Guide Book
alaindustrial:guide_book
Summary
The Guide Book is Ala Industrial's in-game manual. A new player lands in a world with non-trivial mechanics (EU/FE instead of FE, LV/MV/HV voltage tiers, cables with distance loss, machine face ports) and, with no built-in tutorial, is left to guess or read an external wiki. The book removes that entry barrier: the player receives it in their inventory automatically on first spawn (exactly once), opens it with a right-click — a full-screen view with tabs and page navigation — and works through the chapters up to a first working power grid and machine without leaving the game. The book needs no energy and does nothing mechanically — it is pure reading material. Its content is built from the same source as the mod's wiki site, so the numbers in the book never drift from the game.
Mini-example: enter a new world → the "Guide Book" is in your inventory → right-click → a screen opens on the "Getting Started" tab → click the "Solar Panel" link → read how much EU/FE it makes and how to craft it.
How you get it
Auto-given on first join. The first time a player enters a world, the book is placed in their inventory exactly once. The "already given" ledger lives in per-world saved data (a SavedData holding a set of UUIDs) — it survives death/respawn/dimension changes and never double-gives on relog. Existing players get it once on a mod update too: their UUID isn't in the ledger yet, so the book is given on their first join after the update and the UUID is added. Recovery if lost — two safeguards, neither of which gates the auto-give: a craft (cheap, LV-accessible, not schematic-gated); the /alaindustrial guide command (reuses the existing /ala command; gives/opens the book). The player is never locked out of the tutorial. If the inventory is full during auto-give, the book drops at the player's feet (never lost).
Interface
Opened with a right-click — a full-screen window (not a chest: no slots, no inventory). It has: Tabs (top-level chapters) that mirror the wiki site's category grouping plus a leading onboarding section:
- Getting Started — hand-written onboarding: first generator → first cable → first machine;
- Energy — what EU/FE is, LV/MV/HV tiers, cables and distance loss, face ports;
- Generators, 4. Machines, 5. Storage, 6. Energy Transfer,
- Materials, 8. Items & Tools, 9. Components, 10. Utilities.
Entry list within a tab (one per block/item/mechanic), scrollable. Entry page — a spread with page navigation (next/prev) and a "back" button to the list. Clickable links inside the text — jump to another entry (and, in v1.1, to an anchor within it). Recipe widget on a page — a crafting/processing grid (draws ingredients + result; works without JEI/REI installed). Text is word-wrapped, and long lists scroll. Visually it follows the mod style — the same palette and bevel panels as the other interfaces.
Content
The book covers every block and item already in the game: for each one, a short description, its stats (tier, EU/FE, buffer) and its crafting recipe. The numbers in the book (EU/FE, tiers, buffers, recipes) come from the same source as the wiki site, so they always match the game — no drift. Planned and not-yet-added blocks are left out: the book never promises what isn't in the game yet. The framing "Getting Started" and "Energy" chapters are written as an introductory tutorial for new players.
Block Properties
The book is an item (not a block): it can't be placed, stacks to 1, has no EU/FE buffer. Its "shape" is an ordinary item model (models/item/guide_book.json → item/generated with the textures/item/guide_book.png icon). Right-click opens the GUI (see "Interface"); no block is placed in the world, no collision.
| What | Value |
|---|---|
| Type | item, not a block |
| Stack | 1 |
| EU/FE buffer | none |
| Right-click | opens the book screen (client-side) |
| World placement | none |
Recipes
The craft is a dead-simple shapeless recipe: a vanilla minecraft:book + (the earliest, cheapest mod component). Not schematic-gated (the book is auto-given anyway; the craft only recovers a lost one).
Progression
Tier: none (a utility, not part of the energy chain). Available immediately — it's the entry point into progression, not a rung of it. It guides the player through the mod's real progression (ore → generator → cable → machine → tiers).
Localization
v1: en_us + ru_ru — full chapter content (en_us is the source, as everywhere in the mod). The other 18 languages get a translated item name, while chapter content is shown in English for now; a full chapter translation comes later. All book text is via lang keys; no hardcoded strings (project rule).
Compatibility
Recipe viewers (JEI/REI/EMI): the book is self-contained (a built-in recipe widget by ID) and doesn't require them. A "open recipe in JEI/REI" deep-link is v2. Full-text search of the content is v2.
Balance
The book costs no EU/FE and doesn't touch the economy — zero balance risk. Its only obligation: the numbers in chapter text always match the game — they come from a shared source, not hand-retyped.
Related
The book is built from the same source as the mod's wiki site: the same content and the same numbers, but right in the player's hands.
Crafting
Shapeless Crafting
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Guide Book