ZK-DABLIN - My Contribution

[ZK-DABLIN]

Hello, my name is Paul Moffat, I'm from New Zealand and I just wish to introduce myself to all you great people in here.

I came across your online IL-2 Manual from the UBI-Soft Forums for Pacific Fighters. After reviewing it for a while I came to realise what an awesome idea this is.

I decided I really wanted to contribute to this manual so I am going to spend a considerable amount of my time to help you guys get this online manual up and running.

I have already started in some areas, with TRACKS section, the CONTROLS section concerning the Main Flight Controls and listed most of the flyable and non flyable aircraft in the table of contents.

I will try to help get most of the non-existant areas to life by providing atleast preliminary information to get it up and started. I wont go treading on other peoples toes though, if an area has already be written to I'll leave it at that and try another. This way we can get most of the online manual created as quick as possible.

I'm not trying to take over here. I am just blown away that you guys have created such an awesome online manual structure which allows the readers to contribute and I wish to do just that,

Thanks alot, I wont let you down

[CrazySchmidt]

Hi Paul,

Great that you wish to contribute to the on line manual and welcome to the airwarfare forums.

What part of NZ are you from, I'm in Auckland.

Cheers, CrazySchmidt.

[EURO_Snoopy]

Hi Paul welcome to AW Forums and the IL-2CCM.

I admit I was hesitant when I announced the existance of the Guide on UBI Forums, I didn't know what to expect.

But what a result!

I've just been over and had a look ( after pressing CTRL+F5 ) Great Work!!
This is just the kind of co-operation I've been hoping for. At this early stage we need some people able to spend some time on it.

I will be working on the FAQ and Technical Guides over the weekend and will be looking out for new contributions from the community.

BTW are you aware of the bug that does not allow saving of an edited page but displays a preview instead? You can get around this by only saving an edit when you are not logged in.

Cheers

Jim

[bird_brain]

Looks like you might need some help on the FMB section. I will see if I can put something together over the next few days. Thanks for starting this...it is sure to be a winner!

[ZK-DABLIN]

CrazySchmidt, hey how is it going up north? I live below in a small area called Omokoroa, but work in Mt Maunganui near Tauranga.

EURO_Snoopy ... no worrys. I am happy to contribute. I am practically addicted to IL-2, I absolutely love the game and would feel privaledged to help the IL-2 community, especially in the form on an online-manual.

It seems I am not alone, Bird-Brain seems keen to help also. It seems he has is eyes on the FMB section. Hi Bird-Brain.

I've decided (unless anyone objects) to start in SETUP and INSTALLATION areas starting from FB onwards.

I have IL-2 FB, AEP and PF all across all the five CDs. It would be nothing to me to erase my copy of IL-2 and reinstall it back up to the latest patch in order to provide an easy to follow guide to do this without any trouble, for all those new to IL-2.

Thanks for replying... talk to you guys later ...

[ZK-DABLIN]

I've created the new INSTALLATION section of IL-2 Forgotton Battles

http://airwarfare.com/mediawiki-1.4.5/i ... en_Battles

I will try to create the installation sections for additional version of IL-2 as soon as I get some free time.

I hope somebody finds this useful [/url]

[EURO_Snoopy]

Very nice, clear step by step instructions.

I think we need the patching and troubleshooting info for each sim done in a similar way. In the same section. perhaps change:

9.2 Patching
9.2.1 Il-2
9.2.2 FB
9.2.3 FB+AEP
9.2.4 FB+AEP+PF
9.2.5 PF

also

9.3 Troubleshooting
9.3.1 Il-2
9.3.2 etc

I will get a complete patch history together and all the readme files.

Format:
Perhaps we could drop all the numbers, I think they will become an obstacle when pages/sections get moved around.

The Aircraft section could use sub sections for IL-2, BF109, FW190, maybe planes divided by theatre, fighter, bomber?

Just some thoughts

EDIT

If you think screenshots will help just email them to me and I will upload and send you the URL for the image.

Image uploads now available: http://www.airwarfare.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=590

[ZK-DABLIN]

The use of images did come to mind when I was writing those sections and I might try and use them in strategic places to really get the point across - they do say a picture is worth a thousand words ... so why write them?

Also, concerning the numbers, this was a result of the best compromise I could come across when writing the sections. I only came across this website two days ago and pretty much had to work out how this website works by reading the source of other pages and experimenting.

I noticed that each section is directly related to the title of the section, and that simply renaming that section doesn't pass the information over thats written in it.

I did originally start the sections without numbers but found after I created one called "Pacific Fighters" it had already appeared with a link to an already created section introducing Pacific Fighters. I immediately caught on the implications this imposed so I used numbers to differientiate my sections from the others already present. Also renaming my existing sections meant I had to rewrite them more or less, lucky I caught on at an early stage.

If you believe numbers are too cumbersome can you please suggest an alternative? What is needed is some form of context or naming convention to prevent people overwriting already sections which exist.

I did find a way to use alternative titles for the links, using the external links feature but this only relates to the link so the destination still requires an original name. You may have noticed this in the Installation Instructions but as of yet cant think of a better way to make this work.

You may no more about mediawik then I do, have any ideas?

If anyone is familiar with programming, the section titles can relate to the names of objects. No too objects can share the same name (unless special methods are used). Does anyone know a way to create sub-titles?

[EURO_Snoopy]

You may no more about mediawik then I do, have any ideas?

As I have revealed I'm a Wiki Newb

You are quite right, we can stick to the number system. it seems to be the best method available.

[ZK-DABLIN]

I will agree that the numbering system doesn't complement the section title aesthetically but why does the title of the section have to always remain the main title of the section?

It could be regarded in the same matter that the web-browser titlebar displays information. It usually shows both the name of the current webpage and then the name of the explorer. And who really reads this or even cares what it says?

It seems who ever developed wiki saw the title as more of a name identifying its location within the webpage heirarchy.

I will keep my best effort to create reasonable and short section titles, even with the use of the numbers.

Not all sub-sections of this manual have to exist on seperate webpages anyway. What a nightmare that would be, through all the thousands of mouse-clicks navigating this manual, my mouse... may not just keep clicking anymore.

[ZK-DABLIN]

I've revised the Aircraft Listing on the main page. It is still incomplete but it wont take me long to finish it off.

The Flyable - Allies listing is complete, but I still need to add the rest.

If anyone objects to the new style I've used with HTML Tables please let me know, and I'll change it back to a raw listing.

I do hope though that this style makes navigating the listing a bit easier.

Regards, ZK-DABLIN

[EURO_Snoopy]

No objections Paul, looks good.

I have been playing around with it a little in the Sandbox: http://airwarfare.com/mediawiki-1.4.5/i ... ge#Sandbox

I have given each cell the aircrafts name in bold with the variants listed underneath. Where there is no variant I have simply repeated the aircraft name.

I don't have any time to spend on this now but can I suggest each cell be in 2 colours?
A header cell with aircraft name in bold in one bg colour, with variants listed underneath in a different cell colour would be cool

Catch you all later, work beckons

[EURO_Snoopy]

Something else occured to me at work. There is a problem with using external link to pages on airwarfare, there is always the possibility of having to move/rename the wiki folder or even changing host, which would result in a large number of broken links.

So please use the wiki's internal link system for the Aircraft Section this would be easier to maintain in the long run.

Sorry about this, I don't want to be a pain in the butt.

[ZK-DABLIN]

Hmm. As much I as I was hoping this would work effectively; I completely understand your point.

I should have seen that earlier, sorry. I will change all the external links to wiki links, I'm sure I will think of something to make them work intuitively.

Good one, Snoopy;

Regards, ZK-DABLIN

[EURO_Snoopy]

I see you set up a testing area, great idea! Looking very good btw

What shall we have on the aircraft page?
We need to have a template established so everyone knows what is required and we have a standard 'look and feel'.

One that includes:

1. Screenshot of fixed size, 200x200, (perhaps plane in 4 profiles, side, front, above, below?)
2. Some info
3. Link to Wikipedia info on the aircraft.
4. Links to external websites
5. Use html to create template, quick & easy imho
6. Specify differences between aircraft variants ie what makes a 109 E4 different from an F2

open to further suggestions