• New Horizons on Maelstrom
    Maelstrom New Horizons


    Visit our website www.piratehorizons.com to quickly find download links for the newest versions of our New Horizons mods Beyond New Horizons and Maelstrom New Horizons!

Need Help Box art and User Manual

Unfortunately, not much progress yet. My Desktop went down in early July where I had everything I was working on stored. I also have had some family issues to deal with on top of work, combined with getting my new laptop up and going, I haven't had much free time lately. I have not forgot about it though, just have to get the files off my hard drive. I have been looking for a good external enclosure and should have one soon.
 
Thagarr said:
Unfortunately, not much progress yet. My Desktop went down in early July where I had everything I was working on stored. I also have had some family issues to deal with on top of work, combined with getting my new laptop up and going, I haven't had much free time lately. I have not forgot about it though, just have to get the files off my hard drive. I have been looking for a good external enclosure and should have one soon.
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Got the files back already?
 
I haven't got around to getting my old files yet, however, I was able to track down the link that Pieter sent me a while back and I have re-downloaded that file. Unfortunately, that means I basically had to start from scratch again, but I really didn't have a whole lot done when my old computer crashed. Still no ETA on completion, but I have the next week off, so I should make some good progress between now and then.
 
I figured I would show you all what I have been working on the past week or so, I still have a long way to go. Still need to do a table of contents, more content, page background, short tutorial, numbering, credits, background graphics and of course a cover! Comments, suggestions and criticisms welcome. This link will self destruct in 7 days : FileNurse | New_Horizons_Manual_Preview.pdf
 
That's an incredibly comprehensive manual, @Thagarr! I've only skimmed through most of it, but here are a few observations:
  • Page numbers - I know you haven't gotten round to it yet, but page numbers would be extremely useful for reference.
  • Font - There's some inconsistency on page 4, where you've got two different fonts in use. Also, which font are you currently using/plan to use in the final version? Personally, I find sans-serif fonts a bit easier on the eyes for the body of the text, though something "piratey" (but not too over-the-top) for the headings might be a nice touch.
  • Hyphenated Headings - Some headings have hyphens before them, and some don't. Maybe these are meant to be sub-headings, and if so, I'd suggest using a smaller font without the hyphens.
  • Wiki "Top" links - There are still some links to the top of Wiki pages next to some headings, which should probably be removed.
  • "10" bullet points - The Abilities section uses bullet points styled like a 10 in a circle. Is this intentional? I'd suggest a more plain styling, here.
  • Blank pages - There are several blank pages throughout, though I'm guessing these are going to be filled later?
Other than that, it looks mighty impressive, and I'm sure it will look even better once you add the background graphics and front cover. :cheers
Are you able to auto-generate the contents page? I strongly advise against manually doing it, if possible. Automatic contents pages save a LOT of time for me when writing reports and essays.
 
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Thanks Armada, your feedback is very much appreciated! Yeah, there are a LOT of formatting issues I need to fix, and the number bulletins from the Wiki are certainly among those. Talisman and all the others who have worked on it have got such a lot of great information up there that I figured it needed to be saved. I am not sure just how much I am going to add, but I will certainly have to reformat a lot of it.

As for Auto-generating the contents page, it will probably be a mix of both, like I did for the History and Tutorials manual(need to add a LOT more to that one too, btw!) I will probably wait till then to actually add page numbers. I Auto-generated the contents page, and then went back and manually added things that it didn't pick up on. Definitely more time consuming, but makes things a lot easier to find. Hopefully I can do a more efficient job of it this time, as you say, the manual edit takes a lot of time.

I ran across a PDF tutorial of the start of the main Tales of a Sea Hawk storyline someone did back in 2009 that I am going to add as well. It is quite well done, but there are some gramatical issues that need fixed, and there may be some changes to the tutorial too, haven't looked at that yet though. Also, there is no credit line anywhere in the document I can find. :shrug

I was hoping to be further along by now, but now that I have it this far, hopefully I can get the rest finished in a month or two. :wp
 
Start of the Sea Hawk storyline PDF? Which one is that?
The one that springs to mind is that which is already in the mod Documentation folder.
But surely that one has a credit in there somewhere? If not, I know who did it.
Unless you mean something else?
 
Thagarr said:
As for Auto-generating the contents page, it will probably be a mix of both, like I did for the History and Tutorials manual(need to add a LOT more to that one too, btw!) I will probably wait till then to actually add page numbers. I Auto-generated the contents page, and then went back and manually added things that it didn't pick up on.
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What doesn't the contents pick up on? Usually, when I do this in Word, the contents page will include all headings and subheadings that have been formatted with the corresponding styles, as opposed to normal text made to look like a heading.
I assume you're using Libre Office; does it have the same capability to recognise subheadings?

Oh, and one more thing from the manual:
If you are installing the stock POTC game from the original DVD's, The stock game WILL NOT WORK without our mod, or a crack for the original copy protection scheme! Microsoft, in their infinite “wisdom” has decided to not allow old copy protection to work because it is “insecure” and can cause “issues.” After you install the stock game, simply install our mod in to the same directory that you installed the original game, and you should be good to go!
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Maybe it's worth leaving out the subtle digs at Microsoft? ;)
 
Why? Macroshaft does not care and the more complete the explanation the less chance for misunderstandings from end users.
 
It is simple enough to state:
"Microsoft does not allow old copy protection to work because it may be insecure and can cause issues."
Right?
 
Pieter Boelen said:
Start of the Sea Hawk storyline PDF? Which one is that?
The one that springs to mind is that which is already in the mod Documentation folder.
But surely that one has a credit in there somewhere? If not, I know who did it.
Unless you mean something else?
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That is the default original story line isn't it? And yes, I believe that is the PDF I am referring to, I certainly want to give credit if I use it.

Armada said:
What doesn't the contents pick up on? Usually, when I do this in Word, the contents page will include all headings and subheadings that have been formatted with the corresponding styles, as opposed to normal text made to look like a heading.
I assume you're using Libre Office; does it have the same capability to recognise subheadings?
Click to expand...

I am indeed using Libre Office, and it's likely that it missed them because I forgot to add them the first time around... :wp

Oh, and one more thing from the manual:

Maybe it's worth leaving out the subtle digs at Microsoft? ;)
Click to expand...

As soon as Microsoft stops making software that breaks old games in a blatant attempt to try to sell more Xbox's, I may reconsider my comments. Who do you think started the rumor that PC gaming was dead to begin with?
 
Thagarr said:
That is the default original story line isn't it? And yes, I believe that is the PDF I am referring to, I certainly want to give credit if I use it.
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The one I know of is the "New Horizons Manual.pdf" file which is contained in the "Documentation" folder of the mod.
It was written by Carmen "Snow White Sorrow" Alexandre as per the first page of it. ;)

Worth noting that not all information in there was ever 100% accurate.
Though after all the years of modding since, that don't make no difference now anyway! :rofl
 
Pieter Boelen said:
The one I know of is the "New Horizons Manual.pdf" file which is contained in the "Documentation" folder of the mod.
It was written by Carmen "Snow White Sorrow" Alexandre as per the first page of it. ;)

Worth noting that not all information in there was ever 100% accurate.
Though after all the years of modding since, that don't make no difference now anyway! :rofl
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Ah, no, this is a different one, I forgot that one was in there. I have that one in my backups and have no intention of using it.

This is the one I found that I was referring to, I did not see any credits listed in it anywhere : FileNurse | potc-2004-pc-walkthrough.pdf
 
Thagarr said:
This is the one I found that I was referring to, I did not see any credits listed in it anywhere : FileNurse | potc-2004-pc-walkthrough.pdf
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That looks surprisingly recent! But I don't remember ever seeing that one before.
Maybe it got posted while I was away at sea and couldn't check it at the time?

Anyway, using that filename in the forum search engine seems to have yielded some results:
Solved - Promotion Reward Ships | PiratesAhoy!
But if I understand the accompanying post correctly, he just found that somewhere and didn't write it.
Which means I have NO CLUE where it came from.

Not entirely sure which part you would want to use from there though.
I see it mentions some nasty bugs that thankfully I managed to squash a few years back.
Full (mostly) up-to-date walkthroughs for all storylines are already on the Wiki.

Which actually poses a question: How will your PDF compare to the Wiki?
If at all possible, I always prefer any information to be posted on the Wiki rather than anywhere else because it is easier to keep up-to-date there.
And we can link to it from the forum and it is searchable and such.

I also tend to discourage making lists of stuff that can only ever end up getting outdated. :facepalm
 
I do not plan to put the whole Wiki in the manual, just relevant parts to help a beginning player out, and other sections to help clarify certain things. I also still have all your PPP stuff to cram in there somewhere.

As I stated in the post above, I plan on using parts of that PDF, but re-editing it for parts that have changed or are no longer correct, and for numerous spelling and grammatical errors. Heck, it might be easier for me to rewrite the whole thing myself, but I just don't have the time. I am back to work tomorrow. :ko
 
Alright then. Anyway, sorry I couldn't help tracking down actual credit for it... :(
 
No worry's mate, thanks or trying! :dance
 
Thagarr said:
As soon as Microsoft stops making software that breaks old games in a blatant attempt to try to sell more Xbox's, I may reconsider my comments. Who do you think started the rumor that PC gaming was dead to begin with?
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I don't mean to challenge your opinions, just to clarify. You can say what you like about MS here on the forum, of course.
I'm just thinking about the manual as a professional, factual document, and that it might be best to limit the use of personal opinions. But if you don't want to change the wording, I won't pester you about it. :shrug
 
@Armada, I knew what you meant mate, my reply was more facetious than anything, guess I should have used one of these :razz
Though I certainly have had no problems making my feelings for Microsoft known over the years. :wp

I do find it amusing the Microsoft has no problem pointing out the flaws in decade old software, yet can't even bother to announce what it's updates are actually "fixing" anymore. A bit like the pot calling the kettle black in my opinion.
 
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