Help:Manual of Style

The Manual of Style (MoS or MOS) is the style manual for all Dustloop articles. This primary page is supported by further Writing Character Pages and Writing System Explanations. If any contradiction arises, this page has precedence. Failing to follow this document is considered a violation of the user Policy. In the majority of situations no action will be taken against a user who fails to follow this guide because the Bureaucrat Team recognizes that mistakes happen, and not every user is confident and comfortable with editing wikis. With that made clear, the team does still reserve the right to remove user's edit access if that user makes egregious and intentional violations of this page.

Retaining Existing Styles

Sometimes the MoS provides more than one acceptable style or gives no specific guidance. The Moderation Team has expressed the principle that "Format is flexible and individual users can push innovation". This does not mean anything goes. If you believe an alternative style would be more appropriate for a particular section, please discuss it in the Dustloop Discord.

Edit-warring over style is never acceptable.

General Writing Style

Dustloop aims at being an impartial, community driven source of information and education. In order to achieve that, articles need to be written in a manner conducive to maintaining trust, professionalism, and respect. Dustloop would also like to recognize that a significant audience of the site does not speak English as their first language, and so the administration of the site asks that sentences are kept relatively simple when possible.

As a general rule of thumb:

Avoid excessively emotive language when possible. (eg: "insanely oppressive offense and abysmally awful defense")
Try to be impartial and objective.
Avoid using swears whenever possible.
Never use slurs under any circumstances.

To add to that point, Dustloop needs to be written agnostic to the skill of the reader. Do not assume a certain level of reader competence; Write such that even a beginner could understand it. An easy way to achieve this is to stick to the descriptive nature of what the character can do as opposed to what the player can do. Instead of "you can block while in the air", write "X Character can block while in the air".

Casual language and inside jokes are acceptable so long as they are kept in moderation.

English, Please!

Dustloop is an English website. Until the day comes that we have the resources, staff, and volunteers to set up an infrastructure for multiple languages, that will continue to be the case. Therefore, the wiki should remain in English.

Furthermore, the English localization always take priority. If the English and Japanese text for a game on this wiki differ, the official English Localization take priority.

If there's a borrow word that is not normally a part of the English language, such as "okizeme", then it should be used with a tooltip the first time that it appears on the page in order to explain it to the reader. Terms like this which are commonly used on the wiki are included in the {{Keyword}} template. Otherwise, use the {{Tt}} template. For example:

This character has a big emphasis on {{Keyword|okizeme}}. They have a good matchup against {{Tt|George Bush|Some guy from America}}.

This character has a big emphasis on okizemeFrom Japanese "起き攻め". Attacking an opponent about to wake up after they were knocked down, usually with meaty attacks or mix-ups.. They have a good matchup against George BushSome guy from America.

Why Using Non-English Text In Headers Causes Problems

Links to sections are generated based on the entire contents of the section header. Adding additional text to a section header that you plan to link to will have effects ranging from making the author add extra words when writing their link, or need to find and copy paste illegible hyperlinks that aren't easily remembered.

For example, using Anji's "Shin: Ichishiki" (Officially named 針: 壱式 in Japanese), you get the following link:

Header: ==針: 壱式==
Results in: https://www.dustloop.com/wiki/index.php?title=GGST/Anji_Mito#.E9.87.9D:_.E5.A3.B1.E5.BC.8F

If you instead use the English translation, the link will look like:

Header: ==Shin: Ichishiki==
Results in: https://www.dustloop.com/wiki/index.php?title=GGST/Anji_Mito#Shin:_Ichishiki

Using non-English Characters in Section Header

Using non-English characters in a section header results in a generated section link with some wacky codes to represent the non-English characters. These are unreasonable for an author to remember, so they will have to find them and copy-paste them when writing a link in an article. Click the "Tell Me More" button for an in depth explanation and breakdown.

On Strive Anji's page the header Kou / 紅 generates the following link GGST/Anji_Mito#Kou_.2F_.E7.B4.85

Another problem with using non-English characters in your link is that a direct copy-paste of the section header does not generate a valid link to the section.

Although the section header is Kou / 紅, the following mediawiki link, GGST/Anji_Mito/Kou / 紅, is not valid for two reasons.

the link has a / character, which is not valid. It makes the link think you are pointing to a sub page
the non-English characters are non recognized, and instead their code needs to be used instead.

Using Special Characters in Section headers

Special characters sometimes behave similarly to non-English characters and generate wacky links when used in section headers. A famous example of this one is Jack-O'.

If you section was named Jack-O', you could not use that as the link. Instead, you would have to use Jack-O%27

Sneaky Broken Links

When you add stuff to the section header, you make it harder to remember what needs to be in the header to work. Let's give an example.

I want to link to Kliff's move "Limb Sever". My first instinct is to write out the link as game/character#move - GGACR/Kliff Undersn#Limb Sever. This actually doesn't work because somebody has appended the Japanese name to the end of the section header. Yet, the link will still show up as blue giving the author the impression that the link is valid.

When a section link has a correct page, but an incorrect section, the link shows as blue, but simply takes the user to the top of the page as opposed to the section they desired. Because somebody has added to the section header, I would instead have to write the link to this section like so GGACR/Kliff_Undersn#Limb_Severer_.28Shishi_Otoshi.29 to get the functioning link.

Color Coding and highlighting

If you've used the site for some time you will have noticed text with colors such as this: c.S > 6K, using the {{clr}} template. For more information on how to use this on wiki pages, see Template:Clr/doc. This is a technique authors use on the site to make numpad notation more accessible to beginner players by relating the colors of the inputs with the colors used for button prompts in game. However, color coding can pose problems for users with color-deficient vision. Please be conservative and do not add color coding outside of recommended use cases in this list.

Things you are encouraged to color code:

Move inputs (eg: c.S, j.236A, H disc, etc)
Tags (eg: BUFF, REWORKED, etc)
Difficulty ratings for combo tables (eg: Easy, Hard)

Acceptable edge cases for color coding:

Net Change values for combo tables (eg: -10)

Things you should not color code:

Move names (eg: Potemkin Buster, Lullaby Fist)
Text you wish to emphasize

Pronouns and Gendered Language

We recommend an approach adopted from the APA Style. These best practices should not be taken as thoroughly vetted by the community nor representing consensus.

Use "They/Their/Them" When:

If They/Their/Them are the official pronouns used, or if non-gendered pronouns are used.
The gender of the subject is irrelevant to the point being discussed
The gender of the subject is unknown
There are multiple subjects

Use Official Gender Pronouns When:

The source material uses gendered pronouns for text that will be copied to the wiki
The text needs the additional specification of gender to be clear

Captions

✔️	❌
Win the game...or Dragon Install?	When you need thots ran over on command
Some say it's still active to this day...	"YOU'RE ADOPTED!"
Knock knock it's time to block.	"KRILLIN LIMIT BREAK!"
You think you're safe standing fullscreen like that?	Beerus is a Linkin Park fan confirmed
Arguably the most important skill for a Venom player	"Ramlethal? Do you mind telling me what you're doing in that Snuggie?" "Sir. Going Blankie Mode."

In the past, Dustloop has had a history of having joke captions under the images for moves, and sometimes even in the overviews. Some of these captions are genuinely funny and considered a welcome and fun part of the Dustloop experience.

The Bureaucrat Team wants to make it clear that the main purpose of captions under images is to clarify the visuals shown, and anything else comes either second or not at all. We do not want to do away with joke captions entirely, but those kinds of captions will be treated with greater scrutiny in the future, and less of them will be allowed per-page. There is no hard limit to how many there can be, but the inverse also goes that there is no "minimum" number of captions necessary on a page, joke or not. Just because a page "looks empty without them" doesn't justify adding lazy jokes.

Move captions at the very least should be as on-topic as possible, and distasteful ones can and will be handled case-by-case. Personal discretion applies here, so please operate on the honor system.

Criteria for high-priority captions:

Signifying which images in a set correspond to which versions of similar attacks (such as out of a special series or during special states)
- i.e: Showing the difference between a 236A/B/C series, between an unheld vs held normal, or between a normal mode version and an install mode version of a move
Notating the different parts of a multi-stage attack
- i.e: Adding captions that differentiate between a command grab's startup frames, appearance on hit, and also appearance on whiff

Criteria for other welcome captions:

Jokes that are relevant to the character as they appear in game
Explanations of what the moves do (but try to avoid redundancy with the description box)
Comedic or lighthearted references to how the move is used
Comedic references to the primary source material (the game itself, not anime or manga which it is based on)
Informative/education references to the metagame
Translated attack names (usually in <small /> font, underneath the main caption)

Examples of unwelcome jokes and captions:

Inside Jokes—between other people or fandoms
Poorly related references/quotes/memes that you just saw on YouTube and other social media—such as TikTok, Twitter, Vine, etc—whose sources are likely to get buried in 48 hours
References/Quotes to content wholly unrelated to the source material
Political content or hateful content

This list is not exhaustive; just like every other action you may perform on this site outside of a personal userpage, everything you post is potentially subject to actions & exceptions at the discretion of a specific game community's editing peers, but the final say always lies with the moderation team. Remember that overall, arguing over the validity of captions is a waste of time and effort compared to the amount of more important work that could be getting done on a wiki.

Using Bullet Points

Bullet points are a form of writing which help communicate lists of information quickly while emphasizing that text on the page. It is, however, possible to poorly use bullet points and thus de-value them in writing.
For this reason, it is recommended that writers follow these guidelines for the use of bullet points as set by Miami University.

Make sure all items in the list are related to each other
Keep bullet points short, preferably no more than three lines long
Emphasize the beginning of each bullet point to make the list skim-friendly
Begin all items with the same part of speech (active verbs work well) and make sure they are in parallel form
Make all bullet points approximately the same length
Use periods at the end of each line only if they are complete sentences

Character Overviews

Character Overview Pages are the most commonly read articles on the entirety of Dustloop. As such, these articles will be held to the highest standard.

Many readers do not have a long attention span, so get to the point. Be descriptive, detailed, and accurate, but avoid wasting time with flowery language. Overviews need to cover a lot of information in a relatively compact space so it is recommended that editors avoid making excessive use of adjectives fluff phrases.

The overview for a given character should give a reader a basic understanding of what the character can do, what the character's gameplan is, crucial flaws, and key strengths are. The latter two points can be carried by the pros/cons table in the majority of situations, but it is sometimes appropriate to mention things in greater detail within the overview. A reader should walk away from an overview with a baseline understanding of how a character players at a macro scale.

Playstyle Summaries

Playstyle summaries are single sentence summaries of their respective character's overview. These do not need to be incredibly detailed and are meant to be read at a glance. The template will force every playstyle summary to start with an icon of the character and the character's name.

Pros and Cons Tables

Pros and Cons tables, also known as the Strengths and Weaknesses section, are potentially very contentious and can be damaging to the site's reputation when handled without care. As such, these sections should be collaborative efforts which are frequently cross referenced and verified. Below is a non-exhaustive list of guidelines to follow when editing this section. The Bureaucrat team reserves the right to make rulings on these sections on a per-case basis.

Begin every bullet point with a bolded summary of the bullet point, followed by an un-bolded colon.
Try to keep each bullet point to a maximum of 4 lines of text.
Be specific. If a point depends on a specific set of moves or situations, enumerate them.
Be fair. It is natural to want to emphasize how weak a character's option may be, or how strong it may be. Keep these lists metered and avoid making absolute statements as to what is best and worst in the game.

This section is one of the most scrutinized by outside eyes, and as such it should contain the absolute bare minimum of jokes.

What Constitutes a Pro and a Con?

This is constantly up for debate, and sometimes people's opinions will change with time. The goal with these lists should be to inform readers as to the following traits:

What does this character excel at?
What can I abuse as this character to gain an advantage?
What flaws do I have to play around with this character?
What about my character can opposing characters exploit to gain an advantage over me?

In most cases, it's best to compare the character to the average power level of their respective game. Comparing a character to a perceived stronger one or the "top tiers" isn't helpful in illustrating what kind of issues a player might encounter when picking up the character, or what can be exploited against them.

Let's take a look at some examples:

Character A doesn't have a ranged attack. In their game, only 30% of characters have any sort of ranged attacks. "Does not have a ranged attack" cannot be considered a Con for this character, since it's something shared by the majority of cast.

Character B does have a ranged attack. "Has a ranged attack" can be considered a Pro, but not necessarily so. It is certainly an advantage they have over the other 70%, but does this one tool make them stand out? Is ranged attack a major part of the metagame, or simply an added bonus that a player can do without? These should be taken into consideration when writing Pros/Cons, rather than listing out all the unique tools a character possesses.

Character C has a ranged attack, but it's extremely slow. It might be tempting to list "Worst ranged attack in the game" as a Con, but let's consider C's overall power level if they didn't have this awful ranged attack. Would they be essentially unchanged, or would they struggle against most of the cast? If the answer is the former, then C never needed it, and so "Worst ranged attack in the game" cannot be a Con. If the answer is the latter, then maybe the problem lies elsewhere, and their extremely slow ranged attack was merely a symptom. It might be better to reword the Con as "Terrible frame data" instead.

A note about Execution

High execution should only be a Con if the character loses something significant from execution mistakes. Think through these examples:

“

What does the character lose by dropping a hard combo, and how integral is that to playing properly?

„

Example A) Sol

Sol drops a Sidewinder. The opponent techs out at the top of the screen.
Does he die for it? No.
Does he have to play neutral again? Yes
Is Sol's neutral good? Compared to the majority of the cast, No

So is solid execution a big deal? It's not the worst thing, but it forces him to go back to instances where he's inherently at a disadvantage. It's still important to consider.

Example B) Johnny

Johnny drops a Killer Joker FRC, or an Enkasu, or a Tk Ensenga.

Does he die for it? Possibly
Does he have to play neutral again? You betcha
Is Johnny's neutral good? It can be, but he eats shit for a single whiff/getting low profile'd

Is all of this important to playing the character? It's pretty important, yes. Probably comparable, if not worse than Sol.

Example C) Chipp

Chipp flubs a j.2K FDC/Instant Air Alpha/basic IAD string

Does he die for it? Very much so
Does he have to play neutral again? Can't play neutral if you're dead
Is Chipp's neutral good? Unless you're on point, you're gonna have to jump around and if you get touched, you're dead. His buttons are fantastic but most of them don't lead to a proper knockdown or any solid damage.

Is this vital to playing Chipp? Absolutely. A single drop spells death, meaning you either commit hard to the actual damage and make certain you have it, or you commit to small hits left and right, and you'd better not mess those up either.

Given these examples, Example A is not a con, Example B can be listed as a footnote to the table (by adding the |footnote= argument with an explanation), and Example C is a con and can be listed in the right column of the table.

Move Lists

Move lists leave freedom to the community to act as a guide in addition to a fact source. Every move contains a description area where editors can give advice on how a move can be used, the important drawbacks of a move, and so forth. Specific details on how to style these sections can be found on Writing Character Pages, but in general this section is open to whatever people feel is appropriate.

Bad Moves VS Situational Moves

Red Hail on Venom's page. The move carries many flaws, costs meter, and is hard to use in the first place. Yet, there are niche ways to use it.
A good description for a BAD move.

Punisher Drive on SSB Gogeta's page. The move is described as limited and reactable with low reward, but useful in neutral and in TOD combos.
A good description of a SITUATIONAL move.

Sometimes characters have moves that are questionably helpful. In some cases, the community can come to the conclusion that the move is more risk than it's worth, and advise players to avoid using said move in most circumstances. In others, it's helpful in enough scenarios where the move is simply referred to as "situational." Despite this, it's rather common for writers to list many moves with considerable downsides as simply being situational, which is ill-advised due to its vague narrative, dishonesty, confusion to new players and potentially contradicting competitive expertise.

Ask yourself the following questions if you can't decide what a move should be described as:

Does the move only become helpful in few, select situations?
Does the move have reactable startup, punishable recovery, avoidable hitboxes, or otherwise high risk characteristics?
Does the move give low reward for landing it?
Does the move have a cost such as meter, cooldowns, health, or a character-specific resource?
Does the move replace other moves? Is it possible to revert the replacement in the middle of the match?
Does the move have an easy obvious counter, reducing the attack to a knowledge check?

There are also three simpler questions, but these are prone to more debate so handle these with care or use them as tiebreakers.

Will top level players, character discords, or the community at large advise against using the move?
Does the character have an objectively better choice for the same situation?
Does the move invariably put you in a worse situation regardless of success?

If you find that too many of these can be checked off, you are likely staring at a bad move, not a situational one. It's important to differentiate the two, as you don't want readers to believe that a move is better or worse than it really is, but also don't want readers to believe that a helpful move limited to certain scenarios is bad simply because it's not all-purpose. Likewise, just because a move is reactable or has limited range does not make it bad on its own, unless these flaws are so pronounced it will never realistically be feasible to use the move.

There are rare circumstances where moves are so bad, there are no upsides. Describing these moves as "situational" is wrong.

Using Move Names or Inputs

Depending on the context, both move names and inputs can be appropriately used, and both come with advantages and disadvantages. Some players know moves by their inputs, other by their names. In order to reduce confusion for readers who are less familiar with a character you can use tooltip data to clarify the basic info for that move—the image, startup, recovery, advantage, and guard requirement.

Rule of Thumb: The first time a move is mentioned in a section—excluding its own—use the MiniMoveCard template to remind them.

Example

<div>
How low profile is Grand Viper? Imagine low profile enough to go under 75% of moves in the game, and then go lower.
*{{Character Label|GGACR|Baiken}}'s {{MMC|chara=Baiken|game=GGACR|input=236D|label=FB Tatami}}
*{{Character Label|GGACR|Venom}}'s {{MMC|chara=Venom|game=GGACR|input=2141236S|label=Dark Angel}}
*{{Character Label|GGACR|Johnny}}'s {{MMC|chara=Johnny|game=GGACR|input=2D|label={{clr|5|2D}}}}
*Burst, which can score a powerful reset in the corner
</div>

Grand Viper

How low profile is Grand Viper? Imagine low profile enough to go under 75% of moves in the game, and then go lower.

Baiken's FB TatamiGuardAllStartup14RecoveryTotal 47Advantage-3
Venom's Dark AngelGuardAllStartup7+18Recovery10Advantage
Johnny's 2DGuardLowStartup9Recovery22Advantage-8
Burst, which can score a powerful reset in the corner

Tips

The Mini Move Card template is, to some degree, intelligent. It can infer data to allow you to write short-hand code.

If the game parameter is not given, it will assume the game from the current directory (GGACR in GGACR/Venom/Combos)
If the chara parameter is not given, it will assume you want the character the current directory belongs to (Venom in GGACR/Venom/Combos)
The template can be called with either MMC or MiniMoveCard interchangeably

The only part that is always mandatory is the input. The input you provide must match the input for that move on the character's data page.

Creating Players to Watch Sections

The "Players to Watch" table is a resource guide and suggestion template meant to go on a character's Resources tab. The idea behind the table is that it provides new players with examples of veteran player footage.

However, these tables should have a few restraints.

The section should be presented as "Players to Watch" not as "Notable Players". Players who are put into this table need to have a large amount of publicly available footage to observe, whether on YouTube or on a replay viewing site like keeponrock.in.
The section must link to example footage, for example:
EVO 2022 Grand Finals against Slash (MA)
Multiple sources of footage, preferably against different characters, are strongly recommended.
The section should never link to social media for the players, only their footage. This section is not for endorsement.
The Notes field should provide some basic explanation of why the player's footage is noteworthy for watching.
You should perhaps note if a player is retired or not, as that could impact their footage relative to older versions of the game or modern metas.

Examples of Strong Writing

Move Overviews

[4]6S or [4]6H

Version

Damage

Guard

Startup

Active

Recovery

On-Block

Invuln

[4]6S

30 [30]

All

13

Until Hit

Total 37

+2

[4]6H

46 [46]

All

9

Until Hit

Total 48

-13

Total:37

Total:48

Stinger Aim is Venom's equivalent of a fireballA projectile which usually travels slowly across the screen in a horizontal path above the ground. used by traditional characters like Ky.

Planning around this move and Carcass Raid is mandatory for Venom players. Assuming that you already have a chargeIn order to access moves that begin with a held input, the user must hold that input for a certain number of frames. This is known as "charging" the move or "storing a charge". prepared, this special is the fastest way to put an activeTo be "active" means that a move is able to hit the opponent projectile on the screen without an inert ball on screen to launch. Similarly, it is crucial that Venom players learn to FRC this move.

[4]6S > FRC is one of Venom's most powerful pressure re-buys thanks to the natural frame advantage of [4]6S. Similarly, using the FRC when the projectile from Stinger Aim misses the opponent can help you avoid certain death because of the lengthy recovery both versions have. [4]6H > FRC provides a much faster ball, which is especially useful when converting off of awkward hits that Venom otherwise could not pick up from.

Beyond the uses as a conversion tool and pressure re-buy, Stinger Aim is also simply a good fireball for space control. [4]6S fires a projectile at a moderate speed which Venom can follow behind to approach, and [4]6H fires a very fast projectile which can snipe opponents who are attempting to act from far away. Both versions are able to interact with inert balls that are currently on the screen, which opens up further opportunities to pollute the screen.

Version

FRC Window

Proration

Guard Bar +

Guard Bar -

Level

[4]6S

3

6

3

[4]6H

3

6

3

[4]6S

In CH state during move
Chip damage x2
Cancelable from 13F onwards
Charge time: 45F
Ball appears on 7F

[4]6H

In CH state during move
Chip damage x2
Cancelable from 13F onwards
Charge time: 45F
Ball appears on 4F

Combo Theory Boxes

Basic combos are simple combos with the fewest requirements and conditions possible. They:

Work against every, or almost every, character in the game
Can be performed from most positions in the play area
Require few adjustments, and if any are required they are simple

Gatling Into 6K DBCWorks against any grounded opponent.

Very Easy

Starter > c.S(3) > 6K > 421K~D
This is an easy way to get damage as Venom while setting up his high/low okizeme, and acts as a foundational component for his core combos.

Common starters include 2K, and j.236S. If you are too far for the 3rd hit to connect, then instead choose the route c.S(2) > 2S > 5H

By routing into Dubious Curve—(here,421K~D)—you set up a multi-hit projectile that can be used for the standard K-Ball Okizeme. If you desire a different, but similarly easy okizeme setup, then you can cancel into a different version of Dubious Curve. These include 421P for P-Ball Okizeme, and 421H for H-Ball Okizeme.

c.S(3) > 6K whiffs on Axl if you have lots of dash momentum, but if you do any button before c.S(3), the combo will work just fine.

6K > 421X will cause an OTG on A.B.A if you do the cancel immediately; slightly delay the cancel and this issue goes away.

SweepAny sort of gatling into a knockdown.

Very Easy

Starter > c.S(2) > 2D(2) > 214X
An extremely un-flashy, but nonetheless essential, Venom combo. As superb as c.S(3) is, its range is limited, both by its proximity and its hitbox. Accordingly, being able to route into knockdowns is massive for maintaining Venom's momentum and establishing his pressure.

2D(2) will not connect on Chipp in most situations; cancel 2D(1) into ball set.

Beginner Throw ComboEven works from low air throw!

Very Easy

Throw > c.S(1) > 6K > 421K~D
The basic throw combo is conceptually very similar to the basic ground combo, but has small considerations.

Only one hit of c.S is used because any hit launches the now round-ified opponenet towards the wall and bounces them off it. c.S(1) does this well by combining damage with speed.

This combo works anywhere on the screen, but you need to make some extremely small adjustments when playing around the corner. If you are throwing the opponent into the corner, then skip the c.S entirely. This is because the bounce from c.S can cause the opponent to bounce past your 6K. The same adjustment applies if you are cornered and are throwing the opponent out of it, because the bounce will happen too far away for 6K to hit.

Strategy Page Sections