User talk:Game Lord/Archive/Mar-08

Item Links

Hi, I've recently seen your new links to items in NPC pages. I think this is a good idea, but please use the item pages appearing in Morrowind:Items instead. Have a look at Arrille for an example. --DrPhoton 03:59, 4 March 2008 (EST)

Ok, will do. Game Lord^{Talk|Contribs} 07:04, 4 March 2008 (EST)

Thanks

Thanks for your compliment on your A Fishy Deal fanfiction. Michaeldsuarez (talk· contribs· email) 22:53, 6 March 2008 (EST)

No problem :) You deserved it. Game Lord^{Talk|Contribs} 07:36, 7 March 2008 (EST)

Your images

You really need to do more work on your images to meet the standards of the site. Nearly every single one of them is just too dark to be seen. Some of them are almost black. Try adjusting the gamma settings in your game, or better yet, tweak the levels in a 3rd-party image-editing program. If you can't get a copy of Photoshop, I'd recommend The GIMP, it's free and nearly as powerful, if a bit harder to use. For more help with images, see Help:Images, or ask myself or any of the other staff Artists for help. --TheRealLurlock ^Talk 15:36, 12 March 2008 (EDT)

I can probably get a copy of Corel Photoshop X Suite from my school. I already know how to use it, and it's easy to edit images. My main problem is that the images seem to be losing focus when I upload them. Pictures being darker once uploaded I can understand and can also change, but when an image blurs, I'm not sure what to do. Any ideas? - Game Lord^{Talk|Contribs} 15:51, 12 March 2008 (EDT)

If I may chime in I'd say that it's not that big an issue (I'm using a hardware-calibrated monitor), a couple of images I checked at random are OK. Nevema Sarobar is a tad dark while I see nothing wrong with Fonari Indaren for example. Still, a slight gamma adjustment would not hurt. An image won't change if you view it on the same monitor pre- or post upload, not certain what "blur" you are referring to. Do you by any chance save the JPGs highly compressed? If you view it locally you should be able to preview them (those that you have upload show some compression artifacts). Scoo 16:07, 12 March 2008 (EDT)

If you look at this one, you'll see that his neck/chin area is blurred. Wheras when I viewed it prior to upload it was all sharp, and you could see the detail. - Game Lord^{Talk|Contribs} 16:12, 12 March 2008 (EDT)

Specific response here because we edit-conflicted - See, I can't even see his neck in this shot. It just looks black to me. A bit of the side of his chin is showing, but otherwise, the problem area here is completely too dark to see for me. --TheRealLurlock ^Talk 16:18, 12 March 2008 (EDT)

Are you just looking at the thumbnail that gets shown on the image page when you say it's blurrier? Or are you looking at the full version of the image, i.e., this image? And if you're looking at the full version, is your browser automatically shrinking it to fit the window, or are you looking at it full size in the browser? The thumbnails will always be lower quality than the full size image, but the full image should be exactly the same before and after you upload it. --Nephele^Talk 16:21, 12 March 2008 (EDT)

See, we can't count on all users having hardware-calibrated monitors, and the best way to get images to look good for the largest number of people is to correct the levels such that they fill the full spectrum of values - black to white. Photoshop's Auto-Levels tool does this well, and any other programs worth their salt have something like this as well. (I use Photoshop, so I can't help with other programs necessarily.) As far as blurring, I'm assuming you're maybe taking small images and blowing them up? That's the only thing I think that could cause that. You can only expand a picture so far before there isn't enough data and everything looks blurry and pixelated. The only solution to this is to take your pictures at a higher resolution to begin with. If your computer cannot run the game at higher resolutions, you can get away with using the Construction Set for some shots. (Not great to use outdoors, because there's no sky.) But for indoor shots, I always use the CS just because it's easier to control the shot and move things around so they're framed better. Another NPC you don't want in the frame? Just move him out. Also, the CS lets you turn on full-ambient lighting, which generally looks better for indoor screenshots. Less dramatic, but we're not looking for dramatic, we're looking for informative, and thus the important part is that you can see the subject of the image. Outdoor shots aren't so bad in the game, but even there you probably want to tweak levels a bit to get them nice and visible. --TheRealLurlock ^Talk 16:16, 12 March 2008 (EDT)

Okay, I don't mean to be a jerk here, but now many of your images are too bright instead. Example: :Image:TR-npc-Forstaag The Sweltering.jpg is just all washed out and he looks like he's glowing. I don't know how best to explain what the balance is, but what I'd do is look at the other images on the site and try and match them for brightness/contrast range. The image should have an relatively full range from pure black to pure white, but there shouldn't be any large areas of just white on the highlights or just black in the shadows. Try to aim for some kind of in-between to the way your images were before and the way they are now. Sorry for being a pain about this, but if you're going to be uploading lots of images as you have been, it would be best if you learned the best way to make them look good for the most people. Otherwise, they'll have to be replaced. --TheRealLurlock ^Talk 10:14, 14 March 2008 (EDT)

Don't worry about being a pain, if you feel that the images I'm uploading could be improved, tell me, and I'll improve them. Right now I think that problem is that my monitor is very dark, so it's not that easy for me to judge image brightness. In future I'll simply try to, as you said, look at other images, and try to acchieve the same brightness/contrast level. As for poor Forstaag, I think I might just upload a new one, as, after seeing it on the other PC, I have to agree with you about the brightness. Thanks. - Game Lord^{Talk|Contribs} 10:22, 14 March 2008 (EDT)

Hello, I was about to add this on March 12 but was put off by massive edit conflicts ;) This may aid you in setting up your monitor correctly, the upper checkerboard pattern should barely be visible (or your monitor is too bright) and the lower one should be clearly visible (or your monitor is too dark). If you scroll down you'll have more in-depth & colour test charts, the simple checkerboard pattern at the top does the job nicely though. If you really want to fine-tune your setup, then the 0,4% black point pattern in the larger test screen should disappear while the 0,8% one should barely be visible. Happy (image) editing! Cheers, Scoo 13:06, 15 March 2008 (EDT)

German Encyclopedia

Hej, if you are a german speaker than you are maybe interested to work on the currently biggest german encyclopedia about The Elder Scrolls (www.tamriel-almanach.de). Our main content is concentraded on Lore, no guides but yeah maybe you want to help in different ways, then you are everytime welcome. It is only an information nobody forces you ^^" But anyway i looking forward to see you there ;) --Deepfighter 11:10, 13 March 2008 (EDT)

I'll take a look at it. I might not be able to do much because, although I've studied it for as long as I can remember, I still get the genus mixed up :) But thanks anyway - Game Lord^{Talk|Contribs} 11:16, 13 March 2008 (EDT)

Morrowind:Kill Hard-Heart image

Uggh, your last image edit breaks the page layout completely, feels very disorganized now. Anything to integrate it better? --Benould 11:54, 13 March 2008 (EDT)

Not really. The only thing I could suggest is editing the template to include a size definition. All pages are like that. See this for example. Another method would be to take another smaller image.

I see, is there a simple way to scale it, say a 300 pix tag? The issue is not with the normal ones like here, but the oblong ones. The way it is now really destroys the page. I understand that there are conventions how things are done... just like to achieve a pleasant layout and an easy page-read.

I am trying to help with the image needed tags, there seem to be many where we already have fitting images uploaded on related pages. --Benould 11:54, 13 March 2008 (EDT)

You could add a 300 pix tag, but the problem is that that might ruin other images that are differently shaped. I'm going to have a look at the Template:Quest summary page, and see whether they have defined a size, but if they haven't I'd be unwilling to change it, because, like I said, it might spoil other images. - Game Lord^{Talk|Contribs} 11:58, 13 March 2008 (EDT)

Really what I think we need is a different image. We generally try to avoid using the same image on an NPC page and a quest page, and this particular NPC image isn't a good size for quest pages anyway. Seems to me that simply finding a new image would be much easier than fixing the template to accommodate the one that's there now ;). –Eshe^talk12:09, 13 March 2008 (EDT)

Ok, I'll sit back and enjoy the show then since I am on the Xbox. I can only work with existing content from my end. :) --Benould 12:18, 13 March 2008 (EDT)

As I said on my talk page, it's not entirely bad to use NPC images on quest pages, but in general, I avoid using tall, vertically-formatted images anywhere because of the way they blow up when used as thumbs. It's not so much a problem for small NPC pages, but as you can see, it really doesn't work for quest pages. Perhaps if you kept the images horizontally formatted, and left a bit more background in there, it wouldn't be such a problem. --TheRealLurlock ^Talk 12:19, 13 March 2008 (EDT)

Most of our NPC images are not cropped so tightly. In part because having tall, skinny images tends to lead to problems like this, and in part because having a bit more of the environment in the image is generally useful. Most of our images are wider than they are tall; there's been some discussion about starting to adopt a standard of square images for NPCs. So in general replacing the images you've been uploading with wider ones (e.g., from the original screenshot, crop it to be a square image with more of the background) would probably be useful longterm for the site, and would help with this specific page, too. --Nephele^Talk 12:21, 13 March 2008 (EDT)

Going to revert 1 page here so you can see how vertical images can work. Of course it would be out of template. Awaiting feedback :) --Benould 12:29, 13 March 2008 (EDT)

Replacing it with an image that is closer to our usual width:height ratio would be a much better solution. For one thing, your solution is overriding readers' default image preferences. Also, long term having all images incorporated into the quest header makes any possible revisions to the quest header far easier. If, for example, we decide that we want to change the image location, previously that could be done by changing a single page, namely the template. But now, it would require someone also knowing that there are odd exception pages out there, digging them down, and adapting those pages, too.

Given that there's no real advantage to be gained from tall images, I think it would be better to stick to a more standard aspect ratio for the image, which would provide a much simpler and more consistent fix to the problem. --Nephele^Talk 13:00, 13 March 2008 (EDT)

Sounds good, I knew there was a reason for the madness. I'll stay away from non-standard images then, and put fitting ones in the template. --Benould 13:15, 13 March 2008 (EDT)

Re:Welcome

Thanks man. :P It's always nice to feel loved. -- Durradan 09:36, 25 March 2008 (EDT)

No problem, incidentally to fix your signature go onto "my preferences" (Found in the top-right corner of the screen), and type what you want your signature to be into the box "Signature:", select the "use raw signature" box and click save. then you just need to type ~~~~ on a talk page to sign. Hope that works :) - Game Lord^{Talk|Contribs} 09:40, 25 March 2008 (EDT)

Ah. Thats what I forgot. Shite...I've just come from the Urban Dead wiki so I'm still getting used to the template sig transfering. :P -- Durradan 09:42, 25 March 2008 (EDT)

Easy mistake to make, don't worry about it. I got my signature mucked up when I joined to, it always came out as [[User:Game_Lord|Game Lord^{[[User_talk:Game_Lord|Talk]]|[[Special:Contributions/Game_Lord|Contribs]]}]] 12:29, 26 February 2008 (EST) - Game Lord^{Talk|Contribs} 09:44, 25 March 2008 (EDT)

I know. :P Took me ages to get right over there. This is what my UD one looks like so I thought I could substitute it over here. But it appears you guys are missing a few templates to enable that. :P -- Durradan^IV 09:46, 25 March 2008 (EDT)

Userboxes

Thanks for fixing my userboxes, and could you fix them again so that the my biography thing is below the user boxes? I'm hopeless Caboose 14:48, 11 April 2008 (EDT)

Signature

Sorry, but it doesn't appear to work. --Michaeldsuarez ^{(Talk)/(Contribs)} 18:09, 28 March 2008 (EDT)

Ah, ok. I'll fiddle around with it for a while (Not on your signature of course, but using a different programme), and tell you if I get anything that might work. - Game Lord^{Talk|Contribs} 18:11, 28 March 2008 (EDT)

Thanks! --Michaeldsuarez ^{(Talk)/(Contribs)} 18:30, 28 March 2008 (EDT)

Spam Bot

Just so you know, spamming is a first-offense block so its not a good idea to warn people as it can be kind of unfair if you get warned for doing something and then blocked without doing it again. Also its quite likely this was a bot so theres no-one at the other end to recieve the message. --Volanaro 07:38, 30 March 2008 (EDT)

Ah ok, didn't know about the first offense part. Sorry. - Game Lord^{Talk|Contribs} 07:43, 30 March 2008 (EDT)

If its a first offense block, then why does the warning exist? - Game Lord^{Talk|Contribs} 07:45, 30 March 2008 (EDT)

Taken from the warnings page: "Warnings for spam are generally not needed, unless the links appear to be UESP-related, but have just been added indiscriminately" hope that explains it. --Volanaro 07:47, 30 March 2008 (EDT)

Don't worry, i did exactly the same first time i saw a spammer :) --Volanaro 07:48, 30 March 2008 (EDT)

It's a matter of degree. If somebody posts links to a site with no other purpose than to spam us, it's a first-time block - that was the case here. If somebody posts something like "Well if your computer is slow why not buy another one from xxxxx" in response to a question, and does that a couple of times, it's more likely to be a warning - maybe even an unofficial comment for the first one. We try to have proportionate responses for any type of disruptive activity. –Rpeh^{•T•C•E•} 07:51, 30 March 2008 (EDT)