Ultronomicon:Manual of Style
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This page is the style guide for the Ultronomicon. It is intended to help make the Ultronomicon easier to read by following a standard, consistent format. As stated in Editing Essentials, we're pretty much following the Wikipedia style unless otherwise specified here.
At this stage, this guide is just in the beginning stages: you can edit this guide as you see fit, but please document according to how things are already done in this Wiki. If you disagree with a section of this style guide, please add (disputed) to the end of that section and discuss this in the talk page.
Language
The Ultronomicon currently uses American English. This is consistent with the language used in Star Control II and related published game material.
Writing style
The Ultronomicon is supposed to be an objective reference work. Don't write the articles as if you're writing a story; write them as an exposition about a topic.
Only write statements as a (game) fact when there is no doubt that that is the correct interpretation. If there are other interpretations, however unlikely they may be, use words like "possibly", "may suggest", "perhaps", "it may be that", etc. to clearly indicate that what is written in the article is not set in stone.
When there is a lot of discussion about a topic, it may be appropriate to dedicate a section to the various theories that go around. The theories themselves should be written from a neutral point of view. The writing should not show the prefered interpretation of its writer.
General naming conventions and usage
The following are the general ways we use to name or specify groups of items within the game.
Capitalization
Races and ships
Capitalize the name of races and ships, regardless of how or where the names are being used. For example, use "Human", not "human", and "Cruiser" for the Human combat vessel to distinguish it from other cruisers.
Unique device/artifact names
Capitalize each word in the device. You can create redirects from uncapitalized titles to the proper article if desired. For example, use "Moon Base", not "Moon base".
Editorial comments
Italicise text when providing editorial comments outside of the game (in other words, when discussing game events from the real-life point of view as opposed to the Star Control Universe point of view). Exceptions to this are any articles that exist outside of the Star Control Universe, such as any articles that discuss real people or (see Category:People) or the game itself (see Influences and References (spoilers)).
Examples of editorial comments are when an article discusses a fictional character, and follows this up with an explanation of why the game designers chose that particular name or any real-life people upon which they based this fictional character. See Cheep-Guava (spoilers) for an example of an editorial comment in use.
Game events and quests
Some events are mandatory, while some are optional. You can document mandatory events without restriction, but try and point out that optional events might not happen. There are a few ways you can do this:
- Create a new heading titled "Optional events". Document all the mandatory events before this section and all the optional events in this section.
- Use a cause-and-effect structure of sentencing to clarify that certain events only occur if the protagonist completes a certain game event. In a completely fictional example, "Mars is the home of ultra-powerful psionic beings. If The Captain meets these beings, they dominate the crew of The Flagship and invade the other races. The entire galaxy falls under the dominion of the Great Martian Empire."
Mandatory events consist of the following in Star Control II and The Ur-Quan Masters:
- Historical and background events
- Events that must be completed in order to finish the game
- Events that "make sense" in the context of the game
A more complete and detailed listing of mandatory and optional events can be found at Ultronomicon:Game events (spoilers).
Specific conventions and usage
The following are the specific ways we use to identify specific elements within the game.
Clan
Use the capitalized "Clan" when referring to a specific clan or groups of clans by title. Otherwise, use the lowercase "clan". The following are specific cases of capitalization of "Clan/clan". Cases not mentioned here should not be capitalized (use "clan").
Capitalize "Clan" in these cases:
- Specific, named clans, for example, Zeep-Zeep Clan
- Homeworld Clans
- Starship Clans
Do not capitalize "clan" in this case:
- Yehat clans (this literally means "clans of Yehat origin", and therefore isn't a title)
The protagonist
Use "The Captain" (note the capitalization) to specify the name of the protagonist of Star Control II.
The default name in the 3DO version and The Ur-Quan Masters is Captain Zelnick, but this should not be used here as it can be changed in the game settings. In the PC version there wasn't even a default.
The protagonist's flagship
Use "The Flagship" (note the capitalization) to refer to the one and only Precursor ship controlled by the player in Star Control II. When refering to the ship by description, use "flagship" as you would in any other English text.
The default name in the 3DO version and The Ur-Quan Masters is "Vindicator", but this should not be used here as it can be changed in the game settings. In the PC version there wasn't even a default.
The protagonist's alliance
The name of the new alliance in Star Control II is the "New Alliance of Free Stars". When listing this organization in the {{RaceBox}}, do not use a leading "The" to specify this alliance (ie, "New Alliance of Free Stars", not "The New Alliance of Free Stars").
Commander Hayes asks The Captain to name the new alliance, and the following are the four options given in the dialog:
- The New Alliance of Free Stars
- The Concordance of Alien Nations
- The United Federation of Worlds
- The Empire of (Captain's name)
We chose the first option because it best describes the purpose and origins of the new alliance. (disputed, see talk)
Text box template conventions and usage
The following are the specific ways we fill out text box templates.
Race boxes
| Human | ||||||||
| HumanCaptain_Portrait.png Insert a caption for the image here. | ||||||||
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Insert the {{RaceBox}} template at the beginning of the race article before any text. The example to the right uses Humans for the sample data (to prevent spoilers). Fill out this template according to the following guidelines:
Homeworld: Specify the universal name, followed by the race's own name for their planet in parentheses, if known. Provide a Wikilink for either name if appropriate. For example, the Human homeworld is located at Sol III, but the Humans themselves refer to their homeworld as Earth.
Image: Use appropriate images to indicate the race. If there are no images available, use Image:RaceBox Missing Image.png.
Coordinates: Specify the homeworld coordinates in the same way as the game, using the x-coordinates, a colon, and the y-coordinates. Insert a whitespace before and after the colon.
Member of: Specify the organizations of which this race is a part using a comma and a new line for each new entry. Where appropriate, specify the different organizations in the following order:
- The organization in Star Control I, if the race was represented there.
- The organization at the beginning of Star Control II, if this is different from the first one.
- The organizations throughout Star Control II (in chronological order), if these are different from the first two. If this race's membership is largely dependent on player actions, put "(optional)" at the end of this entry.
- For races defeated by the Ur-Quan Kzer-Za, use "Ur-Quan Hierarchy (battle thrall)" to denote battle thralls and "Ur-Quan Hierarchy (fallow slave)" to denote the slave-shielded races.
Ship: Specify the name of the ship without the name of the race. For example, use "Cruiser", not "Earthling Cruiser".
Planet boxes
| Mars | ||||||||||||||||||||||
 Insert caption here | ||||||||||||||||||||||
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| {{{type}}} {{{sat}}} | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| [[Image:{{{map}}}|242px]] |
Insert the {{PlanetBox}} template at the beginning of the planet article before any text. The example to the right uses Mars for the sample data (to prevent spoilers). Fill out this template according to the following guidelines:
Name: Specify the race's own name for this planet, if known. Otherwise, use the universal name for the planet. For example, Humans call this planet "Mars" (otherwise, it would be named "Sol IV")
Image: Use a screenshot of the planet in the planet scan screen. If there are no screenshots available, use Image:RaceBox Missing Image.png.
Caption: If the race's own name for this planet was used, mention the universal name as an alias. Optionally, you can also provide a quick game-description of this planet (such as the planet name and how many satellites/moons it has). For example, the universal name of Mars is "Sol IV". You can enter "aka Sol IV". With no alias, you could optionally enter "A Dust world with no moons" (Note that for game purposes, Mars has no moons).
Atmo: If the planet is a gas giant, enter "Super Thick" into this field. Otherwise enter the numerical value followed by "atm".
Weather & Tectonics: Enter the data exactly as shown in the planet scan screen. Valid examples are "Class x" (where "x" is the numerical class of Weather or Tectonics) or "none".
Numerical statistics (Orbit, Temp, Mass, Radius, Gravity, Day, Tilt): Enter the numerical data as shown in the planet scan screen. Only enter the numbers; there is no need to use the units of measurement because these are included in the template.