Like what? My guess is they were produced in China, Korea, or Japan and got to Australia faster...a week would actually make perfect sense.

Good point.

But they were also in the Netherlands the same day....and where else? Anyone else in another place got BtS?

But they were also in the Netherlands the same day....and where else? Anyone else in another place got BtS?

Oh, right, I forgot about that...kinda shoots down my theory, unless maybe east Asian nations tend to fly large deliveries to Europe rather than boat them?

Hold on, didn't Dale Beta test? That means he has had it for a while.

True, but I did get myself a retail copy for my collection. I now have unopened vanilla (with Sid's autograph), warlords and now bts. :)

True, but I did get myself a retail copy for my collection. I now have unopened vanilla (with Sid's autograph), warlords and now bts. :)


Hehe, you are privileged, Dale! So, if you don't mind me asking, do you get paid much for your work in the modding? Like, are you hired as any other developer, just remotely? Or is it volunteer work?

The basis of my agreement with Firaxis isan't exactly a talking matter. :)

Like do you talk about your agreement with your employers? ;)

I can state clearly that my employer pays me, like anyone else. That's our agreement: I do some work for them and they pay me. I think that's all people are asking you Dale, whether you got paid or not. Was this the next Manhattan Project or is it just a game? What's the big hush hush on this kind of stuff...

there are also in Germany some BtS-Player now.

Wow - so Europe seems to be getting it! Yes!! Maybe I will get mine real soon....

OK, Dale, no problem - I understand. I was only wondering if your work is paid or volunteer, and I guess now it is paid.

Just to clarify, some people were paid, some were volunteer. We never discussed it in the test/dev group and I feel it would be unfair on them if I discussed it here. I'm not saying yes or no to the question, just that I don't think it's right to discuss it. :)

Tested BtS, did a huge map, 18civs, on autorun, all grahpics disabled, got the lategame MAF. So, the MAF fix from NEV to work around 1 MAF has been done by firaxis..the late game MAF is still out there Sights...why don't those people at firaxis use their own autoAI option in the INI to freaking test this bug and fix it? :(

if there was a beta tester team for BtS, why did firaxis only "hired" people who never played epic games, therefore never get the MAF, and therefore never been able to get to this point where a beta tester could catch it?

and who cares if dale got paid or not, he does a nice job, the rest is none of anyones concern!

anyway, borrowed my copy quickly to test overnight for the MAF, to see if it's gone. Since it's still out there, won't buy BtS! Sorry firaxis and everyone who needs the money to survive, but I don't pay for a bug that's out there since 2years and noone at firaxis is planning to fix. And I'm very sorry that noone ever considered asking people who actually reported the MAF to "test" for it, since obviously only people playing big games get this issue.


oh yeah, and unfortunatlyfor myself, i still can't play civilization :( The MAF is still out there, I like Big games(which never where a problem under civ3) but big games are impossible in civ4 because of the MAF :( what a pity :( what a shame, what a waste of time on this good game. I hope civ5 will fix the MAF and i can finally play civ again

I'd PM Gyathaar about that, taketounwanted. He's the one who's supposed to have fixed it.

I would, if it were his MAF..bit it isn't i tracked down the MAFs very thouroughly. There was on considering the savegames alot earlier in the game, a MAF which persistently occured at 1 point in the game, and you couldn't pass that! Once the ViSa mod included the fix from NEV, that MAF occurance was fixed. And that's also what Gaythaar did, and mailed to firaxis about. The other MAF occurance is not so "hard bound to 1 specific turn"

btw, you could load a savegame and figure out which tile caused that STATIC-TURN-BOUND-MAF and delete any unit that moved on "next turn" to that tile to avoid and bypass the MAF.

but it's not that anymore, firaxis obviously fixed that when gaythaar told them. This fix was done by NEV 6months ago already, just those take2 tech support never forwarded complaints about this to firaxis :(
now, the second MAF which im encountering is alot later in the game, autorun to get to that point will make you easier to find it! It's not a "STATIC TURN BOUND MAF"! It behaves different from the one that firaxis has fixed! I reported this to take2 several times, but they keep telling me there is no thing as MAF and it doesn't exist :(

I wonder of take2 tech support has any idea about what's going on in the core of the game..would be nice if i could contact a firaxis person myself and explain how to reproduce it...

the build in autoAI from firaxis will get you to that point, plain BtS will get me on my computer in 7hours there(ok, along time to play! i agree, but i like epic games!!! that's the reason why civ3 and now civ4 are the only games i play)
unfortunatly, the firaxis autoAI doesn't allow you to load savegames..although im sure firaxis would be able to open and look into the savegame and check where it crashes...but take2 is still using the policy:"block and denial" and doesn't forward anything to firaxis :(
at least that's how it looks to me, but maybe im wrong..but i feel so so . .. .. .. .ed by take2! :(

I wish the good old civ3 days came back where you could actually contact firaxis, the people whith knowledge what's going on in the game :( I'm sure it's an easy fix..if firaxis just gets the proper info!!


Damn, i LOVE BIG GAMES!! why doesn't anyone fix the MAF? :( Why does take2 keep refusing the MAF exists :(

is it forbidden to play BIG? :( I don't mind next turns take 3 or 4 minutes...i wanna play BIG! in cov3 it was possible(although next turns there took up to 30 or 40minutes sometimes during war) in civ they fixed that!!! great work, but the MAF is just messing up all game pleasure on BIG GAMES :(


ADD I uploaded the corrupted savegame(in the hope firaxis sees this post and scans the savegame file to check where it goes MAF..you can't load this of course..the previous savegame, can't upload that one, it's too big for civfanatics

would be nice if i could contact a firaxis person myself and explain how to reproduce it...PM Gyathaar (or myself) and we'll pass it on directly.


ADD I uploaded the corrupted savegame(in the hope firaxis sees this post and scans the savegame file to check where it goes MAF..you can't load this of course..the previous savegame, can't upload that one, it's too big for civfanaticsThat is severely corrupted - its only 36 bytes.

I am almost certain that the MAF buf you see is caused by hitting the 2GB memory limit in 32 bits windows (or it could be less than 2GB if you dont have that much memory on your PC.. specially if you have an onboard graphics card that share the same memory)

I would need the save from before the crash to look into it.

Hi Ainwood and Gyathaar, im running a game now with a modified AutoAI from firaxis(using some tricks from jdog, but only a few,
1) to make sureit's savegame compatible and you can actually load the game.
2) don't need all options he offers

on my PC it uses around 1.5Gigs, i have 3,5Gigs of RAM actually, well 4, but because 512MB is allocated to my graphical memory and Win Vista only supports up to 4Gigs max, it means i have 4-0.5graphics=3.5Gigs of RAM left(according to windows)

Most programs support this though, didn't check if Civilization can't use windows 3.5Gigs and only supports up to 2gigs..
pretty wierd though if windows supports up to 4Gigs and now you're telling me civ can only use up to 2Gigs? any reason for that? 32bit according to my calculator comes up to 4gigs though..

ANYWAY, and this has to be said LOUDLY! BTS is ALOT faster then warlords!!! even with events and all extra options, it's just ALOT faster! good job done by the BtS team!


oh, im reading this thread now
http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?p=5645745

proposal for big games is buy a 64bit system?

ANYWAY, and this has to be said LOUDLY! BTS is ALOT faster then warlords!!! even with events and all extra options, it's just ALOT faster! good job done by the BtS team!

Hooray! :band: That's great for me, cause I have only a humble laptop with shared 128Mb graphics, and (1Gb total - 128Mb graphics) of RAM, approx 900Mb.

32 bit windows limits any single program to max 2GB memory...

However.. since you run vista, you can increase this limit to 3GB for BtS by running this command:

- Open a command prompt with Administration rights. You find it under "Programs->Accessories->Command prompt" click right and select "run as administrator".
- Enter "bcdedit /set IncreaseUserVA 3072" (without quotes) in the command window and press enter.

Edit:
You need to reboot afterwards to make this take effect

Did a nice run, plain warlords marathon game took me 2hours for turn 1000, BtS took just around 30mins :) 18civs, huge map, marathon

damn, they did a good job this BtS team!

statistics:
Turn 1000
16/18 civs alive
map: Huge!
at war with 2 Ai's
Marathon Game
Inventing Railroad(so you know my tech level)
8turns/minute!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

jesus this is performance! :) I wonder what the BtS guys did, but whatever it was, they did it very well!
I hope this MAF issue can be dealt with by allocating 3gigs, at least huge maps will be playable then,
but, at least, this expansion is worth to buy! just performance and all the options! :)

switched back to the 2gig instead of 3, guess what, game getting very slow suddenly(1turn/2minutes),
switched back to 3gigs again, game 8turns/minute again

win Vista!!

what does it mean? Civ is fast, memory of our systems isnt good enough to handle the data!
seems to worth to, even if it's just for the performance, get yourself the 3gigs and use this 3gigs switch commented before!
anyway, memory now going over 1.5gigs..no MAF..so, seems this issue has been solved by allowing windows
to use 3gigs, or if you play large mods + large scenarios and large maps, get yourself 8gigs on a 64bit system! :)

has the 2nd IGN scenarios article been mentioned yet btw?
http://pc.ign.com/articles/806/806223p1.html

has the 2nd IGN scenarios article been mentioned yet btw?
http://pc.ign.com/articles/806/806223p1.html

Didnt saw it yet, but the "final frontier" is definatly in my style! :P
phantasy mods not so, they are very well done and cool, but i like to keep playing in the sence of "physical and scientific reality"

btw, my game is still running without MAF :)

1.75gigs memory usage(the 3gig switch did the trick)
turn 2117! :)
huge map,
9civs left(others are assimulated)
at war with 2(meaning alot of unit movements at this stage of the game)
next turns take around 35seconds(with war!!)

oh yeah, graphics all maxed out! everything i could set High or enabled or AA to 4, everything is just maxed...

so, i'd say, we finally have a stable, smooth, rocking civ4 on the market! :)
now we can just hope, this will boost sales, and the money gets at firaxis studios for developing civ5! :)

oh yeah, and intel and co have to bring out faster CPU's! ROFL

the 2GB / 3GB limit includes any swap usage btw.. so that might be why you see less than 2GB usage

to go past 3GB, you need to use a 64 bit version of windows (64 bit XP, server2003 or vista)... should not have to do anything to allow BtS to support the max memory the windows version support.

Very interesting about increasing max RAM...is there any risk involved in doing this? If not, why is it capped at 2GB by default?

I would like to know what eric_ wants to know. Also do you have to get any special version of Vista to do this?

It says in the IGN article that they are releasing a FF demo. Has it been released yet?

Very interesting about increasing max RAM...is there any risk involved in doing this? If not, why is it capped at 2GB by default?
Most versions of 32bit win2000, XP, server2003 and vista allows max 4GB memory total...
However.. it reserves 2GB of those for system use, and 2GB for application use.

The flag you set shifts this so it only uses 1GB for system use, and 3GB for applications.

I dont think there are any risks in setting this in vista.

For XP etc, it is slightly more complicated.. you have to edit the boot.ini file, and make a new entry with the /3GB flag .. however, depending on your hardware, there might be needs to add another entry that set the limit to another number between 2GB and 3GB (or else the machine simply wont boot with this configuration)

There are some discussions about this in a thread in the technical support forum

I would like to know what eric_ wants to know. Also do you have to get any special version of Vista to do this?
any 32 bit version of vista .. for 64 bit vista you should not have to do anything

(for 32 bit versions of XP, see above)

Thank you. I'm thinking I might be getting both BtS and Vista in the next few months.


I'm backwards I buy Operating Systems and new Computers so I can play a game.

Thanks muchly, Gyathaar. These little quirks of Windows drive me nuts. For instance, I've had paging files off for 5 years and it's never caused a problem, other than the occassional "OH MY GOD!!! YOU'RE RUNNING WINDOWS WITHOUT A PAGING FILE! YOUR MACHINE'S DEMISE IS IMMINENT!!! GET OUT WHILE YOU STILL CAN!!!! Click OK to fix or Cancel to continue."

Glad to learn about this reallocation of system/application RAM usage now, as my new machine with Vista will arrive next week, and I'm gonna do this right away.

here is the thread in technical support forum btw..

you can skip part 1 for BtS.. BtS already has this flag set by default (atleast I assume the release version has it.. the internal test versions atleast had it :p )

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=225205

I envy you eric_. :lol:

lol, it's so close it hurts!

Thanks again Gyathaar!

The video just posted says "Available July 25th" at the end. Does anyone know what market it's produced for? I'm assuming US since it's English with an unmistakable US accent.

That would make it two days later than I expected ...

I called my best-buy guy and he said that it would be on the shelves the 25th. :cool:

I called my best-buy guy and he said that it would be on the shelves the 25th.

Hrm...maybe I'll cancel my Amazon order, then. That's supposed to come between the 26th and the 28th...

Huh, my Wal-Mart guy sayes the 30th. :cooool:
















:cry:

Well, actually, if you go up to Canada, like I am, you can get it on the 24th! According to some people I know...:lol: Sorry for your misery guys, I knew if you ordered it through Amazon you'd get a late release, since everybody else is too! :lol: Word to the wise, jump across the border, meet me on the 23rd. We save a 1.38$ too....:lol:

[EDIT]Where's that Final Frontier Demo? [pissed] Do they add it a noon or something? Correct me if I'm wrong but it is the nineteenth.

A 6 hour drive doesn't sound like much fun especially when you have to take another 6 hour drive before you can even play the game. :cry:

especially when you have to take another 6 hour drive before you can even play the game.

Bring a laptop and pay someone to drive you who doesn't like the game? ;)

(crosspost)^^Well, actually, I'm going to Toronto, so it's 8 hours, and I can play as soon as I get it! :lol: I've got a laptop.

Eric, Zebra9, Final Release (EU version bought in NL) has it flagged by default as well...since it supports Italian, english, french, german and some other languages, i assume this is the same DVD as you get in the US in a few days so you don't have to worry :)

anyway, my game is now at turn 2352, 1.78gigs memory usage(1,5hours later as latest post) still 8civs in the game..
So, i guess at some point, the map is filled with units, cities, everything maxed out, and the game stabilizes memory usage..
since 1.78gigs is still way under 3gigs..minus the 512MB for graphics, I assume you can safely play without a MAF the core game without any mods.

If you play mods, depending on how big they are, i assume you might keep it at huge maps max! since people, including me, like to use smartmap and make giga maps, or giga szenarios, I'd say maybe the civfanatics team should release a special (system requirements) info to warn people, about memory usage and if they go over the specs of their system, to either buy a new system, or don't play the mod..as well as in civfanatics center(next to the download button) have modmakers put a value there about memory usage of their mods on the various map sizes so people can see if they actually should download those
10 MB up to 400MB mods and start games...

kinda, extended system requirements for mods!

would be nice if every modmaker uses autoAI and have the PC run each mapsize for 2500turns on autoAI, write down the memory usage(after 2000turns it's stable and not growing anymore so 2500turns will be more then enough) and write down this info for the various map sizes!

civfanatics might as well allow a filter to the mod-section where people based on these statistics can filter any mods they can't play on their 512MB or 1024MB systems anyway

My laptop is so slooooooow that even BtS would take about a million years to play.:cry:

^Man, you use a crying smiley in every post! Be happy, atleast you can play the damned thing. Or get a new one, I'm assuming you have enough money? I mean, I pissed away 300.00 to get windows on this mac, and I think it was worth it, I can play any game on the face of the Earth now. So why can't you fork some dough up? :lol: Words of wisdom...

Hrm...I forgot that I didn't buy my new machine maxed out (only bought 2 GBs, will upgrade later when I have the money)...how will Vista breakdown memory allocation in that case?

hmm, my next turns suddenly jumped to 20mins/turn from 1 or 2turns/minute before...hmmmmm, strange...and not good..20mins/turn is a bit..hmmm..well, AI doesn't produce suddenly in 1 turn 100times more units..

perhaps the game started using swap file?

perhaps the game started using swap file?

Nope, rebooting PC and start the game again saves around 250megs, still so slow..will try to disable the swap completely..from one turn on the other, suddenly mega slow..really wierd

Perhaps some big AI-AI war started?

The save file is around 250 Mb ?!?!?! :eek: There's something wrong there....definetely..... :o

The save file is around 250 Mb ?!?!?! :eek: There's something wrong there....definetely..... :o
No.. game used 250MB less memory after restarting and loading up game again I think..

This is because the game would no longer have all the graphics from ancient units, dead civs etc in memory

Do we have a European ETA on BTS?

No.. game used 250MB less memory after restarting and loading up game again I think..

This is because the game would no longer have all the graphics from ancient units, dead civs etc in memory

Oh, sorry - I see what he meant, I took it to mean differently. :crazyeye:

Do we have a European ETA on BTS?
It is sold in Netherlands and Belgium I think..
Most of Europe gets it tomorrow it seems (with a few exceptions.. mainly those that sell specially localized versions)

It is sold in Netherlands and Belgium I think..
Most of Europe gets it tomorrow it seems (with a few exceptions.. mainly those that sell specially localized versions)

What? I haven't seen it yet (haven't looked much either to be honest though) but at least bol.com isn't selling it yet.

since yesterday (18) you can buy the game in some "Saturn" markets here in germany but not in all :cry:

No.. game used 250MB less memory after restarting and loading up game again I think..

This is because the game would no longer have all the graphics from ancient units, dead civs etc in memory


Right, gaythaar understood me correctly!

and disabling the pagefile from the windows system gets my "next turns" back into the 1-2turns/minute range..so, although i have more then enough free memory, windows is already swapping on my HDD..disabling it solves that...

MS makes very nice software, as well as very nice bugs! :P

Peeps, i live in Germany, dutch border, can tell you, stores around here both NL and Germany did already sell it since yesterday(or earlier, dunno, just saw it yesterday in the shops)

and disabling the pagefile from the windows system gets my "next turns" back into the 1-2turns/minute range..so, although i have more then enough free memory, windows is already swapping on my HDD..disabling it solves that...

ARGH! I HATE paging files. Doesn't surprise me at all that that was the issue. They're completely worthless if you're running a GB or more of RAM, imo. I mean, come on, how often are you processing more than a full GB of data a given time? I'd even say above 512 they're borderline pointless.

Peeps, i live in Germany, dutch border, can tell you, stores around here both NL and Germany did already sell it since yesterday(or earlier, dunno, just saw it yesterday in the shops)

yes, according to the german civ forum some Saturn markets sell the game since 15.

They're completely worthless if you're running a GB or more of RAM, imo. I mean, come on, how often are you processing more than a full GB of data a given time? I'd even say above 512 they're borderline pointless.

If youre running Civ at the same time you have a bunch of browser windows + pdf documents open you can fill 1 GB in no time (I really need more RAM)

So what would happen should you turn paging off...and you run out of RAM? I guess it won't be too good, I expect Windows will warn you and try to free RAM before asking you to close unnecessary applications.

If youre running Civ at the same time you have a bunch of browser windows + pdf documents open you can fill 1 GB in no time (I really need more RAM)

Well, true, which is why I make sure nothing else is running while I'm playing Civ.

Jamesds, one would think that would be an issue, but as I said, I've had them disabled for 5 years on two machines and I've never had a problem, even though I have often processed files in ProTools (recording software) that exceed my RAM. They're a complete mystery to me. Digidesign (ProTools developer) recommends you disable them when you install ProTools, actually.

As a matter of fact, as taketounwanted has illustrated today, swapping out to a page file causes problems more often than having no page file to which to swap. In my case, when I first got ProTools, I didn't follow the recommendation to disable PFs, and my sessions would hang up (like a 1 minute process taking 20 minutes or more) and crash all the time. I disabled them, and, VOILA, no more hangups or crashes.

Come to think of it, could MAFs simply be a result of this same issue (trying to divvy up and swap out portions of data that are driving an active process)?

Really? I would like an option to disable the swap file until my RAM is exceeded. It would make more sense for me, since my laptop hard drive is slower than an average 3.5" HD. Maybe I will try disabling my swap file and see what happens :)

Really? I would like an option to disable the swap file until my RAM is exceeded.

I'm pretty sure you can do that...I think I read something about it in this thread (http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=224178) that Gyathaar linked.

I don't want to suggest you do something like disable page files without warning. I've never had a problem after doing so, and have never heard of anyone else having a problem. But, ostensibly MS built them in for a reason, so, i have to say, proceed at your own risk ;).

If you do, one thing you can do to test it somewhat safely is open something like Adobe Photoshop and create a HUGE image (like 10 feet by 10 feet or something) at 300 dpi and start making changes and saving them. Or, try and find a huge PDF on the net and open like 10 instances of it and then start playing Civ.

well, disabling my PF solved the speed issue definatly, running since my post about it 100 or more turns again..
and honestly, if 2gigs is used by windows for applications, and 2for the system(if you have 4 in total) how possibly could windows use swapped memory additional? it's only32 bit and unlike win2k which has a complete system independend memory management, winXP or Vista the 32bit versions are simply restricted to 4gigs anyway use your calc for 2^32=32bit=4gigs.....maybe im wrong about this, but how could windows use more then 4gigs(either RAM or SWAP) so anyone using 3 or 4gigs of RAM doesn't need the Swap anyway...

and honestly, my wife edits on this computer tons of photos, 8.2MPixel, in photoshop, which uses alot of RAM for each pic! I use Solidworks, 3D technical drawing that is, I use VS 2003 for compiling stuff, etc..I never ever needed the 4gigs i have..never used more then 60% of my RAM...that windows starts to swapping is totally unappropriate und unneeded and even BAD, in the case of civilization, obviously!

i'd say, disable it, untill you need it...
btw, 16MB are default allocated for a pagefile anyway for system purposes..so windows won't crash anyway..and yes, it does warn you when you go low on RAM, i know that from my older comps with less RAM! :)

honestly, if 2gigs is used by windows for applications, and 2 for the system how possibly could windows use swapped memory additional?

My guess would be that the page file would be drawn from 2 GB reserved for system processes.

yes, it does warn you when you go low on RAM, i know that from my older comps with less RAM!

Indeed. And, I always have ignored them with no problems ;).

My only question at this point is, how will Vista break down 2 GB between applications and system processes?

Well, im running vista, and obviously it has also the 2gigs bug, with the special cmd line from "whoever started it" but was copied in by gaythaar you can set the system to use 1gig and apps to use 3gigs..so defaulted, my guess is a 50-50 reservation?
1gig system
1gig apps

would be my best guess..

so defaulted, my guess is a 50-50 reservation?

That's what I was thinking, too. I'll disable page files and then see how things go...I'm totally shocked that 2 GB is problematic. The idea that this game is more resource intensive than high-level audio or video editing is absurd.

Have you reverted back to 50-50 since disabling PFs and rerun the test?

yeah, i, as always, do alot of testing, the 50-50 on my 4gigs system, hence 2gigs for applications, isn't good enough, i even MAF upon loading the savegame now! definatly need the 3gigs..

my savegame is 2.1MB at the moment btw
only 1 computer left, the others are already destroyed by my autopilot, looks funny though, all the world belongs to me! and alot of money surplus ROFL
if civ had an economical aspect, im sure i'd be able to buy the remaining civ LOL

anyway, as much as I've figured out, the number of Ai's alive isn't much of importance to the memory civ needs...something between 10 and 50MB/civ i'd guess...rough guess i must admit! more important:"number of cities, number of units, number of plots(mapsize), although, mapsize of course directly influences on the number of cities or number of units"

I'll compile a dll with 36civs and let it run the next 2 days, as im studying now constantly, only having civ in the background and reporting here what i've seen on the BtS, i can afford letting my comp run "tests" :)

but it defintly shows that gaythaar is right, you need alot of mem, and 2gigs isn't enough for BIG GAMING! :)

Note:"i have all graphic options enabled/maxed"
could save a couple MB there probably..but it won't be enough to play BIG on a 2gig system..that's for sure..

when does it come out in Canada...they changed the dates didn't they?

the 50-50 on my 4gigs system, hence 2gigs for applications, isn't good enough

That's even with paging files disabled?

hmm, although not 20mins/turn(like when the comp starts swapping)...still 4mins/turn upon war..no war is 2turns/minute...still a huge difference between war and non war..especially, because im owning 5continents completely, the last and 6th continent i own 80%, enemy has only 4cities left...no need for the Ai to WAR-STRATEGY all units..i think here we have to mod a little bit :) AI really only needs to move units on the 6th continents and leave all the other units alone...

I see this tactic alot, during war AI moving alot of units for no purpose..if you're outnumber your enemy already anyway with just a small portion of your units, you don't actually need to start moving everything just because of the fact of "war"

my last enemy is not worth spending so much CPU power :P a few units will do!

think here we can improve performance on late-gameplay...especially the tons of airplanes i see flying around, wtf they wanna bomb? there isn't anything left to bomb! ROFL

That's even with paging files disabled?

yup!

You just simply need the winXP or Vista 3Gb memory Fix....and of course actually have 3gigs, or let windows do alot swapping(guess how long your turns will take!)


simply spoken, the minimum system requirement for
civilization 1.00 up to 1.64: doesn't matter, MAF will kill any game you would use alot of CPU power for anyway

civilization warlords up to 2.08: same, doesn't matter, either you play smaller games, will work on most machines, anything bigger will cause MAF anyway, or use the warlords.exe hack provided on civfanatics, that'll give you some space, together with the MAF fix by either NEV in the ViSa modpack or Gaythaar to reduce memory consumption on "savegame method"

civilization BtS: MAF has been fixed after 1,5years begging(THANKS to GAYTHAAR! NO THANKS TO TAKE2 for refusing to accept the bug was there and telling me for 18months there was no such thing as a MAF!) so now we can set TRUE system requirements,
ranging from:" 256MB for small maps and 8civs on older CPU's
up to: 3Gigs RAM with a 3Gig fix on windows for HUGE MAPS up to 18Civs on plain BtS

Mod requirements:" you have most likely(on modern system which already use 512MB graphical memory) around 700MB additioanal, on a 4Gigs win32Bit system, to play mods, any mod consuming more memory will result in a MAF on a win32bit system...you gonna need a 64bit windows system and hardware system too of course including 4+ GB of RAM

that's what i'd say to minimum system requirements on the BtS package! :P

so Firaxis finally got the thing done, thanks :) now it's just the limits of windows and the 32bit system you have to deal with!


. .. .. .. ., I have the E6600!!!!! :) I thought it was 32bit, now i Just saw it supports 64bit OS!!! ROFL
why the . .. .. .. . don't i just install 64bit windows? ROTMOFL I'm a stupid idiot!!! :)

think here we can improve performance on late-gameplay...especially the tons of airplanes i see flying around, wtf they wanna bomb? there isn't anything left to bomb! ROFL

Heh...you want them to just...give up!? ;)

You just simply need the winXP or Vista 3Gb memory Fix....and of course actually have 3gigs, or let windows do alot swapping(guess how long your turns will take!)

I mean, you're playing a game with 6 continents! That's insane. I'll never play a map that big. My current configuration (1GB, 2GHz, 128MB Vid) can handle Rhye's Earth map pretty well up until at least the mid-late Medival period...if my new 2.13 GHz Dual, 2GB, 256 MB Vid can't handle it decently at least until early modern...wow...I'll probably return it :lol:.

No, but seriously, I'll eventually upgrade to 4GB, but, uh, yeah, there better be an immediately noticeable improvement in performance over my current machine.

Well, true, which is why I make sure nothing else is running while I'm playing Civ.

:mischief: In that case you don't play while you should be working.

(Hmm. I really shouldn't be discussing this with anybody :))

In that case you don't play while you should be working.

(Hmm. I really shouldn't be discussing this with anybody )

HA! Nice...

Methos when are you going to put screenies and update?

yes, according to the german civ forum some Saturn markets sell the game since 15.

WTF :confused:
I've only checked MediaMarkt twice this week, but I didn't occur to me that Saturn is already selling it.:mad:

GoodSarmatian ROFL! :P I didn't knew it either! Just saw it in a gamersshop while walking through Krefeld city. I wasn't even looking for it, but those Civ-Graphics jumped right into the corner of my eyes :) Amazing how something catches ones attention without you even knowing your brains are already PROGRAMMED to get your attention to it automatically..no matter what LOL

LÖL at least you two can allow yourself to buy it... I will zoom past all Media Markt and Saturn shops till I finished my diploma... which will be in about 12 month... omg it's killing me, but not softly!

Why don't you guys in Germany just hop across the border to Austria or the Netherlands and get BtS? I'd think it's worth it... I'm doing the same thing with Canada...(vacation :lol:)

Is BtS in the US yet?

I think you get it on Monday next week. ;)

Methos when are you going to put screenies and update?

Like everyone else I've been glued to all the posts regarding our fellow civfanatics and BTS. Everytime I try I find myself losing focus again and reading threads regarding BTS. Than there's that little bittie problem of having the demo! Man, it's tough! Speaking of the demo, I wonder if I have time to play a game before I leave for work...... :mischief:

More than likely I'll have an update tomorrow. I can't see myself completing it today.

Ok thanks. :goodjob:

I think you get it on Monday next week. ;)

I'd think more likely Tuesday or Wednesday, sadly.

Few of the major retailers get Monday shipments (most of the shippers aren't moving stuff Sundays). While not IMPOSSIBLE, its usually shipped out on a Monday and shows up Tuesday.

One delusional hope, maybe, is that some stores get it Saturday...but I know some chains, while they may get shipments on a Saturday, will not bother to unload them until Monday.

I'm getting BtS on Tuesday when I go up to Canada.

After a couple days of playing BtS, can I just say... ...THIS IS A GREAT EXPANSION!!!

I won't bore you with the different games and scenarios played, but your average user won't have any trouble adjusting to the new integral spy slider, like I imagined it would. Quite intuitive - after you read the manual:lol: .

If you've seen my problems posted online which I encountered and NEVER solved with Windows Vista conversion for Warlords or CIV4, I am VERY APPRECIATIVE of the programmers for fixing these issues with BtS. I no longer have flickering screens, dissapearing units, etc. VERY STABLE with VISTA. :king:

And, thanks to previous posters, I have now reset my Ram so 1gb is for Windows and 3gb is for BtS... the way it should be - and both run like a charm!!!

Overall rating - it's FIVE STARS GUYS!!!! :band: :trophy:

Word of warning - your current GOTM and WOTM's won't work with the new patches... but, WHO CARES!!! I may never play Warlords and Civ4 again!!! Can't wait for the BOTM's!!!:goodjob: :banana: :thanx:

After a couple days of playing BtS, can I just say... ...THIS IS A GREAT EXPANSION!!!

I won't bore you with the different games and scenarios played

I think you should seeing as how U.S. won't get it until mid next week. Humor us.

Please tell more JungleIII, I must know more! :drool: I'm going :crazyeye: because I can't play BtS. :cry:

I called my local store and they don't get the shipment until noon on tuesday, 24. Hopefully where IU live everyone hates civ and I'll be able to grab an unreserved copy. :)

I don't know a person for about 60 miles (other then my brother) who has even heard of the game, and Wal-Mart always has a stack of beatup Civ Boxes lay on the shelf, and when a new version comes out you see a stack of 20-30 on sale for $10-$20.

Can't wait for the BOTM's!!! Is that what they are going to call them?

And, thanks to previous posters, I have now reset my Ram so 1gb is for Windows and 3gb is for BtS... the way it should be - and both run like a charm!!!:

How can you do this

@ATopic22 : search an earlier Gyaathar's post in this thread and you will get the command line.

Please tell more JungleIII, I must know more! :drool: I'm going :crazyeye: because I can't play BtS. :cry:

Since you asked and I'm playing while your sleeping... Here's a few observations/notes/strategies... :smug:

1) I like mixing the leader option. For instance, I used King Louis of France to have Industrial and Creative (obvious reasons), but, don't like France's UU. I like the UU of Byzantine - the Cataphract is awsome, and so choose the Nation of Byzantine to play! Because it comes out so early, the Cataphract 12 strength just kicks butt! I found I rolled over cities at will, just that little bit more - makes a LOT of difference in the odds roll. :D Besides, I find it interesting the odd leaders that appear sometimes opposite you as heads of state if you don't choose all your leaders before had. If you choose to mix leaders and nations - the A.I will too!
2) Don't build the Apostolic Palace unless you build it with a religion several others have so they are tempted to convert and vote. Because only 2 other cities in the world had my religion besides my 10 cities, no one would change - even to get a vote. If no one joins to vote, no resolutions are put forward. Weird - I would have won if even one had joined because I had so many cities with my religion. Got to work on a good balance and strategy for this one... :blush:
3) Keep you espionage slider at 10% minimum and check what your opponents are spending. If what your spending isn't enough, bump it up NOW. If you wait like my son did in his game, you will be too far behind to catch up. Even with my level, I had a heap of sabatoge when preparing for war. :(
4) The little legal 'cheat' I use to demand money from someone just prior to going to war... doesn't work anymore. When you demand and get that 300 gold from someone just before thumping them, you now have to wait 10 turns before you can declare war. :cringe:
5) Build courthouses to keep down corruption AND to get the 2 free espionage points with each one. :clap:
6) Have you ever said - crap, if that golden age had only lasted a few more turns I would have got soooo much accomplished. Building the wonder Mausoleum of Maussolos extends by 50% the golden age - which is CRUCIAL! It really makes a difference and I have a lot of Golden Ages, especially since the first one only takes ONE Specialist guy. :drool:

Well... that's just a FEW quick observations. Love the Game and new tweaks. Some of the scenarios are the best ever!!! I'm sure you'll really enjoy this! :thumbsup:

And...I know I said it previously, but it is sooo great to have it work on VISTA now! And the game on large continents map is soooo fast in every respect. Neat tweaks with the units sizing, unique national look, and other graphical stuff that makes it just a little better, besides being a much more in depth game. It's hard to see how you could get bored with this!!!

The only reason I don't go jump down a cliff is the fact that I would never get the opportunity to play BtS. Perhaps I'll die of dehydration due to my drooling which I can't seem to stop. Does amazon deliver to heaven's gate?

Why don't you guys in Germany just hop across the border to Austria or the Netherlands and get BtS? I'd think it's worth it... I'm doing the same thing with Canada...(vacation :lol:)

wtf? I live in vienna and as far as I know its not out yet, don't tease me my dear!

on a side note ... it may be possible that an import version is out but I don't think so. just checked the best games shop I know and they get it on the 26th. in any case, the extra 10 euros wouldn't be worth the few day. (got another civ game going anyways so its not that urgent). still, already looking forward to it like hell.

The only reason I don't go jump down a cliff is the fact that I would never get the opportunity to play BtS. Perhaps I'll die of dehydration due to my drooling which I can't seem to stop. Does amazon deliver to heaven's gate?

You say you never get it because you don't have the money or the time? If I'm correct, students in germany are not the poorest and they all have a mobile phone! and don't pay taxes! :P hahaha for that we pay 1000eur/month to the german government..tell me if I'm wrong, but if they don't spend the money on education, i'm gonna request our tax money back! ROFL

Why don't you guys in Germany just hop across the border to Austria or the Netherlands and get BtS? I'd think it's worth it... I'm doing the same thing with Canada...(vacation :lol:)

if you knew the prices of fuel in europe, and the percentage of construction sites on the german roads, you wouldn't ask!

1km construction takes around 10years in NRW(western germany close to NL border)
when i was 6y.o. Baustelle Eschweiler was famous, now, 28y.o. Baustelle Eschweiler ist still active...
along the road to Cologne they are building permanently...it's not like in NL where they take 4hours to repair 3km roads!...in germany everything is done eternally...You can celebrate when you actually see people working there..mostly there is just a construction site, without anything...at least no people..so...it'll take you a long time to drive for most in germany

fuel cost 7.20dollar/gallon

Ouch, that that's expensive gas! :wow:

Thx jungleIII. :thumbsup: The only problem w/ the info you gave is that it makes me want BtS even more then I already do. :cry:

its about $8/gallon here in Norway, so stop complaining :p

its about $8/gallon here in Norway, so stop complaining :p

Price doesn't mean much until you factor in conversion rate, average cost of living, etc. What does matter, is that you have access to BTS and I don't! :sad:

Yea, I would gladly pay $10 a gallon for 1000 miles to get BtS.


















I'm not that crazy :crazyeye:, I'll wait.

You americans should stop using gallons and start to use I.S. Units.

You americans should stop using gallons and start to use I.S. Units.

Guess i started with the gallons, and im surely not american! :P

You say you never get it because you don't have the money or the time? If I'm correct, students in germany are not the poorest and they all have a mobile phone! and don't pay taxes! :P hahaha for that we pay 1000eur/month to the german government..tell me if I'm wrong, but if they don't spend the money on education, i'm gonna request our tax money back! ROFL

- I certainly did not say NEVER! :eek: ;)
- I don't have time to spend on cIV for the next month due to my diploma :(
- I do have a mobile which I rarely use :D
- I could buy it but it would use up the amount of money I allow myself for "selfish" uses :(
- We don't pay taxes as long as we stay beneath a certain amount of income per annum... but we still have to pay health insurance and pension insurance etc.
- Recently our goverment was so kind to introduce study fees which is about 800 US bucks per semester and we're talking non-elite standard university here...
- So much for the rich student... :rolleyes:

this question may have been asked allready but are there any changes to the nations traits

One more morsel from my play with BtS...

I love the advanced startup. :goodjob: It eliminates much of the dreary turn clicking in the beginning waiting for something to happen. In advanced startup, you have the option of starting at any period.

Example: I started at the first level, advanced to year 2000BC. You are alloted 1200 gold and then choose how to develop your nation. Do you spend the gold on research; yes - you can spend say 623 bucks on a tech, or more if your game! You are advanced automatically along with every one else to Writing. So... from that point you could choose Alphabet, or Iron Working, or??? :confused:

The cities each cost 100gold. Then you add population for a cost, a library or two, maybe a granary. Look! I discovered Copper next to a city... of course I smack on a mine and connect up with a road at the appropriate cost. :king:
Now - before I forget, I add a few archers, a couple of scouts, an axeman (from the newly founded copper mine) and before you know it - I've spent all my money... but, I like the look of my 4 city young nation, with a city population of 3, 2, 2, 2. And on the screen it is flashing "10 Turns Left of Peace"... so no one can trounce your fledgling nation because of a poor choice! :D
So... I send out my scouts in each direction when my turn starts... What do they find the A.I. chooses for his startup you may ask? How does it prioritize this spend? Quite interesting actually - One nation (Russia) chose ONE city and upsized it to 6, 3 archers, 1 worker and teched the rest of the money. Others, choose 3 or 4 cities and had various levels of size, with many choosing a capital of 5 or 6 population. However, some I discovered right near me even had cities with NO defensive soldiers in them! I will have to remember to have a few quick units to take advantage of that possibility next time;)

Anyway... just MORE FUN and more chance for interesting choices!

JungleIII: Yes, BtS is certainly a real cool expansion pack!! I love how even small tweaks to the interface and way things work make it fresh and fun to use. Like the way units move (not always in a straight line anymore) and the crisper graphics, with tons more....

As for the fuel price, in the UK currently petrol and diesel costs about $9 / gallon. (Using 2 USD to 1 GBP, which is a very close approximation).

How is the performance (ie. slower/the same), compared to playing Warlords?

How is the performance (ie. slower/the same), compared to playing Warlords?

In every way - FASTER :goodjob:

And, better graphically and more pleasing to the eye...

Are there any changes to the traits of the civ 4 warlord and vanila leaders:goodjob:

^^ Augustus got his traits changed to Imp/Ind

How is the performance (ie. slower/the same), compared to playing Warlords?

dunno really hard to give you a TRUE number..but, 5 times?
on small maps i dont know, never play those..but on large maps..
especially after 1000turns, it looks like 20times faster!

im running a 75civs game on a smartmap generated map(larger then huge)
doing at turn 1500 around 1,5minute/turn..that is with 75civs..so yeah, i have almost every civ three times in my game..i know that looks stupid..but im testing the difference in performance between Vista32bit and Vista64bit :)

and, vista64bit is problematic with antivirus and firewall issues(most programs i've tested simply dont work) but for civ...halleluja!! vista64bit seems really ALOT faster on 64bit then on 32bit!
and, vista64bit allows to use all of my 4gigs! :) no restrictions, no MAF...

so...can tell you its alot faster then warlords on large maps with many civs especially lateron in the game....but if you want true performance...you need a 64bit machine! whatever the BtS guys did, they did a wonderfull job

So can anyone confirm whether you need Warlords, or whether the main game concepts/units, etc. are included in BTS? I can live without scenarios.

Just ordered my copy of BTS, played my mates version of Warlords, wasn't sure if I would need to buy them both for the multiplayer extras.

So can anyone confirm whether you need Warlords, or whether the main game concepts/units, etc. are included in BTS? I can live without scenarios.

You don't need warlords. Everything you won't get is the warlords scenarios.

One more morsel from my play with BtS...

I love the advanced startup. :goodjob: It eliminates much of the dreary turn clicking in the beginning waiting for something to happen. In advanced startup, you have the option of starting at any period.LOL, that's the part I love the most about civ, the exploration & venturing into the unknown at the beginning, trying to adapt as you discover the "lay of the land" -- it's the late game that gets tedious to me. To each their own I guess! Fortunately it sounds like there is enough to make us both happy -- you get to skip the beginning, I get changes that make the late game a little more interesting than cranking out tanks or spaceship parts or whatever.

it looks like a great game i'am ordering it right now :cool: :D

im going to get it on Wendsday if stores like Walmart or Bestbuy still have it or have gotten it by then. Does anyone have a store they buy games from because they think its the cheapest there.

LOL, that's the part I love the most about civ, the exploration & venturing into the unknown at the beginning, trying to adapt as you discover the "lay of the land" -- it's the late game that gets tedious to me. To each their own I guess! Fortunately it sounds like there is enough to make us both happy -- you get to skip the beginning, I get changes that make the late game a little more interesting than cranking out tanks or spaceship parts or whatever.

I too LOVE the exploring and discovering the "lay of the land"! :D The difference is - you have a couple of scouts to do so from the beginning, and a nice home base that is defendable! When you start with "advanced start" you only see a small area, about 10 tiles by 10 tiles and if you place a city at the 'edge' of that small area, you will 'pop' a few more tiles visibility. You still have the rest of the world to discover. And, you could elect to only settle 1-2 cities and buy 1-2 settlers instead of additional cities, so you could settle after you've discovered a bit more world! :goodjob:

im going to get it on Wendsday if stores like Walmart or Bestbuy still have it or have gotten it by then. Does anyone have a store they buy games from because they think its the cheapest there.

I usually go to EB/Gamestop since they usually have the game in within 1-2 days of the release date. With new games the price is pretty much universal in all stores. I don't know about online merchants but retail stores I go to (Walmart, Best Buy, Circuit City, Fry's, EB) usually sell the game at the same price. Old games however, I usually go to EB to buy used and Best Buy for non-used.

im going to get it on Wendsday if stores like Walmart or Bestbuy still have it or have gotten it by then. Does anyone have a store they buy games from because they think its the cheapest there.

I get mine from gamestop, sell old games, otherwise best buy is the way to go.

yeah thats were i was going to go (bestbuy) but i heard walmart will get it earlier so i will check both

When are they getting it, my local gamestop is getting it noon tuesday, and I think nowhere else in the us gets it earlier. I won't go to walmart reagardless, it is too far away.

well online it says, wallmart is getting it shipped out on the 23rd while bestbuy and target are getting it the 25th

actually it says release date is the 25th at bestbuy so im guessing theyll have it then

And...I know I said it previously, but it is sooo great to have it work on VISTA now!

I just got a new Dell with Vista on Friday, and while Civ Warlords is actually *really* solid (extremely fast compared with my old machine), the fonts are all whacked out. The letters are very close together and kind of pixellated. Did you happen to notice this before you got BTS? If so, is it fixed on BTS?

Thanks for all the other info! Gettin psyched here!

Oh, by the way, how does BTS compare with Warlords, difficulty-wise? If you were winning on, say, noble before, how do you fare on it now?

hey Eric, im playing on 2 different Vista versions..no wierd letters here..might be a driver issue? or maybe your fonts are wrong installed..check which fonts civ uses and check if they are missing on your windows system?

btw, did anyone notice how many bugs have been reported on BtS?
I guess we can start to wait patiently before the next patch if they have to fix so much *sights....

at least no MAF anymore :) everything else is fixable hehehe

Oh, by the way, how does BTS compare with Warlords, difficulty-wise? If you were winning on, say, noble before, how do you fare on it now?

I went back from Noble to Warlord, and I still have a hard time. The AI is much better. Steamrolling and crushing everybody in your way isn't that easy anymore.

Just general rules of thumb I've learned from being a "First Day Spaz":

EB/Gamestop usually get the game the day after its release BUT...it has to be a EB/Gamestop that carries PC games as many of them seem to be phasing out their PC line, or even if they still get PC games, unless you make a point to reserve a title, they may just take their time shipping it (just put it in the next major shipment of other MORE IMPORTANT console crap).

Circuit City/Best Buy are usually a day or so later but often, at least with Circuit City, they'll have it on some random sale for $5 or more off.

hey Eric, im playing on 2 different Vista versions..no wierd letters here..might be a driver issue? or maybe your fonts are wrong installed..check which fonts civ uses and check if they are missing on your windows system?

Thanks! You're playing BTS, though, right? I'm still on Warlords...I have a feeling that's the problem...

but for civ...halleluja!! vista64bit seems really ALOT faster on 64bit then on 32bit!
and, vista64bit allows to use all of my 4gigs! :) no restrictions, no MAF...

so...can tell you its alot faster then warlords on large maps with many civs especially lateron in the game....but if you want true performance...you need a 64bit machine! whatever the BtS guys did, they did a wonderfull job

I pumped to hear you say that. I have 64-bit Vista and if the performance improvement is anything like you suggest, I'll be a very happy camper.

Eric, played warlords on vista 32bit only....no problems though..
BtS on 32bit and 64bit...once gyathaar said the MAF = caused by bill gates 32bit restrictions..i figured, hey, i have a E6600 processor, why not get me win64bit on it? LOL...although most software is badly supported, civ just runs like a rocket on it..

but fonts, are undisputable a troublemaker inside windows as well, i installed vista when i got it several times, and several times i got different fonsets dependng on my installation choices in the local settings...causing for example photoshop not to run on my first install attempt..so, i can imagine your issues can be related to that as well..dunno though! windows is and will always stay foggy :)
but I'd try to install everything of fonts you can find..maybe that'll solve it..dunno..

to JFLNYC...YUP, but i have it with 4gigs! to use the full abilities of 64bit windows vista, you have to get 1gig minimum, 2gigs recommended(officially) and 4gigs are needed in my experience! Got a noticable performance boost when i installed the 2nd 2gigs...either way, BtS is ALOT faster then warlords! :)

i was so scared when i read developers are leaving firaxis, thamer, sorenson left also right? not sure about that...but anyway, my fears proved to be wrong...sure alot of bugs are in BtS that have to be fixed..but on the overal, the code they made, is just very good!!! I'm sure they will spend time fixing the bugs asap :) more bugs listed on the bugthread then i expected though but, still better then any previous civ release! :) and definatly acceptable! considering the Size of the expansion!!!

to JFLNYC...YUP, but i have it with 4gigs! to use the full abilities of 64bit windows vista, you have to get 1gig minimum, 2gigs recommended(officially) and 4gigs are needed in my experience! Got a noticable performance boost when i installed the 2nd 2gigs...either way, BtS is ALOT faster then warlords! :)

I've got 3 gigs and a striped RAID array plus SLI. I built the rig for Civ!

2 days till Walmart should have it. :bounce: I can't contain myself, with all the info jungleIII is giv'n.

Methos I thoungt you were going to make an update saturday whats happening?

when is an expansion is going to feature Dan Quayle as a leader for the Americans?

Are you the same guy who started the Dan Quayle thread?

when is an expansion is going to feature Dan Quayle as a leader for the Americans?

why would it hes not important

Uhhh I beg to differ. Hes been in every incarnation of civilization as the bottm tier leader and I think it woulb be awesome if he were included in some capacity(even if hes been there to let you know that you suck). Maybe as a leader with negative bonus or something?

http://people.bu.edu/metalman/danquale.html

Just curious, but why is this still a forum post and not a built in civfanatics page? The game is already out, correct?

Uhhh I beg to differ. Hes been in every incarnation of civilization as the bottm tier leader and I think it woulb be awesome if he were included in some capacity(even if hes been there to let you know that you suck). Maybe as a leader with negative bonus or something?

thats the exact reason i dont want him there. he told me i sucked when i first started playing the game.:lol:

Just curious, but why is this still a forum post and not a built in civfanatics page? The game is already out, correct?

yeah i was wondering about that too

Gonna have to try that, thanks
I pick up my copy tomorrow when I get off work :D

maybe its a tad off topic...

Would a German version of BtS work with an English (European) C4+W?

where could i get a list of all leader traits which is up to date with the newest patch? I want to decide which trait would be better for me.
thanks.

Was the Game Release delayed a day or two? I went to a Best Buy near me (Worcester, MA) and they told me they were getting it on the 25th (Wed) and then to a Game Stop and they told me they were getting it on the 24th( Tuesday/Today).

I can't wait to get mine...

maybe its a tad off topic...

Would a German version of BtS work with an English (European) C4+W?

well, since I do not have the warlords expansion, I cannot tell about it, but the european vanilla civ is multilingual, and I heard so would BTS be, so ... yes, it should be. (as a matter of fact my vanilla version is actually french originally).

Hopefully I can see if Wal- Mart has it yet if not :wallbash:.

Just curious, but why is this still a forum post and not a built in civfanatics page? The game is already out, correct?

yeah i was wondering about that too

There will be, but it'll take some time.

BTW, I have BTS now! :band: I picked it up at EB Games today. I tried Wal-Mart last night (after work), but they said since it wasn't a big release, they won't get it until Thursday. Luckily EB Games pulled through for me.

Just a question... I couldn't find it, but if there is information anywhere on the new map scripts available, would someone please direct it to me? I love exploring new map types and I'm intrigued as to what the new maps do. Some look forest-related (Arboreal, Boreal(?), and Rainforest) but what are Big-and-small, Medium-and-small, etc.?

I just got an idea. I'll build 6 axes, 3 swords, 2 phalanxes, 10 archers, 5 horse archers, 5 catapults, and a scout for good measure then me as Alexander the great (Joined to an archer that I renamed to Silver Targeteer) and my newly formed army will march over to the Wal-Mart's warehouse raze the place and take every copy of BtS as my plunder. :D

I just picked up a copy at my local EB store. They received only one copy in their delivery today and I was lucky enough to walk in just after they opened it.

"You can get more of what you want with a kind word and a gun than you can with just a kind word."
- Al Capone

You don't need warlords. Everything you won't get is the warlords scenarios.

Warlords leaders and UU are not included in BtS as well are they?

yes they are, everything but the scenarios is included form warlords

Was the Game Release delayed a day or two? I went to a Best Buy near me (Worcester, MA) and they told me they were getting it on the 25th (Wed) and then to a Game Stop and they told me they were getting it on the 24th( Tuesday/Today).

I can't wait to get mine...

Yeah walmart,bestbuy and target are all getting it on the 25th. I hope to get mines on friday, when im certain its there.:goodjob: I can hardly wait

Yeah walmart,bestbuy and target are all getting it on the 25th. I hope to get mines on friday, when im certain its there.:goodjob: I can hardly wait

I did amazon just today, chose 2 day shipping so at the earliest I should get it friday. Hopefully...

I should have got it today but thats out of my control. I want it now because this week is the last free time I have for at least a month.:rolleyes:

one place nobody seems to think about is Target. they had it on the shelves on the afternoon of the 24th

Yeah walmart,bestbuy and target are all getting it on the 25th. I hope to get mines on friday, when im certain its there.:goodjob: I can hardly wait

I pre-ordered mine from Best Buy and they still do not have them in stock as of this morning. They are now showing a back-order till Aug 10. I don't know what is the deal with them, but I am a little pissed. I tried switching to store pick-up because they showed store availability online, but the rep checked and the stores have 0 stock as of this morning. Just another release blown by Best Buy... they should rename it Worst Buy!

Just cancel all your online orders and go pick it up in a store. Somebody's bound to have one...

Yeah, I was gonna do that today, and go figure, Amazon finally switches my order to "shipping soon," which means no more ability to cancel, but also that it's not yet in the mail...dammit!

I'm never gona preorder. It sounds like it's a pain in the neck for most and only a lucky few get it early.

I'm never gona preorder. It sounds like it's a pain in the neck for most and only a lucky few get it early.

It worked great for me through EB Games. I got it yesterday (the 24th). Amazon is the one I wouldn't pre-order new releases from.

It worked great for me through EB Games. I got it yesterday (the 24th). Amazon is the one I wouldn't pre-order new releases from.

Exact same for me. EBGames rules!

So EB games is the way to go then? :hmm:


Is it just me or did you gain a new position as Moderator?

Is it just me or did you gain a new position as Moderator?

Yes. I'm now one of the moderators for the BTS forums, as stated in this announcement (http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=233243).

I might get BtS today if I'm lucky most likely it'll be tommorow though.:cry:

Well congrats w/ both getting BtS and the new Moderatorship.:thumbsup:

I actually was very pleased with the service I received from Amazon. I preordered it too, and they sent it to me on Friday 20th, only 2 days after release in Australia. However, maybe Amazon US is not as great as Amazon UK??

Amazon UK is excellent. I ordered mine from there and it arrived promptly and cheaply, too.

I got mine at GameStop yesterday--they came in at about 11 yesterday morning. I had originally ordered from Amazon, but their notice that they won't even have stock until Saturday made me cancel and go elsewhere. No reason to wait an extra week.

Just started a game late last night. Lovin' the Espionage so far, but haven't gotten far enough to test out much else. However, I'm a total nerd, 'cause the thing I'm most excited about is they fixed the animal images so I actually get to see them (instead of just their shadows) on my barely-meets-the-requirements computer.

I just got my BTS at Best Buy. It was not out in the shelves, so I asked someone to go in the back to get it. Sure enough it was there. Lazy store personnel should not avail the enemies of Civilization!!!:D

I got mine at GameStop yesterday--they came in at about 11 yesterday morning. I had originally ordered from Amazon, but their notice that they won't even have stock until Saturday made me cancel and go elsewhere. No reason to wait an extra week.

Just started a game late last night. Lovin' the Espionage so far, but haven't gotten far enough to test out much else. However, I'm a total nerd, 'cause the thing I'm most excited about is they fixed the animal images so I actually get to see them (instead of just their shadows) on my barely-meets-the-requirements computer.

so does the game run better than civ 4 vanila on barely meeting requirements computers. If so thats great news for me.:goodjob:

I got my copy yesterday so have not had enough time to delve into it too deeply. I did notice that there is a note in the manual that to get the best effects you need at least a GE Force Series 8 video card and a SoundBlaster X-Fi sound card. I have neither and the graphics look better than Warlords and the sound is the same. Maybe I am missing some sounds but if so they are not obvious.

My video card is Nvidia X1300, which is a couple of generations old and doesn't equal the power of the GE Force Series 8 cards. I have noticed that the graphics appear to be crisper than before and the game seems to go faster between turns.

My computer is a 2.8 GHz Pentium with 1 MB of RAM.

One nice thing they have done is dress the characters, such as worker, settler, etc. in clothing specific to that civ.

so does the game run better than civ 4 vanila on barely meeting requirements computers. If so thats great news for me.:goodjob:

For me, it does. In addition to the animals, I've noticed the Wonder videos play more smoothly. I haven't gotten deep into a game yet, but we'll see if it slows down less during the latter part of games or if *gasp* I can play on maps bigger than standard without hosing the whole thing later on.

I got my copy yesterday so have not had enough time to delve into it too deeply. I did notice that there is a note in the manual that to get the best effects you need at least a GE Force Series 8 video card and a SoundBlaster X-Fi sound card. I have neither and the graphics look better than Warlords and the sound is the same. Maybe I am missing some sounds but if so they are not obvious.

My video card is Nvidia X1300, which is a couple of generations old and doesn't equal the power of the GE Force Series 8 cards. I have noticed that the graphics appear to be crisper than before and the game seems to go faster between turns.

My computer is a 2.8 GHz Pentium with 1 MB of RAM.

One nice thing they have done is dress the characters, such as worker, settler, etc. in clothing specific to that civ.


Dont you mean ATI X1300 because Nividia has no such thing and dont you mean 1G of ram instead of 1 mb

For me, it does. In addition to the animals, I've noticed the Wonder videos play more smoothly. I haven't gotten deep into a game yet, but we'll see if it slows down less during the latter part of games or if *gasp* I can play on maps bigger than standard without hosing the whole thing later on.

so the movies work better. is that way better or are they still weird. my wonder movies arent chopy its just dont stay normal throughout. can you give me your system specs so i can compare mine, so i know what to excpect.:goodjob:

Even though Bestbuy.com shows it as available, my pre-order still shows as back-ordered - really annoying... :mad: I used a gift card to pay partial, so cancelling is a pain... but I might go to the store and buy it and then when I get the one in the mail, take that and return it. Not my problem.

Even though Bestbuy.com shows it as available, my pre-order still shows as back-ordered - really annoying... :mad: I used a gift card to pay partial, so cancelling is a pain... but I might go to the store and buy it and then when I get the one in the mail, take that and return it. Not my problem.

I agree, not your problem. Thats what you should do.:goodjob:

I checked at best buy, target, circuit city, walmart. No one has it.

try tommorow or ask the person to look in the back. maybe the . .. .. .. .. .. .es haven't unloaded the stuff because they are too busy eating twinkies

Thank you for correcting me ATopic22. Not being too proficient in the video card industry I mis-spoke. I have an ATI Radeon X1300. Also the 1mb was a typo. That wouldn't be quite enough these days.

For your information, the manual says that spies are available after you have discovered Writing. That has been changed. Now you have to discover Alphabet before you get them.

Excellent job. I didn't get Warlords because I didn't enough that I couldn't do modding given enough time. BTS looks like it will be fun and an excellent base to mod upon.

I say great job.

I Don't know if anyone has noticed... but, when you are in a Golden Age in BtS, any nation can change civics with no Anarchy... not even for one turn!!! :goodjob: This gives Golden Ages a whole new meaning and more of a reason to strive for many through the game. It was always my complaint that late game, you were stuck with the Civics you had in the Fuedalism era because if you changed, you were stuck with 3-4 turns of Anarchy and when you are on a military quest - you can't afford that!!!

Just another small tidbit about the game - good to see everyone else in the world is FINALLY getting the game! ;)

I went to two different Targets tonight at 8 and couldn find the game. I asked both times if the person could check in the back for the game but both times the lazy asses didnt want to. So i went to the store that has never let me down, Best buy and was able to get the game. I so excite as Borat says. I cant wait to instal and play it

Great Game. I just finished a multiplayer game and i have to say it was great. I love the new graphics and the unit skins. I just dont understand that thing by your gold, the science and spy thing

I just pre-ordered it off steam, and got to play it at midnight when it officially released in the US.

I've been playin gthe Gods of Old a lot and I believe that Inanna is the God who doesnt have a special use for the prophet (unless for some reason you dont get those if you take the religion over from another county ;)).

Oh and for those of you who haven't played Gods of Old yet, here's a tip. the God Inanna gives you the ability to give your units an upgrade that gives the +25% xp. and her temple gives your units an additional +1 xp. so for a charismatic, agg leader or any such combo..:eek:

Well my copy arrived yesterday. So far I've booted up the custom scenario to check out advanced starts. I think it will definitely open up a whole new set of tactics for multiplayer, and really helps get rid of the tedium of establishing your first few cities. Gives you the chance to specialize in your own way of playing early on with the possibility of buying techs, cities, population, units, buildings and improvements (also you can pay to view a fog of war tile).

I've not played the game fully yet, so havn't been able to compare the pace of advancement in comparison to Civ vanilla and Warlords, hopefully the shift around in the tech tree and new units will stop you rushing through certain eras/units that barely got a use before by anyone other than the AI.

As for the BTS mods. Well I found the time to boot up briefly Fall from Heaven: Age of Ice, Final Frontier and Afterworlds. That along with the actual Civ game, its like buying 4 games from the price of one as each plays pretty uniquely (well FFH:AoI is like civ, but with some very interesting ideas). I cant compare these to other mods you guys may have played, as I've never downloaded them (but if some are anything like these, then modding is something I'm very keen to get into).

Performance wise I haven't noticed much difference, though my computer is that filled with rubbish its not the speediest thing out there anyway. Looking forward to really getting into the community multiplayer games, only ever played 1 v 1 against my mate over LAN.

Definitely worth a buy.

I preordered the game on take2 online store.
Yesterday I received the message they shipped shipped my BTS on
24th of July
So I'm just waiting, and willing to play the game next week.:rolleyes:

So, mine shipped today...estimated delivery date: 7/26 (?!) - 7/31.

I *really* hope it's here by the weekend as my fiance will be out of town :dance:

So, mine shipped today...estimated delivery date: 7/26 (?!) - 7/31.

I *really* hope it's here by the weekend as my fiance will be out of town :dance:

Did you order from Bestbuy.com... if so, when did you pre-order... I pre-ordered mine on June 26 and it still says back-ordered... Best buy says they are fulfilling there ordered as ordered and I think they are not...

the best buy stores have a stack of the civ bts game. you should check em out if you havent already

Did you order from Bestbuy.com... if so, when did you pre-order... I pre-ordered mine on June 26 and it still says back-ordered... Best buy says they are fulfilling there ordered as ordered and I think they are not...

No, I ordered from Amazon...unfortunately USPS tracking only updates at night, so I only know they've been notified to pick it up for delivery...hopefully they've actually done that and its actually en route...

I Don't know if anyone has noticed... but, when you are in a Golden Age in BtS, any nation can change civics with no Anarchy... not even for one turn!!! :goodjob: This gives Golden Ages a whole new meaning and more of a reason to strive for many through the game. It was always my complaint that late game, you were stuck with the Civics you had in the Fuedalism era because if you changed, you were stuck with 3-4 turns of Anarchy and when you are on a military quest - you can't afford that!!!

Just another small tidbit about the game - good to see everyone else in the world is FINALLY getting the game! ;)

It's been discussed in various places before, just don't remember where. It has been reworked a lot (no anarchy as you mentioned, 1st age only needs 1 great person and The Mausoleum of Mausollos gives +50% length).

Cancelled my Best Buy order as they could not get it right... MORONS!!! :rolleyes:

So, taking my business to J&R Music World where they actually can say "yes, we have it in stock."

picked up my copy yesterday at Best Buy...grabbed it off the rolly cart the stock guy was taking to the shelves. I have a pretty slow system, but BTS is running faster for me than Warlords ever did. Really like the advanced start option. Haven't had time to try out the MODS yet tho. If ur still on the fence about getting it...definately worth the $30 US.

Yay! I finally found it at best buy!

So... when it will be available in Europe !? :cry: 27 jul ?

It's Thursday and Wal Marts doesn't have it yet!:cry:

try tommorow or ask the person to look in the back. maybe the . .. .. .. .. .. .es haven't unloaded the stuff because they are too busy eating twinkiesYou nailed their personality. As I said else where I asked a guy if they had it and what's he do, he mumbles and tells you what you already know, where the games are on the shelf. [pissed]



Hey I got a new favorite smily! Was :cry: now it's [pissed].

Went to Best Buy at 23rd and 6th and they did not have it... had 14 on order and still had not received its first shipment... was told NoHo store (Broadway and Lafayette) had 5 and went there and had 4 left and finally got it! :D

Also, at 3:00pm today J&R Music World got a large shipment for those looking in Lower Manhattan.

so the movies work better. is that way better or are they still weird. my wonder movies arent chopy its just dont stay normal throughout. can you give me your system specs so i can compare mine, so i know what to excpect.:goodjob:

Sorry it took so long, but I had to get back to my home computer and refresh my memory on my specs. I bought the computer 2.5 years ago as I was going back to grad school, so gaming specs weren't so much in mind at the time (silly me!). So, here are my specs (at least the most relevant ones--if I'm missing something, let me know):

IBM Thinkpad R51, Intel Centrino Pentium M. 1.6 Ghz, 512 MB RAM. Video is ATI Mobility Radeon 7500.

I couldn't actually run Civ4 all that well until after the first patch (at least not if I wanted to see everything) 'cause of the blacked out sections. It got better, but I wasn't able to see animals until now and the wonder videos were all herky-jerky but they are much smoother now (or at least the first couple were smoother--I have yet to finish a game). My hard drive is almost maxed out (~30GB--I've got less than 10% left, after uninstalling Civ3), so I clearly need to find myself either a portable hard drive for music/videos or a cheap media laptop (maybe a refurb) for Civ so I can keep this thing for school, as I can't afford a whole nice new system at this point. But I'll get by, somehow!

Sorry it took so long, but I had to get back to my home computer and refresh my memory on my specs. I bought the computer 2.5 years ago as I was going back to grad school, so gaming specs weren't so much in mind at the time (silly me!). So, here are my specs (at least the most relevant ones--if I'm missing something, let me know):

IBM Thinkpad R51, Intel Centrino Pentium M. 1.6 Ghz, 512 MB RAM. Video is ATI Mobility Radeon 7500.

I couldn't actually run Civ4 all that well until after the first patch (at least not if I wanted to see everything) 'cause of the blacked out sections. It got better, but I wasn't able to see animals until now and the wonder videos were all herky-jerky but they are much smoother now (or at least the first couple were smoother--I have yet to finish a game). My hard drive is almost maxed out (~30GB--I've got less than 10% left, after uninstalling Civ3), so I clearly need to find myself either a portable hard drive for music/videos or a cheap media laptop (maybe a refurb) for Civ so I can keep this thing for school, as I can't afford a whole nice new system at this point. But I'll get by, somehow!


thanks but ive gotten the game and ive seen that its way better than civ 4 vanila performance, visual and gameplay wise. thanks again. my computer compares like crap to yours but the game is working pretty well.

I got it at a Gamestop/EB Games (Washington, US). Tried target, bypassed wallmart (even though I was some 60 yards from it), tried a second target, and then went to Gamestop/EB and they volunteered to call around before I could even ask. Two shops were sold out and the one at the Alderwood Mall had one left. Got it reserved, fought traffic and got it! On release day they had presold all of their copies. Lucky for me and a few others, EB has 'game' and is on the ball. They made sure to order more ASAP and they have multiple shipments each week. I bought the last of their 'second batch' but they said more are already on the way :smug: EB seems to be a good place to buy games. They've gotten my attention. I even went and finally bought the Diablo II BattleChest since I was so pleased at EBs service :)

Went to GAME (Leeds, UK) yesterday because I've got the blues from what I normally play (not mentioning it but not hard to guess) and saw BtS for sale.

Bought it and so glad I did. So anyway, it's out and available in Europe.

Release date for some european countries.

I picked up the game a few days ago and the only thing I've done is play the Final Frontier mod. The more I play it, the more I enjoy it. I haven't even cranked up the regular BTS Civ game yet!

Man can the AI wage war now!

They are so good at it I'm stomped!

Pardon my asking, but is there some way to manually call up the Apolstolic Palace? All I'm getting is periodic votes to elect the leader, which I always win. Where are all my nifty resolutions?

Playable Civs
Europe[list]
East Balkans
Finland
France
Germany
Italy
Norway
SPoland
United Kingdom
United States
USSR
Pacific
Australia
China
Dutch East Indies
Japan
Philippines
Siam
United Kingdom
USA
Xinxiang
I always wanted to play as Spoland! :goodjob:

I always wanted to play as Spoland! :goodjob:

yeah i wanted to play as yugoslavia which is western balkans but the leader should be Tito and not King Peter II. They should also have a special unit or does this happen later as it says things will automatically happen. so when germany takes over the balkans will Tito become the leader of Yugoslavia or what??

Sorry if this has been asked before, but does anyone know what the requirements are for the new technologies, and if they are now prerequisites for other techs?

I hate living in the middle of no where. I went to the nearest cityu and checked every store that carriers PC games (and some that didn't) and not one of them had BtS. [pissed]

Amazon....

Amazon....
Best buy is the place to go

Well, maybe he didn't HAVE a Best Buy. He said he checked every store.

I'm gona see if the nearest Best Buy has it (a full hour away, plus all those city traffic lights). If they don't I'll order it from Amazon.

I'm gona see if the nearest Best Buy has it (a full hour away, plus all those city traffic lights). If they don't I'll order it from Amazon.

All Best Buy stores got it in on the 25th according to Headquarters, i also had to drive over a 100 miles just to get it. But a limited number, my store had only 8 come in.

Call first and reserve it before heading out. And you can order it from Best Buy or game shops and then either have it shipped or pick it up yourself on delivery day. And if you have a local game shop order from them so you help them to stay in business. I've been in your situation in a small town of a couple thousand. Nearest city was Boise ID and that was 100 miles away down a windy mountain road. I had my local book store order console games for me.

Now I got BtS and its a German version, but it works flawlessly (when patched to version 3.02) with the English European C4+W. In fact I have a feeling that all copies sold in Europe are the same apart from the cover paper.

Does anyone know if Warlords scenario art was included in BtS? It's not in my BtS directory, but I thought that was because Warlords was already installed.

Does anyone know if Warlords scenario art was included in BtS? It's not in my BtS directory, but I thought that was because Warlords was already installed.

Many of the "new" flavoured units are actually from the Warlords scenarios. Apart from that most of the Warlords scenarios didn't have much unique art, except from the title screens and palette changes in the tile textures.

Anything in particular you're looking for?

I was just wondering how much art I needed to include in my mod. If the Scenario art isn't included, I just need to include those files with my mod ;)

I was just wondering how much art I needed to include in my mod. If the Scenario art isn't included, I just need to include those files with my mod ;)

Ah... Well, I'm afraid I can't provide you with any comprehensive list, but it seems at least most of the scenario unit graphics was included, so that should save you some work. I guess the only thing for it is to uninstall the whole lot, and then reinstall without Warlords to see what you get.

I'm not prepared to do that :p It'd be easier if someone with BtS but not Warlords could just check...

Question regarding BtS and announcements: are they always in the top center instead of the top left? Please tell me that there is an option, that looks so annoying! :gripe:

Question regarding BtS and announcements: are they always in the top center instead of the top left? Please tell me that there is an option, that looks so annoying! :gripe:

No, it's not an option. That's where it is now.

ive noticed that since so many people have gotten the game, they arent posting here :lol:

FINALLY got it Friday afternoon! I'm a huge fan so far. Espionage is amazing...you can really cripple an opponent using it. I long ago got over feeling bad or unethical for using...qu