GuildWiki talk:Style and formatting/NPCs

template brainstorm
There are several types of npc:
 * Merchant
 * Crafter
 * Collector (further into Armor, and Weapon/Item)
 * Skill trainer
 * Quest-giver
 * Mission guy/gal (the one who stands there in middle of mission "staging" zone)
 * Henchman
 * Story

In general, anyone not in a city or outpost will need a map; story NPCs and henchmen should all have nice screenshot images (and honestly, user-contributed sketches might be kind of cool too!).

What else should be added to each page? Is there a good taxonomy box idea out there? Nunix 16:20, 20 Jun 2005 (EST)

Confused
The guidelines for NPCs need to be expanded alot more. I was pretty confused about all the categories until I drew out the trees and noted the problems. It just a couple of inconsistencies that need to be cleaned up. I've actually drafted up an expanded guidelines but got stuck on several points. Basically, as already mentioned, each NPC page must have a Type, Location, and Species categories, while Nationality and Organization are optional. This is all fine and easy, especially the last three types, where it's usually at most 1 will apply. The problem comes when attempting to assign a type and location.

For location, it's fine for the majority of NPCs who appear only in one place. For certain types of NPCs, such as henchmen, they appear in multiple places. Take the Factions henchmen for example, say Sister Tai, or Mai. They appear in ALOT of places, including town areas, explorable areas, and mission areas. Do we add one category for each place they appear in? How do we handle this?

It's the same problem for type. One type each isn't enough for certain NPCs like Devona and Master Togo. They would need all of Quest Givers, Quest NPCs, Mission NPCs, and (for Devona) Henchmen. Same thing with merchants, traders, and trainers who are also Quest Givers and/or Quest NPCs, like Captain Osric and Gelsan the Outfitter.

In effect, each NPC will have at least 3 categories (which is likely rare) and all the way up to potentially 2 dozen categories for henchmen like Devona, Mhenlo, and Cynn who are also NPCs at certain points of both the Prophecies and Factions storylines.

How does everyone feel about having so many categories? I'm thinking the way to reduce the location categories would be just list the first one or two locations they appear in and put the rest under a section called "See Also", or "Also appears in", or "Other locations". But that kinda defeats the purpose of the location category if most of the location categories would be incomplete. --Ab.Er.Rant 23:45, 21 June 2006 (CDT)


 * A creatures locations will always be listed under  ==Locations==  in their page even if the categories do not list all locations. You do have a point. What do we do with something like Dragon Moss that's in 7 or 8 different places or someone like Sister Tai? I personally don't think it's a problem if we do not categorize their location in this case. --Karlos 23:54, 21 June 2006 (CDT)

I went through the Style and formatting/Bestiary carefully again and I can see additional problems on the categories guidelines. You need the species, which is fine for NPCs too. But it also needs profession. Should NPCs make use of categories like Category:Monks or stick exclusively to categories like Category:Monk NPCs instead? The locations category faces the same problem. The additional note there is worse. Category:White Mantle according to the bestiary guidelines is a species, whereas to the NPC guidelines, it's an organization. Which applies? Perhaps NPCs shouldn't be listed as a subset of Bestiary, since Category:NPCs aren't really beasts right? For me, I'd suggest that since Category:Humans is under [:Category:Beasts, then human NPCs should just be Category:Human NPCs; totally separating the two category trees at the species level.

Also, one more thing. Is it generally accepted to use "Skills Used" and "Quests given"? I've actually been using "Known Skills" and "Quests offered", so I suppose I should update them to match all the other pages. I think Category:Quest Givers is rather awkward but have no better idea than "Quest Source NPCs", which also sounds awkward. Any particular reason why it's "Skills Used" and not "Skills used", but it's "Quests given" and not "Quests Given"?