Editor's information

This page is intended to serve as a reference for VCC Wiki editors, and provide information useful for both newbies and veterans alike. You are free to edit it at anytime if you'd like.

Getting Started

Welcome to the VCC Wiki! Before you begin, there's a few different things we need to go through.

Subject of the Wiki

Valve Cut Content focuses on primarily what its name is. Cut content of valve games, such as Half-Life, Portal, Left 4 Dead. It also focuses on the more documentable aspects of the Cut Content community, such as mods and patches.

What sets it apart from the Combine Overwiki is that it specializes in leaks, and doumenting the advanced details of cut content. Where the Overwiki focuses on the various aspects of the final version of the Combine Soldier, leave a brief section about how it changed "Behind the Scenes", VCC Wiki exclusively focuses on how it evolved with "Combine Soldier (Evolution).

Neutral Point of View

Neutral point of view is essential for a writer of Wiki articles to understand.

On the Valve Cut Content, one of the main goals is to provide useful, complete, and accurate information. To provide the highest quality of information, one must be neutral and without any bias or opinion. This is what is called Neutral Point of View, or NPOV.

What is it?

NPOV is when an editor writes or edits articles with a completely neutral point of view. This means that there is no bias or opinion from one author. This also includes to not use the word "I", or other weasel words.

How do I do it?

To follow NPOV, simply write or edit articles without the use of opinionated words such as I, think, like, believe, hate," etc. Using weasel words, such as some argue, many people thought, and experts say are also against the NPOV.

Advertising is also strictly against the NPOV. Advertising is defined as the promoting (or slander) of specific mods or users. Advertising is strongly advised against, as it severely degrades the quality of the article and makes the author seem biased.

What if I don't do it?

NPOV is not required on some pages. Obviously, users should not follow NPOV on any user or user talk page. NPOV is also not required on article talk pages or in "tactics" sections.

Following these rules greatly helps to improve the quality of information on the Valve Cut Content, but if you really, truly cannot follow the NPOV guidelines, this is not a major issue. Edits can be modified or reverted in a short time; nothing is permanent.

However, blatantly disregarding NPOV will force better-qualified users to "pick up the pieces", instead of using their time to create or better other articles. If it continues long enough, it can even be considered as vandalism, with the associated penalties resulting.

Source

Formatting Conventions

• When referring to a specific directory, put it within <code></code tags. Example: /materials/brick/
• When creating a texture gallery, have the caption of each refer to the original VTF's, TGA's, etc.'s name in quotations. For example:

• 

  "reciever.vtf"

• 

  "scope.vtf"

• The Leak is in reference to the The 2003 Leak, and should be capitalized.
• When referring to Half-Life, make sure to specify which to help avoid confusion.
  • Also: It is Half-Life, not "Half Life".
• When using level 4 headers (====Header====), either italicize or bold them to make sure that they are not overlooked as regular text.

Page Structure

VCC wiki uses a set of strutural standards distinct from others.

"Evolution of"

Evolution articles document the "evolution" of various valve-related things that make it to retail, using headings for individual versions. Screenshots and textures are included within each header, as they should be each their own time capsule, moving onward.

Header Structure

There is no strict format, as "evolution of" articles should be approached on a case-by-case basis, based in what we have of it.Combine Soldier (Evolution) provides a good example of how these can be structured, though.
==Concepts==
===Early Suit Designs===
===Early Color Schemes===
==Version 1: Pre-2002==
===Screenshots===
==Version 2: E3_Hydra==
===Screenshots===
==Version 3: 2002==
===Screenshots===
===Textures===
==Version 4: Leak==
===Screenshots===
===Textures===
==Version 5: Early 2004==
===Screenshots===
===Textures===
==References==

Cut Enemies

These are intended to document cut enemies, and what condition (or lack of) they are in, alongside their oddities.

Header Structure

==Overview==
==Condition==
Miscellaneous aspects (see below)
==Gallery==
===Screenshots=== (if applicable)
===Textures=== (if applicable)

Weapons

These are intended to document cut weapons, and how they (would have) functioned.

Header Structure

==Overview==
==Tactics==
==Gallery==
Miscellaneous aspects (see below)

===Screenshots=== (if applicable)
===Textures=== (if applicable)

"Miscellaneous Aspects"

What does Miscellaneous Aspects represent? Essentially, this is a trivia section, where instead of bullet points, individual notable bits get their own heading.
For example, on the MP5K (SMG1) page, it would refer to the

• Viewmodel Picture Release
• Prior Revisions

On the Heavy_Machine_Gun_(HMG1) page, it would refer to

• Early Viewmodel

It's based on TCRF's approach to headings, of which a good example can be seen here.

References

These are intended to be used by veteran editors, as a reference point.

Infoboxes

• The current custom "Infobox" panels are:

Purpose (For documenting)	Template name
Cut enemies	Template:Cut Enemies
Cut Maps	Template:MapInfoBox
Cut weapons	Template:Weapon_infobox
Mods	Template:Mod_InfoBox
Shitposts/memes	Template:Game_Infobox
Vehicles	Template:Vehicle_Template

Please consider if the current ones are a good fit for your article before creating another.

Linking

There are several different sorts of linking that may be needed in certain situations.

• If the text you are linking is the same as the page title, use two sets of brackets.
  • Example:[[Metropolice (Evolution)]]
• If the text you are linking to is different from the page title, use two sets of brackets, and put down the exact page title, with "|" at the end. Then, put down the text from which the link will be displayed.
  • Example:[[Metropolice (Evolution)|Police]]
• If the text you are linking is outside the wiki, first put down the link of it. Then, put down (with no separating characters) the text you wish to display.

Tagging

This is a list of the currently-used tags. If you feel another should be added, feel free to - this system isn't perfect by a long shot.

Games

Half-Life (General series tag)
Half-Life 1
Half-Life 2

Portal (General series tag)
Portal 1
Portal 2

Team Fortress Classic
Team Fortress 2 (Brotherhood of Arms)
Team Fortress 2 (Invasion)
Team Fortress 2

Left 4 Dead(General series tag)

Counter Strike(General series tag)
Counter Strike 1.6
Counter Strike Source
Counter Strike GO

Leaks

Category:Leaks
General tag, used for leak documentation articles, does not involve articles relating to specific parts of leaks.

Use tags below when tagging articles about a specific part of them.
Category:1997 Press Disc

Category:2003 Leaks
Category:WC Mappack

Category:2016 Leaks (Depending on the date of the leak)
Category:2017 Leaks

Type specifiers

Category:Items (Including weapons)
Category:Weapons

Category:Vehicles

Category:Non-Player Characters

Category:Allies
Category:Humans

Category:Enemies
Category:Combine

Category:Maps (Used for maps.)
Category:Locations (Used for cut locations. Should not overlap with maps.) Items

Article Types

Category:Evolution
Category:Unused Visgroups
Category:Eras

Miscellaneous

Category:Beta Patches

Useful Files

Various files helpful for the investigative editor.

Generally Useful

VTFEdit, a powerful texture editor
GCFScape, a good tool for browsing GCFs and VPKs
VTF Shell Extensions, a tool that allows you to see thumbnails for .vtf files

Beta Stuff

ValveArchive folder for the 2003 leak
Pack of beta model viewers and decompilers Pack of decompiled models from ScarT's infamous decompiler
Blackfox's reference docs. CSVs of sounds used in the maps, textures, versions, etc.

Wikia Tricks

Two tips for removing the unnecesary stuff wikia likes adding:

• For galleries: Include "hideaddbutton=true" to remove the add buttons
• For headers: Include "__NOEDITSECTION__" anywhere in the article to remove the header "edit" buttons

To format text to go past photos, use "{{clear}}".

Example:

File:Stephane-gaudette-ctf-badlands-bluebase010038-2.jpg

220x220px

Woo! This is below the picture!