Okay, just ran into a
major snag in the new wiki that prevents it being used exactly the way we have been doing.
VaultWiki does not have the extension that some MediaWiki's do that allow it to do math in templates. In other words, there is no way to automatic math checking (i.e., adding the various mod values for defense) without some seriously tricky recursive template execution that I haven't looked into. CES doesn't seem to have an extension to support math expressions either.
So, there a few things I need judges (both from L4W and LEB, as we are using the same sections so far) to ponder. I see a few ways forward:
- Junk the ENWorld Wiki and move it offsite.
- Modify the Math section by:
- Requiring the numbers to be provided by the authors (no auto-calc)
- Junk the section as given, and just request a CB summary
- Junk the section entirely
My thoughts: I think we should just junk the section and request a Character Builder summary if the user can provide one. Why?
- The CB can check much of the math for us
- Its very labor intensive to fill this out every time, especially if there is a tool that does it. Removing this barrier will make character writing up easier.
- I
believe many judges check by putting things into the CB anyway
Of course, there are some weaknesses with this approach:
- Not all of our users use the CB (e.g., DDI is required for level 4+)
- The CB does have some bugs
- The CB will not capture some of L4W/LEB's differences from cannon (oversize weapon creatures)
- I could be wrong on how much the judges are using the CB for checking
In any case, I am a strong opponent of moving the wiki off-site. I've stated this many times. While I think we need a way of doing math checking, I don't think the wiki's lack of doing that for us is the straw that will break the camel's back.
So, thoughts?
