On a side note, if I could REALLY add something to it, I'd add Help -> Binds, and have it pop up something interactive to help you make them.
The same for Macros.
Binds and Macros are fantastic, and can really add a lot of fun to the game. But the fact that people basically have to come to the Forum and research them really means that the majority of people won't use them at all.
Aren't there already "Bind Makers" out there? Could something like that be implemented in your project? Or would that be to large of a project?
(I can't hit COH Titan from work, so I can't even look at what you are working on).
My memory's not as sharp as it used to be.
Also, my memory's not as sharp as it used to be.
"The tip of a shoelace is called an aglet, its true purpose is sinister." The Question
My project is just modifying the existing Help menu in the game. So, I can have text, text formatting, some images, and separation into categories and one level of sub-categories.
http://www.fimfiction.net/story/36641/My-Little-Exalt
Yeah .. I realized it wouldn't fit while I was typing, but I didn't want to erase it .. because I really Do Wish that could be added. ;-)
Good luck on your Project.
My memory's not as sharp as it used to be.
Also, my memory's not as sharp as it used to be.
"The tip of a shoelace is called an aglet, its true purpose is sinister." The Question
I keep looking at that, wondering where to start - then think of what happened with that "simple MA tutorial" and want to run screaming from the project. 
And yet I'm still considering it.
Questioning my sanity is permissable at this point, I do believe.
[ QUOTE ]
I keep looking at that, wondering where to start
[/ QUOTE ]LOL, that's about where I am at the moment >.>
My two major gripes are that I don't really like the way it's broken up, and I don't like how it shifts from using colors everywhere to using no color at all.
http://www.fimfiction.net/story/36641/My-Little-Exalt
I couldn't agree more about the help menu needing... help. I'm all about the game being approachable for beginners. I've pushed Tog's Newbie Academy onto new players and friends, and Paragon Wiki of course. The recently added /help command is a good thing for players migrating from other MMOGs.
It seems to me that many of those who would benefit most from an improved help menu are the same folks who wouldn't look to sources outside the game itself (e.g. the forums) for info that often, if at all. Hence such a 3rd party app wouldn't quite fulfill its desired purpose -- the people needing better help not being aware of any other option, let alone being aware of said need in the first place. Put another way - a rich, accurate in-game help system would minimize any reasons for looking to outside sources.
That said, it would be great if the help system did get a tune-up, either by a developer revamp, or as an indirect result of the efforts of Fleeting Whisper, et al.
Good luck. I would love to lend a hand. This kind of project is about the worst kind of thing for myself to get involved in as I would tend to go all OCPD on it. (Even a post like this can take most of my free time to write. 
) Then comes the wife-aggro, which I really don't need if I haven't even earned it through actually playing the game.
Instead of commenting about what I would put *in* the help menu, I'd rather suggest the menu *itself* get fixed. The fact that it's so darn tiny, and unlike most of the other UI windows it can't be enlarged for easier reading makes it really annoying to read anything that's larger than one sentence long.
EDIT:
Something very cool just occured to me, although I don't know if it can be done, but I don't see why not.
If you can add in commands to the MENU file in much the same way as you can in the quick chat MENU, then you can create /playernote popups to address the window size problem.
Example: Click on a topic in the tiny MENU HELP window, which causes a nice large /playernote window to appear. Now you don't have to deal with trying to read info within that tiny help window.
Customizing Quick Chat:
https://boards.cityofheroes.com/showflat...&PHPSESSID=
"All that crap is grey to me, no XP." - Positron 5/15/05 8:36am . . . The world stopped and silence ensued except for the sound of a crying infant off in the distance.
"Everyone needs to chill the hell out." - BackAlleyBrawler 11/13/08 3:26pm . . . Geeks around the world stopped and blinked.
The game's help menu is very outdated. Sure, whenever a new feature is added, a section is added to the Help documentation, but the old stuff is never updated, and sometimes the new stuff isn't even right. The hero version of the help says that you need 3 IOs to get set bonuses, and the villain version say you need the whole set!
[*]While images can be added, only images which are in the pigg files will work, not any arbitrary image. Therefore, avoid adding an image unless you know it's available.[*]I've included the Hero/Villain distinction to the pages just to note the current differences between the versions. As noted by Area and Merit Rewards onwards, it's certainly possible to write Help documentation for both sides at once. I'd prefer that Hero and Villain versions be identical, as it makes maintenance easier.[/list]
However, the errors can be rectified, in the same manner as Vidiotmaps, Vanden's Power Icon Fix, or my own QuickChat menu customization. By adding help.txt and v_help.txt to the correct folder in your CoH installation, using the correct file format, you can override the game's default Help menu.
And there's the kicker. There's a lot of information in the Help menu, correct and up-to-date or not. I would like to develop a new version of the Help menu, to distribute in the same manner as the other "mods" we've got for the game already. But I'm not up to the task of creating such a thing for every aspect of the game in anything approaching a reasonable amount of time, especially since some areas are things I don't do much (PvP, base building).
My solution, then, has been to create a development area on Paragonwiki. As a sub-page of my user page, I have up up a wikitext version of the current help menu. I'll be working on modifying these pages over the summer, but I'd like the help of as many people as are willing.
Some points:
<ul type="square">[*]Don't be afraid to vary from the structure that's set in the game. You can have major categories (Tab in-game, separate pages on the wikii version), and minor categories (Topic links on the left side in-game, section headers on the wiki version) in any combination. I recommend keeping the minor categories short, as they can run over the edge if they're too long, but other than that, the sky's the limit.[*]The help menu allows a limited subset of HTML. What exists in the files currently are <b>, <i>, <table>, <color>, and <img>. Please just use wiki formatting, and I'll worry about the conversion.
I'm watching all of the pages in this development area, and I'll be working on them myself as well. So pleas,e help as you see fit.
----------
Again--
The Goal: To create a complete, coherent, and up-to-date version of the Help menu to be distributed to players as a mod
How: Visit The Development Area I've set up on Paragonwiki user page, and just edit it like any wiki
Keep In Mind: Limit your fanciness. The game currently only uses bold, italic, color, table, and a few images in the help's formatting. I'm not certain what else is possible
http://www.fimfiction.net/story/36641/My-Little-Exalt