Any Official Documentation?

[R0UNDEYEZ]

I've been playing around with this engine a couple days now and I'm curious if there is anywhere i can go some official help files of some sort. The help tab in the program itself the topics are all empty,with a link to this forum.
Reading through the sticky list of "tutorials" is somewhat frustrating since there seems to be sort of quality control in effect, there are stickied tutorials with information either wrong, vague  or just written half assed . I don't want to sound like a jerk, but it seems like 75% of the "tutorials" in that list end with " maybe i'll add more later.. i'm too tired right now" or something to that effect.

So yeah, not trying to flame or anything, just looking for a good reference of info.

[Ruins of Hell]

Everything is fairly basic, there's not really much to note (not to mention nobody uses the tutorial board because everyone just asks in questions).

You could mean a lot by info, ranging from mapping to programming. There should be a documentation somewhere, Stephan had one for scripting that was written nicely.

I'll get a documentation done, if I can't find one written already.

[MMORPG DUDE]

Yeah eclipse is pretty basic unless your scripting then its pretty much read and learn

[R0UNDEYEZ]

You keep saying there isn't much to it.. i have been using it for 2 days… I don't know it inside and out like you guys do,I've been reading and playing around with it, and a lot of it is pretty intuitive,but at the same time a lot of it isn't..Not to mention trying to learn anything in such a disorganized way takes longer.
Just as a purely hypothetical example lets say my car stereo needed the time set, i could look in the manual (yes i'm the nerd that actually holds onto his manuals for games and electronics! :) ) or I could ask a bunch of my friends if they knew how to set it and hope for the best...

what does elements ini do?

responses.ini ?

I've been poking around in stats ini... is adding a new usuable stat as simple as adding an entry there? do i need to modify the gui at all? scripting?
is there information on what those entries
AddPerStr=0
AddPerDef=0
AddPerMagi=10
AddPerSpeed=0 do?

how do I know if a change requires editing the source?

how about a list of global default hotkeys? is there somewhere I can edit to change those?
I don't know who runs things around here, but have you considered setting up a wiki? it would be a good way to an official reference to point to and still have community contribution, but a bit of quality control as well on the information presented to total noobs to the program like myself.
I know its a free program, but the easier it is to pick up and use with out all the hassle to find simple bits of info,the more people will continue to use it and make games that we can all enjoy playing! :)

[Ruins of Hell]

@R0UNDEYEZ:

> -snip-

1\. Elements.ini as rather worthless, seeing as elements don't work anyways.
2\. Stats.ini: No. You have to edit the source code to add a stat (even if you could add it there, it wouldn't do anything). Source coding is done via Visual Basic 6.
3\. AddPer(StatHere) is how many points towards that stat a player gains when he levels up.
4\. You can tell if a change requires source if:
It's not documented in Scripting commands.
If it requires a change to text on the client or server not pertaining to the actual GUI.
You can ask here on the forums, and a reliable source, usually a moderation team member, will answer.
5\. Hotkeys:
Arrow Keys (Walk).
Shift (Run).
CTRL (Attack).
There are four hot keys (I don't remember, but I think they were: Insert, Delete, PageUp, PageDown), that can be changed via Scripting (main.txt OR HotKeys.ess if you use Eclipse Stable).

Hence, you see why I think it's basic, there's only like ten keys.
6\. As for the owner, he's Marsh (orange named, with the title "Owner"). You'd have to ask him about the wiki, but we'd have to put in a lot of effort to kick start documentation at this point.

@Kipper:

> Yeah eclipse is pretty basic unless your scripting then its pretty much read and learn

Please don't repeat what I'm saying unless you have something to add.

[R0UNDEYEZ]

so why is elements.ini included if it doesn't do anything?

*sigh*

you don't have to actually answer that, I guess its more of a rhetorical question than anything. ( and a perfect example of why docs are needed)

> You'd have to ask him about the wiki, but we'd have to put in a lot of effort to kick start documentation at this point.

No more effort than answering the same noob questions all the time on the forums because there is no organized source of information.

But hey what do I know? This whole idea of read mes and help files is a passing fad i think ….  /sarcasm

[Ruins of Hell]

:shrug:

They thought it had it working, but it didn't. Past versions of Eclipse were buggy (EE2.7 and below, Eclipse Stable fixing most problems and Eclipse Origins being a rewrite).

And, noobs will be noobs. Trust me, you can make a sticky solving every possible problem, and nobody will read it. Organized source of information or not, people will still complain (see Stephan's Bug And Run Time Error Guide in the Bug and Run Time Error section).

[R0UNDEYEZ]

> noobs will be noobs. Trust me, you can make a sticky solving every possible problem, and nobody will read it.

There will always be people who the kind of noobs who are just willfully ignorant and want everything spoon fed to them.All the info in the world at their finger tips won't help these people. At the same time there are noobs who want to learn, but are simply new. These are the people you have the info for so they grow out of noobhood to become contributing members to the community..

[Ruins of Hell]

Don't get me wrong, I agree with you, but we have an active community and the Questions board will always be active as it is now. We could document every feature in the world, but not many people want to read "boring" documentation.

Also, documenting is being discussed as we speak, don't worry. It'll get it done even if I have to do it all myself ;).