User:Anwyll/ProtoTemplate/Location Display

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Example of Template[edit]

South Shroud (18-26)
﹥Lower Paths
﹥Rootslake


Philosophy[edit]

At the moment, our "thorough" version of the FINAL FANTASY XIV atlas includes the following hierarchical tiers:

World
Hydaelyn, the Void, the Aetherial Realm
Landmass
Aldenard, Vylbrand, Meracydia
Region
La Noscea, O'Ghomoro, Dravania, Thanalan
Zone
Coerthas Western Highlands, Eastern Thanalan, Upper La Noscea
Area
Riversmeet, Upper Paths, Dragonhead, Sagolii Desert
Landmark
Gelmorran Ruins, Rootslake, The Hyaline

The in-game map, by contrast, is organized like so:

Region
Zone
>Area
>Landmark

This may not be as informational or complete, but it is the default setting through which players interact with travel in the game the majority of the time. The majority of pages related specifically to game mechanics should mimic this formatting, in my opinion, as it facilitates the utilization of the information on the wiki to the game itself.

When someone is seeking a given location, all they really need is ZONE (X-Y), which is the most prominent part of the template above. You'll notice that the REGION has been removed from the mimicry of the in-game map, as it is often irrelevant, while AREA and LANDMARK are included optionally (if applicable) in reduced size to help a reader get their bearings, perhaps deciding which aetheryte to teleport into or get a general idea of which way to start running once they've arrived.

This not only helps wiki user-friendliness, but also provides a foundation to start cleaning up our over-reliance on the formatting ZONE - AREA - LANDMARK (X-Y), which (though the back-end code is super helpful at auto-completing based on hierarchical input) is hell on the eyes and makes tabled lists look chaotic when each row may or may not include all of the tiers.