Forum:Standard Item Categorization in Navboxes

We don't seem to follow any pattern when subdividing the items up in our game navboxes. Here they all are if you want to look, I also provide examples in the text bellow.

I think we should change the main header to "Items", as that's what all those things are usually referred to as. "Quest Items" are generally good as is, but OoT includes the Gold/Silver Gauntlets and Goron Bracelet even though every other strength enhancer is considered a regular item. Also, since when is "Vaati Barrier" an item?

As far as the Items/Weapons/Equipment division I think we should lose the "Weapons" headers entirely. It's vague in the first place, the games never attempt to make any distinction between "weapon" items and non-weapon ones, we only have a weapons header in some of the boxes, and it doesn't make sense which items are or are not considered weapons; the Fighter's Shield is considered a weapon even though it can't affect an enemy at all except by causing very slight recoil after a blocked attack, while the Bombos Medallion, which covers the screen in terrible fiery explosions, is not considered a weapon; that's an obvious example but the thing is there are a lot of gray area items that may or may not be considered weapons. It seems pointless to me to try to make that distinction in the first place.

The other thing is items vs equipment. This can also be a vague line, and we may decide to not even draw it at all. First off "Equipment" is currently the main header. I think it should be changed to "Items" since that is the normal blanket term. Second, if we do want to make an equipment distinction, we need to be clear about it. The definition I usually use is that regular items are things Link assigns to a button slot and activates (Hookshot, Magic powder, Power Bracelet in the GB/GBC games since it's an assignable item, Swords in games that do not use a dedicated sword button, etc.). Equipment I think is anything that Link does not assign to a variable button. This includes Swords (but not in LA, OoA, OoS, or MC as swords can be assigned to A, B, or neither), OoT Iron/Hover Boots (not WW or TP Iron Boots though as they are a X/Y/Z item), the Stepladder and Raft, TP Magic Armor (WW Magic Armor is an X/Y/Z item), etc..

Whatever we end up doing, we need to eventually change something as we definitely don't have a standard for how the item sections work (if we ever did, it hasn't been applied to everything). Thoughts?--Fierce Deku 21:26, April 9, 2011 (UTC)