Completely Annotated Rules - work in progress!

[Slayden]

hmmmm  yeah....  I can remember last year maybe less then 2 weeks from now being told not to print 5.0b9 after it came out cause the next one was coming soon.   

[Whaleyland]

Yup and now we've got a new expansion (School) and one large and six small on the way. Either Matt needs to resume work on this or someone else needs to take over.

[neosatan]

That give me an idea. Maybe create a document on google docs, where there would be two versions draft and a official. This way some of the forum users could correct and fill up this doc anytime it would be need for that.
Well, that is idea, but I think that more powerfull versioning system would be more handy in this. Create a project, and update several files that could be merged anytime... Don't know if such systems exists. I could create such thing, but maybe there are available such system on web. I bet that current systems would be better cause I will have to do all of it from scratch...

What you think about it? Matt would have some more free time, and CAR  would be more quickly up to date.

I am curious if there are some wiki engines that could be adapted to this. That You would print only chapters that interest you. This way fully custom CAR could be released for everyone.

Don't know what you think about it. I could offer my help from technical side, but writing rules is too hard for me cause my english sucks (been a while since I used it in more serious way).

EDIT:
OK, I read about managing a document, and it didn't gone well :/ I thought that there would be a somftware free for non-commercial use, but it comes that there are some, but don't support things that would be nice to have. Most of them are just a text versioning editors, and that seems to be insufficient to need of a creating a book build of pretty independent chapters :/.
But have no fear cause MediaWiki is here. It has pretty all functions that would come handy in creation of any part of such repository. Drawback is that you can't do an automatic creation of a whole list of flagged chapters dump. But you can simply create earlier a book in this system, and just publish it separatly for some versions. I like it and I will consider to create such wiki for my own version of CAR written in polish language. (Polish rulebooks just sucks. Many contrasting rules for one exp. There is no such thing like CAR for polish players, but its on the way. have most of the exps ready, but some are missing FAQ's and additional infos, expamples and so on. It's a a5 book build up from 152 pages, so some info it has...).

Major drawback is that the owner of this server that this site is hosted would have to install mediaWiki engine (it's free for any use). I know that there are some technicall difficulties with access to server, but don't know to who offer my help if it would come handy.

EDIT2: Have been playing with wikipedia books, and I have to tell, that this is pretty easy to handle. Major drawback is that generated pdf from collection is in the same style that rest of the site. Maybe there is a way to change it, but for now I don't know how. Thus it is possible to download such book as a pdf, odt, or zim(don't know what is that). And when it have a odt format it is possible to open in word/OOwritter and change whole style and content of book, so it is possible to create a custom book from articles in a mediaWiki engine. There could be a article for each of the fanexp, official exp, some interesting articles about history of game, variants , spin-offs, and so on.

So the what you get:
+can create a own version of CAR
+can create pages on wiki (even not relevant to rules itself, but for na example tile making, and so on)
+much more people can update articles
+on this forum is dozen Carcassonne veterans
-installation on server
-modifications to generated chapters from an odt document.
-style modification is unknown

[Skull One]

I haven't played with the new iBooks creator on OSX, but since it is free and you can distribute any eBook (or pdf) for free legally with it, that may be the best starting point using the current PDF.

[obervet03]

As the countdown to the new releases looms (in the U.S., anyway), I think it is really important that the CAR return to life. I would be happy to act as the rules compiler / document producer for the CAR going forward, if Matt is no longer interested in being the point person. There are definitely things in multiple threads that have been written since the last version that should be included in the CAR. The one thing I'll say is that I won't be able to help out on any German-to-English translations, so I would need assistance on that front.

[Caryntjen]

I haven't played with the new iBooks creator on OSX, but since it is free and you can distribute any eBook (or pdf) for free legally with it, that may be the best starting point using the current PDF.

I think it's counterproductive, because an iBook is in an .ibook format which only is supported by Apple. I think Google Docs would be a great idea, but I think you have to make it public or add everyone individually.

[pobolycwm]

Noooo not more new rules, i am just getting my head around the ones that came in the blue box 

[Skull One]

I haven't played with the new iBooks creator on OSX, but since it is free and you can distribute any eBook (or pdf) for free legally with it, that may be the best starting point using the current PDF.

I think it's counterproductive, because an iBook is in an .ibook format which only is supported by Apple. I think Google Docs would be a great idea, but I think you have to make it public or add everyone individually.

The current CAR is already in a proprietary format but is exported to PDF.  iBooks allows for the same thing.

[Whaleyland]

The current Carcassonne Complete Annotated Rules are in Apple's iWork .pages format used in the Pages application. I have an older copy (2010ish) of the original from Matt that he sent me when we were working on the cover art together. I later used the same program to make my Dominion CAR.

The problem with Pages format is that it exports terribly. It is an incredibly good program at design layout for such things as the CAR, much better than MS Word though not as good as Adobe InDesign, but it is designed to remain within its program. Only someone with Pages could update the CAR in its current format unless they wanted to spent dozens of extra hours reformatting everything and ensuring consistency.

I have Pages but do not have time for yet another gaming guide. I already have too much to do with Dominion and Memoir '44 and I have abandoned my Catan CAR series just because my interest in the game has become nill (all of the dozens of expansions with the game are in a box in my closet. Sad times...). If anyone here has an Apple built in the last five years, it can run Pages and that person should be the one chosen to update the CAR. Others can contribute the information, but an Apple is needed to produce the document.

[obervet03]

My intent is to convert the most recent CAR PDF into a Word document, since doc (or docx) is a file type that a lot of people can deal with. The real question is whether OmniPage is up to the task of dealing with the formatting in the conversion, or if I'll be staring a nighmare headache right in the teeth. I also have Adobe InDesign, so that would be another conversion option.

[Caryntjen]

I haven't played with the new iBooks creator on OSX, but since it is free and you can distribute any eBook (or pdf) for free legally with it, that may be the best starting point using the current PDF.

I think it's counterproductive, because an iBook is in an .ibook format which only is supported by Apple. I think Google Docs would be a great idea, but I think you have to make it public or add everyone individually.

The current CAR is already in a proprietary format but is exported to PDF.  iBooks allows for the same thing.

Ah okay sorry for the misunderstanding, didn't know there was a PDF option, that's great, although I personally would recommend InDesign. Anyways the reason for this is because I've read somewhere about .ibooks being made are then 'property' of Apple (and maybe there's still some controversy). To be correctly: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBooks. "Documents created by iBooks Author in the .ibooks format may only be sold for a fee if they are accepted by and exclusively distributed by Apple. These restrictions do not apply to documents created in other formats like exported as PDF or text files."

I just want to say I would be glad if it's was a more 'open' format ! Like instead of MS Word you have the free OpenOffice Writer, which works with Word documents: http://www.openoffice.org/product/writer.html.

Anyways, just my 2 cents

[CKorfmann]

Keep up the good work guys (or keep trying anyway).  It will be nice to have it up to date at some point.

[Scott]

I have Pages on my iPad, though I've not really used it.

Besides the issue of getting the work done, there is a larger issue of the integrity of authority of the content, which I think some people don't realize/understand. Everything in the CAR comes from HiG in response to our questions. Legal rulings by Carcassonne Rules Lawyers are not official enough, but they help tide us over until an official ruling can be obtained. This is the primary reason why Matt insists on controlling the CAR himself.

[obervet03]

Besides the issue of getting the work done, there is a larger issue of the integrity of authority of the content, which I think some people don't realize/understand. Everything in the CAR comes from HiG in response to our questions. Legal rulings by Carcassonne Rules Lawyers are not official enough, but they help tide us over until an official ruling can be obtained. This is the primary reason why Matt insists on controlling the CAR himself.

I certainly agree that it is critical to maintain the integrity of the CAR as an official document. As I (slowly) go through and adjust things in the document, I'm trying to emphasize which points are official clarifications from HiG, and those footnotes which are simply suppositions on our part.

[Whaleyland]

Alright, I finally obtained Matt's last master copy. Here's a transcript of his email for our consideration:

Hey,

Sorry for forgetting to get around to this. I'm so rarely on facebook...

And I should also apologise for being so out of it with respect to Carcassonne. To be honest, I have played only one game of it in the last four years, and the enthusiasm for it has gone. After I did the last update, the one I'm sending you, I wrote to HiG with a bunch of FAQ, and waited for a reply... and waited, and waited, and forgot all about it.

So, please make any use of the document that you see fit. If you wish me to formally relinquish control over the CAR on the carc central website, I will. If you need any other files from me, let me know, and I'll try to deal with it more promptly.

Sorry again for my negligence, and its impact on the community.

Matt

So who wants to take charge of the project, at least the document-end of it. I have the master and it is, as I said earlier, in Pages format. I will be happy to email it to whomever needs or wants it. Just contact me. It seems Hans im Glück is being unresponsive to FAQ requests these days. This document won't work well on Pages for iPad, just FYI. Trust me, I've tried. The app is too limited compared to the full computer version.