Talk:List of ships

Wouldn't it be better if we removed the crew and cost info? Valaggar 18:43, 27 August 2007 (CEST)

I'd be fine with that. The extra information does distinguish the list from the category, but even without those numbers (which do look kind of awkward in the list) the inclusion of the race and organization by race is enough to distinguish the list and warrant its existence IMO. --Fyzixfighter 23:42, 27 August 2007 (CEST)

With the existence of Table of ship values, isn't this a bit redundant? I know this entry predates the Table, but should we not rethink the existence of one of the two? --PsiPhi 19:02, 15 October 2007 (CEST)

Not entirely imo. Both of these articles though should have some purpose for existing that distinguishes them from the category and from each other. The table of ship values fulfills a distinct purpose, organizing some of the important quantization values for the ships. This list used to have some of that information, but it was removed (rightly so for redundancy reasons) when the table was made. So the question is what makes, or should make this list unique? It already distinguishes itself from the category by listing also the race names with the ship, but that's a very simple thing. I think here is where we should include the images of the ships - the images don't really tell us anything more about the ship values but they do help to identify the ships, which I think this list should do. There might be some other general details that we can provide here. I do think you're on to something PsiPhi, but I think the answer is to really make this list stand out on its own, just like the table stands out on its own by presenting those values in a cogent and coherent way, rather than getting rid of it. --Fyzixfighter 06:16, 16 October 2007 (CEST)

OK, I can accept that. I think a list of the ships along with their images is needed somewhere. We already have the ship images in the wiki, if I'm not mistaken, so it'll come to putting them all here in a clean, clear presentation. One thing Valaggar, when you removed the crew/cost info, you forgot the comment at the top that goes with it. That confused me the first time I read this yesterday. Simple fix. --PsiPhi 13:22, 16 October 2007 (CEST)

I've done a bit of a reorganization and reformatting of this list (in part to make it stand on its own), which can be found here. I added images for easier navigation and alphabetized them by the ship name instead of race, and moved the race to the third column. For the SC1 ships, I included the comsim description. I haven't got around to updating the "unique ship" format at the bottom, but I imagine it will be something similar. Does it look like a suitable replacement? Anything that anyone would like to see added or removed? Comments before I make the switch (including "Don't make the switch")? --Fyzixfighter 20:47, 26 January 2008 (CET)

It looks really good... but why are you alphabetizing by the ship name instead of race? People are generally used to alphabetizing by race name (DOS melee, 3DO melee) and might be confused by this. Valaggar 09:09, 27 January 2008 (CET)

Yeah, that's one of the things I'm on the fence about. I alphabetized by ship to emphasize the "ship" in "list of ships". I can see how it would be confusing, but part of me likes putting the emphasis on the actual ship name. I don't know, it's something I'm still toying with and it was one aspect that I was specifically hoping to get feedback on. I wonder if the sortable wikitables work in this mediawiki... --Fyzixfighter 10:23, 27 January 2008 (CET)

Well, I went ahead and updated the list with the images - I finally have more time after taking my quals/comps on saturday. Anyways, I went in favor of alphabetizing by ship name mainly, as I said above, to emphasize the "ship" in "list of ships" - organizing by race name we also require switching the columns, but again I feel that this de-emphasizes the "ship" too much. I don't think this will cause too much problem in navigating the list now that there are also images. If we could get the sortable tables working, that would be ideal for handling any confusion. Additionally, we could add a little for why some ships don't have a ComSim description (ie they don't appear in SC1) and maybe a very short note for why the list is organized by ship name. --Fyzixfighter 19:28, 25 February 2008 (CET)

Yeah, it looks really good. And you're right that the images do help a lot in navigating the list. Now, I'd be in favour of a note explaining what's going on with this ComSim, but I don't think it's necessary to explain why the list is sorted by ship name rather than race name — this is after all obvious (it's a list of ships!), and such a note would probably be quite ugly and would make the article a tad too self-referential for my taste. Valaggar 19:36, 25 February 2008 (CET)

How about adding short descriptions for ships that don't have ComSim descriptions, and then using (for example) asterisks and a footnote to indicate which of these are from ComSim, and which were added here? - (Guest) 18:40, 1 March 2008 (CET)

I, for one, would definitely agree. The main point of ship descriptions is to describe ships, thus giving some information about them. It's not like ComSim descriptions are gospel or anything. Instead, they're included because they're short descriptions. But short descriptions are short descriptions too! So why not add them? Valaggar 18:54, 1 March 2008 (CET)

Added... I hope it is okay! ^_^ - (Guest) 19:42, 1 March 2008 (CET)

I'm actually surprised, Val, given your recent attempts to remove fanfic from other articles. And, the ComSim descriptions are found in the Star Control Gospel as provided by the Twin Gods, as opposed to player-created descriptions. If we include player created descriptions, why not allow the fanmade SC2 pseudo-ComSim images (like the one for the Avatar)? The original reasoning for including a short description in this list was to make the list useful and unique - and the only canon short descriptions I could find were the brief ComSim statements. However, this field isn't essential to the completeness of the list, and so I don't mind leaving some entries without a short description. In fact, I'd prefer that over including player-created descriptions - I'm a bit of a purist that way.

Also, on a technical note, the ref/note tags can't handle multiple instances of the same ref. --Fyzixfighter 20:06, 1 March 2008 (CET)

Sowwies. :( However, maybe adding "non-canon" descriptions is acceptable in this case, since the purpose of this article is only to provide a brief summary of the ships found in SCII, and player-made descriptions based on the game are useful in this regard? I certainly do not think such descriptions are, strictly speaking, 'fanfic,' in that they rely only on what is observed in the game, and do not involve any speculation. For the same reason, I do not feel they are really comparable to player-made ship images... The descriptions can rely on gameplay itself as a source of information, and the game itself is certainly canon... But I am new to this, so perhaps there are conventions here that I am not yet aware of. ^_^ - (Guest) 20:23, 1 March 2008 (CET)