Replace the Help Menu With Something Useful!

[BlackSpectre]

I found this on the old COH forums via the WayBackMachine. It literally replaces the obsolete help menu (/helpwindow) with useful stuff such as badges, and missions, and contacts, and binds, etc. The download links for the Windows and Mac versions still work!  Check it out! 

https://web.archive.org/web/20120906212849/http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showthread.php?t=292537

 

I should mention I haven't installed this yet, but it's my plan to do this weekend. It looks like the guy wrote an .exe installation file for windows, but if that doesn't work, use the data found in the "Mac" version download.

[PeregrineFalcon]

Did the installation work?

 

And was there a lot of out of date info in this?

[BlackSpectre]

Yes, this worked GREAT!!!! I just copied the appropriate files over to the "data" folder. I don't know if the Window .exe will work, but I figure there's a good chance it won't since it's so old.

 

The only out of date information I have come across are the links to badge-hunter.com (BH). That website is gone. However, all of the Paragon Wiki (PW) links still work.  

 

Other than that, nothing out of date, per se... just old-ish. All info is from Issue 24 or before. So no new I25, I26, or I27 stuff. But... since I never found the Help Window useful anyway, at least now there is some stuff that might be usable with this new custom Help Menu... namely contacts and missions. There's a BUNCH of badge info, but I've never been into badges much. I can see people that are into badges liking this a lot...

 

For me, the best part of this is that it provides a framework to improve upon. It would be relatively easy to add new information, new links, and even additional info such as enemy vulnerabilities and primary damage types. Actual clickable waypoints for contacts, badges, etc. could also be added. Powersets by archetypes, set IO info, pretty much anything. And since it uses popmenus, you could even activate powers or send messages. 

 

Just for convenience's sake, here's a link to the files:   https://drive.google.com/file/d/1uv1x7hEOQdJCTnEw0ZEHh-Nu1YoYNlw3/view?usp=sharing

 

I also copy and pasted the important info from the post, including the installation directions, and put it in a "readme.txt" file.

 

It's pretty darn cool!

 

 

 

Here are the main categories in this help menu:

 

• Task Forces
• City Zones
• Contacts By Level
• Story Arcs by Level
• Tips by Type
• Badges by Category
• SG Badges by Category
• Temp Powers by Category
• Souvenirs by Name
• Colors by Name
• Badges By Name
• Badges in Game Order
• Contacts By Name
• Temp Powers by Name
• Badges Recent Adds

 

There are a lot of other awesome features in this help menu. A cool one is the ability to click on a task force, and then click on a link to send a recruitment message straight to LFG, Broadcast, etc. Pre-written invite scripts makes is automatic. Pretty snazzy, actually! It gives you coordinates for just about everything. And links to paragon wiki for more info on whatever you're looking at. It was obviously a TON of work!

 

The author mentioned that his primary goal was to have all this information that we'd normally have to get by tabbing out and searching on the internet, available to players right in the game... using the help menu. No need to go outside the game. 

 

It's an admirable goal... but... my head reels when I think about how much work it would be to keep updated and current. I mean, we have teams of people doing that at the wiki. That said, the information in this help menu is fairly accurate. Only a few things have been changed over the years. The bulk of the game is from Issue 24 and before, which is how current the information is in this help menu. Of course, there's none of the information from Issue 25 and later. Definitely no Homecoming stuff. But yes, the bulk of the game is in this help window.

 

Since I don't use the standard help window anyway, I figure this one can't hurt. Go ahead and try it. Test it out. See if you like it. And if not, just delete the files that you added and the game will be back to the way it was. There's no risk of damaging anything.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited June 26, 2023 by BlackSpectre
added link to files

[BlackSpectre]

UPDATE: 

The -console command line parameter reports a TON of errors in these modded help files. Almost all of the errors seem to be simple text errors that don't have much impact on the game, or even on the functionality of these help files.  These modded help files seem to work fine. That said, the huge number of errors took up almost my entire console screen and pushed all the graphics loading info off the screen. Since I'm currently testing graphics commands, I ended up removing these help files today so I could see what's going on with the graphics commands. Easy enough. Since these files aren't destructive in any way, just deleting them from my data folder is all that was necessary, and the game is back to the way it was.

 

Having had these installed for 8 months, I can't say I've used them a whole lot... I mean, hardly at all. I'm not sure if this is because I'm a veteran COH player and really don't need any of the help information, or if the information in these helps files isn't really that useful? And that begs the question, what would be useful in a help file? I think I'll create a new post for this over in general...