Will there ever be a manual?

[SundiataWTF]

I realize a lot of players like to slog through a game figuring out how to play, but I am not one of them. I'm very dissapointed that there is no manual. While I appreciate the immersive backstory in the included "manual" surely the devs know that it isn't really a manual. I want something I can place on my desktop and consult while I learn to play. I paid for the physical copy specifically to get the included manual. I feel cheated. Slitherine, please fulfill your obligation and at least provide a PDF of the manual I paid for.

Thanks.

[boulugre]

The read me file has a list of keyboard shortcut which is quite handy and you will find plenty of information here and there on the forum.

Of course I agree with you this do not replace a good manual, you will have to learn how to play the game more or less by yourself.

[SundiataWTF]

I am dissapointed, but not surprized. The lesson is never order the physical copy if what you want is a manual before being sure there IS a manual. Thank you for answering, but I would really appreciate an answer from the publisher.

[eazrael]

Yeah, a manual would be nice. Just started my first game, researched "pheromators" (or how they may be called in english) and have no idea how to use it to convert aliens.

[boulugre]

Yeah, a manual would be nice. Just started my first game, researched "pheromators" (or how they may be called in english) and have no idea how to use it to convert aliens.

Just produce an unit equipped with it and go kill an alien with it. Instead of disappearing the alien unit will join you. It is a little tricky tough as the -50% strength means your unit might struggle to get a victory on a 100% full health alien. (a basic colonial trooper will even lose against a strength 2 drone) so you need to be more subtle and use it on a damaged unit ( either sacrificing a first weak unit on the alien either using artillery)

Notice that each unit you have equipped with this device will only give you one slot of alien unit, you will need to rebuild another one for each alien you want to capture.

[eazrael]

Thanks for the answer. That worked. Thought it would be something more "active" like position next to alien, click on convert button or so.

[kidpython]

The read me file has a list of keyboard shortcut which is quite handy and you will find plenty of information here and there on the forum.

Of course I agree with you this do not replace a good manual, you will have to learn how to play the game more or less by yourself.

There is a read me file? It wasn't included in the Mac archive. Was there anything in the read me about zooming the map and/or the minimap? I think this option was covered when I first started up the game (although maybe I imagined that), but now I can't figure out how it works. Needless to say the manual says nothing useful about game mechanics. Sigh!

A link to or copy of the readme would be nice too. (I saw the keyboard commands in another thread. Is there more than that?

[boulugre]

The read me text is in the folder in application/pandora/documents/english ....

Or you can get it here :

[b52pilot1]

I have tried to play this game several times but I just cant get very far into it before something really bad happens. I agree that a true manual would be very helpful. This game is obviously very popular, but it just does not appeal to me and I think I will put it away forever. I just don't have time to stumble around blindly trying to figure out why negative events are happening. I feel that it is unsatisfactory that there is no real description of how to play the game. The "manual" that is included is really nothing more than a glorified comic book. This purchase was a mistake.

[jamoecw]

try the ingame civilopedia equivalent, in any civ like game it is vastly more useful than the manual.

[kidpython]

I have tried to play this game several times but I just cant get very far into it before something really bad happens.

Reminded me of the line from Doctor Strangelove:

"Mr. President, I'm not saying we wouldn't get our hair mussed. But I do say no more than ten to twenty million killed, tops. Uh, depending on the breaks."

Yeah bad things happen so don't get too attached to a unit or a city or a continent for that matter. This game builds intestinal fortitude. I love that part of it.

[b52pilot1]

I'm still trying to figure out:

1) Why does my infantry troops (forgot wht they're really called) sometiems 0.2 points for unexplained reasons?
2) what considerations should I take into account when I build a city?

[boulugre]

I'm still trying to figure out:

1) Why does my infantry troops (forgot what they're really called) sometimes 0.2 points for unexplained reasons?

That comes from the fact the game will immediately apply terrain bonus to your unit. So if you are standing on a forest or mountain and move out in a plain, the game will remove the strenght displayed on the infantry unit of 25% ( The command nexus also does that for all unit) Another explanation could be you crossed Fungus, but that triggers a message so I am sure you would have noticed.

2) what considerations should I take into account when I build a city?

At the start of the game, specializing your cities is good as you can focus on just one specific set of building and get more bucks per population by affecting all the population to one task. Of course you have to choose the land where you plant your city and terraform accordingly.

The most obvious example is city with an alien watch tower : I usually rush buy all the labs available (later I rush buy the defense building, the morale bonus building and if rich in credit the banks type of building) and affect all population to research. This makes you a powerful research center able to crush AI level of research in a city that doesn't require any transforming nor a lot of building construction while liberating population in your other cities for mineral/food and production.

City planted in the middle of mountain can make excellent mineral production center, city with xenyte flower production center etc etc ....

I always prioritize morale building in my cities as they boost everything, so you do want them asap. Defense building are also very important to resist to nukes and black holes.

In your military production cities, don't pass on the troops experience buildings, they are definitively worth the mineral you will sink in them when you take in account how it will raise the overall power of your army.

Later in the game specializing cities is less important and you can start producing all kind of buildings that will enable you to affect your population in a more flexible way.

[IainMcNeil]

The reason the team didn't want to do a full manual is because the game is still very much in transition. The mechanics are still changing quite radically and they did not want to be restricted by a printed manual that would be out of date.

I can see the desire for a real manual and I can see the teams desire to remain flexible so its a tricky one to nail down.

[jdmillard]

One idea would be to add a "Manual" button to the game main menu. That way it could be updated to reflect the current version. I know this would create more busywork for the developers, but it's just an idea.

[BlueTemplar]

Hmm, I think the game wikis in the recent years kind of took the function detailed manuals had before...

[jdmillard]

Hmm, I think the game wikis in the recent years kind of took the function detailed manuals had before...

Ad-supported. If there was enough traffic for this game, then someone would be motivated to make one.

[BlueTemplar]

In my experience, they are generally without ads, and a result of dedication, rather than a profit motive...

[SephiRok]

There is a wiki at http://pandora.gamepedia.com/Pandora_Wiki for anyone willing to contribute.

[kidpython]

So I have been looking at the various game wikis and I see that their API access is pretty limited. This makes me want to try and set up my own mediawiki server and see if I can extract a lot of useful info for the wiki data directly from the modding XML files and use the wiki writing APIs to put things on the server. To the degree that this works, then support for auto-generating wiki info for published mods becomes a possibility as well.

At this point I am just going to do local experiments since I understand that the modding interface is still in a state of flux.