The Manual is Frustrating

[TheBlackhorse]

Great, albeit complicated and difficult to master, game. That said, the manual leaves much to be desired.

For starters, having a two column per page layout for a document to be mostly viewed on a screen is bad form. It is very difficult to read and follow and requires ridiculous scrolling down and then back up and then down to read a page. It should have been and still should be in a single column, allowing readers to sit back and read at leisure while slowly scrolling down as they absorb the necessary information to figure out just what the hell is going on in the game. Two column works in printed form only and should never even be considered if there is a chance the document will be viewed electronically.

Secondly, the manual lacks detail needed by the player. For instance, I need to know how to move troops from England to the Continent. The manual fails to point out how to do that, and how to do that without suffering rather significant losses due to attrition.

I had an Army that I tried to move to Spain virtually disappear due to attrition while at sea? Huh? OK, that's news to me...Go to manual to look it up and see how and why that happened and how to prevent it and there is nothing that addresses this, or if there is, it is not to be found.

Speaking of which, if you are looking for information about the "Set Policy" screen, you'll find it under PBEM play, which doesn't make a whole lot of sense, since most of us are playing single player while trying to master this gem. It also doesn't make sense in that the "Set Policy" screen should have its own Bookmark seeing as its one of the more significant screens a player has to deal with.

Finally, the manual need a two turn example of play for any country but the French.

[nukkxx5058]

I agree with the two-columns. It's painful.


... and such a complex game should have a manual at least twice that big ...

[bmodified]

Even though I have yet to see the manual, I can instantly understand the frustration with the two column format.

The clarity of the information presented, or the lack of it, I can't judge. The Raliegh tips have been listed by some as being helpful, and perhaps something like these along with a robust FAQ might fill any existing holes in the manual.

I'll probably get CoG, but the game seems complex to the point where I'm willing to wait for others to do the heavy lifting when it comes to figuring the details out.

[sol_invictus]

It seems counterintuitive, but did you build Depots in the sea zones that your army crossed? Troops need supply at sea just like on land but forraging is not an option at sea so the Depots at sea represent supply ships that keep the men fed until they get to their destination. Launching amphibious invasion or long sea tranportation of soldiers can be very expensive.

[bluemonday]

I agree with all the points except the two columns, which I think are fine. I can't imagine trying to sit and read a manual on the computer - I would much rather have the manual be formatted so as to look best when it is printed, since that is inevitably what is going to happen anyway,

[bluemonday]

ORIGINAL: Blackhorse06
Secondly, the manual lacks detail needed by the player. For instance, I need to know how to move troops from England to the Continent.

Actually, sea movement is covered on p. 16 ("Moving Troops Via Fleet"), although the attrition aspect is not.

[willgamer]

Please note you can change on screen from 2 columns to 1: VIEW/PAGE LAYOUT/CONTINOUS.

Basically I agree though... from an earlier post about luxuries:

Clearly part of the problem is the over burdening of the word luxury. It's used at least 3, and probably more, ways. In Labor Allocation we see that "Luxury = Spices + Luxury". So Luxury the trade item, Luxury the labor allocation and Luxury the morale bonus all very different inclusiveness.

Simply, I think the manual could have used more professional technical writing. Even though it's 94 pages, for a game this complex, that scales down to about the 6 page flyer that comes with an ordinary RTS. Before you even worry about the hidden mechanics, there are even many screens that are woefully under explained.

OTOH, 3 cheers for a game that's deep enough to provoke this complaining.

[TheBlackhorse]

ORIGINAL: willgamer

Please note you can change on screen from 2 columns to 1: VIEW/PAGE LAYOUT/CONTINOUS.

Different solution for a different problem. We're talking about the two columns per printed page.

Cheers,
Chris

[willgamer]

For starters, having a two column per page layout for a document to be mostly viewed on a screen is bad form. It is very difficult to read and follow and requires ridiculous scrolling down and then back up and then down to read a page. It should have been and still should be in a single column, allowing readers to sit back and read at leisure while slowly scrolling down as they absorb the necessary information to figure out just what the hell is going on in the game. Two column works in printed form only and should never even be considered if there is a chance the document will be viewed electronically.

(italics mine)... could'a fooled me! I'd swear you wanted to view on screen as 1 column. [8|]

[TheBlackhorse]

ORIGINAL: willgamer

For starters, having a two column per page layout for a document to be mostly viewed on a screen is bad form. It is very difficult to read and follow and requires ridiculous scrolling down and then back up and then down to read a page. It should have been and still should be in a single column, allowing readers to sit back and read at leisure while slowly scrolling down as they absorb the necessary information to figure out just what the hell is going on in the game. Two column works in printed form only and should never even be considered if there is a chance the document will be viewed electronically.

(italics mine)... could'a fooled me! I'd swear you wanted to view on screen as 1 column. [8|]

We are. The .pdf file cannot be altered to show only one column perpage. What it does is simply show one page per screen. That doesn't fix the embedded 2 columns per page in the format of the document that went into creating the .pdf file.

[willgamer]

ah! my bad; i thought you meant the 2 page/screen at first. i've polished my reading skills now and i'm on board......[:o]

[Pippin]

Another reason why posting a manual before release can be a good thing.... Things like this could get flagged, but then again you could run into further problems.

[Ralegh]

C'mon Eric or Erik - give us the final in Word format (or in a single column PDF)! Cant be that hard!

[ericbabe]

ORIGINAL: Ralegh

C'mon Eric or Erik - give us the final in Word format (or in a single column PDF)! Cant be that hard!

I'm gearing up to update our website with a support area for COG and additional formats of the manual (.doc, .html) are something we'd like to include if Matrix doesn't have objections. I did, however, lose all the source files for our website in my last hard drive crash (some things you just don't think to back up...) so there are some additional hurdles to be overcome.

[Erik Rutins]

We'll include alternate manual versions in an update for all Crown of Glory owners. Our policy is not to give out or post manuals publicly in any format because of some piracy-related concerns that have come up in the past. However, we are happy to provide alternate formats or any other additional content or features to our customers.

[Rooster]

Thanks Eric - one small request. Please be sure to leave the manual "unlocked" in PDF format - this will allow the manual to be reformatted for viewing on the PDA version of Adobe Acrobat reader. I think this is a cheap way for users (if they already own a PDA) to use the manual while the game is tying up the screen. And you can take the manual to read while commuting, spending time in the bathroom, etc. BTW, the HTTR manual is "locked" and can't be viewed optimally on a PDA