A manual - will there be one?

[deanej]

We probably won't have one. The games for windows packaging Microsoft is forcing on publishers means there isn't enough room in the box for a good manual.

 

[The_J]

Will it be a "Games for Windows" title?
The certificate itself does say nothing, the guidelines for it are crap.

And what are the specifications for this packaging?

 

[deanej]

Pretty much what we got for BtS - an over-sized DVD box that forces the manual to be shoved where the promotional ads or a chapter listing would be for a movie.

 

[The_J]

I thought the civ4 vanilla solution was pretty clever, but i don't know, if this is against the specifications.
-> we can still hope .

 

[Quintillus]

The Civ3 manual was awesome, I wish I still knew where my copy was...I remember each section had a leader at the top with a quote, I distinctly remember Bismarck's said "I know the situation, just tell me what changed."

Definitely a fine piece of literature.

I recall that Hammurabi's was "Even the largest tower starts with the first stone" or something of that sort. A fairly early chapter, too, one of the first three. But I agree; Civ3's manual is a great book. I read nearly the whole thing before even playing the game, only skipping all the unit pages because I wanted something to be unknown when I played the game. Reread a good part of it over the years, too. Civ4 and its manual I never played/read as much, but I do recall Soren having a nice long essay near the end of it. I don't know where my Civ4 manual is, though. Pretty sure I could find my Civ3 one within a few minutes if I were home.

The other game whose manual I remember well is Tropico. It too had quotes, and some good ones in it, too. "Absolute power corrupts absolutely" - Lord Acton. Another manual I looked through many a time.

I hope there will be a manual, and I'm sure there will be at least an electronic one. Whether there will be a print one, I'm not so sure. I'd rather have a print than electronic one, though. Can't recall ever having read through an electronic manual for a game in anywhere near the detail that I've read many print ones, including Civ3's.

 

[Shiggs713]

yea I guess if it was one of those "game for windows" it probably would have a weak manual. I looked at my civ4 manual the other day, just cause I can easily see it in my closet. Its 66 pages long, nothing to complain about, all the other civ's are the same way.

 

[The_J]

Are you sure you're not talking about the BtS manual?
The civ4 manual is a lot bigger than 66 pages.

 

[chongli]

Save the trees! Save money! Spend the money on development time, not printing crap that becomes obsolete after a few patches.

Some good tutorials and the Civilopedia is all you need.

 

[deanej]

The BtS manual only said the look at the civilopedia, but with a lot more words.

 

[The_J]

Yes, you're right, but the vanilla and warlords manuals were really fine.

 

[Rusty Edge]

Save the trees! Save money! Spend the money on development time, not printing crap that becomes obsolete after a few patches.

Some good tutorials and the Civilopedia is all you need.

Provided they update the civilopedia with each patch, and throw in a chart for all of the various commands in the original box, Agreed.

 

[ABHPage]

I'm part of the people who read the manuals. I still have my manual from Alpha Centauri and read it from time to time.

 

[deanej]

Provided they update the civilopedia with each patch, and throw in a chart for all of the various commands in the original box, Agreed.

The civilopedia is dynamically generated by the SDK based on the XML tags, so of course it's updated. In the manuals, Firaxis talks about each scenario having its own civilopedia as if it's a big deal. It's not.

 

[Durloth]

I really miss the good old days when games came in nice big boxes and had huge, well-written manuals. This DVD-case-crap may seem convenient for movies, but is awful for games! Reading the awesome manual for Civ 1 was half of the enjoyment of the game...

QFT! I remember in `95 when i got the game "1944 Across the Rhine". Not only did it come with a manual about the size of a phone book, but it also had a 100+ pages of background material with everything from how I got to germany and why I wanted to cross the Rhine, to the mathemathics of tank armour sloping and the physichs of different kinds of tank ammunition.

 

[DrewBledsoe]

Ah the good old days of a chunky "in your hand manual".....my purchase of Civ III and IV both coincided with long trips. My fondest memories of those two, will always be sitting on a plane/train, unwrapping the new game, and devouring the masses of new information, ah the anticipation that caused.
I fear though, that even though the Civ IV manual was over 200 pages, that kind of mega manual is now part of the past. We can blame the internet for publishers becoming lazier / more economically conscious (tick where applicable), when it comes to the hardcopy manual. Why print a million or so manuals with associated cost, when something like Steam will provide one for everyone?

Anyways, let them prove me wrong, I'd be delighted


First post in absolutely ages, I'll crawl back into my Total War cave again for a few months