code - there's nothing more we can say about them other than that they exist, so I think they're better served in the infobox where they can be found easily for reference than within the main article text. The other I'd be inclined to make an exception for is name of the planetary capital city, because whilst that changes over time for some planets, in most cases it's a constant and it's the sort of detail I think fits well with the infobox as a quick-reference tool. BrokenMnemonic (talk) 00:08, 6 January 2015 (PST)

Article Templates Missing

Hi BrokenMnemoic, I'm writing up some articles for Sarna.net, but there big problem. The Help & How-To is (where I think) where the old Article Templates are, which includes frame work to write certain articles which includes Infoboxes, basic structure of a article depending on subject your writing with. I can't find them, I'm resorting to using recent articles as templates because directory for them is now missing. Where heck are they now? -- Wrangler (talk) 09:17, 8 January 2015 (PST)

That's really odd. I'll do some digging, and let you know as soon as I find out where they've gone. BrokenMnemonic (talk) 09:21, 8 January 2015 (PST)
Ok, the article pages are here: Help:Contents. I'm not sure why they aren't on the front page any longer, but I suspect it must be something that Nic's changed, as I don't think anyone else has access to those sidebar boxes. It should definitely be somewhere on the front page, IMO. BrokenMnemonic (talk) 10:16, 8 January 2015 (PST)
Thank you for digging for them. I wasn't sure where to find them. I though i remember seeing them in the Help & How-To section. But it's all different now. It's always been in the Editing BTW as long i can remember editing here since 2009. -- Wrangler (talk) 11:54, 8 January 2015 (PST)
I've asked Nic if he can put them back into the same sidebar box - I hadn't even noticed that they hadn't gone, so I'm grateful you flagged up that they were missing. Hopefully they'll be back soon... BrokenMnemonic (talk) 12:09, 8 January 2015 (PST)
Hi. Templates aren't back yet. -- Wrangler (talk) 17:02, 15 January 2015 (PST)
I flagged it up on Nic's talk page and had a follow-up question from him - he's the only one with access to fix it as far as I can tell, so until he does there's nothing more I can do, I'm afraid. BrokenMnemonic (talk) 23:50, 15 January 2015 (PST)
You did what you could do, I'm only the messenger. I can try e-mail him as part of a reminder if you want, i don't want annoy him. Its going hurt people trying to edit here. It may out right discourage folks. -- Wrangler (talk) 03:58, 16 January 2015 (PST)
I think from what I've seen on twitter he's just busy at the moment, but he's usually on here fairly regularly - I'd give him another few days yet. If it hasn't been fixed by the time I go to bed on Sunday, I'll see if I can embed the link somewhere in the main page I can edit. BrokenMnemonic (talk) 09:34, 16 January 2015 (PST)

Bristol

If you could check this talk page, that'd be great! -BobTheZombie (talk) 20:08, 16 January 2015 (PST)

Triabad

Hy, BM. I found this new system Triabad in Field Report 2765: Periphery, p. 25. Ah its misspelt the correct name is Tirabad.--Doneve (talk) 13:39, 18 January 2015 (PST)

Planet Overhaul

Hy, i started to add the new template, but i do this not on all pages, its to much content input for my brain at this time, like the Zurich and Zosma page, but i correct the system and nearby systems coordinates, and focus on some pages with basics like the Zuhbehr page.--Doneve (talk) 11:15, 22 January 2015 (PST)

I've slowed down with the new article template as well - it does take a fair amount of time swapping them across. Don't owrry, though - updating the coordinates and the nearby systems sections is a huge help. BrokenMnemonic (talk) 23:30, 22 January 2015 (PST)

THS Monitor

Hey BrokenMnemonic, be careful when you ask the CGL people about canon status of the Monitor. Last two times I did that, they ended up destroying canon just to make a point. Monitor may end up being erased. If you feel it's necessary, you can suggest by asking if the Monitor was a prototype Essex on trials when it did the mission. -- Wrangler (talk) 04:39, 28 January 2015 (PST)

I debated posting up an Ask The Writer question about the Monitor, but I thought I'd bring it up in the WarShip of the Week article to see if the author of the article would comment. I think that it's just a simple errata of one kind or another, but the ATW forum has been a bit hit and miss for getting answers for the last year or so. If the writer mentions in the WOTW article that one or other fact is an error, then it can go in the official errata thread, but at the moment it seemed best to simply flag up the inconsistency in the article here and leave it at that for the moment. I'm a little wary of becoming the annoying person who asks so many questions that I just start getting default "that hasn't been clarified in canon yet" responses. BrokenMnemonic (talk) 05:30, 28 January 2015 (PST)
My experience with Cruiser, when i noticed the problem with intro dates to resulted in 25 year later thing. Author of the fluff agreed with me i had it right, but it seem out of spite dare i say? They changed it decades later. I have great reasons not bring things to their attention anymore when it comes to sensitive old info. -- Wrangler (talk) 12:04, 28 January 2015 (PST)

Planet Names

Hi hope all is well. I read your statement about planet names, i realize that somme [A] named planets located in the Star League era, Word of Blake or Republic of the Sphere sectors, i dont know if CG work from Terra with alphabetice the systems down to the Inner Sphere powers (but is a good question).--Doneve (talk) 04:11, 16 February 2015 (PST)

Hihi, everything's going ok here. A few changes at work are making life a bit more difficult, and I'm starting to see work for the con ramp up as the date of the next convention get closer, but I'm ok. How're you doing? I've not run the numbers yet, but I'd not be surprised if 10% of the known systems start with an "A". BrokenMnemonic (talk) 11:48, 16 February 2015 (PST)

Hi

Hope live is ok, sorry but iam at this time a little bit down to help on planet updates. I hope i check in next week to help out, but my wife has the last word, iam not in good health, sent you a e-mail of status in next days.--Doneve (talk) 14:06, 17 March 2015 (PDT)

Your health and wife come first - the planets can and should wait. They aren't going anywhere, ignoring jokes about the constant expansion of the universe over time. I hope that your health improves and that you get the chance to rest up. Keep in touch, ok? BrokenMnemonic (talk) 01:06, 18 March 2015 (PDT)
Hi, iam back and now can help out with the planet pages :).--Doneve (talk) 04:47, 1 May 2015 (PDT)
Hi! It's great to see you again. How're you feeling? BrokenMnemonic (talk) 03:17, 2 May 2015 (PDT)
Iam feeling very good at this time, oh Handbook: House Kurita is availible, new maps maps maps ;).--Doneve (talk) 03:29, 2 May 2015 (PDT)

Battle of Harrow's Sun

BM - Was hoping you could give Battle of Harrow's Sun a look. Thanks. ClanWolverine101 (talk) 21:36, 22 March 2015 (PDT)

Hey - Thank you for copyediting my Battle of Harrow's Sun article. I'm trying to restart the tradition of giving awards to eachother. Have a Casual Edit Award, 5th ribbon on me. ClanWolverine101 (talk) 05:41, 31 March 2015 (PDT)
Thank you for the award. Getting a chance to look over the article was a nice break from editing planet articles! The two NAIS guides to the Fourth Succession War were largely responsible for getting me into BattleTech to begin with, so I have a particular fondness for the events that went on during the war. BrokenMnemonic (talk) 01:44, 1 April 2015 (PDT)

Semantic timetable on Planetpages

Hi BM, i hope the convention works. Well i came up to the Category:Wars page and saw the timetable, now i pocke a little bit around if we can use this for the planet pages to change the list form of the [political affiliation]/[owner history] in a timetable, this link helps [1], what do you think.--Doneve (talk) 13:54, 3 May 2015 (PDT)

I think the problem with trying to turn the political affiliation section into a timeline is that we don't have timeline data - we've got a series of data points, in most cases. There are some planets where the books say that "planet X was a Lyran holding until 2937..." where it would work, but in most cases our historical records are incomplete. That's why I argued against us saying, based on the maps, things like "planet X remained a Federated Suns holding throughout the first two Succession Wars..." because we don't know if it actually did - we just know that on the two dates where we have it on a map, it was a FedSuns world.
I do like what you've done on the wars timeline though - it's making me think I should write up some more of the wars on here when I get a chance. BrokenMnemonic (talk) 00:43, 4 May 2015 (PDT)

Support vehicle templates

Thanks for getting to this. I meant to but it got lost in the shuffle. One question: Should the Equipment and Capacities header read Equipment and Capabilities instead? (I don't understand why it has Capacities in there.)--Mbear(talk)

I've responded to my talk. -- Wrangler (talk) 04:51, 8 May 2015 (PDT)
Hi BrokenMnemonic, I'm trying out now. There some changed I'd like you to do and question I'm asking. Addition: I need a optional line for "Equipment Rating" right below Movement type line in the Infobox. If you look in TRO: Vechicle Annex (Revised), you'll see it in the infobox in the articles. I sorely need that one in there. All Support units use this. Question: Armor. You have separate line to put the rating of the armor. Way it's right now, I need put "BAR" in the Armor line, then adding the number rating for the BAR. Is that what you intended to be like? -- Wrangler (talk) 13:04, 11 May 2015 (PDT)
For the Armour and BAR fields, the way I saw it working was this: if the armour is standard armour or a more advanced type of armour, like one of the ferro-fibrous derivatives, then the Armour field would have the type and name of the armour "Durallex Standard", "Defiance Heavy Ferro-Fibrous", etc, and the BAR field would be left blank. However, if the armour was something that has a BAR rating, like commercial, heavy commercial, etc, then the Armour field would have the name and type of the armour - "Light Commercial", "Heavy Commercial", etc, while the BAR field would give the BAR rating of that armour - "BAR 5", "BAR 10", "BAR 8", etc. For the Prometheus Support Vehicle, as it has a commercial armour type, I put the type of the armour in the Armour field, and the BAR armour rating of the armour in the BAR field. If it had been given standard armour, then I would just have written "Standard" in the Armour field and left the BAR field blank. Does that make sense? BrokenMnemonic (talk) 23:51, 11 May 2015 (PDT)
It does, but the problem lies in that many of the support vehicles do not say what kind of "commerical" "Heavy Industrial" etc armor they have, they just say BAR rating. I'll just put BAR in the armor line and then type in number below. Sorry trouble ya! -- Wrangler (talk) 06:56, 12 May 2015 (PDT)
Production Year line gives errors. I've never had good luck putting information in that line. -- Wrangler (talk) 07:16, 12 May 2015 (PDT)

XTRO: Republic I Request

Hey Broken, With Republic opening up soon, i want call couple vehicles since your aerospace fan. I really don't want race and compete with you or others to try put article in, do you mind me calling dibs on Castrum Pocket WarShip and Strix Stealth VTOL? -- Wrangler (talk) 11:06, 9 May 2015 (PDT)

Hi Wrangler, I do love my spaceships. I haven't picked up XTRO: Republic I yet though, and money's going to be tight for the next couple of months - if you're willing to do the units then you've got free reign Smiley.gif BrokenMnemonic (talk) 12:12, 9 May 2015 (PDT)

Thanks!

For your help with the Support Vehicle stuff, please take this: Problem Solver Award, 1st ribbon --Mbear(talk) 05:10, 11 May 2015 (PDT)

Shiny! Thank you - I've never had one of those. I think I tend to cause more problems than I solve Wink.gif BrokenMnemonic (talk) 23:54, 11 May 2015 (PDT)

Task Force Serpent edits

Hey Broken, I'm not sure if this is up your ally, i'm bit tided up what i'm doing. A non-registered user,110.20.167.217‎, made alot of edits to Task Force Serpent, but did not use citations. I'm not sure if the user will get my message about need for citations. Removing the new sections may honk and scare them off, can you see it's possible to add citation or find someone who can? -- Wrangler (talk) 06:29, 22 May 2015 (PDT)