I was reading the topic about MDF in the general discussions, and combined with what we can read on this sub forum, it appears that one of the most important negative point is consistently about the manual, and lack of informations (about buildings, about features, about progression...).
While it's certain that a manual done by the people actually making the mod is often better, because they know all the features they included, it is also true that writting an extensive documentation takes a lot of time.
Being somewhat used to writting documentations myself, I was thinking about how we could help Meph and the others with something most of us can contribute toward.
There are various things that really lack documentation, and various points that could be extended a lot.
* Progression:
One of the biggest thing about MDF is that there are many, many things to do, and it is overwelming.
One way to change that a bit would be to document how general progression is intended, separated into the various branches.
A pretty nice example of this is the "Human Cheatsheet.png" that's in the root folder of MDF, detailing the buildings, as well as giving an order in which the various workshops were intended.
Many of us players have somewhat worked out how the different industries come together, and have assigned out own priorities on things (one might go for metal working, an other for magic, and a third for farming/animals), but we mostly figured out what order the buildings are built in.
*Third parties tools:
It was pointed out multiple times in the last few weeks that it is not really clear as for what is made for Masterwork, and what was just included and used.
So I went to the "credits" page of the documentation, and I have to agree that proper credit is not clearly given to everyone.
This too is something almost anyone can write, like:
<strong>THIRD PARTY TOOL</strong> (<a href="LINK TO FORUM TOPIC">Link</a>):
<p>Author: AUTHOR PSEUDONYM(S)</p>
<p>SHORT DESCRIPTION OF THE TOOL</p>
While it might seem small, I can assure you that people that also put a lot of work in making those tools get their name and work awarded the proper credits.
Most of us can take a minute or two doing this, and save hours of time for Meph to work on parts where we can't actually help.
*Short tutorials/tips&tricks:
Also relatively easy to write (but takes quite a bit more time), it can cover a lot of small and obscure things about the mod, unknown vanilla mechanics, usage of tools...
Things like "choosing your civ at embark", "setting up proper configuration for ranged military", "working with stockpiles", "about minecarts", "working with quantum stockpiles" are all vanilla related, for example.
I tried my hands with the dfhack utilities, and I'm quite content on how it looks after a bit of formating, but it took over two hours, and it's still not complete, so not everyone might want to spend that time in just writing a small text.
*Descriptions/text about single feature/workshop/item/material:
Not all of it is well documented, and quite a few pages have different formatting (some races use the old workshop description template, some are just short text, others have walls of text).
I believe that the old way for the building was quite decent, because it gives information about building materials, skills and size.
The plants page is nearly good, but grow duration is not accurate (given that the default is harder farming ON).
*Flow charts:
While it might seem trivial and/or related to the progression, I think it would be a good thing to have clear flow charts for various things.
It can be simple things, like "plant iron acorn" > "process grown saplings for acorns and ironwood logs in the sawmill" > "Process ironwood log for iron bar in the herbalist's lab (dwarves)" or "make iron grade items from logs (bolts, furnitures...)" or "process into planks in the sawmill".
Of course, it is more usefull with images than pure text, and while it's feasible to make strait ones like this, it becomes way harder to make more complete and/or complex ones.
I might try to make a little something that reads raws and makes something like this, but it's a lot of work, and I just don't have that amount of free time right now (might come later, bits by bits, or not at all).
Anyway, those are just a few ideas on how any of us can help, only for those wanting to, without requiring insane amount of hours per person, and helping the mod (and the plugin/script authors).
I hope I'm not overstepping my role as "just an other player", and that it won't backfire like my previous 'tips and tricks'...
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Topic: Community effort on the manual? (wiki) (Read 11883 times)