Bug#774361: how to play?

[Tomas Pospisek]

tags 774361 - moreinfo + patch
severity 774361 wishlist

thanks

Hello in the new year Markus,

I've should have also read the accompanying "README.lgeneral.gz", then I 
would have known. However I suggest to make it easier to users to "just 
play". Imagine the following situation:

It's christmas holidays and I'm bored. I fire up aptitude and install some 
games at random. Then I start them from the "Applications" menu.

Once the game is started I think the user will intuitively start clicking 
around, not least around the menu. But unless he first selects a scenario 
*and then also a campaign*, he will not be able to play.

I think ideally the game should give the users a hint what to do next.

So upon loading the scenario, the text that is displayed should tell the 
user "and now select a campaign from the menu".

But all of this is material for upstream.

What the Debian package could do is to make it easier for the Debian user. 
I think an "advanced" user will at least have a look at the README.Debian, 
and that's where you could give him/her the necessary hint. The same hint 
should also go into the manpage IMHO...

So here's my proposed patch for Debian.README (the same should go into 
'man lgeneral').

===================================================================================
--- README.Debian.orig  2015-01-03 14:04:00.515754439 +0100
+++ README.Debian       2015-01-03 14:06:36.755751024 +0100
@@ -7,6 +7,10 @@
  the fun may vary. Playtesting, feedback and suggestions for improvements are
  most welcome.

+To start a game, you need to go to the menu and first select a scenario and then
+a campaign. Have a look at the provided README.lgeneral.gz, chapter "5. Interface"
+for instructions on how to play the game.
+
  You can gather more information about LGeneral for Debian at
  http://wiki.debian.org/Games/LGeneral.
===================================================================================

Thanks,
*t

On Thu, 1 Jan 2015, Markus Koschany wrote:

> Control: tags -1 moreinfo
>
> Hi and happy new year,
>
> On Thu, 01. Jan 15:13 Tomas Pospisek <tpo_deb at sourcepole.ch> wrote:
>> Package: lgeneral
>> Version: 1.2.3+dfsg-3
>> Severity: normal
>>
>> How can I actually play the game?
>>
>> 1. I start lgeneral
>> 2. I click "C" for campain, and select PG
>> 3. a text explains what the aim is I click on that and
>>    the text disappears
>> 4. I'm back to the map
>> 5. what's the next step?
>>    - clicking anywhere doesn't seem to have any effect
>>    - right-click brings up the menu
>>    - any key-press on my keyboard doesn't seem to have
>>      any effect either
>>    - README.Debian does mention any controls, however it
>>      point to the LGeneral Debian Wiki
>>    - in the Debian Wiki there's no mention of controls
>>      either however it points to the LGeneral Web Page at SF
>>    - on the LGeneral Web Page there's no mentions of
>>      controls either
>>
>> 6. now what?
>
> That sounds more like a support request and not like a bug report.
>
> In short: You are supposed to click on S and start the scenarios except
> you own a copy of the original Panzer General game yourself. In the
> latter case you could then use game-data-packager to create a Debian package for the original
> campaign. I have explained this in README.Debian. The campaign is
> non-distributable for Debian despite the fact that the community claims
> Panzer General was "abandonware" and there is even a commercial game
> which reverse-engineered the PG engine but still I am not aware of a
> free license that would allow it.
>
> Let's start with the campaign (C) and the scenarios (S). If you install
> lgeneral, you can only play the free scenarios provided by the
> lgeneral-data package. You have to click on (S) and choose one of the
> WWI scenarios from the kukgen directory. You can always bring up the
> menu by right-clicking. After you have selected a scenario, the game
> will start with the selected map. The rest is moving your units around
> and attack other units. Pretty standard turn-based strategy.
>
> I wonder how I am supposed to fix this bug. More information are
> appreciated.
>
> Regards,
>
> Markus
>
>
>