I just had an Idea: Helpful Popups?

[Waaagh]

I didn´t know wether it was best to post this in Mr. Maddox´s room, or here, but since I thought this Idea could spawn a discussion of one sort or the other I am posting a new thread.

I´ll just toss it into the room and see what becomes of it :p.

The Idea I had regards SoW´s interface, not so much (if at all) the Simulation part of it. Many people I´ve met who played IL-2 found the Menu system and the Aircraft controls to be complicated and partially confusing. While this might not apply to us simulation nuts, I thought it could get pretty frustrating for the casual gamer to figure out what CEM is and how it works. Similar things for the Cockpit controls and all the gauges: In IL-2 the Manifold pressure gauge is pretty much moot since it´s not showing the right pressure for the corresponding throttle setting anyways from what I´ve learned so far.
But since SoW will simulate aircraft to much greater degrees of detail, people who want to get into this might want to know the details.

Now on to the point: A right click on any clickable element reveals a help-box, explaining what the thing does. Master of Orion 2 uses this system, and it allows the game to go about without -any- Handbook at all, since the player can easily explore the game for himself.

While I would see that exploring cockpits in this manner is probably not possible in SoW while being directly ingame, since it won´t have clickable ´pits, it could in some way be implemented in the aircraft description files.

So I´m leaving this here for discussion. :p As a disclaimer, I´m not saying it should be done this way, or intending to force anything down anybodies throat. Think of it as a tidbit of Inspiration... Just so that I´m safe, from what I´ve read so far around here while I was lurking, I´ve found that it can get pretty hot sometimes when people get stirred.

Cheers

Waaagh

[DD_crash]

Maybe a html file might do it?