DarthKitty

Hi, welcome to Figverse Wiki and apologies for not responding sooner! There's no community chat right now, since it's usually just me around here, but I have been considering setting up a Discord server for the wiki. Maybe I'll do that sometime next month...

Hey Silviu, thanks for the suggestion! Unfortunately, FANDOM decided to deprecate Achievements back in April of 2017. Although the extension still works, the devs probably won't spend much time fixing it if something breaks—they could even decide to remove it suddenly, like they did with the "Monobook" skin. Encouraging editors is definitely a good idea, but I also don't want to work on something only to have it vanish a few months later, so I'm pretty 👎 on achievements. Does that seem reasonable to you?

Yes.

I understood about this one, but I don't think they would remove it because many wikias support this feature. Imaginate you script something and is appreciated by fans and you just suddently remove it, there would be like 60% of the fandom population complaining about that.

And I understand the problem that achievments might get broke, because I don't know how scripting really works yet.

If, dir, then

I have no problem with list-like pages, and agree that we'll need to keep Mimicry and Elemancy around forever. What I do have a problem with is the way those pages are organized—specifically, the fact that we've stuffed 332 skills (if I counted correctly) into only 28 pages. Worse, we turned to collapsible boxes in order to manage that deluge of information, a design choice which is only viable for small sets of data.

There are a bunch of other problems with the way we handle skills, but let's start from the top:

Portability

As FANDOM staff will no-doubt tell you, about 9001% of all readers are using smartphones these days. That number has been rising consistently for nearly a decade now, and shows no signs of stopping. It's imperative that we adapt our content to work on smaller screens, and the collapsible boxes we use on pages like Mimicry do not make the cut.

Readability

Take a look at, say, Astral Magic. When somebody visits that page, what do you suppose they're looking for? I can think of three possibilities: they might want a checklist, to see which skills they're missing; they might want a brief summary of what the skillset does; or they might want information about specific skills, e.g. Astral Form.

Our collapsible box layout works well for the first use-case, but could be improved by removing extraneous information and reducing the amount of space each skill takes up. It does a poor job of handling the second case, forcing readers to scan every skill in order to determine the strengths and weaknesses of the set as a whole. It fails horribly for the third case, as hidden information is, by definition, harder to read; there's also a non-zero chance that someone will miss the "[More]" button, and therefore not realize that there's additional information.

No matter how you slice it, cramming all of that information onto a single page harms readability.

Discoverability

It can be difficult to find information about specific skills in the MARDEK series, especially ones that enemies use. Although redirects and disambiguations help, they don't address the root problem: skill pages do too much. Consequently, linking to skills is also annoying. We use Template:MARDEK Skill Link as a workaround, but that's not a very good solution either, because it's not obvious to newcomers that there's a template there.

Editability

The collapsible boxes also make it harder to edit individual skills. For example, suppose you spotted an error in the box for Morbid Fondle; how would you fix it? You'd have to click on one of the "edit" links waaaay at the top of the page, and then scroll most of the way down. It's even worse for VisualEditor users like yourself, since you can only see the first line of each parameter.

Scalability

All of those cool things you've been doing with item pages—descriptions, strategies, related items, trivia—would have been difficult or impossible a few years ago, back when we kept items in collapsible boxes. Breaking individual items out into their own pages gave us room to grow, and the same principle applies to skills. In particular, this effort will make it easier to talk about enemy skills, which are currently under-represented on the wiki.

In other words, when I talk about "mega lists", I don't just mean "lists of things". I'm referring to an organizational strategy with a ton of drawbacks. I should also note, because I'm not sure if I made this clear enough, that collapsible boxes are only a symptom of the problem. Here are a few more examples of "mega lists" with no collapsing parts:

• Shields (Deliverance)
• Items (Beast Signer Alpha)
• Props (Clarence's Big Chance)

One final thing: I started working on the MARDEK skill overhaul project more than two-and-a-half years ago. While it's a lot closer now that I have a clearer idea of the visual design, it might not be finished for months... or even years. Please don't worry about it too much! :)

First of all, thank you for giving such an indepth response and giving examples. I really appreciate it.

The issue you brought up about only seeing the first line is avoidable by pressing enter in the box and then backspace; it opens the box to the full size.

As for the actual points...

If you have been spending such a long time on coming up with an overhaul, then 1. you need a cup of coffee, a vacation, and some honorary award and 2. you probably have a much better idea than what would pop up in my head after a short period of time. So I will defer to you on that.

It seems as though the simplest thing to do would be to execute the grand plan you have in mind and taking the Mimicry pages and...leaving them alone outside of adding links to the "correct" pages. 10 hours of reworking a set of pages is 10 hours spent not doing other things, such as implementing other ideas or fixing errors. In effect it is easier to let the mediocre set up remain mediocre and set up a different simultaneously working system in its "place". If your plan involves severing that branch then that works as well, but if there is no current plan in place it seems like letting it stay is the best course of action.

Anyways, the decision is yours, I've given my 0.38 pesos and the rest is up to you from what I can tell.

P.S.: Am I correct in that adding a brief overview of items is acceptable? I will turn down the snarkiness and be more concise in the future; I wrote the first batch after dealing with a very annoying...acquantince of mine. If it somehow interferes with the wiki's purpose I will refrain from doing anymore and stick to appearances and trivia and the like.

Based on this screenshot, it appears to be OldCyr Bold.

Thanks a lot :)

Pseudo talked about Wyrmholes in maaaaybe five blog posts? It was never finished—heck, it might not have even been started!—and as far as I'm aware, nothing ever came of it. I don't think vague, hypothetical "games" are relevant to the wiki, so feel free to remove those links. Alternately, you could track down the aforementioned blog posts and write a short article describing What Could Have Been. Or you could just leave the links red and let somebody else deal with it, like I've been doing. :p

Wow, thanks! It's always nice to hear that my work is appreciated. I'm glad I was able to make something useful for the handful of people who still remember the MARDEK series. Speaking of which, it's probably been about six years since I've given any real thought to how it would have ended. :o

We know from the epilogue of MARDEK Chapter 3: Keystones that Gaspar was supposed to appear in the fourth game. We also know that he had a plan of some sort. I suspect that his plan involved Crimson Peak, since IIRC an NPC in Aeropolis mentions that if the (Fire-elemental) volcano erupted, it would do "extra damage" to the (Air-elemental) city. I think there might have been other bits of foreshadowing, too?

IIRC, Pseudo said that the end of Chapter 4 would have marked a dramatic change in the story, and (in a P-Dialogue, I think?) Rohoph says that "very soon" he (and Mardek) will take the fight to GdM. There are also numerous hints that Enki, Mardek's missing father, is from Nineveh—or at least, has some sort of "responsibility" there, one that he deemed more important than taking care of his own child. He also says (emphasis mine):

I can but wonder what kind a' mess those yoon-eyed invaders have run up back home while I've idled, but I'll be damned if I'll let them corrupt us any more than they've done.

They mayn't a' rained fire and brimstone from the heavens, but they sure as Hell took over, with a smile in their eye and a chummy waggle a' the ol' grabber, aye, but an invasion it was, an invasion it was...

★ Dreamstone #16

...so it sounds like the annunaki decided that the people of Nineveh had reached "a certain level of development", and began to "educate" them.

Anyway, I suspect Rohoph (and Mardek) would have found some reason to accompany the crew of the ???? (presumably the "goldfish" Enki mentions) at the end of Chapter 4, leaving Belfan behind. The sci-fi elements would have become more pronounced at this point, and most importantly, the battle music would have changed. :p

That still leaves a number of loose threads on Belfan, though:

What would have happened to the Blatantly Evil Chancellor?

I like to think the BEC was a complete red herring. Sslen'ck would have returned to Xantusia to find... everything completely normal. Then the BEC would have said "DRAT IT ALL TO HELL!!1!1 ...I mean... 'welcome back, ssssir'.", before returning his usual duties.

What would have happened to the Mystery Man? Y'know, that guy who definitely wasn't Steele?

I think he would have encountered Muriance in his travels, the two would have fought over the Dark Crystal, and, for the first time in his life, Muriance would have won. Cue a shitstorm of epic prorportions as Zaephros the Chaosbringer trashes Belfan, escapes somehow, and goes on to be one of the biggest threats in the series. Of course, I could also see King Donovan sending Mardek and company after Steele, and Muriance swooping in at the last second to steal the Dark Crystal. Or maybe something else entirely! Either way, the important part is that the seemingly-harmless recurring boss would have become a not-so-harmless recurring boss.

No, really, what would have happened to Steele?

It's no secret that Pseudo hated the character. Heck, Steele was pretty much an amagalmation of everything Pseudo hates (or hated at the time, anyway). I suspect he would have offed Steele at some point, to make room for more interesting villains.

What about the other Elemental Crystals?

I think the above scenario would warrent holding on to them, don't you agree? It would also serve to reunite Mardek, Deugan (as the hero Lonewolf, at least), and Emela (as the guardian of the Water Crystal, at least).

What about Vudu, and the Monastery Stone?

Hmm, I'm honsetly not sure! The Monastery Stone seemes much closer to the "main plot" of the MARDEK series, so I could see it laying dormant until much later. Maybe it would have become the key to dealing with the Violet Crystal, at the veeeery end of the series? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

At this point, things get much harder to guess about. If the pattern for the GdM kept up (left, then right, then left, then...), Balthazar would have been the primary antagonist of Chapter 5, Melchior of Chapter 6, and Anu of Chapter 7. Of course, I could also see Pseudo shaking things up, and having both Balthazar and Melchior appear in the same chapter. Maybe the GdM would have realized that Rohoph was a threat, and decided to get serious rather than sending members to be picked off one-by-one?

Either way, there would have been at least one remaining chapter after the GdM was defeated. I've seen two conflicting theories about that. The first, and most likely IMO, was that the Violet Crystal would be the primary antagonist of the last chapter. However, some people think (thought?) that Rohoph deserved to be the final foe. Of course, both could have happened if Melchior and Balthazar shared the spotlight.

...That's pretty much all I remember. Maybe I missed some details? Who knows!

All great thoughts; wasn't expecting such a long response! I completely missed the part about the volcano potentially screwing up Aeropolis, very good catch on your part.

Definitely, had Pseudo continued writing this universe, major arcs would've been spent reactivating the Nineveh ship "goldfish" and using it to take the fight into the GdM's homeworld, Anshar. I would've liked seeing the Northern Wastes in Chapter 4, as well as our first actual encounter with Enki. (Pseudo's a genius at writing dialogue; his and Solaar's methods of speaking are really over the top, yet strangely charming and distinctive in their own way: as with all of his characters.)

As far as the crystals go...well, I think a subplot would've involved collecting all of them for some necessary purpose (perhaps to power the Goldfish?). The World's Saviours would've inevitably gotten involved, as their whole goal was to claim all the Elemental Crystals...because that's what heroes do, for some more tongue-in-cheek trope humor.

And, of course, like you said: Mystery Man Steele would've gotten involved, potentially alongside Muriance, and potentially Saul as well. Steele fighting Saul would've been quite entertaining, just due to their differences in speaking style and abrasive personalities.

Elwyen would've been quite angry with Mardek in Chapter 4, since Chapter 3 - after that surprisingly well-written Shakespearean parody - ended with Rohoph giving her the cold shoulder. I imagine there would've been romantic drama with Emela and Deugan as well. (The Starmetal blade, being purchasable in Aeropolis, had to have been usable by *someone*, after all...potentially an original character in Chapter 4 or beyond, who knows.)

Ultimately, in my opinion, the series would've ended with a confrontation with Rohoph, then the Violet Crystal (or whatever creature lives within it), then with the Violet Crystal again, in its final, possibly horribly mutated and frightening form: but with a humbled Rohoph on your side, perhaps with a very dramatic and emotional final sacrifice. (There's a reason why the game is called "MARDEK" and not "ROHOPH", after all!)

I believe that Rohoph running off from the Crystal, to recruit a bunch of adventurers on an undeveloped world and take the fight back to the GdM, was *itself* part of the Crystal's master plan. Whether Rohoph actually came under the psychic influence of the Crystal would become moot, because he's doing what the Crystal wants: offing the members of the GdM one by one (or, like you said, maybe two at once at some later chapter). It would make a lot of sense for the Crystal to promote infighting in this way; saves it the trouble of actually doing things itself.

Rohoph would thus realize his mistake just in the nick of time, and assist Mardek and Co. in taking down the Violet Crystal. The Soul Gems - it had to have been for a reason that Pseudo decided to seal the GdM, rather than just killing them - would possibly have played into the GdM's resurrection, for the series's final conclusion.

These are all but speculations, though. And it's quite unfortunate that they will, in all likelihood, remain exactly at that: speculations.

What made me tear up even more than Rohoph's betrayal of Qualna at the end of Chapter 3, were all the little references to the "next chapter," like when you talk to Emela after defeating her in the Water Temple: "See you next chapter, eh?"

A chapter that never was, and almost certainly never will be.

On a personal note, I wanted to ask you: how did you end up discovering MARDEK? For me, it was just through Kongregate as a kid: I didn't have much coin to spare for actual console games, and thus it was Flash games - with other great titles like Morningstar and Sonny - that marked most of my childhood.

MARDEK was one of the only ones, though, that could actually go head to head with any mainstream Final Fantasy title, just due to its mechanics, humor, and storytelling. Even little things: like Sslen'ck's commentary as a hermaphrodite on human gender, Mereador's insecurities about the age gap between him and Gloria, and Zach's backstory about his betrayal at the hands of a Northerner (perhaps Enki, even?): it's very rare that games provide such deep characterization of even relatively minor party characters. 

Also, have you ever spoken to Pseudo (Tobias Cornwall) personally? I imagine he'd be quite flattered, if nothing else, that someone has devoted so much time to documenting his creative projects. It's quite painful at times, to see his current struggles - which he documents on his blog, www.tamingmind.com - and his usual bouts of mental illness.

My story is pretty much the same. I remember playing MARDEK Chapter 1: A Fallen Star and MARDEK Chapter 2: A New Hero when I was a kid. I think this was a couple of years before MARDEK Chapter 3: Keystones came out, so 2008ish? I would have been 13 at the time. I don't remember much about that playthrough, but I ended up playing it again about six months before Chapter 3 came out, and I remember thinking man, it's too bad the developer died before finishing this series. Out of morbid curiosity, I clicked on the developer's website and found... 98% complete?! Whoa!!

I remember when Chapter 3 came out, too. The timing was really unfortunate, because I learned about it a few hours before I had to leave for a trip to the beach. No computer access or anything. Then I got really sick while I was there, and all I could think was I wish I was at home playing MARDEK, instead of throwing up in a hotel. (To be fair, everything else about that trip was awful, too, haha!)

Not exactly, but I was a member of Fig Hunter (and later Alora Fane) for years, and I've read pretty much all of his blog posts. In fact, that's how I found out about the wiki in the first place! He has mentioned this place a few times though, and he's always been impressed (and incredulous?) that people would spend so much time and energy documenting his work.

I'd like to put my two cents in

First of all, I feel like Clavis was a host for Qualna like Mardek is for Rohoph, and so even though Qualna is dead Clavis is still alive. Clavis, the one who is seeking equilibrium and was trying to help Mardek's team. Okay fine, yes I think it would have been great for Clavis to appear once or twice in 4 and then become a permanent party member. Here's a set of ideas for preexisting characters joining the party

Clavis: Primarily Aether elemental attacks, also has an equal amount of Light and Dark, and maybe a Fig attack? Specializes in debuffing foes, though he still has some offensive potential.

Enki : This guy probably has grey hair at this point. Taking after his son technically, wide variety of buffs, has some technological methods of dealing elemental damage (an Energy blade dealing Light for instance)

Emela and Deugan ...you've seen this one already. Expansions upon their old movesets, slightly more specialized in water for Emela (wasn't she going to get a Generic Magic Bolt (Thauma) or something?) with Deugan probably getting more half-SPR-based attacks to distinguish him from Ss'lenck (I always felt like he was there initially to fill in Duegan's role, but he's such a unique character outside of battle that he should stay).

Because each MARDEK seemed to increase the amount of areas exponentially, I would have expected one of two things, along with a fun way to make the fourth game's final battle hellish and save time

Game 4: Open up Frozen Wastes and access to the land across the sea (Aether crystal)

If Game 5 Finale: Go to Anshar, beat the hell out of Anu and/or the mind devouring abomination.

If Game 5 NOT Finale: Go to Nineveh, fight Anu. Game 6 is Anshar. 

Game 4:

Gaspar comes to town. There's a minor subplot first involving getting your old friends back but it quickly becomes obvious that OMIGOSH GASPAR'S GONNA BLOW UP THE VOLCANO NO or something like that. Actually, it would make sense for Gaspar to just go to Belfan and start blowing things up from space. Nothing already visited (I hated how you couldn't go back to the Catacombs, feels like you should have been able to go everywhere but the dragon's room), but maybe some of Canonia woods would be scorched (path and treasure are intact, strong monsters get added in to new areas within it).

Anyways, Gaspar showdown:

Immune to Light, Air, Fig. Absorbs Fire. 40% weak to Water.

Weapon: Telekinetically wielded claws or something? I recommend Conflagrate as a pun.

Attacks Physically more than Magically, still Fire Elemental. Given the Violet Crystal's effects he might have a Fig attack.

Post Gaspar Battle: Gaspar probably starts using incredibly low level curse words as he dies. Rohoph is about to seal Gaspar's soul when Deus Ex Machina...just not yours.

As Rohoph is sealing it the words are literally taken out of his mouth; both Melchior and Balty show up on Gaspars Spaceship/Volcano, take the soul, maybe Balty gives the Premature Villain Quote, presumably about breaking the Aether Crystal or doing something requiring the characters to go get it, while Melchior talks about what a nice day it is and how they should go attempt to ravage planets more often. I'm not actually sure how Balty was affected by the Violet Crystal.

That One Sidequest

The next step is the player needs to get to the other continent on the other side of the ocean. I'm assuming the Wraith in the Goznor secret shop would be the one who starts them on that path, and there's a whole convoluted sidequest to do this just like Legion.

Possible idea:

A Teleportation Device,

A Doodad capable of holding lots of power

Something capable of channeling raw thaumaturgic power

• Warport Device (You have to go fight a Security Demon to get your hands on this, but this should be a cakewalk at your level)

• Something from the ??? ship 

• No idea, probably either something new or the stone we got in the Monastery. Maybe a Talisman from Zach's tribe? Or it could just be Clavis doing it, aren't Aether elemental people supposed to be able to emulate many forms of magic?

Brave New World

I'm assuming that the other continent is going to be Mesoamerican, so thick tropical jungle. Given that the occupants are wraiths, most areas would have to be accessed with either Legion's help if he isn't still with you (he'd cut away the path), or via Dreamrealming the way so you know where to go (like traversing the Lifewood, only to open new locations) or maybe there just aren't many pathways so it is a fairly small section of the world.
Skipping plans for what you do there, you go to the Aether temple, and either

a) there's a pathway leading to the Dreamrealm, where the Crystal is to make a Final Dungeon obvious and no point of no return until you enter the last room so you don't have the whole Final Boss leads to True Final Bosses dungeon thing we had in 3 (I wanted to bring my Turquoise Armor back with me).
B) You navigate the temple, fight the Guardian, get the crystal. Then you have to go onto Balty/Melchior's ship, which has just burned/cleared out a wide swath of jungle letting you easily get there. Again, no PonR until the final room. FINAL BOSS MARATHON: Melchoir>Balty>???

Here's their trump card. No, not that kind of Trump. After cutting down Melchoir, Balty attacks before Rohoph can seal Melchoir, Balty dies. Then the true finale for the episode happens. Gaspar's corpse falls on the floor, and the three souls each enter a different body. 

True Final Boss: Water Melchior, Fire Balty, Air Gaspar (3 entities, all being fought simultaneously)

Here we go. Gaspar is going berserk and has smashed a server, Balty is rapidly stating what he knows about Mardek's weakpoints or something I guess and Melchior is just sitting their whimsically wondering if they should stop and have lunch first.

Each Absorbs their original element and are immune to Fig. Phsyical res is 0, as is Thauma. Each is using their original weapon, and the sprites are basically the same only with different eyes. For instance, Melchior is in Balty's outfit but is wielding his own weapon and has the yellow eyes. Each has an attack with the same name as their original with a verb before it to account for the shift. FBalty would have...um... "Scalding Deluge" which is Water elemental but also is strong against Air. All of them have a fig attack on hand so as to represent the Violet Crystal's effects.

Level 65

WMelchior:
FIRE: -50
AIR: 200
WATER: 100 
EARTH: -10
DARK: 10
LIGHT: 10
AETHER: 50
FIG: 100

FBalty

FIRE: 100
AIR: -10
WATER: 200
EARTH: -50
DARK: 50
LIGHT: 10
AETHER: 10
FIG: 100

AGaspar

FIRE:200
AIR: 100
WATER: -50
EARTH: 20
DARK: 10
LIGHT: 50
AETHER: 10
FIG: 100

The point is to force the player to think outside the book. Yes, I'm well aware that they have Earth as a common weakpoint (though Gaspar resists it), but if an Area Attack is used that is Fire Earth Water or Air then one of them will apply the corresponding NullElement. Or maybe they'll each counter with a strong blow. Possibly a bit too gimmicky, maybe a bit too hard, maybe too easily circumvented, but the idea is that you would have a set that expertly covers the weaknesses of their colleagues. That said, with no Thauma resistance one could just have Legion go to town... Post battle:

Talk about the battle plan.

If game 5 is the final one, then the next step is going to Anshar. The soul gems should have a lost shrine or something where you go to it and the gems can be broken, thus releasing the soul. Based on what I've seen and people have said, it seems like cutting the GdM off from magic by sealing them technically cured them of whatever the Violet Crystal is doing.

If 6 is the final game, then Enki says something about going to Nineveh to get help. When you cut to the obligatory GdM scene Anu is just completely crazy at this point and spends the whole time rambling to himself. Welp, that took way to long. Its far from done or even enough to make the game out of, but I think I have an idea for a good end boss for 4 at least.

In effect for 4 (and in more characters and plot points as you want):

Go to Frozen Wastes, Deugan on the way (he's probably fighting some evil "Ice Princess" to make the whole "slew a princess and saved a dragon" thing literal)->Enki->Stuff happens, Clavis->Gaspar in Volcano/Ship->Acquire parts, probably Emela would join here->Enter Not-America, maybe a Wraith joins, more exploration!!!1!!->Aether Temple->Showdown->BMG do the soul swap and Final Boss Fight 4.

If anyone wants to make a fan game, feel free to use this, I just ask that you have a character named Qz say "Hamstermer was here"

As for the loose plot points: Muriance would probably have been the main reason for most of the non-GdM chaos that goes on. He's also really Affably Evil.

BEC, like Darth said, would be a red herring. Except for a swarm of undead attacking Xantusia, but that's minor, right? Swarm being a single group of 3 undead.

I feel like Bostom (Yellow Legion) would go from being a nutjob to being a wizened sort of guy, but still highly eccentric.

I'm certain that  Vudu's fragment would be either used to power something, a shard of the VCrystal or the key to its destruction. Maybe responsible for the horrible cataclysm that that original Figwiki suggested happens to Belfan. 

As for Steele, I'm almost willing to bet that if Mardek had gone to Anshar, Steele would have hopped aboard, be found, give/be given a few choice grade-a insults, and then be kicked off the ship the second they land. And probably be smashed by a rouge piece of rubble resulting from the final boss battle. 

Speaking of Steele, anyone have a link to the Steele RPG?

Hey, don't worry about it. You're free to edit again, now that your block has expired. As long as you've learned from your mistakes, I don't think we'll have any problems! :)

Thank you for not getting mad.

I really liked Mardek, so I will try to help it.

I am kinda discouraged after what happend in past.

I just hope I do a good job so far -o-

I beat Merareador's challenge with several different strategies.

Still don't know if removing Crystals affect spawn rate

i wrote up a detailed explanation of how random battles work in mardek but wikia fandom ate it and now its gone krgjhdkjaghdkjaghjhfjhgfgjDHljsdhfbgDHJSgfjDHSgfJHFbgHFJg

:(

Yeah, the encounter rate goes down in elemental temples after they "die". Each room in the game has a hidden piece of data called btlChance, and it gets dropped to 1 once the corresponding crystal is in your inventory (or in the case of the Dark Temple, once the corresponding event flag is set).

Hm, so it is worth sparing the Earth Temple until you have amassed at least 10 fangs and it may also be useful for fighting the Emeralds (which only do Magic attacks until they run out of MP) and grinding Magic Def Reactions

I kinda think that was deliberate, actually. Some rooms (I forget which) in the Earth Temple have a btlChance of 5, the highest in the game aside from the inconsequential Dragon's Lair. Players are probably supposed to get a ton of Monster Fangs at that point, even if they aren't grinding. That doesn't end up happening, of course, but that's probably because Tobias didn't do enough playtesting.

Well it makes sense for the temple spawn rate to lower when the crystal is removed as it feeds power into the place. As for the Rexaurus, I think they were just a courtesy done for the people who didn't play Chp 2. I can only assume that the intention was that the player would have a good amount of Fangs from Social Fox's tomb, then get the missing few during the Dark Temple (Punk Monsters) so that this wouldn't be neccesary. But alas, I sold most of mine to the Goznor Weapon shop to raise funds for the Cambria Gear (I should have done it with the Item Shop) and they all vanished.

Thank you so much for working on those "appearance" sections! We don't get many visitors here for some reason (it's almost like it's an unfinished, eight-year-old game series created by a man who has grown increasingly depressed and reclusive, and written in an archaic environment which will be completely unusable in less than two years), but I've been trying to convince the few who do stop by to help with that. I'm better at handling technical stuff like templates and JavaScript than writing, so I really appreciate the help. :D

Not a problem!

MARDEK is one of my favorite Flash RPGs (and one of my favorites in general) so I'm happy to help.

The interesting thing about making a wiki for something complete is that as long as no one vandalizes vast tracts of it, it will always slowly go forward and never have to keep up with anything. This isn't a morbid look at a bleak wasteland that may never be finished, it is a realization that eventually it will be done. It is up to the people who visit to determine how long it takes.

Anyways, I'm good at describing things and strategies and such so I will do my best to do my part. Though I can't help you with the Deliverance stuff unless it is editing stuff that is already there to make it comprehendible.

Yes, absolutely! In fact, that's exactly what "lorem ipsum" text is for: it's used as a placeholder when designing or organizing a document, but it's supposed to be replaced with real text at some point. I tried to make that more obvious by putting it in a template, making it red, and adding a tracking category, but I guess that didn't work? Oh well.

The point is, I've been trying to convince people to help me with this for about two years now, but nobody's been interested. I'd be stoked if you could do this! :)

EDIT: oh yeah, I didn't mention this earlier, but "personality" and "appearance" sections for characters would also be cool. I've been meaning to do that for years, but there's so much else that I want to take care of...

Hi! I'm so sorry for the absence, been kinda busy! 

I'd be glad to help, in fact, I'll start right now (just let me pop some nice Mardek III songs and I'll be writing like a machine on speed). Thank you for the opportunity. I'll try my best and won't dissappoint you! On the meantime, I've also thought about including a relationships page. For example:

''Mardek Innanu El-Enkidu

Relationships:

Deugan Selmae Eh-Deredu : Mardek and Deugan have been best friends since their childhood, and also wanted to be heroes when they heard about Social Fox. [...]

So. Give me your opinion about this relationship theme. 

Once again, I'm so sorry I wasn't present these days. I wanted to go back to check if you wrote me, but I was kinda busy and couldn't lend much time on the wiki. I now have time, anyways, and will get to work! 

Don't worry about it, we're all busy sometimes. :)

Hmm. I'm not sure if we need a full article covering relationships in MARDEK, but a section on each character's page would still be useful. Not sure if I explained that very well, let me know if you want me to try again. :p

EDIT: I threw together a bare-bones layout demonstration, based on what we've discussed so far: User:DarthKitty/MARDEK character page layout. Aside from all the dummy text, does that look good to you?

EDIT 2: Oh yeah, I forgot to make room for encyclopaedia descriptions in my demo. We usually put flavor text like that in a quote at the top of the page, but I don't think that will work here. Not only are character descriptions long, but in some cases, we have to deal with three of 'em. Seriously, take a look at the combined length of Mardek's encyclopaedia entries:

Well, he's a young boy from Goznor, who, together with his best friend Deugan, wishes to one day become a Grand Adventurer and go on quests and save people. As it is though, all he can do is pretend until he's old enough to go on a REAL adventure.

He's a bit dim at times, but he's well-meaning and has a big heart.

Encyclopaedia description, MARDEK Chapter 1: A Fallen Star

Well, he's a young man from Goznor, who, together with his best friend Deugan, wishes to one day become a Grand Adventurer and go on quests and save people. He's joined the Royal Guard of Goznor in the hopes that he'll be able to help people like his hero Social Fox once did.

He's a bit dim at times, but he's well-meaning and has a big heart.

Encyclopaedia description, MARDEK Chapter 2: A New Hero

Well, he's a Royal Knight from Goznor, promoted in chapter 2 for his heroism in saving the whole world from Moric's saucer. The death of his best friend, Deugan, during that adventure has left him upset and somewhat more miserable than he used to be, but his temperament is the same as before, and he still approaches life with a sort of carefree cheeriness.

Despite being the protagonist, Mardek prefers to follow than lead, going in whichever direction his party members, his King, and Rohoph encourage him. He generally feels that others know best, especially since he strains his mind when thinking sometimes.

Encyclopaedia description, MARDEK Chapter 3: Keystones

There's no way we can squeeze all of that into the top of an article. 😨 Maybe we should move encyclopaedia descriptions to collapsible sections in the infobox (see →)? What do you think?

Woah! This is way more than I expected.

The layout looks good, but that would take a lot of time and would mean re-editing most of the articles already made. I wouldn't want to take more time from you than I'm doing right now, but the idea is nice. Filling the main characters articles with the encyclopaedia info is good, but as I've said before, it would take time from us and would mean re-editing all of MARDEK's articles. 

In the relationship theme, the idea looks good, as we could emphasise on characters who appear only in one chapter (for example Mugbert). I'd like to use (with your permission) that layout you gave me to show you what I meant. I'd use Mardek as he's the principal and playable character, and would show you what I have in mind. And... have you seen how Pseudolonewolf adds little funny stuff in text, like the [PROFANITY] in Mystery Man's dialogue or in certain descriptions? I'd like to add that too, for example:

Annihilator:ANIMUS is a pretty, preeeeetty weird beast. Is it miasma or a spiritual being? Who knows!! Still, that doesn't matters, you just saved the whole world from total annihilation, hurray!!! It (not sure if it is a he or a she) had a big spiderweb-like thing which could be theorized it used to catch its enemies souls or something. It also got this eye-thing in the middle, and if you look at it from certain angle, it looks like a whole eye and smile! It was a pretty powerful being, as it casted powerful Astral spells that could decimate your party in mere seconds, but your quick wits and your strategy kept it at bay and destroyed it. It was a totally non-important boss, but hey, if you want to 100% the game and fill all those encyclopaedia articles for that shiny medal, then that strong fella must be destroyed! 

That text is just a test (rhymes everywhere!) as I don't want to rush it and end up looking like the guy who tries to be funny but it isn't. 

Leaving that, it could be just it. So, to recoup; the idea of the encyclopaedia content is good, it would help us use those entries to explain a character, but it would mean a lot of time in re-editing most of the Mardek articles (I'd like to keep it at Mardek for a while and see if we can take it somewhere, for example the deceased Deliverance or Beast Signer), and I'm not the best in making such things as you did (I've just got to say that making the character profile thing with the image, race, gender, class, etc, is just hard for me). If it wasn't so much to ask, I'd like us to keep those new pages in secrecy and edit them outside the public, and when they're completely well edited, then release them as actual articles. As I said, I wouldn't want us to take that idea without first analizing it. I'll wait for you to allow me to edit that page you showed me (the layout) so you can see how I plan to make those pages, and show them to you so I can get your approval. On the meanwhile, I'll work on the bestiary's placeholder text (I'll do it in order from #1 to the last). 

Once again, thank you for taking your time on reading and giving me your opinion. Have a nice day/afternoon/evening/night! 

Haha, fair enough! Let's put those ideas on the back burner for now.

Sure, go ahead. You know how to make a sandbox, right?

Uh.... maybe? Well, to be honest, I used to edit small parts on different wikias, I've never made things like boxes, sandboxes, and such... maybe adding an image or video, but that's just it. I'm sorry if I bother you, but could you give me a quick lesson? As soon as I get that lesson, I'll get right to it. As I said, I'll use Mardek as the example for the layout. 

Once again, thanks! 

It's pretty simple: just create a page called "User:JulianPainKiller/<whatever>". You can create as many of these "sandboxes" as you want, and you can use them for just about anything (just don't attack people or break FANDOM's terms of use). Sandboxes are super useful for testing things and creating demonstrations—I've probably made hundreds by now. :p