CF: lib/def_help, lib/motd, default map and XPM

[Raphael.Quinet@eed.ericsson.se]

Speaking about the docs in my previous message reminded me of several
things that I wanted to post on this list, about the default
distribution.  First, a very small change: I suggest replacing the
help file lib/def_help by this, which is almost the same but a bit
more verbose:

---------- cut here ----------
How to use help:
  'help topics    (list of help topics)
  'help commands  (list of valid commands)
  'help <command> (help on a topic or command)
---------- cut here ----------

Also, here is an excerpt from the lib/motd file that I installed on
my server.  It is intended to help the people who start CrossFire or
the CrossFire client because they found it in a "games" directory but
don't know what to do with it.  It could be useful to put something
similar in the default distribution, because it could also help the
people who compile the game for the first time and didn't take the
time to read the docs.

---------- cut here ----------
-----------------------------------------------
        *** Welcome to Crossfire ***
 
After you have created your character, use the
arrows to move around.  The command prompt can
be accessed by typing ' (single quote).  Useful
commands are 'help, 'help keys, 'scroll, 'quit.
-----------------------------------------------
---------- cut here ----------

Another thing that would IMHO be useful for first-time installations
is to provide a default file lib/maps/city/city.  It would a very
simple map with no exits and a prominent sign saying:

"Your installation of CrossFire was succesful, but you did not install
 the maps.  Please install the contents of crossfire-*.maps.tar.gz in
 the lib/maps directory.".

That may sound a bit stupid, but it could help the people who want to
check that CrossFire was compiled and installed successfully before
extracting the (rather big) maps archive.  Of course, that default map
would be overwritten by the one in the maps archive, when you install
the maps.

One last thing that could make the first impression better for new
users...  I know that it could be controversial, but what about making
XPM the default option?  The nice, colorful XPM pixmaps are more
attractive than the default font or pixmaps.  If "-xpm" is the default
and is not needed anymore, then there should be a "-noxpm" or "-font"
option.  That may not be a good thing when playing over the Internet
(because of the extra bandwidth required by the XPM pixmaps) or on
terminals that are low on memory, but most people discover CrossFire
by trying to set up their own server and their first impression counts
a lot.  And XPM looks much better.

-Raphael