What's missing from the manual?

[Norfenstein]

Development's picked up again and one of my responsibilities is maintaining the manual. Aside from any unofficial additions/changes implemented since it was last updated, I know there are at least a few minor things that could be covered that aren't (and some things need to be reorganized to be easier to find), so I pose the question to everyone: what do you wish had been in the manual when you first started playing? Things like the alien radar, for example, or a better explanation of locational damage. I'd like to stay away from in-depth strategy recommendations, or technical details that aren't useful for playing, but it's not always clear where to draw the line.

Of course, this is only for those of you who actually read the manual and found it lacking.

[Caveman]

- A detailed description on how to set the options that are not reachable via the interface.
- How set one's name
- Explaining about GUIDs
- a grouped index .)

[kevlarman]

i think nakedgerman was right about adding health and damage numbers to alien and weapon information.

[Paradox]

Possibly a system of ratings, like damage, speed, health. On a 1 to 10 scale, or low, medium, high, etc.

[|Nex|TrEmMa]

A list of commands (like messaging, etc.) and maybe a snippet on voting?

[vcxzet]

it does not tell about deconning techniques
and how to TK multiple teammates at once

[kevlarman]

it does not tell about deconning techniques
and how to TK multiple teammates at once

i'm going to turn your troll into something actually useful: it should be emphasized that clicking on grenade will throw it, not select it.

[vcxzet]

it does not tell about deconning techniques
and how to TK multiple teammates at once

i'm going to turn your troll into something actually useful: it should be emphasized that clicking on grenade will throw it, not select it.

and

dont push E putton infront of a reactor if you have a ckit
further more dont use ckit if you dont know what you are doing
best way to start playing tremulous is starting as human - rifle

[Risujin]

Please include a section on how to configure the client to auto-download and a generic mod installation section (for clients and servers). Thanks!

[MwM]

a section about console commands like voting and re-naming.

[Basilisco]

Whatever you add to it, just make it pretty and easy to navigate.
Some people don't read it because it's a plain white html document

[DieFamilyGuy]

perhaps a section on proper gameplay? it may help to reduce griefers a bit

[Lakitu7]

Spell out more clearly that humans need to sell their rifle before they can buy something else.

Explain fractional kills and who gets the points, thus removing idiots bitching about kill-stealing. (Yay Counterstrike players!)

Explain hitboxes of structures, particularly alien structures (eggs).

Explain placement of tubes and trappers.

Explain possibility of dretch headshots.

In general I think it'd just be helped by friendly advice about each class/weapon. Tell people that the painsaw is for base rushing, not attacking tyrants with. Tell people that barricades are nearly useless. Even just saying which weapons are hitscan and which are not would help human section. This isn't advanced strategy here... just telling people what the overall point of each thing is in the average game. Like, DON'T ATTACK WITH GRANGERS.

I'd really have liked to see demos, as a newb, of good players showing how to play each weapon/class properly.

Agreed about a list of console commands, along with health/damage numbers. You shouldn't have to download the source and find the static declarations to get such information.

More if I think of any... You're in the top tier of players, Norf. Share some of what's possible to be shared. You can't write skill, but some of it IS just knowledge.

[edit] Sudden death isn't in the manual at all.

"Poison does not work against humans equipped with a Battlesuit. "
That's just incorrect. Perhaps it was correct back in beta?

[techhead]

The manual shows the bind names for classes, weapons, and structures, but not upgrades, like armor, backpacks, and grenades.

[SirFrancisBacon]

...

[techhead]

I will assume your post-count of 2, your use of Caps Lock, and your refusal to read the manual all mean that your have no clue how to actually play.

[Survivor]

Also I'd recommend a preview of the new manual before it's updated to sort out miscommunication of suggestions.

Also remove the partical system/rotation example from the manual and put it in the mapping wiki or a seperate editing guide. It makes the manual a bit large and daunting.

[Ksempac]

Make it UNDERSTANDABLE and INTERESTING TO READ !

Usually, i read the whole manual before playing a game...that's what i tried to do with Tremulous...but i couldn t.

The previous manual is full of "Use Button X for Special Action Y" (with no explanation/example of Action Y) for every class...you cant understand it if you didn t play the game. I couldn t understand, i couldn t remember, so i dropped it, played a few games, and used only the tutorial mode to learn the commands...i completely forgot the crappy manual. That's why it took me quite a long time to learn about sprint, stamina bar, etc...

Actually, i wish we could ask someone who never played the game to write the manual...I know it sounds silly, but an old player cant notice how hard it is for a beginner to grab the concept of alien classes and all the abilities players can use.

I wanted to try to make a new manual, but i couldn t find enough time for that.

[Paradox]

"Poison does not work against humans equipped with a Battlesuit. "
That's just incorrect. Perhaps it was correct back in beta?

No, poison did nothing to bsuits for a long time, but tjw changed that with his admin client.

[rasz_pl]

http://tremulous.net/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=1049

[kozak6]

I'd like to see damage statistics (per hit, damage per second, etc, basically this thread), health amounts for aliens and how much damage pieces of armor prevent for humans, secondary firemodes, other useful weapon information (like that the mass driver, you know, actually has a scope),
and that acid tube damage is based on proximity and not on acid spray.

[Pat AfterMoon]

I'd really have liked to see demos, as a newb, of good players showing how to play each weapon/class properly.

+1
It's not in the manual, but it could really help a lot at beginnings.

[oliver]

Maybe you could split the manual into like four parts:
- beginners "must-read" (explains objective, aliens/humans, weapons...)
- FAQ (explains dretch headbite, credit system, how to reach console *, ...)
- strategic hints (trapper placement...)
- developers guide (contains the current section about particle system, and more)

Not sure how much work you want to put in this; but maybe you could present the first drafts in some wiki, so people can add their ideas at the correct place in the manual.

* for people who haven't extensively played any Quake-like game before (*looks at self*) it's really not obvious that there's a console hidden which can be summoned by ~ (add the fact that with keyboard layout "german-deadkeys", you have to press AltrGr+"+" followed by Space to get a ~)

[Diggs]

Make it UNDERSTANDABLE and INTERESTING TO READ !

Usually, i read the whole manual before playing a game...that's what i tried to do with Tremulous...but i couldn t.

The previous manual is full of "Use Button X for Special Action Y" (with no explanation/example of Action Y) for every class...you cant understand it if you didn t play the game. I couldn t understand, i couldn t remember, so i dropped it, played a few games, and used only the tutorial mode to learn the commands...i completely forgot the crappy manual. That's why it took me quite a long time to learn about sprint, stamina bar, etc...

Agreed-
2nd page of the manual says "Use STRUCTURE/EVOLVE button", or "PRIMARY ATTACK button", and "DECONSTRUCT STUCTURE button".    I go back to see what I missed and there is nothing that says what these buttons are supposed to be.  In fact, in the whole manual it never says what the default binds are on any of the buttons.  A new player is lost if he relies on reading the manual.  If fact, the seasoned players that give the noobs are hard time by saying RTFM are a joke to themselves as they seem to have no idea what is/isn't covered in the current manual.  I tried to get through the 25 pages on instructions (the last 10 pages of the 35 being totally useless) before playing the first time and was pretty disappointed.  Then when I asked for clarification in this forum, all I got was some snooty RTFM.

Particle system?  Why would that be in a players manual along with server map rotation creation?

I agree, the manual needs some serious work, but as pointed out before, now that most of us have been playing for too long, we have lost the perspective needed to create a good manual for the introductory player.

Diggs

[Lakitu7]

"Poison does not work against humans equipped with a Battlesuit. "
That's just incorrect. Perhaps it was correct back in beta?

No, poison did nothing to bsuits for a long time, but tjw changed that with his admin client.

A major balance change seems like quite an odd thing to be in an administration mod, but if that's the case, a giant-enough number of servers run TJW for it to warrant a mention in the manual.

[StVald]

Make reading the manual, at least the basics, mandatory before being able to start the game for the first time. It would be like those license agreements that you have to scroll to the bottom before "I agree" is clickable. You could also have hitbox overlays on the building model images and I second the idea of detailed weap damage/health info.

[Radiohead]

You hate to see noobs not know anything once they start the game. However, would they know that there is a manuel there for them? Or will they just have to have someone tell them.

[Diggs]

You guys are hung up on making noobs read the manual, but this thread is about what is the manual missing.  And, if the manual was written differently, it would be a good resource for the beginner.  As it stand now, it isn't.  Contribute to the thread as requested instead of trying to figure out how make someone read something that doesn't help them that much.

After reviewing my Quake III Arena manual for ideas, I see that the current instructs were written in more or less the same format.  My suggestion was going to be that reviewing other games manuals may give some ideas on how to improve the current manual.

Diggs

[janev]

From recent games i'm getting the feeling the role of battlesuits in egghunts on for example transit was not explained well enough....Battlesuits are not very good for finding hidden eggs  :wink:

[vcxzet]

I know I know
nakid girls on the page background
so noobs would actually read it erm look at