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Call To Power 2 Cradle 3+ mod in progress: https://apolyton.net/forum/other-games/call-to-power-2/ctp2-creation/9437883-making-cradle-3-fully-compatible-with-the-apolyton-edition
There is no practical difference between built-in help and PDF manuals. You still have to leave the game mentally.
Precisely
Having a manual by your side while still in the game helps keep the pace up. I agree that not every game needs a big manual, but the kind of games I buy are TBS or military TBS games. A clear and well detailed manual is a must and it has to be in paper form. You can have your little pdf files for your shooters or RPG's.
Besides, if you think you're being cool and modern by having a game with pdf manuals then your falling for the game manufacturers cheapness tricks. They are extracting that much more money from you and you happily accept it! Paper is being recycled on a world wide basis in most of the modern countries so the saving the trees argument is invalid. I want a nice paper manual with graphs and charts and a detailed explanation on how to play the game that I can read anywhere. Sure if it's in pdf format your killing trees by printing out your manual and you're spending your own money to do so, giving in to the game companies cheapness and helping them make more money off of you.
Besides, if you think you're being cool and modern by having a game with pdf manuals then your falling for the game manufacturers cheapness tricks. They are extracting that much more money from you and you happily accept it!
come on, man, we're not that immature and shallow. anybody who thinks they're cool, for whatever reason, is a bit of an idiot, and to consider yourself cool because of something to do with a computer game is just plain crazy. computer games are a bit geeky, really, we all know it.
besides, i don't even think we're "falling" for anything when we buy a game with a pdf manual. a lot of the time it won't even say on the box that the manual is pdf (prolly should though), and the quality/lack of quality of the manual does not even figure in the spectrum of most people's considerations when they buy a game.
Paper is being recycled on a world wide basis in most of the modern countries so the saving the trees argument is invalid
you're right, of course, but none of us were trying to make that argument in the first place, mostly because it is self-evident.
w00t! I am a l337 haxxor cos my manual is pdf! yours is paper u n00b!
anyway, you're right though, most games don't need a big chunky manual ... in fact, for those games that don't need one the companies are ripping us off by making us pay for one. let's face it though, they're gonna rip us off anyway, they have been for years, and there's very little we can do to stop it. unless we stop playing computer games, of course, but most of us are too addicted to stop.
If I'm posting here then Counterglow must be down.
unless we stop playing computer games, of course, but most of us are too addicted to stop.
Amen to that brother!
I'm glad you were entertained by my arguements! You know after reading what I wrote earlier it does sound a little funny! I'm a geek, addicted to gaming, and very passionate when it comes to my "hobby".
Could someone please explain how a tool-tip that pops-up when you hover your mouse cursor over something, or a civelopedia-esque help screen is more distracting/intrusive then looking through a book?
If it can fit on a tooltip, then there is not a problem. Of course you won't get a tooltip to explain to you all the spells, what they do, what level of magic in five spheres you need to cast them, etc in the readily acessible way a chart will do. That's where a manual with appropriate charts, tables and indexes can be a big help. In the MM games, for example, you get level based skill points you can put anywhere you like so it really helps to have information to hand that gives you at-a-glance advice on which areas to concentrate on first. An alternative might be to build screens into the game that do the same thing (like Civ III has done with the tech tree) but the tool tips in MMIX are inadequate for that purpose. Right click on a skill book and it will say "this can be used to learn x skill at normal level". It does not say what the effects of that level (or further levels) of specialisation are, nor what character classes can learn to those higher levels. You have to learn the skill first, by which time its too late to give it to someone better suited. Doh!
It strikes me that by M&M IX, they might be under the impression that the majority of players will have learned the basics through playing M&M I-IIX.
Concrete, Abstract, or Squoingy? "I don't believe in giving scripting languages because the only additional power they give users is the power to create bugs." - Mike Breitkreutz, Firaxis
Personally i just find it easier to read hardcopy and scribble notes than browsing on the screen. At work i find i have to print out all but the shortest document or it just just doesn't sink in - sorry trees.
I also agree with the idea that full price games should come with everything needed to pay the game and that i shouldn't have to by the strategy guide, visit the website and make my own spreadsheets just to get by.
Maybe we're just hard done by in the UK as our copies of EU2 didn't have a map included. Nor did Baldur's Gate and i remember having to print off the commodities sheet for Railroad Tycoon 2 becuase off the 'net as it wasn't included.
Doubly glad I got the US version of EU2, then. Planning your expansion is so much easier with a map. MM IX with no manual would be fine except they overhauled many of its mechanics (but the wrong ones IMO) by ditching the old spell schools based on fire,water, etc. There are the fewest available races or character classes since MM began. Lots of spells (and alchemy) are missing, others have become quite different, while 202 versions of a sword or club still remain.
PC Gamer UK gives the game 42% so I feel vindicated in my disapointment. Ok they didn't cite the .pdf manual as a major reason to knock off points but here's an extract of what they did:
"The entire game has the feel of shareware, looking shoddily put together and certainly three years out of date.
...
It just doesn't fit together properly. If you liked the previous titles in the series, you aren't going to like the new interface at all. And if you didn't like the previous titles in the series, you're fine to carry on as you are: entirely free of such unambitious fare."
Conversely they are reasonably complimentary about the HOMM IV product (76%, one of the higher scores this month) where the hero fighting and new spell system actually work properly.
I think part of the failing of MM IX is your inability to feel like a true hero. The monsters can hit for much more damage than you even when you are high level. Unlike previous MM games you can't water walk, fly, cast protection spells that last all day or nuke for massive damage. Not being able to do this means a game map that runs on rails, with few hidden secrets tucked away in obscure mountain valleys or on offshore islands. Having fought my way to level 30 before getting totally bored and having got almost all the spells my casters can ever get and some artifact weapons and armour, I feel totally underwhelmed by my team capabilities.
Grumbold,
No manual in HOMM4 in case you were thinking of buying it at full price. There's a small note book that essentially says play the tutorial its all self explanatory and then you have to print the .pdf.
Curious to know if US copies had a full manual ??
Yup I noticed that. Even the town building chart is .pdf only, thanks to the misers at 3DOEurope. I did consider taking it back too, but HOMM IV was *just* good enough to keep playing beyond the 10 day return limit. The US version got it all in glossy colour print, of course!
And you would for a paper manual too. 
come on, man, we're not that immature and shallow. anybody who thinks they're cool, for whatever reason, is a bit of an idiot, and to consider yourself cool because of something to do with a computer game is just plain crazy. computer games are a bit geeky, really, we all know it. 
w00t! I am a l337 haxxor cos my manual is pdf! yours is paper u n00b! 
WTF?!?! STFU!!! U SUCK!!! 
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