Template talk:Cost/Archive 1

Tier Tokens
I was having problems with using the tier tokens in this template and, although I don't understand all the code, I noticed some inconsistencies that may be the source of my problem. Namely around Fallen Boots and Vanquished Chestguard it seems like some of those abbreviations should be changed.--Scyth02 20:12, 19 July 2007 (UTC) Also, can we get the Forgotten Tokens added.--Scyth02 13:58, 23 July 2007 (UTC)
 * We need Tier-7 tokens now. -Mozai (talk) 19:53, 4 February 2009 (UTC)

Beep Beep
Lol, was gunna step in to correct what you were doing, but i see you figured out why it needed to be in messy code form :P Nice additions, i think there is some sporegar ones that need to be added btw. :s -- Zeal  talk   contr  web 10:46, 18 January 2007 (EST)

Bug in silver code
--Voidvector 21:53, 19 January 2007 (EST)


 * Forgot to say, fixed this. ty. -- Zeal  talk   contr  web 14:45, 6 February 2007 (EST)

Abbreviations
Sorry for being dumb, but could you add what your syntax abbreviations stand for? I could not find the "neutral" icon that will display both Horde & Alliance icon for Honor Points. --Dracomage 16:41, 24 January 2007 (EST)

Arena Points icon broken
--Dracomage 09:38, 6 February 2007 (EST)

Arathi Basin also uses wrong icon --Dracomage 09:40, 6 February 2007 (EST)

--Dracomage 09:45, 6 February 2007 (EST)

AV and AB token icons swopped around and Arena token image link broken. --Dracomage 09:45, 6 February 2007 (EST)


 * Put all of this into one, no need to make multiple comments saying the same thing.. Anyways, there was no arena icon, it's always been broken until someone uploaded it. Dunno why it got named what it is. Uploaded the arena icon and switched AB and AV around. enjoy. -- Zeal  talk   contr  web 14:43, 6 February 2007 (EST)
 * Thanks Again Zeal. Appreciate the help.--Dracomage 08:49, 7 February 2007 (EST)

Gear Tokens
I noticed the tooltips for the tier 4/5 gear tokens were all saying "Chestguard of the Fallen/Vanquished Champion/Defender/Hero", even if they were the Helm, Pauldrons, etc., so I took the liberty of changing the non-Chestguards' tooltips to Helm, Gloves, Leggings, or Pauldrons, as appropriate. I hope I didn't just break the wiki. Gemminie 11:25, 23 March 2007 (EDT)

links
Why are the icons not linking to the actual item instead of the image? Loriel 10:11, 2 April 2007 (EDT)


 * Why should they? -- 07:47, 4 April 2007 (EDT)


 * Uhm, why should they link to the image? That's just silly.  It should link to the currency's page.  Say, for example, I've just arrived in Outlands, and I'm looking what sort of gear I want.  I run across a reference to  for .  Well, if I've never been to Outland before, I don't know what  is.  What I'd want to be able to do is click on that item, and find out what it is - and, if its page is doing what it is supposed to be doing, how to get one of them.  Likewise, I've seen tiered gear with a cost flag, but I didn't know which token that was just by sight or name.  I wanted to find out what token it was and most importantly who dropped it.  Nope.  No such luck.  I have to dig further for information that should be right there at my finger tips.  Hekirou 20:47, 22 August 2007 (UTC)

How do we tell what the symbols mean?
This template sort of assumes you know what the currency symbols mean, since you can't tell otherwise. I'd prefer that the images linked to the currency type, but I guess we would lose the scaling to 16px. I will go about making 16px versions of currency symbol images (or just steal them from the official WoW site), so we can use &lt;imagelink&gt;currency_image.png|link to currency article&lt;/imagelink&gt; instead of &#91;&#91;Image:currency_image.png|16px|alt_name&#93;&#93;. -- Fandyllic (talk · contr) 5:58 PM PDT 3 Apr 2007


 * Could we not have them link to Money ? 08:02, 4 April 2007 (EDT)


 * How about an HTML alternate image label? I often run w/o images (Hey, I'm on dialup), and the "alt=" tag would provide that much better description. --Eirik Ratcatcher 14:40, 24 April 2007 (EDT)


 * Both should be implimented. The images should not only have a image label telling what the image is, but also link to the appropriate page, i.e. Money for gold, silver and copper, and the item page for the other tokens. --Mikaka 17:31, 5 May 2007 (EDT)


 * Totally agree. I came upon this template after wondering "what's that little icon?" when I saw the "Cost" template for Glowcaps.  The image shouldn't link to an image, that's dumb.  Should like to the page that explains what that is. Markkawika 07:59, 28 May 2007 (UTC)
 * The current imagelink can't resize images, so it can't be done till that is upgraded.  16:13, 28 May 2007 (UTC)
 * There's actually an imagelink template which uses CSS to "fake" a linked image. It doesn't work with Opera last I checked, but degrades gracefully and works in other browsers.  It supports image resizing.   14:06, 25 June 2007 (UTC)

Links redux
I would also request that the images displayed by this template link to the page about the required token. I can currently see a floating tooltip that suggests the link would go to said page, but it still goes to the image. As noted by others above, most users clicking on these images would want to know more about the required tokens, not just see a larger image. I first really noticed this at Halaani Bag where I added a link to the token page, but it does not look very good. As an aside, I also think it would look better if there was a single space between the number and the icon. —MJBurrage(T•C) 21:45, 22 December 2007 (UTC)

Many thanks to Fandyllic for implementing the imagelinks, very useful, especially for this template. —MJBurrage(T•C) 07:47, 29 December 2007 (UTC)

Inclusion performance
This template has some serious performance problems, most apparent in the way flight path was upgraded by Hobinbot. The flight path article as an abnormally high number of inclusions for a given money template, and when that template is upgraded to cost, the page no longer loads and brings the rest of the server down, or at least incurs a performance hit.

My suggestion is to keep a money-only template, like the traditional gsc, and then seperate templates for each of the currencies. If there is a need for a hybrid template, like one that has money and honor tokens, then we should use cost or some specifically paired down version of a cost template for that. But for mass inclusions of money or currency or whatever, cost as written is not the way to go.-- Hobinheim  ( talk ·  contr ) 09:35, 23 April 2007 (EDT)
 * Parser functions and we won't have to worry about it anymore. -- 16:31, 23 April 2007 (EDT)
 * Hate to say this, but I raise at this point the same objections as I had to many of Zeal's "improvements". Infrastructure first, then changes that depend on it, please.   --Eirik Ratcatcher 14:40, 24 April 2007 (EDT)


 * Gotta ask, Hob... Hobinbot is yours, isn't it?   Doesn't that mean that the change was your baby? --Eirik Ratcatcher 14:40, 24 April 2007 (EDT)

Ogri'la tokens
The template is currently missing and  introduced with the Ogri'la faction. (The mechanic for token inclusion is also bot-unfriendly, but that is an issue I guess I have to deal with) --Starlightblunder 22:09, 21 June 2007 (UTC)

Icon extensions
Unlike Tooltip, Cost seems to want |icon argument to contain the icon extension - any opinions on whether this should be changed? -- Starlightblunder 22:48, 21 June 2007 (UTC)


 * I think the reason for this is that we can't assume everybody wants to use .png extension. I believe the icon template just adds  before icon_name and   at the end, because we have pretty much all the WoW icons uploaded as PNGs. --[[Image:gengar orange 22x22.png]]  Fandyllic  (talk &middot; contr) 11:26 AM PST 20 Dec 2007

Tier tokens cost page
There are a few minor errors in the cost page for the Tier 5 tokens.
 * Chestguard of the Vanquished Champion is okay.
 * Chestguard of the Vanquished Defender twice lists c-vc instead of c-vd.
 * Chestguard of the Vanquished Hero once lists c-vd instead of c-vh.

This results in wrong tables on almost all the specific armor set pages.

Grabmill 13:09, 22 October 2007 (UTC)

The currency page also omits ...of the Forgotten Champion used for Tier 6 gear. This error caused the tool tips on the Tier 6 gear to display the wrong tokens required. Hyrcan 12:19, 26 November 2007

New coin images
Take a look. No need to use them now, but we could consider it.
 * Smooth: deleted deleted deleted
 * Old: [[Image:Copper.png]][[Image:Silver.png]][[Image:Gold.png]]

Looking at them compared to the old ones, they could be bigger. D'oh. -- Fandyllic  (talk · contr) 11:17 AM PST 20 Dec 2007
 * The "smooth" ones look a bit too fuzzy for me. Maybe once they're larger. --Pcj (T&bull;C) 19:19, 20 December 2007 (UTC)
 * I took them from screenshots of the WoW Armory, but I didn't realize they were so much smaller. They're fuzzy because I tried to make them look okay on light and dark backgrounds. --[[Image:gengar orange 22x22.png]] Fandyllic  (talk &middot; contr) 11:28 AM PST 20 Dec 2007
 * I wasn't happy with how they looked, so I deleted the smooth versions. I'm going to upload new ones based on the images from the WoW Armory. --[[Image:gengar orange 22x22.png]] Fandyllic  (talk &middot; contr) 6:22 PM PST 21 Dec 2007
 * A new set for comparison:
 * Old: [[Image:Copper.png]][[Image:Silver.png]][[Image:Gold.png]]
 * New: deleted
 * Apparently the WoW Armory uses much smaller coin images, since these are closely based on those. --[[Image:gengar orange 22x22.png]] Fandyllic  (talk &middot; contr) 6:26 PM PST 21 Dec 2007

New currency images from WoW Armory
Recently made: Got these from WoW Armory. Hopefully they fall under fair use.
 * [[Image:pvp-arenapoints-icon-16x16.png]] Arena points
 * [[Image:inv_misc_rune_07.png]]
 * [[Image:inv_jewelry_amulet_07.png]]
 * [[Image:inv_jewelry_necklace_21.png]]
 * [[Image:spell_nature_eyeofthestorm.png]]

Stuff not in cost template yet: -- Fandyllic  (talk · contr) 9:20 AM PST 21 Dec 2007
 * [[Image:inv_misc_token_honorhold.png]]
 * [[Image:inv_misc_token_thrallmar.png]]
 * [[Image:inv_misc_rune_08.png]]
 * [[Image:inv_misc_rune_09.png]]
 * [[Image:inv_jewelry_frostwolftrinket_04.png]]
 * [[Image:spell_holy_championsbond.png]]
 * [[Image:inv_misc_rune_05.png]]
 * [[Image:inv_misc_dust_06.png]]
 * [[Image:inv_mushroom_02.png]]
 * [[Image:inv_misc_apexis_crystal.png]]
 * [[Image:inv_misc_apexis_shard.png]]


 * Made a test version of the cost template at cost/Test with new graphics:
 * ,, , , , , , , , , , , , , and.
 * I think they are too big (21x21), so I'll probably upload smaller versions (16x16 or 18x18) for the template.
 * -- [[Image:gengar orange 22x22.png]] Fandyllic  (talk &middot; contr) 1:46 PM PST 21 Dec 2007
 * See updated cost/Test with 16x16 images above. --[[Image:gengar orange 22x22.png]] Fandyllic  (talk &middot; contr) 10:13 PM PST 21 Dec 2007
 * deleted by me, since it isn't used anymore important and purpose is past. --[[Image:gengar orange 22x22.png]] Fandyllic  (talk &middot; contr) 5:10 PM PST 22 Apr 2008

Updated based on Cost/Test changes
Mostly just changed the images used. -- Fandyllic  (talk · contr) 1:48 PM PST 23 Dec 2007


 * I just also added support for using smaller WoW Armory based coin images:
 * C&#61;S&#61;G&#61;
 * --[[Image:gengar orange 22x22.png]] Fandyllic  (talk &middot; contr) 2:23 PM PST 23 Dec 2007
 * --[[Image:gengar orange 22x22.png]] Fandyllic  (talk &middot; contr) 2:23 PM PST 23 Dec 2007


 * Great work, love that the images now work as links to the items required. A minor remaining request would be to add a space between the number and the symbol, as I believe (18 [[Image:spell_nature_eyeofthestorm.png|16px]]) is easier to read than (18[[Image:spell_nature_eyeofthestorm.png|16px]]). —MJBurrage(T•C) 07:47, 29 December 2007 (UTC)

Should be split
The current scheme requires a named parameter per every item used to purchase something doesn't scale very well; it'd be more viable to split the template into a reduced version of cost that only handles actual currencies (money and honor/arena points), and introduce another template to deal with items solely used as currencies (probably taking the full item name to avoid the current swelling dictionary mess come Wrath). Time to start researching into how we could image imagelink take arguments, I think. -- Foxlit 14:19, 6 January 2008 (UTC)


 * Indeed, i didn't think of how far blizz were going to go with items used as currencies when i wrote it, the naming is a mess now. I don't think it needs to be split though.


 * I suspect your idea is that you could use tooltip to return an item's info in a currency format, but you know already from item that's going to cause serious issues with performance and scale. I don't want to see the wiki break down the same way i broke it before.


 * Only other ways of splitting it, would be a move back to working with seperate currency templates for each again, which is what this template was designed to move away from or requiring a user to lookup and provide the name and icon of an item each time.
 * Basically, there really isn't a problem with the template's scale imo, as it's the only option that's pheasible. It just needs to provide more obvious usage through full item names if anything.


 * What i do recommend however, is to use currency as a seperate formatting template. It basically replaces the custom currency functionality found in this template, which is currently the combo of name=, icon= and cost=, then use currency inside cost to provide the formatting for them all and then users add external ones themselves easier (multiple calls to this template for that usage isn't nice).


 * Oh and  can bite me, not looking for navigation images here and isn't possible afaik. Better alternative would be to provide hover tooltip functionality for the image's link and display the item summary in that. If we ever have more functional hover tooltips, the link in that can be followed instead. --  http://www.zealvurte.co.uk/temp/sig-av/wiki_zeal.png|User:Zeal  http://www.zealvurte.co.uk/temp/sig-av/wiki_talk.png|User talk:Zeal  http://www.zealvurte.co.uk/temp/sig-av/wiki_contribs.png|Special:Contributions/Zeal  http://www.zealvurte.co.uk/temp/sig-av/wiki_end.png|User:Zeal   01:08, 7 January 2008 (UTC)


 * I think there needs to be a lighter weight version of this template, it dramatically inflates the the size of any page it's used on. Seriously, the cost template currently seems to account for about 1.5mb of memory usage to generate the BC Caster DPS cloth page.  Currently the bottom of the page won't draw.  I'm torn between writing my own template to cover the basics or simply replacing all the cost templates with direct links. Tbannister 14:05, 2 April 2008 (UTC)


 * I seriously find any of that hard to believe and is not true from my experience. Sound more like another template is doing this, or you're totaling up multiple uses of it. If the latter, that can't be helped and will always remain a reason for such useless list pages to never exist. -- <ul style="font-size: 0.85em; margin: 0; padding: 0; list-style: none; list-style-type: none; list-style-image: none; display: inline; white-space: nowrap"> http://www.zealvurte.co.uk/temp/sig-av/wiki_zeal.png|User:Zeal </li> http://www.zealvurte.co.uk/temp/sig-av/wiki_talk.png|User talk:Zeal </li> http://www.zealvurte.co.uk/temp/sig-av/wiki_contribs.png|Special:Contributions/Zeal </li> http://www.zealvurte.co.uk/temp/sig-av/wiki_end.png|User:Zeal </li></ul> 18:25, 2 April 2008 (UTC)


 * Of course, I'm totalling up multiple uses of the template. Each individual use of the template will expand to 11k in memory.  Plus I can do without the snide remarks, thank you.  Tbannister 20:41, 15 April 2008 (UTC)


 * If you wish to see snide remarks in my reply where there are none, then be my guest. Sorry for offending you by criticising lists...? -- <ul style="font-size: 0.85em; margin: 0; padding: 0; list-style: none; list-style-type: none; list-style-image: none; display: inline; white-space: nowrap"> http://www.zealvurte.co.uk/temp/sig-av/wiki_zeal.png|User:Zeal </li> http://www.zealvurte.co.uk/temp/sig-av/wiki_talk.png|User talk:Zeal </li> http://www.zealvurte.co.uk/temp/sig-av/wiki_contribs.png|Special:Contributions/Zeal </li> http://www.zealvurte.co.uk/temp/sig-av/wiki_end.png|User:Zeal </li></ul> 19:48, 16 April 2008 (UTC)

Alt Text
When you are browsing with images turned off, the gold/silver/copper images use the alternate text "money". That is 5 appears as "5money 5money". Surely we can do better than this.... --Eirik Ratcatcher 15:03, 11 March 2008 (UTC)


 * Fixed. They now link to g, s, and c. 19:34, 5 April 2008 (UTC)

New sunmote added to Cost/Test
Wikicode:

Output:

I will add it soon to cost, if no one disapproves. Very simple addition.

-- Fandyllic  (talk · contr) 2:09 PM PST 8 Apr 2008


 * Sunmote's been added and I revamped the docs.
 * A random factoid: cost was transcluded slightly more than 25,000 times at the time of this edit. Scary. -- k _d3 08:19, 20 April 2008 (UTC)

Coin images broken by some recent change
When I use 1 or cost, I get and  where only the silver coin image  shows up and the gold and copper coin images ( and ) don't show up anymore. Is this a problem from wikia? -- Fandyllic  (talk · contr) 8:27 PM PST 16 Apr 2008


 * I'm not seeing the behaviour you're describing on the example here, have you got a link to another article where this is already happening? :S Sound most likely to be a server/user cache issue. -- <ul style="font-size: 0.85em; margin: 0; padding: 0; list-style: none; list-style-type: none; list-style-image: none; display: inline; white-space: nowrap"> http://www.zealvurte.co.uk/temp/sig-av/wiki_zeal.png|User:Zeal </li> http://www.zealvurte.co.uk/temp/sig-av/wiki_talk.png|User talk:Zeal </li> http://www.zealvurte.co.uk/temp/sig-av/wiki_contribs.png|Special:Contributions/Zeal </li> http://www.zealvurte.co.uk/temp/sig-av/wiki_end.png|User:Zeal </li></ul> 13:21, 17 April 2008 (UTC)


 * It's when an image times out - the image is replaced by its name. A refresh should fix it. 11:02, 18 April 2008 (UTC)


 * A refresh, cache clear, or anything didn't fix it at the time, but it eventually fixed itself when I went back later... oh well. --[[Image:gengar orange 22x22.png]] Fandyllic  (talk &middot; contr) 5:02 PM PST 22 Apr 2008

Darkmoon Faire Prize Ticket a currency?
Does Darkmoon Faire Prize Ticket count as a currency? Should it be part of cost? -- Fandyllic  (talk · contr) 5:25 PM PST 22 Apr 2008
 * I'd say no, as it's a quest objective only. Much like ZG/AQ20/AQ40/T3. -- k _d3 01:45, 23 April 2008 (UTC)

Items as costs
New parser allows a bit of functionality we previously couldn't achieve; building on that, I'd like to introduce quantity as a companion for cost, used when cost refers to a token item.

has a few advantages over the current architecture: you do not need to look up token name abbreviation to use it (plus, syntax looks readable when editing); any valid item for which the wiki has a page can be used; icon links to the item page in question, rather than the Image: page for the icon itself. It's possible to insert pre-arranged item<->icon relations into the template (reducing the amount of potential lookups to find an item's icon), but those are not required for the template to function with new items; syntax for introducing new item associations to that template is also a bit shorter.

Output is more or less the same:
 * costitem:
 * cost:

One of the few differences is that one produces exactly one item entry; while  may be asked to produce multiple tokens through one template call. -- foxlit 20:53, 29 April 2008 (UTC)


 * Oh gee, it suffers the same issues as item. I figured as much. --Sky (t · c · w) 20:56, 29 April 2008 (UTC)


 * It doesn't have to - the same lookup table that's used here can be used there as well. item suffers much less issues with the new parser than you seem to believe. -- foxlit 20:57, 29 April 2008 (UTC)


 * What Sky said.. bad idea then, still bad idea now. -- 09:22, 30 April 2008 (UTC)


 * The amount of reasoning, insight and analysis provided by both of you does not cease to amaze. For what it's worth, costitem is cheaper on the transclude requirements (even outside of its internal lookup table), provides better usability when browsing (icons linking to item pages, always) and editing the wiki (syntax is descriptive), and does not need admin intervention when a new cost token has been added to the game. -- foxlit 17:16, 30 April 2008 (UTC)


 * Because it was explained before and proven before. If you want to find out the hows and whys, go searching on mediawiki, as it was on there at the time too. If this has changed with the new parser, i've not seen any proof yet. I've no idea what you're refering to with an internal lookup table, no such thing exists to my knowledge. The "usability" of this template could be made to match the new one simply by removing the abbreviations and using full names as with yours and using the same imagemap method (why that over imagelink?), though i've never found either to be more usable personally. I already provided a new template example which achieves the "no admin intervention" requirement and just as with yours, is one icon at a time. Suprise suprise, it's a smaller footprint too. As i said though, this is backwards usage of it, and only provided as a stop gap until this one is updated with the new currency. There's nothing the new template provides which this template and others can't do, and do so at a lesser footprint. -- 08:33, 1 May 2008 (UTC)


 * The internal lookup table I'm referring to is a short list of item names <-> icon resolutions contained within the costitem template; costitem replicates the behavior of cost if one of those items is hit, without consulting the item page. The syntax for adding new items and icons to that list is shorter and generally less prone copy/paste failure than the syntax of adding new tokens to  . That list is currently used to provide customized small icons to some tokens, but can in theory be extended to encompass all items that cost currently covers (not that that is desirable: see below).
 * , as far as I'm aware, does not support image resizing (and seems to be deprecated in favor of imagemap / another extension). The use of imagemap is not ideal, but it's the only way to get the desired functionality at a reasonable price.
 * You should also link the template (I'm reading that as something distinct from cost's custom item parameters?) you provided - it'd be interesting to look at.
 * (This comments above largely address Zeal's specific questions; comments below address general themes, with less indentation. -- foxlit)
 * Let's get back to the basic issue: it does not make sense to keep a list of all items that can be used to purchase other items around - it'll only get bigger with each patch. Current model of is flawed: it'll only become more expensive to transclude with each new item added to it.
 * What does do to address this? Transcludes the item page to get the icon, more or less. This is a small, constant cost that does not increase with time. Currently, that mechanic is cheaper to use than the cost template: to put it simply, you can fit more about twice as many  instances (vs  ) on a single page without running into parser limitations. "It's inefficient" is not an argument grounded in reality.
 * Negative comments seem to reach their conclusions through unspecified past discussions (link those; I can't tell you why they're no longer valid if I don't know what they are) and past experience, most of which made obsolete by the new parser. -- foxlit 13:33, 1 May 2008 (UTC)
 * Currency was the accompanying template i was refering to, nothing fancy, nothing new. Take a look at the discussion further up for how i was suggesting it be used though.
 * The "lookup table" is something that could also be implemented in cost, as with everything else. I'm happy to see those implemented (the only argument i can think of for now, is the loss of control over alt/title text, but meh).
 * It's the lookup via item (and subsequently the item pages) i have a problem with. That does expand alot larger than needed, and i fail to see when such a lookup is required, how the expansion can stay less than the current version of cost.
 * Beyond that though, changes to item pages are going to trickle down and cause updates to all pages looking up info from them (and here's where it remains to be seen if things have changed, but also forces an update to all pages using the item template, and if so, all pages using costitem too) which is growing if templates based on this method continue to grow in usage. That's the core reasoning behind the "negative comments". I only ever had a loose graps on the technical aspects of the hows and whys from researching after the fact on mediwiki (links to which are lost as i said). Since then i've remained cautious of ever going down the same path using the same methods you've employed in such templates (granted my experiences was further exasperated by the old exist template which caused mass retro-transclusion on every usage). -- 19:12, 1 May 2008 (UTC)

(Outdent) From a usability standpoint as a slow typist, I prefer cost because it requires much less typing to achieve the desired output than costitem or currency. Not everything gets created or improved by bots, so for hand edits, cost works well. I wish cost could be simplified, though. -- Fandyllic  (talk · contr) 4:07 PM PST 1 May 2008

Who can edit this template?
Whoever you are, if you can edit this template, you need to fix the Tier 5 section for Chestguard of the Vanquished Hero. It's broken (it has c-vd at one point instead of c-vh), and judging from some of the previous comments, it's been broken for a while. Please take a look at it and fix it. Markkawika (talk) 01:10, 23 May 2008 (UTC)
 * Fixed -- k _d3 18:01, 23 May 2008 (UTC)

Quest items used like currency
Re: "Note that the, Zul'Gurub, AQ20/AQ40, /, and Tier 3 tokens are quest objectives, not currency, and are thus not part of the template." Three points:
 * This reflects how the game components are implemented in the software, and if we were responsible for maintaining the software, this might be an important distinction. We're not.
 * This totally misses how these items are held and used from a player PoV. A player spends them like currency, selectively choosing what items in which to invest his purchase tokens. If a player looks up an item obtained through one of these quests, (s)he is looking at a 'cost'. The item page should have a consistent way of reflecting that 'cost'.
 * There are differences between purchasing from a vendor NPC and turning in quest tokens to 'purchase' items. For one, the dialog closes and must be reopened for each purchase. These differences are immaterial with respect to whether the use of the item is a 'cost' from the player PoV, it just makes the mechanics of the 'purchase' a little more cumbersome. --Madkaugh (talk) 00:42, 17 June 2008 (UTC)


 * You miss another distinction: How they are used in the wiki?  Items such as Mark of Honor Hold are similarly quest rewards, and soulbound.  But the number of items you can purchase with them is much greater than with such things as Darkmoon Faire prize tokens.  The more often they are used, the more convenient putting them in the Cost template makes editing.  With quest objective items, the number of such quests is strictly limited.


 * Not all such quests are repeatable, a key feature of "currency". Note, for instance the Imperial Plate quests.  Thorium Bars could be considered a "currency" by the same standard you use for DMF tokens, since you are 'purchasing' those recipes.


 * Theory aside... There is no particular reason you cannot create a separate template exclusively for DMF tickets, for instance.  But... could you outline how you would use such a template, or on what pages?     And having done so, are there no workarounds that work as well?  I mean, all Cost does for you is add an icon.  --Eirik Ratcatcher (talk) 01:00, 17 June 2008 (UTC)


 * "Not all such quests are repeatable, a key feature of 'currency'." ... so since it is a key feature, if there are repeatable quests, it should be currency?


 * "The more often they are used, the more convenient putting them in the Cost template makes editing." ... so what's the magic threshold? DMF has 10. WSG marks have less than 100. Cash has thousands.


 * "But... could you outline how you would use such a template, or on what pages?" ... any currency-like item will be used on the pages for the items that can be purchased with it; on the item page for the context event/environment, which will probably have a table of items that can be purchased, maybe on the page for the currency-like item, which could include a use table.


 * "There is no particular reason you cannot create a separate template exclusively for DMF tickets, for instance." ... isn't the point of this page consolidating templates?


 * "And having done so, are there no workarounds that work as well?" ... of course there are. No template is necessary.


 * "I mean, all Cost does for you is add an icon." ... and yet we find it useful. --Madkaugh (talk) 12:46, 17 June 2008 (UTC)


 * When i rewrote this, i thought about the same thing. I concluded that there are far too many quest items that could be considered currency, and even items that are not specific to quests. Someone could also argue that getting a drop from a mob, handing it in, and claiming the quest reward is the same thing to a player too. I decided not to include such items, ultimately justifying that choice with the fact that if a quest is involved, using the quest that must be completed instead of the items themselves would be far more beneficial to the user. This way, they can locate the npc, know of any pre-quest, gain more info on what is required of them etc. -- 15:57, 17 June 2008 (UTC)


 * You're right, the end point NPCs are limited. That's kind of true for any purchase token other than cash, though. Generic Marks of Honor probably has the next broadest use, and that is far more limited than the number of vendors.


 * And no matter what is done, there will always be a gray area along the boundary. At least 'is/is not a quest token' is a concrete criteria. That counts for a lot.


 * An example of what you are saying would be the other turn-in fishes from the Stranglethorn Fishing Extraveganza. The turn-in works like a vendor, the quests are repeatable, but they feel more like quests than like currency. I guess it is significant with respect to the perception of the event that the exchange rate is one fish per one item and that the fish are rare enough that you are not turning in a huge stack of the exchange fish.


 * The comment about "How they are used in the wiki?" got me thinking:
 * They do not save bandwidth, they use slightly more.
 * They directly save space on a page, but overall they may consume more - when you factor in discussions about them such as this page, and testing efforts, and so on.
 * Ditto, total effort.
 * But, they save immediate effort and focus while editing, which has value, and ...
 * ... perhaps more importantly, intentionally or otherwise, they enforce style.


 * The function of enforcing a consistent style is a good thing, even if the template is used only a few times. --Madkaugh (talk) 18:29, 17 June 2008 (UTC)


 * Further thoughts on 'currency' - perhaps more apropos than whether an item is used in a quest is if you are likely to save it up like currency. For example, the current event, Midsummer Fire Festival, uses Burning Blossoms. The article points out that, "It is not possible to get all rewards in one year if you farm the maximum possible amount of Blossoms." - so you are likely to want to save your excess for future year purchases. Battlefield Marks of Honor must be earned slowly and saved up. Darkmoon Faire Tickets can be earned quickly via a repeated turn in, then used immediately for purchase, but this is unlikely for the top prizes, the medallions, as they require many tickets - at a rate of one stack of turn-in items to 1/10 stack of DMF tickets, 6 stacks of DMF tickets needed for the purchase, that's 60 stacks of turn-in items. (YMMV, depends on turn-in.) It seems likely that a good portion of folks that pursue these prizes will save their tickets up over several DMF events before cashing them in.
 * How many can stack has a high correlation to an item's being used as currency. An item that stacks in 200s is probably intended to be saved up, that's why it stacks so high. Although, I know of a counterexample; the buck meat on Azuremyst Island stacks 50 high, and it's just meat. --Madkaugh (talk) 01:54, 26 June 2008 (UTC)

Achievement Points
What do you think about adding achievement points ? The only thing that makes them weird is that they can't actually be spent, but many achievements are pyramid based (a set of achievements is a prereq for other achievements). -Howbizr (talk) 04:43, 15 October 2008 (UTC)


 * Added...
 * Code:
 * Output:
 * --[[Image:gengar orange 22x22.png]] Fandyllic  (talk &middot; contr) 4:15 PM PST 30 Oct 2008
 * I didn't say it before but thanks! I was wondering... could a space be added between the number and the icon? I know there normally isn't one, but this icon is so flush with the text, it looks like something is out of place. -Howbizr (talk) 12:27, 23 November 2008 (UTC)

Necrotic Runes added as "nr"
-- Fandyllic  (talk · contr) 4:19 PM PST 30 Oct 2008
 * Code:
 * Output:

Not supported, but could be added...
I noticed Ahn'Qiraj scarabs are not supported, but you can use Scarab-inline to show the scarab mini icon. -- Fandyllic  (talk · contr) 7:24 PM PST 20 Nov 2008


 * Emblem of Valor are not yet supported. Wrath is out and people are doing 25-mans, any chance we can get this added? :) Jokeyrhyme (talk &middot; contr) 1 Dec 2008


 * Don't forget you can do a custom cost in the mean time. -Howbizr (talk) 17:33, 1 December 2008 (UTC)


 * Winterfin Clam needs to be added. --[[Image:gengar orange 22x22.png]] Fandyllic  (talk &middot; contr) 7:36 PM PST 3 Dec 2008


 * Found yet another. Dream Shard are currency for buying patterns and such from. -Howbizr (talk) 22:47, 21 December 2008 (UTC)

A little padding
What do you think about adding a little space to some of the icons? When the icon is square shaped in particular. The way the template is coded, you could add this style (I assume someone would make a style class, so it's not inline) on a case by case when needed. -Howbizr (talk) 17:50, 1 December 2008 (UTC)

Icon Out of date.
It should be, because the icon changed some time between sometime during beta to release, as you can see in game and on other various websites. 20:21, 17 December 2008 (UTC)


 * Gourra fixed it. -- Fandyllic  (talk &middot; contr) 4:58 PM PST 15 May 2009

Missing Tier 7 & 8 tokens
Here are some missing Tier 7 and Tier 8 tokens ( I used the same naming techniques - as close as I could - that was used in Tier's 1 - 6 ) -- (<span="help title=Morph><font color="#306ac9" face="Lucida Calligraphy">M o r p h | <span="help title=Morph_Contribution(s)_to_this_Wiki>C  | <span="help title=Morph_Discussion_Page>T )  21:41, 6 June 2009 (UTC)

Also this is my update to the Coin section of Cost ( added Formatnum:

0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 <!--


 * As Pcj said, please see costitem, and use that template for non-gold costing items. This template will eventually be reduced back to just using gold, silver, and copper. This is so its puts less of a strain on the wiki when adding new forms of currency. See above. 21:44, 6 June 2009 (UTC)


 * This is what you get when you use vs    vs  -- (<span="help title=Morph><font color="#306ac9" face="Lucida Calligraphy">M o r p h  | <span="help title=Morph_Contribution(s)_to_this_Wiki>C  | <span="help title=Morph_Discussion_Page>T ) IconSmall_Gnome_Male.gifIconSmall_Draenei_Male.gif 22:51, 6 June 2009 (UTC)


 * Eww... guess costitem will need adjusting... but I also see no problem with achievement points using the plain cost template over the costitem one, since unlike most of the other item currency things the achievement points are more widely used... even though not spent... 22:55, 6 June 2009 (UTC)


 * It's worth noting that achievement points aren't actually... items, so attempting to shift them into costitem is dubious at best. You can (partially) fix the icon resizing by using a square icon. -- foxlit (talk) 01:05, 7 June 2009 (UTC)