Old World Official User Manual

[The_J]

The Mohawk Games Twitter account just tweeted that there is an official user manual, which apparently has been made with the help of a Velociryx, https://www.twitch.tv/velociryx, the author of the SMAC/X strategy guide.
The manual is available here: https://1drv.ms/b/s!AgJ028vrIejziZADX9yMvb4LJQzY9g
I have attached a copy to this post, dated today, September 7, 2021.

 

[DesertWolf]

kind of sad they didn't seem to have any manual at the beginning

they get all the moneys from that evil games company and still couldn't make a decent manual by themselves at the time of release and have to cooperate with some other guy from the community?

sad that these things become more and more normal these days

i hope they don't get praised for that so companies will make a decent manual by themselves at release - civ always had a great one and also humankind had a manual.

 

[The_J]

Mohawk Games is actually a new and pretty small studio, so they don't have the deep pockets available.
And it was made with the help of someone, who has good credentials in the community (AFAIK). So that is actually not a bad choice. I hope you trust a veteran strategy guide writer, who has experience with Civ games for quite a while .

(would it have been better if they had a manual from the beginning? Certainly. But let's see the positive sides here, no ?).

 

[jguy100]

I have the civ 3 manual. I used to read it cover to cover during road trips. It’s entertaining, but it has enough typos and mistakes to make it unusable as a tutorial or strategy guide. I remember the tech tree for civ 4, can’t recall the manual at all. I bought civ 5 and 6 completely digital, I’ve never once seen their manuals.

I’m not praising Mohawk Games here. But it seems like our experience with manuals is polar opposite

 

[PiR]

I remember the tech tree for civ 4, can’t recall the manual at all.

I have the box somewhere, but... the Civilopedia was so good I don't remember reading the manual much either.

Baldur's Gate manual was like Harry Potter to me but nowadays, software is trying to be more intuitive than documented (or documented within the software) I think.

Still, it's good to have a reference document to go to when needed. Good luck to the devs to update though, with regular updates that's a challenge.

 

[Dale]

kind of sad they didn't seem to have any manual at the beginning

they get all the moneys from that evil games company and still couldn't make a decent manual by themselves at the time of release and have to cooperate with some other guy from the community?

sad that these things become more and more normal these days

i hope they don't get praised for that so companies will make a decent manual by themselves at release - civ always had a great one and also humankind had a manual.

Yes, we recognise we failed on the "manual at the beginning" thing. But please do not dismiss the manual, or the writer, as "some other guy from the community". Vel is actually a professional manual writer (it's his job) who also happens to love strategy games (SMAC, Civ, Old World). Vel was actually brought on in an official capacity.

We will do better at this in the future.

 

[jguy100]

Sorry, had to dig them up

Civ 3 base game manual, weighing in at 235 pages.
Civ 4 complete game manual, weighing in at 33 pages.

I have the tech tree from Civ 4 base game, but cannot find the base game manual. I remember being sorely disappointed in it - I think it was just a small plastic-y booklet too.

 

[Solver]

No way, the Civ4 manual was almost as thick as the Civ3 one, just with a glossy cover. The best part was at the end, some design thoughts from Soren!

 

[jguy100]

No way, the Civ4 manual was almost as thick as the Civ3 one, just with a glossy cover. The best part was at the end, some design thoughts from Soren!

Huh. I'm sad I never got that manual. Off to amazon to check if I can buy one!

@Dale any chance there will be a physical offering of the Old World manual? I know I'd be willing to pay for one, though I don't know if the market is any larger than me.

 

[jguy100]

@Solver you're right, I do see a full fledged Civ 4 manual. Only a few pages shorter than the Civ 3 manual. Can't believe I missed out on it!

 

[Dale]

@Dale any chance there will be a physical offering of the Old World manual? I know I'd be willing to pay for one, though I don't know if the market is any larger than me.

I have no idea I'm sorry.

 

[user330977]

Sorry, had to dig them up

Civ 3 base game manual, weighing in at 235 pages.
Civ 4 complete game manual, weighing in at 33 pages.

I have the tech tree from Civ 4 base game, but cannot find the base game manual. I remember being sorely disappointed in it - I think it was just a small plastic-y booklet too.

View attachment 608377

Man, that takes me back. Age of Empires II also had a beefy manual with descriptions for every tech and unit in the game, and the manual for Roller Coaster Tycoon was like my personal Bible. Without wishing to sound overly sentimental, I can't help but think computer games have lost something over the years... a piece of their soul.

Kind regards,
Ita Bear

 

[PiR]

Civ 4 complete game manual, weighing in at 33 pages.

Same as you, I have the complete edition. But it's written that there are detailed manuals in the DVD.

 

[Pfeffersack]

Since Old World hasn't released for me yet anyway (waiting for Steam/GOG availabilty), in my view I get the manual way before the game and without being forced to buy the game first (ok, the latter is fairly common these days) So I want to express my thanks for it - and reading that Vel wrote it...wow, that's great (sweet memories of his SMAC guide come to my mind) and will surely make it a good read.

And even for those who already play OW and had to wait for it, there is a positive effect: It is less outdated than the usual 1.00 manuals you get (and which rarely get maintained afterwards)

 

[Solver]

Pfeffersack, man, so glad to see you around still, I know you no longer have the time you did 15 years ago! I'll be very interested to see what you think of OW when you get to it, I know we used to agree 95% of the time on Civ design, curious to see how well that holds for OW.

 

[jguy100]

Same as you, I have the complete edition. But it's written that there are detailed manuals in the DVD.

Apparently my reading comprehension needs work

 

[Luddify]

Maybe I'm hopelessly old school, but I can't tell you how delighted I am to see a full-fledged printed/pdf manual that I can peruse at my leisure! Well done Mohawk - Firaxis please follow this lead for Civ VII (and Paradox too while I'm at it).

 

[Pfeffersack]

Pfeffersack, man, so glad to see you around still, I know you no longer have the time you did 15 years ago! I'll be very interested to see what you think of OW when you get to it, I know we used to agree 95% of the time on Civ design, curious to see how well that holds for OW.

I had the same warm nostalgic feelings, when I recently discovered that you and @Dale are the among the creative people behind Old World Looking forward to see your creation in action for me hopefully soon, but as said - the manual is a great appetizer.

 

[Velociryx]

Hey guys! Dale shared a screenie with some of the changes/corrections you folk caught and those haven't been incorporated just yet but that's part of today's mission.
In the meanwhile, I have reformatted the guide and the link originally shared (Above) is pointing to the "old" old world manual. Here's the link to the latest.
https://1drv.ms/b/s!AgJ028vrIejziZADX9yMvb4LJQzY9g

I have an account here under Velociryx but for the life of me, can't recall the password and apparently, it was set up with an old email addy too, thus the "disguise."
-=Vel=-

 

[The_J]

I've replaced the links in the starting post.
If there's a way to verify that this account and your old account are the same, I can ask the admins to merge, and can give you the OP of this thread.

Moderator Action: Started a conversation with him. leif