AEI tips window at startup

[Samer]

So .. We're used to getting strange questions\ problem reports of things that most of us think are pretty obvious .. i get a lot of people asking for help on the facebook group as well.
here are some of the most common ones :
-they install a mod, and don't know how to uninstall it (besides tens another guy asked same thing on fb)
-when two mods are incompatible they don't know they should unselect one of them.
-just today a guy attempted to install all mods and complained that oni ran out of memory ...
-they don't know where to report bugs (or what they think are bugs)\ problems
-they don't read the help file.

So as a suggestion:
can we have a "Remember!" or "General Tips" window that appears when AEinstaller opens ?

it can say stuff like this
*Welcome to AEinstaller please read the following instructions before you begin
*Read each mod's description carefully before you decide to install it
*At your first run try not to install more than 20-30 mods
*to uninstall a mod just unselect it from the list and click install again, you don't have to delete it.
*It's highly recommended that you update your mods and the Aeinstaller whenever you're notified that an update is available.
*if two mods are incompatible you have to unselect one of them
*to report bugs with the AE go here: (link to anniversary edition thread or section)
*to report bugs with particular mods visit that mod's thread which is usually mentioned in the mod's description
*(maybe warn about the particle overload)
*check the help in the file menu for more info on the AEinstaller.
*to disable this message uncheck the option from the settings menu.

Something like that ... States the obvious, but i feel it's really needed for new users, since we get same issues reported over and over ..(i'm getting a lot of these on facebook group)
And have that message show up everytime AEinstaller opens, except if they disable it from settings, that way we guarantee they read it and didn't just choose don't show this again ...

I know most of this stuff is mentioned on the forum\wiki\readme ... But you'll be surprised by how many people just click that download and don't read anything and some get the AE link directly without visitng the forum. And at the end it's us who have to answer these questions. So this could save us the trouble and make it more user friendly and less intimidating for newbies.

[Christian]

How about a draft for what it could exactly be? I.e. a fully formulated text that could be used in such dialog. You probably know better what is missing etc ;)

[Samer]

If I post it as a dropbox link to a microsoft word document would that be ok ?

[Christian]

Sure =)

[Samer]

​https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/22609960/AE%20installer%20starup%20window.docx
the links should be truncated if possible i don't know the code that truncates them.

[Iritscen]

Just because it's such a prominent message, and because I'm a grammar nazi, I'd like to fix all that punctuation. Read ​this for an idea of what I'm talking about -- specifically the part concerning comma splices, and then the Remedies section. English speakers do this all the time in writing, but it's not really correct. Here's the same text with tweaked punctuation (not sure why you couldn't have just posted a version in situ that could be edited :-p).

• Read each mod's description carefully before you decide to install it.
• On your first run, try not to install more than 20 to 30 mods. Installing too many mods can cause Oni to run out of memory.
• To uninstall a mod, just unselect it from the list and click Install again; you don't have to delete it.
• It's highly recommended that you update your mods and the AE Installer whenever you're notified that an update is available.
• If you’re notified that two mods are incompatible, you have to unselect one of them before you try to install again.
• To report bugs or problems with the Anniversary Edition itself or the AE Installer go ​here.
• To report bugs with a particular mod, visit that mod's thread, which is usually linked to in the mod's description.
• Warning: If too many mods which use custom particles are installed, Oni may crash. Read more about this issue ​here.
• For more information and instructions on the features of the AE Installer itself, see “Help” under the “Installer” menu.
• To disable this message, uncheck the corresponding option in “Settings” under the “Installer” menu.

My only concern at this point is that there's too many reminders and the user's eyes will glaze over. And I still think we shouldn't have a button that can select all mods. On the contrary, if the user selects all mods to install, I'd like to request that the AEI deliver an electric shock to the user, perhaps through overloading the keyboard's USB power transmission. But I guess that should be a separate ticket ;)

[Samer]

Alloc asked for it to be formatted ... Didn't know how to do that here so i used a word document. I wanted to make a note that you should feel free to correct any punctuation ... Word didn't flag any grammar mistakes .. I'm a grammar nazi as well in regard to tenses and subject verb agreement but punctuation is something I never got the hang of.
As for risk of eyes glazing over .. That's why we'll have it pop up till they read the whole thing till the how to disable part :D
for the select unselect all, the issue is for lack of better words some users' stupidity, not the button itself which is very useful ... Example select all character, texture mods at once .. Unselect everything at once etc .. Hence the warning should be enough to address that, we shouldn't take off useful features out of fear they'll be misused, what we can do is guide those who don't know about the right use.

[Iritscen]

"As for risk of eyes glazing over .. That's why we'll have it pop up till they read the whole thing till the how to disable part :D"
Haha, I see, very clever.

"Hence the warning should be enough to address that"
Yes, and also I hope to see the ticket addressed that requests an actual warning to pop up when the mod selection exceeds a limit (or estimated/guesstimated limit) of Oni's engine.

[Samer]

Replying to Iritscen:

Yes, and also I hope to see the ticket addressed that requests an actual warning to pop up when the mod selection exceeds a limit (or estimated/guesstimated limit) of Oni's engine.

the only thing about this is: There doesn't seem to be a fixed limit, it depends on the package content and probably on the user's computer. It seems like you can install several small mods with no limitations, but for some installing several textures and characters and levels might give that error. From the feedback I've gotten it's not constant, some had it with 20 mods, some had up to 40 mods and didn't have a problem. I've never had it, but I've never had more than 30 installed mods at one time. In all cases a warning should pop up if user tries to install say 50+ mods ... and electrocution if he tries to install all mods :P

[Iritscen]

"From the feedback I've gotten it's not constant, some had it with 20 mods, some had up to 40 mods and didn't have a problem"
Yes, ticket:11 addresses that -- the "limit" I'm referring to is any specific engine limit, such as 1024 particle classes. It requires installing lots of things and then seeing what specifically causes a crash, then programming the AEI with knowledge of that limit.

Then, in some cases, we can precisely determine whether the mod selection will cause a problem by counting the items it adds to the game. Of course this counting process is only practical when whole files can be counted. If we have to count something like the number of particles attached to a TRAM it requires XML exporting and parsing, so if that were necessary, we might want to have the AEI only perform such an "audit" when it is asked to install more than, say, 30 mods. Maybe that's something to discuss, under that ticket of course.

[Christian]

So the grammatically corrected bullet list Irit posted is ok with everyone? Would add it later today if so =)

[Samer]

Yes
but with the first 2 lines i had in the document which Irtiscen didn't repost.
Welcome to Oni's Anniversary Edition Installer!
please take a moment to read these instructions before you start.

[alloc]

In 873:

AEI2.14:

• Fixes #55