Just spent 25 dollars printing out manual. Dumb Move?

[Embark]

I couldn't find any updates to the manual. So I printed out the 220 pager at Staples in black and whte spiral bound with hard cover front and back pages. I figured that if I invested the money in printing the manual, I would be more apt to study it. I cannot look at pdfs on the pc for any extended period of time. It hurts my eyes and I hate having to minimize the screen to reference it.

Think it was a bad move? I know AE is supposed to be coming out soon but I figured that knowing the base game in and out would help my understanding of the expansion. I wish that the manual was updated with the patches but I guess that I will have to make do with what I have.



Ben

[Lameduck]

If it's a dumb move, it's one I've done as well. I just find it easier to flip through a manual, rather than trying to scroll around looking for something.

[crsutton]

Well, not necessarily a dumb move. I printed mine out at the office. Promise you won't tell........

[Canoerebel]

It's cheaper than a round of golf at most courses, so what the heck, why not?

[Mike Scholl]

Might be..., but only because of the timing. Should be a completely new manual available with AE in about 4 months.

[Terminus]

Yah... And that one will actually be pertinent to the game...[:D]

[Embark]

ORIGINAL: crsutton

Well, not necessarily a dumb move. I printed mine out at the office. Promise you won't tell........

Hah! Well I could do that too. However, when I spend money on something, I am more likely to want to use it. I feel like I need to get my moneys worth out of it. Plus it came out all professional looking too.


Ben

[Mynok]

Consider it a trial run. You'll find out if you like the format for when AE comes out and you get to do it again. [:'(]

[bobogoboom]

the only reason i might call it a dumb move is because of how much stuff in the manual is a complete lie.

[Terminus]

I always used to get pissed off at people who claimed the manual was full of lies, until I had to read the thing from cover to cover for the AE. I'm still not sure I like the word "lies", since that implies malice of forethought (and no, there's been no conspiracy to mislead you people), but the current manual is very poor. There'll be a better one for AE.

[niceguy2005]

I printed the manual as well, though it really just collects dust on the bookshelf.

The best thing by far, hands down, no foolin', is the tutorial.  To me it would be insane to try to learn the game without it.  The manual itself really only covers about 10% of the game.

[bradfordkay]

Hey, it cost you less to get it printed and bound at Staples than it cost me to print it on my own computer and put it in a three ring binder (figuring the cost of the paper and the ink cartridges I used up).

If you buy the disk version of AE, you will get a printed manual along with the game. I'll be doing this (not least because with a dialup connection I will not be using digital download!).

[Charles2222]

Don't forget the awesome potential of the search feature with the pdf! I can go through a pdf via the search function much better than turning pages and trying to guess where they put such-and-such. Now if only anybody would ever bother updating their pdf's it's potential for updates over printer manuals would be realized. 

[castor troy]

Without the printed manual I wouldn´t have got started with the game. Printed and read most of it at the office too... [;)] Even though I think it´s a poor manual, 95% of what is written is true - at least...

if (very rarely) I have too look something up now, then I use the pdf search function of course but if you have to read it for the first time, what should you look for? Especially if you´re a non native speaker!

[HansBolter]

That's actually pretty damn cheap even if it is B&W.

I printed mine at home on my inkjet and it cost about $70 in in ink cartridges for both the manual and the tutorial and anothr $5 each to have them spiral bound at Kinkos. Kinkos charges 89 cents a page for color printing so the print at home option is still cheaper.

[Gem35]

Even though the game has been patched and alot of new material rules have been implemented, the original manual still will give a new player alot of the meat and potatoes of the game such as how many aviation points are required and what kinds of TFs you can create or how overland supply works or what missions your aircraft can be assigned to or how HQs affect your troops etc...
The first day I had that PDF in my hands I made a dash to my local print shop and spent $20 USD for the manual.
Well worth it IMO unless of course you are an expert at this game already and know everything.

[Charles2222]

ORIGINAL: castor troy

Without the printed manual I wouldn´t have got started with the game. Printed and read most of it at the office too... [;)] Even though I think it´s a poor manual, 95% of what is written is true - at least...

if (very rarely) I have too look something up now, then I use the pdf search function of course but if you have to read it for the first time, what should you look for? Especially if you´re a non native speaker!

I admit the pdf is a real downer to read, so, I don't. Oh some areas catch my interest in the beginning, but at work I learned so much the great benefits of how to easily search an unread database as opposed to having read somethign similr in book form and then continually saying to myself as I'm looking for it in a book "Uh, well I think I saw that in this section. No, it was that section. No?" With a lot of database searches, at least with the WITP adobe, you just need think of a common word and off you go, since it pulls up EVERY instance of that single word in the entire document. So the trick is to think of a word that isn't all that common that is very likely to come up when describing what you're looking for. Since the search, if used correctly will give you every instance of that word, you can click the link and go immediately to it. Once there, you can probably almost spot instantly whether that link was the one you were after. My ability to do that alone, at work, has made a tremendous difference on whether I gave up totally on something because of such a huge amount of documentation, or elsewise never spent more than 15 minutes, usually less than five minutes, finding exactly what I wanted. It really freed me up from trying to memorize so much garbage at work, and that's all the more important when you not only work in IT, but when you're also having to wing it alone often enough.

[crsutton]

I read the manual, once....way back then.

Now if I have a question I just pester people on this forum.