View source for Age of Empires Series Wiki:Manual of Style

The '''Manual of Style''' (often abbreviated '''MoS''') is a style guide for all articles on the Age of Empires Series Wiki. It establishes our house style, to help editors produce articles with consistent, clear, and precise language, layout, and formatting. The goal is to make the encyclopedia easier and more intuitive to use. Consistency in style and formatting promotes clarity and cohesion; this is especially important within an article.

These guidelines are a summary of the most important guidelines for the Age of Empires Series Wiki. A more expansive set of guidelines can be found on Wikipedia at the [[wikipedia:Wikipedia:Manual of Style|Wikipedia Manual of Style]].

== Articles ==
=== Article titles ===
An article title is a convenient label for the article, which distinguishes it from other articles. As such, an appropriately chosen title aids the reader's navigation and avoids confusion.

The following points are critical to formatting article titles:

* '''Use "sentence case" or "sentence-style":''' The initial letter of a title is capitalized; otherwise, capital letters are used only where they would be used in a normal sentence, e.g. <font color=green>God power</font>, not <font color=red>God Power</font>.
* '''Use the singular form:''' Article titles should be singular, e.g. <font color=green>Myth unit</font>, not <font color=red>Myth units</font>.
* '''Add the game reference at the end:''' Articles that describe an object or person that appears on multiple games within the ''Age of Empires'' series require their game reference in brackets at the end. The reference is not to be abbreviated, e.g. <font color=green>Wheelbarrow (Age of Empires)</font>, not <font color=red>Wheelbarrow (AoE)</font> or <font color=red>Age of Empires: Wheelbarrow</font>.
: In this case, an additional disambiguation page is required.
* '''Articles titles for a unit must not include titles or ranks:''' Titles or ranks such as Elite or Royal are not to be included in the article title, e.g. <font color=green>Strelet</font>, not <font color=red>Imperial Strelet</font>. An exception is made for non-unique units of ''Age of Empires II'', where seperate pages like [[Steppe Lancer]] and [[Elite Steppe Lancer]] are allowed.

; Other rules of reference disambiguation
* Disambiguation is used on proper nouns when there are more than one article of same name (in either case) in more than one game of the main series.
** Game reference disambiguation is needed for [[Light Cavalry (Age of Empires II)]] even in the presence of [[Light cavalry (Age of Empires III)]]. The page [[Light cavalry]] (of which the latter is a subset of) can be used as a disambiguation, despite the former being a specific unit and the other two being types of units.
** Game reference disambiguation is not needed when spellings are different<!--, like [[Inca]] and [[Incas]]-Example no longer valid-->. For names like [[Arbalétrier]], the disambiguation considers the '''é''' as normal '''e'''.
* In cases where two articles of the same name appear in the same game, like [[Hausa]] and [[Portuguese (Age of Empires III)]] (civilizations) vs [[Portuguese (Alliance)]] and [[Hausa (Alliance)]] (Alliances), the lesser significant article if by a wide margin is given an appropriate reference disambiguation, and the larger article is given normal disambiguation, if any.
** In cases where both articles are almost equally significant and no other article of the same name exists in another game, disambiguation happens from another but appropriate reference, like [[Moroccans (civilization)]] and [[Moroccans (Alliance)]].
** In cases where both articles are almost equally significant and that an article of the same name exists in another game as well, the existence of article in other games is ignored for title pages and referencing works same as in the previous case. However, in such cases, disambiguation pages become of utmost importance. <!-- please insert example -->
* Disambiguation should be used on common nouns (mostly unit types) if there is a possibility of a similar page in other games of the series. This is done to prevent people from confusing and adding content on one game in other games' articles.
** Disambiguation in [[mounted archer unit (Age of Empires II)]] should be used even if there were no other mounted archer unit pages.
** A similar disambiguation should be added for category pages. Disambiguation is used in [[:Category:Mongols (Age of Empires IV)]] to avoid the possibility of adding [[Mangudai (Age of Empires II)]], [[Drill]], and [[Nomads]] in the category if it were named '''Category:Mongols'''.

=== Article headings ===
Headings organize the article and give structure to it. They are a great help while navigating a page. As such, they need to be concise.

The following points are critical to formatting headings:

* '''Use "sentence case" or "sentence-style":''' The initial letter of a title is capitalized; otherwise, capital letters are used only where they would be used in a normal sentence, e.g. <font color=green>Further statistics</font>, not <font color=red>Further Statistics</font>.
* '''If applicable, use the plural form:''' Headings should be plural if applicable, e.g. <font color=green>Team bonuses</font>, not <font color=red>Team bonus</font>.
** There are three exceptions:
*** <font color=green>Overview</font>
*** <font color=green>Strategy</font>
*** <font color=green>History</font>
:: These headings are never used in plural form.

=== Article wording ===
Accurate and clear wording must be prioritized over in-game wording, since in-game wording is often inconsistent. This is demonstrated in the following examples:
{|class=fandom-table
!width=25%|Wording 1
!width=25%|Wording 2
!width=50%|Inconsistency
|-
|Slav team bonus: Military buildings provide +5 population space
|Wu civilization bonus: Military production buildings and Docks provide +65 food
|Firstly, the Slav team bonus refers to "military buildings" and not "military production buildings", the former of which also includes walls and towers. Even if ignoring that, the former bonus excludes Castles, whereas the latter includes them.
|}

Moreover, it should be complemented by technical wording if need be.

=== Disambiguation pages ===
Disambiguation pages always have the form showed in the following example.

<font color=green><nowiki>{{disambig}}</nowiki>

The '''Wheelbarrow''' is an economic technology in ''[[Age of Empires II: The Age of Kings|Age of Empires II]]'' and ''[[Age of Mythology: Tale of the Dragon]]''.

: ''For the Age of Empires II article, see [[Wheelbarrow (Age of Empires II)]]''.
: ''For the Age of Mythology article, see [[Wheelbarrow (Age of Mythology)]]''.</font>

=== Structure ===
Although pages dealing with different topics have different content and headings there is a general structure every article follows. The following points are always in the shown order:
# '''Disambiguation:''' This part is only required if there are articles in the wiki that might be confused with the shown article. Links to the other articles are given here. The need for disambiguation not only arises due to same or similar names, but also because what the pages are or can be called in real life or historically. For example, there are historical similarities between the [[Teutons]] in ''Age of Empires II'' and the [[Holy Roman Empire]] in ''Age of Empires IV'', and also between [[Romans (Age of Empires II)]] and [[Byzantines (Age of Empires II)]].
# '''Infobox''': Unit, building, technology, civilization, scenario, and character pages require their corresponding infobox.
# '''Introduction:''' This part gives a brief overview over the article. The contents show below this part.
# '''Main page:''' This part strongly varies depending of the content the article deals with.
# '''History:''' Historical information taken out of the game files goes at the end of the article.
# '''Gallery:''' The gallery shows images that do not fit in the floating text or would overload the main part of the article.
# '''Navigation:''' Navigation templates go to the very bottom of any article.

The [[Cavalry Archer (Age of Empires II)]] page is a good example to demonstrate that structure.

==== Cross-game articles ====
If an article describes something or someone that appears in more than just one game of the series but is covered by a single article, e.g. a game mechanic, than the subsections are given in the following chronological order, if applicable:
# ''Age of Empires''
# ''Age of Empires II''
# ''Age of Mythology''
# ''Age of Empires III''
# ''Age of Empires IV''

==== Civilization listing ====
* When listing civilizations in ''Age of Empires'', ''Age of Empires II'', ''Age of Empires III'', or ''Age of Empires IV'', list them in an '''alphabetical order''', except when the case needs them to be in chronological order of being added to the game. In case more than one civilization is added at the same time, alphabetical order is used here as well.
* When listing civilizations in ''Age of Mythology'', list them as follows (which follows the chronological order of development):
:# Greeks
:# Egyptians
:# Norse
:# Atlanteans
:# Chinese

=== Upcoming content ===
Upcoming content is not editable unless the content goes live to prevent showing false information. However, the wiki editors also need time to make the changes, and not having information of released information is a worse experience for the users. The following deadlines are being followed to unlock editing content.
* Regular articles - one day
** Articles which are supposed to go live in one day must not have the upcoming categorization.
** Articles which are supposed to get updated in one day are editable with the upcoming changes.
* Expansion articles - three days
** Articles which are supposed to go live in three days must not have upcoming categorization.
** Articles which are supposed to get updated in three days are editable with the upcoming changes.
** This is simply because content creators usually get early access for upcoming expansions and players are more excited for new content offered by expansions over other regular patches.
* Game client releases - seven days
** Articles which are supposed to go live in seven days must not have upcoming categorization.
** Articles which are supposed to get updated in seven days are editable with the upcoming changes.
** Game client releases, such as ''Retold'' and ''Definitive Editions'', usually accompany a lot of changes which need time to incorporate in the wiki.

=== Cross-game references ===
Links to articles of other games of the series is prohibited if the context does not refer to it. For example, the following are wrong:
* ''Age of Empires'' context: The East Asian Wonder is the [[Temple of Heaven (Age of Empires II)]].
* ''Age of Empires IV'' context: The internal name of the Musofadi Gunner is [[Gbeto]].

However, linking to general pages is allowed, even if that specifc general page has content for a specific game. For example:
* ''Age of Empires II'' context: One of the Hindustani AI player names is [[Akbar the Great]].
* ''Age of Empires IV'' context: One of the French Monarchs is [[Charlemagne (unit)]].

Linking to pages of other games when specifying context is also allowed, if it is not ambiguous.
* ''Age of Empires II'' context: The Throwing Axeman conceptually appears as the [[Serjeant (Age of Empires IV)]] in ''[[Age of Empires IV: Knights of Cross and Rose]]''.
* ''Age of Empires II'' context: The [[Shang]] from ''Age of Empires'' are the ancestors of the Japanese.

When linking to pages when talking across time can be ambiguous:
* ''Age of Empires II'' context: The Byzantines are the cultural descendants of the [[Greeks (Age of Empires)]] and political descendants of the [[Romans (Age of Empires)]].
** Here, one can argue why Greeks were linked to the ''Age of Empires'' page, and not the ''Age of Mythology'' page.
* ''Age of Empires II'' context: The Byzantines lost their empire to the [[Ottomans (Age of Empires III)]].
** Not only one can argue why Ottomans were linked to the ''Age of Empires III'' page, and not the ''Age of Empires IV'' page, one can also argue why the Ottomans were not linked to the general Turks page in ''Age of Empires II''.

== Spelling ==
'''American spelling''' is used on all articles on the Age of Empires Series Wiki and on any template transcribed on articles.
There are three exceptions:
* On article comments, blog posts, talk pages, and user pages, other regional variants may be used.
* If quoting a source, never alter any part of the quotation, even if it does not use American spelling.
* Regional variants can be listed in the Trivia section of the page.

== Capital letters ==
'''Unnecessary capitalization should be avoided.''' Capitalization should be reserved for proper names only.
* All characters, units, buildings, and technologies are considered proper nouns and are always capitalized, even if they describe a generic object.

: {|
|-
| ''Incorrect''
| <font color=red>Khmer villagers can garrison in houses.</font>
|-
| ''Correct''
| <font color=green>Khmer Villagers can garrison in Houses.</font>
|-
| ''Incorrect''
| <font color=red>There are sheep and berry bushes nearby.</font>
|-
| ''Correct''
| <font color=green>There are Sheep and Berry Bushes nearby.</font>
|}

* If a word does not address a specific entity, but summarizes multiple different entities or entire branches, the summarizing word is written in lowercase.

: {|
|-
| ''Incorrect''
| <font color=red>The city is guarded with Walls and Towers.</font>
|-
| ''Correct''
| <font color=green>The city is guarded with walls and towers.</font>
|}

* However, if objects (e.g. the walls and towers in the example above) are known to be of a specific type and described as such (i.e. are proper nouns), they must be capitalized.

: {|
|-
| ''Incorrect''
| <font color=red>The city is guarded with stone walls and watch towers.</font>
|-
| ''Correct''
| <font color=green>The city is guarded with Stone Walls and Watch Towers.</font>
|}

* Furthermore, the word 'Age' is always capitalized when referring to the in-game concept.

: {|
|-
| ''Incorrect''
| <font color=red>Advance through the ages.</font>
|-
| ''Correct''
| <font color=green>Advance through the Ages.</font>
|}

* Unit branches as well as the word 'unit' are never capitalized, except when they are part of a proper noun or given as classification in the infobox.

: {|
|-
| ''Incorrect''
| <font color=red>Light Cavalry are quick Cavalry Units that excel at combating Siege Weapons.</font>
|-
| ''Correct''
| <font color=green>Light Cavalry are quick cavalry units that excel at combating siege weapons.</font>
|}

: The Light Cavalry in this example is a [[Light Cavalry (Age of Empires II)|specific unit]] and therefore must be capitalized; the other terms must not.

== Italics ==
Whenever mentioning a title of the ''Age of Empires'' series (including expansion and re-release names), write the title in italics.
: {|
|-
| ''Incorrect''
| <font color=red>The Dutch are a civilization in Age of Empires III.</font>
|-
| ''Correct''
| <font color=green>The Dutch are a civilization in ''Age of Empires III''.</font>
|}

== Punctuation ==
=== Period ===
A period or full stop is used to end sentences only - not phrases.
: {|
|-
|rowspan=2|''Incorrect''
|<font color=red>{{2icons|Bloodlines}}: +20% HP.</font>
|-
|''Image caption in gallery:'' <font color=red>Paladin in the ''Definitive Edition''.</font>
|-
|rowspan=2|''Correct''
|<font color=green>{{2icons|Bloodlines}}: +20% HP</font>
|-
|<font color=green>Researching Bloodlines grants +20% hit points.</font>
|}

=== Apostrophes ===
Consistent use of the straight (or typewriter) apostrophe ( <font color=green>'</font> ) is recommended, as opposed to the curly (or typographic) apostrophe ( <font color=red>’</font> ).

=== Quotation marks ===
* '''Use double quotation marks:''' Enclose quotations with double quotation marks, e.g. <font color=green>Cuauhtemoc said, "The Ottomans are strong... It must be their coffee."</font> Enclose quotations within quotations with single quotation marks, e.g. <font color=green>Cuauhtemoc said, "Ar-til-ler-y? What is this 'Artillery' you speak of?"</font>

=== Brackets and parentheses ===
* '''If a sentence contains a bracketed phrase''', place the sentence punctuation outside the brackets <font color=green>(as shown here)</font>.
* '''If one or more sentences are wholly inside brackets''', place their punctuation inside the brackets.

There should be no space next to the inner side of a bracket. An opening bracket should be preceded by a space, except in unusual cases; for example, when it is preceded by an opening quotation mark, another opening bracket, or a portion of a word.

=== Commas ===
* Use commas to structure large numbers.
: {|
|-
|''Incorrect''
|<font color=red>Researching Spies can cost up to 30000 gold.</font>
|-
|''Correct''
|<font color=green>Researching Spies can cost up to 30,000 gold.</font>
|}

* '''Use serial commas.''' This is more consistent with the recommendations of authoritative style guides.
: {|
|-
|''Incorrect''
|<font color=red>A Wonder costs 1,000 wood, gold and stone.</font>
|-
|''Correct''
|<font color=green>A Wonder costs 1,000 wood, gold, and stone.</font>
|}

* Modern practice is against excessive use of commas; there are usually ways to simplify a sentence so that fewer are needed.

=== Terminal punctuation ===
* Clusters of question marks, exclamation marks, or a combination of them (such as the interrobang), are highly informal and inappropriate in articles.
* '''Use the exclamation mark with restraint'''. It is an expression of surprise or emotion that is generally unsuitable for an encyclopedia.

=== Spacing ===
* '''Never''' place a space before commas, semicolons, colons, or terminal punctuation.
* '''Always''' place a space after the punctuation marks just mentioned, unless it is the end of a paragraph, dot point, list element, or the article.
* '''Use one space after terminal punctuation.''' The use of double spaces is pointless as MediaWiki automatically condenses any number of spaces to just one when rendering the page.

== Dates ==
Dates should be mentioned in full formats with the names of month rather than month number. The most preferable format is "MMMM D, YYYY". Eg: January 1, 2000.

For mentioning a date where only the month and year are known, use the format "MMMM YYYY", eg: January 2000.

== Numbers ==
* In general, write whole numbers one through nine as words, write other numbers that take two words or fewer to say as either numerals or words, and write all other numbers as numerals: <font color=green>1/5</font> or <font color=green>one fifth</font>, <font color=green>84</font> or <font color=green>eighty-four</font>, <font color=green>200</font> or <font color=green>two hundred</font>, but <font color=green>3.75</font>, <font color=green>544</font>, <font color=green>21 million</font>). This applies to both ordinal and cardinal numbers.
* Use a comma to delimit numbers with four or more digits to the left of the decimal point: <font color=green>12,345</font> and <font color=green>1,000</font>.

== Grammar ==
* For the possessive of singular nouns ending with just one ''s'', add just an apostrophe.
* For a normal plural noun, ending with a pronounced ''s'', form the possessive by adding just an apostrophe e.g. <font color=green>his armies' power</font>.

=== Tense ===
* '''Past tense''' must only be used on articles or sections dealing with historic content.
* '''Present tense''' must be used on any section and article where it does not conflict with the first guideline.

== Vocabulary ==
'''Formal use of language''' is mandatory on all canon encyclopedia articles e.g. <font color=green>Paladins have a very strong attack and heavy armor</font>, not <font color=red>Paladins are awesome and tanky</font>.

=== Third person ===
* All articles are written in the third person. In strategy parts and campaign walkthroughs where the reader needs to be addressed, they are referred to as 'the player', but '''never''' as 'you', e.g. <font color=green>The player starts at the southeast of the map.</font> not <font color=red>You start at the southeast of the map.</font>

=== Formality and neutrality ===
* Uncontracted forms such as ''do not'' or ''it is'' are the default in encyclopedic style; ''don't'' and ''it's'' are too informal.
* On encyclopedia articles, avoid such phrases as ''remember that'' and ''note that'', which address readers directly in a less-than-encyclopedic tone. Similarly, phrases such as ''of course'', ''naturally'', ''obviously'', ''clearly'', and ''actually'' make presumptions about readers' knowledge, and call into question the reason for including the information in the first place. Do not tell readers that something is ironic, surprising, unexpected, amusing, coincidental, unfortunate, etc. This supplies a point of view. Simply state the sourced facts and allow readers to draw their own conclusions.

== Images ==
{{main|Age of Empires Series Wiki:Images}}

=== Icons ===
* Icons and/or icon templates must not be used mid-sentences because they look distracting.
*: ''Incorrect'': <font color=red>{{Micons|Spearmen}} counter {{Mclass|cavalry}}.</font>
* Icons can be put as headings in articles; table headers; before colons (:) or dashes (-) in sentences if they are the opening words; etc.
*: ''Correct:'' <font color=green>{{2icons|Franks}}: Paladins have +20% hit points.</font>
* Icons must not be bigger than the line height.
** For normal sentences, the optimal height is 22px.
** For level 1 headings (rare), the optimal height is 44px
** For level 2 headings, the optimal height is 36px.
** For level 3 headings, the optimal height is 30px.
** Non-mandatory icons in infoboxes must be set to 16px to 18px, since infoboxes are small.
* Icons in navboxes can be as large as needed since they are at the bottom of the page.
** Civilization icons in ''Age of Mythology'' civilizations template are 64px. This is done because there are only 5 civilizations and the entire width of the page must be covered.
** Major god and minor god icons in the gods template are 48px and 32px respectively, signifying their relative importance in the template.
* The default size provided for images (and by extension icons) sets their width, not height. This does not matter for square icons, which most of the icons are. However, for non-square icons, the icon height must be prefixed by 'x'. So for normal sentences, it must be set as 'x22px'.

== Links ==
* '''Link sufficiently:''' It is important to link sufficiently to help the reader gather all the information needed. It is especially important to link units, buildings, technologies, and civilizations properly, e.g. <font color=green>[[Pikeman (Age of Empires II)|Pikemen]] are very effective against [[Cavalry unit (Age of Empires II)|cavalry]], particularly [[Armor class: War elephant|elephants]].</font>
* '''Avoid redundant links:''' Redundant links (e.g. <font color=red>The Priest is a special [[unit]] in ''Age of Empires''</font>) distract the reader, clutter the page, and make future maintenance harder.
* '''Do not use external links in the body of an article.''' Articles can include an external links section at the end, pointing to further information outside Age of Empires Series Wiki as opposed to citing sources. An important exception is linking notable events (like [[The Battle at the Kalka River]]), characters (like [[Napoleon Bonaparte]]), units (like [[Janissary]]), etc to appropriate '''Wikipedia''' articles for further reading.
* '''Avoid advertisements:''' Say when talking about [[Centurion]] helments, linking to a page which sells similar helmets is prohibited.

== Miscellaneous ==
=== Source mode editing markup ===
* Place spaces on either side of the text in a heading e.g. <code><nowiki>== Heading ==</nowiki></code>.
* Place a blank line before a line containing a heading, except when a sub-heading immediately follows a heading, where there should be no blank line between the heading and the sub-heading.
* Do not place a blank line between a heading and the text or files below it.
* If used, <code>{{T|Main}}</code> should be added immediately under the heading. If it is followed by a file, the file link should be immediately under it before a blank line separating the file link and the beginning of the text.
* File link parameters should appear in this order: <code><nowiki>[[File:Filename.png|thumb|right|200px|Description.]]</nowiki></code>
* Place blank lines before and after a file, separating it from body text.
* Place a space after the asterisk and hash symbols in unordered and ordered lists respectively, so that each new list item is easier to find e.g. <code><nowiki>* Item</nowiki></code>.
* Start different source code types in different lines. <code><nowiki>[[File:Filename.png|thumb]]'''Filename''' is a ...</nowiki></code> should be avoided by inserting a line break in the source code between <code>]]</code> and <code>'''Filename'''</code>.

=== Other points ===
* '''Quotes''' may be added to any page.
* '''Speculation or personal opinions''' should not be added to any Age of Empires Series Wiki article.
* The phrase '''original game''' only refers to the release versions of the first four games of the main series, viz. ''Age of Empires'' - 1997, ''Age of Empires II'' - 1999, ''Age of Mythology'' - 2002, and ''Age of Empires III'' - 2005.
** Moreover, instead of using "in the original ''Age of Empires II'', one must use "in ''The Age of Kings''".

== Page structure ==
The following provides the general page structure for most uses cases, along with the reasons why they follow that order. Ignore points which will not be used on that particular page.

# {{t|For}}/{{t|ForNoLink}} - The first thing a viewer should see if they have visited the correct page
# Pan page templates - Since they apply to the entire article, they have to be at the top
## {{t|Upcoming}} - If page is not live yet, it is natural it won't have appropriate amount of content or number of images
## {{t|Stub}} - If page does not have enough content, it won't have appropriate amount of images
## {{t|NeedImage}}
## {{t|Update}}/{{t|Cleanup}}
# Infobox
# Overview
# Ability - Ability before discussion so that we know what we are talking about
# Description - comes in two forms
## Tactics - used when only one component is being described, like units, buildings, and most god powers
## Strategy - used when more than one components are present, like scenarios, civilizations, gods, and even [[Age]]s
# Comparison table
# Further statistics
## Strengths and weaknesses table
## Technologies
## Civilization bonuses
## God bonuses
## Team bonuses
## Home City Cards
# Dialogue lines
# Changelog
# Trivia
# History
# Gallery
# Videos
# Notes
# References
# External links/See also
# Navbox(es)
# Categories
# Interwiki links

== Guidelines for specific pages ==
Pages about the civilization, viz technology tree page, strategy page, etc., must have the civilization's icon set to minimum 120px as the first image. This ensures that the civilization icon shows up representing the page in the category page. This avoids random images from representing the page, such as the technology tree screenshots, or worse images from the navboxes.

{{Policies and guidelines}}
[[Category:Wiki]]