Full User Manual please!

[TDK1044]

I hope Ubisoft doesn't produce an incomplete user manual for Silent Hunter 4. There is a growing tendency with game producers to save money by producing a booklet rather than a full user manual for their games. In my opinion, a sub sim needs a detailed user manual which fully explains the simulation. The book for Silent Hunter 3 was OK, and I'm hoping for at least that if not more for SH4.

What do you guys think?

[LZ_Baker]

I would love to see a manuel like they had for SH2. That thing was great. I didn't just learn about the game, but alot about U-Boats and submarines in general.

[TDK1044]

I agree. I'd rather pay an extra $2 and have a really good user manual.

[Drebbel]

Originally Posted by LZ_Baker

I would love to see a manuel like they had for SH2. That thing was great. I didn't just learn about the game, but alot about U-Boats and submarines in general.

Hmm. In many countries SHII was shipped without a printed manual. All there was was a thin leaflet and a PDF file.

Maybe we should go for PDF manual only, that way the manual could be updated to the last minute and even be updated after the game has been released.

I also assume a PDF manual will be cheaper so that leaves room for a more comprehensive manual

[kylania]

Originally Posted by TDK1044

I agree. I'd rather pay an extra $2 and have a really good user manual.

Problem is a full manual would cost $2 extra to produce, but they'd sell it for $20 more for a collectors edition, which never sells as well as normal, so they skip it.

[LZ_Baker]

Originally Posted by Drebbel

Hmm. In many countries SHII was shipped without a printed manual. All there was was a thin leaflet and a PDF file.

Maybe we should go for PDF manual only, that way the manual could be updated to the last minute and even be updated after the game has been released.

I also assume a PDF manual will be cheaper so that leaves room for a more comprehensive manual

That sucks, the manuel I have is like a small book. An in depth pdf would be nice, especially if they did it right with all of the hotlinks to different pages and stuff.

[TDK1044]

.pdf obviously makes sense, but you know, I think there's a lot to be said for having a really good user manual in the retail box. How many of us would want a pdf document as our owners manual for our car?

[Safe-Keeper]

I'd love a thick, detailed manual, but in this day and age, I doubt we'll see one. Even PRIMA's strategy guides have been reduced to thin little books that could barely be called manuals. I remember the huge bricks that came with the two first X-Com games I bought. Not even the slightest little ammo clip in the games were without at least a paragraph of strategy, how-to-get, and so on. Good times.

.pdf obviously makes sense, but you know, I think there's a lot to be said for having a really good user manual in the retail box. How many of us would want a pdf document as our owners manual for our car?

Cars and games don't have much in common.

[TDK1044]

Cars and games don't have much in common.

In both cases they say a lot about us.

[Dantenoc]

Most of today's games don't really need manuals because they're designed for the brain dead, where it's basicaly "fire! fire! fire!" and that's it.

Other games don't come with a manual because they have interfaces that are extremely well designed and the games themselves deal with stuff that ordinary people are very familiar with already (car driving sims come to mind). In these games any person can simply take the controls and just roll with it without thinking twice about it.

Yet another type of games is purpousfuly designed without a manual because they're so poorly designed that the player gets more gratification from discovering how to play the game than actualy playing it. Little kids are very fond of this type of games, where they basicaly earn bragging rights by learning how to do a particular trick in their game from dedicated magazines, and hence feeling important because their "in the know"

There are, likewise, more other categories were a manual isn't crucial.

This game, however, DOES NOT fit any of those categories. This game touts itself as a simulator (it says so in the cover box) and should therefore come with a high school sized book, in which not only the games interface is explained in detail, but the theory and background knowledge that one would need in order to be a competent captain should be explained.

Ordinary people have no idea of how CO2 poisoning works (well, aparently neither did the developers) or what the law of the sines is. Ordinary people have no clue in their regular lifes that it is a good idea to order your crew to open up the torpedoe tubes before firing, nor do they know how to convert speed over time into a distance traveled.

Since all of these details (and many, many more like them) are so crucial to the game play experience, the correct thing to do would be to include a high school sized book that covered all of this, plus some tidbits of Uboat trivia or the like for background flavour.

[bookworm_020]

I would love to have a great manual, as well as a target identification book for all the ships we hope to meet (and sink). I think our chances are slim, but we can always ask, with a big Please proceeding the request. I give them an even bigger thank you if they put one in.

Even if the Target Identification book was in PDF, I wouldn't mind!!

[TDK1044]

I agree. This is not a 'shoot em up' game. The Devs go to great lengths in order to give us a high level of historical and technical accuracy within the game, and I believe that Ubisoft should give us a user manual that reflects the commitment of the Devs. I can dream!!!!

[Payoff]

A manual would be great. An AOD style map included would be even better.

[Safe-Keeper]

Ordinary people have no clue (...) how to convert speed over time into a distance traveled.

Sad, that. It's not that hard that it matters, either.

Bah, if the math teachers only told their kids that arithmetics was required for playing simulator games...

[Drebbel]

Originally Posted by Payoff

A manual would be great. An AOD style map included would be even better.

I disagree, a SHIII stylemap would be better. It contains much more information.

Remember that the AOD map just showed the grids and a general overview of the Atlantic.

Besides the grid information the SHIII map on the otherhand gave us things like ports/convot routes/single merchant routes/high naval traffic areas/air coverage info