Template talk:FMA Characters

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Hi, I'm mainly the admin to Gundam wikia, but I noticed there's no character navigation menu list and so I created this template to make it easier for people to read about FMA characters. Because I'm often busy with other projects, I only added it into Edward Elric's page and I hope for some volunteers to spread it to all the character pages. Thank you for your time. Taikage - Admin 08:30, January 12, 2012 (UTC)

Thoughts?
Anyone have any thoughts about this navigation template? It's very well crafted and fits our aesthetic nicely; I also like how it reminds me of Gundam Wiki and One Piece Wiki a bit, but I wonder if it's necessary to list all the characters on every page. It might be a pain to customize the template page by page (then again, I haven't looked at the code or anything), but maybe only linking to groups to which the page in question belongs or for which the page holds some significance? I mean, its collapsibility does mean it'll keep from getting in the way, but it seems to me a bit much. Anyone else have an opinion? CorbeauKarasu 00:10, January 17, 2012 (UTC)

Looking at it a bit more closely (again, it's very well done), I don't think the State Military section should be at the top if it's only going to include soldiers who don't fit anywhere else. probably should start with State Alchemists to place Ed, Al and Roy at the top. Additionally, since all the links in the template are on this site, it shouldn't be covered by an "External Links" tag and should probably have a bit more presence in its hidden form. Maybe it should be part of a red banner like each of the headings are when the template is opened. I think that's how we designed our State Alchemist nav template. CorbeauKarasu 01:16, January 17, 2012 (UTC)

I think the nav bar is just great as you have putted it, CK. The only thing I would have added is the option of even more collpapsbility (collapsing each category in separate) as well as the entire bar. I also agree with making it red. About the order of appearence, if the idea is making the main characters appear first, than do just that! Make a "Main characters" category! XD and the State Alchemists should state ALL of the Alchemists that are Military bound and not only those who are not "anything else", since State Alchemists are a special division. So, Kimblee, Mustang, Comanche, Marcoh should be putted there. And I don't feel its a bad thing to repeat links in more than one category if they fit in it: the nav bar it should be made in ways to facilitate localization of characters as much as possible. Turdaewen 02:15, January 17, 2012 (UTC)

If you guys can make it collapse on multiple subjects/categories, please show me how to do that. Also, there's a few wikia sites that figured out how to put a pic behind the navigation bar, I was hoping to add Edward's or some alchemist symbol in the back. Taikage - Admin 06:25, January 17, 2012 (UTC)

Well, if we were to put an image behind the nav bar, I think it would be best to put a 'abstract" sort of picture, because it's not good to have a background image that has a lot of contrast range. It makes the area visually polluted and hard to read. Of course that this has a lot to do with my own taste, but I've always liked clean visual websites, specially those focus is content and information. If a graphic tool could be used to alter the templates, like altering the visuals of a box, for example (making the borders softer, or bolder... and such), it would be a great improvement. I, for once, like the idea that this FMA wikia should reflect the 'matureness' of the series, even in its visual and try to avoid relations that might lead it to appear a mere "fight/powers anime" wikia. I think Arakawa's illustrations and sketches are an excelent example of that feel. About collapsing sections, if I recall correctly, wikipedia has such an option and code... we could take a look into that. Turdaewen 14:44, January 17, 2012 (UTC)

Well, I was also thinking that a template might be helpful for the episodes and chapters since it is hard to navigate through them, but it should be done with separate templates for the 2003 anime, 2009 anime, and manga chapters each. This also includes the movies and other bonus materials that go along with those series. In my experience it would be easier by doing something like this. 2003 anime: Episode 1 and that similar treatment can be done with the 2009 anime episodes and manga chapters in their own separate templates. That's the only thing I can think of at the moment that would help this site. -Adv193 17:18, January 17, 2012 (UTC)