Help:Contents

This help page will contain information to assist AlthasWiki readers.

FAQ

AlthasWiki FAQ

What is the AlthasWiki?

See AlthasWiki:About.

What is an article?

In the context of MediaWiki, an article is a webpage within a wiki. Nearly every page on this wiki (website) is an article.

Why can't I view, add or edit articles?

At this time, only Epoch Games Developers will be given article viewing, addition and editing permissions. Registered users are allowed to edit talk pages however.

If you are a developer, then please send a PM to Matthew Norman over Slack if you want access. Your wiki account will then be given the proper permissions.

Where can I find the most recent activities on the wiki?

They can be found under Special:RecentChanges.

Why are there "Lore:", "SO:" and "SODev:" prefixes for many of these articles?

They each represent a different kind of article:

• Lore prefix exist only to contain the lore behind the subject in question.
• SO stands for "Sundered Order" and articles with this prefix only contain information related to The Lays of Althas: Sundered Order (LoA:SO) game (usually gameplay-related). We differentiate between Lore and SO articles in order to lessen the potential length of certain articles, and in case this property ever expanded beyond the initial Sundered Order game. So a possible sequel would probably contain articles with its own unique prefix.
• SODev is short for "SO Development", which is for articles related to the development of LoA:SO. These articles will always be private, and will only be viewable and readable for Epoch Games Team Members.

How can I help edit this wiki?

For those of you with proper editing rights (those in the AlthasDev group), feel free to look around the wiki and update any articles with outdated information, or lack of enough information. I recommend reading through Help:Editing for information about MediaWiki syntax.

Even if you know MediaWiki syntax, you should at least read AlthasWiki Tips, as it explains the organization of articles on the AlthasWiki.

For you more advanced MediaWiki types (and/or for those who require use of features not native to MediaWiki), you should look at the list of MediaWiki Extensions I've installed on the AlthasWiki. I make sure to update it anytime a new one is installed, so it should be up-to-date.

When I try to login to AlthasWiki, I receive There seems to be a problem with your login session; this action has been canceled as a precaution against session hijacking. Go back to the previous page, reload that page and then try again.

There are a couple things to recommend:

1. Do as the error suggests. Go back to the previous page in your Internet Browser, reload that page and then try logging in again.
2. Open AlthasWiki in a different Internet Browser and try logging in again. Try more then 1 other.
3. Clear your Internet Browser cache.

If neither of these methods work, please let User_talk:Admin know.

"The Lays of Althas: Sundered Order" FAQ

What is The Lays of Althas: Sundered Order?

See The Lays of Althas: Sundered Order (abbreviated to "LoA:SO").

Why work on this game?

As you may know, most of the members of Epoch Games were a part of the Middle Earth Roleplaying Project modification for The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. After the C&D from Warner Bros, we ceased all development of the mod. Many of the people on the MERP team, however, still wanted to stay together and create a mod.

That was when original IPs were suggested amongst the team. The rest is history. You can read a more detailed account here.

Why are you creating the game in Unreal Engine 4 (UE4)?

Originally, Lays of Althas: Sundered Order was planned to be a Skyrim mod. After all, modding Elder Scrolls games was what our team had experience in (from working on MERP). However, certain flaws in the Creation Kit (a game editing tool for modding Skyrim) were discovered: it was difficult to import new meshes, the engine could only accept "idle" animations, and (worst of all) there existed a major bug for large worldspace modifications like ours. This worldspace bug affects all heightmaps greater than the size of 64x64 (all activator objects and AI outside the 64x64 space will not function). The Althas heightmap was planned to be larger then that size; with still no solution to this problem, we would be forced to scale down the size of the heightmap to the size of Skyrim (a choice that did not interest most of us).

One of our team members later suggested CryEngine 3 Free SDK. We looked at other game engines as well, but we saw the most potential with this engine back then. This was a big step for us, moving from being a game modification to a proper game: creating many of the RPG foundations we're given with a mod we now have to create from scratch. However, this project has so much more potential on a proper game development engine than it ever did as a Skyrim mod. CryEngine seemed like a perfect engine for us, especially with news of (CaaS) on the way ... which did not turn out as we, and nearly all of the CryTek fan community, were hoping with.

Without source code and with a Steam requirement, the $10/month service proved to be a bust. We then turned our attention over to Unreal Engine 4: Full source code, shaders, offline mode, subscription cancelation option, allows larger world spaces (important for us with our large Althas map), larger community (more fan and recruitment options), greater developer support, better model conversions, Marketplace (where we can download and buy assets that we are allowed to use for any purpose in UE4), and more. For only $20/month, there were far more positives with negatives, and so we decided to make the switch and have been happy we've done so ever since.

When will the game be released?

Because this is a project that all of us at Epoch Games work on in our spare time, and because this is a non-profit project, we are currently not setting any release dates. So please, do not ask this question. When we have a release date, we will announce it.

This help page will contain information related to the Wiki itself.

FAQ

AlthasWiki FAQ

What is the AlthasWiki?
See AlthasWiki:About.

What is an article?
In the context of MediaWiki, an article is a webpage within a wiki. Any page on this wiki (website) is an article.

Why can't I create or edit articles?
As of right now, only Althas Developers have permission to create and edit wiki articles. It's been set up this way since I'd like to track article creators and editors, and keep article activities simply within the development team. That may change later however. Registered users do, however, have the right to add their comments into article discussion pages and user talk pages.

To Althas Developers: If you've created a wiki account and haven't been able to create or edit articles, then please request to be put into the "AlthasDev" group by sending a message to the Admin talk page.

Why are there "Lore:" and "SO:" prefixes for many of these articles?
Articles with the "Lore" prefix exist only to contain, well, the lore behind the subject in question. SO stands for "Sundered Order" and articles with this prefix only contain information related to the Lays of Althas: Sundered Order game (usually gameplay-related). We set it up this way to lessen the potential length of certain articles and in case this property ever expanded beyond the initial Sundered Order game. So a possible sequel would probably contain articles with its own unique prefix.

"Lays of Althas: Sundered Order" FAQ

What is Lays of Althas: Sundered Order?
See Lays of Althas: Sundered Order (abbreviated to "LoA:SO").

Why work on this game?
As you may know, most of the members of Epoch Games were a part of the Middle Earth Roleplaying Project modification for The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. After the C&D from Warner Bros, we ceased all development of the mod. Many of the people on the MERP team, however, still wanted to stay together and create a mod.

That was when original IPs were suggested amongst the team. The rest is history. You can read a more detailed account here.

Why are you creating the game in CryEngine 3 Free SDK?
Originally, Lays of Althas: Sundered Order was planned to be a Skyrim mod. Afterall, modding Elder Scrolls game is what our team had experience in (from working on MERP). However, certain flaws in the Creation Kit (a game editing tool for modding Skyrim) have been discovered: difficulty for importing new meshes, can only accept "idle" animations, and (worst of all) a bug for large worldspace modifications like ours. This worldspace bug effects all heightmaps greater than the size of 64x64 (all activator objects and AI outside the 64x64 space will not function). The Althas heightmap was planned to be larger then that size; with still no solution to this problem, we would be forced to scale down the size of the heightmap to the size of Skyrim (a choice that does not interest most of us).

One of our team members later suggested CryEngine 3 Free SDK. We looked at other game engines as well, but we see the most potential with this engine. Yes, it's a big step for us moving from game modification to a proper game. Yes, we'll need to create a lot of the RPG foundations that Skyrim supplied for us. Still, when we look at the big picture, this project has so much more potential on a proper game development engine than it ever did as a Skyrim mod. So far, this engine is simply an improvement in every way over the Skyrim Creation Kit.

When will the game be released?
Because this is a project that all of us at Epoch Games work on in our spare time, and because this is a non-profit project, we are currently not setting any release dates. So please, do not ask this question. When we have a release date, we will announce it.

Content Creators Help

For those of you who want to create and edit articles (content) on this Wiki, then I suggest reading the following (even if you have skills with creating MediaWiki articles). Please read the AlthasWiki FAQ before reading further.

Creating a Wiki Article

Before you can create (or edit) articles on this wiki, you will need to be a part of the AlthasDev group. If you are not already, please ask on the User_talk:Admin page.

Now, before you create an article, make sure that it isn't already created:

• Go to the Search box (currently on the left of the page) and search for the article you want to create.
• If one exists, don't create a new one!
• If you have information that would benefit an already-created article, then [[Help:Contents#Editing_a_Wiki_Article|Edit the article].

If you can't find an article on the subject, but do see it referenced in one or more articles, then you should probably create a new article for the subject. I say "probably" because not all subjects necessarily need new articles. Some may be irrelevant to the AlthasWiki (creating a general "world" page to explain what the word is) or could simply be added as a part of another page (in which case, please read Editing a Wiki Article).

If you truly feel this subject needs a new article (use your best judgement here), then read on to linking to a new AlthasWiki article. There is another method for creating an article without the need of a link, but it is not advised (and won't be covered in this guide).

Linking to a (New) Wiki Article

1. Add double brackets around the word that you'd like to create an article for (this will create a link to a new article, unless it already exists in the wiki).

[[article]]

     2.  Figure out a name for the article. As is mentioned in the FAQ, you should add "Lore:" or "SO:" as a prefix to your article name.

          If an article is dealing with the history, geography, etc of Althas, then it needs a "Lore:" prefix.

[[Lore:ArticleName]]

          If an article is dealing with the Lays of Althas: Sundered Order game itself (be it gameplay, quest, etc), then it needs an "SO:" prefix.

[[SO:ArticleName]]

     3.  With links, you need to have the name of the article first, then the word that will show up in the article (containing the link).

[[Lore:ArticleName|word]]

Discussion

To discuss about an article, go to the top of an article and click the "discussion" link. The main intention of an article's discussion page is to talk about the article in question.

Edit

To edit an article, go to the top of an article and click the "edit" link.

History

To see a history of past edits, click the "history" link. The following explains what you are seeing in an article's history page (from left to right).

• (curr | prev): "Current" and "Previous" show the differences between two edits. The two radio buttons you select (just to the right of these two links) will be the two edits that are compared.
• Time and date: The time and date of past edits to an article. You can click them to see what the article once looked like at that time.
• Username: The user responsible for the edit at the time and date in question.
  • talk: The user's Talk page.
• undo: Undo the changes in that specific edit. Not generally recommended.

Delete

To delete an article, go to the top of an article and click the "delete" link. An article can not be recovered after deletion, use discretion!

Move

To move an article, go to the top of an article and click the "move" link. Moving an article will rename the article and move all of its history to the new name.

Protect

To protect an article, go to the top of an article and click the "protect" link. This page will allow the user to effect the rights of who can/cannot edit and move the article.

Watch

To watch/unwatch an article, go to the top of an article and click the "watch" or "unwatch" link. By clicking this link, your account will be notified of edits to the selected article.

External MediaWiki Guides

• MediaWiki Formatting: Learn about formatting MediaWiki pages.
• MediaWiki Linking: Learn about links, and how to create them.
• MediaWiki Tables: A great source where you can learn how to create tables in MediaWiki.
• CSS Message Boxes: Until proper MediaWiki Message Boxes are created for Althas Wiki (like mbox), CSS message boxes will be used as placeholders.
  • CSS code for message boxes under MediaWiki:Common.css

Extensions

These are the extensions used on the Wiki:

• ConfirmEdit: To help fight against bot registration.
  • QuestyCaptcha: Plugin for the ConfirmEdit extension. Adds a question and answer captcha during user registration.
• CSS MenuSidebar: Allows additional sidebar elements as menus with "dropdown" items.
  • Modified MediaWiki:Common.css to allow dropdown menu items.
  • Modified MediaWiki:Monobook.css skin as dropdown menu items were cut off on body of wiki.
  • Access via MediaWiki:MenuSidebar
• Replace Text: Provides a special page to allow administrators to do a global string find-and-replace on both the text and titles of the wiki's content pages. (If you would like access to this extension, please contact Admin).
  • Access via Special:ReplaceText
• Talkright: The editing of talk pages is now a distinct action from the editing of articles.

See Special:Version for further details.

Skins

These are skins that are being looked into as options for the Wiki (aside from the MediaWiki default ones):

• Light Gray Vector