Mod help menu

[Honktown]

Someone brought up that certain mods are a little complicated or need a tutorial.

So why not add an in-game "help" menu, which a mod uses as a dependency, and adds GUI elements by remote calls. Pick a stock shape, like the center pane for the descriptions has a 4:5 rectangle. Make it taller than wider, so we have room on the left. On the left is lists: first list is mod, second list is topics within that mod. Clicking each thing (or finding with search) brings up information/images/etc. Short-cuts could be added to simplify UI creation: templates for example, so one might look like the mod install page from the main menu, one could just be like a "slideshow" (heading and text), another could be "fill the frame with this picture". Arrows in the corner to go back/forth within a single topic could make adding instructions and "story" easier.

If I write it it'll be unlicense, and could probably get it out quickly if anyone's interested. License doesn't matter with remote-call, so much.

[kid2407]

So you are thinking of something like the man pages for Linux but just for Factorio mods? Might be useful especially for big modpacks where you don't know every single mod.

[Honktown]

So you are thinking of something like the man pages for Linux but just for Factorio mods? Might be useful especially for big modpacks where you don't know every single mod.

Not necessarily limited to text, but help nonetheless. Was thinking more the old way windows did help screens:

windowshelpprogram.gif (46.93 KiB) Viewed 1076 times

The left side would have an additional column, for mods themselves, then each mod can be clicked and the second column fills with topics. To make it easier, each "help" screen could be templates, like slides in a presentation program. First simple template: big header, normal-size text underneath. Second template: one picture, with maybe an option for where it goes i.e. upper left, upper right, half of a side, beneath the text (this template would be text and a picture). A third template could be a "table" layout, where one side has pictures, and the other side has textboxes, for say, an enemy, building, item etc helper sections. The remote calls could be rather simple: add mod, add section, insert template 3 with a 2-column, 3-row, pictures on left layout. here's picture 1, text 1, etc. The concept of "pages" could be added, so as an option to the section, you pass that you're sending pages. So for X mod, they could have a section "New Items" with pages, and use template 3 to describe the items and what's useful. If sections are kept in-order instead of sorting, the first topic could be "Introduction" or "about this mod".

These are all control effects, so the general idea of the mod could even be used by a campaign mod or RPG which reveals information as you go.