Json based in game 'tips'

One guy on the general forum posted about how he is overwhelmed. I then post about a tutorial. there is an old one that is broken. I have another idea, that would be easier and easy for people to participate in.

what about in game tips that are json based? they can be categorized. they can popup on certian triggers or over time ,but youc an go to a catalogue of them by category. anyone can add these easily. we will need to rehash them over time because some will be obsolete. so we should add the date and version that it was added for to keep this easier.

if we can do this in a json, then its something the whole community can contribute to.

It already exists:
https://github.com/CleverRaven/Cataclysm-DDA/blob/master/data/json/hints.json
Too be fair at the moment the only places that use this are NPC’s and one book that will randomly pull out hints when you read it. They could definitely be incorporated into the game a little more.

I agree that the tips could be made more visible.

Ok, what are the tips needed for? You certainly mean of more advanced ones, as the ingame menus have descriptions, FAQs, and more.

I think a really good way to do a tutorial would be to have a special “tutorial NPC” (once they work and all <_< ) that assigns you missions specificically suited to getting you on your feet, walks you through improvising some of the basic weapons, some basic info about kiting and obstacles, explain how stealth works (mostly that you can see monsters before they can see you), and some early looting.

Just a thought.

To be clear, I’m not against having popup tips in the game, not sure where to put them in the interface though, we don’t exactly have loading screens.

The tips and possibly tutorial could be built into the starting shelter computer console. A “what to do in case of emergency” guide or something similar. Maybe a simple little tooltip that shows up when you start the game: “'e’xamine the nearby computer console (6) for a tutorial or tips and hints.”

Dwarf Fortress has a little intro line when you start a new settlement, why not do something similar with a new character? Little briefing line like on the Wiki, followed by “That computer over there still works, maybe it has more helpful information”