I think the filterguide is a bit incomprehensive and uncomplete. I'm no expert in writing guides and I have learned the filters the hard way, just reading examples and picking them apart. its pretty intuitive though as it may only have took a few minutes to get to grips with it but I doubt that is true for everyone. maybe adopt a content template to use when creating the documentation to get you going: http://www.alistapart.com/articles/cont ... he-rescue/
example templates:
Documentation:
What is the feature called?
Where can it be found?
What does it do?
How do you use it?
Guide:
What is the purpose/goal of this guide?
Who is it for?
in short: what does the guide cover?
step1:
What is it?
What is the purpose of it?
How to do it?
...
the objective of using a content template is consistency and is meant to be able to be used for all content of the same type. they answers lenght/depth may differ depending on the nature of the subject but the content will still cover everything in the same order and style as every other subject this way.
It would be good if you split filters into two parts, one for using existing filters, for the basic user. and one for customizing filters for the advanced users.
Here's my contribution:
Guide:
Getting started for players
In this guide we will go through the following:
1. Adding a game
2. Basic settings
3. The graphical user interface
4. Finding and joining servers
Step 1 - Adding a game
GS needs to know what games you play. When you start GS for the first time it will ask you to configure a game, press yes to open the configuration window.
In the configuration window select the game you want to to use GS with in the list on the left side.
Here you configure the settings for the game.
Check "Activate game" to make the game show up in GS after you are done.
Press "add new installation" and press the "..." button to browse to the games installation path and double-click on the multiplayer executable.
Press "Save"
Repeat this step for every game you want to use GS with.
[insert link to complete documentation of game configuration]
Step 2 - Basic settings
Only setting I recommend that you need to change is network connections because the speed of scanning depends on the number of connections. When GS scans servers it connect to several servers simultaneously. You can change this in "Network" in the list on the left side in the Configuration window. The default is 64 and depending on your routers capacity you can increase this up to 256 connections, set it to 256 and go back and do decremental changes later if necessary.
[insert link to complete documentation of settings]
Step 3 - The graphical user interface
This part is fairly comprehensive, it is crucial to know most if not all of this be able to make the most out of GS, if you are only looking for a specific feature it is in here too.
if you just want to jump into the game right away go to the next step.
1. Menu
[add something here]
2. Toolbar
If you hover over the buttons a tooltip with a description pops up
From left to right:
Complete refresh - Connects to and downloads serverlist from masterservers for the selected game and scan the servers for info and ping.
Refresh filtered servers - Scans the servers in the serverlist for info and ping.
Settings - Brings up the Configuration window
Search - Search for servers by hostname or IP
Add to favorites - Adds the IP entered into the searchfield to favorites
Quick connect - Connects to the IP entered into the searchfield
New buddy - Opens the add new buddy dialog window
Toggle color encoded fonts on/off
3. Treeview
Works just like a filetree, click the arrows to expand or collapse each section
Game - Shows internet servers that pass through the selected filters
Internet servers - Shows internet servers that pass through the selected filters
Favorites - Shows favorites, use the searchfield to add an IP to favourites or right-click on a server to add it
History - Shows servers you have connected to this session
Monitor - Shows monitored servers, right-click on a server for monitor options(Add Event)
Filters - Here you select the settings for the servers you want to find for this specific game, make sure to select the gameversion you have!
Global filters - Same as filters but apply to all games, here you find filters for number of players, ping and country.
4. Buddy list
Shows your buddies and what game and server they are playing on.
To add a buddy either use the add buddy in the toolbar or "add" in the right-click menu or right-click on a player in the players tab(see tablist)
5. Serverlist
Shows the servers of the current selection in the treeview
Rearrange the columns by drag-and-drop
Resize them by draging the lines between the columntitles left or right
Add/remove columns by right-clicking on the columntitles
Double-clicking a server will launch the game and connect to that server
To enter and save a password for a server right-click on it and choose "Set Private Password"
6. Tablist
Players - Shows all the players on the selected server(s), their points, ping and the servername of the server they are on
Server rules - Shows all available info about the selected server, info that also serves as a basis for the filters
...
for the rest of the tabs see the complete documentation of tablist [link]
7. Preview map
This shows an image of the map that is currently on the selected server.
This is disabled by default and can be enabled in the "View" menu.
8. Statusbar
Shows all kinds of messages of interest
Right-click contextmenu
Right-click to show a menu with context to what you right-clicked on.
Step 4 - Finding and joining servers
If you have read though the previous step maybe you have figured it out already.
First make sure you have refreshed the servers by clicking the first button in the toolbar.
To find a specific server use the searchfield up in the toolbar to search for the hostname or IP
To find all servers with certain settings use the filters and global filters in the treeview, click on the arrows to expand collapsed items to reveal all the filters. What the filters do should be pretty straight forward.
I strongly recommend the following:
Select the anticheat enabled filter, for for example punkbuster. this will ensure the most cheat-free gaming experience.
Select the filter for the version of the game you have, otherwise GS will still launch the game but the game will not be able to connect to the server if it is the wrong version.
In Global filters:
Select hide offline servers to hide servers that you cant connect to anyway.
Select a Maximum ping filter, for example select "Max 100 ping". this will ensure that you get a smooth gaming experience without lag.
Select filters for "not full" and "not empty", to only see servers that you can join that has players on them.
If you don't know exactly what you want to play and want to see what is available and then choose you can uncheck all filters(keep the recommended ones) and then open the server rules tab to read what settings the server has in there. some games settings are more verbose then others so it might be varyingly difficult to know what they do. the "Game type" and "Mod" columns in the serverlist can be of great help too ofcourse.
When you select a server in the list it will automatically be refreshed. To be sure that nothing has changed since your initial scan you can press the second button in the toolbar.
To join a server just double click on it.
