so far, on the http://wiki.spiralknights.com/Costumes_(Unique_Forms) page, I'm liking the Infernal Guardian layout the best. Compact and visually informative, with details visible in a show/hide tab. It's like this section is the actual page for these items.

It's pretty unconventional, though. Working on getting that show/hide tab to be nice for all browsers, not just mine.

(each ==ToC== section on this page has a slightly different format that I'm comparing and contrasting at the moment)

EDIT: well that was fun but a lot of work, and I don't want to put more time into it unless it's what we end up doing. The redirect for the celestial/galactic is acting a little funny, but that can be looked into later.

EDIT: after talking with a few users in-game (who I asked to look up random costumes), we determined that it would be best to:

-redirect pages such as "frosty fur coat" to "Fur Coat," or items that are simply recolors with the same lore description.

-not redirect pages of unique forms, such as celestial nav helm. These can have their own pages. We will maintain the Costumes (Unique Forms) page, but it will only have links and images, not information. This drastically reduces our workload now as well as in the future, and those items can simply be moved to other pages if they get a ton of recolors.

Work to do: redirects and costume page standardization of individual unique form pages. The celestial/gala sets as well as plasmatech are "fixed" as of now.

thought: there should be a rudimentary redirect page for all recolor redirects with [[no recipe]] and [[costume items]] categories, so category users can find items (which would otherwise be missing if we don't do this).

Generally, if a bunch of items have the same description, form, etc, they belong on the same page. Redirect time!
===============================================================================================
Things to do as part of the Costume Revamp process (add "part of Costume Revamp" to your edit description):

Be sure to add unique descriptions and acquisitions methods, if there are any, in addition to the main information (see bombhead mask page for reference).

Be sure to maintain categories on redirected pages so category searches reveal these items. Redirects show up as italicized in the category pages.

- Redirect Bombhead Masks to the Bombhead Mask page ------ COMPLETED
--- go through and add accessory slot categories, oops. ------ COMPLETED

- Redirect Stranger Hats to the Stranger Hat page ------ COMPLETED

- Make a page for tabards ------ COMPLETED
---redirect individual tabard pages there ------ COMPLETED

- Make a page for Chapeaus------ COMPLETED
---redirect individual Chapeau pages there------ COMPLETED

- Redirect all recolor forms to the appropriate form page (Hallow Fur Coat to Fur Coat).

- Make redirect pages for recolor forms/costumes that don't exist yet
---warden helm, warden armor, stately cap, field cap, plumed cap (Color Styles for all of these)
---all shadow, lovely recolor forms

- Finish that main costumes page table

-Talk about anything we've missed, such as categories or items.

<3

we're keeping costumes and combat-statistic gear separated. This is vital. But...

Most armors at the 5* level (and many, many others) have a unique form, so that page would be horrible to maintain. Feel free to make such a page if you like >:3 (it would be...uh...Armors (Unique Forms) and Helms (Unique Forms). -regarding the word "gear" in your comment. I hope I'm not misunderstanding somethin.

Thank you for adding those costumes to the style pages.

What do you think of adding accessory images to the CATEGORY pages? Too unconventional? Useful? Meh? Great? (I personally like it).

The main issue looming on the horizon is the format of the Costumes page itself.

well, wings from boxes idk about, but I unboxed a regal wolver tail our of Iron a few weeks ago, so confirmed with that.

An iron lockbox drop table page would be great. I demand official %s from the devs/GMs.

The category pages would be very easy to maintain compared to individual color theme pages. Think about it - all you have to do is copy/paste a category tag into the item pages or image file (categories on the file pages themeselves should be ONLY done for accessories, if we do this at all...otherwise, on the wiki page for the item, not the image file), and just have a link to that category page on the individual color page.... vs...

each individual color theme page...And on each page: all those template plug-n-chug names, bad browser format, bad format for future things. there are so many, and there will be many more. Far too much updating. That would be an...AWFUL amount of work.

A link to the category page simplifies everything. This way, the individual color pages never need updating (unless the game drastically changes all colors or something, somehow...oh Vog lol). Future color themes would easily get their own pages and remain simple.

If the link is obvious and leads to something aesthetically pleasing (which is what the accessory images in the category would do), then users would learn to use category searches. We'd be educating users even more - not only about the things in the game, but also on how to use the wondrous power of the wiki...and at the same time we would be reducing our workload.

I will do a simple edit of the Military page (just military) to show the end result I think would be best for this. EDIT: did it.

Certainly, we could have a few image examples of military things on the page, but not all of them. Category does that for us.
EDIT: I stuck some icon examples in there. A few images pending. Randomly deciding :P

hmm, fiddled with it on the Chapeau page. The template is still not liking the icons for the chaps/tabards, at least with the few things I've tried.

The table that's there at the moment is my own non-template meticulous-style edit for the sake of users as we mass-redirect things.

oh goody, I see it functioning. What was derping for me was just one split. Glad it works.

let's not have things like the cool field cap. etc in set items...

those are in collections. "Collect them all!"

sets on the wiki refer to armors and helms that go together.

we don't want confusion down the road.

I dislike myself very much for doing that category in such a non-specific manner. Must have been half asleep.

I have gone through and removed tags for the [[Set Items]] category, and put the category up for speedy deletion.
==============================================================================

Before we rapid copy/paste, make sure we've got those annoying, problem-causing capitals sorted out. For example...categories: Promotional items exists, Promotional Items does not.

we also want acc slot positions in those categories. I would suggest doing the copy/paste machine by item type, instead of by color style, because of these categories.

"what's the most accurate color theme category for black rose?"
As far as I've checked, it fits in the Heavy theme. (If you don't trust me, compare it with AshTail, HeavyDemo and SinisterSkelly)

working on that table in the sandbox again, now that we have a better comprehension of what we're working with. Imo, it's pretty spiffy! I have it so that if you sort by set, the images to the right have the helm on top. That's pretty cute. (You must organize by set first, anyway).

So far, clicking on the images in the "other themes"/"other forms" columns takes you to specific pages for those items. Yay!

In fact, it's so cute, I think that instead of having all frosty as the main images, we can totally do random colors (as long as the items in sets are the same color theme-which we'll need to fix later, like with hood+cloak, sorry my bad). This pattern falls apart with the re-textured forms column, but that doesn't really matter.
=============================================================================================
Notes on Table in sandbox:

For this table, clicking on the images in the other color styles/forms columns will take you to a page with more information on that image. The alternate forms are usually not associated with the same group as the main form.

TO DO list:

1)-More Redirects + Categories on pages:

Categories to use:

---Remember to keep your capital letters sorted out, I had a few derps many times---

[[promotional items]], [[no recipe]], [[costume items]]...any appropriate [[attachment]] categories (no attachment if none), [[color-theme]] categories, [[special effects]] categories (special effects has its own page too, a little project of mine).

Am I missing any (keep isolated to costume aspects, please)?

Pages that need redirects and adjusted categories: All frosty/hallow/surge/hunter recolors

Pages that need creation, redirection, and categories: All color variations of warden helm/warden armor/Field Cap/Stately Cap/Plumed Cap.........all shadow/lovely items.

Remember, redirects have categories on them still: redirected pages show up as italicized in a category page. For users who use category pages (which are many), this is needed. I'll be doing this at a bit less speed than I've been doing other things (the fuel that is inspiration is almost out about now), so if people want things to do and feel a lil lost, there's all o 'that.

again, I highly suggest using the copy/paste machine on costume type, not costume color style, due to the redirect target and accessory slot categories.

2) Fix the unique costume item page formats.

3) Also: somebody red or pink/warm colored do the Lovely costume images, my blue is awful with those. Just keep the angles as consistent as possible.

Spacing: that's a personal habit of mine, sorry. There's a lot of pages that need fixing regarding that. I'll go through right now and fix up all the recolor forms.

I try very hard to not put opinions on the wiki and follow style format - usually there's some text on the top of the page that isn't in the raw item description itself. If top-of-the-page text isn't needed or flawed, then remove it or edit it...like for the association/lore (see the flourish link on the Chap/Tabard pages) that is appropriate, yes? The promo pic has a flourish in it, and they talk about stinging a lot. So yeah, just edit things in/out until it's as close to a standard as we can get.
---One thing I know for sure, there's always a link within the first sentence to the category/arsenal section that item is in. I've went in and linked to Costumes and restored the history on the Disguise page.

Regarding the history: as a new user a few years back, I was very lost about history in general and confused as all get-out about many items, particularly the different kinds of rose and how to get them. More recently, I get asked quite often when something is available, when it first came into the game, and so on. Most pages have a history section, but only with changes. I want to stick with the format I've developed...especially for previous, current, and existing entities related to costumes. "Changes" can be added in later as they come. The promotional images are also something pretty to look at, that further help users associate items with things going on in the game.

History has to start somewhere. So, please don't remove this very informative and useful section.

Besides, technically, the Forever Love Puppy Mask WAS a "change" to the Disguise, being Forever instead of Expiring.

ToC:
For costumes, use "Acquisition" not "Vendors" because many costumes come from boxes, events, and external activity participation... not NPCs like Strangers or the Supply Depot Kozma character. Non-costume/accessory items can use Vendors, since most of them come from Vendors. It's better to use a broad term for this sort of thing, and I would support/argue for/move to change all ==Vendors== sections in the wiki regarding item availability sections to ==Acquisition==, with vendors being a ===subsection===. But that would mess with way too many #links. That's my personal stance regarding the whole subject, anyway. Since we're revamping the entire costumes section, use Acquisition.

There's a lot of annoying little fixes from the past that need to be done to a bunch of pages, like the categories and see also. I've allotted time for that later tonight.

Opinions on the table in the sandbox, plx? Would love to move it into the main costumes page soon.

Right now, I'm working on standardizing the ToC parameters for #linking (the == Blah == and === BlahBlah ===) for table linking.

log on in-game for a live chat plx, that makes the process easier.

I'd love to discuss before making major changes, if people were truly here to discuss :P. This stuff is three years behind, with dozens of forum posters talking in many different threads but not doing anything (large/hugely significant) over those years. Changes are easily undone and edited - things wouldn't get done if we waited to talk about 'em, which is why wiki formatting guides are stickied at the front of this forum topic. Normally I'm the kind of person who waits and waits to make decisions and such, but editing on the wiki is so easily changed and undone, there's no real harm unless you bust up links. So I never mess with ToCs and so on on pages that are more than a week old.

It would be very easy to remove relevant history sections. But it's something I would be against as an editor and a user.

I see the merit of the logic - like we didn't put an ==acquisition/vendors== section in the Form pages for the recolored items, like flak, draped, etc.

Conclusion: some pages history is great, others not so much.

-Redirects + Categories for all color variations of all costumes, as far as I can tell. Any missing categories? I hope not.

-Fixed the image tag on all the costume images I could find to {{costume image}} instead of {{armor image}} or {{helmet image}}.

-Improved the individual pages of unique forms, cleared away information that wasn't relevant to those items (such as crafting info). This is just trial 1 of these pages, I'm sure there can be improvements.

-Added linking capability to all images in the Costumes (Unique Forms) page

-Pondering of the Table in the Sandbox. Conclusion: I want to move it. User feedback on the table has been 100% positive so far, asked a few friends and random knights to check it out (around 12 so far). One user said it's "very beginner friendly-takes 2 minutes to get used to" which made me happy, new players don't know what things are called or where they come from necessarily, so the table lets them find things by visuals and minimalistic information.

Agree or disagree with anything in that table? It's getting close to a time where it should be moved into the outdated main costumes page, unifying all the other work we've done with templates and page designs.

EDIT: I went ahead and moved the table.

Thought: should serene items get their own pages? They confound certain logics regarding sorting things.

Another thing to do: icons. So. Many. Icons.