Have given up on Civ 4

just because your computer runs the game fine doesn't mean that Civ IV was not a complete technical failure at release... it was. Many people had problems installing and running this game - the developers did not test it on enough systems and with any combination of video drivers to really give it a chance to be a consistent product.

It's too bad because it is such a great game. Even though I don't have technical problems today, I did originally and I sympathize with the poster. Just go to the tech forums and look back from 2004 onwards to see what a mess things used to be. The original release from a technical standpoint was a complete failure... a disaster, in fact. From a gameplay standpoint and with the patches, that also has been very bad. But design-wise they succeeded.
 
krasny said:
you do need a pretty chunky PC to run Civ4

maybe your dell just isn't upto the task
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I'm not sure even that's true, there must be something else to it. My son runs CIV (and BTS) fine on a Dell 400sc I bought almost 4 years ago for less than $200, with a PalmPilot thrown in, in a legendary promotion. It's a < 2ghz celeron (forget what) which I've since upgraded to a whopping 1gb of memory and put in an old radeon 9600xt AGP card that I had lying around that I bought for maybe $50 4 years ago, and you'd probably be able to pick up for a lot less now on ebay or whatever (if you could still even find it) In other words he's playing fin using parts that were already budget-level performance when Civ4 was released. Not as nice an experience as on my machine mind you :) but it still plays.

And let's not even get started on my business-issue Dell Latitude D620 laptop, also with 1gb & merely an onboard Intel chip for graphics. Except for processor that may be even less suitable to gaming because of graphics. Yet I play on it during business trips with minimal issues.

There has to be something to these problems other than inadequate hardware. I'm not sure, but I'm guessing my son's machine is at or below the minimum requirements given on the BTS box. So those are not likely "wrong." There must be issues with drivers, settings, or something like that.
 
Although there is a fair amount of anecdotal evidence on this site, I do not think the number of users suffering game breaking problems is terrible significant from a commercial perspective. That is especially true for a PC game. I certainly don't blame the OP for giving up on the game or avoiding future T2/Firaxis products but don't think his experience is indicative of the vast majority of purchasers. I have an average machine and with the graphics turned to low everything works fine. If I set the graphics too high it causes all sorts of problems but I consider graphics to be a relatively insignificant concern so it doesn't impact my enjoyment.
 
MarkM said:
There has to be something to these problems other than inadequate hardware. I'm not sure, but I'm guessing my son's machine is at or below the minimum requirements given on the BTS box. So those are not likely "wrong." There must be issues with drivers, settings, or something like that.
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right on the nosy! driver problems are the scourge of some PC games...there is just too much variety in the marketplace right now and in defense of the game designers it's very hard sometimes to test a game on all possible system configurations. That said, there are plenty of games out there that don't test the limits of driver configurations and seem to consistently work well for everyone, no matter what driver or video card or other types of configs they have, as long as they have the minimum specs listed on the box.

Civ IV was designed in such a way that it just pushes the limits on some configurations. There are arguments for why it was better to design it that way, but in the final analysis I think they didn't invest enough into beta-testing on a variety of computers before release.
 
I've never has any problems installing or running any version of CivIV, Warlords or BtS on either of my computers. Am I the exception?
 
grommit5 said:
I've never has any problems installing or running any version of CivIV, Warlords or BtS on either of my computers. Am I the exception?
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This sounds like one of those pointless 'Civ4 rules!!!' comment under heavly disguise

Well that would depend when you bought in and what specs you run No?

A person who just meets recommended(not required specs) and has never met a problem would be beating the odds, by how much depends how far you push the limits. You don't say what game traits you prefer to play so how should we know if your a special case or not?

If you were playing huge maps you would be beating higher odds. If he tried playing double your pleasure type mods on the sam huge maps essentialy exploding the number of formulas the computer has to run and STill avoid any problems,.. then your one lucky sob

Now take that same scale to 'required specs' and you got the Royal flush payout if your running expansion type mods on huge maps many civs... and no errors. NOw Remember were just talking CTD or MAF here. Theres plenty more even an awesome computer can encounter.

Their are many variables that make civ the awesome game it can be when considerable more resources are accounted for. You've conviently emittied from mentioning if any of these were part of your flawless expiernce. IM mean for all we know you like unmodded duals on tiny tim maps.

Your question has no bearing at all and Excuse me for saying, but like drop of meaningless praise that atempts to water down a pool of valid compaints.
 
Just to make T.A. a little happier, let me say the worst problem I've ever had with Civ 4, Warlords, or BtS is an occasional (rare) crash at a Wonder movie.

And you know, if your comp doesn't handle Huge or Double Huge maps, you can always play Large or Standard. That's not a game breaker.

I do sympathize with Bruce and anyone else who has technical issues that make the game unplayable, but they're an unlucky minority.
 
this is why i almost never post in forums. idiots like you who can't stand it when someone disagrees with them. i was only asking a question.

fyi... i preordered before it was released

i almost always play on huge maps at marathon speed. (there are ways around most of the game play bugs you just have to adjust your style)

computer 1 is a 2ghz p4, 1 gig ram and a radeon 9800 pro with 256mb.
computer 2 is 2.6 dual core, 2 gig ram and x1900 vid with 512 ram.

i suppose now you want to dis me for having better computers than you do. face it i'm 50 years old, probably have a better job than you and make more money.

i also sympathize with anyone that has problems. like i said i was just asking a question.

you think civIV has problems try play space empires V. it's been out for a year now and still has absolutely no functioning ai. a game i had high hopes for. oh well, can't win them all.
 
grommit5 said:
you think civIV has problems try play space empires V. it's been out for a year now and still has absolutely no functioning ai. a game i had high hopes for. oh well, can't win them all.
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Bingo. Comparing apples with apples (and not comparing a TBS with a FPS game) civ4 actually runs well. (I never saw BTS as buggy as some here claims.) Even Galciv2 with an open beta sometimes has serious bugs often in unusual places. When games get more complex the more things can go wrong.
 
Smidlee said:
(I never saw BTS as buggy as some here claims.) Even Galciv2 with an open beta sometimes has serious bugs often in unusual places. When games get more complex the more things can go wrong.
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AS to the what I bolded, Yes we all know that SMidlee. Youve posted on every one of these threads telling us this. ;) Usually agaist a sea of one time posters who disagree and who you were trying to quell.

To counter grommit, I doubt you make more then me or that you have a better computer for civving but its possable. I also doubt theres a need to post such trivial bs by the time you reach the big five o. Lord have mercy if thats me 23 years later.

Sorry for the disrespect though. I only wanted to point out the fallacy in the way you presented your question. If that makes me an idiot in your ol eyes then so be it. Through mine your every bit the hypocite. Id rather assume its the typing errors that gave you the go for such lame reprise. ;)

IM not sure what other games difficulties have to due with acceptance of this one, hence the topic, but If it makes you feel better to say Civ4 is bundled with a group of new games that are bug infested these days well then, there you have it. :(
 
it was a simple question to which a simple "yes, you're the exception" in your opinion would have sufficed. i neither praised or diss'd the game in any post i have made here. i never said there weren't problems just that i had not encountered them
 
Hey what can I tell you? Don't let this one thing jade you. Normally most of us are a civil bunch here and to prove this, on this occasion, I'll admit that I jumped the gun so do regret this action and wish to offer my sincere and humble apoligies good sir :)
 
i can live with that. i get a little punchy too. maybe i don't express myself well because i always seem to get flamed for every post i make. i just made a reply to a post about reloading games. i said" in SP do whatever make the game fun, thats why we play games, for fun." i immediatly got called a worthless human being for reloading. i never said i reloaded i just said do whatever make the game fun. why should anybody care what someone else does in a SP game. in SP the only one your cheating is youself, if you choose to look at it that way.
 
DagHammarskjol said:
My laptop:

RAM: 512 MB
Graphics: ATI X200M
Processor: Turion--I forget exactly which one.

It's pretty much the worst quality new computer one could buy right now without going Sempron or Celeron.

I turn off combat animations, movies, and whatever it is that makes the game zoom in on things like starting religions and so on. I make sure "High Detail Terrain" is turned off.

And the game runs just fine.

I even think it could probably handle the combat animations since it handles all other animations--I just find them annoying in general.

-DaHa
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I understand there will be many computers with 512MB that for some reason or another are well-built or very efficient so they can run this game. However I still suspect you cannot play maps that are very big or that have many civs i.e. you're running the game in a limited capacity.

My opinion is that Civ is held back by RAM in most computers. The CPU seems mostly irrelevant as long as it is not horribly under the recommended speed.

Don't get me wrong - it might have been possible for Civ to be far more efficient memory-wise, but as it is I would still recommend at least 1GB when possible.

Oh by the way, I can confirm I have a computer on which Civ cannot even install! Granted, it doesn't have a graphics card...but still!:p (I have to stick with Civ2)
 
ram is extremely important for this game. even with a gig of ram my old 2ghz p4 would run slow on huge maps
 
grommit5 said:
ram is extremely important for this game. even with a gig of ram my old 2ghz p4 would run slow on huge maps
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Yup, RAM really is the key issue. I am playing Civ4 on the same computer that I played Civ3 with (slightly better Nvidia based graphic card with 128MB as compared to what I had back then :) ). When I first try BtS I do not encounter any problem besides slowing down on Huge map (one of my old RAM burned out so I was left with 512MB which fitted the requirement). After I replace the RAM with a new 1GB to make it 1.5GB I don't have a problem anymore. So I guess hardware is not an issue. Lots of time it is because of those other software that you install instead of hardware. Take for example : Recently I downloaded and installed a movie watching software from a Chinese website. Unfortunately that software was not only written with IE in mind, it simply prevent me from even lauching Netscape. :mad: At the end I had to uninstall it so I can use Netscape again. ;)
 
T.A JONES said:
AS to the what I bolded, Yes we all know that SMidlee. Youve posted on every one of these threads telling us this. ;) Usually agaist a sea of one time posters who disagree and who you were trying to quell.
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Exactly who am I trying to quell? I was responding to grommit5.
 
PieceOfMind said:
I understand there will be many computers with 512MB that for some reason or another are well-built or very efficient so they can run this game. However I still suspect you cannot play maps that are very big or that have many civs i.e. you're running the game in a limited capacity.

My opinion is that Civ is held back by RAM in most computers. The CPU seems mostly irrelevant as long as it is not horribly under the recommended speed.

Don't get me wrong - it might have been possible for Civ to be far more efficient memory-wise, but as it is I would still recommend at least 1GB when possible.

Oh by the way, I can confirm I have a computer on which Civ cannot even install! Granted, it doesn't have a graphics card...but still!:p (I have to stick with Civ2)
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Lets remember that if you're playing BtS on 512mb and running XP, you don't really have 512mb. XP minimum is 256mb and it barely runs on that. i used to have a 1.6 celeron with 256mb and it could barely run the most basic of games.
 
Bruce Waters said:
I find it interesting the comment about not being a 'die hard' Civ fan because I wasn't prepared to continue the fault finding process. I was always under the assumption that a game should be released as a fully functional piece of software, which is capable of running without significant tweaking or upgrading, and this has been my experience with almost all of the other games that I have played, including the previous Civ versions.

However, when I read the Forums about this product, I really wonder if this version was actually released as a Beta version, due to commercial expediency. As a customer, it would seem to be a normal expectation that the game should install and PLAY well as long as the minimum platform requirements were met, without having to spend hours of fault finding, development or continual installation of patches, yet this doesn't seem to be the case. From what I have read here and on other sites, people are spending a lot of time trying to sort out incompatibilities between hardware, drivers, configuration etc., and what's more, seeing this as normal for a brand new game!!

From my point of view, a game is an opportunity to have some fun and relax, not to spend hours of frustration trying to complete the development of a piece of software that I paid good money to purchase. Perhaps what needed to happen was that everyone sent a 'Nice try, now fix it' message to Firaxis and then boycotted the product until it was fixed.

End of rant
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I agree with you completely; However, it seems obvious to me that all of us Civ addicts will continue to buy the game we love in spite of its faults. It reminds me of an old joke from about 30 years ago. Back then there was no such vehicle as a SUV. The closest thing to one was a Jeep Wagoneer which was very unreliable. The story goes that a Wagoneer owner, after complaining about all of the problems he has had with the vehicle says, "We're buying a yellow one this time."
 
grommit5 said:
Lets remember that if you're playing BtS on 512mb and running XP, you don't really have 512mb. XP minimum is 256mb and it barely runs on that. i used to have a 1.6 celeron with 256mb and it could barely run the most basic of games.
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Agreed, and that's why I mentioned it originally (post #8).

For example, I have 1GB but at as I'm typing I have only 600MB free with only the internet browser, media player and normal background processes running.

EDIT I've reported in the past seeing Civ use 700MB. I think that was a large map. That is definitely not possible with only 512MB of RAM.:)
 
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