If I spend $49.99 on this game....

Kuroth1 · #1 January 9th, 2004, 01:06 AM

Please tell me I will get printed manuals??? If the manuals are PDF's I wont buy this game...

Thanks for the info...

p.s. How many manuals come with the game by the way?

Johan K · #2 January 9th, 2004, 01:11 AM

You will get a (one) printed manual. It is 134 pages long and includes all spells and items.

SurvivalistMerc · #3 January 9th, 2004, 01:37 AM

There are a lot of things the manual does not have. It does not give a detailed list of military units by nation. It doesn't have an index for the spells, so you can't decide, for instance, "I'd like to look up blade wind" without knowing what school it's in. For blade wind, the school is obvious, but for some spells the school is far less intuitive.

The magic items are listed by the power of the item, not by name or what magic picks you need to make the item.

If you played the demo, you probably figured out how important the magic sites you find are to the game. These are not listed by their difficulty of location anywhere in the manual.

The information in the manual, except for the first 20 or so pages, is for the most part duplicated from the in-game help you get playing the demo.

If you are like me, you will find yourself using this site and sites like Sunraybe's a lot more often than you use the manual. Just remember that it is where your CD key is.

Karacan · #4 January 9th, 2004, 02:47 AM

The manual serves to introduce you to the game mechanics quite well.

Also, you'll find yourself sitting in the subway, studying spells and items.

Kuroth1 · #5 January 9th, 2004, 02:51 AM

Just ordered it... Thanks all for your info...

SurvivalistMerc · #6 January 9th, 2004, 03:39 AM

I do remember staying up late at night reading about spells and items.

One thing I like about the manual: It is written in such a way that it hints at certain powers of items and does not give full details of the spells. This can be quite frustrating to some players, but it makes discovering what things do quite enjoyable.

I actually somewhat agree with Karacan that the first pages of the manual are essential reading. It covers province defense quite well. And it discusses certain attributes of fortress defenses by race.

I know my first post was relatively negative about the manual. It really could be much better, but the first 20 pages do provide as good an introduction to the game as could be provided in that much space. Things just aren't that easy to find.

olaf73 · #7 January 9th, 2004, 04:24 AM

The manual sucks bad given all there is to do in the game and the complexity of the combat and magic system.

More than half of it is item and spell descriptions. And the descriptions more often than not dont tell you exactly what a given spell or item does. Just a vague description that gives you a general idea of what something does, but very little in the way of details.

The documentation is the game's biggest shortcoming.

olaf

Gandalf Parker · #8 January 9th, 2004, 04:35 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by olaf73:
The documentation is the game's biggest shortcoming.

Well luckily you are here. We have mostly decided that the documentation is best done by us Users anyway. Feel sorry for the people who cant find their way here.

But I might mention that after you read here awhile you might realize that good documentation for this game would be a set of encyclopedias.

Fyron · #9 January 9th, 2004, 04:48 AM

Quote:

We have mostly decided that the documentation is best done by us Users anyway.

That is a rather lazy cop-out.

Gandalf Parker · #10 January 9th, 2004, 04:54 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Imperator Fyron:

quote:
We have mostly decided that the documentation is best done by us Users anyway.

That is a rather lazy cop-out.

Lazy? Lazy for who? For us? I think most of us enjoy filling in the blanks. I was just offering it as an alternative, not an excuse.

If you mean lazy for the developers then you are jumping to conclusions. For one thing they are a couple of guys with jobs and families outside of creating this game. For another thing they have programmed a great game and I can tell you from experience that programmers make ROTTEN documentors.

Even they admit that the docs and tutorial are sparse.

One of the things I like about this game. They are here discussing the game with us and actively patch in things we suggest.