User talk:HD3

Welcome
Hi, welcome to the Dragon Age Wiki! Thanks for joining! I hope that you will stick around and continue to help us improve the wiki. Please leave a message on my talk page if I can help with anything! -- D-day (Talk) 05:55, 16 December 2012

Hello
Hello there! I am just letting you know that the Community Project you signed up for is now active ! Please check here for more info. Also don't forget to join us in IRC, it's important!

Yours, 20:12, December 20, 2012 (UTC)

Quick note
Hi, first off, thanks for all the work you've been doing. I just wanted to let you know that when pages are proposed for splits, merges, deletions etc., it is common practice to wait one week. Even though the talk page consensus was unanimous, the Watchers page still had a day to go. It's also a good idea to leave a note on the talk page when you've closed an open proposal. Thanks! 06:28, January 8, 2013 (UTC)
 * Heh, I'm from Australia too, but I apparently I forgot to count . Thanks for adding the note! 08:08, January 8, 2013 (UTC)

Chat
Hey HD3, why don't you come from the chat a little, it's about A Tale of Orzammar. 15:08, January 28, 2013 (UTC)

Character Images
Hey HD3. I noticed that you uploaded some character images a few minutes ago. I wanted to tell you that pictures of much better quality are being taken when you talking with the characters because of the camera focusing on them and not on the background.

A quick example would be:
 * File:Arl Leonas Bryland.png
 * File:A b2.png

Obviously you'll need to disable the dialogue showing on the top of the screen or instead use this mod to circumvent that. 09:38, February 27, 2013 (UTC)

News
Hey HD3, I hope you are doing great!

After I finally managed to have a discussion with Tierrie, I have added the download link of A Tale of Orzammar to the main page. However, I could use your help in petitioning him in adding a hyperlink on the row in character profiles to this page. See you around! 21:33, March 4, 2013 (UTC)


 * Hey, HD3! I didn't manage to catch up with you in the chat. Have you thought at all about my idea? :-) 11:59, March 22, 2013 (UTC)

Grand Cleric Elemena
After she talked (and the cutscenes ended), I opened up my journal and checked her name. However there is another way. I assign the fight with Loghain to an unrecruited character (console magic) so once the duel starts I am outside the fight and I can roam around the Landsmeet Chamber checking the names of all the participants ;) I hope this answers to your question. 15:42, March 26, 2013 (UTC)

Rogueish Loghain
Hey, there. :)

Just here to say that I added the category as I believed young Loghain was indeed a rogue. In The Stolen Throne he wears a light armour and uses a bow. I suposse warriors can do those things as well, but still. :)

I started a talk page on Loghain, but no one answered. :) Henio0 (talk) 09:57, April 1, 2013 (UTC)

I can see why you would be inclined to that notion sure, but since the novels don't follow the same gameplay rules the actual games do i think it makes more sense to list him as the class we can confirm, as well as the one more people would probably know him from.-HD3 (talk) 10:13, April 1, 2013 (UTC)

A matter of outmost importance
HD3, please check a topic that I opened up in the Main Page. I'm pretty sure you'd be interested in replying. Thanks! 15:40, April 3, 2013 (UTC)


 * I made a new reply to the topic offering an idea/suggestion. I'd like to hear your thoughts on it. Cheers! 11:00, April 10, 2013 (UTC)

Hello again! I just went all over your uploaded files in the wiki and added categories or licensing here and there. For future reference (in order to do it on your own next time), provided that you are interested of course, you can check these changes in Special:Contributions/Viktoria Landers. Take care! 09:18, April 12, 2013 (UTC)

No need for ereasing
I think you didn't have to erease 4th variant from Vael Family page. 62.87.248.184 (talk) 14:39, April 27, 2013 (UTC)

It doesn't really contribute anything unique about the Family History though. Sebastian's reaction is also already covered on his own character article as well as the Last Straw article. The 4th variant really just amounts to "he doesn't abandon you". Which i think we can safely say is presumed unless specifically noted as being otherwise, as in the case of Alistair and Loghain.

Also would you make an account please. All these random IP addresses showing up all over the case are hard to keep track of, it's a little confusing.-HD3 (talk) 14:44, April 27, 2013 (UTC)


 * Then I think Sebastian's note also isn't needed. As for the account I rather remain anonymous.62.87.248.184 (talk) 16:35, April 27, 2013 (UTC)


 * What note are you referring to? I don't see any note.

P.S Are you really anonymous if we always know it's you?-HD3 (talk) 16:39, April 27, 2013 (UTC)

Harassment
I don't believe that anyone's response to an online discussions should be "lawyer up or go home", but, I can understand that people do over react when offended. However in this case, it reads like he over reacted to your comments. Thanks for bringing it to my attention. -- 19:50, May 4, 2013 (UTC)

Removal of game names from location articles
Hi there. I have noticed that you rewrote a number of articles about Dragon Age II locations and removed mention of the game from the lead sections. I strongly disagree with these changes and think that they should be discussed first on the forum. Currently most of our leads follow the style "X is a Y in Z" (with the exception of lore articles), and I think that we should keep it. It's essential information that should be available without having to potentially scroll the page and look in the infobox. 15:15, July 1, 2013 (UTC)

While i certainly would not support universal removal of the applicable game name from the lead-in, i do feel very strongly that holding such a policy as universal is both a questionable practice and in reality, something that has already been ignored to a considerable extent. A vast number of articles, character articles in particular, do not carry this style. I imagine due to issues similar to labeling an NPC such as Meredith as "the chief antagonist" in "dragon age 2" being an unmarked spoiler if nothing else.

While i certainly understand your concerns about wanting essential information easily locatable at the top of the article, given that the info box universally appears at the top of the article (usually immediately next to the lead in which outlines which game is relevant) mentioning the game seems largely redundant. The obvious exception of course being when the article's subject's role has shifted singificantly between installments. E.G Alistair being a companion in DA:O and only appearing as an npc in DA:2, would certainly warrant such a distinction in the lead-in rather than relying on the Appearances section of the info-box.

Perhaps maintaining the current lead-in style while extending the exception to character articles would be an effective solution? Anyway, given the weight of your concern i will not make any further such changes to any location articles until we've reached a consensus. -HD3 (talk) 01:57, July 2, 2013 (UTC)

I moved the discussion to Forum:Game names in the lead sections to attract more opinions and answered you there. I hope you don't mind. 08:10, July 2, 2013 (UTC)

I actually try to avoid the forums as much as possible.-HD3 (talk) 08:23, July 2, 2013 (UTC)

I don't think you can't change a site-wide policy via user talk page, it is usually done in the "Wiki discussion" subforum. Any consensus we reach will be just for the two of us. But I will oblige.

My reply to the previous message:

It is not really a policy, the closest we have is LEAD that states: "The lead should be capable of standing alone as a concise overview of the article, establishing context, and explaining why the subject is interesting or notable." Can you explain why mentioning the game is a questionable practice? I don't think that potential spoilers are a problem since "major character" instead of "the chief antagonist" would work just as well.

While the infobox appears next to the lead, the appearances row does not. For example, see Alistair. On my machine there is a distance of 1135 pixels from the top of the monitor to the row. A lot of people won't even see it until they scroll the page. And the infobox is meant to be redundant – it is a summary of the article after all. 08:46, July 2, 2013 (UTC)

Well you can return the post to the forums if you feel it is going to be a significant contribution to our shared understanding of course.

To the issue at hand:

I feel it is a questionable policy because having to repeat ""X" is a character in "Y"" at the top of every page is both largely self evident and unnecessary. People are intelligent enough that they could work out that an article with a person's name is a character article without us having to explicitly state "X is a character in Dragon Age". So the only essential information contained in such a statement is which installment they appear in. That i agree with you should be clearly marked.

You cite the Alistair page as an example of how someone might be forced to scroll down to see the bottom of the infobox to know which installment they appear in. I'm not sure why expecting someone to scroll down slightly would be such a bad thing. But anyway, that's a moot point because in the overwhelming majority of articles the bottom of the infobox appears in the initial load of the page without having to scroll down at all. E.G Meredith and Elthina. Pages with infoboxes large enough that you must scroll down to see the appearance column are more an exception than a rule. All our affiliated wikias, Mass Effect, Assassin's Creed etc, employ a similar policy regarding lead-ins for character articles E.G h http://masseffect.wikia.com/wiki/Saren_Arterius, http://assassinscreed.wikia.com/wiki/Paul_Bellamy.

-HD3 (talk) 10:36, July 2, 2013 (UTC)

I don't think that we should say "is a character/location in X" every time. It can be "is the Knight-Commander of the Templars of Kirkwall during the events of X." or "is elven mage met during the quest Y in X". It also doesn't have to be in the very first sentence of the lead.

Even when the infobox is fully visible, the appearances are as far from the lead as it can be in the infobox. I believe that this information is so important that it should be among the first things visitor sees.

As far as I know, affiliation with wikis is purely for promotion purposes, it doesn't mean that we encourage their policies. I really like the UESP wiki style with separate namespaces for Lore and each game. Unfortunately, this is not allowed on the Wikia platform. I also like Fallout wiki style where the game is mentioned at the very top of the infobox but not in the lead: Moira, Bob. 11:31, July 2, 2013 (UTC)

I don't cite the other wikis as a way to try and prove we've fallen out of line with established policy. I only bring them up as an example because they follow a very similar article template without having to go so far as explicitly state the primary game/novel title in the lead-in. Yet they persist just fine and without complaint or confusion.

I agree certainly that the information is important enough to warrant mention near the head of the article and should be among the first thing people see. The problem is it already is among the first thing people see in most cases. They always look at the picture first and in most articles the "Appears in" section is about 3 centimeters/1 inch below that requiring no scrolling at all. It also saves us having to shoe horn a mention of the games title into a lead in which would otherwise be in-world decryption.

I agree the Fallout wiki style's solution would solve all our problems certainly, but that's outside my abilities so I am afraid we'd have to ask someone more knowledgeable about such things.

Since we both seem to agree that this information is important enough that it should be clearly marked at the head of the article, the issue seems to be about to what extent to make it explicit. I would contend that a section of the readily available portion of the article designated for quick and easy reference is probably enough in most cases. Since you seem to feel so strongly about the need for an accompanying phrase, i must concede we should probably open this to a wider discussion.-HD3 (talk) 12:11, July 2, 2013 (UTC)

Yes, it appears we reached a stalemate. I restored the forum discussion – Forum:Game names in the lead sections. 12:38, July 2, 2013 (UTC)

Decimus
Hi again. I didn't remove the spoiler tag from the background section as it wasn't there to begin with :) This is the page before my edit – http://dragonage.wikia.com/wiki/Decimus?oldid=495456 16:44, July 2, 2013 (UTC)

So you didn't remove the mention of the starkhaven circle's loss or cover it under the spoiler tag...?-HD3 (talk) 16:46, July 2, 2013 (UTC)

I split one spoiler into two and did nothing else. I didn't edit text and I didn't change what text is covered by spoilers. 17:04, July 2, 2013 (UTC)

MotA maps
Hey. I uploaded a map from the game textures on the Dungeons page. The only problem is it's semi-transparent, so it looks ugly with the default gradient background of the wiki. I'll experiment with the styling and upload the rest of the maps later. 10:04, July 3, 2013 (UTC)


 * At the very least we can use them as placeholders until we get better quality images.-HD3 (talk) 10:05, July 3, 2013 (UTC)


 * I think the pictures themselves are as high quality as you can get. The problem is with the thumbnails. You can see that if click on a thuhmbnail and view the full image. 10:21, July 3, 2013 (UTC)

I meant it might be better if we could get in game images of the maps rather than using second hand ones produced by other sites. Partly for legal reasons and partly because they're sometimes cluttered with unexplained markers.-HD3 (talk) 10:23, July 3, 2013 (UTC)


 * I think there is some misunderstanding here. The file I uploaded is a texture that I personally extracted from the game files. 10:29, July 3, 2013 (UTC)


 * Oh i see. You're right i completely misunderstood. If you're doing that, you might want to consider broadening your scope. There is a huge number of location articles, for Dragon age II in particular which lack map images. Even just the semi-transparent image would be a big improvement.-HD3 (talk) 10:32, July 3, 2013 (UTC)

part of civil war
I consider Howe's asslaut on Highiver as a part of the Fereldan Civil War and I started this topic on it's talk page. However I need to discuss it with others before I extend the article, so I invite you to discuss, if you're interested.78.8.10.229 (talk) 17:54, July 6, 2013 (UTC)

Deceased
There's no way to put in hidden categories on the wiki. Plus, I wouldn't recommend putting "Deceased" as a category. The story line currently takes place within the same time frame, but, as we enter the 3rd game, we're no longer sure who dies or who does not. Additionally, certain characters may die depending on player's choice. So the deceased state is also relative to each player's playthrough. In summary, I'd leave off marking certain characters as Deceased. -- 05:55, July 18, 2013 (UTC)

Bodahn and Sandal
Here are the stuff, if anything else is needed let me know.

Bodahn's Goods:

Roughwork Bound Staff Enchanted Staff Boots Dalish Belt (+3 health) Belt (+9 attack) ×4 Health Potion ×2 Lyrium Potion ×3 Stamina Draught ×2 Injury Kit This store is only the one in Hightown, not the Deep Roads one.

Sandal's Store:

1st version Mace (+45 health) Carved Wooden Staff (+17% fire damage) Superior Helmet (4% physical damage) Superior Boots (+2 mana/stamina regeneration, +6% fire damage) Ring (+3% physical damage) Ornate Rogue's Ring (+23 defense) ×15 Health Potion ×5 Lyrium Potion ×6 Stamina Draught ×3 Injury Kit

2nd version Gives you nothing else but the potions, draught and kit mentioned above.

Bodahn's Goods (in the Deep Roads): Dagger Dagger (a weaker one) Blade of Calling (appears only on a presumably much higher level, and on first occasion it was a sword with damage bonus, then it's a mere dagger - I don't know where to put it) Wooden Staff (also appears on a higher level) Circle Weavers - Minor Asabas-Saar Eva (helmet on higher level) Andraste's Grace (+5% healing to this character) Ring (+2 mana/stamina regeneration) Twisted Amulet (+21 stamina, on higher level) Ring of Minor Cantrips (+5% fire damage, on higher level) ×4 Health Potion ×2 Lyrium Potion ×3 Stamina Draught ×2 Injury Kit

Not sure from which point do the "higher level" items appear, I went once as a level 2, then twice as a level 50, which is quite the difference. Nothing changes when you level up on the spot. Also signing, since I forgot to do that the last time. --Margerard (talk) 04:27, July 22, 2013 (UTC)

Hey!
Hey HD3! I hope you're doing great!

You recently uploaded three images in your user page which however lack proper licensing. As I wasn't sure which is the appropriate license for them, I added the No license template. However you can remove that and add the appropriate license. A list of licenses can be found here.

I also need your help to verify a claim as I cannot access DA2. In the page, it says that Nuncio Caldera Lanos is a noble. Is that true? 13:10, August 5, 2013 (UTC)


 * That's alright. And thanks for your help with Nuncio! Not sure why you put a spoiler template though xD Oh and you can reply in your talk page next time in order to keep the conversation in one place ;-) 09:29, August 6, 2013 (UTC)

You left me some messages in the chat, which however I didn't get a chance to answer back. You can always try to privately contact me via e-mail too ;-) 15:43, August 9, 2013 (UTC)

I don't have your e-mail. There's no need anyway, it's not exceptionally important. It can wait.-HD3 (talk) 15:46, August 9, 2013 (UTC)

re: Equipment Images
There we go, brighter and closer! I took some with Sigrun in the splintmail armor too, which is lighter in color, but I think she wound up looking better with her default armor. Kelcat (talk) 03:50, August 13, 2013 (UTC)


 * Yeah that's much better. You might want to try croping the images a little smaller, ideally you want something about the size of something like Heirsplitter-HD3 (talk) 04:43, August 13, 2013 (UTC)

Hey
Hey HD3, I replied in your recent message which you posted in my talk page. Cheers! 13:25, August 20, 2013 (UTC)


 * Also, could you take care of this page? It needs a bit of love too :( 12:30, August 26, 2013 (UTC)


 * Huh, I thought it was missing some vital information. Anyway, HD3 I'm still waiting for that link on the forum discussion. I also tried to catch you a few times in the chat, but you quit very soon after you join :( 14:44, August 27, 2013 (UTC)


 * http://dragonage.wikia.com/wiki/Forum:Game_names_in_the_lead_sections?t=20130706070707

Here's the discussion. I warn you, it's very long and rambling and goes off topic several times.-HD3 (talk) 04:43, August 28, 2013 (UTC)

Images
Hey! Great work on all the recent image uploads. I just wanted to ask that you add the appropriate categories and licensing when you upload them. Thanks! 06:19, September 4, 2013 (UTC)


 * Quite right, my mistake sorry. I'll rectify this at once.-203.166.254.124 (talk) 06:47, September 4, 2013 (UTC)