Talk:Bonus item

With regard to these bonus items, I find the naming convention here to be inconsistent with the way the weapons are listed. Technically, each item (where applicable) is created with a fixed prefix/suffix, but these are excluded from the wiki name of the item (even though they are not salvageable or replaceable, and thus can never be changed). However, in listing the item, the prefix/suffix mods are included. Example, the Insightful Soul Shrieker is only called the Soul Shrieker on the wiki, and yet the article description includes the Insightful +5 energy mod. For the sake of consistency I think it has to be one or the other. Either we call it the Insightful Soul Shrieker or we leave out the Insightful mod from the Soul Shrieker item. I personally would prefer the former, since it's not possible to get the base weapon by itself and is misleading to persons unfamiliar with this convention otherwise. Hold Me Closer, Necromancer 05:14, 22 August 2011 (UTC)

I think the current convention is fine. While it's true that the mods on promotional weapons (and the corresponding naming modifications) act integral to the weapons themselves, it would be awkward to refer to them that way on the wiki because words like Sundering and Poisonous are associated with upgrade components; anyone familiar with the upgrade system would not include them when looking up a weapon. For people unfamiliar with the upgrade system, redirects would probably in order. --Irgendwer 05:50, 22 August 2011 (UTC)

However, the bonus items are not the only items in the game with fixed mods. There are also weapons such as Fiery Gladius or Icy Dragon Sword which, like the bonus items, have an irreplaceable fixed modifier. Thus, even the exclusion of common modifiers is not self-consistent in the wiki. If it were, items such as the Fiery Gladius should just point back to Gladius, and all the types of dragon swords would be derivative of a single Dragon Sword. However, these items with fixed mods are apparently considered distinct and they are cataloged separately. Hold Me Closer, Necromancer 08:39, 22 August 2011 (UTC)

FYI there are three items that this discussion applies to:

• Nevermore Flatbow == Poisonous Nevermore Flatbow
• Rhino's Charge == Sundering Rhino's Charge
• Soul Shrieker == Insightful Soul Shrieker

Hold Me Closer, Necromancer 08:45, 22 August 2011 (UTC)

That's probably because non-unique weapons are differentiated by their skins. The Fiery Gladius is a different weapon (i.e. different skin) from the plain Gladius, and all three Dragon Swords glow different colors. Instead of having articles with names like Dragon Sword (icy) or Gladius (fiery), it seems intuitive to use the names that are permanently displayed in-game to distinguish such weapons. Promotional weapons don't need this treatment because there is only one Nevermore Flatbow, etc.

Additionally, I find it significant that upgrades applied to an Icy/Fiery/Vampiric Dragon Sword, Fiery Gladius, etc. can be salvaged off normally whereas upgrades applied to promotional weapons are irretrievable. The most plausible explanation in my mind is that promotional weapons, like PvP equipment, have a flag set to disallow salvaging specifically to keep their free upgrade components from being removed. --Irgendwer 11:40, 22 August 2011 (UTC)