Patch schedule

[rickb]

Hey, I thought I'd come up for air for a little bit to give you a heads up about the first Mac patch. For a variety of interesting reasons, we won't have the first patch ready for the 23rd but some time later.

The initial version you'll get will be based on the PC day 0 patch. Don't freak out if you notice a couple of things missing, like cloud saves and the mods option, those are all ready to go for the next patch which will be based on 1.0.0.621 + a fix for the ballooning save games which you'll get before the PC users do. They'll have to wait until next month to get that. 10.6.5 also threw us a bit of a curve ball after we went gold, so there's a few issues with the intro movie playing in 10.6.5 that we're trying to get fixed up.

Going forward, as soon as a new PC patch is finalized, we'll checkout the code from Firaxis, merge it into our codebase and try to turn them around as quickly as we can. During periods when both versions are in sync, you'll be able to play cross platform MP games. Once the patching gets settled down, hopefully that won't be so much of a headache.

We had a ridiculously short development schedule on this, with two huge releases for us within a month of each other (this and TFU 2--plus 10.6.5, and the Mac app store announcement thrown unbidden into the mix of things we had to worry about), with just one small dev team, and I'm amazed we actually pulled it off. From a technical point of view, it was actually the smoothest port I've ever worked on. Of course, I'm sure we'll have all sort of fun during the "shakedown period" once the game actually gets in you guys' hands.

 

[Skwink]

Sounds great! Glad your around here!

 

[Xyth]

Good of you to drop by again rickb. You've answered some of the big outstanding questions, though unfortunately not with the answers I wanted to hear. Modding is an essential part of the Civ experience for me and I'm really not sure I want to invest my time, effort and money into an incomplete version of the game.

While I realize this is primarily the fault of Firaxis, Asypr needs to very clearly label Mac Civ5 so that purchaser's know they are buying a version that will not run the vast majority of future mods or have access to any modding tools, including World Builder.

However I do appreciate Aspyr's effort to get Mac Civ5 out so quickly. There are many Mac players out there who are not interested in mods and your hard work will be greatly appreciated by them.

 

[Skwink]

We're not getting World Builder?! That's a major turn-off for me. I really liked making my own maps. This isn't good.

 

[Xyth]

Well World Builder is part of the SDK in Civ5, not built in like in Civ4. The Civ5 SDK requires a Microsoft IDE installed which obviously isn't available on Mac. RickB says:

And you can draw own conclusions from the how the SDK editing tools were written about likely editor ports. Although there is Mono, so who knows?

From that it can be inferred that the IDE requirement made it difficult/impossible to create a Mac version though the existence of a framework such as Mono means something might be possible in the future. That would be a ton of work though and wouldn't surprise me if Aspyr don't pursue that option given there's very little financial gain from it.

 

[rickb]

Listen, I've been playing Civ for about 15 years (take note of my join date on civfanatics), so I totally get the importance of modding. This time around we got on the porting train fairly early and will be working with this product for a couple more years to come, so there's a lot of opportunity there. We've only had the code for like 3 months, so did you really expect us to have ported the modding tools yet? Or completely figure out a solution to the DLL issue? (Yeah I know it's the same issue as IV, but once V was announced I kind of lost interesting in doing anything more with IV) Frankly, modding support is going to stay an "unofficial" effort on my part, kind of like how Brad used to support our older titles with patch updates. I doubt I'd ever be able to justify the effort officially no matter how vocal you guys are.

 

[Skwink]

Listen, I've been playing Civ for about 15 years (take note of my join date on civfanatics), so I totally get the importance of modding. This time around we got on the porting train fairly early and will be working with this product for a couple more years to come, so there's a lot of opportunity there. We've only had the code for like 3 months, so did you really expect us to have ported the modding tools yet? Or completely figure out a solution to the DLL issue? (Yeah I know it's the same issue as IV, but once V was announced I kind of lost interesting in doing anything more with IV) Frankly, modding support is going to stay an "unofficial" effort on my part, kind of like how Brad used to support our older titles with patch updates. I doubt I'd ever be able to justify the effort officially no matter how vocal you guys are.

I get you. After all, we're the ones who want it out earlier.

 

[Xyth]

Listen, I've been playing Civ for about 15 years (take note of my join date on civfanatics), so I totally get the importance of modding. This time around we got on the porting train fairly early and will be working with this product for a couple more years to come, so there's a lot of opportunity there. We've only had the code for like 3 months, so did you really expect us to have ported the modding tools yet? Or completely figure out a solution to the DLL issue? (Yeah I know it's the same issue as IV, but once V was announced I kind of lost interesting in doing anything more with IV) Frankly, modding support is going to stay an "unofficial" effort on my part, kind of like how Brad used to support our older titles with patch updates. I doubt I'd ever be able to justify the effort officially no matter how vocal you guys are.

My frustration and criticism is primarily directed at Firaxis. They're the ones creating the roadblocks and incompatibilities and I understand it's not an easy task at all to overcome them.

I do feel pretty disillusioned at Aspyr over Civ4; the very late expansions, bugs that never got fixed, etc. But that's all due to the business aspect - please understand I have nothing but respect and gratitude for all the coders at Aspyr (especially those that take the time to drop by here and listen to us) - without you we'd not have any Civ at all.

 

[narmox]

If anything , I appreciate rickb for hanging around here and telling us what's going on and what we can expect. That's always better than our imaginations running wild with worst-case scenarios when we don't know what's going on! Thanks, rick

 

[orielense]

I agree with narmox, and would like to thank rickb for keeping us posted:

By the way, I have been playing this series since Civ I when I was a postgrad student in England almost 20 years ago. I was hooked from the first moment I saw the Civ I intro sequence (but not so hooked that I couldn't graduate).

Each iteration of Civ has been an improvement on the last, and each one has been a blast. I have seen a lot of negativity about Civ V on the forums, and that almost put me off buying it. But the reviews by gaming sites were almost entirely positive, so I went ahead and bought Civ V when the Mac version came out. I'm very glad I did. It is another great Civ game. I love Civ IV, but it has been put respectfully to rest in the same drawer as those earlier much beloved workhorses Civs I, II, and III. (I wonder, is my boxed copy of Civ I worth anything to collectors? - not that I would ever sell it).

I am so grateful to Sid Meier and his numerous collaborators over the years for all the enjoyment that I have obtained from Civs I-IV, and now I am looking forward to more years of fun with Civ V.

 

[icemanjsg]

Hey, I thought I'd come up for air for a little bit to give you a heads up about the first Mac patch. For a variety of interesting reasons, we won't have the first patch ready for the 23rd but some time later.

The initial version you'll get will be based on the PC day 0 patch. Don't freak out if you notice a couple of things missing, like cloud saves and the mods option, those are all ready to go for the next patch which will be based on 1.0.0.621 + a fix for the ballooning save games which you'll get before the PC users do. They'll have to wait until next month to get that. 10.6.5 also threw us a bit of a curve ball after we went gold, so there's a few issues with the intro movie playing in 10.6.5 that we're trying to get fixed up.

Going forward, as soon as a new PC patch is finalized, we'll checkout the code from Firaxis, merge it into our codebase and try to turn them around as quickly as we can. During periods when both versions are in sync, you'll be able to play cross platform MP games. Once the patching gets settled down, hopefully that won't be so much of a headache.

We had a ridiculously short development schedule on this, with two huge releases for us within a month of each other (this and TFU 2--plus 10.6.5, and the Mac app store announcement thrown unbidden into the mix of things we had to worry about), with just one small dev team, and I'm amazed we actually pulled it off. From a technical point of view, it was actually the smoothest port I've ever worked on. Of course, I'm sure we'll have all sort of fun during the "shakedown period" once the game actually gets in you guys' hands.

Thank you for keeping us updated. Not going to lie still very disappointed though, as this is the first game I have bought on my new Imac and it doesn't run, which is a shame as my annual chrismukkah network has gone out the window.

 

[bweeper]

Rick,

After playing the Civ5 release for awhile, I'd put at the top of your priority fixing the performance issues. Honestly, the game isn't playable. OTOH, if you have any performance suggestions, we would welcome them. Honestly, the scenes don't seem that demanding especially once everything is turned off.

Thanks

 

[Graven]

I read that hotseat will be added shortly to the PC version. Will it get added to the Mac version as well? I bought the game not realizing it was not available.

 

[civ_king]

Hey, I thought I'd come up for air for a little bit to give you a heads up about the first Mac patch. For a variety of interesting reasons, we won't have the first patch ready for the 23rd but some time later.

The initial version you'll get will be based on the PC day 0 patch. Don't freak out if you notice a couple of things missing, like cloud saves and the mods option, those are all ready to go for the next patch which will be based on 1.0.0.621 + a fix for the ballooning save games which you'll get before the PC users do. They'll have to wait until next month to get that. 10.6.5 also threw us a bit of a curve ball after we went gold, so there's a few issues with the intro movie playing in 10.6.5 that we're trying to get fixed up.

Going forward, as soon as a new PC patch is finalized, we'll checkout the code from Firaxis, merge it into our codebase and try to turn them around as quickly as we can. During periods when both versions are in sync, you'll be able to play cross platform MP games. Once the patching gets settled down, hopefully that won't be so much of a headache.

We had a ridiculously short development schedule on this, with two huge releases for us within a month of each other (this and TFU 2--plus 10.6.5, and the Mac app store announcement thrown unbidden into the mix of things we had to worry about), with just one small dev team, and I'm amazed we actually pulled it off. From a technical point of view, it was actually the smoothest port I've ever worked on. Of course, I'm sure we'll have all sort of fun during the "shakedown period" once the game actually gets in you guys' hands.

Okay, at the moment I'm happy that the Civ V port happened so quickly, my frustration is directed at Firaxis not Aspyr (staying on 10.6.4 was useful).

Listen, I've been playing Civ for about 15 years (take note of my join date on civfanatics), so I totally get the importance of modding. This time around we got on the porting train fairly early and will be working with this product for a couple more years to come, so there's a lot of opportunity there. We've only had the code for like 3 months, so did you really expect us to have ported the modding tools yet? Or completely figure out a solution to the DLL issue? (Yeah I know it's the same issue as IV, but once V was announced I kind of lost interesting in doing anything more with IV) Frankly, modding support is going to stay an "unofficial" effort on my part, kind of like how Brad used to support our older titles with patch updates. I doubt I'd ever be able to justify the effort officially no matter how vocal you guys are.

If you can get modding tools trickling out within the next six months I'd be indubitably appreciative. Also if there is anyway I could render assistance with getting the modding tools out just send me a PM and I'll happily oblige

I read that hotseat will be added shortly to the PC version. Will it get added to the Mac version as well? I bought the game not realizing it was not available.

presumably with the same patch

 

[Virtual Alex]

Thank you Rick for keeping us in the loop.

 

[Lachlan]

Hot Seat soon released ? Good news

 

[manu-fan]

Is it 'Some Time Later' yet?

In other words, when will the patch come out?

Cheers.

 

[Methos]

Is it 'Some Time Later' yet?

In other words, when will the patch come out?

They'll have to wait until next month to get that. 10.6.5 also threw us a bit of a curve ball after we went gold,

It sounds like sometime this month, but I'm not putting much emphasis on that.

 

[nondual]

What I desperately need is the part of the patch that fixes worker automation so they don't create nothing but trading posts.

I don't want to have to command every peon all the time, but if I automate them, I'm starving within about 20 turns after getting trapping.

I've been avoiding trapping for as long as possible, but then you lose access to chivalry and the powerful units needed to defeat or defend.

This renders the game unplayable for me. Wake me up when the workers stop replacing all my improvements with trading posts.

 

[manu-fan]

You only need about 8 workers the whole game. How hard is it to assign them to tasks yourself?

Cheers.