Talk:Main Page

Visual Reconstruction

I think this wiki looks boring as is. It should have more attractive colors instead of black text on a white screen...

Zippy (talk) 18:10, 3 May 2017 (UTC)

Adding Languages

I'd like to see the other languages added to the Main Page. --Badg0n (talk) 14:25, 11 May 2016 (UTC)

+1 --Bannert (talk) 11:32, 18 May 2016 (UTC)

Main Page Overhaul

The Wiki Page needs to be reorganized. It currently is a confusing mess and should be more organized for easier navigation. As i do not have access to edit this page i'll continue to add to other pages but i believe the real fixing of this WIKI would need to start at the root. --ACryInShame (Talk) -12 Feb 2015 10:15 (EST) -5hr

I read your forum-article and answered there http://factorioforums.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=50&t=20029 Ssilk (talk) 17:18, 12 February 2016 (UTC)

Adding Changelogs

Shouldn't we add a changelog page and link it to the main one ?--Staxxy (talk) 22:53, 4 March 2013 (CET)

It is actually linked on the main page as "Version History" under the "get the game" section. Not sure what the preference is on that name comparged to "Change Log". - BenWo (talk) 12:46, 16 May 2014 (CEST)

Pages blueprint

We would need to set up conventional presentations for pages depending of their topic. For example, all pages covering weapons should be presented the same way, with the same organisation, ect...--Staxxy (talk) 23:14, 4 March 2013 (CET)

I like this idea! We need standard templates for the big categories to make navigating easier. I'll certainly start work on this as time allows. BenWo (talk) 08:11, 15 May 2014 (CEST)

Putting updates on my navbox work over on [[Talk:Wiki_To-do_List]] to save this for talk about the main page. - BenWo (talk) 12:35, 16 May 2014 (CEST)

More content

I started doing a bit of tweaking on the Main page over on User:BenWo/Main_Page to try and fit some more of these items. I've also moved all of the HTML off into some templates to keep it cleaner. Feel free to go over there and move bits around with whatever ideas you've got. :) - BenWo (talk) 12:44, 16 May 2014 (CEST)

Moved over the new version of the Main page I worked on, cleaning up the source a ton using some templates. There's empty space in the center cell for the GUIDES section (see To-Do talk page, now linked in lower-right main page cell). Any suggestions or whatnot, please discuss!! BenWo (talk) 13:54, 25 May 2014 (CEST)

Top right box

• Link to the list of News (Friday Facts, Random Ramblings...)

Left box

• What it is (short explanation)

• Let's play page

http://www.factorioforums.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=19&t=829

• Beginners Guide

(Sub-pages:

• • Joseki (Good starting moves)
  • The first day
  • Exploring the map
  • Electric Power
  • Crafting
  • Research
  • Red&Green Potion
  • Weapons&Armour
  • Blue Potion
  • Car
  • Logistic Bots
  • Train
  • And bejond?)

Center + right Box

(Items, Networks, Special, Concept) is one big point in the center.

Left lower box

• FAQ

• Map-Editor
  • Convert map to Scenario

• Game-Options
  • Key-Defaults

• Contributing

(

• • For this wiki
  • Link to mods

)

...

"Before you play"

The main page has "Console" under "Before you play". I don't think it's appropriate for that section. --Glyph (talk) 15:27, 13 August 2014 (CEST)

Fixed. You are allowed to make such changes. This is a wiki. :) Ssilk (talk) 23:40, 13 August 2014 (CEST)

Thanks! I am hesitant to edit the main page because I would start to move everything around and couldn't stop! --Glyph (talk) 09:55, 14 August 2014 (CEST)

There is the "restore previous version"-button. :) Currrently I think the amount of links to other pages has reached a limit, the lower, the better. Ssilk (talk) 19:39, 15 August 2014 (CEST)

Contributors

Suggestion: Remove the contributors (currently only the translators) from the main page and move it to "Contributors"-page.

Anything against?

Support - I indeed think this should not be on the main page, but also not on another page. A wiki is for people to work together, so everyone contributes to it, why only display a few names? TheWombatGuru (talk) 07:54, 29 August 2014 (CEST)

Indeed. I think removing the names is logical for a wiki, cause the changes can be seen in the history. I will put this into the forum, too and wait and if nobody has anything against I'll remove that... Ssilk (talk) 13:12, 31 August 2014 (CEST)

I made a change to this section, is this a good alternative? TheWombatGuru (talk) 00:14, 4 October 2014 (CEST)

I think yes, but now I have a question — how is it works? And what should I do to insert local names of the languages to the list? E.g. Czech lang is "Чеська", English lang is "Англійська", French is "Французька", etc (by Ukrainian language). I was trying to use the new template in Main_Page/uk but the brackets after a language's self-name are empty... --Vitduo (talk) 16:16, 4 October 2014 (CEST)

I saw you already figured out how, thanks for extending the template :) TheWombatGuru (talk) 16:35, 4 October 2014 (CEST)

New "Around the game" introduced

I'm not so sure, if that was a good idea. My normal way would be to change it and then look at it in some days/weeks, but with more wikianers I could just ask. So maybe, this Main page gets a little bit to big now? If so, please make suggestions or change it. :) Ssilk (talk) 23:37, 18 October 2014 (CEST)

I think it's good like this, good editing :) TheWombatGuru (talk) 00:50, 19 October 2014 (CEST)

Old News Showing If Not Logged In

Users who are not logged in to the wiki are not seeing the latest news in the News block. You can confirm this by logging out and going to the Main Page. The latest piece of news visible is "Mar 18 FFF #130: Steam release side effects."

As soon as you log in, the current news from the News page is shown instead. Does anyone have any idea what needs to be fixed so that people aren't seeing out-of-date news?

--CyberPhantom (talk) 16:32, 19 June 2016 (UTC)

For the admins: this looks like it's being caused by the MediaWiki file cache. This cache only applies to anonymous (not logged in) users. According to the MediaWiki documentation, running the purge action should expire the cache and fix the problem. I tried that, and it didn't help. Maybe an admin needs to do it for it to work on the Main Page? Or maybe something else is preventing the file cache from clearing? --CyberPhantom (talk)

Change icons' image file names

Change icons' image file names from "fast-inserter.png" to "Fast inserter icon.png". (for obvious reasons)

Steps:

• This topic gets 5 +1 (so it's approved)
• Generate the renamed files (already done [1]) and upload
• Change the code at the Template:Icon (I can make it backward compatible)
• Done

Link to preorderpage no more active http://www.factorio.com/preorder

Should be changed to http://www.factorio.com

Wrong link

On the Community-spitter there is a mistake, it says "ink=" so there ist missing the letter "l" to set no link. As I'm just a normal user I'm not allowed to fix this, so somebody else has to do this. -- RobbiRobb (talk) 13:45, 20 April 2017 (UTC)

Thanks, I fixed it :) --Bilka (talk) 13:51, 20 April 2017 (UTC)

Thanks :D -- RobbiRobb (talk) 14:38, 20 April 2017 (UTC)

Items and Recipes (Are they the same or different?)

I think the heading label "Items and Recipes" should be a link to the Items page ([2]). Also, either "Recipes" needs to redirect to that page or it needs its own. Personally, I think "Recipes" and "Items" are functionally the same from a user standpoint, so I would use a redirect. For obvious (and good!) reasons, I cannot make the link edit myself. As for the redirect, I will wait for an OK from an admin, primarily so they don't have to delete it.

--Sonicthe (talk) 17:56, 26 July 2020 (UTC)

Items and recipes are very different things, since the one is produced by the other. The icons that are currently shown on the main page and on items are items, fluids and recipes. This makes both the main page heading and the items page somewhat misleading. It may be better to find heading that fits properly and move all the content there (e.g. "Materials and recipes"). Could you explain why we need a recipes page/redirect? I'd also like to hear your reasoning for linking to the items page from the main page, since it contains a direct subset of the main page content. -- Bilka (talk) - Admin 08:33, 27 July 2020 (UTC)

To respond in reverse order of your questions, maybe a better question is "Why is there an items page?" rather than having the search result in the bottom of the main page. I like your idea of renaming the section, although if an infobox appeared on mouse-over (like on the right-hand side of the page, NOT alt-text/tooltip) with just the Normal recipe for the highlighted item (which would be really cool, but a pain to do!) the "Items and Recipes" would make sense. You would have icons for items and a box with the corresponding recipe in it. I'm not suggesting putting all of the information contained on the individual item pages here (duplicating work is silly), and it's not something I expect to see any time soon (if ever). It would just be cool.

And perhaps it would be better to change the section on the main page to a link to items and provide the recipe infobox (or not) there instead. I assumed there was a reason to have the entire set of icons on the main page, but maybe that assumption is false.

My reasoning for a "Recipe" redirect is as much error trapping as anything else. Searching for "Items" returns items, but searching for "Recipes" returns a generic search results page. While I agree that you and I know there is a real difference between an item and a recipe, I'm not sure the average user will really understand (or care about!) that distinction, especially after release. Ultimately, I guess the real question is what you think the average user is looking for when they search for "Recipes" vs. "Items". That's it. A simple page that describes what a recipe is and has a link to items would be better if you think the distinction is important. Or a single page with every recipe on it might be something to think about. Which one depends on your opinion, I think.

As something of a side note, I mention the infobox idea because the first time I used the wiki, that's kind of what I was looking for. I wanted just the recipes for several items, and having to click each one, and then back, and then the next, and back, and so on is a pain. At the time, I wasn't looking for all the other information that each page contained, just the ingredients I needed to make each item. I realize that all of this information is available in-game and on individual pages here, which is why I would call it "Nice to have" and "Cool" but not "High priority" or even "Medium priority," and certainly not "Needed." And I think a "Recipes" page with all the recipes listed might be better (and definitely easier) than a changing infobox. -- Sonicthe (talk) 18:43, 27 July 2020 (UTC)

Good question :) The 'real' reason is that the page existed when I started on the wiki, so it keep existing even as most of its content moved to other pages. I would not remove it now, because sometimes having an external link to just the crafting overview is great and the main page does not work very well for that. I like your idea with the infoboxes, it should be doable.

Having all items/recipes/fluids on the main page is a great entry-point for the wiki, so I think it will stay there unless an even better way to display all items/recipes/fluids is found.

I think you have a good point with the search. We even used have a "liquid" redirect going to the "fluid system" page (which I deleted at some point), which in the same search term 'group' as "recipes" and "items". I have an idea how to solve the naming problem: Move the current "items" to "materials and recipes". Redirect "recipes" and "items" to "materials and recipes" and also link there from the main page. Redirect "fluids" to "fluid system" or make it a disambiguation page linking both "fluid system" and "material and recipes". What do you think about this?

Just wanting the recipes is a common theme. We have had the idea to make the tooltips of the item icons list their recipes for a pretty long time now, however, I think your infobox idea is better and may also be easier to implement. However, currently just getting the wiki up-to-date for 1.0 is taking priority over extra features.

Thank you for detailed feedback, it is always useful to hear such a well reasoned opinion about parts of the wiki. -- Bilka (talk) - Admin 11:48, 6 August 2020 (UTC)

I like disambiguation pages in general because they always give me what I'm looking for and other related things, too. Anything that increases my knowledge and understanding is great! And I think "Materials and Recipes" more accurately captures what we are talking about than "Items" does, too.

I would use whichever method is the easiest to implement, if you're thinking about doing it now. Especially with the focus appropriately on accuracy for 1.0. Personally, I would probably wait until after 1.0 regardless of which method is ultimately chosen. Accuracy should always be more important than features. Information that might be mislabeled or "hard to find" is much better than information that is wrong. I am about to start Graduate School, so unfortunately, I won't have time to do much myself. -- Sonicthe (talk) 18:16, 6 August 2020 (UTC)

I have created the new organization that I suggested, I hope it works out. The further recipe details on the main page will be a future feature :) -- Bilka (talk) - Admin 10:36, 17 August 2020 (UTC)

Adding other unofficial communities

Suggestion: Under the "Unofficial Communities" links, would it be appropriate to add more communities? Specifically, I would like to add a link to Alt-F4 the community-driven blog. I have not been able to find previous discussions about this. --Sir Fendi (talk) 14:41, 10 May 2022 (UTC)

Hey, we only link to unofficial communities that are also linked on the factorio.com main page (section in the bottom right of the page). The Alt-F4 blog is not linked there. -- Bilka (talk) - Admin 15:34, 12 May 2022 (UTC)