Creation and Upkeep of Ship Histories

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The wiki is the best way to maintain a website for your ship, as all members of the crew can help build and grow the area, when they so choose. In turn, because this can be so collaborative, you can really expand the history and information available about your ship.

Using the Wiki, it's quite easy to create a history for your ship, even if one doesn't exist. This tutorial will walk you through the process of setting up your ship's history and then helping to keep it updated.

Creating the Ship's Page

If your ship already has a page created, you can skip this step. To find out if your ship does have a history already, just go to Ship Histories and see if your ship is listed.

If your ship is not listed, we need to create the page itself using the following instructions:

  1. Right click on the following link and select "Open Link in a New Window": Ship Histories
  2. Scroll down to the section titled "Current Ships"
  3. Now create a link to a new page for the ship, like this: [[USS Enterprise]]. Include the -A, -B if your ship has one, i.e.- "USS Enterprise-A".
  4. Click the "Show Preview" button to make sure that your link shows up properly, and then click on "Save Page".
  5. You'll now see your ship link in red. Click on it to go to the new page.

Now you have a clean slate to work with! On this page, copy and paste the following:

{{subst:ShipHistory| vessel=Vessel Name}}

In place of "Vessel Name," type your vessel's name without the "USS" part, but with any succeeding letters. i.e.- Enterprise OR Enterprise-A.

Now push the "Save page" button, and you'll now see a red link that says "Template:" and then your ship's name. Click on this, and copy/paste the following:

{{subst:ShipNav| Vessel=First Letter UpperCase Vessel Name| vessel=lowercase vessel name| roster=Roster Number| forum=Forum Number}}

After "Vessel=" change the text to the name of your vessel with the first letter uppercase. Also include the succeeding letter. For example: Enterprise OR Enterprise-A.

After "vessel=" change the text to the name of your vessel with the first letter lowercase. Also include the succeeding letter. For example: enterprise or enterprise-a.

  • Note: If your ship has a -A (or other letter), the link to your ship's website may not show up correctly. You will have to go back in and edit this later.

After "roster=" change the text to the number of your ship's roster on the UPDS. You can find this by going to the personnel roster page. Then hover your mouse pointer over your ship's name. You should see a link in your status bar that has a number at the very end. That's your ship's roster number.

After "forum=" change the text to your ship's forum ID on the boards. You can find this by going to the StarBase 118 Ships category on the boards. Find your ship's name and hover your mouse pointer over the name. You should see a link in your status bar that has a number at the very end. That's your ship's forum ID number.

Now click the "Save page" button.

You should see a perfectly good ship nav. If you want to change it in any way, feel free to do so now. Then click on your ship's name at the top of the nav to go back to your ship history.

The best thing to do with this "front" page is to add some introductory text about your vessel, and then some text. To see a good example, go to USS Wallace's page.

Ship History Ideas

Now that you have a simple page for your ship, what to add? This is up to you! Here are some good ideas:

  • Crew history: Give a detailed history of the crew. Who was the original crew? Who has come and left? When did rank promotions occur?
  • Mission summaries: What missions has the crew completed?
  • List of modifications to the ship: Have there been any changes to the ship structurally? New weapons, new shielding, etc.?
  • Enemies your ship has encountered: If your ship has some "recurring" enemies, you could add information on them here.
  • List of NPCs and their profiles: You could add in depth profiles about your NPCs here.

Important Reminders

Adding the Nav to Pages

You'll want to make sure you add the navigation panel to ALL pages that have to do with your ship. To do so, just do: {{ShipName}} and REPLACE the text with your ship's name. i.e.- {{Enterprise}} OR {{Enterprise-A}}.

The nav should go at the top of your page, before the text. It will align itself properly once you put it there.

Use Categories

You want to be sure to use categories to help organize your ship's area correctly. If you have any situation where there is more than one page in a group, create a sub-category. Here are some examples:

  • Mission Archives: Create a category called "Enterprise Mission Archive" (substituting your own ship name, of course). To do this, create your first mission archive page. At the bottom of it, put: [[Category:Enterprise Mission Archive]]. After you save this first page, then click on the red category link which should be at the bottom of the page. Add to this category page something like "All mission summaries for the USS Enterprise." Then, add your ship's category name at the bottom, like so: [[Category:USS Enterprise]], or [[Category:USS Enterprise-A]]. This category now becomes a sub-category of your ship's main category.

... and so on.

Get your Crewmates Involved

You don't have to do it all yourself! Ask them to add nuggets of information where they think it's relevant. The more collaborative you make your ship history, the richer it will be!

See Also

Here are some ship areas you can take a look at for inspiration: