Final Version of SMAX Guide in the works....

[Velociryx]

Thanks Og, and hey....I'm not sure when, but I am definately planning to revisit the idea of a "gathering" of all the regulars on my little site so bring it with you, or, I can do the same thing I'll do for Kinjy, have it shipped here, and then send it back out!

Ahhh, and as to the get-together, what a party it'll be! By this time next year, I fully expect that our little corner of the web will be playing host to no less than three, and hopefully many more published authors than that! (I've already got Kalle chomping at the bit to get something published as well!) Soooo....c'mon over! We'll eat Mexican food, drink lossa Margaritas, and talk about...SMAC!

And Kinjy, I'd be honored to, good sir!

-=Vel=-

[Ogie Oglethorpe]

Wow!!!

What a red letter day. The inestimable Zso making an appearance and Vel gracing the forums. The Power graph of the Apolyton SMAC faction has just shot up through the roof!

Zso you've truly been missed. Hope that you make return visits here just like Vel has.

As an aside Vel, once the publisher can be announced or that whatever doomahicky number thingy, I would be extremely interested in aquiring (yes I'll even buy it and support your writing career) a copy of Guardian. It looks mucho cool. Mayhaps I'll even send it your way for an autograph as well!! Someday I'm sure I'll be saying I knew Vel back when he ......



Og

[Aredhran]

Vel, being the first one to request an autographed copy, allow me to also suggest a limited, numbered edition (of course I should get copy #1 ).

Not sure I could make it to a get-together, but I would sure love to !

Aredhran

[zsozso]

Og, thanks for the kind words! And I think I'll manage to squeze in a post or three into my daily schedule now and then...

Vel, I think Kinjiru is right - don't add anything else to the guide, just ship it to the publisher! ... THEN start working on the follow-up volume

[Velociryx]

'morning guys! And once again, thank you for all the kind words. I must say that, during my long misadventure toward publication, my time spent here, talking SMAC in the forums, writing fiction now and again in that section of the boards, and just "hangin' out" here has kept my muse from drying up, and there were certainly times I was worried about that! So in a very real sense, I'm writing today because of everyone here.

Now that the strat guide and my first novel are both verging on publication....now that we're talking about the book being for sale, the big thing in my mind is making 100% sure that everybody feels as though they're getting their money's worth. Specifically with the strategy guide, I've been doing a LOT of thinking about it. What and how much to expand? How many new directions to take it in, and that sort of thing.

Looking back on it, there were a TON of changes and improvements between version 2 and version 3 of the guide, and I'm hoping I can do the same thing for version 4, cos what I'd dearly love to avoid is the sense (by anyone) that I just made a few cosmetic changes, dressed it up a little, and then shipped it out for people to buy. You guys are family, and I wanna make sure that anybody who spends hard earned coin on it gets the biggest bang for their buck.

So...it's a bit of a balancing act I guess. On the one hand, there's the desire to take the guide in a number of entirely new directions, dramatically expand the existing sections, and improve every single aspect of the work. On the other, there's the publisher, glancing down at the ol' stopwatch, timing me....Probably, it'll wind up being a compromise between the two extremes, cos Kinjy made a very good point. Nobody would be happy if what they got was a "rush-built" strat guide. I definately don't wanna do that, but while there's still time, I'm burning that midnight oil so that when it hits the shelves, you guys'll be proud....

-=Vel=-
(who, for the first time in a LOOOONG time, actually had a SMAC-dream last night....scary!)

[Velociryx]

PS to Zso: The novel that I'm getting published in tandem with this is the one you read the draft for! And, while doing the edits and re-writes, I took your recommendation 'bout fleshing out more of the "technical specs" on Kane...I think you're gonna love this!

-=Vel=-

[Travathian]

Just one thing about an electronic version of the strategy guide.

Please create a table of contents, and then link it to its respective page. Also consider putting a couple links at the end of each section which return you to the beginning of the section and back to the ToC.

If you're not sure how to do this in Word, I can show yah. Also, what of a .pdf version of it?

[Velociryx]

An excellent idea! And if I'm not mistaken, the electronic version will be in .pdf format. Do you know off-hand if text links work in that format or no? My instinct tells me they don't, but I've not played in the format enough to know for sure. Also, thanks for checking on the splinter factions....I'll dig 'em up outta the HD eventually, though with the thread I found, it might be easier just to re-create them from scratch...

-=Vel=-

[Travathian]

Actually I dont use Adobe to its full potential. Mostly what I do is take a Word doc and convert to pdf. Then it automatically creates the links for you if you have a Table of Contents.

I'm working on v3 of your strat to do this, should be done in a little bit, will email to yah if you want.

[Velociryx]

I'd like that very much, and thank you!

-=Vel=-

[Velociryx]

Very good news indeed! And in that case, the electronic version of the guide will be the most user friendly to date!

-=Vel=-

[Deimos]

Vel,

Congradulations on reaching your goal of becoming a Published Author! Being a newer SMAC/X player, I have benefited a great deal from your guide in it's current form, and I look forward to reading it again. But in book form this time

As soon as I discovered the word format version of your guide on Googlie's site, I uploaded it to my PDA. Having this "Pocket Strat Guide" gave me the opportunity to study up whenever I had some free time

As to the electronic version of the new guide, I would like to submit that you pick a format other than Acrobat. HTML would be vastly preferable. I find that using the interface of the Acrobat reader is about as pleasant as a trip to the dentist: viewed with apprehension before, stoically endured during, and heartfelt relief after.

Thanks for all of your hard work!

[Kinjiru]

Internal hyperlinks will defintely work in pdf files. And there is a method to get external links to work as well, so if you wanted to put in a link back to your own site where the most current version will be kept you could. The only difficulty would be that if you wanted to link to to the file itself, then all versions would need the same name. Just some extra housekeeping on your part.

[Velociryx]

Hiya Deimos! And I wish I could select the electronic format, but I think (will double check on this, however) that .pdf is the only format the publisher uses. If it's possible to release it in a variety of formats, I'll see what can be done there though....

And, I'm glad you've found the guide to be helpful! When this latest round of editing and adding stuff gets added, maybe I'll be able to earn the title of "Grand Master Punk." ::grin:: (see the "Vel's a Punk" thread for details)

-=Vel=-

[Transcend]

Vel, it would be nice if you created one HTML version for viewing online, and another PDF version for download.

[wneubert]

I know for sure you can have links in a PDF document. They work just like hyperlinks. What I don't know is if links in a Word document will automatically convert to PDF links. If not, and you have a lot of links, it will be a lot of work to manually fix the links.

quote: Originally posted by Velociryx on 01-16-2001 08:32 PM An excellent idea! And if I'm not mistaken, the electronic version will be in .pdf format. Do you know off-hand if text links work in that format or no? My instinct tells me they don't, but I've not played in the format enough to know for sure. Also, thanks for checking on the splinter factions....I'll dig 'em up outta the HD eventually, though with the thread I found, it might be easier just to re-create them from scratch... -=Vel=-

[Kinjiru]

I don't know of one offhand, but there has GOT to be a conversion program or utility available to translate a .pdf to a .html file.

Anyone know of any good (and free?) ones?

[Kinjiru]

Any updates on the status of the bound and electronic versions Vel?

[Wiglaf]

I think he's gone again....

[Velociryx]

An overdue update:

Had to pull myself out of the writing shell I crept into so I could say a quick hello and give you guys the latest in the way of updates!

One thing I've discovered over the past few weeks....it's TOUGH to do two book rollouts at the same time! YOW!

I was a little delayed in working on the SMAX guide, cos it just so happened that my fiction novel went through the pipe first, so I got the final galleys back from it, and had to devote some time in giving it a final lookin' over, making last minute formatting changes and junk like that....gotta get it looking just right!

And any time I wasn't doing that, I was delving deep into the guts of the SMAX guide, tweaking, shaving a bit here, adding stuff there....tightening things up in general. I'm very happy with it as it's shaping up, and I think it'll make a fine addition to my bookshelf!

Due to deadline and time constraints, there were a few things I wasn't able to add, but I captured the essence of it, so here's a quick preview:

New Stuff:
* There are a total of fifteen specific How-To's, indexed at the back with page numbers (and the electronic form of the book will--if I did it right (fingers crossed!)--have text links....click on the How-To...Poof...you're there!

* Topical Index at the front of the guide will also have text links to take you right to the section in question, and page numbers to guide you there in the bound version.

* New or Expanded Sections include: A bit more information on custom units (there was some information present, so I fleshed it out a bit further, and added some additional notes on missiles, "surprise" units, etc.), Rush Building Section with formula and handy-dandy chart, SP Challenge Game section, notes on efficiency and eco-damage (here, I was somewhat stymied by the fact that the limits on both of these "float" depending on what faction you're playing, and what SE choices you're running at the moment....had I delved too deeply into those subjects, I could have written a hundred thousand words on those two areas alone, so I treated it with some broad brush strokes for the sake of time), and added new material on effective projection of power.

Some stuff not included:
* Time constraints did not allow me to add in a "Black Ops" section...but it is my hope that the game notes added to the various sections of the guide as it stands will compensate for that....just wasn't enough time to play the game....had to focus on the writing...::sigh:: )

* Googlie had mentioned working on a guide to using the editor, so I left that off of the guide I'm working on, opting to focus more on the "how-to" aspects of playing and winning.

The guide as originally presented was a shade over 40,000 words, which means that it has more than doubled in size since I started writing it...YOW....LOL....already, in browsing recent forum entries, I've heard one fellow say that it was too long, so I'm starting to feel that perhaps it's reached the point where more isn't necessarily better....

For me then, what remains is final touch ups, getting "Guardians" out of the system (timeframe is est. 2 weeks), so the guide can start through the galley process....a couple of weeks to check it over and make sure everything looks just so....and then....she'll be ready.

-=Vel=-

[Kinjiru]

* Fantastic! *

You are the best Vel. Bar None.

[Wiglaf]

Who's publishing it, vel?