[Wesnoth-dev] Improving wesnoth ingame-help

[Crazy-Ivanovic]

Hi everyone!
I was not really satisfied with the ingame help it is right now. We were
talking about it yesterday in #wesnoth-de and have thought about how to
improve the sys. Here are the points we mainly talked about:
1.) We especially disliked, that the unit-descriptions are not really
coherent. Some units got only a short "good at - bad-at" description while
others (drakes) got a more epic and rpg like descriptions. We came to the
conclusion that both have their place in the game. But it should somehow be
one "style" for the whole system. We came to the conclusion that it would
make sense to have the short descripions for beginners and beneath a more
epic one for rpg fans. The short version could be done in few words like
"good-at:" and "bad-at:". This system would make it more friendly for
beginners, because they would have such a list for every unit without having
to search the big bunch of tables.
2.) A single-click system in the Help-section would be nice. At the moment
you have to double-click on the units to have them shown, but you have
single-click on linked abilities for example. Single-click for whole help
would be better.
3.) If you encounterd many units the list becomes very long. It could make
sense to split up the whole into the different races. There could be a
description for the races included and a short list of all units and the way
they level. Somehow comparable to http://units.wesnoth.org . But it would be
enough to have their names and a link to all of them in there. The units not
encounterd jet, could be existing, but not linked.
4.) It would be nice to have the option to see all existing units although
you did not encounter them or use --debug as start parameter. Maybe it could
be done with an option in the preferences.
5.) Help should be accessible from the start menu, too. It is not too good
to have to start a game to read something in the help.
6.) A description for the modification done by the terrain should be added
to the help, because there are lots of users in the forum, that do not
really know how the different terrains work.
7.) Maybe a "short-manual" could make sense for players who just start and
do not want to play the tutorial. There could the attacks that are shown in
battle be described. Sometimes there are users that do not know if 2-3 means
"2 attacks, 3 damage" or "3 attacks, 2 damage" or "damage is between 2 and
3".

Sorry for such a long mail. I hope it helps to improve the ingame help.
CU
Nils Kneuper aka Ivanovic

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