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Thread: Resurrecting the Adom FAQ and Adom Spoiler FAQ

  1. #1
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    Lightbulb Resurrecting the Adom FAQ and Adom Spoiler FAQ

    Folks and fellow travelers,

    With the advent of new players along with the new versions (who would've thunk it, huh?) these classic resources (and especially the Adom FAQ) are in need of new maintainers to be brought up to date with the times. They are useful because they are unified quick reference resources for people relatively new to the game and people can refer to them for quick easy answers, where resources like the Guidebook, IGB and wikis are more hardcore, detailed, dense and in-depth, and less beginner friendly. The Adom FAQ is particularly useful because it is the only non-spoily such resource out there (this is reflected in the fact that it was packaged with official distributions of Adom and quite probably will continue to be; see feature 1878).

    A few steps need to be taken for this to happen:

    First, we need to find able bodied people to take up the job. I suggest two maintainers for two documents, as was done in the past (Léon Planken maintained the Adom FAQ and Raymond Martineau the Adom Spoiler FAQ).

    Second, we need to contact the maintainers. Léon should not be hard to find, even if the email address in the AdomFAQ is out of date - he's on facebook. Raymond on the other hand I have not been able to find (I wrote him an email a few weeks ago about precisely this, at the two email addresses I could find online - the one at hotmail.com and the one at freenet.carleton.ca, and I haven't gotten an answer yet). If anyone knows how to get a hold of him, I'd appreciate some help.
    The reason they need to be contacted is, first, to ask them to hand over the baton (I don't think they'll have a problem with this, and as a matter of fact I don't think they'd mind if we did it even without asking). Second, and most importantly, so they can give us their original copies. This isn't a deal in the case of the AdomFAQ - it's still online in probably the same form Léon has - but it is in the case of the Spoiler FAQ since if it had to be lifted from the r.g.r.a post, it would need some serious cleaning up in the formatting department, which is doable, but a bit of a hassle; and also because that version is text only and Raymond also used to provide an HTML version.

    Third, we need to contact Andy Williams, since he hosts the AdomFAQ and a bazillion links point to that version, so it would be best if he could host the new versions at the same location. Additionally, if willing, he could become the new host of the Spoiler FAQ. Alternatively we could find someone else to host the Spoiler FAQ.
    If Andy can't be contacted, we'd have to find somewhere to host the Spoiler FAQ, and perhaps TB/JT could host the AdomFAQ themselves. Then there'd be a lot of outdated links around the net, but those who knew could update theirs, and the document would at least still be available online in an up to date version.

    (I hope somebody wants to take up the mantle of AdomFAQ maintainer because otherwise I might have to suck it up and offer myself for the job, and god knows I have a lot of changes coming up in my life soon that'll keep me busy, and of course, I do still like to play the game when I have some time )

    Edit: I have taken up AdomFAQ maintaining duties and Andy Williams will continue to host the new versions. The ADOM Spoiler FAQ still needs a maintainer.

    Edit: I have cleaned up the formatting on the plain text Adom Spoiler FAQ and put it up here.

    Edit: The new AdomFAQ is now live and it has its own thread for discussion.
    Last edited by aerol; 03-10-2013 at 03:41 PM.
    Playing since gamma 10, when necklaces looked like &s. Lithium man. Brass + Lithium. OCG. Illiterate barb. One race and one class to go.

  2. #2
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    Hi. Léon Planken here. :-)

    I actually handed over the baton for the ADOM FAQ and the rgra FAQ to Darren Grey a couple of years ago. I may still have the files somewhere myself...

  3. #3
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    Ah, the r.g.r.a FAQ. I think Darren is a good fit for that one... but I guess it'd be up to him to decide if it needs an update. As for the AdomFAQ, what do you say, Grey? Do you still want to be the one catching it up with these new and exciting times?
    Playing since gamma 10, when necklaces looked like &s. Lithium man. Brass + Lithium. OCG. Illiterate barb. One race and one class to go.

  4. #4
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    Yeah, Leon handed the reins over long ago, but at the time the FAQ was so un-used and in places so out of date that it seemed too much trouble to update it. I suggested a community-centric update but it never quite caught on. If you are motivated to take on the job, aerol, then by all means please do so! I'll happily contribute, but I'm not sure I have the time to be central administrator. I imagine most of us are in the same boat, mind :-/

    And the rgra FAQ was flat-out abandoned, since rgra is simply dead.
    Platinum Edition ADOMer
    http://gamesofgrey.com - check out my roguelikes!

  5. #5
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    Fair enough. Darren, Léon, are the copies you have identical to the ones up at adomgb.info? Do you, or does anyone else, know of a way to contact Andy Williams?

    The Spoiler FAQ is still gonna need a maintainer
    Playing since gamma 10, when necklaces looked like &s. Lithium man. Brass + Lithium. OCG. Illiterate barb. One race and one class to go.

  6. #6
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    A mere twenty minutes or so of updating the AdomFAQ I realize what a pain it is to update two separate versions (html and ascii) manually. I can see why Andy discontinued the ascii version of the guidebook.
    Playing since gamma 10, when necklaces looked like &s. Lithium man. Brass + Lithium. OCG. Illiterate barb. One race and one class to go.

  7. #7

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    Doing ASCII version by hand it totally pointless - it can be done automatically.
    I've prepared a "proof of concept" file - autoconversion of http://www.adomgb.info/adomgb-html.zip into ASCII through small linux script:

  8. #8
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    Quote Originally Posted by cromat View Post
    Doing ASCII version by hand it totally pointless - it can be done automatically.
    That's excellent!

    Andy Williams has replied and he will continue to host the AdomFAQ in its new version.
    Playing since gamma 10, when necklaces looked like &s. Lithium man. Brass + Lithium. OCG. Illiterate barb. One race and one class to go.

  9. #9
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    Editing this thing is more work than I had anticipated, but it is rewarding, in a way. Grey, I will take you up on your offer and have you proofread this thing and make suggestions once I have a first draft, since you are a fellow Adom veteran and I trust you to have a good eye for this sort of thing.
    Last edited by aerol; 02-23-2013 at 08:41 AM.
    Playing since gamma 10, when necklaces looked like &s. Lithium man. Brass + Lithium. OCG. Illiterate barb. One race and one class to go.

  10. #10
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    Grey: would you be willing to rewrite question 3.5.1? It's about crowning and divine gifting. I'll paste it below. If you are willing and have the time, after you rewrite it, just paste the new version here and I'll incorporate it. The question is specifically marked as spoily in the FAQ so don't be too worried about revealing some secrets. Let me know if you're up for it.

    Code:
    3.5.1: People keep talking about crowning and pre- and postcrowning
    and the problems with all three; what is all this about?
    
    Okay, from the beginning. Crowning is an event of religious
    confirmation whereby your deity acknowledges your incredible devotion
    by declaring you their Champion and heartily rewarding you with a gift
    and other favors. Pre- and postcrowning (hereafter referred to as
    gifting) occur when a character does not meet certain requirements,
    but is worthy of some acknowledgments; these yield a gift from the
    deity, but none of the other benefits. Some view this as an
    opportunity for a free artifact and so devote their characters to
    their deity at an early age. If all other requirements for a gifting
    are met and you still can't seem to get rewarded, there may be too
    many artifacts already generated to reward a character of the current
    level; god-gifting will only occur if the character's level is high
    enough relative to the number of artifacts already generated in the game
    (level must be greater than or equal to 8 + (3 *
    number_of_artifacts_generated)). So there cannot be any gifting of any
    variety below experience level 8, and as soon as any single artifact
    is generated, the minimum level becomes 11, and so on ("Your prayer
    remains unheard."). It is very difficult to become "extremely close"
    to your deity more than once, (each subsequent reaching of the
    "extremely close" status will require twice as many sacrifices) but it
    should still be possible to get both a pre- and postcrowning gift if
    "very close" enough.
    
    Level is irrelevant to Crowning, the above formula is for gifting
    (pre- and post-crowning) only.
    Last edited by aerol; 02-24-2013 at 07:28 PM.
    Playing since gamma 10, when necklaces looked like &s. Lithium man. Brass + Lithium. OCG. Illiterate barb. One race and one class to go.

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