How To Contribute To The Wiki

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Greetings, New Editor

So you want to help us improve the ToME Wiki! Excellent! We need all the help we can get.

Before you get started, please familiarize yourself with the basic standards and conventions which are being used for the ToME Wiki. This will ensure a more organized, more consistent, and easier to read Wiki. It will also save you time, and let you get back to playing more ToME.

Requirements

Contributing to the wiki requires two things:

Once you have an account, you should be able to login to the wiki with the same credentials you used to create your ToME account. Be aware, if you log out of the ToME website, you will also be logged out of the wiki. Logging into your account via the game finishes setting up your profile. If your profile is not complete, you may be unable to contribute to the wiki. When you start playing ToME you should have the option to login via the main menu.

Basic Editing

The ToME wiki uses MediaWiki. This is the same software used by Wikipedia, and users familar with editing on Wikipedia will feel right at home. Please note, however, that the ToME wiki does not support all features, templates or special extensions used by wikipedia; only the most basic, common WikiMedia syntax is supported.

For users new to editing a wiki, and MediaWiki in particular, please read these pages to learn "the basics":

Standards, Norms, and Guidelines

The ToME wiki is (currently) maintained by a small number of ToME enthusiasts. It's important for everyone to follow a rough set of standards, so we don't keep redoing or overdoing work. These standards can change with time, but it's best to ask first.

Here are some of the current standards and norms in place:


ToME Versioning

ToME is actively developed and information may become out of date. In order to help users and editors know when a page was written, we use a version notice on pages. It looks like this:

ToME Version: 1.7.6


If you are creating a page, or adding versioning to a page that did not have it, insert a version template at the top of the page:

If you are updating a page, find the version table (example below) and update it to the current version of the game/dlc. 

<!-- Version of ToME when this page was written -->
{| class="wikitable" style="border: 1px solid gray; font-size: large;"
|ToME Version: || 1.4.3
|}
<!-- Please update if you update the page! -->

Names and Plurals

With a very few special exceptions, names of pages and new pages should be in the singular form. Page about Orcs? The page name should be 'Orc'. Page about longswords? The page name should be 'Longsword'.

Why do we use singular forms? Because we will be linking these pages from other pages. The wiki software is clever enough to turn singular into plural but not backwards. For example:

You create your 'Orc' page. You link it from another page:

The most common enemy in the Far East are [[orcs]]. Each [[orc]] is weak, but in groups are terribly strong.

Wikimedia is smart enough to take the plural 'orcs' and direct you to the singular 'orc' page. The reverse is not true. If you name your page 'orcs', this is what you have to do:

The most common enemy in the Far East are [[orcs]]. Each [[orcs|orc]] is weak, but in groups are terribly strong.

Having to write the form [[orcs|orc]] is annoying for both writer and editor. Stick to singulars. If you find a page that already exists as a plural, you may wish to set up a redirect from the singular to the plural form. This has a few quirks, so don't do it unless you must.

Talents

Talent pages all contain the name of the talent and "(talent)". Therefore a talent page, like Gloom will have a full name of "Gloom (talent)". All talent pages should keep this format.

Pages for a talent category (also called a 'tree') always have "(Category)" in the page name. Pages for a category type, which contain an entire set of categories (or trees), will include the text "(category type)" in the name. Examples are category Cursed form (category), and category type Cursed (category type). This is necessary because talents, categories, and entire category types can all have the same name.

If you need or wish an easy way to make links to these, we've got a solution for that! Wiki editor Vyn thoughtfully created shortcuts that you can use:

Talent Link Shortcuts
Type Actual Name of Page How To Link Example
Talent Solipsism (talent) {{t|Name of Talent}} {{t|Solipsism}} produces Solipsism
Category Solipsism (category) {{c|Name of Category}} {{c|Solipsism}} produces Solipsism
Category Type Chronomancy (category type) {{Ct|Name of Category Type}} {{Ct|Chronomancy}} produces Chronomancy


When filling in details about talents, please make sure you have the correct formula for the effect; if you don't have it, LEAVE IT ALONE. Incomplete data is better than false data; an editor who knows how to search the code source and find the correct data. If you'd like to know how to search the code, please head over to the Developer's section of the forums and ask.

Please also use the templates created for Talent Requirements for the |require= section of the talent template. This allows for consistency of formatting and space saving. See Template:TalentReq and the various subpages for these templates.

Classes and Races

To keep consistency, the individual pages for each Class and Race have a specific format. You should stick to this format. You should not add additional sections to those pages. Include the relevant information, fill in missing information, and leave it alone.

Class Page Format

  1. Title of page should be the name of the class, in singular (eg. Berserker)
  2. ToME Version indicator
  3. Class infobox, described under Template:Class
  4. Description: Basic description of the class. Use in-game text if possible. Should include most important stats as described by the game.
  5. Starting Equipment
  6. Talents table with locked and unlocked talent trees
  7. Very last thing on page is the classes table box: {{classes}}

Race Page Format

  1. Title of page should be the name of the race, in singular (eg. Halfling)
  2. ToME Version indicator
  3. Race infobox, described under Template:Race
  4. Description: Basic description of the race. Use in-game text if possible.
  5. Starting Equipment
  6. Starting Location
  7. Racial Talents table of full talent descriptions
  8. Very last thing on page is the races table box: {{races}}

Quests

Quests have two names: One that is visible to the player inside the game, and another which is visible to the developers who are writing the code. If you're one of these, you already know about it; either way, the consistent rule when talking about quests is to use the name of the quest seen inside the game. For example, the final quest of the game should be called Falling Toward Apotheosis. The name inside the code is "high peak", but we do not use that, as mostly players read the Wiki, not developers.

Templates

Wikimedia allows use of powerful time saving tools called templates. If you're not familiar with these, go read that page I just linked. You can also try A quick guide to templates.

The ToME wiki uses templates for consistency with a number of things that all share similar features. A short list included:

  1. Bosses (Guardians) - template Template:Guardian
  2. Zones - template Template:Zone
  3. Artifacts - template Template:Artifact
  4. Talents - template Template:Ability_box (also works for abilities not strictly talents)
  5. Classes - template Template:Class
  6. Race - template Template:Race

If you are editing or adding any of the above, you should become familiar with how the template works, and use it! A full list of templates can be found on the page Category:Templates.

Formatting Helpers

There are a few (and growing) templates designed to help do things like color font text without having to write ugly HTML code.

  • {{fontcolor}} - used to provide Foreground and background color
  • {{color}} - used for just basic foreground color
  • {{break}} - add a forced newline


Item power type coloring: Use the following templates when you need to indicate an item's power source (eg. Arcane, psionic, antimagic)

Template Produces
{{Arc}} Arcane
{{Am}} Antimagic
{{Nat}} Nature
{{Unk}} Unknown Forces
{{Psi}} Psionic
{{Mas}} Master
{{Ste}} Steam

Use these!

Damage Templates

When you put a damage on the wiki such as "+50 fire", please instead use "+50 {{fire}}". This will produce the result "+50 Fire"

If there isn't a template for something and you still feel inclined to color it you can do something like this {{color|[either a color or a hex #123456]|[damage type]}}.

so {{color|red|fire}} will look like fire. To use a hex value insert a # before it such as {{color|#FF0068|fire}} which will appear as fire.

To make it bold simply change it to '''{{color|red|fire}}''' which will look like fire.

I've added the HEX values ToME uses below, note that light and mind damage both use #FFFF00, but this is difficult to see on a white background (e.x. Light), so I've used gold instead.

NOTE: sometimes, particularly with two word damage types, there are issues if you capitalize the second word, so just leave everything inside the curly brackets lowercase.

Damage Templates I have created:

Template Produces Color
{{physical}} Physical #000000
{{arcane}} Arcane #80008B
{{fire}} Fire #FF0068
{{cold}} Cold #1133F3
{{lightning}} Lightning #006CFF
{{acid}} Acid #008645
{{nature}} Nature #00FF00
{{blight}} Blight #324D0C
{{light}} Light gold
{{darkness}} Darkness #7F7F7F
{{mind}} Mind gold
{{temporal}} Temporal #B0C4DE

And I've also created templates for special damage types. Only the ones I've actually seen on items however.

Template Produces Color
{{acid blind}} Acid Blind #008645
{{arcane silence}} Arcane Silence #80008B
{{bleed}} Bleed #000000
{{blinding light}} Blinding Light gold
{{corrode armour}} Corrode Armour #008645
{{dazing lightning}} Dazing Lightning #006CFF
{{disarming acid}} Disarming Acid #008645
{{flameshock}} Flameshock #FF0068
{{gravity}} Gravity #000000
{{ice}} Ice #1133F3
{{insidious poison}} Insidious Poison damage over 7 turns #00FF00
{{manaburn}} Manaburn #80008B
{{nature slow}} Nature Slow #00FF00
{{poison}} Poison #00FF00
{{shadowflame}} Shadowflame #BF7F73
{{spydric poison}} Spydric Poison #00FF00

Item special effects templates

Some items have chances to apply special effects, instead of dealing flat damage, on hit or being hit. These templates are created to maintain the consistency of each effect's wording, and hopefully to make further attempts at source-diving easier, as the assignment of items' having an effect and the in-game description of what an effect does are put in different files.

Template Produces
{{item acid corrode|20|10}} (10-30)% chance to reduce armor by (10–45cSS:Spellpower + 5)%
{{item antimagic manaburn|5|9}} (9-14) arcane resource burn
{{item antimagic scouring|20|15}} (15-35)% chance to reduce effective powers by 20%
{{item blight disease|15|5}} (5-20)% chance to reduce strength, dexterity, and constitution by 1–35cSS:Spellpower + 5
{{item darkness numbing|9|5}} (5-14)% chance to reduce damage dealt by (1–35cSS:Mindpower + 5)%
{{item light blind|30|10}} (10-40)% chance to blind
{{item lightning daze|10|4}} (4-14)% chance to daze
{{item mind gloom|25|10}} (10-35)% chance to cause random gloom
{{item nature slow|7|3}} (3-10)% chance to slow global speed by (20–70cSS:Mindpower + 10)%
{{item temporal energize|13|10}} (10-23)% chance to gain 10% of a turn (3/turn limit)
{{random confusion|8|4}} (4-12)% chance of confusion

Things To Do

Here are a list of things that you can start doing right away and are super-helpful:

  • Look at the special page Special:WantedPages. This page shows a list of pages that don't exist yet, but DO have a link to them. The higher on the list, the more links; these are pages that we really need because there are links from all over to the page! Go ahead and create a page with the best information you have.
  • Look at the page Wiki Projects. This page is a manually-updated list of projects that wiki editors thought should be done. If you complete a task listed on the Wiki Projects page, please mark off (delete) the task from the list.
  • Keep an eye on Special:RecentChanges, also found on the sidebar of the wiki under "Recent changes". This will show you who has been working on the wiki, and what they've done; it's a good to know who else is working on the wiki and what they might have taken on as a project.
  • If you find typos, go ahead and correct them. This is easy and helpful all around.
  • Add new content! We could really use help filling out the details for Artifacts, and for details about some Zones. We also need help filling out details for Talents! Look at individual talents to see which ones need added info.

Things Not To Do

Try not to - or think REALLY CAREFULLY ABOUT:

  • Making changes to a template, particularly one used in many places (like Template:Artifact).
  • Moving a page to another name. This should only be done to correct a bad name for the article, and you can't over-write a page name that already has content.
  • Making a table or a chart that could be used in more than one place, or more than once. Make a template instead!

Asking For Help

If you need help, your best resources are:

  1. Ask on the Questions page
  2. The MediaWiki help pages
  3. The #wiki channel in the official ToME Discord server - https://discord.gg/tales-of-majeyal
  4. Other editors - post on their Talk pages
  5. The ToME forums - http://forums.te4.org
  6. The chat in the game itself!
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