Modular Manual

[mossfoot]

I'm picturing this more in terms of the neophytes out there. Yes, there is satisfaction to be had by delving in and figuring stuff out and asking questions, but in the interest of making things easier for the more casually interested, how do you think this might work? Or would it be possible?

Create a dynamic manual, one that adds or removes entries automatically based on the OXPs you have. So if you just have the basic game, it has the basic manual. But if you add in a ship based OXP, for example, then the ship section expands to include the new ships. If you include the Galactic Navy in your game, an entry is included there, and so on. Not all OXPs would require an entry, only those that might have information a player might want to access for some reason.

So basically the manual expands or contracts as you tinker with the settings and it's always easy to have a reference as to what's currently working in your game. Perhaps it would take the form of a special file in each OXP, and the manual read through the whole Add-On folder looking for them and fitting them in.

Any way this could be feasible? Or does it even seem like a good idea?

[Diziet Sma]

I like the idea.. and it shouldn't be too hard to expand the new ship's manual system in 1.79 to include something like this.. cim has already done the hardest part.

[cim]

Definitely a good idea.

As far as improvements already in for the next version go:
- the "ship data library" gives access to a lot more ship data (OXPs need to be updated to use it, though)
- there's a keyboard reference and tutorial built in to the game for picking up the basics

I could probably poke around with the e-reader OXP to make it easy for other OXPs to add chapters to the manual book at startup.

For future versions:
- I want to incorporate the "ship data library" into the game as well as the startup screen, with ways to set conditions on ships appearing (e.g. the Constrictor appears when the relevant mission is started)

[mossfoot]

Ah, neat! I am basing my knowledge on what I see in 1.77.1 of course. Soooooo looking forward to 1.8.

I'd play with 1.79, but I'm happy with the stable version until the next one comes along

Having all the information accessible in-game is great. Probably better than my idea (though, admit it, we all like having a hard copy manual by our side too )

Ooooh, someone needs to make Oolite-verse based pink slips to print off to prove ownership of your vehicle

[cim]

I'd play with 1.79, but I'm happy with the stable version until the next one comes along

Unless you like finding bugs no-one has seen before, that's recommended!