Here's a Q.
Q: I have installed FS2 Retail and applied the 1.02 patch. I've downloaded FS1 port 3.0.3 and all the other goodies files from the website for the FS1 port. I do not have original FS1.
Exactly what do I need to do to make FS1 Port 3.0.3 work with FS2 Retail? What folders do I need to create, if any? Which of the files go in which folders? the readme with 3.0.3 mentions copying/extracting stuff from FS1 _or_ downloading it from the FS1 Port site, but then fails to tell exactly what to do from there.
<end Q>
Since I haven't found a 'compleat newbie' guide to setting up this port, I tried dumping all the port's .vp files in the main freespace2 folder where FS2's are. That sorta works. I get the FS1 main hall, dunno if the music's different. Only the FS2 campaign is available. Ships are different but breifing text/voice/animation in the first training mission are from FS2. There's also the problem of the script wanting the player to go at max speed but expecting a max slightly slower than the ship can do so it never gets past that. (Is there a key that adjusts max speed in 1M/sec increments? Page up/down goes too much at a step.)
P.S. Reminds me of a Dune II game ROM I tried to get to work on a HP-48 calculator emulator. The instructions provided told the user every piece of info, how to load the ROM into the emulator etc, except for the most important instruction, what virtual button(s) on the emulator to click to run the ROM so it could be played. So the ROM was in the emulator's memory space and there it sat doing nothing no matter what buttons I clicked because the person who packaged the ROM assumed everyone would already know how to run it.
Think of telling a person who doesn't know what a car or a gas pump are how to fill the car's tank with fuel! Every little niggling detail has to be included because you cannot assume any prior knowledge on the part of the person doing the task. Wayyyyy back when in grade school, one of my teachers did stuff like this where pairs of students had to direct each other through a task, with the one doing it doing only and exactly what they were told. Much funny stuff happened!
Dunno if anyone else learned the lesson, but it helped me a whole bunch in dealing with walking people through computer problems later. (I've 23 years experience as a computer (ab)user.) I also gained a rather low irritation threshhold for unclear/incomplete instructions.
If you want to see what has to be among the finest examples of instructions for the total newbie, find a manual for the IBM PCjr. It tells the user _exactly_ what he needs to know, leaves nothing out and doesn't go off on tangents about how stuff's different on other IBM models.
