Real game manual?

from Elemental Forums

Can anyone tell me if there are any proper instructions on how to play this game? The manual in the installation folder doesn't tell me anything I couldn't work out on my own, while the things I need to know seem destined to stay a mystery. This isn't good Stardock. I don't mind waiting for bugs and tech issues to be ironed out over time with patches, but do I need to wait for fans of the game to create a wiki somewhere before I can understand how to play the game? Hiring someone to document the game features and write a manual isn't expensive, there's no excuse for this and it doesn't engender good will from customers. Sort it out!

elemental
5,971 views 10 replies
Reply #1 from Elemental Forums Top

Check out the Hiergamenon in-game (? book icon at top right), and make sure you have Janusk's advice enabled and recruit him when he pops up at game start.

Reply #2 from Elemental Forums Top

Dont want to sound rude, but why not wait and see if there is a manual before flaming them.  Just a thought.

Offworld Trading Company
Reply #3 from Elemental Forums Top

One thing you could try is to give the campaign a shot.  It starts out in such a way that you learn as you go.  Another thing you could try, while in game, is to hit the icon in the upper right of the screen with the ? on it.  That will bring up the in-game help book, or Hiergamenon.  There you can find a lot of info on how things work.

Hope that helps clear things up!

~C

[edit]: Kryo looks to have beat me to a reply, but I'll leave my response up anyway.

Reply #4 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting loialarent, reply 2
Dont want to sound rude, but why not wait and see if there is a manual before flaming them.  Just a thought.
End of loialarent's quote

it's fairly obvious there isn't, other than the pdf that is in the install directory. (which is pretty much worthless)

Reply #5 from Elemental Forums Top

Being rude doesn't help.

Reply #6 from Elemental Forums Top

I'm not flaming anybody, I'm pointing out the lack of documentation, that's all. Surely I'm entitled to as a customer? I have Janusk's advice on and have used the Hiergamenon, and it's not sufficient. Maybe this is not so bad if you've participated in the betas and have been avidly following the game on these forums, but I haven't and there just isn't enough info for the uninitiated like me.

Reply #7 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting loialarent, reply 5
Being rude doesn't help.
End of loialarent's quote

 

Well I certainly didn't mean to come off rude. I'm sure better documentation will come, there just isn't any right now.  :grin:

Reply #8 from Stardock Forums Top

I have to agree that more documentation would be nice.  The help book in game answers some gameplay questions but it doesn't address things like how to change from the top-down map view (happens when you double-click your capital for example) back to the isometric view, etc..  I ordered the boxed version, so I'm assuming a printed manual will be coming (though printed manuals are becoming more and more scarce these days!) but a PDF version wouldn't be difficult to make available and it would help immensely.

Reply #9 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting jreynol2, reply 4



Quoting loialarent,
reply 2
Dont want to sound rude, but why not wait and see if there is a manual before flaming them.  Just a thought.


it's fairly obvious there isn't, other than the pdf that is in the install directory. (which is pretty much worthless)
End of jreynol2's quote

You got that right. I wonder why they even bother making one when its so bad, I mean a veteran beta tester could make a better one in 2 days then the wortless pdf.

Reply #10 from Elemental Forums Top

Yeah, I bought the game last night and spent a good portion of the time since searching for a proper manual.The pdf in the directory is at least more helpful then the in-game Hiergamenon, but still leaves a bit to be desired.

Even though I'm something of an "old salty" when it comes to 4x games, and have already figured out most of the basics, I would really, really appreciate a proper manual, at least a pdf included w/ the download. A short anecdote, when I bought Civ4, I knew all the basics already, but I still read that nice, thick manual that came with it which enlightened me to minute details that weren't explained anywhere else, and it made the game much more enjoyable, and me a much better player as I had a thorough understanding of everything,...the point? Even though most things can be figured out just by playing through the campaign, games as deep as this NEED a manual to explain all the minutiae that aren't otherwise explained.

Please Stardock, if this wasn't just an oversight, and you simply forgot to include/release the manual, can you please make one up and release it?

PS: Awesome, awesome game so far. I'm really diggin it