This is the homepage describing what is intended to be the new help system. Cue evil laughter if you feel like it.

Status

Current aims:

• remove in-game, "interactive" help
• convert Leon Marrick's helpfiles into nicely-done HTML
• provide a framework for giving contextual help, and give it

Current status:

• Emailed Andrew Doull, and Chris Carr for their thoughts.

TODO:

• brainstorming, to work out where contextual help can be provided to maximum effect, and how things can be changed to provide the most contextual help
• Leon Marrick's /Manual? needs reformatting still, though not much more to go now

.plan:

• Tutorial mode (Ben's idea. give a rough'n'tumble introduction to the game; display a short summary of the game, choose a standard character, and provide important hints contextually. ToME does something like this.)

Contextual help

Some way to specify colour in the help files would be useful here.

• contextual help at prompts and the like

  • displayed automatically in the approprite terminal window
  • displayed by request on the main terminal with "?"
  • inventory, equipment, magic
  • "Really destroy <item name>? [y/n/s]" squelch prompt requires context help

(How about allowing "?" at any selection prompt to give context-sensitive help on what the options are?)

• when "interesting things" happen, note it in the terminal window

  • You have gone blind, hungry, etc...
  • pseudo-id

• different text for each store, to describe what it does, etc.

• on open space, '?' gives you help on a) what just happened b) what's next to you. "You are standing on a down staircase; this will take you down to the first level of the dungeon."

• terrain features

  • "You just walked into a door. To close it again, press %c%."

The manual

It would be nice to have some kind of "playing style" section, for example mentioning Ironman:

"Go down into the dungeon. Return with Morgoth's Crown or not at all." In Ironman mode, you can never go up any staircase, and can never return to the surface by any means, until victorious. If by accident you do, you must immediately return to the dungeon.

Some forms of Ironman play require that you visit no stores before going into the dungeon, or that you must use a down staircase as soon as you see it ("crash-dive ironman"), but they are variants on the basic theme.