Guild Wars 2 Wiki:Ask a wiki question/Archive 05

How do I view the old traits?

The way the pages are set up, the trait list pages draw from some seemingly inaccessible database that contains the traits, so viewing previous versions of the pages still shows the current traits. --The preceding unsigned comment was added by 71.12.202.30 (talk).

• List of historical traits contains traits that have been removed from the game and displays their last submitted version details.
• Each trait's page revision history allow you to view all versions that were added to the wiki; easier to navigate if you know approximently when the updated was that changed the trait, such as Power Block changed this way with the June 23, 2015 game update. —Mora 02:05, 11 January 2016 (UTC)

Taking Screenshots - white background on character model

Hello! I notice that one of the outfit pages is missing screenshots of the armor, and I would love to add some pictures of the armor from multiple races as I own the outfit. How are most of the screenshots in the wiki edited to have the completely white background? An example would be http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/File:Bloody_Prince%27s_Outfit_norn_female_front.jpg where the model is completely visible because the background is white. If it's a Photoshop mask, that would make sense. Just want to make sure there isn't another method that I'm missing that can make the background completely white.

Jemikwa (talk) 03:01, 27 January 2016 (UTC)

Many of the armor galleries are from the german wiki's armor project.--Relyk ~ talk < 03:24, 27 January 2016 (UTC)

Firstly, any screenshots that aren't of the preview window are great additions to the wiki - so no worries if the background isn't white.

I suspect that the german wiki editors probably used a uMod modification to change some layers textures to white. (At least that'd be how I would do it). -Chieftain Alex 09:57, 27 January 2016 (UTC)

If I recall correctly, they used mods to alter the background in the character selection screen to provide a white background. The weapons and back items were taken in Lion's Arch, however. —Ventriloquist 14:09, 27 January 2016 (UTC)

Editing page

Trying to edit http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Guild_Heroes_Banner

In the Acquisition table, it calls for {vendor list}. I can not figure out how to make changes to this {vendor list}. (Yes I left off the double {, as wiki was trying to pull the vendor list.)

Any help is appreciated.

Spadabear (talk)

Great question! The portion that you want to be editing is actually on an NPC's page. As an example, Force-Amplifying Impact Device uses {{vendor list}} to find which NPC's sell such an item. It finds COM-322r, because that NPC has a section using {{vendor table row}}.

If you know the NPC's page which sells the Guild Heroes Banner, you can update it there. If the NPC doesn't exist, leave a note here and I'm sure someone can come along and help make the page. G R E E N E R 23:08, 23 April 2016 (UTC)

Available prefixes for weapon sets - best practice

With the SAB update, Kaiser Snake Weapon Boxes were introduced, containing weapons with selectable prefixes. While one could add the Available prefixes list to every page of this weapon set, wouldn't it be better to add the list to the weapon box and let every weapon page grab/auto-fill the list from there?

What is the best practice? Copying and pasting a list fifteen times does not seem like a best practice to me. (I asked this question here as well.) Nefastu (talk) 10:44, 25 April 2016 (UTC)

Use the {{prefix selection}} template on the weapon article and copypaste it. As far as implementation, the weapon box is a container and has no relation to the weapons themselves. We don't have a way to derive the list from properties of the weapon, mostly because there's so much variation.--Relyk ~ talk < 15:01, 25 April 2016 (UTC)

Droprate research, number of drops vs occurrences

I wanted to contribute some droprates, but I dont know how many boxes actually contained the final number of drops. I know that I opened X boxes and got a total of Y Pile of Bloodstone Dust. But the template states it should be recorded how many containers dropped it (maybe just one dropped the total amount), not how much was dropped.

Why is that, and how is this information useful? Kalel (talk) 17:09, 31 May 2016 (UTC)

Could you link to the page in question? I'm afraid I can't see what you are talking about, and as such really can't help. -Darqam (talk) 17:30, 31 May 2016 (UTC)

Blow the cobwebs off of Guild Wars 2 Wiki:Projects/Drop Rate Research - drop rate research never got much love and the few pages that contain DRR are a nightmare! — snograt 22:41, 31 May 2016 (UTC)

I just noticed that somebody already suggested that, more than 3 years ago. But it got no attention. And it seems nobody cared for 3 years. Are droprates really that uninteresting and unimportant that nobody cares? If I wanted to change the way drops are recorded is there something that would stop me (other than time)? Kalel (talk)

I must be missing something since I really don't see where the problem is. If you look at something like Cracked Fractal Encryption/research people record how much they opened and what they got out of it. Most drop-rate studies I've seen have all been structured the same. (Glob of Destabilized Ectoplasm/Drop Rate as well for example) -Darqam (talk) 16:19, 1 June 2016 (UTC)

Some drop rate tables were setup to use autototals, which meant that you just recorded that you got "10 scraps" or "1 scraps" as +1 entry. We stopped doing that for the newer drop rate stuff, but since we can't go back and correct old data, only delete, we've done nothing about it. -Chieftain Alex 17:06, 1 June 2016 (UTC)

Maybe we should split/ update it, or even delete it? If we do it for newer stuff it should be noted somewhere and not the "Some boxes can give the user multiple amounts of a single item each time they are opened. If a player opens a single box and receives 3 of item A, and 1 of item C, then 1 would be added to the existing line count for both item A and C." on top of it, which, you said, is false. Kalel (talk) 17:29, 1 June 2016 (UTC)

If we are already DOING that, why not document it? Im talking about these lines on top of your first link: "Some boxes can give the user multiple amounts of a single item each time they are opened. If a player opens a single box and receives 3 of item A, and 1 of item C, then 1 would be added to the existing line count for both item A and C.". That is not what is in the table, then why should it keep standing there? Kalel (talk) 17:29, 1 June 2016 (UTC)

Table of contents placement

Well, I've been meaning to ask this for almost three years now. Why does the table of contents sometimes look like this (connected with the first sentence on the page) and sometimes like this (the placement is offset from the first sentence, not squished together)? Which wiki element 'adds' the whitespace above the TOC? —Ventriloquist 11:58, 9 July 2016 (UTC)

Okay so I guess you're using the Monobook wiki skin under preferences? (It looks alright in vector).

The spacing difference is due to the lead text in Verdant Brink being wrapped within a "p" paragraph element, and on Champion Mayatl the Fierce the text is not in a "p" element, it is on its own. Vector doesn't see the issue (it's still there though), because we apply "div#content #toc { margin: 0.5em 0; }".

As to the difference between the pages, it's probably something odd in the infobox. -Chieftain Alex 13:18, 9 July 2016 (UTC)

Still not sure about the root cause, but if the sentence begins with non-plaintextof any type (e.g. wikicode), and the text is preceded by the NPC any infobox (some difference betwen NPC+area infobox here), then the p element isn't parsed. -Chieftain Alex 13:22, 9 July 2016 (UTC)

I don't think we'll be able to fix the root problem here, but I can add the margin to the monobook rules so that you never see the gap difference again. -Chieftain Alex 13:34, 9 July 2016 (UTC)

Oh, so it is/was an HTML thing, not a wiki thing. That's a relief, no more cringing when I see a TOC on a page. Thanks a bunch Alex. —Ventriloquist 13:53, 9 July 2016 (UTC)

Yeah whatever kludge the mediawiki software uses to parse wikicode into html messed up a bit. -Chieftain Alex 13:54, 9 July 2016 (UTC)

wiki

being a player of several games in my life Wiki has always been a place i can go when i can t figure something out in game but here it states i can't discuss game issues so my question is whats the point of wiki i am sure you dont want your games ticket systems flooded about questions on game cause i really dont have a problem with that i can put a ticket in every 10 minutes for 3-5 hrs the offical forums dont tell me what i need to know so where do i go what would you suggest i do

This particular page is about wiki questions, because wiki editors need a central place to ask questions to other editors sometimes.

The editors of the wiki are not employed by ArenaNet, so we don't handle tickets. In my opinion, your best bet would be to create a post on the /r/GuildWars2 reddit Weekly questions thread, most questions get useful answers there. If however you know what you want to ask and think there is a relevant wiki page that doesn't quite explain it sufficiently, you can feel free to create a topic on the talk page of the respective article, e.g. Talk:Meteor Shower is for Meteor Shower. -Chieftain Alex 22:55, 22 July 2016 (UTC)

unlock item block at trading post

i just buy cd key for upgrade my account to heart of thorns, but i still cant buy lock item at trading post, so how i unlock that item? or i should wait until 4 days to unlock it? thanks —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 36.85.156.11 (talk • contribs).

Hello there. Unfortunately, this is a place to ask wiki-related questions, not game-related ones. If you're having any issues with the game and require help, you can send a support ticket at this link and ArenaNet will help you with your issue. From what I've heard, it takes some time for the Heart of Thorns unlock to kick in. I suggest waiting a few, and if your account is still free-player-locked, contact support. —Ventriloquist 20:35, 23 July 2016 (UTC)

When to not make an NPC Page

As per Talk:Zonnie Kurza, can we sort of have a guideline somewhere as to when to not make an NPC page? There are quite a few pages I've come across while working on the Shared Model Project that are "person mentioned that died", "person died and is buried here"(or tombstone npcs), "random person mentioned in once in the dialogue and doesn't actually appear in game or have any real importance" or "rabbits/dolphin that an npc named but all I see is generic non-named rabbits/dolphin". Other than Lee and Grey Gritta (dolyak)(which should probably be flushed out a bit more) existing because areas are named after them, the rest of these pages added nothing else of value, and I'd like to prevent people from creating these pages when their focus could be better focused elsewhere. - Do_odleplex 23:03, 1 August 2016 (UTC)

NPCs that are only mentioned in a single sentence on tombstones or other casual objects shouldn't have pages; however, NPCs that are somewhat story-relevant or have lore objects tied to them (such as Apprentice Kasandra or Justiciar Bauer) should, at least for lore purposes. No one wants to read dozens of single-sentence articles on irrelevant characters which do not add anything relevant to the wiki. —Ventriloquist 00:05, 2 August 2016 (UTC)

Makes sense. So how about it being that if an NPC has no value to either story or lore and has no context other "mentioned once by NPC/item/tombstone" it shouldn't have a page. Or in the case of current pages, if an NPC has no story or lore value and the majority of the content on the npc's page is either from dialogue(example Pact Captain Klinx, most of the stuff is on Axel Trueshot, not to mention the rest of that page is about the squad not the npc) or is assumed(example Izzitt is a mentioned once and most the stuff is assumed) it shouldn't have a page/marked to be deleted? - Do_odleplex 00:51, 2 August 2016 (UTC)

Oddly enough, I don't mind the Klinx page. As you can see from the talk page link in your original comment, the IP that added the tag found it useless and even distracting to have NPC pages for every irrelevant tombstone.

"When I look through the list of tombstones, if every single name gets its own article, it's impossible to distinguish between names with actual, additional information behind them, and those without."

With that in mind, Klinx is only mentioned on one page, but his significance has an impact on the related NPC, in this case Axel Trueshot; therefore, I'd keep it. As for Izzitt, that's a speculation page that shouldn't exist in the first place (same deal as the tombstone names). Of course, this is all my opinion and not wiki policy (we don't really have a rule for this (it was once briefly discusses on Louise's page, but nothing really came out of it)). What do you think? —Ventriloquist 10:27, 2 August 2016 (UTC)

I'll throw in my opinion quickly. I've always been of the opinion that is a page has nothing new to offer from the page from which it was linked from; then it has no reason to exist. Tombstone pages in particular are kind of useless (for most cases?) since it's just the same information noted down on the object page now on an npc page. If, however, the npc page gathers information from multiple sources and teaches someone something new after they've only visited one parent link; then it should stay. -Darqam (talk) 13:41, 2 August 2016 (UTC)

I think we're all in agreement about the tombstones, so I'll go about marking them today. How about this, if the contents of the NPC's page is mostly assumed because there's little evidence at that time(like Izzit, if anything the page could be remade later when there is actual content) or is a npc with no significant importance to either Lore, story or to the npc that mentioned them, they don't need to exist? So Leary would exist because of his effects on Mave, but Dilys would go because literally all the did was say hello. If anything I can make a list of these npc pages and perhaps if we go down a list we can maybe iron it out a bit better? Oh and these these rabbit pages can undoubtedly go since last I checked they a.) don't add anything and b.) it's just a bunch of rabbits running around, none have names over their heads. - Do_odleplex 18:33, 2 August 2016 (UTC)

Achivement Template Usage

I was looking at the article here Conspiracy of Dunces and the 'Achivement' section instead of the achievement box, showed just a very small light blue square. Tried for a while to fix it and the only thing I could find that did the trick was changing {Achievement} for {Achievement|name=Conspiracy of Dunces}. But from what I understand this should not be necessary since the default name is the name of the page, and I just put the name of the page in the 'name' parameter. I cannot figure out why it was not working without the name parameter, so I left it like that, but I would like to know what would have been the nicer approach. Anyone could enlighten me? Thanks! . --KillerRabbit (talk) 00:15, 2 August 2016 (UTC)

I think I fixed it myself, I added the missing parameter 'page' to the 'Achievement table row' template in the Out of the Shadows (achievements) page. After doing that, removing 'name' no longer showed that little light blue square... Although Ventriloquist added the cateogry 'Out of the Shadows' and I'm not 100% sure if it had anything to do with that. As always looking forward to be enlightened ;) --KillerRabbit (talk) 00:55, 2 August 2016 (UTC)

Ampersand in title

Ampersands & in pagetitles become problematic without encoding them as %26:

• //wiki.guildwars2.com/index.php?title=PR%26T_Esoterics&action=edit ({{fullurl:PR&T Esoterics|action=edit}})
• //wiki.guildwars2.com/index.php?title=PR%26T_Esoterics&action=edit ({{fullurl:{{#replace:{{#replace:PR&T Esoterics|&|%26}}||_}}|action=edit}})
• //wiki.guildwars2.com/index.php?title=PR%26T_Esoterics&action=edit ({{fullurl:{{PAGENAMEE:PR&T Esoterics}}|action=edit}})
• //wiki.guildwars2.com/index.php?title=PR%26T_Esoterics&action=edit ({{fullurl:{{urlencode:PR&T Esoterics}}|action=edit}})
• //wiki.guildwars2.com/index.php?title=PR%26T_Esoterics&action=edit ({{SERVER}}{{SCRIPTPATH}}/index.php?title={{#replace:{{#replace:PR&T Esoterics|&|%26}}||_}}&action=edit)
• //wiki.guildwars2.com/index.php?title=PR%26T_Esoterics&action=edit ({{SERVER}}{{SCRIPTPATH}}/index.php?title={{PAGENAMEE:PR&T Esoterics}}&action=edit)
• //wiki.guildwars2.com/index.php?title=PR%26T+Esoterics&action=edit ({{SERVER}}{{SCRIPTPATH}}/index.php?title={{urlencode:PR&T Esoterics}}&action=edit)

<DPL>
  titlematch = %&%
  columns = 3
  format = ,\n* [[%PAGE%]],,
</DPL>

<DPL> titlematch = %&% columns = 3 format = ,\n* [[%PAGE%]],, </DPL> --BryghtShadow (talk) 06:44, 3 August 2016 (UTC)

See Guild Wars 2 Wiki:Reporting wiki bugs#Ampersands --BryghtShadow (talk) 03:46, 20 August 2016 (UTC)

Table of Content Depth

So I've been trying to play around a bit with table of contents (for legibility of some project pages); but can't seem to find a way to restrict the "depth" at which they display chapters. The docs seem to suggest this should be possible, but I can't seem to make it work. Is there a trick to it that I am missing, or is this not enabled here? For reference, I am not looking for this to only affect me through a personal CSS change, but for everyone. -Darqam (talk) 21:08, 31 August 2016 (UTC)

/* TOC display level limiter, will only display the TOC up to level N */
.toc1 li.toclevel-2, .toc1 li.toclevel-3, .toc1 li.toclevel-4, .toc1 li.toclevel-5, .toc1 li.toclevel-6,
.toc2 li.toclevel-3, .toc2 li.toclevel-4, .toc2 li.toclevel-5, .toc2 li.toclevel-6,
.toc3 li.toclevel-4, .toc3 li.toclevel-5, .toc3 li.toclevel-6,
.toc4 li.toclevel-5, .toc4 li.toclevel-6,
.toc5 li.toclevel-6,
.hide,
body.page-Main_Page.ns-subject h1.firstHeading { display:none; }

that is in MediaWiki:Common.css. Do <div class="toc2">__TOC__</div> for example to hide all headings smaller than "h2" (== title ==) in the table of contents. -Chieftain Alex 23:10, 31 August 2016 (UTC)

Awesome, thanks! -Darqam (talk) 23:49, 31 August 2016 (UTC)

Hideable divs, "tabbed" view

Over at my sandbox I've created a mockup for an idea I have for full page skill/trait histories (for the Skill Version History project): When loading the page, the reader only sees the table and the current version infobox. If the reader clicks on one of the other game update tabs dates in the table, the corresponding infobox will show up instead. From my knowledge, I would have to use divs with class="history" and style="display: none;" and use JavaScript to add/remove the style part from the class="history" divs. My questions are:

1. Is this concept of hidden divs/information okay for this wiki?
2. Does a solution to my problem already exist? I found mw:Extension:Tabber, this would be a great solution for my issue however this would display tabs and would not be perfect for my idea (though I don't know if that would be better for the reader - that is why I am asking here :) ). -Nefastu (talk) 02:08, 14 September 2016 (UTC)

Updated my original post - now I only have one question: Where can I request the addition of mw:Extension:Tabber? -Nefastu (talk) 08:48, 17 September 2016 (UTC)

Extension requests would be at Project:Requests for technical administration --BryghtShadow (talk) 10:01, 17 September 2016 (UTC)

We should really discuss the proposed format elsewhere first before proposing backend extension changes. Tabs won't be ideal since you're unnecessarily hiding page content upon page load. Tables like the one at the top of your sandbox look like a pain in the butt to update (future updates of the history pages are a big concern personally - it doubles the number of pages that need to be editing with each update. If we make the strucutre of the page simple enough, future updates could potentially be made using a bot (no guarantees here but it should be feasible). My five minute effort. -Chieftain Alex 11:34, 17 September 2016 (UTC)

Signature

How do I update my signature so that it is followed with the timestamp? I altered it to make it better but now it's a pain and a half to type out. If I copy-paste it, it doesn't come with the timestamp. Thanks in advance. --Louise (talk) 23:39, 6 November 2016 (UTC)

If you type four tildes (~~~~) it will use your signature (custom or not) followed by the timestamp. The signature button above the edit box will also add --~~~~ to the message. If what you wanted was to include the timestamp in the custom signature, you can't do that, because the signature field won't accept ~~~~~ , which is the code for the timestamp --Gimmethegepgun (talk) 00:01, 7 November 2016 (UTC)

Oh well. I guess I'll have to manually type the timestamp every time then. Bummer. Thanks for replying. || LOUISE || 00:08, 7 November 2016 (UTC)

Why do you need to type it manually? It should show up after the custom signature with 4 tildes. Or, if that's not working, use 5 after your signature to put in the timestamp --Gimmethegepgun (talk) 02:13, 7 November 2016 (UTC)

As Gimmethegepgun said, all you need to do is add the four tilde after your comment. If for some reason you DIDN'T want the timestamp, then you would put only 3 tilde. For most (any?) circumstance, you would just add the 4 tilde after your comments. -Darqam 02:40, 7 November 2016 (UTC)

I got that. When I do that, it puts my signature like this: Louise <timestamp>. Since I recently upgraded and tweaked my signature to look like this: || LOUISE ||, I was wondering if there was a way that this would write in everytime I clicked the signature button above. If not, like I said, I'll have to copy-paste it everytime and add the timestamp manually afterwards. || LOUISE || 6:53, 7 November 2016 (UTC)

#mw-editbutton-signature { display: none; }

mw.toolbar.addButton(false,"Your signature with timestamp"," ~~~ ~~~~~","","","mw-editbutton-signature");

Random guess? I have no idea what you're asking for really.--Relyk ~ talk < 07:01, 7 November 2016 (UTC)

It's pretty simple, really. All I want to know is if there is a way that when I insert my signature and timestamp, instead of getting this: User:Louise <timestamp>, I get: User talk:Louise|<span style="font-family:Georgia; color:blue; font-weight:normal"|| LOUISE || <timestamp> || LOUISE || 7:10, 7 November 2016 (UTC)

I gave it a few trials, and I was able to mimic your signature appropriately with the following steps.

• Go to preferences, to your signature section.
• Put [[User talk:Louise|<span style="font-family:Georgia; color:blue; font-weight:normal">'''||''' '''LOUISE''' '''||'''</span>]] into the signature area.
• Check the box "Treat signature as wikitext (without an automatic link)"

Then you should be able to get both the signature and timestamp to appear with just the four "~".

PS: Why didn't anyone point out that my signature wasn't going to my talk page? G R E E N E R 07:41, 7 November 2016 (UTC)

Tested it and worked like a charm. Thanks for pointing it out for me and saving me all this future hassle, Greener. || LOUISE || 09:41, 7 November 2016 (UTC)

API for Accessing Item Page Images

Does the GW2 Wiki have the bundled API service that would allow me to fetch the main image from item wiki pages? If not, would it be difficult to implement this?

Other than combining the regular SMW askargs module with the mediawiki query module / file module, I don't know how you would go about doing this.

First query to get the main file for any page

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/api.php?action=askargs&conditions=Twilight&printouts=Has%20appearance

Second query to get the file url for any wiki file name

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/api.php?action=query&titles=File:Twilight.jpg&prop=imageinfo&iiprop=url

(edit): Basically like http://stackoverflow.com/questions/8363531/accessing-main-picture-of-wikipedia-page-by-api, the file hash can be calculated instead of querying a second time.

-Chieftain Alex 00:10, 10 November 2016 (UTC)