I have pre-ordered a game (CIV IV) for the very first time due to my wanderings around this forum and over at Apolyton. I looked at "The List" developed at Apolyton discussing ideas for Civ IV and I have seen the discussions which go on here and realize what a great community you have nutured over the years. It amazes me how good the relationship between Firaxis and the community is.

I come from the Total War series of games, where the opposite is true. The developer of the series has little to no contact with the community and ignored most of the ideas presented in a similar list. As a matter of fact, the developer took the game in a direction most of the community disliked. Many players left and the MP community was completely wiped out after their latest game was released.

Being a "mostly-MP" player, I am glad to hear my favorite game finally has been developed with multiplayer as its main focus. I am eager to see how the MP community takes shape.

Here is hoping for a long and enjoyable acquaintance here at the Civ Fanatics Center forums. If anyone needs help with any multiplayer tournaments, leagues, campaigns, I will be more than happy to help.

Take care,

UglyElmo aka. ElmarkoFear

Let me be the first to say welcome... ugly! ;)
I suggest you dock you trireme and that we discuss a mutual alliance.

Who you callin Ugly? Oh yeah, me! :) I'm so ugly, when I look into a mirror, IT gets 7 years of bad luck.

As soon as I figure out which is fore and which is aft on this darn thing, I will be knocking on your embassies' door.

Very nice to meet you. I am not sure you will want an alliance with me, since in the Total War multiplayer community, I was given the title of "Professional Victim" due to my playing ability (or lack thereof). :)

Very nice to meet you. I am not sure you will want an alliance with me, since in the Total War multiplayer community, I was given the title of "Professional Victim" due to my playing ability (or lack thereof). :)

Everyone has a place.

Ya know, there’s an old saying, you don’t have to outrun the bear, just outrun the fellow next to you :lol:

you dont have to worry about being the Professional Victim here.

<<<< Look Here
Or
Here
V
V
V
V

Ya know, there’s an old saying, you don’t have to outrun the bear, just outrun the fellow next to you :lol:
Haha! But what if you're alone? ;)

Welcome aboard UglyElmo!

That is why, when I visit the woods, I take my largest and slowest friend with me. I like to call it using the "Buddy System". When in doubt, throw em your buddy. ;)

I have several people in the Ugli community who are going to join us once the game is out. (UGLI stands for United Gamer's League International), plus it is an apt description of myself. I shaved, showered, and otherwise cleaned up the other day but all it did was make me "Pretty" . . "Pretty Ugly" that is.

Good to see some more players like myself: Those who pride themselves on their ability to take overpowering armies and production resources and efficiently begin the slow downward spiral into oblivion. :lol:

LOL im just going to miss the stack of doom when I hit the overpowering forces part.

I come from the Total War series of games, where the opposite is true. The developer of the series has little to no contact with the community and ignored most of the ideas presented in a similar list. As a matter of fact, the developer took the game in a direction most of the community disliked. Many players left and the MP community was completely wiped out after their latest game was released.

Being a "mostly-MP" player, I am glad to hear my favorite game finally has been developed with multiplayer as its main focus. I am eager to see how the MP community takes shape.Yeah, Barbarian Invasion was a great disappointment. Do you have a link to a discussion the RTW-community has had about what direction the series should have gone ? I have a lot of my own ideas and would want to compare them to ideas other people have had :)

Hi AKuhanen:

RTW was made to draw from the larger RTS crowd by adding in all the wow factors such as 3D graphics, the left-click select/right-click move scheme, and a very ugly real-time battle interface. Unfortunately, it was at the expense of gameplay. They simplified the game to the point where army selection was the greatest factor in whether you would win or not. They lessened the effects of fatigue, terrain, and other small details, which made the game so challenging to play well. The MP portion of the game was obviously done as an after-thought since the lobby didn't have half of the features the old lobbies did. The host options were so limited you only had 4 choices on florin levels, and CA went back to the "one faction per game" limit where you could not have two players playing the same faction in the game (which basically killed off a lot of tournament/clan type battles). Plus play was limited to 3v3 and not the normal 4v4. All of this added up to a very bad MP experience, so almost the entire clan community left TW and have not returned.

I have heard first patch and now the BI expansion have improved a few things, but the MP game is just not to my liking. I am waiting on them to get their act together for the next game so I can enjoy playing it online again.

There are 2 main sites for Total War: totalwar.org and totalwar.com

For me, the TW series should have done exactly what CIV IV has. Multiplayer has been given the short-shrift by the industry in the past few years, but I think the success of Civ IV with its emphasis on multiplayer, will show developers/publishers that multiplayer is a worthwhile feature to focus on and a great marketing tool to attract a large market of online gamers.

I have several old TW players who have pre-ordered Civ IV so be on the lookout for some more Ugly's to be in the CIV IV MP lobby during its first week of release. What we lack in skill we make up for in humor. :)

That is why I enjoy multiplayer so much, especially 4v4 games, where I have 3 other players to blame my losses on! :lol:

Hi uglyElmo. We (the Civ Community at CFC and Apolyton) get along well with Firaxis developers.

It's true we only make up for less than 1% of their targeted client base, but in both sites you'll find hard-core fans which are very good at suggestions, playing as beta testers etc ... which is an invaluable feedback for them since SMAC days IIRC. Between all of us we try to make a very good game. We're happy because we get a game which we like and has incorporated heaps of our suggestions and they get to win because they'll earn a lot of money with Civ IV (and hopefully be proud of their game).

The problem with CA is that they have somewhat overzealously gone through RTW forums and deleted constructive fan crititicsms/ game bugs no matter how polite. I.e. regarding the load-movement bug. Everytime you loaded the game the AI stoped the sieges throughout that turn and spent a whole turn recalculating it's strategy. This might not sound like much If you play for more than 20 turns or 30 turns like myself, but players who play for a few turns, then save and exit is terrible in the long run. It cripples the AI completely. The way CA have addressed this problem is apalling. It's a well-documented feature and they should've openly admit it and chant their mea culpa. Instead of that, RTW fans were pursued, posts deleted (no matter how polite), policed, expelled from the forums etc...

Firaxis are smart enough to realize that the Civilization universe can be perpetuated through many installments and it's important to keep in touch with the fan base. It's in our mutual beneficial interest to get along well.

Both Civilization and RTW (well the RTR mod actually) are my favourite games, but it just goes to show you the difference between both developers and it's a shame really.

As a sidenote, the attitude of the RTR mod team is outstanding as their well-doing; that's the attitude CA should have with their fan base. Releasing patch 1.3 with BI is sneaky really. Obviously they'll release it in a month's time, but its as If they were forcing you to buy the xpansion pack.

EDIT: The RTW 1.3 patch came out:

http://www.sega.com/support/support.php?item=support_romepatch

And the load-save bug has been finally addressed (and acknowledged..)

Campaign Map
There have been numerous fixes to the Campaign Map. There are a few highlights below:The Load Save bug has been addressed

Here is hoping for a long and enjoyable acquaintance here at the Civ Fanatics Center forums. If anyone needs help with any multiplayer tournaments, leagues, campaigns, I will be more than happy to help.


Welcome! :)

The emphasis on MP in cIV calls for a ladder or league! 1vs1 / 2vs2 / 3vs3!

That'd be fun! Who's with me? ^^

Welcome! :)

The emphasis on MP in cIV calls for a ladder or league! 1vs1 / 2vs2 / 3vs3!

That'd be fun! Who's with me? ^^

There's already a Civ IV ladder:

google for Case´s ladder

Hey Elmo! Nice to see someone from "the org" coming over to Civ. Welcome. :)

Hi Drakan: I am glad to hear the good relations here. Will be a refreshing change of pace. :)

Hi Shigga: I hosted the first STW (Shogun: Total War) 1v1 tournament, which had over 62 competitors and was finished in one night. A lot of work, but everyone had a good time. I hope the Civ IV lobby allows for the set up of private chat rooms, which aided in the quick completion of the tourney. After that I hosted the first 2v2 competition which had over 32 teams competing. I even convinced Activision to provide free expansion games to the winners. Which was a slight miracle given Activison's penny pinching. :) I will look forward to hosting something similar here with Civ IV.

Stuie: I remember the name Stuie! You can vouch for my reputation as the "First to Rout" in MP. :lol: It was hard work keeping up my standing as a Professional Noobie:

ELMO FLASHES HIS P.U.N. (Professional Uber Noob) PLATINUM CARD FOR EVERYONE TO SEE

"Accepted in over 120 games world-wide. Don't leave the forums without it!"

I appreciate the warm welcome. I will see if I can make up a few of my famous "Elmo: Total War" type of pics for Civ IV. Here are a few samples from my days as a .com admin:

1. This was my first attempt at creating a series of humorous pics for TW:

http://imcintosh.com/ugly/albums/UGLI-art/elmototalwar.jpg

2. Bowing to pressure from animal rights activists Creative Assembly today announced their newest animal-friendly unit. The original War elephant unit was attacked by activists for glorifying the mistreatment of elephants during what they call the Dark Days of Animal Slavery. "Parents with children will love the new unit;" says Ritchie, aka. "The Shogun" "Creating the new unit was very difficult due to license, copywrite, and trademark negotiations, but I think you will agree that the unit will definitely be fun to use."

"To heck with realism and historical accuracy! We want fun!", stated well known .com forum patron Rahvinhood. "The revamped AI for this new unit is brilliant!" he further stated after seeing this unit in action.

To reduce the violent nature of this unit, the AI was specially tweaked to not kill, but demoralize the enemy by its special attack method. What does a fierce Roman soldier fear most? That's right, public displays of affection. As you can see in the picture below the new unit can have devastating effect on the enemy's morale. Soon after this picture was taken, the entire roman army fled in a panic!

http://imcintosh.com/ugly/albums/UGLI-art/dumboRTW.jpg


3. CA has once again been exposed in its secret goal of making Rome Total War a console-rific, kid-friendly game. Trying to appease the software ratings industry to achieve an "E" for "Everyone" rating and therefor gain acceptance in Walmart's vast consumer market; CA has changed the horrific killing machine known as the Iberian Bull Warrior into a more gentle and fun-loving unit which parents with small children will love! The Shogun was overheard stating, "Due to all the complaining at the .com forum about the Bull Warrior being a non-historical, fantasy-like figure, and about the size of the horns on his helmet; we at CA decided to show them what REALLY big horns are!"

http://imcintosh.com/ugly/albums/UGLI-art/iberianbullwinklewarrior.jpg

4. This pic was where I said I found proof that the speed of the new units in RTW was intended to be much quicker than before:

http://imcintosh.com/ugly/albums/UGLI-art/speedy.jpg

5. This one I did about a year before RTW's release. I have lost the text but it was something concerning how RTW was being made to attract the console crowd and how CA was throwing historical accuracy out the window in favor of a more console-rific game. :) It turned out to be almost prophetic!

http://imcintosh.com/ugly/albums/UGLI-art/finalpokeromancolosseum.jpg

There were quite a few more, but I don't want to bore you guys with my warped sense of humor. I did a whole series of "investigative" reports, with pics, to the chagrin of TheShogun, MikeB, and others who were targeted such as these two: The caption read: "What CA admins do, during the downtime between games, to relieve the boredom."

http://imcintosh.com/ugly/albums/UGLI-art/EradoGoneBad.jpg

I will leave on that note and let you guys have time to digest the havoc you have just released on CIV IV by welcoming me to the fold. :lol:

Ok, those are actually really frickin' funny.

But I was thinking about how scary the MP is. I don't know about you guys, but Civ multiplayer was really, really bad for me.

When Civ3 was coming out, my wife got mad in advance. She had been seriously urked by a month-long spree of CTP2 multiplayer games I played.

I only played one Civ3 multiplayer game, but it completely sucked me in. I could think of nothing else.

If Civ4 does it better, then I'm afraid.

Hell, right now I have this anxious sense of anticipation that, if not relieved before the eleven days elapse, will probably kill me. I don't think I can handle this...

I need CivAnon for real.

I find a nip of my good ole Eastern Appalachian Kentucky Moonshine takes the edge off of my ability to play non-stop for hours at a time. :)

ELMO PASSES HELMLING THE JUG O' SHINE

My motto is: "If it has a label on it, it ain't worth drink'n!"

sorry...I don't drink. But um, insteresting strategy to beat Civ addiction.

Welcome UglyElmo [party]

I believe that we will be seeing a lot of new names in this forum soon, especially Multiplayers fans, I for one love MP games and wont consider buying a game that doesn't have it. Most people in this forum now don't care for MP, (I took a poll awhile back). But I think thats going to change a little with Civ4 and its going to be great to ladders tournaments, and pitboss epic games I cant wait.

EDIT: Here's a link to the thread I took the poll about Multiplayer http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=126576

I believe that we will be seeing a lot of new names in this forum soon, especially Multiplayers fans,

Yeah - I opened an 'official' welcome thread here (http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=131274). :)

I too am a "mostly-MP" player. I enjoy the challenge of playing against another human, the enjoyment of playing on a team and the coordination it involves to play well and, of course, the social interaction. I have been visited and have visited several people I originally met online. It is an amazing thing to meet the person you have been playing online with, face-to-face.

I never tried human opponents since the civ3 MP was so ugly. My fav is going coop against the AI :)

there is a minority of MP players on this forum but i do not think that will be the case overall. New players will probably turn to multi player making it at least as big as sp.
However, i still consider cheats and leagues as having the potential to ruin ol mp-
i was hoping the Pit Boss would have some kind of control over such.

Wouldn't it be awsome if they remade MTW with campaign based multiplayer? We can only dream... MTW is still the best turn based game I have ever played. Even topping Civ1 and Civ2 IMO. Religion was perfectly executed in that game. After reading about how Religion is handled in Civ4 I don't think it will be as good as MTW. I really loved the whole outlook in MTW aswell. I still have it installed.

I would love to try Rome though. My machine can handle the strategy elements but not the realtime battles. So I just decided I would wait until upgrading to play it.

There's a RTW mod called Chivalry Total War based losely on MTW. It still hasn't been released as SP. There's a MP beta released though.

Plus there is a mod claled RTR Rome: Total Realism which is taking a more historic perspective on units and factions. I have heard they also slowed down the speed somewhat to make the MP more playable.

The other thing I have heard from some of the old vet Mp'rs is that the BI expansion has fixed many things about the realtime battles so the game is more playable than it was with just plain ole RTW.

I now know of at least 4 more Ugly's besides myself who will be playnig this game online when it is release in . . . . 11 days! :)

I cannot seem to edit my posts tonight. Sorry about the misspellings. :)