how to use the AE-FunctionHelp mod

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relanat
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A quick topic to help people use a great mod by AssumedPseudonym.
It prints a list in the debug log of all the functions in the game along with all the function help available for that function. Very handy in an rtf file for quick searching.

Add the mod to your Multiverse collection here: https://multiverse.kronosaur.com/catalog.hexm. Load Transcendence to download the mod. You need to be logged in for it to download.
The file will be in the Collection folder and is called "AE-4000-FunctionHelp.TDB".
Double-click Transcendence.exe to load Trancendence.
The next step is to start a game. (This is critical; you must start a game, select the mod and see the playership before quitting for the mod to work.)
Click 'New Game'
In the next screen you must select the 'Avian Enterprises - Function Help' mod to load the code that generates the function list.
Once you've selected the mod, start the game by clicking 'OK' and let a game start.
After the game has started and you can see the playership, hit 'Esc' then '2' to quit.

You will return to the intro screen.
Here we press '!' which is 'Shift-1'. This brings up a rectangle near the bottom of the screen. This rectangle is wating for text input.
Type 'function list' into this rectangle and then press 'Enter'. Capitals/lower-case doesn't matter but there must be a space between the two words.
The message 'function list generating' will be displayed for a second or two, then the intro screen will return to its normal appearance.

Now we go back to the Transcendence folder (where Transcendence.exe and the Collection folder are) and open the file called Debug.log.
At the bottom of the Debug.log file you will see a big wall of text. It starts and finishes with a line of ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~.
Cut and paste this slab of text into Wordpad or a similar text editing program (but not Notepad which is too basic) and it magically appears as something like this (but significantly longer):

Code: Select all

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

F U N C T I O N   L I S T

(!= x1 x2 ... xn) -> True if any arguments are not equal
(* x1 x2 ... xn) -> z
(+ x1 [x2 ... xn]) -> sum (int32 or real)
(- x1 x2 ... xn) -> z
 (- x) -> -x
(/ x y) -> x / y (real)
(< [x1 x2 ... xn]) -> True if x1 < x2 < ... < xn
(<= [x1 x2 ... xn]) -> True if x1 <= x2 <= ... <= xn
(= [x1 x2 ... xn]) -> True if all arguments are equal
(> [x1 x2 ... xn]) -> True if x1 > x2 > ... > xn
(>= [x1 x2 ... xn]) -> True if x1 >= x2 >= ... >= xn
(@ list index) -> item index from list (0-based)
(@ struct key) -> value corresponding to key from struct
(abs x) -> absolute value (int32 or real)
A lot of it looks like gibberish and I don't think anyone understands it all except George, but don't despair, there is a logic to it and forum, IRC and Discord members are always ready to help.

I recommend adding the version number at the end of the words 'FUNCTION LIST' so you can keep track of which list belongs to which version. Unfortunately there is currently no easy way to get the mod to print the game version in the list for us.

This is an excellent resource for modders or people who are learning to mod. The explanations (thanks to great work by community members) are getting more and more detailed with every version and are of real value in helping to understand how to use the functions,

AP also posts this information in the Modding Reference section of the forum for every new version. And digdug adds a post to the bottom of that topic showing what has changed since the previous version which is really handy too.

Enjoy.
Stupid code. Do what I want, not what I typed in!
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digdug
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This reminds me that I still have to make the diff for beta 1 :(
Sorry
I hope I will have some time to do it soon
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