RimWorld Wiki:Style guide

The purpose of this style guide is to describe and clarify the standards used on this wiki to promote consistency across articles.

• This style guide is meant to make things easier for editors, not harder; and is not meant to impose personal preferences or extensive policies that would inhibit constructive edits and improvements.
• Guidelines at Wikipedia:Manual of Style can usually be followed as good practices.
• New content added to this page should address a persistently recurring style issue.
• Any substantive edit to this page should reflect consensus. When in doubt, discuss first on the talk page.

Language

• The language used on this wiki is American English.
• Redirects with the British spelling of an existing page may be added. e.g. Armour, Defence tactics

Page titles

Plural: Pages should be singular unless plural in-game (e.g. Frag grenades) or refer to a group of similar things (e.g. Trees).

Capitalization:

Page names that use sentence case

• In-game items and features, e.g. Wood, Steel helmet, Muscle parasites, Advanced component, Learning helper
• General topics, e.g. Defense tactics, World generation

Page names that use title case

• AI storytellers, e.g. Randy Random
• Guides, e.g. Extreme Heat Guide
• Groups, e.g. Spacer Weapons
• Modding tutorials
• Stats (of items, structures, pawns), e.g. Deterioration Rate, Cover Effectiveness, Arrest Success Chance
• Semantic MediaWiki properties, e.g. Lives in Boreal Forest
• Concept pages

Page sections

• The first paragraph on a page constitutes the "lead section". The lead section should not have a section header.
• Sections should use sentence case.
• Sections should not also be links. Instead, either create a link using the first instance of the word or use the "Main" template.
• In the edit view, a section header should be immediately followed by content; no blank lines between the section header and its first line of content.

General text

RimWorld vs rimworld

• Use RimWorld when referring to the game.
• Use rimworld when referring to a rimworld planet.

Links

• The first instance of text referring to the page’s topic may be bolded. Otherwise, generally avoid the use of bold text.
• Make links that are relevant to the context. Only the first instance should be linked. In larger pages, the first instance per a tier 1 section may be linked instead.
• If a redirect to a specific page section exists, link via that redirect instead of via a link to the page. i.e. Use [[Ascetic]]/Ascetic not /[[Traits#Ascetic]]Traits#Ascetic. This allows for much easier updating of links, page moves, page splits etc.

Formatting

• Use italics to emphasize text instead of bolding and underlining.
• Avoid using parentheses in main text bodies, where practical/possible.

Capitalization

• In most cases capitalization should follow the capitalization used in-game.
• Capitalize words only as needed. Mid-sentence page links use appropriate case. e.g. Bluefur is a type of leather produced when a cook butchers a muffalo at a butcher table.
• Use sentence case for thoughts. e.g. Eating raw food will cause the "Ate raw food" thought.

Images

• Screenshots should be high quality, cropped to focus on the subject, brightly lit (if light level is not relevant), be as free from UI clutter as reasonably practical, and not include any modded content.
• Image filenames should:
  • follow the capitalization and styling as used in game
  • be discreet words delimited by spaces
  • usually be in sentence case but using capitalization as needed.
  • e.g. Caravan packing spot.png, Game-of-Ur board.png, Save file for Mac using EasyFind.png.
• Image categories should be added to images upon upload, and if they cannot be (e.g. if you don't know an appropriate category or think one does not exist), the page should be tagged with Template: Stub with the reason stating the need for categories.
• Add the Template: Royalty/Template: Ideology/Template: Biotech/Template: Anomaly banner to images that are primarily about content from the DLC or that require content from the DLC.
  • For example, an image about cows that happens to have a toxalope in it would not require the Biotech banner. An image for the purposes of displaying a throne room would require the Royalty banner. etc

Table of contents

• Generally, the table of contents is floated right by use of Template:TOCright.
• The table of contents (automatically added on pages with 4 or more sections) may be suppressed (by placing the magic word __NOTOC__ at the top of the page or at least before the main content). Suppressing the TOC is usually desirable on pages that are short enough that most or all of the sections are visible.
• On tables with a TOC, a table or section might inadvertently be pushed below the TOC. Currently, the following is used to remove the white space and make the content flow alongside the TOC:

<div><li style="display: inline-table;">
table and content here to be floated
</li><div>

Properties

• Guidelines here apply to SMW properties defined by infoboxes or other content pages
• Use title case.
• Delimit each word with a space. e.g. Milk Amount (not Milk_Amount, Milk-Amount, or MilkAmount)

Standard layout for pages

Articles about the same category of items share commonalities and generally use the same layout.

• The following pages aim to provide consistency across pages that are alike. The format is a guideline that will apply to most but not all pages.

<to be determined, the following is a rough list. these pages to be created and linked as needed>

• Animals
• Drugs
• Plants
• Weapons

Standard sections

The following is not a strict requirement. It is simply a reflection on the current trends in page design at the time of writing and following it as a rough guide may help to keep the wiki relatively consistent. Editor judgement is always required and suggested. Harakoni (talk) 03:47, 23 May 2021 (UTC)

The sections listed below are not always required nor are they exclusive - some pages may not need a given section or may need other sections to be added. Editor judgement is always required.

• Acquisition: Details how the page subject may be acquired. This may include details on construction or crafting, the places it may be found or traded for, its presence as a quest reward, or the raiders it can be looted from
• Summary: Details information about the item that isn't readily conveyed by the standardized templates on the page and don't fit in the other sections - for example the effects of the Psychic shock lance are not Analysis or Acquisition, nor are they conveyed by the infobox or other information.
• Analysis: The place for comparison, value judgements, tactics, etc. Comparing the armor of Flak vests to other armor alternatives goes here, strategies for using psychic insanity lances for maximum effect goes here etc. This section can have some overlap with others - a farming strategy for the acquisition of Insect Jelly is a valid subject for example. Discussion about the stats or effects of an item might involve listing them just like Summary does, but is still valid. Subsections should be added as needed for clarity.
• Gallery/Styles: Gallery of images if necessary, such as for showing display variants. If affected by ideology styles, then it should be called Styles and follow this pattern
• Trivia: References and trivia, minor lore info, etc.
• Version history: Lists a changelog of the pages subject. Changes should be listed as changes i.e. "1.2.2900 - now provides ability to fly" instead of retroactive consideration e.g. "1.2.2900 - prior to this, it didn't allow you to fly". Similarly, if possible and know the exact changes should be listed e.g. "1.2.2900 - Sharp armor increased from 100% -> 150%". Ideally the version number would be specific but this is not always known or possible - do not link to a specific version unless that version is the one that implemented the specific change i.e. don't link 1.1.2258 specifically if all you know is that it was somewhere in 1.1. Ideally the following format should be used, placed in bullet points "*[[Version/<Version Number>|<Version Number>]] - <Change desc> . A gallery of relevant changes may be included at the end - for example showing old textures.
• See also: Relevant pages. Usually unnecessary through page links

Definitions

• Title case means capitalize words as done for book/movie titles per the following:
  • Capitalize the first and last words.
  • Capitalize the "principal" words.
  • Capitalize prepositions and conjunctions of four letters or more.
  • Lowercase the articles the, a, and an.
• Sentence case means:
  • Capitalize the first word.
  • All other words are generally lower case unless proper nouns.
• SMW: Semantic MediaWiki. The plugin that allows storing and querying of data by means of properties stored in the Property namespace.

Source text formatting

Since I can't just decide what the universal guidelines are on my own, these are just suggestions for now. Feedback welcome! --Ickputzdirwech (talk) 15:50, 1 February 2023 (UTC)

The following guidelines concern stuff that doesn't effect the functionality or appearance of the page. As such edits shouldn't be made just to enforce these, but editors are encouraged to apply these guidelines to the whole page when editing them anyway. In general these guidelines are supposed to make life easier for editors, since they get a more consistent and clearly structured source text. As for all rules exceptions apply for special cases.

Rule		Right	Wrong
Headers	• Headers should have an empty line before them. • A sub-header or the content should start directly afterwards. • A single space should separate the title from the "=".	== HeaderA == Content == HeaderB == === Sub-Header === Content	==HeaderA== Content ==HeaderB== ===Sub-Header=== Content
Redirects	• Only link to redirects, when it's more specific than the redirect target.	[[Anesthetic]] → [[Ailments#Anesthetic]]	[[Ailment]] → [[Ailments]]
Categories	• Categories should be placed at the very end of the page with an empty line before them. • Sub-categories should be placed in the same line as the main category, separated by a single space. • Unrelated categories get their own line.	Content [[Category:Weapons]] [[Category:Ranged Weapons]] [[Category:Plant]]	Content [[Category:Weapons]][[Category:Plant]] [[Category:Ranged Weapons]] Content
	• Don't use category redirects. • No space after "Category:". • Category names always start with a capital letter.	[[Category:Bows]]	[[Category:Bow]] → [[Category:Bows]] [[Category:bows]] [[Category: Bows]]
Tags	• Build in formatting options take precedence over tags. • Make sure all tags are closed again. • Self-closing tags should always have a backslash at the end. • Always use quotes ("") for attribute values. • Make sure that conditionally required tags don't break the syntax highlighting.	''italic text'' <td>Table data</td> <br/> <th colspan="2">Table header</th> <div style="{{#if:true|styleA|styleB|}}; styleC">content</div>	<i>italic text</i> <td>Table data <br> <th colspan=2>Table header</th> {{#if:true|<div style="styleA|<div style="styleB}}; styleC">content</div>
Tables	• Add a space before and after every "|" or "||". • Use "!!" instead of "||" for headers. • Don't add unnecessary table rows.	{| class="wikitable" ! HeaderA !! HeaderB |- | CellA || CellB |}	{| class="wikitable" |- !HeaderA||HeaderB |- |CellA||CellB |- |}
Templates	• Don't use template redirects. • Always start with a capital letter. • Add a space between brackets facing in the same direction.	{{Icon Small|{{P|Name}} }}	{{Icon small|{{P|Name}} }} → {{Icon Small|{{P|Name}} }} {{icon Small|{{p|Name}} }} {{Icon Small|{{P|Name}}}}
Lists	• There should be an empty line before and after the list. • There should be no empty lines inside of the list. • There should be a space after the "*" or "#".	Content * List item A ** List item B * List item C Content	Content *List item A **List item B *List item C Content