Manual needs a to be edited

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kensuguro
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Manual needs a to be edited

Post by kensuguro »

Hey all, I'm kensuguro.. You either love it or hate it, but I did the original soundset for vegastrike.. I check back occasionally to see how things are. I downloaded the latest version, it's been years. Vegastrike is looking as good as ever.

I forgot the controls though.. so I was trying to read through the manual, except the chapter on flight controls was hard to read. I guess an in game tutorial would be best, but while that is in progress (I guess it's set in motion http://vegastrike.sourceforge.net/forum ... =28&t=7682), there's the manual.

The problem is that the instructions are combined with story, which makes it hard to quickly extract information. I checked other chapters in the manual, and it seems the other chapters are written more straight forward. (instructive) Actually, the text in the flight section of the manual reads more like a script, which is a little odd.. Anyway, I think people who play vegastrike understand it's opensource and is receptive to certain level of roughness, but flight controls are vital to get people playing, so I think it should be presented in a clean, instructive manner.

I also found the Tutorial section of the manual to be a great way to get players started. I think it should be right after to setting up. Like, setup game -> play tutorial 1, blow up a couple of things.. "cool!" -> read about upgrading cool parts -> read about bases, etc.. An in game tutorial will make it a lot easier to keep a player's attention, but a well structured manual is also effective.

Anyway, just my 2 cents. The game itself is way cool!
pheonixstorm
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Re: Manual needs a to be edited

Post by pheonixstorm »

There are a lot of things we need to get to hopefully in time for the next release. If you have the time and energy we could use the help :)

So, if you can help rewrite the manual or give us a big ol list of things that need to be updated, changed, or deleted from the manual and give us a new layout for it so we can get someone to work on it. Whatever you have the time for.
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klauss
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Re: Manual needs a to be edited

Post by klauss »

I guess we could make an entry in the main menu to launch a tutorial mission.

We'd need a savegame such that as soon as you load it, the tutorial kicks in. We can leave it as-is, in the sense that as soon as you finish the tutorial you're free to play... don't you think?

That would mean two "New Game" savegames, one to start directly docked with Atlanis as usual (with the tutorial guy disabled), and one starting right next to the tutorial guy (not docked).

Does the idea fly?

About fixing the manual, we'll need volunteers. And the manual's original sources... anyone knows where are those?
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pheonixstorm
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Re: Manual needs a to be edited

Post by pheonixstorm »

I haven't seen anything in masters that looks like the manual... but recreating the manual shouldn't be difficult in openoffice. If I remember right can't some pdf readers export the information out of a pdf in a doc or some other file??
Because of YOU Arbiter, MY kids? can't get enough gas. OR NIPPLE! How does that mkae you feeeel? ~ Halo
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Re: Manual needs a to be edited

Post by Shark »

Doesn't the documentation also exist on the wiki? In that case you should be able to just copy-and-paste directly from your browser into OpenOffice or Word.
pheonixstorm
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Re: Manual needs a to be edited

Post by pheonixstorm »

There is a manual online though how dated it is or if it matches what we have in the pdf I don't know. Either way we need a list of changes since .5 as well as any errata, typos, etc that need to be made to the manual.
Because of YOU Arbiter, MY kids? can't get enough gas. OR NIPPLE! How does that mkae you feeeel? ~ Halo
ace123
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Re: Manual needs a to be edited

Post by ace123 »

Greetings, kensuguro. It's been a while!

Regarding the manual, there are some LaTeX and .doc souce files in this directory:
http://vegastrike.svn.sourceforge.net/v ... mentation/

I'm not sure which one was used to generate the player's guide, but they are both available.

There is also a "document generation" directory--this is more background information about the universe, and it doesn't seem to have the player's guide in it:
http://vegastrike.svn.sourceforge.net/v ... eneration/
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