[TFC/Ricochet] User manuals are missing

[Triang3l]

I know that it's not an issue with Steam on Linux, but because Valve is fixing GoldSrc, I'm posting this here.

In Team Fortress Classic and Ricochet properties on Steam, the Manual field says "[ none available ]" even though the manuals exist.

Because local manuals are not available until the game is installed and launched, Valve should upload the manuals to their web servers.

For TFC, the manual is located in "team fortress classic.gcf/tfc/manual" and starts with TFCcontents.htm.

For Ricochet, it's in "ricochet.gcf/ricochet/manual" and starts with ricochetstart.html.

[Koterminus]

2019 update:

This now seems to be the case with all Valve-owned GoldSrc games on Steam except for Day of Defeat, but the Manual field in DoD's properties window just contains a link to an expired URL instead, so it's just as useless. No game manuals are linked to in the properties windows of any of Valve's other GoldSrc games even if official manuals were actually produced for those games.

Steam does host game manuals for other games on an online server. From what I've seen the URL always follows this format - [https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steam/apps/[appid]/manuals/[title.pdf]) - and the manuals hosted there are always in PDF form. For this issue to be resolved, I think that someone at Valve should upload the missing manuals to this server. In case the original manuals for the first three Half-Life games are no longer in Valve's archive, they can be found on archive.org in PDF format:

• Half-Life
• Half-Life: Opposing Force (Note: an additional player manual for OF's multiplayer Capture the Flag gamemode can be found in its Steam install directory in html format: Steam/steamapps/common/Half-Life/gearbox/CTF%20Manual/op4ctf_manual.html)
• Half-Life: Blue Shift

As for the other games:

• Counter-Strike: A .htm format manual for CS 1.5 can be found in its installation folder: Steam\steamapps\common\Half-Life\cstrike\manual
• Condition Zero: The manual provided in the installation folder appears identical to CS 1.5's.
• Day of Defeat: Full manual available in Steam\steamapps\common\Half-Life\dod\manual folder in .html format, with accompanying assets located in a subfolder in the same directory.
• Team Fortress Classic: The manual found in the installation folder is spread over several .html files with accompanying assets also located in the Steam\steamapps\common\Half-Life\tfc\manual folder.
• Ricochet: Ditto, manual and assets in D:\Steam\steamapps\common\Half-Life\ricochet\manual folder.

Obviously this is not a major issue in 2019 but I think that it would still be a nice QoL update to have all these manuals converted to PDF, hosted on Valve's current servers, and linked to in their respective games' properties on Steam.