Neutronized Wiki talk:Community portal

Recategorization

The current categorization of game components is as such (more or less):

• Enemies
• Interactive objects
• Hazards
• Pickups
• Items

I think we could regroup some of these together based on how Gionathan goes over some of these components in his devlogs. I'd like to recategorize them as follows:

• Enemies
• Obstacles (covers both interactive objects and hazards)
• Items (covers both pickups and items)

If we need to get more specific, then we can add an additional category alongside these ones, like when talking about weapons. But I don't think the interactive objects/hazards distinction really needs to be there, mainly because it starts becoming subjective as to whether these objects are actually helpful to the player or not. Take fans/wind, for example. They're needed in the sense that they help the player get to higher places, but they can also be used in a way that is hazardous, putting the player at more risk of hitting spikes.

If we move forward with this, I would regroup all the categories in each game navbox to match these categories and move all pages under Interactive objects and Hazards to Obstacles, then Pickups to Items. I think this would help to simplify our categorization structure while still retaining some structure.

To be clear, this is just for things that the player often encounters while playing a level - categories related to Characters would remain the same. What do you think? ~ Random-StoryKeeper 22:04, 27 January 2024 (UTC)

In my opinion, the word Pickups and Items both means subjects that the player can obtain or use in ortder to get more point/life etc. or complete a level by certain methods, so I think Pickups and Items can be merged into one categories.

For Hazards and Interactive objects, I think we need a more specific definition. For example:

Hazards are game elements that cause danger to character if made contact with.

Interactive objects are game elements that respond to the player's actions. Sometimes they need to be worked with in order to complete the level, and at other times, if used incorrectly, can hurt the character of the game.

So from my point of view, The biggest difference between Hazards and Interactive objects is whether they mainly cause danger to the player. Also, not all interactive objects are obstacles which means they work as barriers to obstruct the player from completing the level. So I think they should not be recatagorized. --Fellcat0 (talk) 13:26, 29 January 2024 (UTC)

What if we renamed "Hazards" to "Obstacles" and kept "Interactive objects" as-is? My biggest challenge is that "causing danger" could be subjective depending on how one sees what elements cause danger. Sticky goo in SCT PAWS, for example - that is definitely something players interact with, but it seems more like something that would hinder progress, but it doesn't directly harm the player - it just makes them more prone to getting hit by enemies or other hazards.

I don't think we should be thinking of obstacles in the most absolute literal sense, however, I do think if these elements are something that the player needs to either avoid or find their way around, they could be considered obstacles. The other issue I have is that the term "interactive objects" does not seem to be commonly used by players - for instance, in the Super Cat Tales Discord server, it has never been used once, yet quite a few members do refer to these objects as "obstacles". This might be in part because of the devlog that covers platformer obstacles and classifies stuff like the vertically moving platforms as obstacles, along with firebars and the spikes that spin on trunks. From a searching perspective, calling all of these "Obstacles" would be more intuitive for viewers, I think because it doesn't seem like anyone outside of this wiki (or any wikis influenced by Nitrome Wiki) uses "interactive objects" as a term. ~ Random-StoryKeeper 15:21, 29 January 2024 (UTC)