User:The Silencer/SRPRP

The Skyrim Places Redesign Project (SRPRP) is an effort to update the contents and maps for all Places in Skyrim and provide more complete and more consistent information in all the articles.

Project Overview

The pages describing individual forts, ruins, caves, and mines are currently less than complete and inconsistent in layout. The plan is to expand each of those pages to provide a more detailed description, with a consistent style, including complete lists of items that can be found there.

What Needs To Be Done

Descriptions, maps, and treasure, are needed on a large number of pages. The descriptions should be written as both a guide through the dungeon, and list all items that are of potential use to a player. Concurrent to this, the treasure parameter in the place summary box should be updated to include items of high value, importance, and/or rarity, such as skill books, artifacts, or unique items.

A few basic rules:

• All treasure should be added to the description (only clutter items should be omitted) as well, giving a good overlook on what is in the place and how to get everything.
• Smaller details like piles of bones, barrels and odd-looking rocks is hardly worth mentioning, unless they can provide some kind of guidance for the player.
• Avoid personal opinions.

A few layout rules as well:

• All mentions of letters on the map should be bolded (e.g. "the boss leveled chest at B.").
• Links to other zones should be in Italics.

All unfinished pages are now separated into two categories to ease the writing/checking stages:

• Pages Needing Walkthroughs
• Pages Requiring Checking

When the OPRP template has been signed by two different users, the page moves to the last category:

• Pages Requiring Final Preview

This is where you can find all pages finished by the project - it is highly recommended to read through a few for inspiration. Alternatively, see this section.

How to write Walkthroughs

First of all, make sure you have no Mods loaded and that you never visited the place before. Second, get familiar with the place. This is not something you can do by looking at the map, you’ll have to pop in the game and play through the place first. After playing through the zones, thus being familiar with the task at hand, load your auto-save at door Out and start writing (for bigger places, using a Sandbox is highly recommended).

• Keep an eye on the map at all times and make sure that the in-game experience matches all map markers, including the green dots for minor treasure and the cyan dots for push buttons. If you find anything in-game not displayed on the map, mark the map for cleanup and explain what needs to be done.
• Make the walkthroughs interesting. While many places can be dreadful, it is not your job to comment on that. Find something interesting to say and keep the text flowing. Provide battle strategies if possible, e.g. if you can snipe enemies from afar.
• In places with multiple options, it is up to you to figure out how it should be explored if the player wants to pick up everything the place has to offer. This should include as little backtracking as possible and generally the most “practical” exploration route.
• Keep the walkthroughs brief, but not overly brief – try and make some kind of story and put a bit of emotion into the text.
  

When you’re done, play through the place following your own walkthrough, just to make sure everything is correct. Then launch the walkthrough(s) to the place page and add your name to the template (example). When doing so, the page gets added to the Pages Requiring Checking and is now officially out of your hands.

How to check Walkthroughs

Start by carefully reading through the written text, while comparing it to the map and content list; does all three go hand in hand without redundancy and confusion? Is the written text boring/uninformative - or the exact opposite, e.g. too wordy, too detailed, contains too much rambling. Pop in the game and start checking.

• Try and let the walkthrough and map be your guide more than actually playing through the place yourself.
• Check if the in-game experience and the map markers match.
• Check if the written walkthrough provides the easiest and most fun way to explore the place and get every bit of loot available - and offers the shortest and most profitable route (escape route included) possible.
• Make corrections to the walkthrough as you go along, and use Show Preview to get an idea on how it works.

When you're done, and you think the page is as good as it gets, add your name to the template (example). When you hit the save button, the page will be transferred into the Pages Requiring Final Review category, which basically means that it is finished.

Project Members

If you would like to participate in this project, add your name to the list and provide some information on what types of tasks you are working on or would like to work on.