Progress

[TheJoat]

So now that this is getting close, remind me - how is this going to be sold? Can we download it directly? Or, do we have to wait for a physical shipment?

[Arjuna]

Digital download and/or physical shipment.

[TheJoat]

Digital download!!!!! Yes!!! I can play without delay. Makes broadband truly useful.


Now, as I recall, the manual is PDF no matter how you buy?

[Arjuna]

ORIGINAL: TheJoat
Now, as I recall, the manual is PDF no matter how you buy?

Yep the manuals are pdf. The page size used is A4 wide and US Letter long so they'll print on either. The type is big and so are the pictures so it will be easy to read.

FYI the documentation will consist of:

• Getting Started manual ( incl the intro tutorial )- 90 pages
• Advanced Tutorial - 90 pages
• Reference Manual - 200 pages
• ScenMaker Guide - size TBC
• MapMaker Guide - size TBC

BTW we will provide two pdf versions for each - one for printing with 300 dpi images and another for reading from the screen with 96 dpi images.

[wodin]

Good to see your not waiting to find the sync bug. Not sure many play this game HtH anyway.

[Arjuna]

wodin,

Well I for one love playing head to head but I like eating better.[;)]

[TheJoat]

ORIGINAL: Arjuna

Yep the manuals are pdf. The page size used is A4 wide and US Letter long so they'll print on either. The type is big and so are the pictures so it will be easy to read.

Sounds good. I have my laptop set up next to my desktop so I can read the manual on one computer while I play on the other one. I'm really looking forward to this one!

[Major Disaster]

I was wondering if the sync bug would affect playing ftf on the same machine ?

[Arjuna]

MD,

What do you mean by ftf?

[Rouspeteur]

FYI the documentation will consist of:

• Getting Started manual ( incl the intro tutorial )- 90 pages
• Advanced Tutorial - 90 pages
• Reference Manual - 200 pages
• ScenMaker Guide - size TBC
• MapMaker Guide - size TBC

BTW we will provide two pdf versions for each - one for printing with 300 dpi images and another for reading from the screen with 96 dpi images.

A question regarding the documentation... Is there a way to get permission from Panther, Matrix, or whomever to have the pdf's printed at Staples (or some other copy store) as they don't touch copyrighted material. If I tried doing the printing on my printer, by the time it finished printing out everything you would be releasing volume 3 in the series!

Thanks,

Rouspéteur

[Major Disaster]

What do you mean by ftf?

Face to face.. that is playing both sides on the same computer.

[Arjuna]

ORIGINAL: Major Disaster

What do you mean by ftf?

Face to face.. that is playing both sides on the same computer.

I am assuming here that you are running two versions of the Game on the one machine and one is the Host and the other the Joiner - ie you are running a networked game albeit on the one machine. If that is the case, then yes the out of sync bug will affect it.

[El Savior]

Excellent news!

Yesterday I played HTTR and enjoyed very much and now COTA is coming! Invasion of Crete is one of my favourite battle. Very nice!

Hope you find syn off bug before release, but I rarely have time to play multiplayer so I don't care.

[MarkShot]

You may think this sounds silly coming from a beta tester, but it has been a long time (like a few years) since the last time I looked at any of the documentation set from RDOA/HTTR or the HTTR Strategy Guide.

I am currently about two-thirds done reviewing the COTA Reference Guide and I was struck yesterday with the incredible level of detail and richness of modeling that is included in the game engine. Yes, I know that I have been playing it regularly, but after a while it becomes like a flight sim and you stop thinking of all that is being handled behind the scenes. I have to say that I am still impressed, and I know this game better than most.

[save]

IF you want to get the out-of-sync bugger, can you supply some way to put the debug on
with a command ?

Me and a friend of mine will play COTA more multiplayer than single.

Can you get checkpoints saved when playing multiplayer - so you can restart when
the out-of-sync bug hit you ?

[Arjuna]

ORIGINAL: save

IF you want to get the out-of-sync bugger, can you supply some way to put the debug on
with a command ?

Me and a friend of mine will play COTA more multiplayer than single.

Can you get checkpoints saved when playing multiplayer - so you can restart when
the out-of-sync bug hit you ?

If you save early and save often, you should be able to restart before the out of sync occurs and hopefully you can then play on. Remember with multiplayer you must both restart from the same saved game. So it's just a matter of the host or joiner emailing their save to the other person and then restarting from that save.

BTW re debugging. It's not so much a question of identifying where and when it goes out of sync. We have built into the code some pretty sophisticated checking code. We have spent many hours tracing back through the code when it occurs. The trouble is it is not consistent. It just doesn't repeat exactly the same. So we have something random like an uninitialised pointer or a vector or data is overflowing randomly. That's why it's so hard to find.

[Guz]

Well, at least when you release the game you'll have a ton of people helping to squash that bug, eh?

[Arjuna]

ORIGINAL: Guz

Well, at least when you release the game you'll have a ton of people helping to squash that bug, eh?

We'd be grateful for just one lucky bug buster. [;)]

[Real and Simulated Wars]

Could it be one of your timers? DirectX has only one timer function (what MS was thinking?) and if you guys have created you own timers (more than one) from the former is a living hell.

[Arjuna]

Chelco,

That's worth looking into into as we have added another timer. Thanks you.