The ingame help menu accesible by F1 needs updating.
I find its absolutely terrible that a new player comes on to play what they think looks like a cool game only to log onto a server and be spammed with messages to join Cadet......wtf is Cadet???? how is a newbie supposed to know about CDT? Yes there is a nice link to the academy which is good for reading and will tell you what you need to know but when your playing for the first time after doing the training missions and going into your first game and you have a question you dont want the reply to be join cadet at www.allegacademy.com, much simpler would be....press F1, nice in-game pop-up help menu which is useful for answering any quick questions.
So how hard would it be to introduce a few more additions to the F1 help menu (directed to aem)??
Features which would be goodUpdate the current information
-what would be awesome is if there was someway to change the menu depending on which core you are currently playing on or just update it so it uses the standard core of DN.
Etiquette/FAQ
- A quick guide on how to act, mainly not to spam and to not stop donating (possibly a quick guide on how to donate), why you dont have any money and the commander does, how to get ships which cost money.Its so much better to say, hey newbie press F1, sure if there is someone to actually answer the question thats great but pressing F1 to get a nice help menu is a lot better then having to stop playing and go to the academy.
Update the ingame help menu
it would be very nice if the important things people need to know were on or linked from the very first page of the help screen.
someone wasnt donating and i thought, hey, i will tell them to press f1 and read...
so i press f1 to find where i want to direct them, and i couldnt find it. i was quite annoyed i had wasted half a minute or so trying to find it to tell someone to look it up so i could save time while i was commanding.
someone wasnt donating and i thought, hey, i will tell them to press f1 and read...
so i press f1 to find where i want to direct them, and i couldnt find it. i was quite annoyed i had wasted half a minute or so trying to find it to tell someone to look it up so i could save time while i was commanding.
The help menu is obviously a work in progress. I completely designed it but 90% of the text there right now is straight from the Academy. One complete section was carried over with only minor editing from the old MS help menu. Out of the rest Fellentos and I mostly split up the work. Right now I'd say it is probably 25% of where I want it to be. It's a major undertaking and I don't have that much spare time to make progress very fast. Getting the first version of the help menu out there probably took 6 months and many many hours of work. I'm always accepting submissions or requests for new or modified content but receive little feedback. If you want something you can always PM me. And I don't think anyone can deny that the in-game help menu we have now is infinitely improved over the old Microsoft one.
That said, you are being a bit unrealistic with your complaints. The help menu is never going to be the one stop source for all Allegiance information. Could it be? Probably, but thats a waste since the Academy is already here. My vision for the help menu is mostly a Quick Reference guide to point newbies to specific material they need to know so they can very quickly read the basics on something and apply it to the current situation.
It is mostly designed to assist commanders and make new players more capable. They should be reading the Academy. But if a newbie can't quite remember something and needs to look it up or the commander wants a newbie to do something that he doesn't know how to do he can be directed to that topic in the help menu.
It is a tool for commanders and if they glance through it and know their way around it, it can be quite useful. There is information about @Cadet that is easy to find. You will notice some links on the opening page. One of those is "Learning" and clicking that (or navigating using the links on the left) will take you to the learning section which has sections for all the major learning tools available including Cadet. I'm not sure how much easier I could make that.
I could add a FAQ sections with questions newbs frequently need answers to. Right now I have a small list of 10 Common Mistakes in Gameplay. #2 is about not Donating to the commander. It also links to a section about donating (informative but probably needs to be rewritten to stress why you need to donate). This is something you would know as a commander if you had looked in the help menu to see what was there. Regardless this section needs to be rewritten. Just something I added in there quickly.
Now that Spring semester is over and I'm back for Summer things should calm down a bit for me and I plan to get back to work on Allegiance. My two primary objectives for the summer are to continue working on the help menu and to work on in game resolution switching.
As far as the help menu goes I would guess the following will be complete by the end of summer:
1) Make sure all sections aside from Quick Reference contain the most up to date information (yes this means a lot of editing/rewriting).
2) Expand the Abbreviations section and make each item in the list clickable so that a description is displayed in the lower box.
3) Possibly add a FAQ section to provide easier to find answers to commonly asked questions.
4) Work on the design of the Quick Reference section and completely plan out the future of that section. A couple sections will be written as a model for rewriting the other sections as time allows. Outside help is always welcome.
Of course the entire reason for me taking up the help menu rewrite awhile ago was for a Quick Reference section. But it seemed most of the material in the menu was outdated and waste so I just redid the whole thing except for one section being carried over. It is the most important section but also one that needs a ton of time to rewrite. When it is complete it should be extremely beneficial in pick-up games.
That said, you are being a bit unrealistic with your complaints. The help menu is never going to be the one stop source for all Allegiance information. Could it be? Probably, but thats a waste since the Academy is already here. My vision for the help menu is mostly a Quick Reference guide to point newbies to specific material they need to know so they can very quickly read the basics on something and apply it to the current situation.
It is mostly designed to assist commanders and make new players more capable. They should be reading the Academy. But if a newbie can't quite remember something and needs to look it up or the commander wants a newbie to do something that he doesn't know how to do he can be directed to that topic in the help menu.
It is a tool for commanders and if they glance through it and know their way around it, it can be quite useful. There is information about @Cadet that is easy to find. You will notice some links on the opening page. One of those is "Learning" and clicking that (or navigating using the links on the left) will take you to the learning section which has sections for all the major learning tools available including Cadet. I'm not sure how much easier I could make that.
I could add a FAQ sections with questions newbs frequently need answers to. Right now I have a small list of 10 Common Mistakes in Gameplay. #2 is about not Donating to the commander. It also links to a section about donating (informative but probably needs to be rewritten to stress why you need to donate). This is something you would know as a commander if you had looked in the help menu to see what was there. Regardless this section needs to be rewritten. Just something I added in there quickly.
Now that Spring semester is over and I'm back for Summer things should calm down a bit for me and I plan to get back to work on Allegiance. My two primary objectives for the summer are to continue working on the help menu and to work on in game resolution switching.
As far as the help menu goes I would guess the following will be complete by the end of summer:
1) Make sure all sections aside from Quick Reference contain the most up to date information (yes this means a lot of editing/rewriting).
2) Expand the Abbreviations section and make each item in the list clickable so that a description is displayed in the lower box.
3) Possibly add a FAQ section to provide easier to find answers to commonly asked questions.
4) Work on the design of the Quick Reference section and completely plan out the future of that section. A couple sections will be written as a model for rewriting the other sections as time allows. Outside help is always welcome.
Of course the entire reason for me taking up the help menu rewrite awhile ago was for a Quick Reference section. But it seemed most of the material in the menu was outdated and waste so I just redid the whole thing except for one section being carried over. It is the most important section but also one that needs a ton of time to rewrite. When it is complete it should be extremely beneficial in pick-up games.
A button that says "Help" or something similar in the lobby (below the Change wing or on the other side) would be a nice addition for those that doesn't even know a F1 menu exist.
If A is success in life, then A equals x plus y plus z. Work is x; y is play; and z is keeping your mouth shut. -- Albert Einstein
Basically I'd say if you'd like to see something added that was previously written PM it to me. Otherwise if you want specific topic(s) added that have not been written better to let me know your plans in advance.apathos wrote:QUOTE (apathos @ May 21 2007, 09:04 PM) aem, if we wanted to lend assistance, should we collaborate with you via pm, or just write something and submit it?
Or if you want to just help in general, with writing, editing, discussing the design/content of the help menu, etc PM me and I can get you up to speed with whatever you want to get involved in.
I do have a simple help menu development website online to help organize development. When I get things rolling again this summer I'll get it fully updated so it can be used again.
EDIT:
The stuff I listed as what I expect to be completed this sumer is what I figure I could mostly get done on my own. With more help more progress can be made. If I had some others assisting with writing I'd probably first start out on planning the updated Quick Reference section so work can be made on that. Other needs would be reading through the current content and correcting/updating as is needed. And of course working on any additional content that could be added.
Last edited by aem on Tue May 22, 2007 5:03 am, edited 1 time in total.
It would be useful IF there was more interest in the help menu. I'd considered asking for a subforum somewhere but am reluctant since I don't know anyone would use it. As I've said I receive very little feedback. It wouldn't hurt to have one if anyone wants to set one up.Raveen wrote:QUOTE (Raveen @ May 24 2007, 07:46 AM) Maybe a Help Menu subforum in the Documentation Zone would be a good idea?
Ideally there would be a public forum for public requests/suggestions and a private forum for me and some others to organize writing and discuss design issues. But again as it is now I'm working solo and pretty much working on what I feel needs work since I don't get much input. I don't know how much a forum would generate interest.
One useful addition to the help menu would be a:
"YOU ARE ABOUT TO BE BOOTED BECAUSE" heading with several subheadings with the different reasons for being noob booted
Then all us commanders have to do is tell the poor noob to press F1, read "YOU ARE ABOUT TO BE BOOTED" Item number "N"
Include all the verbose descriptions you want.. and save us untold amounts of typing /smile.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":)" border="0" alt="smile.gif" />
"YOU ARE ABOUT TO BE BOOTED BECAUSE" heading with several subheadings with the different reasons for being noob booted
Then all us commanders have to do is tell the poor noob to press F1, read "YOU ARE ABOUT TO BE BOOTED" Item number "N"
Include all the verbose descriptions you want.. and save us untold amounts of typing /smile.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":)" border="0" alt="smile.gif" />