Abiotic Factor Wiki:Style guide

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This is a guide to editing the Abiotic Factor Wiki in accordance with the established style. These guidelines are based on other Wikis' styles, with adaptations for our use case. Following these guidelines help us maintain consistency across pages. Editor are expected to follow this style guide, unless there is a good reason to make an exception.

General guidelines

  • Be sure to read an article before editing to prevent duplicate information from being added.
  • Keep the topic of the article in mind. Do not add information that has little to do with the actual topic — there are often other pages that already include this information.
  • Proofread the edit before saving it to make sure it fits with the rest of the article's style. Neglecting spelling or grammar, repeating information, writing vaguely, or not following any of the style guide's guidelines may result in the edit being modified or reverted. If assistance is needed with grammar or styling, please state so in the edit summary, so other editors can assist.
  • Before saving an edit, the changes should be briefly explained in the edit summary field. This helps other editors understand the intentions and changes made, and may help avoid conflict in misunderstandings or controversial modifications, and facilitates searching for a certain change in the page history.

Language

  • Use American English. This is in keeping with the same language, style, and spelling used in-game.
  • Use standard, formal English and proper grammar and spelling. Do not use contracted forms (such as don't, there's – use do not, there is instead), colloquialisms, or slang.
  • Ensure a neutral, "encyclopedia" tone:
    • Do not include first- or second-person perspectives. Do not address the reader as "you", such as in "You can craft Bandages using Cloth Scraps". Alternatively, use "the player" (e.g. "The player can craft Bandges using Cloth Scraps"). Another option to resort to is the passive voice (e.g. "Bandages can be crafted using Cloth Straps"), but do not overuse it. In that vein, phrases like "It is recommended to ..." should be avoided, because it is unclear who recommends it and why. A preferable alternative would be "Players should ...", although even then, reasons should be provided. Furthermore, refrain from using over-generalizing phrases like "Most players ..." – there are a lot of players with widely varying play styles.
    • Adhere to facts – do not include opinions or personal bias. This refers to, for instance, comments about the usefulness of an item or the best way to progress. Likewise, statements like "This is the hardest enemy" or "This item has no useful purpose" should not appear unless they are obviously justifiable by game considerations.
    • Never leave visible comments that are not meant for every reader, like things to do, "Help me format this", or "Please verify this". Hide this in HTML comments or put it in the edit summary.
  • Use and instead of & in page names (and consequently item names, object names, etc...). This is to avoid conflicts with the Wiki software

Capitalization

  • Game content should be capitalized as in-game. When the game doesn't make it clear, use Title Case
  • Groups of entities should be written in lower cased (e.g. skills, perks, creatures, items)
  • Page titles and section headings should be in Sentence case, as long as that does not interfere with the rules above.
  • Template calls should be lower-cased (i.e. {{item}} instead of {{Item}}). Navigational templates, however, are to be called upper-cased (i.e. {{Biomes}} instead of {{biomes}}). This facilitates distinguishing these two types of templates in the source code.

Formatting guidelines

  • The first instance of an entity name should always be linked. This does not apply to the page title (which should be proper bold instead; see below). Further mentions of the same entity should generally not be linked, though multiple identical links can exist if they occur far from each other and would be helpful to readers. An example might be one link in the introductory section along with an identical link in a section, table, or template occurring further down. Duplicate links may be especially helpful on larger pages that would require scrolling to find an entity's first mention.
  • The first instance of a page should be bold. This should usually be in the first sentence of the article. No other instance of the page should be bold. Bold print should usually be avoided for emphasis on other words.
  • Italic text should only be used in certain situations.
    • Emphasis (instead of bold), though be sure not to overuse emphasis, since that diminished effect; consider rewriting instead.
    • Titles of major works. Note that this includes Abiotic Factor.
    • Mentioning a character, word, or short string of words. When mentioned in conjunction with a whole sentence, double quotation marks may be used for consistency. A closely related use of italics is when introducing or distinguishing terms.
    • Foreign words and phrases that are not common in everyday English.
Italics are not to be used for titles of minor works (which are to be enclosed in double quotation marks instead), proper names (such as place names) in other languages, and terms in non-Latin scripts like Japanese.
  • Underlining, s p a c i n g within words, colors within words, ALL CAPS, and small caps styling is to be avoided at all times.
  • The {{ItemLink}} template is a very convenient tool, but it should not be overused. Icon clutter can easily get out of hand. More often than not, a regular link is entirely sufficient.

Coding guidelines

  • The syntax provided by MediaWiki is preferred over HTML, e.g. '''bold''' instead of <b>bold</b> and {| instead of <table>. Nonetheless, in some cases the HTML syntax may be more beneficial for code readability or even necessary to avoid errors, such as in templates.
  • Section titles, lists, and indentations should include spaces for readability, i.e.:
    • == Section == instead of ==Section==
    • * bullet point and # enumerated item instead of *bullet point and #enumerated item
    • : indented text instead of :indented text
Section titles should be immediately followed by the section text or the following subsection title, without an empty line in between.
Section titles should always be preceded by an empty line, unless this interferes with the rule above or creates an empty paragraph.

Article format and sections

The following sections shall detail how each section on a page should be formated.

Intro

The intro should be short, introducing the gameplay element the page is for, as well as a short summary of uses.

Sources

The sources section should list the ways to obtain the items, if applicable.

Uses

The uses section should explain how to use the item or gameplay element, with examples if needed for clarity.

Crafting

In pages for items, the crafting section should be created using Template:craftingSection

Lore

The lore section should be where any lore provided in-game should be placed.

Notes

The notes section should be where any objective notes that do not fit into the above sections should be placed.

Trivia

The trivia section is for information about the item that is not found through gameplay, such as real-world connections or previous versions of the item from early access.

Media

The media section should contain gallery tags and images of the item's icon, the item itself, or the gameplay element.

See Also

The see also section should be where links to similar items or elements should be placed, such as linking to the Security Pistol FL page on the Security Pistol page.

Footer

The footer, or bottom of the page, should be an appropriate template containing links to similar items or elements.

Files

  • For wiki maintenance reasons, all files should be properly categorized in at least one category. Category:Images and Category:Items are two parent categories.
  • GIFs should follow certain guidelines. They should be high frame rate, contain no distractions, and be as short as possible to reduce file sizes.

Naming

  • Image names should follow the capitalization rules of their respective article. For example, Large Rover.png for Large Rover.
  • Icon names should follow the same rules as above, however with Icon placed before the name of the image. Icon Large Rover.png for example.

Templates

  • It is important to read the documentation of a template before changing the parameters of the template on a page. The documentation for the template should be available at the template's base page (e.g. Template:ItemLink for {{ItemLink}}), with links to related information if necessary.
  • Template documentation usually consists of a short intro, a Uses section, and an Examples section. However, sections may be added or removed, depending on the complexity of the template.

Categories

  • Category pages are not articles, and should only contain a couple of short sentences, if needed. If it necessary to add information, create a new article and categorize it with a blank category (such as Alteverse in Category:Alteverse).
  • The blank category is reserved for pages that share the category's name or are in another way very closely related to the category.
  • All pages must be categorized appropriately. This includes articles, files, and categories themselves. Category:Astroneer Wiki should be the base category, and is the only category with no category.

Disambiguations

Disambiguation pages are short pages that link to items that share a similar base term, such as Makeshift Backpack and Basic Backpack both being Backpacks.

Guides

Guides can cover a wide array of different subject, so a single style guide for one guide page may not work for another. Any help styling a guide page may be asked for from the admins.

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