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Liquipedia:Style Guide
From Liquipedia StarCraft 2 Wiki
Overview[edit]
This article serves as a style guide for Wiki articles concerning StarCraft II. When writing in and editing the Wiki, please conform to these guidelines, as that will help us keep this resource clean and tidy.
Spelling[edit]
Upper and lower case[edit]
- Str are upper cased;
- Supply Depot, not supply depot
- Cybernetics Core not cybernetics core.
- Unit names are upper cased;
- Zealot, not zealot
- Zergling, not zergling.
- Compound expressions, such as Natural Expansion, Main Base, Psi Storm, Dark Swarm are upper cased. However, when used in a more casual context and as a single word, they are lower case: natural, main, storm, swarm.
- Tech is upper-case.
- Races are always singular and upper case; Protoss, Zerg, Terran, not Zergs, terrans.
- When giving Protoss Supply Numbers, you can use upper-case Psi. For others you should use Supply or, sparingly, Control.
- When giving the remaining Hit Points of a unit, use Hit Points, HP or (sparingly) health . Do not use hp or hit points
- Esports should be spelled with lower case s (as esports, not eSports) unless it is part of a name (team name, brand name, tournament name etc.)
Names and Substitutions[edit]
- Do not abbreviate, unless stylistic diversity commands it. The following guidelines apply:
- Two Word units can be compressed when unambiguous:
- Science Vessel → Vessel
- Siege Tank → Tank
- but not: High Templar → Templar
- Common denominations for upgraded Units may be used, but sparingly: Speed upgraded Zealots → Speedzeals, Speed upgraded Zerglings → Speedlings, and so on. However only in contexts where that upgrade bears importance! (e.g. in the +1 Speedzeal article)
- The following substitutions are acceptable, generally, if your term is descriptive and functional, it can be used; They consist of representative examples, use common sense to guess the remaining ones!
- Leg Enhancement → Zealot Speed
- Gravitic Booster → Observer Speed
- Upgrades → Ground Attack; Melee Attack; Range Attack; Carapace; and so on.
- Casters → Arbiter Energy, Queen Energy instead of Khaydarin Core, Gamete Meiosis, and so on.
- For the sake of simplicity, we are calling groups of Marines, Marauders and Medivacs MMM. Only that, and not mmm, neither m&m&m nor 3M.
- The upgrade status on units can be expressed in the format #1/#2 [Unitname], where #1 is the level of armor upgrades and #2 is the level of attack upgrades. E.g. 3/3 Metal, or 5/3 Ultralisks. Use it sparingly though!
Bolding[edit]
- If possible, bold the first instance of the page's title within the text. This may be unnecessary for longer titles.
Punctuation[edit]
- Basic punctuation rules apply.
- Try to avoid use of excessive exclamation marks (!!) or question marks (??)
- When using a hyphen to introduce a list of one item, or to change a thought mid-sentence, use a space before and after that hyphen:
- Here is a thought - I want to say something on a small tangent.
- When beginning a new sentence, use only a single space after a full stop (period).
- Early-game Mutalisks are harassment units and should be used as such. They should never directly engage an army.
Punctuation in Lists[edit]
Lists with individual items only do not have periods, if there are complete sentences, all items in the list have periods at the end.
- Individual
- Item
- List
A list with sentences:
- This list has sentences.
- Each sentence has a period.
Note that if a list has both items and sentences (e.g. Build Orders), full sentences receive a period, all the others may be left without.
Numbering[edit]
- For numbers taken directly from Starcraft gameplay, use numerals.
- When you have 300 minerals, build a Hatchery.
- The Zealot does 8 damage each attack and has two attacks.
- For all other numbering up to twenty, use their corresponding English words.
- By this time the Zerg should have three Lurkers.
- For numbers above twenty, use numerals once again.
- Don't give this up trying to be a hero against a group of 24 Marines
Naming Conventions[edit]
Maps[edit]
- Use the root name for maps when referring to them. Please remove all version related tags unless they are absolutely vital to the context in which you are using it.
- Python 1.3 has four starting locations.
- The cliffs on Lost Temple are an ideal place for the Terran to drop Siege Tanks.
- Lost Temple 2.4 has been significantly altered to enhance game balance.
Players[edit]
- When referencing professional gamers, use their most common nickname.
- Team tags should generally not be included due to the issues that arise if a player moves teams or changes their tag. An example, with WeRRa disbanding, all IDs with WeRRa in the name are out of date. With the arrival of name changes soon, clan IDs will change greatly while player IDs are more static. So for in line text remove all tags.
- The Terran player BoxeR was most well known for his advanced micromanagement capabilities.
Teams[edit]
- When referencing professional teams you may use abbreviations. If referring to the team multiple times in the same piece, try and alternate the names so that it does not become monotonous.
- Oz, Hwaseung, Hwaseung Oz.
- In info boxes and titles, please use the complete name of the team.
- Hwaseung Oz or SK Telecom T1
Images[edit]
- When uploading infobox images, please use the full name of the building, unit, map, build, technique or player in question.
- Sunkencolony.jpg, Darktemplar.jpg, 14Commandcenter.png, Boxer.png.
Strategy Articles[edit]
Titles and Links[edit]
- Unit and building names are abbreviated:
- Mutalisk → Muta
- Hydralisk → Hydra
- Cybernetics Core → Core.
- Thus, 3 Hatchery Mutalisks → 3 Hatch Muta.
- In the Matchup Guide article, the names are spelled out in full, so beginners will know what you are talking about; e.g. [ [ 3 Hatch Muta|3 Hatchery Mutalisk ] ].
- In the article name, your race and your opponent's race should be included if ambiguous, i.e. Terran Counter To Greedy Zerg; however, if an article is already in a certain section, omit the names on the overview page when possible. E.g.: Terran Counter To Zerg 2 Hatch Pressure becomes Counter To 2 Hatch Pressure when it is clearly located in the TvZ section. If this is unclear to you, take a look at the Strategy Mainpage and look at the examples there.
- Connectors like "to" "with" "vs." are all lower case. E.g. Terran Counter to 9 Pool instead of Terran Counter To 9 pool
- All Strategies receive a "(vs. [RACE])" in the end. This is to disambiguate similar strategies, such as 1 Gate Core, which can be used in both PvP and PvT. E.g., 9 Pool (vs. Protoss), not "9 Pool (vs Protoss)" (dot missing) or simply "9 Pool".
- Internal links (especially to Units or Strategies) should be used at least once per article, and at most once per section.
- "Zealots are good at killing other zealots." In this case you link to the zealots article the first time the word 'zealots' appears, but not the second time.
Build orders[edit]
- [Supply Number] - Building; Building is full name. E.g. 9 - Supply Depot, not 9 Depot.
- When giving construction percentage: "@65% Hive - [do this]"; Not "@50% Lair build Mutalisks" (hyphen missing) or "9 @ 40% - [do this]" (supply number not needed and building/upgrade missing).
Article Design[edit]
- Headings are supposed to be meaningful; i.e. not "NOTE 1" to "NOTE 5".
- Do not include headings with a question mark but formulate them in an expressive way. "Why use this strategy?" could become "theory" and similar.
- If we find any references to unwritten articles before release, about which we do not know how they would be filled out, they will be purged.
Point of view[edit]
- As long as it is unambiguous, speak with the reader as a 2nd person, e.g.:
- If you see the Terran put up three Starports, get a Spire as soon as possible.
- The above avoids the unclear plural / singular status of the Races and also the awkward use of article; compare these (wrong) variants to see why addressing the user as "you" is more elegant:
- If Zerg see the Terran put up three Starports, they need to ...
- If the Zerg sees the Terran put up three Starports, he needs to get ...
- Avoid use of repetition when referring to the opponent. Use "he or she" or "his or her" if necessary. Consider the following sentence:
- If the Terran fast expands, the Terran will mostly likely have less marines.
- This is much less repetitive: If the Terran fast expands, he or she will mostly likely have less marines.
- The only exception is, naturally, where the reader's point of view is not clear, for example in a 2on2 strategy.
References[edit]
- For general references, add a section at the bottom of the article at the == heading level. Exemplary games should link to the TL page, such as https://tl.net/tlpd/games/11033_Leta_vs_Luxury/vod, not directly to youtube (as in http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fkq0iWOy02U).
- It's VODs. The following are all wrong: vods, VOD's, VODS.
VOD linking[edit]
- Link to the TLPD VOD, not the Youtube VOD or the TLPD game page. For that purpose, we have the Template:Vodlink.