OpenTTD Wiki NewGRF Lists

[kamnet]

so for the last year or so I've been the major contributor to the NewGRF List on OpenTTD Wiki. I enjoy trying to keep track of all the NewGRFs, but I must say I feel the current listing leaves much to be desired. I've tried to come up with a better way to list and categorize newGRFs, but each time I start I end up not liking it and become frustrated with it all. I am soliciting input on a way to revamp these pages into something more easily curated.

As of right now what I'd like to do is break the current list out into two pages, NewGRF List by Region and NewGRF List by Type, ditching the overall table format for a more standard wiki markup which would allow visitors to more clearly see category breakdowns. But, even with this, my efforts so far feel inferior and incomplete.

Anybody have any insights or suggestions as to what they might want to see?

[Alberth]

It sounds like you want a data base of newgrfs, searchable by arbitrary keyword, a bit like the newgrf selection in the OpenTTD program?

[kamnet]

Not quite that. I want to find a balance between presenting a logical layout of information but not having to resort to grids or tables to present it. I think what I'd like to see is: Name of set, short description, links to discussions, websites, and downloads. And then after that just organizing it into easily-viewable lists so that a visitor can quickly scan and find things.

For example, one of the things I like about the current "NewGRF List" page is that everything is broken down by NewGRF type: trains, road vehicles, station sets, etc. What I dislike about it is that if the set doesn't have a descriptive name, there's not much room to give a description. I'd like to reorganize this so that there's a little more room for what I want to include above. I've kinda started something like that for the "NewGRFs by Region" page, but trying to find a nice way to organize that information is challenging, and I keep being tempted to go back to tables, which makes adding new information just that more cumbersome.

However, earlier I did have a though about using the wiki to organize a database of NewGRFs, to which I've shot a preliminary idea over to Planetmaker.

[Alberth]

One entire page for each NewGRF with some fixed-ish layout, and a number of index pages by <whatever (region, type of newgrf, colour, time)> ?

Edit: Alternatively, add links to related newgrfs at the bottom of the newgrf page

[kamnet]

One entire page for each NewGRF with some fixed-ish layout, and a number of index pages by <whatever (region, type of newgrf, colour, time)> ?

Edit: Alternatively, add links to related newgrfs at the bottom of the newgrf page

Yes, something like that, but that's getting away from what I intended to discuss here.

[Pyoro]

Mh, honestly I prefer good table layouts. Something sortable by column. [Name], [Type], [Region], [License], [Link] ... maybe. Would at least for me contain all relevant information on one page. Maybe short descs as mouse-over if you want to put even more work into it...

[kamnet]

Mh, honestly I prefer good table layouts. Something sortable by column. [Name], [Type], [Region], [License], [Link] ... maybe. Would at least for me contain all relevant information on one page. Maybe short descs as mouse-over if you want to put even more work into it...

I didn't think the OpenTTD wiki supported sortable tables, but I was corrected in that regard. So I've put in some work and I think maybe I'm a little happier with what I've done. Open to feedback.

https://wiki.openttd.org/NewGRF_List_by_Region#Japan

[Rollerghost]

The sortable table looks great, I really like it.

[Pyoro]

Yes, I agree, pretty neat. I'd probably put region into the table as well (maybe as first column and default sort order) instead of separately but it probably doesn't make a huge difference.
...
And I imagine that version numbers are a bit of a pain for maintenance, but if you feel up to it I'm not going to complain

[kamnet]

Yeah I'm not sure if I'm keeping version numbers or not. Sometimes they can be important, especially if a newer version breaks save game compatibility or is a huge shift.

With the table as wide as it already is, I'm not certain if I want to add anything else to it. I'm specifically breaking out regions into its own wiki page so that visitors can easily jump to specific regions and sort. The main NewGRF wiki page will contain a link to the regions page, as well as the 32bpp list. I think on the main page I will stick with breaking out sets by type (rail vehicles, road vehicles, infrastucture, etc.) but just convert everything over to the new table format.