We've had a few editors try to fix up or suggest changes for the characters navbox back in July, because as it currently is: we have the NPCs redirecting to sections of Category: Characters.
In the same month, @EvieMaybe has made a draft, which is based on MarioWiki's navbox style. Evie has covered some of the concerns that were brought up in Discord already, such as:
Organization by location, relevance, character type
All names and character types being visible
Small text
Easier to read
It's mobile-friendly
Evie also worked on an Items navbox draft as well.
The actual categorizations are not set in stone, and can be shifted around later.
The theme is also subject to change, as the draft is exclusively for testing the table layout. This is also why it is not collapsible.
The "major/minor/other" split for Lightners was decided as such: Major characters are relevant enough to be mentioned in a broad plot summary, minor characters have one dedicated scene or event to them, and other characters are simply regular NPCs. These criteria can shift later; I merely organized them this way to have something to show.
Links are allowed to be in more than one section if it makes sense, such as Rouxls being a vendor in Chapter 1 and a boss in both Chapter 2 and Chapter 3.
The "party members" row at the top was a compromise. My original idea was to name it "main characters" and include the Knight in it. This would require changing other categories on the wiki for consistency, so if people support this change, it would warrant a separate discussion.
I think the "other" sections should just be renamed to "NPCs", specifically so people don't get confused with the "other" category at the very bottom.
"Types of character" could be renamed to just "class of beings"
"Minor" section in Hometown feels a little ambiguous, though I can't think of a better alternative :P
I actually think that a row about main characters that also includes the Knight would be better since it's a little weird to have the main antagonist of the game just in TV World.
A suggestion unrelated to these disclaimers: the enemies and bosses should also be ordered alphabetically for consistency
I get what you're saying, but I think its kind of awkward having some be listed in one way and others in another. Imo, all of them should be listed in a consistent way.
I think the "other" sections should just be renamed to "NPCs", specifically so people don't get confused with the "other" category at the very bottom.
I specifically avoided this because technically, enemies, bosses, and vendors are also "non-playable characters". I'm willing to change it, but I wanted to avoid any misunderstandings, at least for the draft.
"Types of character" could be renamed to just "class of beings"
If there is consensus? Seems like a pretty pointless change to me.
A suggestion unrelated to these disclaimers: the enemies and bosses should also be ordered alphabetically for consistency
I greatly dislike this. Alphabetical order should only be used when no other order is available.
Hey so I said this in another comment and someone agreed with me, but I will say It here too since it's on topic
I was thinking that maybe the organization would be tidier if the enemies/bosses navbox was different from the characters one, considering that it's been planned to make different articles for multi-character enemies. And in the characters navbox it'd be either non-enemy characters, or enemy characters that are also important to the plot, like Queen or Rouxls Kaard
So, one navbox for the narrative, and another for the gameplay? I could see it working, but the issue is where do you draw the line? Even someone like Floradinn is technically plot-relevant, as that's how Flowery forces the Knight to fight him.
So I've been trying around how it could look like in https://deltarune.wiki/w/User:DaniPine3/sandbox. I think the enemies navbox now looks tidier, but I have to admit the characters navbox might be quite messy and maybe should have a different approach
I'm not sold by this approach. If our goal is dividing between gameplay and narrative, why is the quiz vortex (perhaps the most "this exists purely for gameplay" thing in the game) in Characters, but not in Enemies?
I also dislike the lack of granularity; each chapter section in the Enemies box draws no distinction between enemies and bosses, and the "Hometown characters" section in the Characters box has no distinction between Pizzapants (a returning, recurring character with a portrait, a backstory, and an ongoing subplot) and the tall diamond boy extra.
The reason my rework requires a vote is because it abandons the bullet point-esque formatting of our current navboxes in favor of a multi-column table that allows it to have sub-sections and added granularity. Ignoring this and returning to the bullet point format feels regressive. Nothing is being improved here.
My idea wasn't not to use your organization method, just to make two different navboxes since a single navbox for every single character might be a wee too crowded. If I used the regular bullet scheme is simply because I don't know how you did yours.
As for the quiz vortex thingy, I didn't consider it an enemy since it doesn't start a battle nor make the SOUL take damage, although I understand your point
Oh, that's simple! It's just a regular table, using regular MediaWiki table syntax. You can copy my draft's source code and then edit it, if that would help you.
I'm still not sold on the specifics, and I do think there are some demarcation issues on what "counts", but I think the model definitely has merit. I would like to hear other people's opinion. Should we split it up into two navboxes?
I was thinking that maybe in the characters navbox in the "major" section of each location there could be a link to the enemies category page (specifically the section of the corresponding location), which would technically list them as characters too and thus get rid of those issues