Will there be a manual?

[eazrael]

I know nobody reads manuals and everybody hates writing manuals, but i like manuals.
Are there plans to provide a manual for the games? Especially one that goes beyond the scope of the tutorial. Tutorials are nice for learning how to play, but a good manual should also give you a deeper understanding of the inner workings of the game.

[Riabi]

As a guy who once tried to write a manual for an Arcen game, I can assure you, they just don't work. This is because Arcen games go through too many changes in too short a period of time. The manual would constantly need updating.

The best bet is to do what other Arcen games have done, and get a wiki maintained. I'm not sure if Chris has set up a wiki page for TLF yet, but if not, I'm sure that will happen soon, especially if players request it. Then, all you need to do is ask him for wiki editing access, and you can help make the wiki and help other players.

[RockyBst]

The constantly evolving nature of Arcen's games are what keep most people coming back. Go look at the insane patch notes for AI War, for instance. I think they're up to 200,000 words or something at this point. Essentially you're along for the ride, so don't expect a polished triple-A experience off the bat.

See: http://www.arcengames.com/mediawiki/index.php?title=AI_War_-_Current_Post-7.000_Beta,
http://arcengames.com/mediawiki/index.php?title=AI_War_-_Current_Post-5.000_Beta,
http://www.arcengames.com/mediawiki/index.php?title=AI_War_-_Current_Post-6.000_Beta

and even the alpha notes for TLF:

http://arcengames.com/mediawiki/index.php?title=The_Last_Federation_Alpha_Release_Notes

[eazrael]

(Note from moderator keith.lamothe : this post was preceded by several from a couple new-to-this-forum posters that took a very rude tone far outside the normal behavior characteristic of this forum.  Nor were those posts helpful towards the goal of the original post of the thread.  Therefore I have simply removed those posts.  There were also a few contributions that were reasonably helpful in that sub-discussion but which have no meaning outside of the context of the removed posts, so those "orphan" posts have also been removed.

Anyway, we only very rarely need any kind of moderator action here, but this was one of those times.  I understand there's a lot of new faces around here from the release of TLF, and you're welcome here.  But please keep it civil )


Oh my god.. i was just asking for a manual. A wiki might be fine, but if they are too often huge changes, if that might get outdated soon
Just want to understand the game better. Currently i feel overwhelmed by the game.

[Riabi]

Oh my god.. i was just asking for a manual. A wiki might be fine, but if they are too often huge changes, if that might get outdated soon
Just want to understand the game better. Currently i feel overwhelmed by the game.

I understand that. I have a hard time with it too sometimes, and I helped design it. :p

That said, the beauty of a wiki is that there are multiple people available to help make the changes, and it's not just one or two people, like if it were a manual.

[LordStryker]

Oh my god.. i was just asking for a manual. A wiki might be fine, but if they are too often huge changes, if that might get outdated soon
Just want to understand the game better. Currently i feel overwhelmed by the game.

Though it may not seem like it from this thread, the forums is always a great point-of-reference as well.  Now that the game is in full release, the wiki will slowly attract contributors over time.

[Barleyman]

Yes, ancient thread. So shoot me.

Wiki is kind of short in some pretty important details like "research" and "bases". In fact most of the content appears to be cut'n'paste from the game files with no editing to make it more readable.

So it appears the fleshing out of Wiki is taking time to happen. "Why don't you do it better yourself" you may ask? Well 'cause I have no clue how many of the things actually work which was why I put the game away after a few days of trying it. Progressing on tech tree, and indeed generally in the game is fairly fuzzy even although tutorial gives you the basics on some game mechanics.

[Teal_Blue]

May i make a suggestion? In place of a manual could we have a dedicated support thread for each game in each forum? where players can ask questions and get answers from other players, or the devs? it would consolidate most of the game questions in one area and over time become an archive of answers. also i think  a support thread would keep more up to date and be more easily  maintained than a wiki.

Also putting the thread in the top area where the dev info posts are located would keep it quick at hand.

At least that is my opinion,
-Teal



p.s.  i checked the post dates for the wiki and the last entry appears to have been made on 8 may 2014, 3 months ago.

[topper]

I think the wiki is a good tool for general information, but like you said, it is still pretty incomplete. Dedicated forum posts for consolidated Q&A are most useful during beta testing periods when there are lots of changes, but for specific questions a new thread makes an answer much easier to find later.

As one of the volunteered people trying to contribute to the wiki, I am responsible for the current state of some of the articles. If there are improvements to the articles content or formatting, I am happy to implement them, but my limitation is time and motivation to do work on it myself.