Sorry to mention this, but I think that the Ancillary Skills and Skills Certifications pages on the wiki could be tidied up a bit.

The two systems work well together, I don’t want to change them.  But the two need to inter-relate more on the pages, so that the wiki can be a better guide to members old and new alike.

Example: Both the Interrogation Ancillary Skill and Political Subterfuge Ancillary Skills say that they are required for ‘Special Warfare Combatant, Tier 3 (Intelligence Combatant)’.  However, if you go to the Special Warfare Combatant page in the Certifications, it makes no mention of Interrogation or Political Subterfuge being pre-requisites.  Indeed, the whole cert seems to be about using rifles and repelling boarding actions, and has little to do with interrogating prisoners or collapsing regimes.  Is Intelligence Combatant a separate Certification?  If so, I cannot find it.

Likewise, the Diplomacy skill claims to be needed for Bridge Officer Tier 1, but the Certification itself makes no mention of that.  The Cert does mention that a Communication Skill is needed, but I cannot find that in the Ancillary Skills list.

Environmental survival claims to be needed for Vast Imperial Marine Certification, but the Certification page itself does not mention that.

And there may be more I am yet to find.

I am willing to tidy these up a bit (with approval).  I propose the following:

1) A nice simple chart on the Certification page, listing Skills down one side and what Certifications they are prerequisites for down the other.

2) I would check every Skill page and Cert page to ensure that the info on them agree, and provide links from each page to its counterpart for ease of reference.

3) I would propose creating the Communications Ancillary Skill (and any others that need done for Certifications but do not as yet exit).

4) And would also like to create a page for an Intelligence Certification (and relate things like Interrogation, Political Subterfuge, and Slicing to it).  This may be of use to our VENI members.

I submit this with greatest respect to the fine work that has been done on the Ancillary Skills and Certifications in the past, and would simply like to see some niggling oversights rectified.  What does everyone think?

Actually, Serpent, if you're actually volunteering to do MORE work around here, I'm actually only almost done with the Ancillary Skills pages... still need to make sure all the Certification pages then agree with all the new stuff, and just give them a facelift in general.  You seem pretty active all around, so do NOT feel obligated, but if you want a little wiki work, PM me and we'll work out details.

EDIT:

OOC:

Wow, I said "actually" a lot in that first sentence...

It has become apparent to me (well, it's become clear to me again... I fully acknowledge that many of you have tried to teach me this lesson before) that I don't actually have to do this entire, monumental project all by myself, and that - lo, and behold! - people want to help and are perfectly capable of helping and will be awesome at helping.  Sometimes I forget.


So, rather than hoarding the whole project to myself and slaving away behind the scenes like a Dickens character (as is - inexplicably - my habit, if left to my own devices), I'm accepting the very welcome offers of assistance and offering the blueprint for the project's end result here, and giving anyone who's willing and able to take on some of the workload of bringing the idea to fruition free reign to get involved.  So, I spent the last few hours organizing my notes for this project - the reorganization of the Naval Certifications and Naval Ancillary Skill programs - and this chart is the result:



I'm happy to clarify the above, explain what it means, and answer any questions, but I ask that for now, we focus on implementing this blueprint as is, before entertaining any debate about changes to the above.  The above is the culmination of a LOT of thought, by myself and many other members, and for now my priority is getting it all in place and set.  THEN, if anything's wildly unpopular, we can of course readjust. 

Thanks, all.

-Trick

This seems like a very straight forward and well-thought plan, Trick!  I'd love to help on this!

And I agree.  We should implement this exactly, and then debate changes.  I have a suggestion or two, but it would only be to add to this, not to amend what you have clearly put a lot of effort into.

Oh, and just to clarify, in the new system, the "Special Warfare Combatant" is definitely the Certification track that folks should do who're interested in VENI work.  I worked with Cpt. Grey to differentiate  SWC and Imperial Marine a little bit more; Special Warfare Combatant is a rough analogue to real-world Special Ops.

And Drac!  Glorious Drac of the magically wiki magic... A lot of the skill and cert wiki pages were named inconsistently to begin with, and then on top of that the names have now been standardized (in other words, changed). Can you work your "redirect" magic, or teach me the process, so we can get the pages named properly and uniformly?

Current page title ---> Desired page title

Skills:

Advanced Fighter Maneuvers ---> Advanced Flight Maneuvers
Environmental ---> Environmental Survival
Fighter Tactics ---> Starfighter Tactics
Mobile Ordinance ---> Ground Attack
Navigation ---> Astrogation
Squad Tactics ---> Marine Squad Tactics (This one's not a priority)
Starfighter Mechanics ---> Starfighter Mechanic
Zero-G Combat ---> Zero-Gravity Combat

Certs:

Imperial marine ---> Vast Imperial Marine
Naval Surgeon ---> Naval Doctor
Special warfare combatant ---> Special Warfare Combatant

Obviously, some of those changes are bigger (and therefore more important) than others, but doing all of them (even pluralizations and capitalizations) will make the whole system look complete and professional.    Thank you SO MUCH, Drac, and please, ask if you need anything else to help you help! 

-Trick

Drac, you magnificent slice of lox, you've done it!  THANK YOU!

Thanks for the work, Echelon!  But a cursory check just now revealed that some of the boxes (the ones I noticed were both on Skills pages) listed the wrong names for the tiers of their associated certifications. Tier 3 of the Marine track is no longer "Marine Rifleman;" according to the chart it should read "Marine Final Exam" for that (I think I was looking at Environmental Survival for that one).  So there's still more stuff to catch!    No slight intended; this is exactly why I brought in additional sets of eyes for the project... it's easy to miss little things!

Hey there, old-timer!  Sure!  The thread should explain everything; PM me if you have specific questions. 

UPDATE: All gray information boxes in the top right corner of all cert and skill pages are hereby locked until the final revision pass!

Thanks for all your help so far, guys.  We're already in the home stretch!

One thing: The Starfighter Tactics skill page appears to be... gone?  Hunter or Drac, any chance of recovering that contect?

You're clear to try your hand at adding to and revising the actual text of the Bridge Officer Certification's wiki page, Echelon.  Enjoy!

And anyone else who wants a crack at clarifying a Cert or Skill page's actual text, I think we're at that point.  Pick one and chime in with any questions. 

Another question for those more wiki-savvy than I:

I'd like to provide a simple reference chart for the length requirements of certification mission posts directly ON every single certification page, so folks don't have to page back and forth between the specific certification track they're working on (which has the main information about the assignment) and the general overview page for all certifications (which has the word count requirements).  Do we think boiling down the length requirements (which are based on what number certification a member is working through, whether their first, second, third, etc.) found on this page into a simple reproduceable chart is even possible?

Easier to simply code a table. That way changes could be implemented without having to completely remake the chart. I can't hit it today, but ought to be able to soon.

I'll take a look at that missing page, Tryk.

-Drac

Ah, thanks Echelon.  Good hustle.  I considered that, but I'm with Drac: I think a table that can be edited right there in the wiki should something change is going to be easier to maintain.  Thanks for picking that up Drac, and thanks, too for investigating the page that's gone missing. 

It looks BEAUTIFUL, Drac.  Really nicely done.  I might prefer something in the table saying that the listed ranks are required before the associated tier can be started, but I think even the least intelligent newcomer can make that logical leap.  Thank you thank you thank you!