To readme or not to readme

[igi]

Personally, I hate readme files popping up.

 

All my mods offer a prompt to allow the user to see the readme after installation (or not). This should really prompt to see the readme 'now' (i.e. before installation) but this was not possible when the code was written. I'll be updating to change the option soon, now that it is.

[theacefes]

Pro-readme: you don't want "Where is Sarah???" all over your forum.

 

(You'll still have it all over your forum, only... not so much).

 

Remember, people who read and vote here are mostly modders or people, who reinstall mods on daily basis, not your average "Wow, Baldur's Gate has mods! More romances! Okay, I downloaded it... now where the hell is she?" players.

 

I'd recommend waiting with Weidu 200, though - it has a very annoying weidu.lock issue, and I'll personally not package the newest version in my mods until some solution is found(read: this feature is cut).

 

 

Yeah...I got in a brawl with the weidu.lock yesterday. Not fun. I'll probably just go back to 199.

 

theacefes, I've never seen posts like "OMG i didn't know what this mod would do"

 

That's not what I said. What I said was that the point of the readme is not just to list the credits, but to let players know what the mod is about and more importantly, any incompatibilities/other important stuff the player needs to know before installing or playing it.

 

Many, many times, because the readme was not read...posts like "WHERE IS SHE?"

or in the instance of Auren, "It's been a while, and she hasn't started her lovetalks with my PC yet", will rain down either on forums or PM. The readme lowers the percentage of these posts and pms. Even if it's not by much, understanding what the mod you are downloaded is before you actually play it is much more fun than having someone politely tell you that you were foolish for not reading either the readme.

[Mike1072]

All my mods offer a prompt to allow the user to see the readme after installation (or not). This should really prompt to see the readme 'now' (i.e. before installation) but this was not possible when the code was written. I'll be updating to change the option soon, now that it is.

I knew I'd seen the optional readme somewhere. I love the idea of giving people a choice, and appreciate your efforts in this area. Also, I was looking at how you did it in iiItem and I think it might be possible to just add another subcomponent that uses AT_NOW to view the file at the start.

[Gort]

That's not what I said. What I said was that the point of the readme is not just to list the credits, but to let players know what the mod is about and more importantly, any incompatibilities/other important stuff the player needs to know before installing or playing it.

 

Many, many times, because the readme was not read...posts like "WHERE IS SHE?"

or in the instance of Auren, "It's been a while, and she hasn't started her lovetalks with my PC yet", will rain down either on forums or PM. The readme lowers the percentage of these posts and pms. Even if it's not by much, understanding what the mod you are downloaded is before you actually play it is much more fun than having someone politely tell you that you were foolish for not reading either the readme.

Incompatibilities should be avoided by tp2 checks, not by mentioning them in readme (but, of course, they must be mentioned there). In my mini-mod, I just warn people that they should read the readme before the installation. If they still don't - well, it's up to them.

And, I doubt that people who install a mod without even reading its readme would read it if you pop it up.

[theacefes]

While it's nice that you tell us exactly what you may or may not do (seeing as how you seem to be a modder yourself), the point of the poll was for me to get some outside feedback on whether or not to include a popup readme in my own mod. I can see here that each modder has their own personal preference on what to do about this, but putting yourself in the player's seat, not as a modder, what would you, as a player, like to see?

 

If someone was downloading a mod for the first time, would they want a pop up readme? Or is it more likely that they will read the FAQs in the forum and figure out finding the readme in the mod files later?

 

 

Incompatibilities should be avoided by tp2 checks, not by mentioning them in readme (but, of course, they must be mentioned there)

 

Yes, this is assumed.

 

 

In my mini-mod, I just warn people that they should read the readme before the installation

 

Of course...who doesn't though?

 

 

And, I doubt that people who install a mod without even reading its readme would read it if you pop it up.

 

People who install mods without reading FAQs or some form of "about this mod" or 'how to" and later post foolish threads in the forums deserve every bit of polite jabs they get, in my opinion.

 

Thanks for your input, though. I'm heading closer to what I think I'm going to do. It's not the biggest deal in the world, but it's something that I have control over when I release my mod, so I want to make sure the way it looks makes sense and is sensible.

[Shaitan]

I really hate when the ReadMes pop up after installing. Two reasons: 1) I'm able to open it myself, when downloading a new mod/updated mod I allways read it thoroughly. 2) I tend to reinstall the whole shebang dozens of times, reading ie AoE readme twenty times doesn't change a lot - besides annoy me. igi's mods are cool in the way of asking if I would like to open the readme afterwards.

[Evaine Dian]

I always read the readmes (some are really funny) before I install the mod, or if it's online, I even read it before I download the mod. I don't need pop-ups.

[Gort]

While it's nice that you tell us exactly what you may or may not do (seeing as how you seem to be a modder yourself), the point of the poll was for me to get some outside feedback on whether or not to include a popup readme in my own mod. I can see here that each modder has their own personal preference on what to do about this, but putting yourself in the player's seat, not as a modder, what would you, as a player, like to see?

 

If someone was downloading a mod for the first time, would they want a pop up readme? Or is it more likely that they will read the FAQs in the forum and figure out finding the readme in the mod files later?

that turns into question of amount. How many people do read the readme before and how many don't. You can't satisfy all, and don't forget that every bit of common sense tells us to read it before.

 

Of course...who doesn't though?

uhm.. I never seen "read the readme" warning in the cmd installation window)

[CoM_Solaufein]

Its not a big deal and not worth crying over it. If you don't like it them, it is not too much of a difficult task to click the X to close the Readme file.

[cmorgan]

[sortofofftopic]theacefes, I strongly recommend grabbing igi's iiItem mod (and the rest of his stuff, too) and taking a look at the code - it is a primer on some seriously heavy duty stuff, and it has the code to allow choice. I don't understand most of it, especially arrays and all of macros usage, but I am working my way through it and learning alot. And it works great on multiple platforms. I am not sure, though, igi, that README will work precisely the way you want with your code. I believe the bigg has it parsing and operating after the tp2 is read in, but before absolutely anything else. We would have to test to see if it ould allow being nested, or if it is like MODDER and ALWAYS, which is what I assume).

 

[/sortofofftopic]

[Gabrielle]

Something so minor is such a big deal? WoWsers!

[CamDawg]

I much prefer the README approach (now that it's available), but I don't like not being able to skip it.

 

I don't like embedding a 'view readme' prompt in an ALWAYS/AT_NOW block, because then the user is being prompted to view the readme after they've already decided to install a component (and possibly skipped others because they don't know what they are).

 

If README could be altered to use a yes/no prompt, we'd have readme bliss.

 

edit: Requested.

[Lysan Lurraxol]

I prefer to have the read me pop up, with my screwy computer, it's the only way to make sure the mod has actually worked

 

Also, I prefer it to be in HTML, it looks nicer and is easier on the eyes

[Guest John]

For myself, I would really love the readme to pop up before I start installing a mod, especially if the mod has a gazillion number of components. The purpose for me is to refresh my memory of what the component does and if that fits with what I wanted to have in my game. Sure, I can look in the MOD's folder in the game folder to find and open it, but it'd be quicker and more convenient if it's already viewable at the time before you start picking and choosing which components.

 

Popping up afterwards is more like salving your conscience rather than a useful guide when you're actually selecting the components. It's nice for hindsight, but it doesn't reduce mistakes at the time you're actually choosing.

 

Just my 2 cents

[dragonjewel13]

Speaking as someone who can remember the many harrowing months as a 'wow, BG2 has mods! I can play new romances! Neat!' player, I can say that readme's are fantastic things. The ones that didn't pop up just after installation were ones that I invariably didn't play because they confused me. (Can I go ahead and publicy thank the modding community for teaching me to be more computer literate? Thanks, guys). I think, for the new players, that a readme that automatically pops up *sometime* before the game is played is a great thing.