Why Not Digitial Distribution?

[llamabeast]

Don_Seba: What do you mean about camera control? Do you know PgUp, PgDn and the 4 cursor keys allow you to move it in all 6 directions (plus f for fast forward and n for 'next round')?

The graphics for the sprites are actually largely really very good indeed, once you get used to them being 2D sprites.

I didn't know there was anything wrong with LA Vanheim either.

[sector24]

Tim Brooks: We live like 10 miles from one another, can I buy you a beer sometime?

On a marginally related note, if someone were to compile User Interface improvements would there be any chance of seeing them get considered? Three examples off the top of my head:

1) Commanders should be able to dump all their gems into a lab without using hotkeys or clicking 30 times.
2) Item Transfer Screen: Laboratory should be at the top of the list instead of the bottom. (Requested several times I think)
3) Nation Overview (F1): Cannot sort anything on this screen. Ideal improvement would be for the top row with the column titles to be "locked" and persist when you scroll up and down, and clicking on the title of a column would sort by that column, first, ascending then descending.

Someone also suggested player scores persisting on the score graphs. Very good suggestion. I'm sure every player has 1 or 2 "nitpicks" about the interface that when put together would really serve to improve the game on a significant level. But it's kind of a wasted effort if the current interface is set in stone.

[Endoperez]

sector24 said:
On a marginally related note, if someone were to compile User Interface improvements would there be any chance of seeing them get considered?

It's Illwinter's choice what they implement, but the chance of them implementing what you want is bigger if they know what you want. If there was a good list, with all the points in the first post and everything written well AND CATEGORIZED by importance, it would be very useful for Johan. Without categorizing, it's just a wishlist thread, which can offer hints but doesn't help in getting the important stuff before "important". Telling the difference between those two is quite hard, though. As an example, the score graphs persisting is trivial for some (who disable scoregraphs), and very important for others (who "score" themselves against other nations).

[Jazzepi]

Tim, thank you for responding to the points presented in a meaningful, accurate way. I have two points.

1. I think you overstate the manual as a form of DRM. People get help on the forums all the time. There's a path boosting guide there as well. In game there is a description for every spell that is mostly accurate, every unit's stats can be gotten simply by looking at them. That is to say that not having the manual makes the game more difficult to play, but for someone pirating the game there are plenty of other resources that supplement, replace, and otherwise correct the manual that are readily available on these forums and the dom3 wiki, that you really don't even need the manual.

Actually, your best form of DRM is banning cd-keys from playing online by releasing updates. DOM3 single player leaves a lot to be desired from the AI.

2. You said that the cost of producing the manuals would go up if you starting making PDFs because the size of your manual runs would go down since people would switch over to digital distributions and this would negate any savings from not having to press + print + mail the physical media. Maybe I'm being simple here, but it seems like to me all you would have to do is keep the print run at the same size, the trade off being that you'd have a higher inventory for a longer period of time.

Jazzepi