I know they are going to make/have made patches for the X360 and PS3 but will there be patches for the DS version?

There should be, you can get on the internet with a DS if you buy this thing for like $30 and go to a hot spot.

There should be, you can get on the internet with a DS if you buy this thing for like $30 and go to a hot spot.

I've never heard of any DS game having a downloadable patch.

I just assumed that one of the reasons for holding off on the DS version for an extra month was to give it time for the bugs to surface. Then again, one month doesn't give them long to correct any flaws, produce the cartridges, and then distribute everything... so maybe that's not the plan.

- John

It would be a first for a DS game. I cannot image this would be the game that gets it first, also I hope it just won't be necessary. DS games often get quite well tested before release, just like the old console games before they got a HD and internet connection :D

No patches = no game of the week

I like portability, but additional content and bug/balance patches are a hard thing to pass up.

I'm 95% sure they will have game of the week for the DS. I read a few things that said gotw will be on all three versions. I hope that also means I can download patches too.

Anyone know if the AI is comparable on the DS? I like to think the game will be exactly the same, but making good AI decisions isn't usually "Follow this exact gameplan" and I wonder if the DS has the memory necessary to crunch strats for 4 Deity level comps adequately.

the DS is powerful enough to do so.

And yes, it has the GOTW, so I'm sure if patches were necessary, they could be gotten as well.

The cartridges are roms on the DS.. Thus I do not believe anything can be written to them. They have a special area for the saved games. Don't expect any patches for the DS..

Nintendo is actually winning the hand held race since the PSP was a flop and Microsoft isin't even competing so i wouldn't be surprised if they did start having patches and other things that require more internet connectivity than before to keep pushing that lead so they can dominate something like it was 1994, and what better a game to test it out on than the biggest TBS game the gameboy/DS has ever seen.

It's not possible though on a DS cart.. There is no hard drive on the DS to store game data. It's all stored on a read only cart. You can't patch a DS game.. It's just like a cd.. You can not write to it!

In the year 2008 it is not impossible to make a game cartridge that can't be "patched" by saving over the information stored over it when it was made with new info that would fix a glitch or bug.

I agree.. But Nintendo only mfg "ROMS"... I'm sure they aren't going to change this for civ..

DS cards AFAIK use flash roms for saves. Think of it as tiny iterations of the kinds of chips you find in iPod Nanos and other solid state MP3 players.

The question isn't whether its possible, but whether there's space for it. GOTW is in the DS version so we know they're using a fairly large flash memory if you consider it also has to store your single player saves as well.

But at the same time, that may be all it saves. GOTW, & SP saves.

It would be a first for a DS game. I cannot image this would be the game that gets it first, also I hope it just won't be necessary.Yes. there have literally been almost 2000 different releases on the DS, and none of them allowing patching. Those in thread who are just "assuming" that Firaxis will implement the very first one, on the first DS release they ever create, are IMO being extremely unrealistic.

Nintendo is actually winning the hand held race since the PSP was a flop
Selling 31 million units in 3 years is a flop? :crazyeye:

The question isn't whether its possible, but whether there's space for it. GOTW is in the DS version so we know they're using a fairly large flash memory if you consider it also has to store your single player saves as well.

But at the same time, that may be all it saves. GOTW, & SP saves.
GOTW could easily be HARD CODED into all 3 games. From what I've read there is no download for GOTW.

4. What is the Game Of The Week? Is it a new map?
No, the Game Of The Week (GOTW) is not a new map. It's a set of random variables generated from the server timestamp to randomize certain elements of the game (such as number of AI opponents, number of starting cities, era the game starts in, etc). After completing the GOTW, your score is uploaded and compared against other players around the world.

5. Will I be able to save the GOTW and load it again later?
No, you can't save the GOTW.
This leads me to believe that there is no downloading of a map for GOTW. It's just a set of variables that CAN NOT be saved. So this means there is no "Extra" room on the DS carts. Just like other games that have "downloadables" on the DS, it's already programmed on the DS cart. Professor Layton is a good example of this. The puzzles where already on the cart, going online only unlocked them.

http://forums.2kgames.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1816

Selling 31 million units in 3 years is a flop? :crazyeye:

How many of those 31 million are played regularly? Its not enough to just sell the machine but if you can't get people to buy games for it then it is a flop despite selling tons of PSPs themselves.

This leads me to believe that there is no downloading of a map for GOTW. It's just a set of variables that CAN NOT be saved. So this means there is no "Extra" room on the DS carts. Just like other games that have "downloadables" on the DS, it's already programmed on the DS cart. Professor Layton is a good example of this. The puzzles where already on the cart, going online only unlocked them.

http://forums.2kgames.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1816

Because it can't be saved, does not mean it can't be downloaded. Nintendo has been releasing demos of DS games at download centers at stores as well as the new Nintendo Channel on the Wii. The game doesn't save, but is available until the DS is turned off. Sounds to me that GOTW may be similar to that.

The Transformers games for DS work in this fashion. Connect to a hotspot, download a mission and play it, upload the results. Since games take a couple hours to play, I could see uploading and downloading save files to allow you the opportunity to play the whole GOTW over multiple gaming sessions.

I'm not saying online downloads aren't available or am I making the conclusion on how they work.

I am saying there is no patching the ds.. period..

I'd have bought a PSP version for sure, and I guess I'll buy the DS version (do have a DS as well) in due time, but I don't expect too much. The hardware is just fairly limited and, as was said, patching isn't really do-able for DS games. I believe there have been some games that had several revisions (i.e. later sold games included fixes), but that's not very common, and not very satisfying for people who bought a game when it was released.