Strat Guide and other stuff

[Velociryx]

ARRRRGH!

Sorry...I feel much better now....

Finally, the editing is done. The last coat of wax has been applied, and the SMAX guide is ready to go to formatting. Whew....there were times when I wasn't sure I'd be able to finish the thing...sheesh....

Below, you'll find the new organizational table and some odd facts:

Organizational table:Table of Contents
Chapter One – Bright Beginnings
Differences between SMAC and AC (Pg. 5)
Optional Rules (Pg. 9)
Defining some Key Terms (Pg. 12)
The Factions, Discussed (Pg. 17)
Chapter Two – The Early Game
Early Expansion and Growth (Pg. 56)
Terraforming 101 (Pg. 63)
Meet The Supply Crawler (Pg. 67)
Early Secret Projects (Pg. 74)
Comparative Turn Advantage (Pg. 79)
Chapter Three – Something Wicked This Way Comes
Getting Ready For The Bad Guys (Pg. 93)
The Mechanics of Battle (Pg. 105)
Basic Combat Theory (Pg. 110)
Chapter Four – Early Game Units
Ground Pounders-N-Garrisons (Pg. 119)
Attack Troopers (Pg. 123)
Naval Power (Pg. 125)
Covert Ops (Pg. 130)
Chapter Five – The Middle Game
Growth in the Middle Game (Pg. 134)
Terraforming 201 (Pg. 140)
More on the Supply Crawler (Pg. 146)
Secret Projects of the Middle Game (Pg. 148)
Chapter Six – Mid-Game Units
New & Improved Ground Pounders-N-Garrisons (Pg. 155)
Rovers and Hovertanks (Pg. 157)
Needlejets and Choppers (Pg. 157)
Advanced Naval Capabilities (Pg. 158)
Missiles (Pg. 159)
The Space Race (Pg. 163)
Chapter Seven – The Art of War
Organizing your Offense/Defense (Pg. 164)
Advanced Combat Tips & Strategies (Pg. 171)
Zones of Control (Pg. 184)

Chapter Eight – The Metagame (Pg. 189)

Chapter Nine – All Good Things…. (Pg. 195)

Indexes
“Thing” List (Pg. 198)
Vel’s Goodie Bag (Pg. 204)
List of How-To’s (Pg. 208)
Unit Rush Build Hurry Chart (Pg. 209)
Unit Cost per Mineral Chart (Pg. 210)
SP Challenge Games (Pg. 211)


Facts and Figures:

76,429 words

224 Pages (single spaced, double spacing between paragraphs, meaning that the actual book will likely be about this same number of pages....I'm guessing here....don't know that for a fact, but my first book was double spaced, and it (the book version) turned out to be approximately 2/3's of the number of pages as the double spaced text I submitted to formatting).

What wasn't included:
No stuff on the "black ops" project that I still have in my head. Mostly because there just wasn't sufficient time to play out the number of games that would have been necessary to get some good examples, but it's definately something I'm intrigued by, and I think there's a place for it.

Next project: Now that the SMAX guide is ready for the formatters, I'm taking a few days off...my brain hurts...lol. But after a bit of R&R, I've got two more SMAC-related projects I'd like to finish up....stuff that was started a long time ago and just....never finished.

First, the "City of Hope" story in the SMAC fiction thread. It's completion is long overdue....

Second, I'm going to revisit the splinter factions, create a custom map, and if I can find a way to, change the text blurbs buried in the heart of the game to create an entirely new story. Don't know how much success I'll have with that, because I don't really know if the text blurbs can be changed, but I've got some ideas, and.....

For now though, I'm going to leave work, rent a movie or two, stop by Baskin Robbins for some ice cream, and celebrate the guide's completion.



-=Vel=-

[Velociryx]

Informal poll: Should I call in sick/dead/incapacitated tomorrow? I'm thinking that after all the hair-pulling of getting the guide ready for the formatters, an early start on an already long weekend might be just the ticket.

Last time I took a day off, I used the "the little voices in my head told me to" excuse, so this time, if you guys think it's a good plan, I'll be able to say it was the "little voices inside the computer"

-=Vel=-

[Kinjiru]

Hey Brother Vel!

Glad to see that work is progressing and that you are still having fun! Defintely call in sick tomorrow! I certainly am.

As for formatting, I may be misunderstanding something, but did you mention that you were putting page numbers next to your internal links? Won't that be problematic when the publisher starts playing with fonts/page sizes/spacing etc.? Perhaps a chapter or heading pointer would work out better?

Just some random thoughts.

And I am EAGERLY awaiting the bound version. You are definitely da man!

[Drago Sinio]

Absolutely! See my signature line for valid reasoning.

Looking forward to seeing the final product! Congrats!

I have a dog eared print out of an earlier version I keep by the machine for quick reference. I think that it is definitely time to replace it with an actual real live new and improved full book version!

[Killjoy]

Vel, go with what the little voices say... take the day off!

The breakdown of your TOC is great! I look forward to the final bound version, with greater anticipation, at each new posting!

Will the final book be black & white, or will there be colour in the interior? Will there be illustrated examples (ie. screen captures from the game) or just text? Will there be an index? Who is the Publisher, and when is their expected pub date?

Sorry for the barrage of questions. Like many, I
am very curious about the final product, and eagerly waiting for the opportunity to read the final volume!

Can't wait!

Cheers

[The Commodore]

Take a break. It'll do a world of good.

I've never said this before, but great job on the strat guide. Alot of things to think about, although for some reason the data files of it keep getting infected and turn into notepad format(OUCH!).

Great tactical stuff in there. Helped me see the light about crawlers.


One qustion though: How did you manage to get it published? There is a great writer in the Homeworld community, The Reflection, and he's made some great fanfic works. Any tips to help him publish?

[Solver]

Waiting for the MetaGame chapter. And give it to me for free .

[Velociryx]

Brother Kinjy! I’ve not seen your name on the boards in a while! Glad to see you’re still out there!

You’re absolutely right, I’m expecting there to be a TON of problems with the page numbering when I get the file back from Formatting….prolly, I’ll have to go through manually and correct each one individually as there’s no good way to fix them all at once. I toyed around with just using chapter references, but I figured that to make the best use of the technology, and to make it all the more user friendly to those who wanted the bound version, specific page numbers would be the way to go, even if it means a few more formatting headaches (and I’m sure Kathy, the head of the Formatting department, is gonna want to choke the life out of me when she takes a look at all the page-dependant references the document contains, and there are a TON of them! LOL).

As it stands now, there’s a dash of color sprinkled throughout the electronic file. Whether or not that carries over into the bound version is something I’m not sure. The company I’m going with (GreatUNpublished.com GU for short) is barely a year old, and their capabilities change and increase with great frequency. I’d not inquired yet as to whether the color text would transfer to the bound version, but will do so when I submit it to Formatting.

I toyed around for a long time with the notion of putting in screen shots, but finally decided against it. For most of the concepts in the guide, screen shots aren’t really needed to get the point across (the notable exceptions being ZOC and battle stuff), and for the stuff that graphics would enhance the explanation, I’d need a dynamic map, rather than a static screen shot. A series of stills could accomplish the same end, but I was not happy with that solution for a number of reasons, so ultimately decided to leave them out of the equation—despite how far the technology has come, I still find myself chaffing against the limitations…GRRRR…LOL

There is an index and it too, comes with specific page number references for those who have the bound edition (more formatting shenannigans to deal with), and I’m uncertain as to the specific publication date. I’m due to turn in the finished product to Formatting on Tuesday (they’re closed this coming Monday), so I’ll use the weekend to give it a more casual read-through and see if there are any last minute things I wanna tweak and change.

Formatting generally takes about a week (sometimes longer, depending on their volume), and then the ball is back in my court to correct and tweak (adjust page number references, force page breaks to eliminate silly little dangling words and sentences….stuff like that), and then send it back to them for finalization.

My first time through, we traded the file back and forth about four times during the tweaking process, and that part took about two weeks. Then, as soon as it’s how I want it, they finalize it, do the cover, and it’s ready to go!

Publication: There are a number of “unofficial” strategy guides for various games out there in print as I type this. Using them as a model, I put a similar disclaimer at the beginning of my book (essentially saying that I’m not claiming ownership of the work, yada yada yada). From what I have seen with regards to stuff like strat guides, that’s pretty commonplace, however I’m not quite as sure about fanfic. From what I’ve observed anyway, it seems like most of the fiction involving principle characters are licensed out, but in truth, I don’t know enough on the subject to say with any certainty.

There have been a number of minor tweaks and additions made…updates based on prevailing threads here on the forums, including an expansion on eco-damage per the excellent thread here, especially where it relates to the Meta-Game.

A total of sixteen how-to’s sprinkled throughout the guide (referenced in the table of contents, indexed at the end), and a number of other features that folks had been requesting through the various iterations of the work.

As much fun as I had putting it together through the four generations of its life, I’m quite pleased that the project is finished….whew….it’s 85% the size of my first novel!!



-=Vel=-

[Kinjiru]

Vel, what are you using to write the guide? If you are using Word, then the page references shouldn't really be a problem. You can set anchor links and hidden references and then when you go to your index section, you can right-click and you should have an option that says Update Links or something. It works just like doing the same operation on the Table of Contents. Page numbers are automatically updated...

Anyway, once again, thank for all your hard work Brother Vel.

[Killjoy]

Kinjiru: The only problem with your suggestion is that when Vel’s publisher formats the text pages of Vel’s manuscript they will dump the text files into a page layout software, like Quark Xpress. And this most likely will disregard all of Vel’s painstaking layout/styling in Word.

Using the approved design template, the design/layout team will dump the text into Quark, strip out any pre-applied style tags from Word, and begin appying the design style tags in Quark. Any links, etc. will be lost. Page numbering will be re-applied in Quark — which will most likely be different then what Vel has in his Word file (this is determined be tex page design, body font choice, font and leading size, the number of lines per page, and number of characters per line). What you see in Word (as far as painstaking layout) is not what you will see in the final laid out book (unless there is some serious imput from the author).

Vel and the publisher may have worked out some aggreement beforehand about 'links' (possibly addressed by the interior book design). Otherwise it won't happen. Quark Xpress (and most likely Adobe Indesign) cannot translate MsWord links. And any good formatter will strip out any pre-applied atyles, etc. from the text file, in order to have a 'clean text' file, before working with it. Otherwise all sorts of oddities can crop up. It can cause untold layout and output problems. 'Clean' text is always best to work with. Apply all the author/designer specfics during the layout stage.

Atleast that's been my experience.

I'm sure Vel and his publisher have it all worked out, and we'll all have a great book in our hands, in a matter of a few months.

As I stated before; I can't wait!

[Taxa]

Vel, just wondering, have you played with a sealurk yet? If not, I have just captured one, If you want it, E-mail me, I'll send you the save

[Solver]

I also did capture on, being H'Minee. No save remained, however.