At long last....

[DrFaustus]

It did take a long, long time to get here, but it's well worth the wait. Congratulations on an excellent opus, V.

[Velociryx]

I hear you, LongTom! And hold them to it!

Dr. F....thank you!! It was a pleasure doing it....and from the look of things over in the Civ3 general forum, what with Prima threatening legal action against tiny Hurricane, it appears that an early attempt is being made to render stillborn ANY alternative strat guides for civ three. We shall see....I don't spook easily, but OTOH, I'm none too anxious to pit my meager bank account against the likes of Random House....GRRR....still, they tell me I can't talk about something...can't write about something....well, there's prolly enough redneck in me to get rowdy about it....

-=Vel=-

[LongTom]

Yahoo! It came! It came all the same!



Finally, the guide has arrived - and it's great. Worth the wait. Very quality job, nicely printed and formatted, going to be MUCH better bedtime reading than curling up in the chair in front of my computer, staring at the screen, trying to read the 3.0 version :-)

Thanks Vel!

Jim

P.S. I called them today, they had real people there I could talk to, and they were able to verify when it had printed and when it had shipped. But 4 emails I sent earlier never received a reply (except one from the webmaster who simply said he had forwarded it to the right person) - so don't waste your time with email, call'em!

P.P.S. I don't have the time to waste trying to convince them I should get the book free, especially since it's the printer that promises 48-hour delivery, not Booksurge. Apparently their shipping takes about 5 days (USPS Priority Mail).

[Velociryx]

Howdy man! My apologies for the delay in getting back here....with poly down for an extended period and company over for the holidays, I didn't spend much time on my computer!

But!....I'm VERY glad to hear that the old gal finally shipped out, and that you're pleased with the end result! And I *completely* agree....curling up with a good book is way better than sitting up at the computer getting eyestrain! (one of the reasons I like e-books, but still vastly prefer the bound variety!)

Slowly, painfully, I'm teaching myself photoshop, so my NEXT book where I design the cover will be more advanced and polished....but, not bad for the whole thing being done on a shoestring!

-=Vel=-

[NorthSwordsman]

After losing everything on my HD, I had to purchase the PDF version again- can't live without it! :-). I went through the usual credit card hoops... and wasn't able to download because of a problem on their end. Got nothing but a blank page. So when I got the order confirmation, I sent an email back explaining the problem.

20 minutes later, they emailed me a copy of the pdf book. Their customer service came through on that one. They were really polite about it. Hmm.. don't find that kind of customer service in very many places anymore.

I'm glad booksurge came through after what I've read here.

[NorthSwordsman]

Originally posted by Velociryx
I hear you, LongTom! And hold them to it!

Dr. F....thank you!! It was a pleasure doing it....and from the look of things over in the Civ3 general forum, what with Prima threatening legal action against tiny Hurricane, it appears that an early attempt is being made to render stillborn ANY alternative strat guides for civ three. We shall see....I don't spook easily, but OTOH, I'm none too anxious to pit my meager bank account against the likes of Random House....GRRR....still, they tell me I can't talk about something...can't write about something....well, there's prolly enough redneck in me to get rowdy about it....

-=Vel=-

This is the first I've heard of this Vel. Has there been any update on this corporate strong-arm tactics? Maybe someone should send a shard rover over to talk to them...

[Mavfin]

Ebook Format

EBook format is PDF. Acrobat Reader 4.x or higher. If you're using a Mac they'll have to email you the PDF.

[BigRich]

Originally posted by NorthSwordsman


This is the first I've heard of this Vel. Has there been any update on this corporate strong-arm tactics? Maybe someone should send a shard rover over to talk to them...

First off - many congrats on the book Vel! Havn't visited/lurked this forum for a while - hence the late post! Can't wait to upgrade my *very* dogeared copy of Version 3 - which incidentally single-handedly got me into playing (comparatively) serious SMAC(X). From muddling through Worker level to kicking booty on Librarian level and working at the next one up - thats one heck of a guide!

As for the strong-arm tactics - I'm curious as to what pressure they can realistically apply. I presume it would be copyright infringement or the threat of copyright infringement at least. In which case IIRC they'd have to show that a substantial portion of your work was lifted from theirs, which should prove tricky. I guess you could use some of their stuff if you got their permission first and acknowledged it in your work. Quite why you would want to is another matter - having seen some Prima guides I can only assume that they have permission to copy large chunks of the manual for whatever guide they are writing.

Treat all the above with a hefty pinch of salt - I'm a patents rather than a trademarks or copyright guy.

cheers,

Rich.

[Velociryx]

Hey guys....no news at all on the strongarm tactics that I've heard. I think the sabre rattling from Infogreed pretty much silenced the little guys, and that's too bad.....if Civ3 were a "deeper" game, and I felt as though I could do a smac-style guide for it, I'd write it in a heartbeat and dare them to try and stop me....as it stands...I'd be more concerned that the readers of the guide would feel like that didn't get their money's worth, cos there's just not all that much to talk about....another thing that's genuinely too bad....

Anyway, I figured that since I hadn't posted in this thread in a while, I would do some catching up, and thank *everyone* for making the guide the success that it is....simply awesome guys....

And Rich! Hiyas, and thanks for the good word on the guide....I'm glad it helped your game....*always* like hearing stories like that! As to what pressure....none, as far as I can see....my guess is that they're just money-grubbing corporate #$$%$^ who wanted to give their lawyers something to do?

Just a guess, tho....

-=Vel=-

[BigRich@home]

Afternoon all,

Having problems buying a copy of the Guide. Specifically it claims that the card owner's billing address does not match up with the given address. Now I *know* the card number is right soooo - anyone from the UK bought a copy, and if so how did they fill out the various fields when entering their details?

Sorry to post dumb questions but I've tried fitting in the details every which way and still no luck.

Rich

[Velociryx]

Hmm....I'd not heard about that particular problem before, but I shall write my contacts there, and at GU, to see if they've encountered anything like that. Will post whatever answer I get here as soon as I get one!

-=Vel=-

[BigRich]

Originally posted by Velociryx
Hmm....I'd not heard about that particular problem before, but I shall write my contacts there, and at GU, to see if they've encountered anything like that. Will post whatever answer I get here as soon as I get one!

-=Vel=-

Thanks Vel!

I would just mail them a cheque but it takes a while and besides the postage for the cheque would probably be more than its value

Looking forward to their answer!

Rich.

[Velociryx]

'k....try her again....see if that doesn't get it! The didn't tell me specifically what was up, but apparently the system was acting a bit wonky....said their troubles should be over now tho....

-=Vel=-

[BigRich]

Sweet - I'll give that a go tonight from home! No can download stuff at work unfortunately.

thanks again,

Rich.

[MariOne]

Well, I finally decided to provide myself with my first Credit Card.
Got it this morning, and... what could I do with it? I went right away to my first ever e-purchase: Vel's SMAX Guide!

Got from BookSurge the free-download too of the eBook while you wait for the paperback to be shipped you!