Manual Revision...Input Requested

[ericbabe]

We are working on revising the manual. Principally this involves working the addenda/errata into the body-text. However, we're also considering expanding the text in some areas that may be confusing or that may require additional explanation.

We can't put an enormous amount of effort into overhauling the whole thing... however we'd like to spend our energy wisely.

If you would, which areas of the manual need the most work? Which aspects of the game are the most confusing? (The economy! I know, but anything specifically...)

In particular, is the basic UI (moving and attaching units, building units, drafting treaties, declaring war, etc.) explained clearly enough in the manual/tutorial?

[Mr. Z]

BTW, we have already written up numerous new sections regarding subjects such as Waste, Retreat, and other things such as Violating Territory after a surrender, along with other additions regarding various game controls, but please feel free to bring up anything you like.

[KarlXII]

The things that have puzzled me the most and which I think needs to be explained more in detail or more clearer are the following:

- The difference between setting a armee/corps/unit to use SUPPLY or to FORAGE. I thought it automatically did forage if there were no supply depot ?

- What happens when the enemy frees it´s POW:s ? Do they get back to be fighting units ? It seemed britain with one unit freed up 4 of it´s pows for me and suddenly the british corps was 5 units strong. That is not clearly explained. Besides, how do I see the effect of added labour ? Do I just put the POW:s on any province ?

- The right-click menu selection SUBSIDY a province is not explained together with the other alternatives like limited surrender and cease fire. It seems to me missing and I don´t know how it works.

- It would be great with a section explaining a little bit more how the AI is done, how smart it is and so on. Like the old "Designers notes" in classic Microprose games in ancient times.

- Please explain clearly what the different difficulty settings mean. Does the computer AI gets better, just more aggressive or does it CHEAT

- Add a section telling how one can check if ones economy is going ok or not. Like explaining the SUPPLY portion which is one of the 6-7 shortcut menues and updated every turn. There is much good information in there but everything is not apparent.

- Explain how one can see how much depots costs and if they are used or not.

- Another thing that needs to be clearly stated is how to use the Garrison troops. I know you have to press E above them but I had to find it in the Forum and then saw it was mentioned in the Appendix as well, but it should be put into the detailed combat section as well.

- Is there any way to check how much a trade lane costs ? I haven´t found it anywhere....

Ok, that was some of my inputs for additions into the updated manual.

[jhdeerslayer]

Thanks for taking this change on. I would be happy to edit and review the revised manual if that helps also.

All the different treaty clauses. Would be nice for some simple examples of their use and benefit. Seems I only ever bother with a few.

Or maybe it just needs a Ralegh guide.

Karl covered some good points.

I hope to give you some more detailed suggestions soon. Seems like many floating around on the forum. Seems this fine game can't be explained too much!

[Mr. Z]

- The difference between setting a armee/corps/unit to use SUPPLY or to FORAGE. I thought it automatically did forage if there were no supply depot ?

I think this is a bug. They will do whatever they are set to do (the Forage/Supply toggle on the unit control box, at the bottom of the screen when you select a unit--it's in the manual, section 1.6 I think or something like that). But IIRC there is a bug with this that I think is either fixed with 1.1 or will be soon...

- What happens when the enemy frees it´s POW:s ? Do they get back to be fighting units ? It seemed britain with one unit freed up 4 of it´s pows for me and suddenly the british corps was 5 units strong. That is not clearly explained. Besides, how do I see the effect of added labour ? Do I just put the POW:s on any province ?

A future patch should change the behavior of POWs. Yes, currently you can free any number of POWs with a single unit. Right now you can put the POWs in any province, and they affect labor, but I don't know if this shows up or not. This will probably be explained in the forthcoming economic strategy guide, but I don't know when this will be ready. Probably not until after the second patch.

- The right-click menu selection SUBSIDY a province is not explained together with the other alternatives like limited surrender and cease fire. It seems to me missing and I don´t know how it works.

Subsidize is now explained in the errata, and there are now references to the Polictical Actions table (which is found later on in the manual) as well.

- It would be great with a section explaining a little bit more how the AI is done, how smart it is and so on. Like the old "Designers notes" in classic Microprose games in ancient times.

Heh, well, we'll think about it!

- Please explain clearly what the different difficulty settings mean. Does the computer AI gets better, just more aggressive or does it CHEAT

Hm. Mostly it just gets more powerful/does fewer stupid things. But we'll see what we can add, thanks.

- Add a section telling how one can check if ones economy is going ok or not. Like explaining the SUPPLY portion which is one of the 6-7 shortcut menues and updated every turn. There is much good information in there but everything is not apparent.

Yeah, this will probably wait until the economic strategy guide.

- Explain how one can see how much depots costs and if they are used or not.

I'll check to see if the cost of depots is in the manual anywhere. (Though it doesn't cost anything to use a depot.)

- Another thing that needs to be clearly stated is how to use the Garrison troops. I know you have to press E above them but I had to find it in the Forum and then saw it was mentioned in the Appendix as well, but it should be put into the detailed combat section as well.

Will put something in the errata, thanks.

- Is there any way to check how much a trade lane costs ? I haven´t found it anywhere....

What do you mean by "costs"?

[Mr. Z]

Or maybe it just needs a Ralegh guide.

That seems to me like the best way to do it, yeah. Maybe we'll put a political strategy guide together after the economic one.

[KarlXII]

- Is there any way to check how much a trade lane costs ? I haven´t found it anywhere....

What do you mean by "costs"?
[/quote]

In the manual and in the Forum I have read that if you are the one who initiates the trade you are the one paying for its "maintenance". So if I have very many small trade routes established that will get pretty expensive instaed of having a few but trading a lot of items in them. It would be nice to see the costs of them.

[jhdeerslayer]

I believe the manual has left out the affects of Culture on Upgrades? I can't find it but have seen it on the forum at some point? Showing the formula also would be nice.

Explanation why the Upgrade points available can be less than Upgrades already available would be nice as well. Does that mean you have these Upgrades already or auto queued for you? I made an open post on this question as well.

[jvgfanatic]

These are piddly little things (though the 2nd should have been seen to a while ago).

=======================

Section 8.4.1 View Relations

No explanation of icons on the "International Relations" chart is given here (yet the screenshot is shown). Is this elsewhere in the manual? Then at least a reference to that other page would be good. Tooltips in-game would even be great too.

[Edit: the symbols are explained in the tutorial, that info should be in the manual as well]

=======================

Section 8.4.1 View Relations

"If the button is press, the nation or country next to the box..."

The illustration next to this fragment shows a portion of the "International Relations" screen. That illustration either needs to be more informative (with a pressed and unpressed button labelled appropriately) OR the interface in the game needs to be changed so that it's obvious when the button is "pressed" and "not".

Suggest: a checkmark or "X" be used in the game and the manual be changed to:

"If the box is checked, that nation or country next to the box..."

and subsequent uses of "pressed" be altered accordingly.

[jvgfanatic]

The manual is replete with things like this tidbit from the friendly intro document:

Your Military Groups: Armies and Corps
Using the attachment box as you just did...

That seems fine, only we've been dealing with this window WITHOUT a name for a whole page now. Why wait until page 2 to give it its name (attachment box), and only in passing?

Also in the Friendly Intro document under the "Placing Depots" subject heading it says:

You can also move the mouse over
Switzerland and press the ‘d’ key to toggle depots on/off.

First off, you're not turning "depots" on and off by pressing the "d" key. You are "placing" a SINGLE depot. The way it's worded makes it seem as if this is a view toggle for viewing/hiding depots.

This kind of thing is prevalent througout the manual...

I should have bolded the fact that these are indeed from the Friendly Intro document

[Mr. Z]

Are you sure some of this is from the manual? It all sounds like the Friendly Intro...but I'll check.

[solops]

The "making treaties" thingy process is not self-evident. Maybe it is the interface. Speaking professionaly, I'd say it needs idiot-proofing.

Sncerely,
An Idiot

[solops]

Some more descriptive text in the game would not be amiss. For instance in trades a "To" and a "From" would not be amiss. Also, the preferences screen (the one where you check boxes for trading items and who you will/won't make treaties with) is too well hidden and documention on how to get to it is poor (not in the table of contents, etc). I found it, thought "neat", and then forgot about it. Later it took two days of searching the manual and the game to find it again (by accident). List it in the Table of Contents.

[solops]

More details on the effects of buildings. Ex: Courts - effects not only on diplomats, but waste(?), rebels, etc.

[TheBlackhorse]

Request you make each page a single column as opposed to the current double column per page.

Single column makes it MUCH easier for those of us who read the .pdf file in Acrobat on the computer as opposed to those who print out the manual.

Thank you.