But I'm guessing that a lot of people also would not understand the purpose of the bag. The book binder from Enchiridion can hold books, and that's all; simple enough for this situation.
In-Game Docs: Guides vs Wikis
- Thread starter Democretes
- Start date
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Personally I prefer in-game documentation when it's done correctly and kept up to date. It's kind of obnoxious to exit fullscreen to pull up a wiki...
the bag would've the benefit of also being able to hold other items
this way modpack developers, map developers or server owners are able to give the player items to start out with when they either start a new world or join a new server
isn't there also a starter chest you can use/reuse for that, granted it's not enabled by default and ignored by most
I vastly prefer ingame documentation to having to find a source online because it's more reliable and more convenient - that said, the quality of such documentation varies wildly from mod to mod and it does get to be a bother after a while to have half my starting inventory filled with books for mods I already understand. That particular problem is as easy to solve as having the player start with a book binder or something similar, though.
I know I'm soundly in the minority, but I prefer mod documentation to be external, whether it be on a Wiki, a forum post, a Google Doc, whatever. It gives me the opportunity to learn what things can be done and how without worrying about being encased in obsidian while idle in-game. Additionally, it is nice to know what a mod does before you install it.
The issue is when you need to check something in game, and so you either have to tab out, making it far easier for you to be encased in obsidian than if you were reading an in-game book, or you have to log out completely. External documentation is useful for when you aren't in the game, for all the reasons you mentioned, but when in game I'd rather not have to switch out of the game for a bit.
Besides, why do people even bother encasing you in obsidian? There's plenty of ways to get rid of it quickly and far worse things for you to be encased in. All of which are pretty hard to do while you're in game, reading an in-game book, but very easy to do when you aren't looking at the game screen.
I can't speak for everyone here, but if I were to check something while in game, I'd just have the documentation below the minecraft window, and I'd just be able to look at both at the same time. In practice, I'm a sad enough nerd that it just doesn't happen more than a few times, since I just read what I needed to do, charted it out on graph paper, and don't really need to reconsult unless I've done something incredibly stupid.As for why it's obsidian? Because I haven't shown them the warded wand focus yet.
Well if they surround you with obsidian? Equal trade focus set to replace with torches
As for why it's obsidian? Because I haven't shown them the warded wand focus yet.
^^ Nicely worded. I know what you mean! I started my PC basics with "man" and "apropos"... So I actually like reading walls of text to figure out stuff. With this game, I had to revise my strategy to look at "most recent" youtube spotlights as "reliable documentation".
(P.S: ftbwiki and wiki-feed-the-beast are doing something about this, but it's not fast enough to keep with the game's speed)Also, before moving forward, for a game with 8-bit blocky textures, primitive player motion physics and poorly rendered surroundings, this game is laggier than a mule wading through a molasses lake, with its hind legs tied together, ...<add more metaphors, as your situation warrants>. I love the game and hate the game with equal measures! I have a reasonable computer, but the game performance is abysmal! Most of the time I am fiddling with "performance settings" to get 3-5 fps more, consistently. With 1.7.10 it's getting worse... And the MC client does not honour the memory requirements...... leaky memory everywhere............ This is the wrong place and platform for this rant, but I am seriously unhappy with how mojang's been progressing with the game and its codebase's
I for one, welcome as much in-game documentation as possible. I'll make me a bookshelf, and pick up a book to get the information. I don't mind re-visiting it, I don't mind it clogging precious inventory at the beginning of my game, I don't mind re-reading it, I don't mind fumbling through the info (which is how all of us learn, anyway) I don't mind any of that. Give me all the information inside the game. Use minemaarten's mod... use enchridion mod... use anything... Just don't make me open a browser, and run a flash based video site all at the same time (Do you know how much RAM those things swallow?). And don't make me get trolled on an irc channel before I get any relevant information! And for pity's sake, don't make the guides available as dungeon loot, and for mercy's sake keep the information in your in-game guides updated (A lot of mod authors are guilty of this!) My machine thanks you. My sanity thanks you. And I don't have to constantly feel deprived that I am not owning a supercomputer in order to run modded minecraft.
rant over.
you'll be rejoicing with 1.8 then which has an update to occlusion checking (meaning less render pain)
but if the problem is with tick updates then you should revise your builds; I mean any server can lag if there is a mystcraft portal to an unloaded chunk getting items shoved into them repeatedly
I'll believe it, when I see it with my own eyes...
As to the rest of the advice, please...
Why not have it have a big section for guides be the very first option? It works for Ars Magica, it's like the very first thing in the list, which isn't very big with the default config.
I see no reason to not have it function like an in game wiki though, anything else is going to end up being annoying once you've advanced a bit and still have to sift through all the old info.
I dunno about this though, I would imagine at least one out of four people(probably more realistically one out of three) who play on modpacks with thaumcraft and/or ars magica never ever figure out how to use the mods at all because there's absolutely nothing in game to prompt you to put an item frame over weird blue water and put a book in it, or turn two iron ingots into 18 nuggets and then throw away 8 of those and use 10 to make two wand caps which go specifically in the top right and bottom left corners of a crafting table with a stick in the middle and then use it to right click a bookcase. You could say they could ask other people or look it up online, however that completely defeats the purpose of in game documentation to begin with. Something simpler, like vinteum dust + book or quicksilver + book feels really forced and bizarre and still doesn't really prompt you do actually do it, although it's not nearly as obscure as the current mechanics.
A compromise I suppose could be having the first moonstone meteor centered on you or walking within 16 blocks of an aura node give you a small note in chat about jotting down notes about something new you learned, giving you the relevant book(s) and unlocking whatever other stuff, without actually removing the mechanics that already exist for those who already know.
I see no reason to not have it function like an in game wiki though, anything else is going to end up being annoying once you've advanced a bit and still have to sift through all the old info.
I dunno about this though, I would imagine at least one out of four people(probably more realistically one out of three) who play on modpacks with thaumcraft and/or ars magica never ever figure out how to use the mods at all because there's absolutely nothing in game to prompt you to put an item frame over weird blue water and put a book in it, or turn two iron ingots into 18 nuggets and then throw away 8 of those and use 10 to make two wand caps which go specifically in the top right and bottom left corners of a crafting table with a stick in the middle and then use it to right click a bookcase. You could say they could ask other people or look it up online, however that completely defeats the purpose of in game documentation to begin with. Something simpler, like vinteum dust + book or quicksilver + book feels really forced and bizarre and still doesn't really prompt you do actually do it, although it's not nearly as obscure as the current mechanics.
A compromise I suppose could be having the first moonstone meteor centered on you or walking within 16 blocks of an aura node give you a small note in chat about jotting down notes about something new you learned, giving you the relevant book(s) and unlocking whatever other stuff, without actually removing the mechanics that already exist for those who already know.
I was more talking about Mariculture, OpenBlocks etc. Thaumcraft and Ars Magica could maybe use a little help to get the books, but they don't dump the books on you if you don't want/need them, and Thaumonomicons can be found as loot in chests. If people want to use the mods, then it's one check on the forum page, as the Original posts for both mods on MCF have a guide as to how to get the books.
C
chbachman
Guest
The way that you are suggesting is very similar to the Ars Magica way of doing it. The problem with this way is the fact that many players will not craft everything in order, so they do not get the guide. I always ended up turning that feature off.
Someone should combine every guide book from the large mods (RotaryCraft, Factorization, TC4, TiCo, AM2, etc), the FTB Wiki and the Minecraft Wiki and combine them into an encyclopedia.
I prefer neither, my favourite is probably tooltips, because they are subtle and elegant. Railcraft, Binnie's Mods, and IC2(half of it, anyway ) get this right. Wiki's can be a drudge to look through, especially when they are outdated, although they can make a good read when not playing. In-game books and guides tend to be obnonxious and a bit too 'meta', although they can be very convenient.
) get this right. Wiki's can be a drudge to look through, especially when they are outdated, although they can make a good read when not playing. In-game books and guides tend to be obnonxious and a bit too 'meta', although they can be very convenient.How about mod makers creating tutorial worlds for people to look at working models in game. Also have do's and don'ts present for help in troubleshooting common issues. Would be nice to have these examples as pocket dimensions for players to visit at any time in game. These worlds could show the mod author's idea of the natural progression through the tiers as needed as well.
Celestialphoenix
Too Much Free Time
"In game" only works if you actually design it into the game folks.
Throwing a book at someone at the start isn't designing- they just throw it to at you.