I have made many thoughts and tried many stuff out. I tried to clean up some information and currently I'm at a point, where I begin to have a vision about how this may continue. So please lean back, take some coffee, make a snack, because this will get lengthly.
Where do I begin? I describe the current state.
Current state
Positive
We have some concepts, which are really fine. I like the concept of the "networks", which reflects very well the internal structures. This is a big gain, compared to many other documentations I've seen.
Then we have the whole entities/items more or less well documented.
Most of the known and sometimes very astonishing tricks are documented (like the trick with the renaming of train stops).
The information is brought into a much better structure and most includes the changes to v0.8 (some of it was very old), but many linking is missing and the subpages are not filled yet.
We had begun to make space (mods/-subpages) for the modules and some are already documented.
Not so well
A pic is saying more than thousand words. Currently we have many pages, with walls of text. But for example the block-signals for the trains could be explained much easier with pictures or even better with a video.
Also the old pics are ... outdated. Some new players won't recognize, what happens in the pics. So we have to replace ALL pics.
When two concepts are very interacting like the pipe- and electrical network, this becomes also difficult and it needs careful tweaking, to not mix both. As examples there are the "Conceptual" and "Special" pages, which don't fit into the "Networks". I would like to make this different, but have currently no better idea.
Updates of the game will not be reflected in the wiki. The pages need to be updated by hand. This is not useful, because this increases the number of
The entities include in most cases more information then documented. For example how much energy they consume in maximum. We could say it's documented in form of lua-files, but ... well it should be made better.
The docu couldn't be used in the current state as a in-game documentation. I try hard to come to a point, where it might be possible to open a documentation in the game, which links to the factorio wiki of that entity or whatever. But this means also, that the pages are small, not so much info, more linking to other pages, but at some point, this becomes a mess, when the number of links per page is big. One small change could force you to change some dozen other pages.
Ideas & Targets
Make the wiki an own server
The idea is in some way important, because some other things depend from it: The wiki should be a own virtual server. Currently it is https://forums.factorio.com/wiki/, but it should be some of http://wiki.factorioforums.com/ or better http://wiki.factorio.com/
The point of this is, that the URLs then could be much smaller, like http://wiki.factorio.com/Solar+panel instead of https://forums.factorio.com/wiki/inde ... olar_panel ) and this is important, when we want to link out of the game directly to the documentation. Because at some point, the wiki-server might get too small, too many people will read on it etc. and to be prepared to that days, when there might be needed a new server or to make urls easier this is an important point. And there are some other those issues, which won't be a problem, when the wiki is an own server.
The different "views" into the docs
Well, as far as I can see, we have four views.
1. The Beginners
They are those type of gamers, which are interested in the game and now want to start as fast as possible. Things, that are explained in some "Let's play", but much more compressed. As far, as there is no good tutorial mission, this is the first reference to come into the game, besides the mentioned videos etc.
They want also see, where are more informations and how to dig deeper. Some FAQs are here. Links to News, Forum etc. are obligatory.
2. In-Game Documentation
Every entity, item, research etc. should have a docu-page. My idea about this is: Hover an entity, press H and a Help-Page pops in a own console. This page explains in very short words (or better some pics) inside the game, what this is and links to other pages of how it is used, how it interacts etc. It is just a small and simple browser in the game. In general there are the small pages of an entity (aka basic transport belt) and they link to bigger summary pages (all types of transport belts) and up to all types of belts (splitter etc.).
As a reference how this might look in the end you can look into Railway network. The many red links on that page are all the little In-Game-Pages, which should contain only one or two pics and some small text.
The pages get bigger, more text, the more general you are digging until you are in the
3. Detailed Documentation for the power-gamers
I don't want to make a hard cut between the In-Game-Docu and the detailed docu. The question is eventually, how much of the docu comes with the game and how much is online, but this is something, that might be added at the end. This docu is about every aspect of the game and mainly it is the right linking to the right place, but also very detailed info, like how to calculate the throughput of the logistic bots. How does a rail signal really work? What side effect did the implementation of circuit network have.
As example how this might look at the end, some can look into the Robotic network.
From here we also link into the
4. Game-Documentation
This means the game as whole. How to install, programming, modding etc. But also about the changelog, default options, the map-editor, scenarios, starting-options of the exe and some more.
New layout
Well, I would state it as low prio task and it depends on many other stuff. This point is only for mentioning it.
New pictures
As said above: A pic says more than thousand words. I had many plans to make pictures. My current is as follows:
1. Wait until v0.9.stable comes out.
2. Create a map/some maps. Every map contains some scenarios. Every scenario is one picture for the wiki.
V0.9 is because of the blueprints. This blueprints are needed as hell for that job, cause it takes up to hours to create a scenario, which can be used for pics. I can then reuse them for a nearly same picture, I need not to rebuild all to show the same situation but with other prequisites. I also can catch some nice stuff from a game an paste it for that into this wiki-scenario-maps. But the most important think is: I can redo all, if the grafix changes.
I think most of the In-Game-Docu are only some short-commented pics.
Automatic generation of docs
Most parts of the entity-docs could be generated automatically! I mean this must be done, but I don't know, which might be the best way. I've some fear to use the prototype-files directly. I need the structure as whole and I don't want to be bothered, from where. I need it in a form, which hides incompatible changes.
My dream here (and I think the only solution) would be to use XML.
I think so: We have the prototype files. That keep. Or might change. But then we also have some XML. Either those XML is delivered with the archive or - much better - it is generated by the factorio.exe (or some converter), so that every mode can make it's own XML.
I have many experience with that and I really mean, that this is the most useful way, because when having XML, there are so many tools (XSLT...), which makes work with those big structures very easy. A converter, which outputs some wiki-pages are a really simple task and also really simple to change. For that task, we can parse with XPATH to get the needed informations or use XSLT for that.
Other example: With XML it is absolutely easy to find the right informations. For example calculations about needed resources for an item or a simple output of all informations about recipe are made in seconds. That's all solutions, on which I'm very, very sure, that they will work and keep working in some years.
Best example: Because all is one big structure, and I can operate on it as in a big database, it's not so difficult to write a program, which computes, if all recipes and research are matching together, or if an item can be produced with the given research. Currently this is a mess.
More linking between Detailed Docu and Lua
This is important, because that will help in creating really useful new ideas. Some example: https://forums.factorio.com/wiki/index.php?title=Time
Meta-Documentation
Something like this: A docu about the docu. What for whom and where?
To those, who want to help
Mods
I would like to have more information about the mods. But because I barely play with mods, I'm the wrong person for that.
Readers
* English natives
I'm a German and my English is sometimes ...
... and also stuff from others. No shy. If there is something you want to change do it. Tell me. Ask for account to the wiki. Make a post. Anything is fine.* Short texts
It's really complicated to make good texts short. Not my strength. I tend to make it loooong.
* Structure
You mean that a power pole has something to do with the circuit network: Change.
* Correctness
Inputing one iron into a furnace sometimes will put out unicorns?! Cool
So I hope for some discussions.
