Template talk:Contact Overview

Formatting

This is a new version of the old Template:Contact CoH Overview (since deleted), much more complicated, but much more flexible. It can be used with either City of Heroes or City of Villians contacts, contacts that are in a neighborhood as well as those that are not. If the contact has a known origin or level range, that can be added in.

It will automatically sort the contact into categories based upon Hero or Villian and Zone. It will also sort the contact into Origin, and Level range categories if those are available.

This template, due to it's complexity, uses named arguments, unlike the old version. The arguments are:

• City = Either an H for hero, a V for Villain, or HV for a combined contact (like DJ Zero. The letters must be capitalized. Any other item will cause unexpected results (most likey a {{Template:Contact CityX}} result, in which X is whatever the mistake was).
• HoodYN = Either a Y if the contact is located in a specific neighborhood, or an N if the contact is not in a specific neighborhood. The letter must be capitalized. Any other item will cause unexpected results.
• Hood = Name of the neighborhood the contact is in. This data is only used if HoodYN is Y and is otherwise ignored.
• Zone = Zone the contact is in. In the previous contact template, this needed to be a link. In this case, it must not be a link.
• Coord = The contacts coordinates. This listing is automatically a Non-break section.
• OriginYN = There are several options on this parameter. It must be one of the following letters, capitalized, or there will be unexpected results in the article
  • Y There is a known origin for this contact, and it will be specified in the Origin parameter.
  • N This contact either doesn't have an origin, or the origin is unknown. This will place the contact in the CoH Unspecified Origin Contacts category or CoV Unspecified Origin Contacts category.
  • None This contact is specifically not categorized by origin. Examples are DJ Zero and Father Time.
  • PB This contact is a Police Band contact and will be noted as such in the overview text. It will also place the contact in the Police Band Contact category.
  • R This contact is a Respecification Trial contact and will be noted as such in the overview text. It will also place the contact in the Respecification Trial Contact category.
  • S This contact is a Store contact and will be noted as such in the overview text. It will also place the contact in the Store Contacts category.
  • T This contact is a Tailor and will be noted as such in the overview text. It will also place the contact in the Store Contacts category.
• Origin = The contact's origin. This should be one of the following: Magic, Mutation, Natural, Science, Technology. The first letter should be capitalized, but it may work if it is not. This data is only used if OriginYN is Y and is otherwise ignored.
• Pronoun = The pronoun that describes the contact of his, her or its. It needs to be lower case.
• LevelYN = Either a Y if the level range this contact deals with is known or an N if it is unknown. The letter must be capitalized. Any other item will cause unexpected results.
• Level = The level range that this contact works with. It should be in the format of NumberDashNumber (no spaces). This should follow the current Paragon Wiki standard of a 5 level range, from the evenly divisable by 5 number, to the number just short of the next contact group. For example, 20-24 for the low 20's contact. If a different range is desired, this should be added through normal Category procedures.

Base Template

Here is a base template that can be cut and pasted. Everything up to Pronoun should be filled out, items after Pronoun can be left as is (but not cut) until such time as that information becomes available.

{{Contact Overview|City=|Zone=|Coord=|Pronoun=|HoodYN=N|Hood=|OriginYN=N|Origin=|LevelYN=N|Level=}}

Example

The following entry:

{{Contact Overview|City=H|Zone=Talos Island|Coord=640, 30, 6280|Pronoun=her|HoodYN=Y|Hood=New Thebes|OriginYN=Y|Origin=Magic|LevelYN=Y|Level=20-24}}

would produce the following overview text:

Andrea Mitchell is a City of Heroes contact located in the New Thebes neighborhood of Talos Island. Andrea Mitchell's coordinates are (640, 30, 6280), her origin is Magic with a level range of 20-24

and place Andrea in the following categories

Categories: CoH Contacts | Magic Contacts | Contacts Level 20-24 | Talos Island Contacts

Behind the Curtain

This template uses several other templates to accomplish it's functions.

• Contact CityH/V: The template Contact CityH and Contact CityV are used to insert the word Hero or Villain into the sentence, as well as automatically add the contact to the proper category. The parameter City from the main template is used to select the proper template, using the code {{Contact City{{{City}}} }}. The C or V is added to Contact City to create the proper template name. Anything other than a C or V will create a non-existant template name, resulting in an error in the entry.

{{{Name}}} is a City of {{Contact City{{{City}}} }} contact located in{{Contact Hood{{{HoodYN}}}|Hood={{{Hood}}} }} [[{{{Zone}}}]]. {{{Name}}}'s coordinates are ({{{Coord}}}){{Contact Origin{{{OriginYN}}}|Pronoun={{{Pronoun}}}|Origin={{{Origin}}} }}{{Contact Level{{{LevelYN}}}|Level={{{Level}}} }} [[Category:{{{Zone}}} Contacts]]

Could Someone Tweak This a Bit?

I could try, but there's a good chance I'd break the template in the process.

Anyway, when you enter HV for the city, you end up with categories like "CoHV Unspecified Origin Contacts". I'm thinking the intent would probably more or less to have a switch statement around the "Category:Co{{{City}}} Unspecified Origin Contacts" part of the template to generate "CoH Unspecified Origin Contacts" and "CoV Unspecified Origin Contacts" category markers.

Could one our template gurus take a hack at this when they get a chance?

The same request holds for the "CoHV Contacts Level 35-50" category marker.

Much thanks. --Eabrace 03:54, 27 July 2007 (EDT)

Switch statements added. :S did I do it right? --Konoko 12:55, 27 July 2007 (EDT)

It's an improvement. Looks like it's still generating some "CoHV" categories, though. For example, on the Levantera article, you'll see these categories at the bottom:

• CoH Contacts
• CoV Contacts
• CoHV Unspecified Origin Contacts
• CoHV Contacts Level 35-50
• CoH Contacts Level 35-50
• CoV Contacts Level 35-50

--Eabrace 14:42, 27 July 2007 (EDT)

YAY! I don't see anything that says "CoHV" anymore. Thanks, Konoko! (Does the logic to generate "CoH Unspecified Origin Contacts" and "CoV Unspecified Origin Contacts" need to be added back in?) --Eabrace 16:29, 27 July 2007 (EDT)

Hmm. . . Is there an extra '=' in this part?

| none =
| n
| #default = 

--Eabrace 16:37, 27 July 2007 (EDT)

Well, taking the extra '=' out didn't break it, but still didn't add the categories to Levantera's page, either. --Eabrace 16:47, 27 July 2007 (EDT)

WOOHOO! Visual code editor for the win! The closing curlies after the switch variable were missing and there were two extra closers just before the level text.

You have gained enough experience to reach level 2! Seek a WikiFu trainer to level up. --Eabrace 18:26, 27 July 2007 (EDT)

Praetorian

Regarding the recent edit to the template: Shouldn't it say "Going Rogue" contact, going with the "City of Heroes" and "City of Villains" previous setup, separating by game box...Going Rogue is the game box, not Praetoria. Not entirely fussed either way, to be honest, just poking at consistency. ~ User:Aggelakis/Sig1 02:02, 12 August 2010 (UTC)

I'm wondering if linking the contacts to a game box might be an outdated approach at this point. The distinction between "City of Heroes" and "City of Villains" as separate game boxes was eliminated some issues back, and many of the contacts were introduced outside of any game box release. The CoH/CoV distinction made more sense when the two sides were still fully isolated, but that's now far from the case. Perhaps it would be better to categorize them based on place (Rogue Isles, Paragon City, Praetoria) or alignment (Hero, Villain, Praetorian, etc.)? -- Sekoia 03:20, 12 August 2010 (UTC)

I agree. This might also apply to some other things sorted by game instead of city or alignment... like certain categories and lists, such as the ones for Exploration Badges. For what it's worth, I think city might be the best way. --Patteroast 03:27, 12 August 2010 (UTC)

Speaking of Praetorians, given that many of them go by two names (their original Archvillain name and Praetor soandso), would it be possible to add an optional, "AKA" parameter to this template to read "Name, also known as Name2, is..." to make consistently formatting the overviews of articles about the different Praetorians who happen to, or not to be, contacts, easier? For an example of what I mean, compare Tyrant or Dominatrix with Neuron, who's overview would ideally read, "Neuron, also known as Praetor Barry, is..." Draeth Darkstar 07:33, 10 September 2010 (UTC)