Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Footkerchief]

Huh, that's... it doesn't seem to do it every time for me, but maybe I just forgot.

[Craftling]

A wiki!!! Pfft. I was raised on fun and carp.

[profit]

When you press the ? mark on your keyboard the first line should read "If you need more help Please go to www.bay12games.com. Visit the forum and ask a question.  If you would like to see the Dwarf fortress wiki which has a lot of in depth game help go to dwarffortresswiki.net it has many tips to help a starting fortress designer."

There is no reason for the help file to not include the two most helpful things a new player could have.

[darius]

Also there was a try to make ingame wiki by editing help files (too lazy to search for it) But continuing foward (fast and far) there could be a tool developed to transform wiki to ingame help (and don't star to argue how impossible it is, because it is possible). That way new version would only have to transform wiki into ingame help and then release. Of course 1:1 transition could be not so useful (as there is no search, some pages are userpages, some rely on pictures too much, etc).

On the other hand adding ingame http explorer is also a possibility although i'm against it because it will make a lot (probably) work for Toady and have little effect.

[Stargrasper]

Thinking this over, I have to say I'm strongly oppose changing what we've got.  The game already gives you the Bay12Games link and wiki link after you create your first world and apparently the 40d# series may say it more often.  My point is that users have to see that message at least once and if they fail to read it, what can we do about it?  We can't very well force them to read.  Not to mention, they probably got the game from B12 anyway...if you go to the Gameplay Help board, there's a link right at the top to the wiki.  What else do you want us to do?  Randomly flash in the ingame Announcements "Hey!  Go to wiki!  Here's the link!"  It seems to me that it's already fairly prominent and anyones failure to see it is their own negligence.  You can't help those who won't take steps to help themselves.

[G-Flex]

Also there was a try to make ingame wiki by editing help files (too lazy to search for it) But continuing foward (fast and far) there could be a tool developed to transform wiki to ingame help (and don't star to argue how impossible it is, because it is possible).

Sure, it's possible. That doesn't mean it's feasible or should be done.

Adding code to the game to actually scrape the wiki (and know which parts to get the data from) on the fly and render it in the proper format in-game is very far from a trivial task, and people (myself included) have mentioned how adding explicitly-unofficial content to the game itself with no control over what it contains is not necessarily a good idea. You don't want to embed potentially erroneous or out-of-date information from third parties in the game itself; it's a recipe for trouble.

[Footkerchief]

On the other hand adding ingame http explorer is also a possibility although i'm against it because it will make a lot (probably) work for Toady and have little effect.

The other option is a button that asks the OS to open the URL in the default browser, but that a) requires nasty platform-specific code and b) wouldn't work on Linux period from what I can tell.

You don't want to embed potentially erroneous or out-of-date information from third parties in the game itself; it's a recipe for trouble.

C.f. Codename Gordon, which was de-listed from Steam because it contained a hardcoded link to a domain that eventually got pornified.

[Felblood]

Okay, so maybe the existing link to the wiki should go away... hmmm.

That is an interesting problem, but it isn't a solution to the problem the OP is trying to solve.

--And before you drag out the tired elitist arguments, on how people who can't find the wiki on their own don't deserve to play Dwarf Fortress, let's just pretend that it is a problem, even if you don't think it is.

How can comprehensive help be made readily available to new players who are not yet connected to the DF fanbase, without demanding an undue amount of time from the programmer?


We should take the following points into consideration, with any proposed solution:

It is safe to assume that the in-game help will one day serve this purpose, but at this time it does not. However, any cost/benefit analysis of what constitutes an undue drain on Bay12 resources should take this into account.

URLs of third party sites should be avoided.

DF doesn't need an entire web-browser. There are plenty of free ones already.

The question thus paraphrased, I propose a solution:

Put the URL of the help forum, in the game over message, that pops up whenever a fortress is conquered, abandoned or depopulated.

i.e.

Your fortress has crumbled to it's end.

If you have any questions about how to play,
go to www.bay12games.com/forum/

[SirHoneyBadger]

Lot of "if"s here, but...

What if the third party allowed the Wiki to be downloaded, so that it could be accessed easily offline? Boards/updates/mods aside, DF is an offline kind of game.

If it could be, then ToadyOne, if he so chose, could go on to provide whatever necessary support-code to potentially make the Wiki work in-game, without the necessity of clearing it for use, since the game and the Wiki would both still exist separately.