Anything on the patch we was supposed to get three weeks ago?

Wow, is this game really so broken for so many people? Just started playing a couple weeks ago, I picked up a special edition copy on ebay & immediately updated to v1.52 before ever playing a turn. I'm in software development myself so I know all about 1.0 releases and consciously decided to wait until the patches stopped coming before bothering I'd heard there were gobs of glitches in 1.0 but reading in various forms about a month ago I got the idea they were mostly resolved -- and that has been my experience, in 2-3 games only few times did I see any issues, the worst was a crash to desktop & then all I had to replay was a few turns thanks to autosave. It's a game not my online broker acount or a pacemaker so I can live with that. The posts here though make it sound like there are a bunch of people who cannot play AT ALL. Is that really true? I've put in on both a Athlon 3200 w/ 2gb & Radeon 9600xt, and an old Dell P4 2ghz with 512mb & radeon 9000 pci (for my son) & just these minor issues -- i've even just put it on a 4yo Dell Latitude to play a bit while watching over my dad while my mom takes a weekend off (he's got Alzheimer's) & it looked liek that would work too. What are the horrible insurmountable problems everyone is still having? Is it just dumb luck that v1.52 (mostly) works on the three very different machines I've tried it on?

Puddn to answer your question, Yes. Out of the 3 machines I put it on, it only works on 1 and that one has some kind of "waiting for player ..." thing that comes up every 3 turns or so but I just deal with it because I like the game. I will not though ever buy another Fire-axis product and will definitely not buy the expansion. I can only imagine how buggy that will be...

Same here. Our retail chain used to carry a couple copies of each hot games, but we've decided not to carry Civ 4, or any of its future expansions. Too many service calls that ended up with "We're sorry 'mam, but the problem does not reside with your computer, it's with the software. Please contact them to get a refund."

We've had people come in every now and then asking for Civ 4, but once we've told them what to expect, they usually thank us and buy other games instead. Ones that actually work. I wonder if they'll ever make a 5, or if they succeeded in killing off the franchise...

Pudd'nhead said:

Wow, is this game really so broken for so many people? Just started playing a couple weeks ago, I picked up a special edition copy on ebay & immediately updated to v1.52 before ever playing a turn. I'm in software development myself so I know all about 1.0 releases and consciously decided to wait until the patches stopped coming before bothering I'd heard there were gobs of glitches in 1.0 but reading in various forms about a month ago I got the idea they were mostly resolved -- and that has been my experience, in 2-3 games only few times did I see any issues, the worst was a crash to desktop & then all I had to replay was a few turns thanks to autosave. It's a game not my online broker acount or a pacemaker so I can live with that. The posts here though make it sound like there are a bunch of people who cannot play AT ALL. Is that really true? I've put in on both a Athlon 3200 w/ 2gb & Radeon 9600xt, and an old Dell P4 2ghz with 512mb & radeon 9000 pci (for my son) & just these minor issues -- i've even just put it on a 4yo Dell Latitude to play a bit while watching over my dad while my mom takes a weekend off (he's got Alzheimer's) & it looked liek that would work too. What are the horrible insurmountable problems everyone is still having? Is it just dumb luck that v1.52 (mostly) works on the three very different machines I've tried it on?

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In my case it is fairly playable early in the game. it crashes from time to time, but I can reload and keep going. As the game progresses, it crashes more and more frequently until it gets to the point where it crashes to the desktop every two of three turns or so.

MrGone said:

While you are obviously frustrated, as many of us are, with the delay, don't confuse lack of evidence with lack of existence. Just because you haven't seen it doesn't mean it doesn't exist.

An official update (good or bad) on the patch would be nice sooner rather than later. Even if it is bad news, I'd rather have a more comprehensive patch that fixes more things than it breaks.

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You are right in that I have no real proof that the patch does not exist.
But I have not seen a proof that is does exist, too..
We have no proof that the UFO does exist and also no proof that UFO does not exist, So should I have to belive someone who insists that they saw and even abducted by of UFO?
I am skeptic people... In Jan or Feb, words were enough to buy my belief,
But in March and April, its is time for them to show me the money.

The only thing that surprises me about the lack of another patch is that anyone still believes there will be one.

I still have hope

I still have these annoying City Name disappearance bug, and the bright land bug. I want them to release a patch that will remove both of them.

Wow, is this game really so broken for so many people? Just started playing a couple weeks ago, I picked up a special edition copy on ebay & immediately updated to v1.52 before ever playing a turn. I'm in software development myself so I know all about 1.0 releases and consciously decided to wait until the patches stopped coming before bothering I'd heard there were gobs of glitches in 1.0 but reading in various forms about a month ago I got the idea they were mostly resolved -- and that has been my experience, in 2-3 games only few times did I see any issues, the worst was a crash to desktop & then all I had to replay was a few turns thanks to autosave. It's a game not my online broker acount or a pacemaker so I can live with that. The posts here though make it sound like there are a bunch of people who cannot play AT ALL. Is that really true? I've put in on both a Athlon 3200 w/ 2gb & Radeon 9600xt, and an old Dell P4 2ghz with 512mb & radeon 9000 pci (for my son) & just these minor issues -- i've even just put it on a 4yo Dell Latitude to play a bit while watching over my dad while my mom takes a weekend off (he's got Alzheimer's) & it looked liek that would work too. What are the horrible insurmountable problems everyone is still having? Is it just dumb luck that v1.52 (mostly) works on the three very different machines I've tried it on?

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There have been several polls over in the general discussion forum to try and figure out how many people have problems, and how severe. They're fairly consistent at about 3% who can't play at all, and about another 15% who have a game that is playable, but with problems that need further patching. Whether you consider this a lot I don't know. Personally it is about what I'd have thought most games are at for reliability these days.

I'll take this opportunity to say please vote in the most recent poll here . I know you may not notice it if you're only in the tech support forum, but it has to stay in general discussions really, and it would be nice to get some accurate numbers.

Sorry to hear it has been so frustrating for some, all I can say is if you can keep hanging on, do, this is a truly great game (this coming from an old fart who played Sid Meier games before Civ, and the original Civ when it first came out, but bought yet didn't bother much with Civ II and Civ III)

FYI I played maybe 10 turns of an in-progress game (around 1200 AD) on my Dell Latitude last night, it had some issues (got some funky colors when I turned on the resource highlight bubbles, and sometimes riverbeds show up as flourescent green in areas I have not explored -- which come to think of it maybe is a bigger problem, it shows you where land is in unexplored areas, which would be a big issue if this game were in an earlier stage ), and the doing AI turns took a lot longer (maybe a minute or two, with once or twice it seeming to freeze & draw some horizontal lines in block patterns on the screen while it was processing, before coming back ok), but it was playable. The fans in back were whirring like crazy though! Since this machine barely makes minimum requirements -- 512mb memory and graphics is a 64mb card from GeForce 4 line (not sure what processor is, I think lower powerd P4 <= 2ghz) -- I didn't expect too much. But it is definitely pushing it, this machine can handle BattleFront II quite well ...

MrCynical said:

I'll take this opportunity to say please vote in the most recent poll here . I know you may not notice it if you're only in the tech support forum, but it has to stay in general discussions really, and it would be nice to get some accurate numbers.

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Okie-dokie, cast my vote. I figure based on my experience I fall into the "works with some minor issues" group & cast my vote accordingly.

Good luck to all. I agree, it would be nice to see the next patch if there really truly is one. It seems pretty silly to not sort out whatever remianing issues and move it out if it's already as far as QA.

zx1111 said:

You are right in that I have no real proof that the patch does not exist.
But I have not seen a proof that is does exist, too..

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According to this thread, Sullla has been involved in testing the latest patch.

The 2.2 patch did not pass QA. Current efforts are focused on making the expansion pack as bug free as possible. Since the game works for most players, the next patch has very little resources assigned to it. Current time table dictates the release date to be a few weeks before the expansion pack. Please be patient.

MrCynical said:

There have been several polls over in the general discussion forum to try and figure out how many people have problems, and how severe. They're fairly consistent at about 3% who can't play at all, and about another 15% who have a game that is playable, but with problems that need further patching. Whether you consider this a lot I don't know. Personally it is about what I'd have thought most games are at for reliability these days.

I'll take this opportunity to say please vote in the most recent poll here . I know you may not notice it if you're only in the tech support forum, but it has to stay in general discussions really, and it would be nice to get some accurate numbers.

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I don't think many games have a 20% failure rate. And I think it is higher than that since many people who have problems don't participate on the forums on a regular basis, and those who do spend their time on the tech support forum.

norskatel said:

The 2.2 patch did not pass QA. Current efforts are focused on making the expansion pack as bug free as possible. Since the game works for most players, the next patch has very little resources assigned to it. Current time table dictates the release date to be a few weeks before the expansion pack. Please be patient.

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Maybe "most" as in a bit more than 50%, and "works" as in not totally unplayable, but it is certainly not where it should be after two patches.

Does "as bug free as possible" mean that the expansion will be of the same "quality" as the origional version of Civ IV?

I can play about a turn and then black sreen or the screen freezes.

Have not tried to play in about a month, except for a few nights ago and I could not make it through one turn before black screen but PC was on.

I voted in poll.

20% has to be high. It's crazy how bad this is.

Oh well, I hope it gets playable.

I have noticed 2K Games' QA rejected latest patch!!! Someone posted about it but he/she is not developer or publisher. I cannot find Thamar's post that contain patch rejection information. How someone found out about patch being rejected by QA?

I did not encounter any major issues/problems, I just encountered only very minor issues so I am not anxious to get latest patch. Anyway, I got Elder Scroll Oblivion and it worked perfectly (no shatters at all on my system and no issues at all)! I use general subtitle because I am deaf person.

Thanks!

norskatel said:

The 2.2 patch did not pass QA. Current efforts are focused on making the expansion pack as bug free as possible. Since the game works for most players, the next patch has very little resources assigned to it. Current time table dictates the release date to be a few weeks before the expansion pack. Please be patient.

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danielcg: I would take this post with a grain of salt...it just doesn't seem legit and there has been no other talk about a patch rejection one way or another.

I don't think many games have a 20% failure rate. And I think it is higher than that since many people who have problems don't participate on the forums on a regular basis, and those who do spend their time on the tech support forum.

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Well I can only judge from my personal experiences, and I've certainly had at least 1 in 5 games that were unplayable, never mind just having major problems. (Whether a 20% failure rate is acceptable is another issue, I'm merely saying I don't think it's unusual). As for the issue of peole staying in the tech support forum and not noticing the poll, if you have a suggestion to help with that then I'm listening. I've pointed it out in this thread, since it was vaguely on topic, and it has made a slight difference to results (up to 16% major problems and 4% unplayable).

I'm also a little doubful about Norskatel's patch info. Previously people from Firaxis have always made it clear, and haven't been posting from brand new accounts. A fairly simple check would be to ask Sulla if the patch he's working with is 2.2.

MrCynical said:

Well I can only judge from my personal experiences, and I've certainly had at least 1 in 5 games that were unplayable, never mind just having major problems. (Whether a 20% failure rate is acceptable is another issue, I'm merely saying I don't think it's unusual). As for the issue of peole staying in the tech support forum and not noticing the poll, if you have a suggestion to help with that then I'm listening. I've pointed it out in this thread, since it was vaguely on topic, and it has made a slight difference to results (up to 16% major problems and 4% unplayable).

I'm also a little doubful about Norskatel's patch info. Previously people from Firaxis have always made it clear, and haven't been posting from brand new accounts. A fairly simple check would be to ask Sulla if the patch he's working with is 2.2.

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I don't have any suggestions. I took a class that covered polling in college, and I don't see any way to get a representative sample using an online poll.

I don't think it is possible to get a meaningful result, even if you do move it to tech support.

20% is a dismal failure rate for any product. There is no way that the software industry has quality that bad. If one in five games didn't work the software market would be very different.

As for Norskatel, it seems plausible to me. If Thamer was telling the truth, then it must have failed QA or it would be out by now.

Philips said:

As for Norskatel, it seems plausible to me. If Thamer was telling the truth, then it must have failed QA or it would be out by now.

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Agreed. And seeing that to them, that patch is nowhere near as important as releasing an incomplete and unworking expansion pack so they can steal people's money once more, I do not believe the patch will be released anytime soon. But at least we know that their time frame is off a bit, with weeks actually meaning months, and months probably meaning seasons, and so on... Can't wait 'till they announce something to be out "next year"...

It will take some time for them to convince me they can put out a working stable product, and as such, I fully expect the expansion to be as unreliable as the main game, and will warn everyone to that effect.

But I know they will no longer make any money out of me, and I know they won't get my customer's money, seeing as we no longer sell their software.