Forum:Village pump/Archive 1

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This is an archive of past discussions on the Village pump. Do not edit any of these conversations. They are kept strictly for historical purposes.

Usage of line breaks

Recently, @Kingamer1010 has been making edits that add tons of line breaks on pages such as Ocean Obyn (Battles 2). Personally, I really dislike this style because I don't think it flows as naturally as having complete paragraphs, especially in the lede. I'd like to know what people think of this style and if there should be guidelines for appropriate places to use paragraphs, lists, and line breaks. po●la●vux 00:22, 17 December 2024 (UTC)

Personally I don't like the line breaks. Would appreciate a style guide just for this as it would be useful in the future. Overclockbtd (talk) 02:38, 17 December 2024 (UTC)

I think his edits puts too many line breaks on articles. DesArch (talk) 02:41, 17 December 2024 (UTC)

I also agree there are too many line breaks in their edits, it doesn't look good and disrupts the reading. For example, the first three lines of the intro of Beetienne could easily be joined in a single paragraph and then the list that is directly below just seems random info without any sort of explanation that leads to it (Just a personal opinion, if any sort of list is in the lede, that information shouldn't be there in the first place). I think a style guide would be great in this sense. Also, seeing the difference section of Beetiene makes me think we also should have a style guide to present differences. Drgoku282 (talk) 03:09, 17 December 2024 (UTC)

Images from Other Wikis

Can images be taken from the Fandom Wiki and added here, such as the Frozen Bloon image? Or does this fall under the same rule of not importing text from other wikis? Zipso (talk) 14:49, 17 December 2024 (UTC)

I would refrain from doing so. The Frozen Bloon is a common enough bloon that finding an image from the game files for the relevant game should be more than feasible in the first place, and generally all images on the Fandom besides screenshots, have an uncited source in the first place. DesArch (talk) 14:57, 17 December 2024 (UTC)

Copying over Fandom Wiki images over to Blooncyclopedia isn't forbidden unlike copying text, but you should not use Fandom Wiki images unless you can properly cite the original source, the method of sourcing for a certain image, and the edits to the images (e.g. cropping). Which can be ridiculously difficult especially if it's a random screenshot. Like for example... could this resolution be from iPad Air 2, iPad mini 2, an Android tablet, or which device? And finding the operating system for that is yet harder... Qwertyxp2000 (talk) 10:21, 21 December 2024 (UTC)

Trivia Section Placement

When adding a Trivia section to a page that doesn't already have one, where is the proper place to put it in the article? i.e. before References but after In Other Languages, or somewhere else? Zipso (talk) 15:02, 13 January 2025 (UTC)

Generally Trivia can go in other sections. References of other media could just be a cultural references section, error corrections can just be in notes or indicating text might be incorrect through ^[sic], and specific stat interactions (in the way the Fandom would do it) is generally frowned upon unless there is a specific strategy involving it, in which case it goes in strategy. The main thing that justifies a trivia section would be having the lowest cost of all cards of its type, for instance, with the Strengthenator in BCS, but as per the style guide, Trivia should be avoided whenever possible, and it should never have sub headings. DesArch (talk) 17:42, 13 January 2025 (UTC)

Citations

So I came here from Wikipedia, and am wondering: what is the policy on verifiability? Do articles need to have citations? MrFattie (talk) 22:09, 6 February 2025 (UTC) MrFattie (talk) 22:09, 6 February 2025 (UTC)

Most of our info comes from decompiling and understanding the source code of the game. There are times we use citations to link to NK staff communication, but otherwise most video game wikis are like this, no? --Planterror (talk) 22:45, 6 February 2025 (UTC)

There isn't a policy on this yet (because it hasn't been an issue so far), but generally, we only use citations for information that comes from outside of a game, such as the Ninja Kiwi Blog. I don't really see the need to cite elements that exist within a game unless it's difficult to verify by just opening the game and checking for yourself, like if it requires a time-sensitive event or takes some time to set up. po●la●vux 00:45, 7 February 2025 (UTC)

Looking for feedback on a change to changes

I am currently in the process of restructuring how we present changes to towers in updates (which was a long time coming). Right now it looks really bad on sections like this when a change affects multiple upgrades at a time, and the long list of numbers and symbols is hard to parse and probably confusing to some people, so they're being replaced with tables that list the names of upgrades alongside their tiers (example). This rework is currently being tested on the pages for updates to the mobile version of Bloons TD Battles, then once it's finalized, the BTD6 and Battles 2 pages will be updated to use this as well. There are a few things that I'm looking for feedback on:

• Changes that affect multiple upgrades on the same path are now concatenated into "<name of upgrade> and further upgrades" (example). This is to better convey changes made to one particular upgrade that it just happen to carry over into higher tiers. It also makes inputting the tiers in the template easier and it still displays this change on all affected upgrades' pages through cargo. On the example I just listed, I think it looks appropriate, but in this example, a change that affects the base tower and one path is listed as "base tower", then the first upgrade of one path, then the first upgrade of the second path "and further upgrades", which might come across like a change specifically to the base tower and specifically to those upgrades when it's really just a change to the base tower that happens to carry over to those particular upgrades only. If there's a better way to format this, I'd like to hear it.
• This rework doesn't currently fix the issue of changes to tier 1 and tier 2 upgrades creating long lists of numbers and symbols (compare this revision where they're included versus this revision where they're excluded). In this aforementioned example for BTD6, the change to Faster Reload is listed under every single possible crosspath it can have, since Faster Reload affects those upgrades, even though it's just what the upgrade does to the tower in general (increases attack speed) and is not a unique effect of crosspathing. Personally, I would prefer not to explicitly list crosspaths unless it relates to unique crosspathing effects (like More Tacks increasing Ring of Fire's damage). After all, we don't list changes to costs of tier 1 and 2 upgrades on other upgrade paths even if they also technically affect the costs of crosspaths, and I think it would be really silly to start doing that as well. It also runs into the issue of the Faster Reload change being listed on every single path 1 and path 3 upgrade through cargo, which I think is excessive and redundant. So, my preference would be to stop doing this entirely and only list crosspaths for unique crosspathing effects, but I'd like to know if there are genuine reasons to keep them as-is, and if so, if there's a better way to present it.
• Any other thoughts on this rework are welcome.

(Also, happy pride month, look I changed the village flag at the top wowzers) po●la●vux 21:00, 1 June 2025 (UTC)

The main reason why I've listed upgrades on every page is because displaying attack cooldown decreased from 2.2s -> 2s for base would make people assume that when crosspathing with middle path the attack speed gain is even more than before which isn't the case. The quote from ninja kiwi also doesn't make sense if the faster reload/rapid reload isn't displayed on the page. Overclockbtd (talk) 21:32, 1 June 2025 (UTC)

Help Wanted: Project Water Placement

Hello everyone,

A few months ago, I announced on the discord that I was making a new project, Project Water Placement, where I upload screenshots to Blooncyclopedia about fitting as many water towers as possible. I was hoping with that announcement to find someone with enough patience as I have to assist me with this project. But nobody's bothered to do anything outside of statements and like one or two maps.

So I'm creating this post as a recruitment tool. There are lots of BTD6 maps that need screenshots for water placement cramming, and I know that 90% of this wiki is BTD6 players. I know the BTD5 era games are never touched nowadays, so I've made it my job to do that, so any recruits can focus on the games that are actually played.

If every current active user could contribute 1 map to this project, we'd literally be halfway done all the BTD6 maps, and it will really help, especially with Merchantmen farming on specific maps like Cubism and Frozen Over, where there are 21 buccaneer spots but it's difficult to fit them all. A screenshot of accomplishing this would help a lot of people farm better.

Reach out to me on the project's talk page if you have any questions, or leave them here as a reply.

--Planterror (talk) 16:06, 30 June 2025 (UTC)

Birthdays?

I'm a bit curious. What's everyone's birthdays? I don't think there's been an active effort so far to document them, much less celebrate them. I don't know how Wikipedia handles editor birthdays, I wonder if there's some mechanism for that or if it's just wishing each other happy birthday on user talk pages.

Blooncyclopedia itself turned 1 year old about a month ago and it's celebration was being taken off the internet temporarily because of certificate expiries, so that party kinda got ruined a bit, but I think it's also important enough to plan a birthday for it too.

Also not to brag, but my birthday starts in 9 hours from now. Planterror (talk) 20:58, 21 July 2025 (UTC)

My birthday is september 11th (this is not a joke) po●la●vux 12:40, 22 July 2025 (UTC)

Removing strategy sections from certain BTD6 maps

Currently, this wiki has strategy sections for every map in Bloons TD 6, though many people (especially on the Discord server) have expressed that this is completely unnecessary for a lot of beginner and intermediate maps, since you can beat all of them with the same basic strategies. I do agree that having strategy sections for every map is unnecessary and some of them should be removed, but I don't know how this should be enforced, since what maps qualify as "too easy" is subjective. Also, there are some very notable examples of towers excelling on easy maps that I think are still worth listing, like Ultra-Juggernaut on Hedge or Sauda on Balance, but again, which ones are worth keeping is subjective. I'd like to hear people's thoughts on how to approach this. Polavux (talk) 02:59, 1 October 2025 (UTC)

Make a strategy section for BTD6 strategy page (i.e. Strategy:Bloons TD 6) about common map structures (e.g. loops, tight bends, straightlines, intersecting lane regions, central coverage, etc.) of simple maps, and remove the strategy tables for maps that basically sum up to "just use these towers to excel on this map because these map structures are present" instead of explaining the difficult caveats and why these specific towers and strategies are preferred over similar map-excelling options. I would consider Sulfur Springs (spam strategies aren't so efficient, but still long map with only difficulty as range concerns) and Balance (many lanes that intersect but hard to see as they enter and exit) to have more caveats than something like Logs (every type of strategy works, from shinobi spam to carrier to apache/comcom to goldjust to village strategies, sniper strats, and a lot more) or In the Loop (the loops are obviously vantage points, and apache/comcom obv good), but not some beginner maps like Lotus (bad intersecting coverage, but good intersections and water space) or Cabin (many awkward obstacles, so say like apache/comcom is best or something), which may need more explaining how to get around the difficult stuff; a map with an easily identifiable pattern and simple and long one-path lane can simply be represented just by a paragraph. And if we remove the tables from articles that need such removals, simply add a 1-3 sentence paragraph on what types of towers and strategies excel on the map because of specific map structures, and any further tabling stuff can just be put into BTD6 strategy page. Perhaps I should lab some experimental sentences in my Sandbox for how they'd be stated for the "easier" maps. And add a "for more specific tower strategies, see strategy:bloonstd6" or something if it hasn't already. Qwertyxp2000 (talk) 03:24, 1 October 2025 (UTC)

Support. All we need to do for the easier maps, for the most part, is to transclude the relevant sections of that strategy page, then. 2k7x (talk) 03:29, 1 October 2025 (UTC)

For easy maps, there's really not much to say except "place this tower and win". The difference between mentioning Sauda on the Balance page and Quad page is that she requires certain towers and micro to work well on the latter. For easier maps (all Intermediate and below) it would be better to just mention on the tower's strategy page what maps they work well on. Pixelentropy (talk) 03:27, 1 October 2025 (UTC)

For maps that people never complain about, we really do not need a strategy section. All you need for those maps are generalized tips that work on most maps, which the main BTD6 Strategy Page and the gamemode-specific strategy page already do, and any map synergies could either be mentioned on the tower or gamemode page if need be. DesArch (talk) 03:40, 1 October 2025 (UTC)

I think I'm on the opposite side of the discussion, the section should not be removed as most players are not very good at this game and I think they will be actively looking for a strategy section, just look at the amount of posts on r/btd6 of people posting very proudly their first black border on a beginner map and the upvotes they get.

I know it will be repetitive and boring but I think it can just one paragraph long just listing the map most prominent features and towers that completely destroy the map, if any (like u-jugg on hedge). Then link something like Strategy:Bloons TD 6 with a new section about towers that excel or features can present a challenge on certain map patterns like long straights, loops, LOS blockers, water-heavy maps, etc. Drgoku282 (talk) 03:49, 1 October 2025 (UTC)

I've been thinking about this for a while.

I agree that it would be a good idea to create a strategy page about optimal tower placement, not just to list general advice like placing towers inside bends and loops, but for BTD6 specifically, to list what archetype each map falls under and what towers excel on them (Mortars on maps with a lot of loops and tightly packed paths, Apache on maps with one path active at a time, etc). We could add this to {{BTD6 basic map strategies}} and remove a lot of the redundancy of beginner/intermediate map strategies, since a lot of them just list the same towers that excel on the map's archetype and where to place them.

That said, I do still think maps should list exceptional towers if they have them. Yes, you can beat balance on CHIMPS with almost any general CHIMPS strategy and you don't need sauda for it, but not necessarily for things like odysseys where your options are more limited and/or the difficulty is higher. Polavux (talk) 06:42, 11 October 2025 (UTC)

It seems most people agree on getting rid of strategy sections for beginners and easier intermediates. How will this be implemented? I like the idea of having a strategy page just for beginners/intermediates. Overclockbtd (talk) 01:35, 17 October 2025 (UTC)

As I mentioned, I was thinking about a strategy page that covers how to optimally place towers, and then categorizes maps based on their layout (maps with lots of loops, maps with only one active path at a time, etc), listing which towers excel on those types of maps and how to optimally place them. For easier maps, the strategy sections would just list which categories the map falls under and link to the sections explaining which towers excel on those categories, which would remove a lot of redundancy.

I still think it's worth noting exceptional cases of towers excelling on beginner/intermediate maps (like ultrajugg on hedge or desperado on three mines round) because even though you can beat most beginner/intermediate maps on CHIMPS with the same basic strategies, it's still helpful to know for things like odyssey mode and rogue legends. Polavux (talk) 02:25, 17 October 2025 (UTC)

New "Challenges" section in main page

This section would incorporate guides for the active current challenges, including: Odysseys, Territories, Races, and Bosses

Why? Well I see the wiki is the best source for the highest quality, thanks to the editors, who have sufficient knowledge to come up with many guides for different placements and scenarios

Though the obvious issues are handling this in text form, though I believe you can stick some videos under a dropdown, and the time it would take for this Margeshy (talk) 12:25, 14 December 2025 (UTC)

It's not a bad idea, but it's extremely difficult to upkeep for very little payoff, and we don't have the proper editors willing to do that upkeep. So at least for now, this isn't planned and the strategy pages for those events will be general to work around that. Planterror (talk) 15:01, 14 December 2025 (UTC)

Bloons TD 5 Update History

Bloons TD 5 updates are poorly documented due to the patch notes being on the now dead Ninja Kiwi Forums. I wasn't around at the time so I don't know if BTD5 had version numbers like BTD6 or Battles 2 have. I know its not a priority at the moment but this is something I would like to be addressed for archival purposes. Overclockbtd (talk) 04:34, 11 February 2026 (UTC)

For the flash version, most of the updates are listed here: https://web.archive.org/web/20160408061852/http://archive.ninjakiwi.com/Forum/showthread.php/16193-Universal-BTD5-Information-Thread-(2-0)?p=439288&viewfull=1#post439288

It's not 100% accurate though. It's missing some versions that are known to exist, like v280212. Polavux (talk) 04:39, 11 February 2026 (UTC)

Paragon Guidelines

Currently the pages for individual Paragons seem to be in quite the mess and I think guidelines are needed. See Apex Plasma Master, Navarch of the Seas, and Nautic Siege Core. This would be a good idea to do now because Ninja Kiwi is probably going to add more Paragons for the foreseeable future. Overclockbtd (talk) 04:57, 11 February 2026 (UTC)

Agree, a possible basic structure could be the following (using the pages of more recent paragons such as Ballistic Obliteration Missile Bunker or Herald of Everfrost) as base:

• Lede
  • Paragraph briefly summarizing the main attack, if it has more than one, do bullet points
  • Paragraph briefly summarizing activated abilities, again, if it has more than one, do bullet points
  • Paragraph mentioning passive abilities
• Mechanics in the following order (this section can go as deep as needed, any stat should be listed for Degree 1)
  • Main attacks
  • Activated abilities
  • Passive abilities
  • Monkey Knowledge interactions
• Stats
• Costs
• Strategy
• Update history
• Pre-release
• Gallery
  • Screenshots and gifs
  • Game assets
• Trivia
• References
• Navigation

Drgoku282 (talk) 06:22, 11 February 2026 (UTC)

Iteration Hats

I've noticed that disambiguations at the top of pages is being phased out in favor of hats. I want to know the reason behind this as I presume this was discussed in discord. Overclockbtd (talk) 00:32, 19 February 2026 (UTC)

Iteration hatnotes are only for towers and bloons, they aren't replacing disambiguation pages for upgrades and the like. I still think having iteration hatnotes for those causes issues, like having to deal with upgrades that were split (e.g., Bloon Area Denial System and Rocket Storm), or having to make judgment calls about upgrades that share the same name but may or may not be related (e.g., Double Shot and Ball Lightning). People on the subreddit and other discord servers (not really the wiki's server though) kept telling me they don't like the navbars and wanted something similar to the tabs on the fandom wiki, so I thought I'd implement something similar to that that doesn't take up any more space than the existing {{for}} templates.

If a subject has items or BCS cards pertaining to it that aren't just an iteration of the base tower or bloon, then the navbar gets replaced with a full navbox. Otherwise, the navbar just gets deleted, since the hatnote covers all links to the subject already. So, the pink bloon navbox should probably be deleted for now, and I can undelete it if NK adds more pink bloon variants to BCS in the future. Polavux (talk) 01:55, 19 February 2026 (UTC)

Discord References

I've noticed that some references are made to Discord chats by NK developers but unlike other platforms like Youtube and Reddit where content can easily be archived on the Internet Archive if its deleted, Discord content can only be accessed by joining the Official Ninja Kiwi Discord server which can be purged at any time without any warning. Overclockbtd (talk) 03:58, 19 February 2026 (UTC)

There's nothing we can do about it as they haven't spoken outside of discord on these matters, so it remains the only real reference we've got. Planterror (talk) 04:06, 19 February 2026 (UTC)

Isn't it possible to get a screenshot of said message and upload it? I know this isn't that great of an option but if these messages are to be preserved I think this is the only way to do so.

Overclockbtd (talk) 04:17, 19 February 2026 (UTC)

AI Crawlers

Has Polavux considered using anubis to block ai crawlers instead of Cloudflare?

Overclockbtd (talk) 20:23, 8 April 2026 (UTC)

Anubis requires a reverse proxy to work, which means I'd still need to use Cloudflare to use Anubis. Setting up a separate server to act as a reverse proxy/load balancer would increase the costs. I might have another source of income this summer though... we'll see. Polavux (talk) 20:44, 8 April 2026 (UTC)

Improving user experience for category pages

I feel like at the moment the category pages are too confusing for many new users. I don't know what would be the best solution but a gui would be a big improvement than the status quo.

Overclockbtd (talk) 04:41, 10 April 2026 (UTC)

What makes you think they're too confusing? Polavux (talk) 04:44, 10 April 2026 (UTC)

In Category:Monkeys, I would try to find dart monkey general overview page but there is only the primary category in (game name). The dropdowns are also quite small on desktop.

Overclockbtd (talk) 06:17, 10 April 2026 (UTC)

Temporary Accounts

I've seen some wikis such as the Minecraft Wiki implement temporary accounts post here to hide IP addresses. I think implementing this would be a good idea to increase participation among potential new editors.

Overclockbtd (talk) 01:02, 11 April 2026 (UTC)

What wikis are using this besides MCW? It looks like they made a custom extension to do that, and I'm not sure if installing it is a good idea when it's still in development. Polavux (talk) 01:19, 11 April 2026 (UTC)

Its a feature that was implemented in Mediawiki https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Help:Temporary_accounts and has also been rolled out to all Weirdgloop wikis https://meta.weirdgloop.org/w/Temporary_accounts

Overclockbtd (talk) 01:57, 11 April 2026 (UTC)

https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Manual:$wgAutoCreateTempUser

It is considered to be stable as of mediawiki 1.45

Overclockbtd (talk) 02:01, 11 April 2026 (UTC)

Remove notice

I haven't had any problems with mediawiki 1.45 and I haven't seen anyone else reporting problems so I think its safe to remove the notice

Overclockbtd (talk) 04:22, 14 April 2026 (UTC)

I'll replace it around the time Indie Wiki Jam 2026 starts. Polavux (talk) 04:25, 14 April 2026 (UTC)