Civ4 Manual

[MummyMan]

The Civ2 manual was phenomenal, the Civ3 manual sucked. I want an in-depth and accurate manual that doesn't give just the basics. A comprehensive index and a Civ2 tech tree/chart would be nice too. Just a thought.

 

[warpstorm]

An accurate printed manual is hard to do. Really. Why? Because to get a good price on printing they have to be sent out many months before the game is done. Before the game is done. The last few months of a game development is mad scurrying around as the developers try to finish the game and rebalance the game now that it can finally be sent to the beta testers to look at. Even if it was 100% accurate the minute it was sent to the printers, it would be sadly out of date by the time the game came out.

The last game I worked on the manual was sent to the printers around August for an October release. More changes came in that time that the rest of the develpment cycle.

The only real alternative is to include an up to date pdf manual that you can print yourself.

FWIW, my Civ3 came with a tech chart.

 

[Trade-peror]

Very true, warpstorm. It also explains how many games come with readme files that cover topics that the manual seems to cover as well.

 

[Colonel]

manuel wth u read it i only use it if i cant find something i need to know as a refence lol

 

[Philips beard]

manuel wth u read it i only use it if i cant find something i need to know as a refence lol

Manuals for great epic games like CIV is allways cozy reading!

 

[warpstorm]

Especially on the throne

 

[Gogf]

The manual will never be perfect, because they write it before the final tweaks.

 

[BassDude726]

What bugged me about the Civ3 manual was the fact that it told you WHY you were supposed to do things, but never really explained HOW. I was a first time civver when I got Civ3, and I didn't know many of the game concepts. It took me a while to realize I could stack units, even. So maybe I'm not a quick learner, but they still should be much clearer than the Civ3 manual.

 

[IceBeast]

The one major change to the manual or to the civopedia was more specifics about what something did. They said that a certain trait would do a certain thing, but never by how much. Those are things I'd like to know ahead of time without trial and error

 

[warpstorm]

It took me a while to realize I could stack units, even.

Well, stack commands weren't in when the manual was written.