Hey guys. I'm working on a mod that has a tonne of new features, and some of them require you (not the in-game player, YOU! That means you, John!* ) to learn how to use them. Because of this, how do you guys prefer to learn how to use things? I have a few examples.

"Gamey" Ways - Taking you away from the game into real life

1 - Reading a book in-game which tells you which buttons/actions to do in order to use a feature. For example, telling the player to activate something while sneaking in order to have it do something cool.
2 - A message box pops up telling you which buttons/actions to do in order to use a feature. For example, telling the player to activate something while sneaking in order to have it do something cool.
3 - A description on the mod download page for you to write down or remember.

Non "Gamey" Ways - Trying to keep you immersed.

1 - Reading a book in-game which tells the player the same as the above, but in a real world way. So telling the player to crouch down to focus on using the object (instead of simply saying sneaking).
2 - A message box pops up which tells the player the same as the above, but in a real world way. So telling the player to crouch down to focus on using the object (instead of simply saying sneaking).
3 - A description on the mod download page for you to write down or remember.


I appreciate any thoughts/comments


*Hopefully will freak out all the Johns who read this.

I think you'll need a combination of methods, given my experience with past Bethesda game players. Most of the new players I've seen take the 'let's download 200 mods and pray they miraculously work together' approach, so if you just drop a book in game, pretty soon you'll have players asking you 'where's the damn book!??!? I can't find it!' At least a pop-up menu to give some basics and remind them there is a book in game that contains more details.

And you should always note everything in your mod description, to give the users a clear idea what the mod does. I generally have the mod page open on my laptop while I test a mod in Skyrim on my gaming desktop, so I prefer the 'out of game' approach because that's tends to be a 'fail safe.'