Help:Style guide/Weapons

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The following guide aims to demonstrate to Team Fortress Wiki users the correct layout and style of the wiki's weapon articles. Aside from creating new articles, please refer to this in order to help improve existing weapon pages and raise them to high quality standards.

Please note that the term 'weapon' is not, and should not be, limited to simply an item in game that causes damage to players. Weapon refers to all equippable and useable class items in the game. PDAs and Bonk! Atomic Punch, for example, are classed as weapons.

A weapon article should generally be restricted to this layout and order. If all weapon articles were chaotic to the extent they were not similar, the reader would be easily confused and unble to tread reasonably from one article to another. If a section must be implemented into a page because of nowhere else to go, such as Merchandise, then please place it in a suitable position in the article.

Title

The title of the page should be the weapon name without the 'The-' prefix.

Example: The Backburner article is entitled 'Backburner', not 'The Backburner'.

Occassionally weapon names will be disputed, particularly if they appear in two seperate forms, such as Flamethrower and Flame Thrower. If such an instance occurs, raise the issue on the weapon's talk page and schedule a Merge.

Introduction

All weapon articles must contain an introduction which will introduce the reader to the weapon and its main uses. This will serve as the article's initial portrayal of the weapon. It should include information such as but not limited to the class owner, a brief visual description and any relevant gameplay information. This should be kept moderately up to date, and any outdated imformation moved to the Previous Changes section.

Use of the weapon can be explained here, but it should be kept moderately brief and not delve into too much detail. Information regarding best use within maps, class match ups, etc. should be moved to the correct Strategy page for the class involved.

Weapon Infobox

All weapon articles should be accompanied by a Template:Weapon infobox, containing a single picture of the weapon (or more, if for example there are team color discrepancies) and its basic information. Ammo, cooldown and other uses may go here.

If a weapon cannot be selected while equipped (for example, Chargin' Targe) then ammo-loaded and ammo-carried should be set to "N/A". Otherwise, those fields should be populated accordingly along with the reload field.

For consistency, the reload field should be populated with one of the following strings:

Single A weapon that reloads one shell at a time. For example, Sniper Rifle, Flare Gun
Clip A weapon that reloads multiple shells at a time. For example, Shotgun, Force-A-Nature
Recharge A weapon that's reloads via a recharge meter. For example, Bonk! Atomic Punch, Sandvich
No Reload A weapon that doesn't reload ammunition. For example, Minigun, Sapper.

Damage

Numbers relating to the amount of damage dealt by the weapon at certain ranges and in set situations should be included. All numbers should be indicated through community testing and the reader notified if otherwise.

If the weapon does no damage, a brief note explaining its true purpose should be included.

Function Times

Readers should be informed of the time figures related to the weapon, such as reloading and firing, or further weapon state times.

Item Set

Regarding weapons that are part of an item set, a section under this heading should be included along with links to the other weapons in the pack. Demonstration videos of the pack should be presented on the item set page only.

Demonstration

Main article: Team Fortress Wiki:Weapon Demonstration

Blueprint

Most weapons are now accessible through the crafting system through the use of specific blueprints. These blueprints should be included using the preset blueprint table with correct images and names.

As a Crafting Ingredient

Weapons that are participants in a crafting blueprint for another weapon should have a blueprint under this heading demonstrating so.

Please refrain from putting a link to "crafting" in the title, as this is distracting and irrelevant.

Related Achievements

Any official achievements in the game that are related to the weapon, either directly in the wording or can still be completed with said weapon, should be included. We are currently implementing Templates of these achievements in order to save space and hassle.

Previous Changes

As with any other asset of Team Fortress 2, weapons are subject to overall balance and may have been modified or altered by the developers in the past or future. Such changes should be noted with possibly a correct internal link to a patch and a summary reason where appropriate.

Example in the style of the Force-A-Nature:
October 12, 2009 Patch

  • The damage output is reduced due to balance issues.
  • Bullet casings appearing below the weapon has been removed. This was a bug.

Please note the above example is a lie used to explain the layout.

Bugs

Readers will need to be informed of current bugs associated with the weapon. Note that a bug can concern a gameplay mechanic, such as a broken reload or lack of attribute, or a cosmetic bug, such as the Force-A-Nature passing through the Scout as he runs.

Bugs that are fixed through patches should be moved to the Previous Changes section with a link to the said patch.

Trivia

This section is for all additional or interesting information regarding the weapon that does not belong in any other section. Trivia should be detailed information that may be of interest to a reader, possibly something they would not immediately know upon playing the game.

Trivia should not be added for the sake of trivia:

Bad Example: "The SMG is a weapon for the Sniper." Not only is this shown in the Bucket icon on the page and therefore irrelevant, it is obviously shown in the game itself.

Good Example: "The SMG was originally a weapon for the Scout, as shown in Trailer 2." This is information that would only be known to those at the time, and is not obvious from looking at the game itself.

For more information regarding this, consult the prototype Trivia guidelines.

Gallery

Pictures such as player viewmodels should be included to show the weapon as it appears during the game.

Further Links

Readers may wish to know of related articles connected to the weapon. This will usually include a link to user guides, as well as any similar weapon articles. It may also include a direct link to the weapon's Update page on the Team Fortress 2 Blog.

Categorisation

The article should end with the Template:Allweapons Nav and the relevant class navigation template. The relevant categories (such as weapons should follow this.