Help:Writing Character Pages

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Revision as of 15:49, 3 May 2020 by Shtkn (talk | contribs)

Emphasis on Competitive Gameplay

The Dustloop Wiki is not a place to talk about the lore of the games - there are other wikis for that. The purpose of the character pages is to give information about how a character plays in a competitive/tournament setting. Try to keep any backstory/personality section for characters brief - think about a paragraph total. Use the majority of the overview section to discuss the character's play style/unique abilities in the game, like how would you describe to a new player what this character does in a conversation.

Remember the Intended Audience

When writing guides, remember the intended audience is beginner and intermediate players --not experts.

  • Move explanations should not be very long if possible. Use bullet lists to list interesting properties, and paragraphs for deeper explanations.
  • Do not waste words describing what the attack looks like - that is what the image is for.
    • An exception is when the move is too visually complex for a small set of images to explain. In these cases, describing what a move looks like is acceptable.
  • Do not compare this move against older versions of the move unless there's a really good reason to do so.
    • Ex: Explaining that the older version of an attack was an overhead doesn't help them learn about THIS version of the game
  • The combo section should not list ALL combos for a character. List enough for a person to learn the basics for standard situations (common starters, big punishes, corners, etc.)
  • The strategy section should explain the goals of the character and how to achieve said goals. Be sure to explain tips and tricks the character uses such as Yosuke's glide technique, Arakune's fast-fall, Slayer's BDC, or Kagura's easy drive attack inputs.

Tone

The primary goal is to transfer information to the reader - it's best to think of yourself as a technical writer rather than a story teller. If information can be conveyed while being entertaining then all the better, but do not sacrifice informational value simply to be entertaining. Please try to keep this wiki primarily a place for information rather than to write jokes and story synopses. One suggestion is to mix the two; incorporate useful information into the entertainment and not simply joke around.

The main offender of this tenant is adding joke captions for images; occasional joking is fine, but giving every image a joke is overkill. Try adding a little useful info, trivia, or even no caption at all.

Length

Readers don't have a long attention span so get to the point - this isn't a school book report and you're not trying to hit a word count. Having said that, it's a difficult balancing act between being thorough enough to fully explain something, but brief enough that readers don't get bored.

Look over what you've written and try to remove filler words or find a clearer way to phrase a sentance.

Creating Images

See Help:Creating Images

Editing Frame Data

See Help:Editing Frame Data

Use the Templates

Templates are pre-defined sets of text used to maintain a uniform look throughout pages on the wiki. You can recognize a template when it's enclosed in double {s such as {{MyTemplate}}. To learn more about templates, check out mediawiki's help page.

Most users won't need to worry about them as they will already be in place. But just in case all the pages follow the same pattern:

  • When in doubt, look at other character pages, copy, and adapt for your own uses.
  • Each move uses the template Template:MoveData to lay out an attack with move name, images, captions, and truncated list of frame data.
  • Each character's page refers to their Data page that has all the data for that character, for example Answer's links and frame data are all on GGXRD-R2/Answer/Data. Sections on the data page are referenced by the character page, such as by {{#lst:GGXRD-R2/Answer/Data|5P}}
  • When creating AttackData templates for new games, remember that not ALL frame data should be included. For example, Template:AttackData-BBCP does not include P1, P2, or SMP values while Template:AttackData-GGACR does not have GB+, GB-, or TG values.

Examples

Below are examples of the current standards for character page entries for their respective games and or series.

Guilty Gear Series

6P
Ggxrd venom 6p.png
Damage GuardHow this attack can be blocked. StartupThe number of frames between inputting an attack and when the attack becomes active. Includes first active frame. ActiveThe number of frames for which a move has hitboxes. Occurs after Startup. RecoveryThe number of frames after a move's active frames during which the character cannot act assuming the move is not canceled. On-BlockThe difference between the attacker's recovery and the period that the opponent is in blockstun. This Frame Advantage value is based off the fact that the very first active frame touches the opponent. Invuln

A 6P so good that it has become a meme. 6P is a reliable anti-air and occasional poke. Although 6P can gatling into many of his other buttons, it cannot combo into 6H on normal hit and must be jump canceled into an air combo. On counter hit 6P combos into 6H for a free knockdown. When combined with a ball hit, 6P has enough hitstun to combo into 6H. 6P is also useful to counter-poke a large variety of moves such as I-No's Chemical Love, and Johnny's Level 3 Mist Finer with varying degrees of risk.

  • Generous upper body invicibility
  • Sends balls upwards at an angle with moderate speed.
  • Inconsistent ability to hit crouching opponents.

Gatling Options: c.S, f.S, 2S, 5H, 2H, 6H, 5D, 2D

Supplemental Frame Data:

  • 1-3, 7-10 Upper Body Invincibility; 4-6 Above Knees Invincibility

Expected features:

  • Image of the move
  • Frame Data and damage
  • general description of when the move is useful
  • bullet point list of move properties
  • list of gatling options with link to gatling table on frame data page
  • supplemental frame data such as invulnerability and wall-stick
  • expandable hitbox preview
  • different "versions" of moves (as applicable)