User:Cache

Awards Board

Retired Awards Board

Profile

I have been enjoying the BattleTech universe since the around 1990. I own the sorely outdated Brian's Cache website and am an administrator over at Lords of the Battlefield. This wiki has been incredibly useful for me for years now and it is about time that I contribute. Though I'm not much on writing articles, I will be focused mainly on cleaning up what is here (grammar and format) and uploading new or higher resolution picture replacements. My BattleTech library is extensive so if you have any requests, let me know and I'll see what I can do.

Personal Projects

"As at (year)..."

Noticed while correcting "The Wars of Reaving", there are hundreds of instances of "as at" being used instead of "as of" (i.e. American English). This is going to be more difficult to correct because of how the search function works.

Search for "as at"

Image Upgrades

Battle Armor Equipment (images from various sources)

Classic BattleTech Companion

Masters and Minions: The StarCorps Dossiers (Personalities, logos, flags)

Technical Readout: 3025/Revised (ASFs in work)

Technical Readout: 3026

Technical Readout: 3039

Technical Readout: 3050/Revised/Upgrade (Upgrade SL ASFs C/W)

Technical Readout: 3055/Revised/Upgrade (ASFs INW)

Technical Readout: 3075 (Inner Sphere & Clan BA INW)

Technical Readout: Prototypes (Aerospace units C/W)

Tukayyid

Era Digest: Golden Century (complete)

Experimental Technical Readout: ComStar,'Mechs only (complete)

Experimental Technical Readout: Primitives, Volume 3,'Mechs only (complete)

Experimental Technical Readout: Steiner,'Mechs only (complete)

Historical: Brush Wars (Personalities) (complete)

Historical: Operation Klondike (Personalities) (complete)

House Davion (The Federated Suns) (complete)

Jihad Secrets: The Blake Documents (complete)

Mercenaries Supplemental (color plate unit logos) (complete)

Mercenaries Supplemental II (color plate unit logos) (complete)

Technical Readout: 2750 (complete)

Technical Readout: 3057/Revised(complete)

Technical Readout: 3058/Upgrade(complete)

Technical Readout: 3060(complete)

Technical Readout: 3067, including cover art and info on CGL reprint (complete)

Technical Readout: Project Phoenix (complete)

File Names

This is a work in progress. I am trying to keep consistency with the names of all image files. In addition to following the image policy, this is partly for my own sanity and partly for organizing display in the various categories. I don't like seeing Morgan Kell.jpg, Morgan Kell.png, MorganKell.jpg, Morgan Kell1.jpg, Morgan Kell (1).jpg, etc, all in one gallery. Of course, unless I write this down, I won't remember it in order to keep the consistency I desire. (Planetary/flag and unit logo formats are described in subsequent sections.)

• Use JPG format for any file where a transparent background is not necessary.
• Do not use special characters with the exception of a hypen -, underscore _, or parenthesis ()

Other special characters work initially but have caused display errors when the wiki software was upgraded.

These errors are only discovered by inspecting individual articles.

There are a lot of articles to inspect.

Person:

("Name" should mirror the person's article name.)

Instance	Rule	Example(s)
Single image used from source	Firstname Lastname_AbbrSource.jpg	Yorinaga Kurita_BTLegends.jpg Shin Yodama_ER3052.jpg Joanna_TFatW.jpg Lefar (Clan Jade Falcon)_TBfTwycross.jpg Bishop (328th Assault)_WCSB.jpg
Multiple images used from source	Firstname Lastname_AbbrSource pXX.jpg	Hanse Davion HDTFS p6.jpg Hanse Davion HDTFS p177.jpg

BattleMech/Vehicle/Aero/Etc (BVAE):

Instance	Rule	Example(s)
Single generic BVAE image used from source	BVAEName_AbbrSource.jpg	Axman_RGilClan v12.jpg Phoenix Hawk_TRO3025.jpg
Multiple generic BVAE images used from source	BVAEName_AbbrSource pXX.jpg	Rifleman_HDTFS p38.jpg Rifleman_HDTFS p65.jpg
Individual (named) BVAE	BVAEName (Name)_AbbrSource.jpg	Centurion (Yen-Lo-Wang)_BTLegends.jpg Panther (Katana Kat)_BTLegends.jpg
BVAE of specific pilot	BVAEName (Pilot Name)_AbbrSource.jpg	Archer (Jaime Wolf)_BTLegends.jpg Valkyrie (Justin Allard)_BTLegends.jpg
BVAE painted in specific unit colors	BVAEName (UnitName)_AbbrSource.jpg	Timber Wolf (Black Widow Company)_BoTukayyid.jpg Tarantula (Dragonslayers)_FMMercsRev.jpg Orion (5th Regulan Hussars) FMFWL.jpg

Planetary Images

• Mine the Turning Points and Touring the Stars (series) for planetary maps, flags, and orbital views. (Plus unit logos and other images, where appropriate.)
• Consistent file name formats allow for alphabetization when viewed in image categories:

Planet Name Planetary Map.png

Planet Name Flag.png

Planet Name Orbital View.jpg

• User:Cache/Planetary Images

Unit Logos

• Review all logos to eliminate duplicates and upload better versions if possible.
• I will be trying to add consistency to the way unit logos are presented.
• User:Cache/Unit Logos

Regional Maps

Review and improve regional maps, being sure they are taken from canon sources and have proper attribution.
See: BattleTechWiki:Project Planets/Planet Overhaul/Faction Map Gallery
(Calderon Protectorate complete. Use as example for image size and naming.)

BattleTech: Legends

There's a lot to add. Tracking progress by section here:

• The Star League Era
• The Succession Wars Era
• The Clan Invasion Era
• The Civil War Era
• The Jihad Era
• The Dark Age Era
• The ilClan Era

Misc

• Review Field Manuals, scenario books, etc. for original appearances of 'Mechs.
• Fill out image summary info for Mercenary's Handbook Gallery (Complete)
• Galleries (category) in general.
• Revise formatting of ToC's as encountered to more closely match their respective sources. (Bullets are horribly overused, especially considering there is only one type.)

FM:FedSuns

Lostech

TRO2750

TRO:3058

TRO:3058U

Masters and Minions

FM:CrCl

The Fall of Terra

RS3075u

• Change variant names of units to match official record sheets/MUL (as encountered)
• TCI Model Sets article needs images.
• Review Esparza's image uploads for duplicates with existing images and complete image summary info.
• Capitalize "Pilots" in the titles of all sub-categories of Category:Notable MechWarriors and Pilots and update all corresponding pilot articles. (Complete)
• Add current articles to Notables categories. Found in TRO:3025, TRO:3039, TRO:3050U, TRO:3055U, TRO:3058U, TRO:3075, TRO:SW, TRO:Jihad, and the Rec Guides (A through R complete with "Capitalize" task. New 'Mechs/Pilots need research.)

Reference Errors (complete)

Pages with reference errors.

I took this one on because it looked relatively simple. It would be time consuming but could be completed one page at a time, or, preferably, in chunks. There were over 500 pages with reference errors when I began. Now there are only a handful of user pages, which I'm not going to touch. What kind of reference errors did I fix? I would guess over 90% were copy/paste errors . A new map comes out and someone adds ownership data for the year that map represents. It would be crazy for them to type the reference every time, as that data would cover hundreds of planets, thus, hundreds of pages. So they copy and paste the reference. Problem is, there's a typo in the reference. Now this typo is repeated for the hundreds of pages that were edited. This is where the "Show preview" button is your friend. At the beginning of a mass edit, preview and scroll down to the references section. Make sure no big, ugly, red errors pop up. Correct them if they do. Then copy/paste the correct references.

Another, now terribly familiar, mass reference error is due to overuse of the <ref name=X> </ref> tags. This happens when the same page is cited multiple times, using the same RefName but a different description each time. If you're going to cite multiple sections on a page, only once each, just use the <ref> </ref> tags. Again, the "Show preview" button is your friend.

A third error that I saw pretty often was careless deletion. Editors delete portions of content that contain the initial <ref name="RefName"> </ref> tags and do not add them back to the remaining content. This leaves orphaned <ref name="RefName"/> tags that don't know where they belong. Again, please use the "Show preview" button when editing.

Don't know what I'm going on about with those last two? Please read the Help page, Detailed References section.

"The" Wars of Reaving (complete)

Wars of Reaving is an event. The Wars of Reaving and The Wars of Reaving Supplemental are products. I inspected all links to "Wars of Reaving" to ensure proper usage, adding "The" where necessary, and corrected dozens of bibliography and reference issues along the way.

Often-Used Resources

• Policy:Manual of Style
• Policy:Images
• Gallery of New Files
• Wanted Files/Redlinks
• Images Missing Copyright Information
• Sources Needing Updates
• Deletion Candidates
• BattleTechWiki:Project GameRules
• Not used often but still useful templates:

Template:Otheruses

Template:Deletion (Move files rather than deleting old when uploading new file types.)

• References for books with new cover artwork/branding with a reprint TRO3055U, TRO3060, TRO3067
• "Comment out" rather than delete empty sections:

<!--Commented out due to lack of information

==Notes==

-->

Persistent List of Sources and their Moratorium Dates

(Sources Under Moratorium)

Source	Expiration
Shrapnel #10	20221115
Recognition Guide: ilClan, vol. 25	20221228
Recognition Guide: ilClan, vol. 26	20230111
Alpha Strike Boxed Set	20230125
Chaos Theory	20230125
Recognition Guide: ilClan, vol. 27	20230125
The Fox Hunt	20230125
Recognition Guide: ilClan, vol. 28	20230209
Shrapnel #11	20230215
The Damocles Sanction	20230228
Recognition Guide: ilClan, vol. 29	20230306
Riptides	20230313
Recognition Guide: ilClan, vol. 30	20230320
Dominions Divided	20230327
Fight for what you Love	20230327
Lethal Lessons	20230328
Hansen’s Roughriders Battle Lance	20230402
Recognition Guide: ilClan, vol. 31	20230403
Eridani Light Horse Hunter Lance	20230404
Innocent, and Defenseless	20230410
Recognition Guide: ilClan, vol. 32	20230417
Escape from Jardine	20230423
Perception of Victory	20230510