Release Countdown! TOAW 3 Feature Preview #2
Posted: Thu Mar 23, 2006 6:46 am
No screenshots for this one, I'm afraid, but this feature is near and dear to my heart...
TOAW 3 will include a revised manual and compiled help file. Over the course of the various Talonsoft/Take Two iterations of TOAW, the manual become riddled with old references, and obsolete data. This led to a lot of confusion on the part of players, both green and veteran, when they tried to reconcile manual information with game engine behavior, particularly since many of the revisions and patches were rather poorly documented. Inevitably, this resulted in a lot of unwarranted bug and exploit claims, by those who sought support from that archaic tome. Much like arguing over Biblical Interpretation, really...[:D]
Undoubtedly, there were still dozens of "bugs" still left in TOAW, even after four versions by Talonsoft/Take Two, and one of our top goals at Matrix has been the systematic eradication of as many of those that we can confirm. However, to lessen the reporting of false bugs, or misunderstood features, we felt a manual rewrite was not only overdue, but necessary.
The help files will be in the same format as before, but the manual will now be available on Adobe's .pdf format. This will allow users to print their own copies, if they desire a hard copy of the manual. More importantly though, it will allow for much faster and easier searching, so that rule that you just know you saw somewhere won't take you 10 minutes of flipping through the pages before you're finally able to say "Oh! That's where I saw that!"
One other great advantage to the .pdf format is that future patches, enhancements, upgrades, and mod packages can ship with a freshly revised manual incorporating all the changes since the previous release. Your manual will never have to be obsolete again.
TOAW 3 will include a revised manual and compiled help file. Over the course of the various Talonsoft/Take Two iterations of TOAW, the manual become riddled with old references, and obsolete data. This led to a lot of confusion on the part of players, both green and veteran, when they tried to reconcile manual information with game engine behavior, particularly since many of the revisions and patches were rather poorly documented. Inevitably, this resulted in a lot of unwarranted bug and exploit claims, by those who sought support from that archaic tome. Much like arguing over Biblical Interpretation, really...[:D]
Undoubtedly, there were still dozens of "bugs" still left in TOAW, even after four versions by Talonsoft/Take Two, and one of our top goals at Matrix has been the systematic eradication of as many of those that we can confirm. However, to lessen the reporting of false bugs, or misunderstood features, we felt a manual rewrite was not only overdue, but necessary.
The help files will be in the same format as before, but the manual will now be available on Adobe's .pdf format. This will allow users to print their own copies, if they desire a hard copy of the manual. More importantly though, it will allow for much faster and easier searching, so that rule that you just know you saw somewhere won't take you 10 minutes of flipping through the pages before you're finally able to say "Oh! That's where I saw that!"
One other great advantage to the .pdf format is that future patches, enhancements, upgrades, and mod packages can ship with a freshly revised manual incorporating all the changes since the previous release. Your manual will never have to be obsolete again.