GTAC reminder

[Davin]

For those of you using the GTAC Assistant, you'll want to be aware of
some procedures for updating the software...

I'm fairly frequently doing bug fixes and making enhancements to GTAC
(and there's a LOT still to do), and I'm putting these new versions up
on the web site for people to download whenever they desire. (There's
a "last updated" date on the web page to help you know when changes
are available.) However, there seems to be some confusion over how
this upgrade process needs to work, so I thought I'd drop a note in
here to let everyone know.

When you "create a game" in GTAC, it creates a data file on your
computer in the same directory as the program. This file contains
your actions, maps, report history, and everything else you've entered
into GTAC. This file should NOT be deleted. Whenever a new Galac-Tac
turn comes out, use the same file to download the new report and enter
your new actions. All the work that you do in GTAC will accumulate in
this file, so you want to keep it around and keep using the same file.

If you download a whole new version of GTAC, just unzip it into the
same directory as before, right over your existing files. This will
replace the entire program but leave all your game-data files intact.
The new version of GTAC will use those same data files just fine.
There is no reason to delete any files before downloading new versions
(unlike some on-line games I've heard of).

In addition, some people may not want to re-download the whole GTAC
system for every upgrade that I release. To that end, I've made a new
link on the web site that allows you to download just the one file
that continually changes. So to upgrade an existing system, just
click (or right-click and "Save As") on the link that says "...get the
most recent update file..." and save it into your GTAC directory,
replacing the old file that's there. Then just start GTAC again to
use the new software.

Also, if you want to start using GTAC on a new computer, you may
download the whole GTAC program from the web site, but make
arrangements to bring over your existing data file from your old
computer so you can keep your historical information. If you need to
work with GTAC from two locations, you'll have to keep sending the
data file back and forth between your systems so that each one always
has the most recent copy. To find this game-data file, it will be
named after the galaxy number that you're playing in. So if you're in
galaxy #1, the game file will be named "GTAC0001.sf". If you're
playing in multiple galaxies, you'll find one data file for each of
them.

Does that make sense to everyone?