1.52 Patch Available

just tried the auto update and ta-da a new patch is available. here is the change log

Patch ReadMe: http://www.civfanatics.com/civ4/doc/Civ4v152Readme.htm

To download the patch, you can use the game's auto-patch feature. You can access the feature via the game's main menu screen (Advanced > Check for Updates). The patch size is 44.87 MB. You can also download it using a download mirror below.

Download Mirrors: Take2 Germany | 2K Games | 3D Downloads | FileFront | 3D Gamers | Koldar


Here is what is in the patch as stated by Barry caudill, lead programer for CIV at Firaxis.

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v1.52 is a major upgrade to Civ IV and includes numerous optimizations for memory usage that should help performance on all machines but are tailored to especially improve performance on machines at or near the minimum specification.

Major changes include:

-Shared low-level graphics buffers
-Removed many unused fonts and reduced interface memory usgae
-Paged out units which are not visible
-Reduced terrain data size and overhead
-Reduced route data size
-Created a set of low-res movies for machines without dynamic texture support (this is a separate download)

These changes not only reduced the amount of system memory required, but lowered video memory usage extensively. Also, the rate at which the game consumes memory in the late-game has decreased, which is extremely important.

In addition, a new config file (ini) option called 'MemorySaver' has been added for further memory reduction, at the cost of alt-tabbing support. If you set MemorySaver=1 in the config file, you can lower your system memory usage by 70% of video memory. So if you have a 128MB video card, you can save an additional ~90MB of system memory. MemorySaver defaults to off, and is not officially recommended since it doesn't handle alt-tabbing and other cases of graphics device loss at this time. However, we recognize that some users may want to experiment with it.

Finally, the use of unofficial patches is not recommended and is largely redundant with the memory fixes in this patch. Unofficial patches may slow performance, cause graphical problems or conflict with Firaxis code resulting in crashes or other problems. It also makes it more difficult for us to respond to error reports and debug issues reported by users running unauthorized patches.

Suggestions for optimal performance:

Increase AGP memory size in your BIOS settings to 128 or 256 if necessary.
Go to www.windowsupdate.com and apply updates
Update graphics and sound drivers
Close other background applications
Turn graphics to low and use low-resolution textures in the options screen
Turn off Antialiasing in your display properties
Disable virus protection

-Mustafa Thamer

Civ IV Lead Programmer

Fixes
unit attack move bug
civ naming bug in sp
no longer keep your gold and techs when regenerating a map
missing civic name from popup help
minimap now appears correctly after regenerating map
unit cycling bug
load game freeze bug
movement freeze bug in si-move
unit cycling bug in PitBoss and HotSeat
missing plot list buttons bug with large stacks
pathfinding bug involving defensive terrain and group movement
bug with AI attacking over rivers
can no longer see spies on caravels
group attack bug
group attack bug with gunships
GS lobby ignoring game settings bug
disappearing popup help bug
diplo city trading bug
wonder movie/zoom to building crash
no camera adjustment to city screen bug
user profiles with build queues no longer crash
no more negative gold in diplo screen
fixed gifting bad cities to AI exploit
AI issues with Always War and Always Peace
units not moving into tiles after combat bug (graphical only)
pathfinding reuse fix
fixed pathfinding bug
fixed SHIFT-selecting multiple cities
end score not matching up with timed winner bug
fixed bug allowing selection of disabled techs in tech chooser
fixed Sentry promotion visiblity bug
fixed AI city targeting bug
fixed AI healing bug
AI city attack bug
no more message lag in single-player
fixed bug with gunship stacks attacking cities
random seed bug (causing duplicate world maps...)
unit health bars no longer show up in city screen
two-palaces-from-culture-flipping-capital bug
Foreign Advisor: Gold available for trade does not show up when there cannot be a trade for gold
Diplomacy screen fix for gold popups not appearing properly
Foreign advisor: Resources for active player are shown multiple times if you have more than one instance of a resource to trade.
Fixed weird little bug with Unit Categories page in Civilopedia
diplomacy bug for PBEM/Hotsesat
Removed some cheats from password-protected games that should not have been allowed in the first place
Fix for competitive games: Password-protected saves can no longer be easily stripped of their passwords, and the assets checksum in the save can no longer be modified by external means
Fixed vanishing yield symbols in multiplayer
Fixed some PBEM/Hotseat issues when there is just one human player
River and Wind sounds are now properly classified as ambience. This fixes inconsistent behavior in audio options
Minimized or No Interface no longer reverts to normal after entering, then exiting city view
You can no longer duplicate deals with the AI from the "Active deals" section of the diplomacy screen
Out of memory message problem on machines that don't allocate small textures properly
Assert error for software vertex processing only machines
bug where you could draw strategy lines and signs outside of globe view
"globe view buildings disabled" option now hides buildings in globe view properly

Changes
tech cost rebalancing
improved city attack AI
moved MaxAutosaves to ini file
slower Great People name generation
hide health bars during combat
increased late-game tech costs
waypoints now invisible when city screen is up
ai more willing to trade cities for peace
ai stays at war longer
cottages no longer grow durring anarchy
combat info now shows odds of success
WBS's now contain unit damage
score from land doesn't count until you own land for 20 turns
better invasion AI
Slavery: No Upkeep
Emancipation: Low Upkeep
tweaked AI civic values
filled in missing diplo entries for Frederick
Praetorians: 40->45 hammers
Jaguars: 40->35 hammers
AI turn optimizations
interface game messages are now flushed at end of turn
Environmentalism moved to Medicine
increased industrial era tech costs
Environmentalism is medium upkeep
Free Speech is low upkeep
Forests give 0.5 health
firepower in combat now based on max strength
Lobby sorting improvements
Clearing the table in the MP diplomacy screen resets the "They accept/They do not accept" text
Dawn of man screen closes with ESCAPE just like all the other interface screens
The hall of fame now shows only games that have been played with the currently-loaded mod
When trying to build an item that it not allowed in a city, you will get a production popup asking for a build instead of leaving production empty
Wonder Movies and other popups may appear in PBEM/Hotseat
Incremented save version to 102
simplified city billboard placement. This should fix the weird billboard offsets and scaling.

Additions
Lobby chat and buddy lists from staging rooms
combat odds now shown in combat turn log
ALT-S now allows you to place signs
added "Leave Forest" option for automated workers
added Marathon game speed (longer than Epic)
added NoTechSplash ini setting
More communication about autopatch failures
Domestic advisor remembers which cities you had selected last time screen was up.
Added "no cheating" game option for single-player
In addition to tradeable techs, techs that are not allowed to be traded to you are also shown, provided that you can research them yourself at the moment
Added event and replay messages when a human founds a city. This got broken when we added city renaming
Support for Logitech G15 Gaming Keyboard
When you zoom to a city from the domestic advisor, you return to the domestic advisor after you exit the city screen
Updated Info Screen with changes 'borrowed' from one of the forum modders

The reader's digest version.
BC
Firaxis

Nice patch.

Whats the version number?

i havn't finished downloading yet. I will post it as soon as it finishes. it is around 47 megs


version 152 i think

It should be in the file name. I just checked its 1.52.

It's strange that so few, if any, knew that this patch was coming, and noone has a patch changelog.

Shows really horsehockey connection / interaction between gamers and devs

So is it new or what?

storeslem said:

It's strange that so few, if any, knew that this patch was coming, and noone has a patch changelog.

Shows really horsehockey connection / interaction between gamers and devs

Click to expand...

I'm sure many knew that it was coming. When was the question.

There is a better connection then you think.

We got civfanatics hitting the update button 24/7.

can someone please post the changes

Well, I installed the patch, the newest version is v152! No change log is included but the patch replaced a lot of files during the installation, so I guess this involves some big changes.

Shows really horsehockey connection / interaction between gamers and devs

Click to expand...

as critical as I can be of the game, but this is simply not right. We got a very good relationship here. We also have links to Firaxis via people like Sirian. So, this statement is not true and everyone knew the patch is coming soon. A nice little xmas surprise.

Let's hope it's not another 1.08 surprise

anyone who downloaded, care to post the specs for this patch, thanks

Patch is 44.8MB in size; Should take you about 5 to 10 minutes depending on connection. To compare, Patch v109 was 23.7MB.

I'm still trying to find the change log but not even the official websites have declared its existence.

the patch also brings up another questions, that is Harkonnen's fix...do we need to uninstall that first?

Hope all the software gurus around can tell.

Well, one change is reduce memory useages (hark's patch?) and also on late huge map I'm getting 5 fps where I was getting 3 in globel view. atleast that an improvement.

xGBox said:

Well, I installed the patch, the newest version is v152! No change log is included but the patch replaced a lot of files during the installation, so I guess this involves some big changes.

Click to expand...

If it's like the 1.09 patch, it just overwrites the readme.htm file in the Program Files\Firaxis Games\Civ4 folder with the release notes.

I predicted a pre-Christmas patch in an earlier post. I'm not claiming clairvoyance - just decent business sense. With all the problems people have had with performance and crashes, I'm sure the company would prefer to avoid as many Christmas morning problems as possible. (You know tech support is going to say, "Please patch the game and call back," anyway.)

And of course, there are the developers and testers who want to not be working overtime on patches near Christmas.

For me, the unpacking fixed some of the problems I had. Despite an ATI card, my problems seemed less than many others. 1.09 nearly eliminated problems for me. So I'm looking forward to the next one.

my domestic advisor button doesn't work now since i installed this new patch. i can't find a list of changes anywhere.

Grogs said:

If it's like the 1.09 patch, it just overwrites the readme.htm file in the Program Files\Firaxis Games\Civ4 folder with the release notes.

Click to expand...

Didn't change.

Excellent!!!

I was waiting for patch #2 before buying civ4. Now I feel like the game is ready enough for me!!!