Manual disappointment

[LintMan]

I just got to check out the html manual, and I'm pretty disappointed, unfortunately. :-(

I'm not talking about it being hard to get a hard copy from the HTML Version... I'm bummed about the manual's contents.

Basically, the html manual contains high-level descriptions of the major aspects, and a blurb about all the various windows, but unless I'm missing something, it seems completely lacking in technical details. There seems to be little information in the manual that wasn't already in the in-game help.

I mean things like
- how are a planets # of facilities and cargo space calculated?
- how are to-hit %s calculated in tactical combat?
- Are the effects of multiple facilites of a given type cumulative? (ie: recplication centers)
- The .bmp images in the manual do not display correctly using Netscape. (I can see them fine using Explorer).
- What kinds of events can happen? Are they all bad?
- How exactly are the assorted racial bonuses you can spend racial poins on applied?
- And the biggest missing things: the technology tree and list of facilities and components. I had hoped the manual would show the tree and give detailed specs/info on all the facilities and components.

I can find some of this info out from digging through the text files, but that's a pain in the butt.

[Malfador Machinations]

There are thousands of particular questions that no ordinary manual can cover. We were intending to post all of these to our web site as people send them in.

We wil be adding a technical details site to the web page to address your questions.

Aaron

[Richard]

That's the bad part about having a game this wide open, no manual could have realistically handled all of the data that needed to be represented.

But the html manual that was supplied though I think comes close .

------------------
Sarge is coming...

Richard Arnesen
Director of Covert Ops
Shrapnel Games
http://www.shrapnelgames.com

[thedalus]

>What kinds of events can happen? Are they all bad?

Bwa,nooo, only the type that makes your home-system sun go supernova in 30 turns
Kinde bummer when it is the only system you got

[Richard Link]

quote:

---

Originally posted by Richard:
That's the bad part about having a game this wide open, no manual could have realistically handled all of the data that needed to be represented.

But the html manual that was supplied though I think comes close .

---

That`s a strange position Richard, the Games too complex and deep for a Manual so you don`t need one...

I don`t think the HTML Help file, for that`s what it is, even comes close.

Are we to take you post to mean there is _no_ intention on your part or Malifador to provide a PDF printable Manual to this Game ?

BTW: SE III seems to have needed, and players benifited from, and Malifador provided,a full 300+ page PDF format printedable manual.

This is a major issue IMO.

[Ferendra]

Me too, me too

I guess there are a lot of players who
would like to know how things are calculated.
And furhtermore, more and more question will
pop up in our minds, the longer we play.

Shouldn�t we somehow collect the most important ones here ?

Greetings
Ferendra