We desprately NEED a VERY VERY GOOD Manual

from Stardock Forums
There is so much infomation missing even in the updated manual that I think the whole thing should just be rewritten. All of the Tech tree should be included.A lot of game terminology needs to be clarified and formulas like morale,espionage, population increase and such need to be explained more clearly. Most of the answers can be found right here in the forum or on various web sites but it would be nice if that info could be found all in one place like a new manual or a Strategy Guide...Hint Hint ;)
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Reply #1 from Stardock Forums Top
I second that... I'm new to this game and a decent manual would be a real help. How about something as simple as a hyperlinked tech tree at least? I have no idea how to get what (or even what I should get) in the tech race.

How about an in game help system? When I hit F1 on something in the game, I expect to see some help on the topic, like convention dictates. I like this game, but finding out how to do something amounts to posting here in this message board and hoping someone answers, or sifting through thousands of existing posts.

One thing I do like about this game is the apparent dedication of the developers. I've never seen such community paticipation from the game designers, kudos and keep it up!
Reply #2 from Stardock Forums Top
Hmm. Reminder: we have been promised an expanded manual - and Brad even asked for people to help draft pieces of it... (While the draft I saw was better than the current, I volunteered to do stuff on the economy, and on metaverse/sdc... I'll see if I can post it for everyone to improve on...)

Techtree and help are in upcoming versions - btw, I love UI enhancements in the beta of 1.04 - if you are Dregin.Net, you should try it out (and give feedback...)

Apparently, formulae won't be published for two main reasons (a) they are darn complex and (b) they change all the time - each release has subtle rebalancing of things, and "minor tweaks" of the formulae. The economy overview referred to above is aiming to provide enough detail that you can understand how it works, without smothering you in details that change all the time - including a sample of what the formula was at one point...

~SDC~
Siege of Centauri
Reply #3 from Stardock Forums Top
By the way i think that Economy details or formuas are more important than just understanding 'how it works'. You can't make decisions based on 'how it works' knowlege, but you can do it if you know formulas.

Too sad that Economy in Encyclopedia is outdated. At least i see that now both starbase +production modules and +production buildings give 1/3 to capacity and 2/3 free instead of (2/3, 1/3 and 1/2, 1/2). Don't checked this by myself - and what i see?

~SDC~
Reply #4 from Stardock Forums Top
Just ask yourself: What would you do in real life? If I were a Galactic Ruler irl, I would dang well want my scientists to provide me the real formulas, not just an approximation. :)
Reply #5 from Stardock Forums Top
In real life, the "Galactic Rulers" are too stupid to understand anything other than simple approximations.

::whistles::

- Nobody
Reply #6 from Stardock Forums Top
'In real life, the "Galactic Rulers" are too stupid to understand anything other than simple approximations.'

And they shouldn't have to, because in most governmental systems that's not their job, for the simple reason that noone can do everything. It's that person/entity's employees/aids/senchals/etc. to advise the 'ruler' on matters that aren't in his/their direct expertiese (which in most cases is pure politics).

~SDC~
Reply #7 from Stardock Forums Top
When I asked Brad, he said that the formulae are tweaked all the time (like every version). He seemed to feel that this meant they should not tell us what they are.

~SDC~
Reply #8 from Stardock Forums Top
Manuals are overrated.

Since I got GalCiv I haven't looked at it once. The few questions I had were answered here by kindly members and very quickly.

The best way to learn a game is to play it, for everything else there is Community.

:)
Reply #9 from Stardock Forums Top
//When I asked Brad, he said that the formulae are tweaked all the time (like every version). He seemed to feel that this meant they should not tell us what they are.//

Too bad. They are trying to increase difficulty by this way - AI 'knows' all formulaes and plays in a most efficient way. We don't know formulaes (i still figured some of them, if someone interested http://apolyton.net/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=85148).

P.S. In MOO3 forum i saw same topics.
P.P.S. Sid Meier don't used such a cheap tactics to increase game difficulty.

~SDC~
Reply #10 from Stardock Forums Top
Well if the manual is still being updated, We could still subsitute the pages. and just print it off of the web. I just would like to see some type INFORMATION
Reply #11 from Stardock Forums Top
"P.P.S. Sid Meier don't used such a cheap tactics to increase game difficulty. "

Huge ai cheats aren't cheap tactics?
Reply #12 from Stardock Forums Top
"Huge ai cheats aren't cheap tactics?"

Not if they're Sid Meier's :d

Seriously, it's good to have some information, and the interface to get info in game in Galciv could definitely be improved, but I guess I don't really care if I don't know the exact algorithm used for every computation. And I don't think tweaking the algorithm to make things more balanced is cheating.