Greetings, and welcome to the Help File!! Glad to have you aboard, just step to the rear please, everyone will be able to see, we just need a little space .... thank YEW. OK, without further ado ... ON WITH THE SHOW!!!

First of all, things that need to be done first: (funny how that works out, isn't it?) You must already have the Presto Pack intalled as well as NewOpts. If you've never heard of either ... well, ya got some work ahead of ya *grin* It also helps, but is not necessary, to have the Poop Pack installed. If it is, don't worry, you've already got Presto and NewOpts, move along. If you don't have them installed, go to:

to get NewOpts, and go to:

to get the Presto Pack.

Woops, we forgot something ... ok, briefly now, back to:

This section is for all those of you who have or have ever even TRIED Writer's FastFaves. Everybody else is free to skip on to the next section.

Before you actually run the script for the first time (it's VERY IMPORTANT this is done BEFORE the first run ... so don't come crying to US if you ignore this) there is a little cleanup you may have to do. You cannot run this and Writer's FastFaves at the same time. If you've got FastFaves running, get rid of it. If you're running the Poop Pack, just disable it in the ScriptChooser. If you're not running the PoopPack, just take out whatever it was you put in to install it. (there, vague enough for ya?? *grin* We figure if ya got it installed yourself, you can get it uninstalled yourself too.) Now, find and open the file config.cs in your tribes\config directory. If you've got a very recent version of FastFaves, you won't have to do anything here. Still, look and see what you find. OK, got it open? Looks complicated, huh? A little bit scary? Well, don't worry, we're not asking you to do anything complicated. Just find any lines that have the words 'fastfavorites' or 'doNothing' in them. Delete all these lines. Thassit, all we need!

For the techno-geeks out there, I think you can tell that what we just did is clean up some leftover keybinds from FastFaves. If you don't understand what I mean by that, never mind, move along. If you do understand what I mean by that, it might be a good idea now to go through this file and see if you can find leftover keybinds from any other scripts you are no longer running, and get rid of em. This is a problem with Tribes scripting ... after a while that old config.cs just gets way too cluttered. Don't worry too much about deleting stuff here. Any script that is not set through NewOpts that you currently have running will just reset any keybinds you erase next time you run it. Any script that is set through NewOpts or any keybind that is part of the basic game functions will be lost if you delete the line, but you just have to go back in and reset them. OK, now that that's taken care of, let's try this again:

So, you've downloaded PoopFaves, and now you want to actually install it? Very wise. I can see you are one smart cookie! OK, here's how. First unzip the download into your config directory (in mine, this is c:\dynamix\tribes\config). Make sure you have folders on. OK, the next step depends on whether or not you have the Poop Pack already installed.

STEP ONE A: IF YOU DO HAVE THE POOP PACK INSTALLED

This is for all of you wise, intelligent, quite good-looking individuals who have already seen fit to install the Poop Pack. All the rest of you rabble, wait your turn!! OK, this is fairly easy. Just find the file "AddedScripts.cs" in the folder tribes\config. This is the file that allows you to add extra scripts to the Poop Pack (thus the name....) If you haven't messed with this file before, it should be empty. Open it up, and add the line:

Then save it. There ya go! DONE!

STEP ONE B: IF YOU DO NOT HAVE THE POOP PACK INSTALLED

OK, this is for the rest of you, those of you who have either never heard of the Poop Pack or are just too stubborn to recognize it for the wonderful Pack that it is!!!! (no, I'm not biased, why do you ask?) OK, find the file "AutoExec.cs" in your tribs\config folder, and open that sucker up. In this file, you should find the line

This starts the Presto scripts. After this line, you will find EITHER:

if you have Newopts version .95 or below, OR

if you have NewOpts version .96 or above. Somewhere in this file, AFTER these two lines (could be anywhere after, but directly after is usually good) put the line:

Now save the file. There! Done!

Next, you need to get familiar with how PoopFaves actually works. We suggest you host a game of your own, and just play with it in there (base server, no mods ... yet). First, use the numberpad to hit the keys one through nine, plus the big plus sign thingy. Notice anything? YES, we knew you were observant! A series of descriptions appears across the bottom of your screen. These are called Loadouts. When you press a key, a loadout is assigned to you. This means that the next time you enter an Inventory Station, you will automatically buy the loadout you saw described and jump out of the Station. Faster than spit! as the logo goes. Now, did you notice a few extra repair packs lying around? This is because using PoopFaves, you automatically buy one repair pack and throw it out of the station. If you wish to turn this OFF, hit the number pad star key (*). Hit that again to turn it back on. If, for some reason, you want to turn off auto-buying, hit the numpad minus key (-). Hit that again to turn it back on. Now, say you've been playing for awhile, and you've forgotten which loadout you actually have currently selected. Out of luck? NO, just hit the numpad decimal key (.) to get a description of your currently selected loadout! Pretty slick huh?

BUT WAIT! THERE'S MORE! What you've just explored are the QuickKeys. That's one-touch loadout selection. You can define 32 QuickKeys for each mod. We've only defined ten for you initially, because frankly we expect you to define your OWN $^%$ loadouts, ya slacker. The other way to access loadouts is through the menu system. Press numpad zero (0) to bring up the menu. You now have a selection of Light, Medium, Heavy, Packs, Deployables, and Vehicles. The first three menus lead to all of the loadouts you have defined. You can define up to 99 different loadouts per mod, with only 32 QuickKeys, so if ya really go crazy with the loadouts you may end up using the menu to access the less common ones. The packs menu leads you to all the different packs you can buy. The deployables menu leads you to deployables. If you have a pack or deployable selected as your currently selected loadout, when you enter an Inventory Station, it will automatically buy JUST that pack or deployable. It will not change the armor or weapons you've got. The vehicles menu will allow you to select which vehicle you automatically buy next time you enter a Vehicle Station.

OK, now that I've told you the basics, go ahead and play with yourself! Get comfortable with how everything works, then get back to me, because we need to move on to the next step, and we can't do that with you gallivanting around in ... oh, you're ready? Cool. Ok, next:

Get out of the game, go to the options screen, and get NewOpts up. There are four NewOpts screens for PoopFaves. They are PoopFaves - Main, PoopFaves - Tables, PoopFaves - HotKeys, and PoopFaves - Loadouts. The reason there are so many is because we tried to make PoopFaves so flexible, it damn near qualified to be an Olympic gymnast. Just about everything can be redefined. OK, we'll start out with:

STEP THREE A: THE MAIN SCREEN

Pull up PoopFaves - Main. Here is where you define the keys that go with the major actions. Ya know how earlier I told you about the functions of *, -, ., and 0? Well, forget that. Those were just the default keybinds. Use this screen to bind em to whatever you want. Just below those four biggies, you will see some drop down menus. Here, you can define what keys actually go with the various menu options. Default, it is just one through six. You may want to change it so that the light menu is accessed via the 'l' key, or some such nonsense. To do that, use the pull down menu on the right to select 'LIGHT ARMOR'. Now use the pull-down menu on the left to select 'l'. There! Changed! Do the same thing to change the keybinds for the other menus. Below that, you will see four checkboxes. Just check or uncheck them as you see fit. The first one determines whether or not you will see a description of your loadout each time you select a new one. The second checkbox determines whether or not you will announce to your team which deployable you just got, if you got one. The third one determines whether or not you will announce to your team which loadout you just bought. The fourth one determines whether or not you will be automatically kicked out of an Inventory Station once you've bought your selected loadout.

STEP THREE B: THE TABLES

Next, pull up PoopFaves - Tables. This screen lets you choose which mod you are currently working with. There is only one pull-down menu here. Just select what you want. To begin with, PoopFaves will ship with four different tables, for base, Insomniax, Renegades, and Shifter. All you need to do to get support for another mod type is put the appropriate table in tribes/config/poop/tables, and you've got full support! As an example, we have a table ready to go for HaVoC mod, but since HaVoC is still in Beta and the inventory numbers may yet change around a bit (it happened once AFTER getting the table built ... pissed MrPoop off NO END) we decided to wait to release that table until HaVoC was officially released. When we do, you will need to download exactly one file, called havoc.table.cs, put it in the correct directory, and you're ready to go! We will be building more tables, based on user input of what is most desired, so let us know what you want. Of course, if you're feeling REALLY ambitious, you could make the table on your own. We tried to document the tables as fully as possible so that an end user could make a table for a new mod. All we ask is that if you do make a table, give it to us so we can release it to the world.

STEP THREE C: THE HOTKEYS

Now, pull up PoopFaves - HotKeys. This is where you define which hotkeys go with which loadout. HotKey1 will select loadout one, always; HotKey32 will select loadout 32, always. I think you can figure it out from there *grin*

STEP THREE D: THE LOADOUTS

And now we get to the real meat of the matter ... the actual loadouts! Pull up PoopFaves - Loadouts. Here you define the actual loadouts (duh...) You can define up to 99 loadouts for each table (each mod, that is). Just remember that only the first 32 will be on HotKeys, the rest you will have to select through the menu. The first drop down menu lets you select which loadout you will be defining. The next field lets you name the loadout (i.e., sniper, duelist, base trasher, TKer, whatever). The Loadout Key lets you define the keybind for this loadout in the main menu. That is, (talking default here) when you press zero to get the main menu, then one to get the light armors menu, this is the key you will have to press to get that particular light armor loadout. Each keybind must be unique, but only within armor classes. You can have a medium armor and a light armor with keybind '1', but you cannot have two lights or two mediums. Thoroughly confused yet? Good, then we'll move on! (don't worry, you'll get it, we promise) The Select Armor drop down menu lets you select which armor type you'd like this loadout to use. Now, the confusing part. SELECT WEAPONS is a dropdown menu containing all the weapons you COULD choose. SELECTED WEAPONS is a dropdown menu containing all the weapons you HAVE chosen. So, for instance, if you decide you want this loadout to be a sniper, select laser rifle from the SELECT WEAPONS menu. Now, look at the SELECTED WEAPONS menu, and you'll see laser rifle there. If you decide you don't want that after all, just select laser rifle from the SELECTED WEAPONS menu, and it will go away. Easy, huh? So, to recap ... the SELECT WEAPONS menu represents the weapons you CAN choose, the SELECTED WEAPONS menu represents the weapons you HAVE CHOSEN. Got it? Good! Moving on... The Select Pack menu lets you select which pack this loadout will buy. The checkbox for Buy Extra Ammo determines whether or not you will buy whatever is considered extra ammo (for base, that's mines, grenades, beacons, and mortar ammo). The Extra Weapons menu is nothing. Don't worry about it. No, really. *sigh* OK, it seems that SOME MOD (Grr glares in the direction of HaVoC) has decided to give you a choice when it comes to targeting lasers. You've got a selection of things you might buy instead of a targeting laser. This allows you to make that choice. For most mods, all you will see here is targeting laser, which is selected automatically. You can use this menu to specify that you do not want to buy one, if you're wierd. Meanwhile, for most of you, as I said before ... don't worry about it.

Now, last but not least, the Throw Packs box. We think this is a pretty neato-keen feature! It basically integrates a kind of Litterbug.cs thing into PoopFaves. If you check the Throw Packs checkbox, you can use the menu directly under that to determine what type of pack, and directly under that to determine how many of each pack. So, if you wanted to set up a Turret Farmer loadout, say, you can set this so that you'll throw out a bunch of turrets every time you access the Inventory Station. Pretty kewl, huh??

Now, go forth and KILL, my children!!!

{BEE}Grr[SL]

18 December, 1999

Instructions based on PoopFaves version 1.0