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At one time, former community member Psyringe and I were working on a GC2 wiki site, but when he vanished it sort of died off as I didn't have time to run it all myself. Let me know if you're interested in working on the site with me. I have the domain and the wiki already setup... just needs content.

I would suggest a "Quick Start Guide" in addition to the Manual, for players that just want to jump in and get started.
This way players get a feel for the game before reading a large manual which can be a little daunting.

Also, the "Basics" section of your manual could be broken down further into common groups or themes.
Eg.
THE BASICS
Start Here -
   Creating a new galaxy
   to...
   Understanding the Galaxy.

Controls and Interface -
   The Main screen
   to...
   Video Options

Planet Economics -
   Galactic Economy
   to...
   Influence

Ships-
   ...etc, etc

Keep up the great work.

Shadowdream, that's exactly what it needs. That's what I was trying to emphasize - just enough to get the general idea and start in the right direction!

Oh, and I'm sure it's because it's Beta, but I turned on the "Tutorial" option, but no tutorial was forthcoming. Depending on how well the tutorial functions will help decide how much would have to go into the Quick Start Guide. Also, when the tutorial is implemented, the game should default to the tutorial being On at game startup.

Updated to draft 3.

p. 20

Skip available internet test.

Some might interpret the phrasing to mean that checking this option is required to use the metaverse.

Page 22: Disable engine trails in full battles - Display the exhaust from engines. This effect is fairly GPU intensive.

Shouldent it say CPU?

Secondly it should also say: "Toggle displaying the exhaust from engines"

EDIT on page 33 - There is no such government as Dictatorship, Only the Imperial system

EDIT AGAIN, Page 42 - "Influencer" starbases should be changed to "Influence"
MORE EDIT: Page 45 there is 2 lines of text overlapping each other
EDIT AGAIN: More overlapping text on P49

Once more, An edit: On page 56, It says "Galactic Shocase" not "Galactic Showcase"

GPU = Graphical Processor Unit.  It's not CPU intensive in the least. But it uses a lot of video card bandwidth.

Imperial system is a dictatorship.

Rats about 56. That's a typo.  Influencer starbases are the correct name.

I don't know if it's an error in the manual or a bug in Beta5, but the manual says that the "Smart Drones" modules becomes available for Economic starbase with the Advanced Computing tech (mis-spelled, by the way, as "Advaned"). Anyway, in my latest game I have the Advanced Computing tech but the "Smart Drones" module is not available. Is Xeno Facotry Construction also required?

Do not see "Atlas Sling" and "Devastation Beam" in starbase weapons.

Manual says you need one Megaton of food for each miliion. I have a 10.98 billion planet that is producing 20mt and is still increasing. Manual should say 1 mt needed for each BILLION right?

From the user manual:
"In a fleet battle, the attacking side adds together all of its attacks against a single defending ship, even if the defender is also a fleet (in which case the most lethal but most easily destroyed defending ship is targeted first) ".
It isn't very clear that if the defending ship is killed and not all attacking ships have fired, they will target another ship.

Manual says you need one Megaton of food for each miliion. I have a 10.98 billion planet that is producing 20mt and is still increasing. Manual should say 1 mt needed for each BILLION right?

I made this same point in the past. Some of the references suggest the population is measured in millions and others billions. Notice when you select a colony or troop transport ship it reports each module holding up to 500,000, and yet other references suggest the number is 500 million.

Page 57:

If you play as the humans, the AI gets an additional advantage - they know where all the planets are. Humans don't start...

It was explained this is now changed and nobody has any informations.

How about adding a table of keyboard shortcuts?

I found out purely by accident that pressing the 'C' key centers on the selected unit.

Here are some more errors that I discovered while I read through the draft:

p.12 Change the sentence "The forms of government are:" since you then proceed to list the different political parties.
And maybe put the Warparty last since all of the others are in alphabetic order.
p.28 "Colony is currently defended by ships and orbit and cannot be invaded". Shouldn't it be "in"?
p.55 "Orbital Terraformer: All potentially useable tiles your planets are instantly useable". Missing an "on".
p.55 Typo in description for Hyperion Fleet Manager. "oribtal".
p.56 Still no description for Orbital Planetary Fleet.

Otherwise, it looks imo very good, except for the Galaxy Size and Trade Goods lists but I'm sure you are already aware of that.