Help:Writing Character Pages

Welcome to the SuperCombo page on Writing Character Pages. This page should go hand-in-hand with the writing in our Manual of Style to help with crafting detailed, concise, and accurate character breakdowns. SuperCombo is wiki of both hard data and strategy suggestions, so make sure our pages are as clean and up-to-date as possible. We appreciate your hard work!

Emphasis on Competitive Gameplay

The SuperCombo Wiki is not a place to talk about the lore of the games - there are other wikis for that. The purpose of the character pages is to give information about how a character plays in a competitive/tournament setting. Try to keep any backstory/personality section for characters brief - think about a paragraph total. Use the majority of the overview section to discuss the character's play style/unique abilities in the game, like how would you describe to a new player what this character does in a conversation.

Remember the Intended Audience

When writing guides, remember the intended audience is beginner and intermediate players --not experts.

Move explanations should not be very long if possible. Use bullet lists to list interesting properties, and paragraphs for deeper explanations.
Do not waste words describing what the attack looks like - that is what the image is for.
- An exception is when the move is too visually complex for a small set of images to explain. In these cases, describing what a move looks like is acceptable.
Do not compare a move against older versions of the move unless there's a really good reason to do so.
- Ex: Explaining that the older version of an attack was an overhead doesn't help the reader learn about THIS version of the game.

Writing Strengths and Weaknesses

What's the Point of Pros and Cons?

Pros and Cons are some of the most contested and meticulously curated parts of most FGC strategy wikis. For good reason- they often contain the most visible and direct summaries of characters on the site. Players new to specific games will arrive on Overview pages and immediately look at them to get an at-a-glance summary of the character they want to play. However, Pros and Cons are not the end of character breakdowns.

Pros/Cons are only really a summary of ideas that should be illustrated in other places on the wiki.

Thus, you shouldn't really use Pros and Cons as a strategy guide loadout or for a complete overview of a character. The idea should be to lead the reader into other areas of the page. As well, you should be very careful about how you add Pros and Cons and how they are phrased. Incorrect or misleading language can result in new players being wrongly informed about the character.

Having discussions about Pros and Cons can be a fruitful effort for the wiki as a whole. Talking about it in our Discord server is the best place to get a go-ahead, since that is where many of the editors are most active.

Format

Each Strength/Weakness should follow the following format:

Bold Text: 1-3 sentence explanation. One for simpler pros/cons, two-three for more complex pros/cons.

For example:

Slugger: Sol's close range options, such as 2P, +3 on block 2S, Volcanic Viper, and Wild Throw are scary tools. His frame traps and counter hit conversions are incredibly damaging in skilled hands and can usually score a knockdown to set up another favorable sequence.

Can't Approach: Potemkin can not dash or airdash, limiting his options to simply walking forward. Hammerfall is not a suitable replacement for either of these, and as such neutral requires strong patience and decision-making.

Think of the bold text as a TL;DR and the explanation as explaining it, though it should still be brief.

If there's something that you feel like is absolutely imperative to be mentioned to any newer or inexperienced player about a character (i.e. difficulty barriers, defensive quirks), but does not exactly fit as a legitimate or objective Pro/Con; remember that you have the ~3 paragraphs worth of space in the character's Overview section above the Pros/Cons table to make that known, or the Strategy page to write it out in-depth.
Lastly, please refrain from using the Pros and Cons section as a battleground for balance. If you're unsure about a change or feel like something is not listed that is relevant to the character, ask around the Discord for our opinions on the subject or consult other experts on the game.

On Writing Pros

Whereas Cons are more specific, Pros can be very open-ended and generalized. For example, having good defense in a game with generally bad defense is likely worth noting, even if other characters are also strong on defense.
Always make sure to specify what elements of a Pro make it valid. Saying Space Control for a character and following it up with "Using his good normals, Ky can control space well" is very vague. Which of Ky's normals are good for space control? Listing specific examples like f.S and J.H are good ways to clear things up.
Don't get overly into minutia such as things like having 1 extra frame of jump startup, or having an overhead that is 2 frames faster than average. Are these really a key strength/weakness of the character?
Don't try to balance the number of Pros and Cons to be equal, they don't need to be. Developers don't purposefully make characters to be just plain bad (anymore), but also, what players end up discovering and valuing to be "good" in a game may vary greatly from their intent. As a result, some characters will inevitably have more strengths than weaknesses and vice versa. Trying to balance this by creating poorly-justified or outright fake Pros or Cons gives people an incorrect view of the character, which can hurt the learning process of newcomers.

On Writing Cons

Cons should be very specific to the issue that plagues the character. Always make sure that you specify the exact problem a character has when listing their weakness.
The absence of a good tool isn't the same thing as having a weakness, especially if the character is built to do something that does not need that tool, but lacking something "essential" would be a weakness.
- Therefore lacking a DP in a game with bad defensive options is a negative, but not having a gap closer is not a defining weakness. A DP can be essential for getting characters away from you or demanding space, but not having a dedicated gap closer just means you need to use universal mechanics to get around, and your character may not even need a gap closer to perform well.
- Make sure the absence of a dedicated tool is not covered somewhere else in the character's kit. In Guilty Gear, not having an invincible AA 6P button is not a weakness if they have other buttons that are reliable anti-airs like Testament 2S or Order-Sol's Gunblaze special move.
A character without any notable weaknesses is not necessarily a flawless character. It often means that their weaknesses are things that apply to the whole cast, or are not significant enough to be worth noting.

Other Details

Pros and Cons are not the end of discussion! It's important that you back up your reasoning with examples and demonstrations. Helping to fill out a character's Strategy pages or detail their moves in the overview is very helpful for proving your point.
The first time a special move is mentioned on a strategy page, it should be written as its full name, alongside its input, and with a hyperlink to the move section.
If a move is more commonly referenced by another name (such as an abbreviation, its numpad input, or an alternate colloquial term), put that alternate way of referring to the move in parenthesis either immediately after the first use of the move name, or incorporate it into the move's description itself, or perhaps both. That makes it so from then on you can use that alternate way of referring to the move for the rest of the overview or other text without worry of confusion.
If a term is particularly obscure to the point that a beginner cannot comprehend it, add a tooltip explaining the term, or add a link to the game wiki's glossary.

Writing Moves

There is no real "defined" format to follow for specific move descriptions on SuperCombo. The community at-large can decide how they like to format their information for the games they play, so this section contains tips for making descriptive and accurate move breakdowns.

Follow the Templates

Templates are pre-defined sets of text used to maintain a uniform look throughout pages on the wiki. You can recognize a template when it's enclosed in double {s such as {{MyTemplate}}. To learn more about templates, check out mediawiki's help page.

The move templates lovingly hand-crafted by our site engineers are the baseline for what individual moves should look like on a character page. They contain all the necessary information- move names, inputs, frame data, images and hitboxes, and a description box for writing detailed breakdowns of the particular move. Touching these templates to alter them in any way is a huge misdemeanor in the community, so don't do it.

Most users won't need to worry about them as they will already be in place. But just in case all the pages follow the same pattern:

When in doubt, look at other character pages, copy, and adapt for your own uses.
Each move uses css and mediawiki tables to lay out an attack with move name, images, captions, and truncated list of frame data.
Each character's page refers to their Data page that has all the data for that character, for example Ryu's links and frame data are all on Street Fighter 6/Ryu/Data.
When creating AttackData templates for new games, remember that not ALL frame data should be included. Choose what is most important frequently occurring in the frame data of the moves.

An example of an idea move template, with filled-out information and a strong description to explain the move, can be found at the bottom of this page.

Move Descriptions

Many newcomers who start playing a fighting game want to know how each of their options functions in a real game. As a result, our move descriptions are some of the most important writing material on the site. We don't want to mislead or misinform the playerbase of these games, and as such, there are a few recommendations to follow when writing them.

Informational clarity is top priority. The foremost purpose of a move description should be explaining how it functions. While this sounds simple, information can often get lost in repetition of facts, attempts at humor, or poor writing in general. As a guideline, try to explain the purpose of a move within a single sentence before moving onto it in greater detail. This will help you stay on-track with communicating the benefits and drawbacks of each move in a character's movelist.
Always double-check your information. Try to avoid incorrect information about the move you're writing as much as possible. Talk with community members, gather information from multiple sources, and as always test the move in-game for yourself before making claims about their function.
- Understand "Bad" versus "Situational." Try to explain how and where niche moves can be used instead of outright declaring them as useless. For more information on this, consult this section from the Manual of Style.
Don't be too unbiased. It is important that newcomers get a concrete idea of how each move functions when reading a character page, so avoid reusing generic terms and descriptions (e.g. "powerful", "strong", "niche" "situational") if possible, especially if you are not elaborating as much. Using flavorful text properly can help emphasize even more important points while also making the text engaging to read. In a similar vein, the quality of individual moves should always be called out. If a move is amazing, make sure you point out how good it is while also explaining exactly why it is so good so they know what to look for in similar moves of that type.
Edit your work! Always finish your writing period with a quick double-check of your work before submitting. Consider your writing from the perspective of an newcomer before submittal, so avoid using obscure community jargon.

Move Formatting

While exact writing will depend on a case-by-case basis, a few simple design philosophies are generally upheld on SuperCombo for good and effective formatting.

Text follows a simple layout of paragraphs followed by bulletpoints.

Introductory text: Keep it to 1 line, briefly summarising the entire move and mention at least one key function.
Primary function: Elaborating on the main purpose of the move with more details and perhaps explaining why it's good at this. Avoid repeating anything from the introduction.
Secondary function: If a move has more than one role, you may make a second paragraph to talk about it. This is stil important but not the central role of the move.
Niche functions: If a move has a weird or niche utility worth knowing about, briefly discuss it. Even if it's very complicated, keep this short and only add this if it's notably relevant. Extremely niche tech can sometimes be too much information for a movecard (there's other places you can put it!).
Additional Bulletpoints: brief, direct bulletpoints on additional mechanics of a move.

Bulletpoints

A common mistake is to use bulletpoints to begin a movecard, or as a way to summarise topics. Bulletpoints should always be at the end of a card and only provide additional details.

Bulletpoints should avoid strategy information beyond simply saying what the mechanic is. Sometimes a brief clarification of a mechanic is helpful (e.g. "Launches into a Rollng Tumble. A combo may continue from this knockdown".), but explaining why this is strategic information should already be said in the main description.

In addition, keep the bulletpoints list short. Aim to have 3 bulletpoints at most. Avoid redundant data where possible. If you need more than 4, you're probably being far too detailed.

More Details

Sometimes a move has so many weird mechanics you simply can't fit it all in, especially when you want only a few bulletpoints. If this happens, place as many extraneous details into the move's Notes data, which can be seen in the "More Details" section. This keeps the card compact, without losing the information for people who really care.

Complex Tech

Sometimes a move has a very important function that's simply too complicated to put in a movecard. That's okay, simply link to the relevant section in the character's other pages. This gives readers a chance to easily find how to use this move, without front-loading the description with complicated tech or setups.

Overall size

This is an overview, often read by beginners. Too much writing can often make people read less. Descriptions are ideally 200 words or less. Only go further if the move really justifies it. It also helps if you can write sentences to provide the same information in fewer words. Remember to use the above techniques if nessecary.

Writing Updated Move Functions

Fighting games in the modern day are consistently updated with new balance patches that can radically change the functions of certain moves. When making writing changes based on balance patches, always include the details of the balance changes without explicitly drawing attention to them.

It can be worth discussing changes for moves between versions or games if the change is substantial enough to both the game and legacy. Moves that have had long-standing or vital properties and usage in a series, yet no longer carry them in a newer version such as invincibility or primary combo utility, are absolutely important to understand and are thus worth listing. Consider how impactful these changes are to each character -- if Sol lost his low-profile attributes on Night Raid Vortex in a newer version or a game, how would that affect his gameplan?

Also, we do keep up-to-date patch notes for games that are still being updated, which can often be found on the main page of each respective game. If you see a page that needs updating, please consider taking the time to do so. Certain moves may require full rewrites depending on the scale of the buff or nerf, so if you're unsure of how to change a move, discuss it with members of the community first in our Discord. We love to talk.

Writing Combos

Combo pages are some of the most important parts of the site, as they contain the necessary information for proper conversions. They help teach players what moves to start combos with, what important combo fillers they should be performing, and how to end them efficiently. As such, the combo pages should be divided into two sections: Combo Theory and Combo Lists.

Combo Theory

The Combo Theory section is the first thing a new player should see once they enter the combo page and get past the miscellaneous combo language identifiers. Combo Theory use our new "TheoryBox" functions to help build combos with visual aides for our players. These TheoryBoxes lay out all the important information about each character's most essential combos, such as where to look for performing them in a match, how hard they are, and what resources they build or spend. An example TheoryBox can be found at the bottom of the page.

Note that TheoryBoxes are fairly new to the site. Many older pages will likely not have TheoryBox sections, which can make certain pages a bit sparse and difficult for new players to understand. It is recommended that you update these Combo Pages as soon as possible. As well, TheoryBoxes have a small set of important rules for making them:

As usual, adhere to SuperCombo Manual of Style for writing.
Video files must be kept under 8 MB.
Perform the Combo with input display on.
All combos should be performed on the same character, unless the combo only works on a certain category of characters, e.g. weight class.
Combos should be performed on backgrounds with low-detail or non-intrusive elements if possible, to keep the demonstration visually clean.
Video resolution is determinant on the uploader, but make sure your combos are visually clear. Try not to record combo videos in less than HD quality.

Other than that, go nuts. How you choose to structure Combo Theory is entirely dependent on your own preferences! It might be a good idea to work with the community at-large when developing Combo Theory boxes, in order to help the onboarding process of new players go as smoothly as possible.

Combo Lists

Combo Lists are for intermediate or advanced players who want more options for converting off of hits. Once combo theory and general routes have been explained, combo lists allow learners to experiment with more options and perform more optimal combos. There are no real rules for exactly how to list each combo, but there are rules for how to write them.

Use proper input terminology. Do not write the full name of each move in a combo list, as it will take up tons of space and make the combo difficult to parse, instead use numpad terminology. Include any exceptions as additional terminology in the Combo Notation Guide at the beginning of a combo page.
Always include important movement information. If a combo requires a jump, microdash, or some other form of movement, make sure you include it. This can be very helpful for new players with learning the specifics of where to place themselves in combos.
Visual aides help a lot! Some individuals are textual learners, while others are visual learners. Including a video link to performing a specific combo is not always necessary, but it is often very helpful. Recommended places to upload these combos are YouTube or Vimeo, both of which allow videos to be kept uploaded permanently.
Make sure difficulty is accurate. Listing every combo as "easy" if you manage to master a difficult input doesn't help new players at all. Consider difficulty in both executional prowess and proper spacing- how often are you going to hit this combo in a real match?
Divide up combos by starter, not by meter. This is a big one, and something many combo pages are guilty of doing. Always make sure specific combos begin with the starters themselves instead of meter percentage, as doing it by meter divides up critical routing and makes it hard to keep multiple variants of the same core combo in the same place.

Writing Strategy

The strategy section should explain the goals of the character, and how to achieve said goals.
A basic, yet thorough formatting of a strategy page would typically include:

General / Overarching Strategy, such as how they can be played or the win conditions they must achieve
Neutral
Offense
- By extension, Okizeme details would fall under here as well
Defense
Tips and Tricks
- This is valuable! Be sure to explain tips and tricks the character uses such as Yosuke's glide technique, Arakune's fast-fall, Slayer's BDC, or Kagura's easy drive attack inputs.
General or specific counterplay versus this character
- Information on counterplay against your character is important to let a reader know what to look for in an opponent's habits or gameplan that may shut their character down, or for another player to know what to try to contest in the match-up. Fighting games are 2-player and directly interactive; this information is just as valuable as the above about on how to play your side of the game.

Writing Starter Guides

Starter guides are intended to give players a quick read that establishes a bare minimum foundation of the character to build from, targeted at beginners. Their purpose is akin to quick starter guides in games like League of Legends and DotA, which do not give in depth strategy nor lengthy theory. They should simply include a character's basic toolsets to give someone unfamiliar with fighting games a functional gameplan out of the gate.

Do:

Present a concise set of tools to start with
Include short form descriptors (ex. f.S is a far reaching poke to control space)
Include Short videos to demonstrate precise concepts (Ex. how to high/low mixup)
Include Short and Basic examples of beginner combos and setups.
Include "further learning" sections at the bottom of a page that links to any more advanced resources or even the character's subpages like Strategy

Do Not:

Copy-paste entire guides from external sources as the contents of the guide. Adapting information from such guides to SuperCombo's formatting is encouraged, wholesale pasting is not.
Paste a long list of combos wholesale from the combo page - starter guides are targeted at teaching beginners and they can navigate to the combo pages for these lists on their own.
Include elaborate theory on how the character should play or needs to approach etc (simple concepts are fine)
Talk about every normal and special the character has
Give an overly detailed summary about what the character does or what their playstyle is (The Overview already covers this)
Use advanced fighting game terminology without establishing what it means first (Ex. Okizeme should be explained as "What to do after a knockdown")
- When advanced terms are used, make sure to use the Tooltip Template if the topic is not covered by the keyword glossary.

Tone

The primary goal is to transfer information to the reader - it's best to think of yourself as a technical writer rather than a story teller. If information can be conveyed while being entertaining then all the better, but do not sacrifice informational value simply to be entertaining. Please try to keep this wiki primarily a place for information rather than to write jokes and story synopses. One suggestion is to mix the two; incorporate useful information into the entertainment and not simply joke around.

The main offender of this tenet is adding joke captions for images; occasional joking is fine, but giving every image a joke is overkill. Try adding a little useful info, trivia, or even no caption at all.

If you are struggling with proper writing tone and want to examples of what to do and what not to do, consider visiting the Manual of Style.

Style

Avoid passive voice
Avoid emotive language
Avoid complex sentence structure.
- Sentences should ideally be approachable for readers of most levels of fluency. If you can say something in a simple way; do it.

Length

Readers don't have a long attention span so get to the point - this isn't a school book report and you're not trying to hit a word count. Having said that, it's a difficult balancing act between being thorough enough to fully explain something, but brief enough that readers don't get bored.

Look over what you've written and try to remove filler words or find a clearer way to phrase a sentence.

Other common pitfalls include:

Adding too many examples to the point that it is a full list rather than a few examples that illustrate the general rule
Going into details that would be considered trivia rather than help the player learn how or why an attack works the way it does

Creating Images & Videos

See Help:Creating Images & Videos

Editing Frame Data

See Help:Editing Frame Data

The Resource Dump

See a cool combo on Twitter, but don't know where to put it? Notice that a popular YouTuber just dropped an awesome guide for a character, but don't want to transplant all the information onto the overview page? Have your own theories about how a character can perform in a match, but don't want to drop it onto a main page just yet? Consider using the Resource Dump, which can be found on each character page.

This can be a great place to put down miscellaneous information for later or help consolidate a backlog of material for players of all skill levels. Consider uploading any good information you find to this location.