About CA and its relation to this board

[Plucesiar]

I noticed how many ppl here are eager for change and make suggestions about some aspects of the game CA should improve and such. Just out of my curiousity, are there actually any CA workers registered here to check out our thoughts or are our suggestions considered mere wishes?

[TigerVX]

There are alot actually, they post here quiet often. They're the members with the CA shield for an avatar.

[Oaty]

Not only that the ORG is in the credits of the game

[Jango Fett]

speaking of credits, does anyone actually know who sings in the credits? sounds very familiar but i cant put a name to it, anyone help? sorry off topic

[discovery1]

Look for the only female vocalist in them. I think her name is something like Angela VanDike.

[Servius]

I wish CA folks would post a bit more often about things that are completely left unexplained in the manual and are not intuitive in the game. Squallor, blinking city stat icons, how to grow a strong family tree, what difference (if any) being a faction heir causes, why cavalry and infantry move at almost the same speed (and where the individual unit speed variables are), what the specific, quantifiable effects of buildings are...blah blah blah...

Sorry, I'm just frustrated with a lot of things in this game, with the fact that they aren't explained in the manual, and that CA folks are not posting often enough to answer some of these major issues in the game.

[andrewt]

The manual is way too thin. 83 pages, including notes, legal information, table of contents, etc.

Civ3 had 243 pages. Now that's a real manual.

[Colovion]

The advisors did WAY more than I expected them to. I usually totally discount the ingame help as being obvious but it was very easy to get into the game with the ingame advisors.

However, once you are into the game and you understand how to run a small faction with two or three provinces you need more detailed information to expand - things start getting very complicated and you have nothing to tell you what is what and when to do certain things etc... after a while it gets rather overwhelming... and I've only played two small campaigns

[Captain Fishpants]

Just to prove that we do post and take notice: here I am, posting.

The manual size was determined by Activision. They wanted something that would fit into their standard EU packaging, I believe. The original draft of the manual was far, far longer.

As to the manual being out of synch with the game, this always happens. The manual has to go to production weeks before the software is finally done, and there are occasions when changes are made to the UI at quite a late stage - and the UI is what the manual is explaining.

We've also posted a new FAQ over at the .com that answers many of the common questions - such as the flashing icons issue. Icons flash on the settlement details screen when something has changed in the settlement - the trade icons often flash because the settlement's merchants are constantly looking for the best price for trade goods on a turn-by-turn basis.

Glad you like the advisors, though! This was a major effort on the part of a couple of people here, and they'll be pleased the system helped.

[The_Emperor]

Thanks for the reply Captain!

I must admit the advisors were fun (even though I turn them off mainly, I stil on ocasion consult Victoria when i am stuck on what building I need) very handy.

I'll go check out your new FAQ. .

[ToranagaSama]

Captain Fishpants,

Thank you for replying to this thread.

The FAQ answers a few questions, and is appreciated, but it still leaves, whole aspects of the game undocumented.

The lack of documentation is a source of continual irritation, I believe EVERYONE agrees on this. There is a great deal that is not even mentioned in the Pamphlet.

Would it be possible to have the original manual posted to the .com site? This would be a great service to the community, and CA/Ativision would have the gratitude of all.

In the future, would you be so kind as to put up for dicussion at CA/Activision, the possibility of including a COMPREHENSIVE manual on the game's CD. This would be rather cost effective and relieve your customer base of a source of frustration, leading to greater enjoyment of the game. A simple .txt file would be fine, but a *finished* Acrobat .pdf document would be great, or actually both would, probably, be best.

While I'm on the subject, I'm SURE the Modders would simply be estactic (sp?) to have documentation explaining the moddable underinnings of the game, as well, and would probably lead to more and better Mods. Like I said this could all be put onto the CD. So the cost would only involve time and effort.

Unless there is some *legal* issues involved, I know Prima must have bought some Rights, so that might be an one.

Guess what? I'd wager that many (particularly those that buy game guides), would be happy to pay a modest fee for a downloadable guide, as long as it was comprehensive relative to the complexity of the game.

I'd speculate that the revenue from this source would equal or exceed that received from Prima, and would serve MORE of your customers---BETTER!

Thank you for your attention.

~ToranagaSama



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BTW all, here's a link to the FAQ

[Boohugh]

Captain Fishpants, is it possible to release your longer manual as a .pdf file or similar, or are there legal technicalities involved.

[ToranagaSama]

Hellllooooooo, is there anybody at home?