Rusty Hearts Wiki:Manual of Style

This page will give an idea of how to write articles so they are consistent with many of the similar articles.

General article guide[]

Article titles should follow official in-game titles, e.g. "Scythe" not "Angela's Weapon". Titles should be singular not plural e.g. "Costume" not "Costumes", unless it is a list e.g. "List of Characters".
Always include basic information about the subject when starting an article. The first sentence should detail the name and classification. In succeeding sentences, the place where the thing is found, what the thing looks like (or sounds like if it is audio), and its purpose within its appearance.
- Articles should have the subject in bold within the first few words of the opening sentence, preferably the first words should be the subject.
- For quests, the description should be the lead paragraph.
- For gameplay articles such as enemies and items, the exact name must be used. For character and location articles, the full name should be used including titles, e.g. "Bramunez Church" and "Angela Strraughend".
- If the subject is referred to by multiple names, these must be mentioned in bold followed by the situation, e.g. "Lost Soul".
When writing the article content, game titles should be ''italicized''.
The definite article (the) and indefinite articles (a/an) should be avoided in article titles except if they are used as the official title.
Please write in third person: use "the player" instead of "you". Disregard this when writing walkthroughs.
Wikilinking is limited to the first occurrence of the word or phrase.

What should an article have?[]

This depends on the page. Some things are meant for some pages.

For characters[]

Each character gets an article, as long as the character is not owned by another company. Each page of a playable character should have the following sections (with a == header), in order,

An Infobox.
The Appearance and Personality to describe the characteristics
A Story section about the role of the character.
A summary of the character In Battle, which may include Equipment and Stats and Abilities. The abilities themselves will have articles elsewhere.
Creation and Development, describing behind the scenes work.
A Gallery of images relating to the character in all appearances, ordered according to the Manual of Style.
An Etymology section describing the etymological roots of the character's name.
A Trivia section, describing any popular culture references,
Any External Links relevant to the character; official, informative resources, shrines, etc.

At the bottom of the page, with no section headers, place:

The navigation templates related to the character.
The relevant categories associated with the character.

For skills[]

Skills are categorized into four type groups:

Normal
Special
Buff
Passive

and into four character groups:

Angela
Frantz
Natasha
Tude

To Create or Not to Create?[]

What constitutes a Skill article?

The Intro describing the ability in general, such as which character generally possesses it (e.g. Mid Air Dash can be learned by all characters).
A Skill Table section with tabular data on each skill level.
Place the navigation template related to the skill, and don't forget to categorize them according to the relevant categories.

For Equipment[]

Each equipment, that is weapon, armor or accessory, does not necessarily get an article. Due to the randomness of variants, only base equipment get an article. Crafted equipment and quest rewards, due to their availability, are an exception to this and will get an article. Equipment pages have:

An Infobox listing its in-game stats.
An Intro describing the Equipment in general.
An Availability section for information regarding how the equipment can be obtained, e.g. "Crafted by Gina" or "quest reward".
- For Crafted Equipment the materials required and cost should be listed.
- For Quest Rewards, the relevant quest should be linked to.
An External links section with the relevant template (See Category:External_link_templates.
Place the navigation template related to the equipment, and don't forget to categorize them according to the relevant categories.

For Locations (Towns and Dungeons)[]

Each major location gets an article.

Locations are usually given the fullest title used in the game. For example, the "Church" or "Cathedral" is titled Bramunez Church. Locations with the article "the" preceding the name are referred to without the article for Wiki organization purposes.

A Location article should include:

The Intro,
A section on Story events that occur at the location,
A Shop guide, and
A list of Enemies that appear, if applicable. Most games have specific sets of enemies that appear, whether through random battles or visible on the field map. If so, label the section Enemy Formations and list groups of enemies. Denote bosses with the unlinked phrase (Boss) following each linked enemy.
Finally, a Map guide on where to visit at that place.
You may want to put in behind the scenes Trivia as well, if possible.

Place the navigation template related to the location, and don't forget to categorize them according to the relevant categories.

For Enemies[]

There are two approaches to this. First up is the Enemy Parent Page, made especially for enemies that are recurring in the series. As a general rule, this is limited to enemies that had appeared at least in five titles within the series, but exceptions can be made. Next, the parent page contains:

The Intro describing the enemies' appearance,
An Image representing the general appearance of the enemy,
A Trivia section for any tidbits of trivial information,
If not already listed in its Disambig, an Etymology section with an external link, preferably to relevant name origin websites.
Finally, a Gallery that showcases Artworks related to the enemy.

Next, all individual enemies will have an article dedicated to it. The intro should say which game the enemy is from. If there is any relevant story info, add it in. Next, we'll include:

the enemy Infobox (once again, see Category:Infobox templates for these boxes). This should be placed before the intro.
Battle listing its battle attacks, movement and behavior, and,
a listing of Strategy on how to beat it.
Additional info on game-to-game basis:
Finally, a listing of Related Enemies, based on appearance, class and/or genus. Much better if there is already an in-game classification.

Navigation template is not necessary except for the enemies' parent page, but categorize them according to the relevant enemy categories.

For Status effects[]

Make to focus on the status itself, not a spell that may share a name. A (Status) tag should differentiate the article from a related spell, and contain:

An Intro which describes the general consequences of the status effect and whether it is positive or negative.
- List all of the possible abilities, cures, items and any cause or relative of the status in a table.
- This table should list, in order: the Game Element, its Type (Ability, White Magic, Weapon, Item, etc.), and its Effect.
A Gallery of characters under the status or status symbols.
Add {{Status effects}} at the end of the page.

For Elements[]

Lesser elements should be listed at the bottom of the Element page, while others are given their own page, designated with the (Element) tag if another identically named page exists, and outlaid with:

The Intro should mention the element's defining qualities and relationship with other elements (if any),
A Recurring themes section that lists the element's representation by Skills, Enemies, and Equipment. This section should not list each example, but rather the most prominent,
The {{Elements}} at the the end of the page.

When writing an article[]

Adding a Quote[]

It's encouraged to have at least a quote in every article. Use the {{Quote}} for one-liners. It's best to write the quotations under each Section.

Active Voice[]

The active voice is much stronger than the passive voice. Here is an example of a sentence in the passive voice:

The deer was seen by the hunter.

Now, here is an example of that same sentence, except written in the active voice

The hunter saw the deer.

See how the Active Voice is much better? The person performing the action is the subject of the sentence, instead of the person or thing the action is performed on. Action is better than being!

Verb Tense[]

To determine which tense to use in articles, it is logical to describe events happening in-game in the present tense; even if a game was released decades ago, it still performs the same today as it did on release. Therefore, to simplify:

Use present tense to describe plot and events as it happens in-game, including gameplay.
Use past tense to describe flashbacks and events that happen prior to the game's plot.

The same applies to describing real world events. When talking about game development, releases and/or promotions, use a tense appropriate for the time period in which the event occurred e.g. "The PlayStation was launched in 1994". When describing the product itself, use present tense e.g. "Rusty Hearts follows the footsteps of popular online and console games such as Lunia and Persona." Exceptions are for unreleased products that use future tense, and unfinished products that use past tense.

Spelling[]

The game uses "American English" as opposed to "British English". To be consistent, it is recommended that wiki content is written in "American English".

In-game content is written as-is, along with any spelling errors. The {{sic}} template is used to highlight such content and categorize it under Category:Game content with spelling errors.

Point of view[]

On most Wikis, there is a policy to give a "Neutral Point of View" (NPOV). This is not the case here when writing story sections of specific articles. The point of view MUST reflect how the events unfold from the article's subject's perspective. On else, the article must maintain NPOV.

OMG Spoilers![]

Main article: Project:Spoiler Policy

As our purpose is to provide complete detailed information, some pages may contain spoilers.

For quest dialog, place {{Hidden begin}} before the dialog and {{Hidden end}} after.

Categorizing[]

Each article must be categorized, and done so according to which category applies to it. Here in the wiki there are two types of articles; general and specific. General types are also known as parent pages -- these contain links to articles that tell about a certain element of a specific subject. For example; the Costume article, a parent page, is categorized under Category: Costumes, but the Red Spider (Costume) article, a character-specific page is categorized under Category: Costumes/Angela.

A list of categories can be found here.

When creating tables and infoboxes[]

For table formatting and markup, see Help:Tables

Some subject-specific articles (e.g. character skills) may contain information that can be compiled into a table or infobox. Each subject has a certain color swatch code for its table headers and subheaders. Instead of inputting the hexadecimal code for each color (bgcolor="#000000"), type in the class code for each subject (class="angelabuff"). The colors that correspond to each class code are listed in MediaWiki:Common.css, and are also provided further below for consultation. It is preferred that class codes are used.

The table below lists only the specific games that are more likely to have this kind of information; for other titles or compilations, refer to their individual navigation templates.

As for the style of a table:

The main row is given the header color, while the main column is given the subheader color. Both contents are centered. Use ! instead of | before each to automatically center and bold the header and subheader, bypassing the use of three apostrophes (''')
Wordings are in left-alignment, while numbers or very short terms are centered.
Remember to use the class codes.

Class codes[]

Class code table incomplete.

When making a template[]

Be sure to add an explanation of what purpose it serves, so that the other users of the wiki do not have to guess. This goes double for admins, since if they see no purpose or even possible future potential use for the template, it is likely to be deleted. The explanation can be written as part of the template (between a <noinclude> and </noinclude>) or in the discussion page.

Working with Media Files[]

For the policy on media files, seek Project:Media

Adding Images[]

The general practice would be to start Image placement on the right side by adding "right" in the image coding as in "[[Image:Example.jpg|right]]". The next image would then be placed on the left - "[[Image.Example.jpg|left]]", forming a sort-of zigzag pattern.

An image without white/transparent backgrounds should be thumbnailed by adding "thumb" in the image coding as in "[[Image:Example.jpg|thumb]]". A caption should be added to thumbnailed images, a short description of what the image is by writing the caption at the end of the code as in "[[Image.Example.jpg|right|Caption here]]".

Image galleries should be created when a number of images in a section clutter the layout. Image galleries should also be used with a caption to describe each of the images it contains.

{{gallery
|File:Example.png|Caption here
|File:Example.png|Caption here
|File:Example.png|Caption here
}}

On Music and Sound[]

The Template: Listen is used to help readers listen to an audio sample. While we have no specific guideline, template placement should be aligned to "right" or "left" accordingly. Standard practice is to put those templates on the left-hand side. Seek out the Audio help page for more information.

Embedding Video[]

When embedding a video from video hosting websites such as YouTube, it is encouraged to place them inside boxes. Place a caption and the caption box will be colored according to related header - follow game specific colors as above, or the series color if general. Video alignment follows viewer discretion and suitability. The coding below is an example, with those in double brackets being which parameters editors can customize.

<div class="thumb t((left/right))" style="width:320px; background:((Caption Box Color)); border: 2px solid #A9A9A9;">
<div class="thumbcaption" style="text-align: center;"><font color="((Caption Text Color))">((Caption Title))</font></div>
<youtube width="320" height="240">((11-character YouTube Link)</youtube>
</div>