At long last.... - Page 3

Velociryx · November 18, 2001, 10:49

Zaphod....

Thanks man! And my apologies for the delay in making my way back here....another of Sid's crazy games has been....taking a lot of my attention of late....but again, thank you!

And Compugasm! Welcome back bud! I do indeed remember you and your posts! And I think you'll find that many of our thoughts run parallel...I LOVE the defensive game in SMAC!

Bruce...

Welcome to the world of SMAC! A pity they've stopped including the manual with the game, but I guess I can understand that....still, I DO hope you find my guide of value! It was written with the brand new player in mind, so your critique of the book, especially since your copy of the game is minus the manual, will be *greatly* appreaciated!

-=Vel=-

Bruce205 · November 18, 2001, 16:40

Thanks for welcome Vel and others on this board. I will definitely let you know about book. Do you know approximately how long it normally takes to receive the paperback version?
Also can anyone tell me why with all the critical acclaim the game got why its not more popular anymore?? I love it so far.
Thanks again

Hydro · November 25, 2001, 19:18

Bruce205,

I have major gripes with BookSurge. My first copy showed up in about 7 days after I ordered it on-line, which was fine. I waited 3 weeks for the second copy (I gave the first to a friend), and I finally had to call them to get their butts in gear and it arrived about 7 days after my polite but pointed call. When I came back from T-day today I had my third copy, which was interesting since I hadn't ordered a third copy. BookSurge needs to improve its on-line interface, and its customer service, IMHO.

As to popularity, it is pretty rare for a game to be played at all after 2 years. The shelf life of average games tends to be measured in months, so for it to survive this long tells about its strengths. Classics and mega-sellers are around far longer.

Hydro

P.S. - The Guide is absolutely fantastic, so I'd recommend putting up with the pain-in-the-butt BookSurge and order the Guide.

Gaius Marius · November 25, 2001, 23:43

Downloaded the guide and had the same problem w/Acrobat 5.0, but your rec to change the plugin preferences worked - glad I read this thread or I would have been very angry.

Guide looks great so far - I was out of the country when SMAC/X was big here and w/o net access, so this looks like a great way to catch up on strategy. Thanks for putting it all in one place!

This just may tear me away from Civ III, at least until the patch comes out.

DilithiumDad · November 26, 2001, 09:47

Just want to report that you have a major fan --my 12-year-old son! He has no patience for PBEM, but he does play single player and against his Dad. He loved the guide and put it into practice right away. He is using all the naval tactics and is currently the terror of the seas in our father-son game! As for me, not a lot is new for a frequent poster to these forums, but it is great to have it in a readable and well-organized book for easy reference!

Velociryx · November 27, 2001, 15:19

Hey guys! Had to take a small break from Civ3-ing, and wanted to head back this direction to do so!

Bruce, I'm sorry I didn't get back here to answer your question probably before you got your copy in the mail, but after seeing Hydro's comments on their problems, I'm kinda wincing, wondering what everybody else's ordering experiences might have been like...

(but thank you, Hydro! For recommending the book despite the problems with BookSurge (who's initials, now that I think on it, are BS...Hmmm....I shoulda seen that sooner? LOL)

Gaius...whew! LOL...I"m glad somebody came up with a quick fix for the viewer error....I'd forgotten all about it till you mentioned it again!

DD! Very cool man! ::waving at DD's son:: Kick some A...::stops in mid-word::...butt! Yeah, that's what I was gonna say!

-=Vel=-

Googlie · November 27, 2001, 15:31

Vel:

I can echo Hydro's complaint about tardiness.

I waited till I arrived in Palm Springs before ordering - did so on November 7th - and am still waiting for it to arrive.

It's now a race to see whose customer service sucks most - BS with the Guide (3 weeks) or Dell with a replacement harddrive for my laptop (now 8 days)

Sheesh

Googlie

Velociryx · November 27, 2001, 17:14

ACK!!! Okay....two of my buds reporting the same problem....that's gospel as far as I'm concerned, and I'm heading to my e-mail right now to write the folks at GU (who are neck deep in cahoots with the booksurge folks) to let them know what kinds of ordering problems are coming up, and see if there's any pressure they can apply to them!

-=Vel=-
(On an Anti-BS Crusade!)

LongTom · December 3, 2001, 22:45

Ordered book online at booksurge (order number P0000010544) on November 24th. Even paying a shipping cost that should be good for airmail, I've yet to receive the guide. Sorry, I guess I shouldn't be so impatient, but I'm really looking forward to receiving it :-)

Jim

Velociryx · December 4, 2001, 22:02

Aack again! Got you covered, Jim....will mail them again this evening to find out what's what....so far, they've managed to convey their deepest sympathies without telling me a damned thing....how corporate....

-=Vel=-

Tony · December 7, 2001, 02:21

I've downloaded the Acrobat version and printed it out and bound it. (Vel I'm not trying to avoid paying for the paper version I just didn't want to pay the high postage cost to get it to Australia). A tip for anyone trying to print it out the pdf. If you try to print a pdf file out on a printer with low memory it takes forever, like 5 minutes per page, but if you can hook up to a printer with lots of memory (you might have one at your workplace if thats allowed) then it prints out at normal fast speed.

Get work Vel. Your guide really extends the playing life of the game.

Googlie · December 7, 2001, 19:21

Quote:

Originally posted by Googlie
I waited till I arrived in Palm Springs before ordering - did so on November 7th - and am still waiting for it to arrive.

Just to close the loop, I took delivery of the Guide this afternoon - exactly a month since ordering.

First impressions - awesome !! (if anything, even glitzier than I thought it would be)

(But it did beat Dell - am still waiting for my replacement hard drive for my laptop)

Googlie

LongTom · December 7, 2001, 19:49

It's sad because booksurge promises shipment within 48 hours...and at $5.80 for shipping you'd kind of expect to receive it within a week...

Velociryx · December 10, 2001, 15:20

I have written THREE letters to the folk who are full of BS...er...no, make that the folk OF BS (not that that sounds much better!), and have gotten two sincere apologies for the delays, but no solid explanations as to why yet, and no word on if/when their response time and overall speed will be getting up to what it's advertised to be.....GRRRRR!!!! I'm sooo sorry there have been delays like this guys.....that sucks!!!! I'll keep pestering them, but I'm not sure if my efforts are helping or hurting...

::sigh::
-=Vel=-

LongTom · December 10, 2001, 18:36

Well, I went to Digitz.com's website (Booksurge's Print-on-Demand partner) and they promise "48 hours or it's free". So I'm looking forward to the free book, whenever it arrives :-)

DrFaustus · December 11, 2001, 01:26

It did take a long, long time to get here, but it's well worth the wait. Congratulations on an excellent opus, V.

Velociryx · December 12, 2001, 16:31

I hear you, LongTom! And hold them to it!

Dr. F....thank you!! It was a pleasure doing it....and from the look of things over in the Civ3 general forum, what with Prima threatening legal action against tiny Hurricane, it appears that an early attempt is being made to render stillborn ANY alternative strat guides for civ three. We shall see....I don't spook easily, but OTOH, I'm none too anxious to pit my meager bank account against the likes of Random House....GRRR....still, they tell me I can't talk about something...can't write about something....well, there's prolly enough redneck in me to get rowdy about it....

-=Vel=-

LongTom · December 17, 2001, 15:48

Finally, the guide has arrived - and it's great. Worth the wait. Very quality job, nicely printed and formatted, going to be MUCH better bedtime reading than curling up in the chair in front of my computer, staring at the screen, trying to read the 3.0 version :-)

Thanks Vel!

Jim

P.S. I called them today, they had real people there I could talk to, and they were able to verify when it had printed and when it had shipped. But 4 emails I sent earlier never received a reply (except one from the webmaster who simply said he had forwarded it to the right person) - so don't waste your time with email, call'em!

P.P.S. I don't have the time to waste trying to convince them I should get the book free, especially since it's the printer that promises 48-hour delivery, not Booksurge. Apparently their shipping takes about 5 days (USPS Priority Mail).

Velociryx · January 7, 2002, 10:51

Howdy man! My apologies for the delay in getting back here....with poly down for an extended period and company over for the holidays, I didn't spend much time on my computer!

But!....I'm VERY glad to hear that the old gal finally shipped out, and that you're pleased with the end result! And I *completely* agree....curling up with a good book is way better than sitting up at the computer getting eyestrain!

(one of the reasons I like e-books, but still vastly prefer the bound variety!)

Slowly, painfully, I'm teaching myself photoshop, so my NEXT book where I design the cover will be more advanced and polished....but, not bad for the whole thing being done on a shoestring!

-=Vel=-

NorthSwordsman · February 1, 2002, 12:15

After losing everything on my HD, I had to purchase the PDF version again- can't live without it! :-). I went through the usual credit card hoops... and wasn't able to download because of a problem on their end. Got nothing but a blank page. So when I got the order confirmation, I sent an email back explaining the problem.

20 minutes later, they emailed me a copy of the pdf book. Their customer service came through on that one. They were really polite about it. Hmm.. don't find that kind of customer service in very many places anymore.

I'm glad booksurge came through after what I've read here.

NorthSwordsman · February 1, 2002, 12:18

Quote:

Originally posted by Velociryx
I hear you, LongTom! And hold them to it!

Dr. F....thank you!! It was a pleasure doing it....and from the look of things over in the Civ3 general forum, what with Prima threatening legal action against tiny Hurricane, it appears that an early attempt is being made to render stillborn ANY alternative strat guides for civ three. We shall see....I don't spook easily, but OTOH, I'm none too anxious to pit my meager bank account against the likes of Random House....GRRR....still, they tell me I can't talk about something...can't write about something....well, there's prolly enough redneck in me to get rowdy about it....

-=Vel=-

This is the first I've heard of this Vel. Has there been any update on this

corporate strong-arm tactics? Maybe someone should send a shard rover over to talk to them...

Mavfin · February 8, 2002, 15:22

EBook format is PDF. Acrobat Reader 4.x or higher. If you're using a Mac they'll have to email you the PDF.

BigRich · April 11, 2002, 12:53

Quote:

Originally posted by NorthSwordsman

This is the first I've heard of this Vel. Has there been any update on this

corporate strong-arm tactics? Maybe someone should send a shard rover over to talk to them...

First off - many congrats on the book Vel! Havn't visited/lurked this forum for a while - hence the late post! Can't wait to upgrade my *very* dogeared copy of Version 3 - which incidentally single-handedly got me into playing (comparatively) serious SMAC(X). From muddling through Worker level to kicking booty on Librarian level and working at the next one up - thats one heck of a guide!

As for the strong-arm tactics - I'm curious as to what pressure they can realistically apply. I presume it would be copyright infringement or the threat of copyright infringement at least. In which case IIRC they'd have to show that a substantial portion of your work was lifted from theirs, which should prove tricky. I guess you could use some of their stuff if you got their permission first and acknowledged it in your work. Quite why you would want to is another matter - having seen some Prima guides I can only assume that they have permission to copy large chunks of the manual for whatever guide they are writing.

Treat all the above with a hefty pinch of salt - I'm a patents rather than a trademarks or copyright guy.

cheers,

Rich.

Velociryx · April 11, 2002, 13:38

Hey guys....no news at all on the strongarm tactics that I've heard. I think the sabre rattling from Infogreed pretty much silenced the little guys, and that's too bad.....if Civ3 were a "deeper" game, and I felt as though I could do a smac-style guide for it, I'd write it in a heartbeat and dare them to try and stop me....as it stands...I'd be more concerned that the readers of the guide would feel like that didn't get their money's worth, cos there's just not all that much to talk about....another thing that's genuinely too bad....

Anyway, I figured that since I hadn't posted in this thread in a while, I would do some catching up, and thank *everyone* for making the guide the success that it is....simply awesome guys....

And Rich! Hiyas, and thanks for the good word on the guide....I'm glad it helped your game....*always* like hearing stories like that! As to what pressure....none, as far as I can see....my guess is that they're just money-grubbing corporate #$$%$^ who wanted to give their lawyers something to do?

Just a guess, tho....

-=Vel=-

BigRich@home · April 13, 2002, 11:24

Afternoon all,

Having problems buying a copy of the Guide. Specifically it claims that the card owner's billing address does not match up with the given address. Now I *know* the card number is right

soooo - anyone from the UK bought a copy, and if so how did they fill out the various fields when entering their details?

Sorry to post dumb questions but I've tried fitting in the details every which way and still no luck.

Rich

Velociryx · April 13, 2002, 12:22

Hmm....I'd not heard about that particular problem before, but I shall write my contacts there, and at GU, to see if they've encountered anything like that. Will post whatever answer I get here as soon as I get one!

-=Vel=-

BigRich · April 15, 2002, 10:37

Quote:

Originally posted by Velociryx
Hmm....I'd not heard about that particular problem before, but I shall write my contacts there, and at GU, to see if they've encountered anything like that. Will post whatever answer I get here as soon as I get one!

-=Vel=-

Thanks Vel!

I would just mail them a cheque but it takes a while and besides the postage for the cheque would probably be more than its value

Looking forward to their answer!

Rich.

Velociryx · April 15, 2002, 16:10

'k....try her again....see if that doesn't get it!

The didn't tell me specifically what was up, but apparently the system was acting a bit wonky....said their troubles should be over now tho....

-=Vel=-

BigRich · April 16, 2002, 03:58

Sweet - I'll give that a go tonight from home! No can download stuff at work unfortunately.

thanks again,

Rich.

MariOne · July 12, 2002, 04:13

Well, I finally decided to provide myself with my first Credit Card.
Got it this morning, and... what could I do with it? I went right away to my first ever e-purchase: Vel's SMAX Guide!

Got from BookSurge the free-download too of the eBook while you wait for the paperback to be shipped you!