Have They (Firaxis) acknowledged anything to anyone?

m15a said:
i've been avoiding the general civ4 boards for the most part (for reasons listed above). anyway, i'm totally confused . . isn't there an official patch available? and wasn't there comments about issues (including the tech tree) within two days of the products release?

maybe i'll stay off the boards a little longer, no offense to the regulars and definitely no offense to the mods.
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Yes a patch was released. Did nothing for me, I think it fixed some issues it was having with Radeon cards. I have a Nvidia Card. I still lag, freeze, crash, and bsod. I do admit it is less since the patch came out, but, the problems are still there.
As far as the Tech Tree goes, they (Firaxis and Take2) put it on their web site that they made the mistake and wanted to fix it. They made a web site for us to put our address in and they said they would mail us a new one. Not a single person I know has gotten their tech tree as of yet!
 
-EFD-Hitless said:
Yes, I'm new to the forums, like many on here complaining are, but, the only reason most of us are here is because the game will not work, trust me, I would rather be playing!
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Why do "being upset about the game not working on your system" and "doing your best to ruin our previously CIVil online message board" have to be the same thing?

Because with the flood of new posters who have registered for CFC purely to vent, that's exactly what has happened. I don't blame Soren and the rest of the Firaxians for staying away from here, and I wouldn't blame them if they never came back (although I hope they do). There were nowhere near the flames at Apolyton as there were here. Frankly, it was/continues to be embarrassing.
 
-EFD-Hitless: My rant was not directed at you, or at anyone else, specifically. It was a reaction to day after day of people posting "This game sux! The Firaxians should all be shot" in thread after thread, post after post, without at least having the courtesy to say "the problem I'm having is <some problem>". And, yes, the responses of "Buy a better computer" were weary-ing, also. :rolleyes:

People who have legitimate problems/complaints deserve to be heard. We mods try hard to not close threads, but rather clean up the "whiners" and let the threads focus on actual problems.

Speaker: You said it well. I am pleased to see Soren posted here again yesterday. It would appear that being the only fansite listed at Civ4.com for the first week was a mixed blessing: we got a lot of new posters, but we also got a lot of "venting". Fortunately, things are calming down. I hope the CIVilized nature of the majority of this board is coming back to the front.

Edit: -EFD-Hitless: I hope you don't mind my semi-threadjack. It technically is still on-topic. ;)
 
Well, as a new poster here at CivFanatics, I would like to say that I love the game. Does it have it's share of technical problems? Sure. Do any of them prevent me, personally, from enjoying the game? Heck no! I have faith that Firaxis will get things sorted out as fast as they can. (They've been pretty good about this in previous games.)

I'd also like to point out that even though I'm new to these boards, I've played every incarnation of Civ since good ol' Civilization DOS (even CivNet!) and I find this version to be the best so far. Yay for eyecandy and quicker games!
 
Speaker said:
Because with the flood of new posters who have registered for CFC purely to vent, that's exactly what has happened.
Click to expand...

I came here because the Firaxis website directed me here (tech support). I've been playing since CivDOS, and read strategy articles etc, but never felt the need to post until I bought CivIV. I was pretty upset when I first got here, because I'd just bought a new release game and it wouldn't run properly on my good-spec PC.

I was very disappointed when I came here and realised that there were only two camps:
a) Firaxis are evil
or
b) Firaxis can't do any wrong.

There seemed to be no ability to accept that Firaxis may have released a great game that suffered from, for many people, severe technical problems, and especially, at the time, no acknowledgement of this from Firaxis, despite the fact they were clearly struggling with Tech Support requests by email (automated replies after 5 days??)

Further, many of the suggestions for getting the game working were "your specs are too low, or it's your RAM", which was tiresome as Padma said, as for most, CivIV was clearly the only program causing issue, and specs in nearly all cases were above, or greatly exceeded, the published requirement.

I am very glad that things have calmed in recent times, and that some of the more programming/config adept members of the forum have delivered some very useful suggestions and fixes to get the game working, past just "defrag your HDD" etc.

Anyway, now that things have calmed and there are some useful suggestions and fixes here that actually address the CivIV-specific problems, I think thigns should stay calmer, as most of these suggestions at least mitigate many of the technical issues and get people playing more and posting less!
 
Personaly Natronomonas, I do beleive that there was/is many more opinions than just those two camps. Unfortunatly the heat that some posters put into their complaints has polarized the situation into those two extremes. For the most part.

Like you say things are becoming calmer and I too hope to be able to discuss those things which I'd like to see improved. I've many suggestions and even a couple complaints; but have avoided discussing them because I didn't want to fan the flames.
 
You are right White Elk, when properly considered there were more than just the two camps, but that was certainly not my initial recollection. I guess if someone has a strongly-held view, as was likely if they were an a) or b) person, they're were going to express it, a lot!
I like it better now : )
 
Cheers to Civilized Fanatics and a more open and respectfull enviroment.
:beer:
 
that and gameplay isn't what people expected, so they tend to be even more angry (wether it's a good or bad thing is besides the point) it's very different from the norm and makes people think balance is just broken.
and it's appaling that firaxis didn't take the passion that TBS players tend to have into account and had a few older (as in months!) machines.
it's... well, not to excuse childish behaviour and outright lies that creep in the forums, but it's somewhat unprofessional of firaxis not to be a little more carefull.
for what it's worth, for me the game is dreadfully unfinished and somewhat convoluted. your mileage will vary, so, i'm just saying my opinion one time on a level-headed thread. if i do sound too harsh, delete at will.

EDIT: i've been misunderstood. i don't mean it's the developer's fault. it usually is management pushing release dates and not following adequate testing.
think about this, if it wasn't firaxis, would you still buy a game with so many reported problems? we must stop acting happy with unfinished games being released just because we can get a few patches. maybe management should cut management salaries and get a few more developers and let them work a reasonable schedule. i don't know.
i just think firaxis should know that because there's so few games in the segment, that every little fault will be beaten to death. over and over. and then again
 
Thank you Padma...for putting up with all of us at times! Your task is a thankless one...:goodjob:

I would also like to say there were those of us who retreated to the Tech and Bug forums and tried to help out; it was mostly in GD where the 'firaxis is a $%#^ and the game @#&% " or the "buy a better pc you &^#$ n00B" disputes took place. We were there, but hard to see.... ;)

I totally understand why Soren or other technical folks at Firaxis have shied away. The vitriol on both viewpoints got very harsh at times.

I however, don't understand why T2 (not Firaxis) did not have a PR person posting here....they are a huge company (economically speaking), and surely could have afforded to have someone at their PR department here taking flak a few hours a day initially and frankly being a target - I truly believe that if people could have had someone to vent to who was official, that after their initial anger was exhausted, they would have calmed down and acted a bit more rationally. This is what PR people do...it is what they are trained to do...be a target to deflect and absorb dissatisfied customers. Anyone who is a succesful level 1 help desk person knows this....after you weather the initial storm, most folks calm down and are willing to have patience, just because they had someone who they percieved as official lend a sympathetic ear.

That is the gravest mistake of the whole situation IMHO.
 
Yes, sadly the Firaxis employees have been treated like crap in many forums including this one. And also the big compainy threads are the biggest hits.... not technical issues, but the oens saying "Civ IV sucks, wahhh!"

I wish they could come around more, but I sure as hell don't blame them. Soren literally got mobbed, and with the tech issues they've had to deal with... he and everyone else there are probably tired and beat.

People can be very cruel :(
 
Thanks Mustafa for continuing to support your product. And btw Civ4 Rocks!!
Thanks so much for this most excellent update to the game of Civilization.

In sincere appreciation for a great product ~ Dave
 
Yes, they do visit us, but they rarely post. I am actually ashamed of the behavior I saw in these forums over the first month or so after the release. It would have taken a lot of *full-time* moderators, not just the five of us who volunteer our free time, to keep the lid on the flaming and trolling that was going on. We did our best to deal with the most egregious examples, but the overall tenor of these forums remained very ugly. I don't blame them for not posting.

Those of us who have been around since (at least) Civ3 know what a good relationship we have had with Firaxis, and it hurts to see that relationship soiled by the violent, infantile lashings-out of immature posters. Believe me, Firaxis wants to know what problems people are having, so they can be fixed. But who wants to wade through thread after thread of name-calling and worse; things that would get you a punch in the nose, or worse, if you said them in person?
Click to expand...

I was the author of the original "Dear Sid" post.

I did not threaten anyone with harm. I did not go off on a tangent and exclaim, "This game sucks!"

I simply wanted to vent my frustration at Take2 and Firaxis for releasing a product they knew GOOD AND WELL contained several bugs. I felt it was wrong and unethical to do so.

There were several negative reactions to my post and, in retrospect, I could and should have reacted much better than I did. If I didn't care I would't have posted. I've been burned for far more money and I just wrote it of to a lesson learned.

But I love the Civ series and I was bitterly disappointed that the game wouldn't work for me. I've upgraded my system several times and there are still problems but at least for now the game is playable. I look forward to more patches to fix the issues I'm still experiencing.

The original question had to do with Firaxis admitting acountibility for the several issues that have occured. They have done so in a round about way by releasing patches but they could not possibly go out on public record and admit they released the game prematurely. That would be marketing suicide.

I'm sure they regret the issues and frustrations of some of their biggest fans from previous Civ games and I'm completely confident that they are working intensely to resolve all issues as best they can.

In the meantime, I continue to play both Civ III and Civ IV whenever I have the free time to do so. I also very much enjoy the exchange of ideas on this forum.
 
Well, as from programmer's point I view I think that Firaxis was ready to ship out product like that the day they have started writing it. That wasn't an accident with memory overuse. They hoped that it will pass by, but in case it won't, they wouldn't rewrite engine core. Just these things are usually tested/profiled before any actual graphics can be placed over the engine, and this wasn't the case with this game.

As for me, this should have been like that:

Developer: ok, let's do it this way, this way and this way. This way we'll make it in 1.5 years we'll have 60% probability of no problems. That's surely not enough, so we'll have to do it ....

Manager: Please stop here. You've got green light.

Period.
 
thamer said:
Here are recent posts from me acknowledging the upcoming patch:

http://apolyton.net/forums/showthread.php?s=&postid=4173003#post4173003
http://apolyton.net/forums/showthread.php?s=&postid=4187790#post4187790

We have been hard at work...Thanks for your feedback.

-Mustafa
-Civ IV Lead Programmer
Click to expand...

Just knowing that you guys READ this forum will be enough for me ... I'd post a lot more bug reports without expecting feedback, just knowing that someone from Firaxis had noted the post!!!
 
Seriously Kolyana, based on the times I HAVE seen Firaxians posting about the place, you can pretty well assume that at least 2-3 Firaxians come here on a routine basis. In terms of priorities, however, they are far more likely to visit the Bug Reports sections, so they know what to prioritise in upcoming patches. Thats why people keep advising those with complaints to go THERE, rather than post another 'Civ4 sucks, we hate Firaxis' thread in the general forums :rolleyes:. As for the memory leak issue, the reason I think that Harkonnen got to it first was because he was specifically looking for it as a priority, wheras I wouldn't be suprised if the major graphics issues-the ones stopping people from playing the game at all-were of far greater importance in terms of the first official patch. It is important to note, however, that Harkonnen and Firaxis appear to have been working along a parallel path, its just that Harkonnen got to the solution quicker. At least Firaxis recognised it was a problem and were trying to fix it!

Yours,
Aussie_Lurker.
 
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