AoM Retold:Style guide

Note: Most guidelines in this style guide are established after the creation of the wiki, many pages might not conform to this style guide. Please make corrections on the pages if that's the case. If you have any questions or suggestions, feel free to post on the discussion page.

This style guide is made to make the AoM:Retold Wiki easy to read by having the same standard across pages. The following guide is intended as a reference for general situations. It may not cover every situation that may come up.

For a more complete manual of style, the Wikipedia Manual of Style may be useful.

Article titles

TL;DR: Use in-game name and sentence case for the title.

A title should always be exactly the same as the in-game name of the subject, except when multiple subjects have the same name (and thus disambiguation parentheses are required). In cases where other sources are inconsistent with in-game names, in-game names and sentence case should be used, with redirects utilized for other names.

• Use the same capitalization as the content text by World's Edge. Capitalize the initial letter (except in rare cases, such as miniMe), but otherwise follow sentence case (Medium infantry), not title case (Medium Infantry).
• Do not use titles (in-game and out of the game) as reference for capitalization. They are often written in title case. Refer to the in-game description and other content text instead.
• Block capitals should not be used in titles (Article titles, not ARTICLE TITLES).
• Use italics if needed, conforming to AoM Retold:Style guide#Italics.
• Do not use articles (a, an, or the) as the first word (Iron Armor, not The Iron Armor), unless it is an integral part of a name (The Argo).
• Use full name instead of abbreviations if possible (Age of Mythology:Retold, not AoM:Retold). Use a redirect if the abbreviation is common.
• Use straight quotation marks or apostrophes, create a redirect for curly ones if needed (Chang'e, not Chang’e).

Sometimes technical restrictions of MediaWiki prevent editors naming pages after their in-game names:

• The subject name does not begin with a capital letter.
• The subject name includes a /.
• The subject name includes a character that cannot be used in page names, including # < > [ ] | { } _.
• The subject begins with a string that would put the page in the wrong namespace. Such strings might include: Project:, File:, or User:, etc.

In such cases, problem characters should be replaced substitutes of left out altogether. Generally, replace | with -, and : in namespaces with -; leave out "#"". False subpages should be at the same name. In all cases DISPLAYTITLE ({{DISPLAYTITLE:miniMe}} for MiniMe) should be used to mark the page as such.

Layout

A simple article should have at least a lead section, references, short description. The rest can be added when needed. For more details on template placement, see AoM Retold:Templates.

1. Before the lead section
   1. Parser functions (e.g.: Short description, display title)
   2. Related articles templates
   3. Maintenance templates
   4. Infoboxes
   5. Images (if no infoboxes)
2. Body
   1. Lead section (also called the introduction)
   2. Content
   3. Trivia
   4. Gallery
   5. See also
   6. Notes
   7. References
3. Bottom matter
   1. Navplates
   2. Stub templates
   3. Categories

Sections and headings

TL;DR: Keep headings short, concise, in plain text, and in sentence case.

Separating articles into sections makes them easy to read and navigate. Headings are used to split articles into sections.

Markup

• Use equals signs around a section heading: ==Title== for a primary section, ===Title=== for a subsection, and so on to ======Title======, with no level skipped.
• =Title= is never used.
• Spaces around the title are optional and ignored, e.g. == Title ==.

Wording

• Keep heading short
• Use sentence case (capitalize only the first letter of the first word and the first letter of any proper nouns).
• Not redundantly refer back to the subject of the article (e.g., Early life, not Smith's early life or His early life).
• Not refer to a higher-level heading, unless doing so is shorter or clearer.
• Not be numbered or lettered as an outline.
• Not be phrased as a question.
• Avoid the use of color or unusual fonts that might cause accessibility problems.
• Not wrap headings in markup, which may break their display and also cause additional accessibility issues.

To avoid technical complications:

• Be unique within a page, so that section links lead to the right place.
• Avoid links, especially where only part of a heading is linked.
• Avoid images or icons.
• Avoid templates.
• Avoid citations or footnotes.

Lead sections

A lead (introduction) summarizes the most essential points of an article, creating interest in the topic.

• Subject should be defined within the first 250 characters.
• Should be limited to a few paragraphs.
• Subject should be mentioned as early as possible in the first sentence and should be bolded.
• Certain information, such as strategies and trivia, should be in a separate section instead of in the lead.

Text elements

Internal links

• Don't link the same article more than once, except if the article is too long or the link is in a template. For example, Levy Infantry may be mentioned five times. You only have to link to Aegis Dynamics once.
• Piped link formats for simple plurals (s, es) are generally unnecessary. For example, use [[quantum drive]]s instead of [[quantum drive|quantum drives]].
• On the other hand, use pipe symbols for complex plurals. For example, [[wolf|wolves]] instead of [[wolf]]s.
• Do not place the last letters of a plural outside of a link that already has alternate text. For example, [[Chariot Archer|Archers]] should be used instead of [[Chariot Archer|Archer]]ss.

External links

Avoid linking to external sites in the main article with the rare exception of the Age of Empires site. External links can be added to other sections such as trivia, notes, see also, references if it adds value to the article.

Font colors

• Primary
• Secondary

Bold

TL;DR: Bold the first mention of the subject and its alias.

Boldface is commonly used on the wiki, but restricted to several usages:

• First mention of the subject of the page. For example, the name Perseus is bolded on the Perseus page.
• First mention of the alias of the subject of the page. For example, the name Zeus is bolded on the Zeus page.
• Pseudo-heading, when a heading does not form a section and use as a stylistic heading.
• Avoid using bold for emphasis in the article text, instead use {{em}}.

Boldface is sometimes applied automatically, either by MediaWiki software or by the browser:

• Section headings
• Description lists
• Table headers and captions (but not image captions)
• A link to the page on which that link appears called a self link

Italics

TL;DR: Use {{em}} to emphasize text. Some names and titles should be italicized.

Italics should be used in the following conditions:

• Emphasize text, but only through the {{em}} template or the <em>...</em> HTML tag.
• Certain names and titles both in real world and in-lore. Common examples on the wiki are mentioned below. For an exhaustive list, see Wikipedia:Manual of Style for titles.

Quotes

• Use straight quotation marks ' " instead of curly quotation marks.
• Use {{Quote}} for quotes more than 40 words or more than one paragraph.
• Quoted sources should leave date formats in whatever the quoted source used. (So don't edit a quote to change the date format.)

Numbers

• Use comma as the thousands separator. Separators should be used for numbers greater than 1,000.
  • Do not use separators for template input, the template will format the number.
• Ranges should be indicated with an endash (–; –) rather than a hyphen ("1–5" not "1-5").

Grammar and spelling

Capital letters

TL;DR: Use common sense and lower case for everything unless it is a proper noun confirmed by World's Edge.

Avoid unnecessary capitalization. It is primarily needed for proper names, acronyms, and for the first letter of a sentence. Refer to World's Edge sources on what words should be capitalized, and use common sense to determine if it is a proper noun. Note that title text should always be ignored as they are often written in title case.

Below are a list of common nouns that should always be capitalized:

• Gods (Hades)
• Heroes (Theseus)
• Units (Axeman)
• Civilizations (Greeks)
• Maps (Tundra)
• Locations (Atlantis)
• Myth Units (Pegasus)

Note that rare exception does occur with some cases and should be handled accordingly.

Spelling

While British English is generally acceptable, American English is strongly preferred. Everything in Age of Mythology:Retold uses the American spelling, so does the wiki.

Abbreviations

TL;DR: Try not to use abbreviations.

Abbreviations should only be used if it is defined in the article, and it does not affect the readability. Additional rules apply for article title as stated below:

• Do not use abbreviations for article title unless there is no known full name.
• Create Disambiguation page if two or more different meanings for the abbreviations exist, instead of a redirect page.

Identity / Point of view

• Third-person wherever possible
• Use neutral, factual information
• Avoid personal ideas and opinions
• Use the word "character" to describe in-game entities such as individuals, players, or NPCs.
• Use gender-neutral language

File Names

File names (typically, the names of images uploaded to the wiki) should be descriptive and should contain the subject of the file to allow them to be easily found in searches. For example, file names like "C2 Hercules Cerberus Paint - Landed" should be used instead of "CI 1002305122021 slideshow small". Make sure that all words in the file name are spelled correctly to avoid the need to rename a file in the future.

For screenshots taken in-game, consider adding the game version the screenshot was taken in, which is particularly useful when ships or locations change with successive updates. Screenshots of in-game locations can be named following the scheme "Planet/Moon - City - Zone" or "Planet/Moon - Outpost" to make it easier to identify where they are located in the universe.

Non-article styles

Disambiguation

Wikis must resolve ambiguous references when a link is to a term that has more than one distinct meaning. This process is called disambiguation.

When one term is clearly the more expected result, it can remain the primary link, and a {{for}} or {{about}} entry should head off the article. (See AoM Retold:Templates for examples.)

When it is not so clear, the term becomes a disambiguation page, linking to the possible meanings.

Alternate meanings take the form of Term (other meaning). (Note lower case for disambiguation meaning.) Alternative meanings should also have a for statement at the head of the article.

Example: Oracle (regular unit), Oracle (hero)

Talk and user pages

The writing style on community pages, such as talk pages and user pages, are more informal than content pages. This allows for easier, more friendly communication and a more familiar tone.

As with any personal-related content, respect is paramount when dealing with other editors and users. Insults, releasing personal information, or personal attacks will not be tolerated, even on your own user page. Please treat other editors with respect. They're people too!

In the

Age of Mythology: Retold Wiki Community

Policies

Access Levels ● Application programming interface ● AutoWikiBrowser ● Copyrights ● Lua ● Moderation Policy ● Policies ● Redirect ● Short Description ● Shortcut ● Style Guide ● TemplateStyles ● Templates

Editing guides

Editing/Adding Images ● Editing/Advanced Editing ● Editing/Cheat Sheet ● Editing/Source Mode Basics ● Editing/VisualEditor Advanced ● Editing/VisualEditor Basics ● Editing/Your First Edit ●