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Author Topic: In game help  (Read 1167 times)

Veroule

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In game help
« on: November 15, 2008, 11:23:53 am »
It has been said many times that the learning curve for DF is quite steep.  The wiki and forums provide a source of help for many users.  The in game help could use significant work though.

This suggestion is not how to directly improve the in game help.  I would instead suggest moving the in game help into files that are player edittable.  There are many people in the player community that like helping others and it is very likely that the help would be sorted out and improved by us.  It should even be possible that the changes made by the community could become part of official releases.
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Granite26

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Re: In game help
« Reply #1 on: November 17, 2008, 02:33:39 pm »
Honestly, a help button that opens up the default browser with the wiki would be 95%
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Yanlin

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Re: In game help
« Reply #2 on: November 17, 2008, 03:15:28 pm »
F11 and Firefox.
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Veroule

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Re: In game help
« Reply #3 on: November 17, 2008, 04:51:55 pm »
Using the Wiki alone wouldn't be acceptable because it solely in the field of the users.  I can definitely see having a direct link in the help system as useful though.

Yanlin, what are you babbling about.  This is a topic about allowing users to do the work on the help and then letting Toady incorporate those changes into official releases.  You seem to be saying something about a particular key on your keyboard and an old movie that almost no one remembers.  Are you so blantantly unintelligent as to suggest that throwing a keyboard at the TV while it plays that particular movie will provide instant elightenment?
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"Please, spare us additional torture; and just euthanise yourselves."
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Granite26

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Re: In game help
« Reply #4 on: November 17, 2008, 05:45:08 pm »
Cute...

The truth of it is though, that DFwiki has more and better information than could rightly be in an included manual.  I keep a few pages open while I'm playing.  It would only take a small amount of work to reduce the HFS references and make it pretty good.
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umiman

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Re: In game help
« Reply #5 on: November 17, 2008, 05:49:03 pm »
Firefox is an old movie? What was it about?

p.s: This has been discussed many times before. I believe the answer is that Toady doesn't want to include something he didn't create himself. It would lead to many strange and interesting legal situations concerning ownership.
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scribbler

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Re: In game help
« Reply #6 on: November 22, 2008, 04:00:39 pm »
Tool tips? A paragraph from the raws displayed on the bottom of the side panel or accessed in a pop-up with a keystroke while working could help. People could even mod their own help files for this purpose so an advanced player might have different information than the intro help or RP style information.
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Tormy

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Re: In game help
« Reply #7 on: November 22, 2008, 04:14:48 pm »
Quote from: Veroule on November 15, 2008, 11:23:53 am
It has been said many times that the learning curve for DF is quite steep.  The wiki and forums provide a source of help for many users.  The in game help could use significant work though.

This suggestion is not how to directly improve the in game help.  I would instead suggest moving the in game help into files that are player edittable.  There are many people in the player community that like helping others and it is very likely that the help would be sorted out and improved by us.  It should even be possible that the changes made by the community could become part of official releases.

Kinda pointless..there is the wiki.
..and as for in-game documentations/help files, Toady will upgrade it in the future.
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