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CMBN Mac App Store - PDF Manual


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Hi all!

Before any flaming starts:

- Yes, I have registered in and searched from the FAQ. Single related hit, which I can't open.

- Yes, I have searched Forum for App Store - no related hits.

- No, I haven't read the manual because I don't have one.

My background:

I'm an old fan of CM series since 1999. Now few weeks ago I returned to the marvelous CM world by downloading CMBN via Mac App Store (btw it was my first ever purchase through that - just to honour my long-time gaming favourite).

Mac experience:

Installation was very easy, which was surprising. After the hard drive swap re-installation was also painless, which was even more surprising.

But:

No PDF manual, I have to rely on online version - needless to say how much that su**s.

- PDF manual is not available via App Store. On the hard drive I have only the game file. When using "Show contents" I still can't find any manuals.

- When searching from FAQ I found a page http://www.battlefront.com/helpdesk/index.php?_m=downloads&_a=viewdownload&downloaditemid=29 which promisingly says "CMBN manual PDF for AppStore" - this is also the ONLY related result I get.

- Instead of manual download I get "ERROR: You do not have enough permissions to access this page. Please log in by entering your e-mail address and password." And yes… I have created an account AND I am logged in.

As I bet I can't be the only App Store user, this can't be a "bug" for 2 years either. Could you kindly give some advice?

Thanks in advance,

geekuma

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Hi all!

Before any flaming starts:

- Yes, I have registered in and searched from the FAQ. Single related hit, which I can't open.

- Yes, I have searched Forum for App Store - no related hits.

- No, I haven't read the manual because I don't have one.

My background:

I'm an old fan of CM series since 1999. Now few weeks ago I returned to the marvelous CM world by downloading CMBN via Mac App Store (btw it was my first ever purchase through that - just to honour my long-time gaming favourite).

Mac experience:

Installation was very easy, which was surprising. After the hard drive swap re-installation was also painless, which was even more surprising.

But:

No PDF manual, I have to rely on online version - needless to say how much that su**s.

- PDF manual is not available via App Store. On the hard drive I have only the game file. When using "Show contents" I still can't find any manuals.

- When searching from FAQ I found a page http://www.battlefront.com/helpdesk/index.php?_m=downloads&_a=viewdownload&downloaditemid=29 which promisingly says "CMBN manual PDF for AppStore" - this is also the ONLY related result I get.

- Instead of manual download I get "ERROR: You do not have enough permissions to access this page. Please log in by entering your e-mail address and password." And yes… I have created an account AND I am logged in.

As I bet I can't be the only App Store user, this can't be a "bug" for 2 years either. Could you kindly give some advice?

Thanks in advance,

geekuma

Have you tried looking in the game folder itself? That is where it is on Windows.

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I couldn't find the manual either. I also had trouble first finding the PBEM files (they are in a hidden directory located in the user directory, not the CMBN tree) and then found my program was kicking out corrupt PBEM files. Let me know if you have more success than I did.

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Have you tried looking in the game folder itself? That is where it is on Windows.

Thanks for your comment! I covered this in my original post, but for some reason I managed to loose that part when actually pressing "Send". Well, I've got only myself to blame on that.

The installation folder would naturally be the obvious starting point. But the Mac installation has only one single file, no folder. One can open this file with "Show Package Contents" - and I already searched that, too. This was prior posting my question here.

Just to add in case somebody else wonders: App Store installed only this single file, no other. On the Mac DVD version one would get all the extras, like the manual ;->

Cheerio,

geekuma

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For everyone who has an Apple App Store distribution of CMBN you can submit a ticket to the Helpdesk and we can send you an email via YouSendIt with a link to download the CMBN PDF manual.

I don't know the details as to why the manual is not part of the Apple App Store distribution of the game. Apparently Apple makes this sort of thing harder than it has to be.

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If you need the .pdf manual, I could just share a dropbox with you and give it to you. Give me your email address and we'll solve this real quick.

Hi! Thanks for your friendly offer, but I have to decline it. In theory I could also just google&download it - but that is not the thing I want.

I am looking for the official version, that should accompany the App Store release.

Cheers,

geekuma

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Hi! Thanks for your friendly offer, but I have to decline it. In theory I could also just google&download it - but that is not the thing I want.

I am looking for the official version, that should accompany the App Store release.

Cheers,

geekuma

I'm offering you the official version. If you'd rather wait as a matter of principal, then o.k. then.. :)

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Sounds like I won't be buying anything from the App Store. Good move, Apple.

:rolleyes:

Michael

LOL yeah for a company with such a ridiculously rabid fan base and a reputation for attention to detail, they have this massive gap when it comes to being easy to work with at a higher level. I have to deal with the app store in order to run some beta testing on mobile apps for work and it is absolutely friggin ridiculous to try and isolate what we want to beta test and not have our general user community just decidiing to DL what they feel like.

Nimrods.

My money is on Apple eventually running themselves back into the ground from sheer ego centric arrogant bullheadedness.

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My money is on Apple eventually running themselves back into the ground from sheer ego centric arrogant bullheadedness.

As I've posted before, I could never understand why they have had a history going back at least 15 years of being frosty, or even downright hostile, toward games and gaming companies, but it does smack of arrogance and bigotry.

Michael

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For everyone who has an Apple App Store distribution of CMBN you can submit a ticket to the Helpdesk and we can send you an email via YouSendIt with a link to download the CMBN PDF manual.

I don't know the details as to why the manual is not part of the Apple App Store distribution of the game. Apparently Apple makes this sort of thing harder than it has to be.

Thanks for the answer! This produces three questions, which I believe are nice to have in the public instead of a support email :-)

  1. Lack of download link: Why a regular game buyer has to use Helpdesk for receiving the manual? If App Store does not support providing PDF files, a download link should be a standard issue, IMHO.
  2. Lack of information: Why this topic is not covered already in the App Store description? If nobody gets the manual trough that service, it oughta be a standard procedure to inform the customer upfront without this searching & asking confusion, IMHO.
  3. Speculative: Can't the location /{HDD}/Users/{Username}/Library/Application Support/Combat Mission Battle for Normandy/ be used for storing the PDF manuals? I see other files created there, too - unless they were created by the game after initial startup.

Please don't get me wrong, I do not mean to be complaining just for the "fun" of complaining. But I am somewhat critical that even if there are Apple laid restrictions, why there aren't the obvious work-arounds (customer information, alternative download sources) readily available.

Pondering cheers,

geekuma

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I'm offering you the official version. If you'd rather wait as a matter of principal, then o.k. then.. :)

I do appreciate your willingness to help, but as you said - this is a matter of principle. I can use the online manual, but I don't like the current App Store implementation. ;-)

Cheers,

geekuma

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  • 11 months later...
LOL yeah for a company with such a ridiculously rabid fan base and a reputation for attention to detail, they have this massive gap when it comes to being easy to work with at a higher level. I have to deal with the app store in order to run some beta testing on mobile apps for work and it is absolutely friggin ridiculous to try and isolate what we want to beta test and not have our general user community just decidiing to DL what they feel like.

Nimrods.

My money is on Apple eventually running themselves back into the ground from sheer ego centric arrogant bullheadedness.

Could we have at least one civilized discussion that involves Apple without starting to whine about them? Jesus, sometimes it seems like the only people more fanatical about Apple than the Apple-fans are, are the Apple-haters...

That said, I have bought other games from the Mac App Store (Hearts of Iron III, Europa Universalis III for example), and those games came with a manual. Maybe Paradox used some uber-advanced technology or something to attach a PDF among the gamefiles? In fact, when it comes to manuals in App Store apps, BfN is the odd man out in not having any sort of manual with it. But yeah, I guess this MUST be Apple's fault?

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Yeah, we basically just need to plop a PDF in among the game files. It does get somewhat complicated when dealing with the different user file permission schemes in 10.6-10.8 (they need to go to different locations and may or may not be accessible in some spots, and the files need to be copied to the right area or Apple will reject the app) but it's doable.

The real trouble has come in trying to get an update up on the App Store - including not only the manual but some necessary fixes. Apple has given us tremendous issues with getting a patch up on the store, due largely (again) to those changing permissions between OSX versions. Things that work fine in 10.6 or 10.7 need to be re-done for 10.8 and future versions, and vice versa, and the patch is rejected by Apple until ALL corner cases are dealt with... and the fix / submission / rejection cycle can take 2-3 weeks depending on how busy Apple is.

Sandboxing makes it hard for traditional OSX apps to be sold, and we don't have the resources to re-code everything to be perfectly compliant. We're working with Apple on it and I hope to have it resolved soon, but it's been a lengthy process.

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