Frustrated and Disappointed

[tim_manley]

I bought the MegaTraveller CDROM. I thought, great! I can use it instead of my books. But, I'm shocked at the low quality. Pages are missing from the scan, some scans are low res B&W so grey background shows up dark and makes the text unreadable. Truly, for $35 all pages from the book should be there and scans should be higher res color.

I was going to buy the CT CDROM, but taking the quality of the MT scan I'm not sure.

The really frustrating part of this is that I can't find an email address on the FFE web-site I ordered it from so that I can talk with someone in customer service....

I've been playing traveller since it first game out, love the hell out of this game, am fonder of CT and then MT than I am the others... but still.....

I know this seems like a rant, but in reality it's asking for help/advice. I'd really like the PDFs in a usable format. Does anyone have an email address they can PM me that I use to talk with someone about these?

thank you.

 

[Spinward Scout]

Sorry to hear about that. I had been thinking about getting the MT CD, but now I might wait. The CT CD is excellent quality. I can cut and paste text very easy. I haven't seen anything I haven't been able to read (tho I haven't looked through all of it yet - probably half). I did have a page in there twice in the Aslan module, if I remember right.

Wait until the weekend is over for a response about the e-mail address. I'm sure someone around here knows someone.

 

[Nick Nova]

CT CDRom

I'd second Spinward Scout's comments about the CT CD. I've read through the whole thing now and I am very pleased. The scans for a few of the books are a bit fuzzy, but still quite readable.

Considering how much really good material there is in there, I would have to say it is the highest value for dollar Traveller item that I've ever bought. (Even considering that I already had dead tree copies of about 75% of the material). Definitely worth the investment!

 

[Fritz_Brown]

Yes, the MT CD has been widely panned around here.... However, the CT CD is in very good shape. I believe that one of the documents is partly upside down, but I don't remember which one it is. As SS says, though, everything else is really good. You can even copy and paste a good amount of the tables correctly (in the LBB1-7 set, anyway).

Try searching through the CT and MT forums here for reviews of both sets of material.

 

[JAFARR]

I also have the CT CD ROM and am very pleased. Some of the scans look somewhat grains on the screen, but print off sharp and crisp. I am not sure, but changing resolution on my monitor might even fix the problem (just thought of that possibility an I was posting.)

While we are on this subject, does anyone know about any of the other CD ROMs?

 

[jfetters]

There is the JTAS CD, which is also pretty good.

From what I understand, a couple others were also supposed to be in the works, but I have no idea where they stand. (TNE and more JTAS, IIRC)

Even though there was the issue of the bad tables with the MT scans, I am still happy I bought it, as there is a lot of information worth mining in there.

 

[zonk]

Are there any Challenge articles on the MT CD?

 

[jfetters]

Are there any Challenge articles on the MT CD?

Not directly. The JTAS CD has the Traveller-specific stuff from Challenge 25 thru 36 when they were publishing JTAS as a subset of Challenge. But nothing later than that.

Good question, though, as some of the Challenge issues after that are outstanding. Anyone know if those are in the works, too?

 

[whartung]

I haven't seen either, but there one distinct difference between MT and CT is the size of the text, and the amount of art.

There's pretty much zero art in the CT books. It's almost pure text. And the text there is is actually quite large (about 10pt font I'd say). MT is has smaller text, as well as the gray background "side bars", plus the art.

All of these contribute to lower quality scans. The gray boxes, for example, simply are just doomed to failure from the get go, especially when you throw an OCR system at it.

Now, all that said, they may very well PRINT well, assuming a reasonably high res scan, but that's different from actually rendering well on the screen, at most likely 1/3rd the resolution.

Mind, that's unrelated to missing pages, out of order pages, upside down pages, etc. That's all simply sloppiness, and lack of attention to detail.

I know it's a lot of material, but it really isn't a lot to ask to go through the book final PDF and hit the NEXT button watching the page numbers go up.

 

[golentan]

I've been thinking about getting the CT and JTAS cds, and didn't find anything like your complaints in reviews for them. I don't know from firsthand experience, but it seemed on the level.