Is the game manual complete and good?

[registrau]

Hi all,

I'm new to both these games & the forums, so hi all.

I might get this game this afternoon (it's my birthday ), but before I do I'd like to know if the game manual (paper manual) is actually good and explains how to play. Is it complete and well written? How many pages?

Thanks in advance

 

[BeefontheBone]

There's a couple of threads about the manual, and I found it to be pretty useless; every bloomin' "noun" is in "inverted commas" which is very "annoying" to "read". It might be useful if you haven't played Civ before, but personally I'd stick to the tutorial game if I were you.

 

[Psyringe]

Happy Birthday registrau

The manual is sufficiently thick (about 200 pages) and does a good job in explaining the interface and the basic game concepts. It's lacking an index, but has some nice tables to look for information. It's also lacking specific information in many cases, like what exactly factors in whem trying to flip a city etc.

All in all, the manual is okay, but not splendid. The civilopedia has much information which the manual is missing btw.

 

[Willowmound]

It's relatively big - 200 pages - and relatively useless. And I've actually read it all.

 

[TyranusBonehead]

I've read it too, it's good for the basics, but not much else.

 

[LeSphinx]

Yes the manual helps a little.
I hope the official strategy guide I bought few days ago will be more detailled!
LeSphinx

 

[Willowmound]

Yes the manual helps a little.
I hope the official strategy guide I bought few days ago will be more detailled!
LeSphinx

Will you post on CFC and tell us if it is? I'd be interested to know.

 

[LeSphinx]

of course Willowmound , I will post my comments in the CFC forums.
LeSphinx

 

[MrCynical]

The manual explains the interface, and lists all promotions, traits etc. At over 200 pages there's quite a lot of information there, but it isn't hugely useful. Most of the information is available at the appropriate bit of the game (and presumably in the civlopedia if you can find your way round it).

I'd also be interested to hear how the strategy guide is this time. I got the Civ 3 one fairly early and found it to be abysmal. Most of the hints were extremely basic and already given in the game, and parts of it seemed to have been written for a very early version of the game where the mechanics were different from the finished product. One or two bits still seemed to date from Civ 2 gameplay aspects which had been removed. I'm hoping for a rather better effort from them this time.

 

[Padma]

One thing to remember is that the manual has to go to press weeks before the game goes gold, so often many little changes creep into the game between printing the manual and releasing the game.

 

[LeSphinx]

I hope it's not the case for the CIV4 official strategy guide!
Hope I will learn something news!
LeSphinx

 

[JadeDragon87]

yes good manual. Even if I saw some errors in it. They are explaining an image but indicates the wrong items. Also they talk about a throne romm advisor or something like that but isn't included in the game for now.

Oh yeah, happy birthday !!!

 

[Teutonic_Knight]

Well, I did learn a few things from the manual, but I would not call it a great manual. I mostly read it at work, when I am bored.

Happy Birthday registrau!

 

[Psyringe]

I doubt so ... imho strategy guides ceased being useful when they started to release them at the same date as the game. It's very hard to make a guide useful when you only have little time and beta versions to test on.

My guess is that the strategy section of CFC will be far more helpful.

 

[WuphonsReach]

I hope it's not the case for the CIV4 official strategy guide!
Hope I will learn something news!
LeSphinx

Strategy guides will suffer the same flaws for the most part. They also have to go to press at a certain date, usually well in advance of the final code being finished.

And, of course, there's always the common occurence that gameplay changes are made in the first few patches. Making the printed documentation even more out-of-date.

(The manual is not bad. It's accurate in most cases, but it's easy to spot the sections of the game which were not finished when the guide was written. Because the manual just glosses over any serious detail about those game sections rather then giving you real information.)

 

[MajorEvent]

Greetings!

I, personally, found the manual to be significantly lacking. In several cases, I tried to look up info only to find a reference to another page then go to that page and find it only says, yes, that feature exists but with no info at all beyond that . Info on setting up multiplay and using the voice-chat seems totally incomplete. The various Civ fansites are a much better source of info. As others said, just the basics from the manual (if that).

IMO, the Civ IV website is another waste of time. That may have to do with the recent business changes but still, for a game expected to do as well as Civ IV, it's a pretty poor showing.

(I.e., I can't get the voice-chat to work for DirectIP play, does it even work in this mode?? What the heck ports is the LAN type game using?? No useful info in the manual really.)

MajorEvent

 

[player1 fanatic]

One thing to remember is that the manual has to go to press weeks before the game goes gold, so often many little changes creep into the game between printing the manual and releasing the game.

The great thing about civ4 manual, is that most of its "number-crunching" info is correct and same as in final game.

That's great plus, compared to Civ3 manual, which had most od the units stats and other things plain wrong.

For that reason I give it big plus.

It even has some info that is missing in ingame civilopedia.
Like what effect exactly hills add to the game.
So in few cases it helps me when Civilopedia could not.

I would give it 4/5 rating.

 

[oldpreach]

I have the strat guide, and it is WAY good. It REALLY is useful when it comes to the civics, and combinations of different civics and such for different approches. It has game tester hints everywhere, and lots of stuff on multi-player that I have not even gotten to yet. It is missing a unit section, but if you have the SE version of the game, it comes with that poster thingy...well, in french. It has been 2 weeks or more and I have not been mailed an English replacement.

 

[homan1983]

Yes pretty much. And its BIG just like Civ2 (I LOVE CIV2).

The game was built from scratch instead of relying on old code, so everything is well documented.

 

[Colossian]

it isnt enough.
it is a guide, not a manual.