Any reason for removing in-game docs in 4.2?

[chandergovind]

I upgraded recently from 4.1.x and am sorely feeling the lack of the in-game docs.

As an intermediate player, I need to often look-up stuff, for example, the structure of the inscriptions. I even learnt about keymaps originally while going through the docs in the middle of playing.

I also suspect that the character creation experience for a new player would feel a lot more mechanical. I used to, and still do, go through the docs of the races/classes when rolling a new char.

Am I the only one feeling this? Is there some compile option I can use to bring it back?

[Sky]

there is an online google doc now that has far more info:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1nAVk2AodMHloqhLBzZm7p_s4mne3My4Kyo9wODJWAFQ/edit#gid=1756990203

[Nick]

The general idea was that they were not that easy to read, and people tended not to look at them. They are all available (updated to the lateest version) here.

[chandergovind]

@Sky, wasn't aware of this sheet. Seems pretty detailed.

@Nick, was aware of this link - the in-game help does redirect one to it. If the general consensus points to people not using the in-game version, that's fine I guess.

I still think that retaining some version of this in-game, at least the race/class related stuff, will be useful for newcomers, but maybe that's just my own biased preference.

[fph]

For what it's worth, I like the idea of moving the help online. The in-game reader was clunky and limited, and everyone can open a browser these days. Many modern games do not have in-game help (I believe that those who do are a minority), and young people are trained to look online for help.
I worked in the past on the help files and browser (and I am in part responsible for why it was clunky and limited), and I am happy to see it gone for a better system.

The only thing I am unsure about is how this new system handles different versions of the game. Does the in-game help always point to the "latest" version on readthedocs? If some features are changed between one version and the other, even if the help files are updated in the source tree, the game is going to point readers to the wrong version of the help files. Maybe the official build for version 4.2.1 should point to https://angband.readthedocs.io/en/4.2.1/index.html (a page that does not exist currently), and so on.

[Archenoth]

I miss the in-game docs too since I play on devices where switching tasks isn't exactly seamless, and sometimes even on things without a browser. (Or where a browser would drain a battery more than a simple terminal would)

That said, I can understand that they add more maintenance overhead, and I'm very much in the minority when it comes to how I play, so I've just copied over the help files from old versions into the right places to not make more work for whoever would need to keep these files up to date.

If you want to do that too, basically, if you copy the text files from here into your help folder, the game can understand them normally. (Though note that some of the things in these files is out of date)