Where's the manual?

[Studders]

The game has fairly extensive tutorials to guide you through your first experiences of various features. We don't, however, have a separate manual for it, so your best bet is to dive in and explore the game!

Really, CBJ? That's like saying "Here's this frightening wilderness you must go through, but sorry, we don't have a map. Do you not have phones?!" (yes, I went there)

Not having a manual for a game this complex is unthinkable! This is not tic-tac-toe ffs, this is a very complicated space simulator! It's pretty harrowing to try and figure out how X4 works for even seasoned X veterans like myself. I can't even imagine how lost new players must feel. And no, the tutorials don't even work half the time, or want me to do stuff that's just not possible. And what about the stuff that's not in the tutorials? Like damage types, weapon loadouts, AI automation, why turrets don't work, what does ship crew influence and how to train them, where the hell do I get a station manager, etc. So either fix the tutorial system and the encyclopedia, or release a proper manual, because this just not gonna cut it.

Couldn't agree more with this.

[Raytruth]

The tutorials are not extensive as they say, the manual is missing and the enciclopedia is 75% empty. You guys asked 50 bucks for this game, i expected a bare minimum.
Did i mention there is a wiki? Yes, it's empty, because if you don't know how to play you can't write a guide for it.
I'm sure in just a couple of years the community will fill it up (maybe) but untill then i have to guess how the game works even if the developers knows it.
You know, it's not like pac man, once you know you gotta eat the pills and avoid the ghosts you are good, but your game is a little more complicated.
Thank you guys, i'm not frustrated or stressed.
The thing i hate most of all of this it's the fact that the game looks good. it could have been a masterpiece but you have to end up with a metascore of 65 because missing details.
Is like Da Vinci not painting the eyes of the Mona Lisa, but "Hey 90% of the painting is there, don't be picky"

[Lionick]

The game has fairly extensive tutorials to guide you through your first experiences of various features. We don't, however, have a separate manual for it, so your best bet is to dive in and explore the game!

Really, CBJ? That's like saying "Here's this frightening wilderness you must go through, but sorry, we don't have a map. Do you not have phones?!" (yes, I went there)

Not having a manual for a game this complex is unthinkable! This is not tic-tac-toe ffs, this is a very complicated space simulator! It's pretty harrowing to try and figure out how X4 works for even seasoned X veterans like myself. I can't even imagine how lost new players must feel. And no, the tutorials don't even work half the time, or want me to do stuff that's just not possible. And what about the stuff that's not in the tutorials? Like damage types, weapon loadouts, AI automation, why turrets don't work, what does ship crew influence and how to train them, where the hell do I get a station manager, etc. So either fix the tutorial system and the encyclopedia, or release a proper manual, because this just not gonna cut it.

Bump, and agree 110%!

[palm911]

wait, one of the moderators said it was a work in progress , that all the text wass there m, and only missing some images and formating..

so now i am confused.

[ATTACK_HAMSTER]

So any update on when we will get one? Can we get something official from Egosoft.

[nerdtron]

The game has fairly extensive tutorials to guide you through your first experiences of various features. We don't, however, have a separate manual for it, so your best bet is to dive in and explore the game!

There are a number of issues with those tutorials (see here). I would encourage you to go create a new game with the tutorial game start, hit H and one by one go through the tutorials and see what you think. The basic map one just appears to stop after a bit and nothing else happens, for example, and you can see that thread for some of the other issues. But see if you're able to go through all the tutorials as presented. I think you may be surprised if you've never actually done that before.

[Komuso]

wait, one of the moderators said it was a work in progress , that all the text wass there m, and only missing some images and formating..

so now i am confused.

Do you have a link to this?

Can we get an official answer from ES? This is unacceptable ES.

[Drakuel]

The game has fairly extensive tutorials to guide you through your first experiences of various features. We don't, however, have a separate manual for it, so your best bet is to dive in and explore the game!

Im speechless.. ive already gave my two cents on the lack of basic info tools for this game on the encyclopedia thread so wont repeat. I was already upset on this fact as a longtime supporter and btw a good paying customer for over a decade, that basic info tools for this game is destroying your goal to attract new players, now you say this, are you serious?

Here we are as fans defending your buggy game, helping others in forums, streams and even helping your reviews out, by defending your small team and difficulty of this huge game, giving you all the benefit of doubt from tons of customers who are new and frustrated, and your answer is we gave you some bugged out text tutorials that barely even work or explain any depth, and suck it up play and learn...

This really your strategy of driving new players to your game and keeping a dedicated playerbase? Im no longer upset, now im depressed this is not the image of egosoft I trust and believed in all these years....

If that is the new buisness model, then I fear this is the begging of the end of egosoft, cause I see no customer growth that would gravitate to such distain or care to there product quality or customers....

I can only hope this is a mistake and dont really realise how bad this lack of basic info is to the paying customers and how difficult it makes new players to even play this game...

[Nemesisone]

hey they are called not for nothing EGO soft lol lots of EGO there hahaha

The game has fairly extensive tutorials to guide you through your first experiences of various features. We don't, however, have a separate manual for it, so your best bet is to dive in and explore the game!

This is a pretty crappy effort by a developer, not to offer even a basic guide manual.
The badly done in-game tutorial is also buggy and some of the "tutorials" also rely on you having more than one ship. That is crazy when you're just starting out and want to quickly run through the tutorials to learn the functions.
It's a terrible design decision and terrible customer support not to provide a proper manual and help guide.
The in-game encyclopedia also borders on the useless, with no real help available or links between entries.

Also seeing multiple AI ships half embedded into stations, which indicates both the AI pathing and collision detection is badly implemented. I haven't had any crashes so far but really unimpressed by the bad learning support and obvious AI bugs.

I'm not a complete noob (~560 hours in ED, ~600 in SOASE ++) and can learn on the fly but it really annoys the frak out of me when developers of complex games totally skimp on the learning and help support.

Relying on your community to produce the manual, help, and tips is a cheap ass copout for a game being sold for AAA prices. I paid ¥ 8,250 for a complex game the developers can't even be bothered to write a proper manual for, but they'll give you a 50-page pdf of art. Very unhelpful.

I'd like to apply for a refund, but you have to spend so much time trying to figure it out that it quickly takes you over the Steam 2-hour refund limit.

[Nemesisone]

its no excuse from ego devs to not make a manual especially in the release of this game. i mean making it is not that expensive and what they could do is put some freelancers on it and thats it not difficult lots of sites out there with tons of good freelancers that can do the job, i call it bad management and also allot of EGO for saying what was said by the dev.

The game has fairly extensive tutorials to guide you through your first experiences of various features. We don't, however, have a separate manual for it, so your best bet is to dive in and explore the game!

Im speechless.. ive already gave my two cents on the lack of basic info tools for this game on the encyclopedia thread so wont repeat. I was already upset on this fact as a longtime supporter and btw a good paying customer for over a decade, that basic info tools for this game is destroying your goal to attract new players, now you say this, are you serious?

Here we are as fans defending your buggy game, helping others in forums, streams and even helping your reviews out, by defending your small team and difficulty of this huge game, giving you all the benefit of doubt from tons of customers who are new and frustrated, and your answer is we gave you some bugged out text tutorials that barely even work or explain any depth, and suck it up play and learn...

This really your strategy of driving new players to your game and keeping a dedicated playerbase? Im no longer upset, now im depressed this is not the image of egosoft I trust and believed in all these years....

If that is the new buisness model, then I fear this is the begging of the end of egosoft, cause I see no customer growth that would gravitate to such distain or care to there product quality or customers....

I can only hope this is a mistake and dont really realise how bad this lack of basic info is to the paying customers and how difficult it makes new players to even play this game...

[Gideon_Prime]

Manual? You expect a manual when even the in-game "encyclopedia" can't be bothered to actually explain anything ... about anything.

Not knocking the OP -- there should be a manual. Or at the very least, any sort of useful tool tips in-game. Hell, I'll settle for something like the "encyclopedia", but what's available in-game now is completely useless. There isn't even basic information on what the different weapon modules do.

[Komuso]

Manual? You expect a manual when even the in-game "encyclopedia" can't be bothered to actually explain anything ... about anything.

Not knocking the OP -- there should be a manual. Or at the very least, any sort of useful tool tips in-game. Hell, I'll settle for something like the "encyclopedia", but what's available in-game now is completely useless. There isn't even basic information on what the different weapon modules do.

It's a given the "encyclopedia" needs fixing, along with the looooooooooooooooooooooooooooooong list of bugs which seems to be the hallmark of games released nowdays.

But that is no excuse for not including a manual that at least explains visually and textually the games basic concepts, features, and functions.

[CloseEnough]

The Dev answer here really makes me speechless.

Bugs can be difficult to fix and without heavy testing it is hard, especially for a small developer to fix them prior to release.
However, as said before, writing a manual is something even a intern can do. The same with the encyclopedia entries. They could have just copied most of the describing lore texts from their older releases. This would propably be a matter of hours rather than days.

I really hope that the existing tutorial is a placeholder and CBJ is not aware that the "real" tutorial didn't make it to the current release. I'm not really sure if that hope is somewhat realistic.

[Studders]

The only excuse for the lack of documentation to this extent would be if it was an expansion to a previous title. How you can put a new numbered title in the series out there with all these new features and not include some form of manual or hell, even just a document in the form of a PDF with a list of the new features is shocking. Even streamers who have played X for years I can see asking people what new features do because it's not explained anywhere.

[JennerNuwen]

The lack of a proper manual (or indeed a proper in-game encyclopdia that actually contains - you know - information) is inexcusable.

Tutorial missions are well and good, but as has been said they are lackluster at best, non-functional at worst.

Bugs and glitches are one thing, but missing proper documentation and help for players is a totally avoidable mistake. It really just drives home the fact that X4 is not a complete game.

[ATTACK_HAMSTER]

I can't see us getting a manual unless you pay for the Boron DLC....

[Raider_MXD]

The game has fairly extensive tutorials to guide you through your first experiences of various features. We don't, however, have a separate manual for it, so your best bet is to dive in and explore the game!

I'm sorry, but that's just laughable:
- the tutorials are incomplete
- the encyclopedia / item descriptions are incomplete
- there are no tooltips
- and there is no manual

So there's no information on basic things such as turret control symbols, what crew does or what the strenghts / weaknesses of weapon types are.

[Komuso]

@CBJ Can we please get an official indication from Egosoft that you are addressing the manual and in-game help issues?

[palm911]

wait, one of the moderators said it was a work in progress , that all the text wass there m, and only missing some images and formating..

so now i am confused.

Do you have a link to this?

Can we get an official answer from ES? This is unacceptable ES.

viewtopic.php?f=182&t=402575 scroll down a bit.

[Komuso]

wait, one of the moderators said it was a work in progress , that all the text wass there m, and only missing some images and formating..

so now i am confused.

Do you have a link to this?

Can we get an official answer from ES? This is unacceptable ES.

viewtopic.php?f=182&t=402575 scroll down a bit.

I see. ty!