User talk:Bdevoe

Mercenary Infobox

Great job creating the merc infobox, but how do you intend for it to be used beyond the information that is in the Mercenaries' Handbook? Infoboxes are great for 'Mechs and books because the info doesn't change, but a merc unit changes COs, and the actual makeup of the unit can fluctuate wildly depending on battlefield fortunes and financial solvency. For example, I could easily change the ELH's CO to Ariana Winston, but she dies, too. Can you think of a way to make it work in that context? Scaletail 10:27, 6 August 2007 (CDT)

Thanks! I appreciate the compliment. :) The plan I envisioned was that it would use whatever the source books had for the periods they covered. For instance, ELH has Nathan Armstrong in 3025, a different CO in 3050, potentially another CO in 3065... That was the only way I could think of making the whole thing work - a different section for the different time periods. Only the time periods where the unit exists would be used, though (getting that to work took forever) - it would selectively remove the time frames that weren't supplied. Some units, like 12th Star Guards, got destroyed as a unit in the Clan invasion (or so I've heard). Others aren't created until after the Clan invasion. For a unit like ELH, however, the InfoBox might actually span several different periods as I'm sure they survived the Clans. It may be better to remove the CO from the InfoBox and just leave the other stuff since it's not as battlefield-dependent as, say, regiment disposition, etc. I did break that out into a separate section in the text for Merc Units, so maybe that's where the CO goes as well.

As for the other information, I don't have source material for any of the RPG stuff past 3030, so it's hard to know what kinds of information are provided. Do units regularly add a Jumpship or lose a Jumpship? Is that information that would be time-frame specific or just unit-relevant and no need to have multiple time frames would exist? Those are questions I can't readily answer.

One quick note - the Merc Handbook only covers 3 units - ELH, Wilson's Hussars, and the Waco Rangers. The House Books from the period describe the other mercenary units employed and the other entries will be, I'm sure, much shorter. I did mention in the talk for the InfoBox that I needed some help in determining what other time periods existed. Adding a new one to the template is easy enough - I just need to know what to put in it. :) I hope I answered the question (it was a long answer), but I'm really looking for some feedback and input on it, so I tried to give a broad answer that covered my intent. :) Whether there's any use for it remains to be seen, I think. Thanks! Bdevoe 10:49, 6 August 2007 (CDT)

Okay, how about folding the "unit disposition" section into the infobox? It seems sort of disconcerting to either go from unit history to TO&E, then back again; or to go from all history, then 3025, 3055, 3059, and 3067 deployments all at the same time. Since the infobox is meant to be a snapshot, much like the merc books themselves are, how about sizes for the various units and whether or not they have aerospace support? Minor quibble: altering "Jumpship" and "Dropship" to "JumpShip" and "DropShip"? --Scaletail 21:42, 15 September 2007 (CDT)

Couple of things. I thought about the unit disposition in the infobox, but it seemed cumbersome, unwieldy, and that the text may not fit remotely well at all. I'll play with it and see what I do. As for Aerospace support - sure, I'll add that. And as for the capitalization changes, I absolutely agree (I should have done it sooner) - I'll make those adjustments right now. I'll also look at adding unit size in the infobox. I think the unit disposition might be the most difficult section there, but I think I can wrangle it. Bdevoe 01:52, 16 September 2007 (CDT)

3025 history

Sweet writeup on 3025's history. Do you have similar histories on the other MUSE/MUX projects? Nicjansma 16:03, 19 September 2007 (CDT)

Wish I did. I know only a little bit about the 3056 MUSE and nothing about the others. The only reason I know about 3025 was that I made it. When I dropped out of 3025 I dropped pretty much off of everything, so I never really played any of the others. Thanks for the compliment, though - I hoped to keep it NPOV while still giving an overview of what it was. Bdevoe 16:52, 19 September 2007 (CDT)

Planet infobox

Good work! May I suggest that the name of the sun/star system be included, as it is different in some cases (like the planet Trellwan in the Trell system). Helps to avoid planet and system names getting mixed up. In special cases such as Al'Nair or Star's End I suggest treating the asteroid belts as planets, and explain their nature further in the text. I think it is also incorrect to name "planets" nearby/within 2 jumps, that should read "systems". Frabby 15:01, 24 October 2007 (CDT)

Thanks for the comments! :) I'm still working through some of the specifics for look-and-feel before I publish it. I like the recommendations you've suggested and will include "Planet" in the InfoBox. And I heartily agree that "planets" should be changed to "systems" within 2 jumps. Bdevoe 15:24, 24 October 2007 (CDT)

When I meant that I would add "Planet", I mean "Star". I'll see if I can get it so that only appears if it's provided (for Trell I for instance) so that it won't be included if there's no difference. Thanks again. Bdevoe 19:30, 24 October 2007 (CDT)

This looks great. Scaletail 16:54, 25 October 2007 (CDT)

Thanks. I think I can probably publish it then. :) Bdevoe 17:07, 25 October 2007 (CDT)

How about "Planetary Capital" instead of "Planet Capital"? Scaletail 10:38, 2 November 2007 (CDT)

Case-sensitivity

This is regarding this diff. here. Just so you know, case-sensitivity doesn't affect the first letter, so you could've used lostech without making a red link. Hope that saves you some time in the future. --Xoid 00:40, 26 October 2007 (CDT)

Not sure I get the gist of what you're saying. :) There wasn't a lostech article when I created the link and I didn't want to create the page manually. I recall (after reading your comment) that Wiki automatically uppercases the first letter of the article, so I could have gotten away without making two values - Lostech | lostech. :) If that's what you mean, I appreciate the reminder on it. :) Given all of the typing I've been doing putting in everything over the past few days, the copy/paste for that was hardly noticed. :) Bdevoe 08:05, 26 October 2007 (CDT)

Ah. Wasn't aware of the non-existence of the article at the time. Sometimes you guys just move way too fast. --Xoid 17:18, 29 October 2007 (CDT)

House sourcebooks

I saw that you created articles for the five original House sourcebooks. Classicbattletech.com has their titles listed as "House X (Nation)", e.g. House Davion (The Federated Suns). At the same time, they're pretty well known as House X Sourcebook. Any thoughts on whether or not to move them? Scaletail 16:11, 13 November 2007 (CST)

Good question. I think that, given this is a fan project and that fans know them as the "House Davion Sourcebook/Source book" that we should probably make that the main article and provide redirects for the CBT links. I should also probably go to each of the House and State pages and link to the House books as well (if not already done). That would be my recommendation. Bdevoe 08:34, 14 November 2007 (CST)

Works for me. Scaletail 20:07, 14 November 2007 (CST)

Early History Cleanup

• I saw that you cleaned up my Crippen Station and Second Soviet Civil War articles. Thanks! They were some of my first efforts and I've been trying to keep the "past" tense more often. Aside from Takayoshi Fuchida and Thomas Kearny I'm pretty much finished with the early history up to 2168, the First Alliance Grand Survey if you want to go through them and fix them up too. I've tried to source everything and keep with the standards but I know that they have not been categorized. Any thoughts on how I should categorize my future articles would be appreciated.

p.s. I let Scaletail know but I ran with an error continuing to call the Magellan Project "Project" instead of "Program". I just caught it and asked him to fix it. --Locis 19:42, 11 February 2008 (CST)

Welcome back

...after your long hiatus! :) Frabby (talk) 00:23, 24 October 2012 (PDT)

Yes, it was longer than anticipated. :/ Glad my return wasn't completely unnoticed, though. :) Thanks, Frabby! Bill (talk) 13:15, 26 October 2012 (PDT)