The Final Nights Official Game Manual

I may have seemed a little distant lately but I assure you, I've been hard at work on TFN. I began about a week and a half ago working on a much needed Official TFN Game Manual full with charts, graphs, clans, disciplines, game mechanics, how-to installs, etc... So far it's coming along beautifully and I can't wait until it's done. All of my time has gone to this masterpiece and the community will finally have a piece of literature to go to with their questions. Commonly asked questions will also be included so now Malkav and I can start responding with "Did you read the manual yet"?

We talked about a TFN Wiki a few weeks ago and though it's a wonderful idea, I simply don't have the time to create and manage one, nor do I have the drive to do it. With a game manual, I can create it, finish it, and distribute it with the game and no further updating will be needed until we release an update. This makes getting a central source of information very easy for fans who don't want to dig around on the forums and create an account to ask a question. All of their answers will be held in this neat little book.

Here's a screenshot of the title page and I'm specifically designing it to be like a book or real game manual so fans can print it out and read it at work or school.

I may think of a cover.... maybe....

Claudia wrote:

I may think of a cover.... maybe....

It already has a cover, I just posted it.

I'm not sure about the glow effects brotha
but yeah, "never install several mods >_<" should be your first thing xD

Claudia wrote:

I'm not sure about the glow effects brotha
but yeah, "never install several mods >_<" should be your first thing xD

For some reason it comes through low res, I don't know why, looks a lot better in the .pdf.

Yeah, one of the first sections explains installation and FAQs, this will be discussed. Another part will be "If you aren't smart enough to install TFN, we advise that you play Antitribu instead!" LOL

Faaaair enough

Care to run this by your editor to iron out any typos and run-on sentences before release? And don't lie, I know you make typos, everybody does.

Eliza wrote:

Care to run this by your editor to iron out any typos and run-on sentences before release? And don't lie, I know you make typos, everybody does.

No, I'm perfect! LOL

Actually I'll want several eyes on this before I release it publicly. Not only do I want it proof read but I'm sure I'll miss a few Q&A questions or something else that should be added that people will want to know, and I forgot to put in there.

It won't be like Dheu's living manual, but I do want a good solid copy of it that covers just about anything anyone would want to know about TFN. If we're still getting tons of questions after this is released then we didn't do a good job on it.

A very good idea. Long over due.
I look forward to it.

Zer0Morph wrote:

It won't be like Dheu's living manual, but I do want a good solid copy of it that covers just about anything anyone would want to know about TFN.

It should also include any quests changes or solutions to new ones. Because the walkthrough included with the UP does only work for the original game including the plus quests and sometimes people complain why things in TFN or ATM are working differently!

Bloodstone wrote:

A very good idea. Long over due.
I look forward to it.

Thanks Bloodstone

wesp5 wrote:

Zer0Morph wrote:

It won't be like Dheu's living manual, but I do want a good solid copy of it that covers just about anything anyone would want to know about TFN.

It should also include any quests changes or solutions to new ones. Because the walkthrough included with the UP does only work for the original game including the plus quests and sometimes people complain why things in TFN or ATM are working differently!

I didn't realize that, maybe I should include a spoiler section for this very subject?

Eliza wrote:

Care to run this by your editor to iron out any typos and run-on sentences before release? And don't lie, I know you make typos, everybody does.

Since you seem to have volunteered, you should also have a look on the ingame clan and discipline desrcriptions. Even though my days of formal english are long past (left school in '88 and quit english a year before), I find some things there that are...
...unconventional.

Childe of Malkav wrote:

Since you seem to have volunteered, you should also have a look on the ingame clan and discipline desrcriptions. Even though my days of formal english are long past (left school in '88 and quit english a year before), I find some things there that are...
...unconventional.

Yeah, I saw that. I've been fixing typos and bad sentence structures while I've been making the manual. I can't believe how many errors I left in the discipline descriptions.

Childe of Malkav wrote:

Eliza wrote:

Care to run this by your editor to iron out any typos and run-on sentences before release? And don't lie, I know you make typos, everybody does.

Since you seem to have volunteered, you should also have a look on the ingame clan and discipline desrcriptions. Even though my days of formal english are long past (left school in '88 and quit english a year before), I find some things there that are...
...unconventional.

Sure thing, I can do that. If there's something specific you want me to look at, just PM me the text, and I'll whip out my red markers and do what I can.

A lot of work has been going into creating this manual. I would say I'm about 70% finished but still need to complete the Feats and Game Mechanics section. I'm also thinking about creating an NPC section as well to talk about the new NPCs in the game. Think I should leave them out or add them. Another section that might be helpful for players would be an Occult Items section talking about each Occult item.

Ideas?

Anything that's changed by TFN (and not, say, wesp's patch) should go in there - so yes, have a section introducing the new NPCs (location, quests, some info about their person) and the changes you made to Occult items (new location for buying them, any different mechanics).

It's been awhile since I've really talked about the official game manual for TFN so I thought I'd post a progress update today. Below is a screenshot of the table of contents and so far I'm extremely well pleased with how the manual is turning out. I'm in the process of finishing up the weapons "Inside Look" section where I talk about each weapon individually, and the pluses and minuses of each one. I've included in game icon pictures just to make it look a little nicer too.

Additionally, I would like to add a section just for the occult items of the game. They've been completely overhauled and many players probably aren't aware of what they are, where they are, how to get them, or which items even exist. This should help out a lot as I'll explain all of these things.

The last thing I'm thinking about implementing are the three NPCs TFN introduces. I would explain who they are and what they offer to the player.

I'm interested to know everyone's thoughts on this so far.
(Edit: Obviously I haven't marked the page numbers in the ToC yet. No, not everything is on page 3, lol)

Wow.
That looks like a thing that comes with a professionally developed commercial game.
But c'mon, why so short?

Feral wrote:

Wow.
That looks like a thing that comes with a professionally developed commercial game.
But c'mon, why so short?

LOL! I know right?

Right now it's 59 pages long but will most likely be more around 65-70 when I'm done with it. I'm finishing up the weapons breakdown and plan on having the occult items finished up this week. If I add the NPCs then it probably won't be done until late next week but if I skip the NPCs, I could have it released by this weekend.

What are everyone's thoughts on that?

send me a copy

You still have more than a month until you release the new version of the mod, so I see no reason to rush the manual for it this week.

I suppose you could release a "beta" version of the manual exclusively on this forum, so your most dedicated fans can get their hands on it and give you feedback. But meanwhile you keep working on it and add the info on the NPCs and occult items.

Dragatus wrote:

You still have more than a month until you release the new version of the mod, so I see no reason to rush the manual for it this week.

I suppose you could release a "beta" version of the manual exclusively on this forum, so your most dedicated fans can get their hands on it and give you feedback. But meanwhile you keep working on it and add the info on the NPCs and occult items.

Ditto.