cIV: Warlords - low spec computer

[Craterus22]

I have an AMD64 with 256mb and an ATI card that uses win98.

Picked warlords up onsale at EB (otherwise I would have waited for reviews)

Civ4 runs on this machine on low graphics settings ok until end game when the map is revealed and it slows down, but is still playable.

Warlords does not show any text on any of the menu screens - just graphics and the selector highlighting.

I am going to try modding the ini file to turn everything down to low, but have low expectations to see text in warlords at this point.

ps - when i broke out the manual I didn't see any mention on an increase of playable civs... is this the first civ expansion not to increase the number of civs that can play at the same time?

 

[Tarkhan]

I don't think Win98 or ME is officially supported anymore... but memory upgrades would be a seriously good investment, with only 256..

 

[Craterus22]

256mb is fine for win98... I play HL2 (counterstrike2), and Guildwars with absolutely no problems. Civ4 has some slowness when the map is revealed near end game.

All pop-up windows (the blue boxes with grey buttons) and all text anywhere in the game is empty (the lone exception is the text that pops up when you hover the mouse over an item).

If anyone can post the screens for the menu's it would be appreciated. If firaxis could provide a fix (maybe using the hover text for menu selection?), that would be cool too.

I plan on upgrading to vista when it comes out - i have no interest in upgrading before hand. Will firaxis support vista?

I also deem it strange that an expansion does not support the same systems that the original game supported.

 

[Gyathaar]

Was your civ4 patched to 1.61 before with no problems?
A lot of people had similar problems with missing text when patching to 1.61 because of incompatible mods installed in assets or customassets.

 

[salty]

Picked it up onsale at EB (otherwise I would have waited for reviews)

How much was it?

 

[football751]

I have an AMD64 with 256mb and an ATI card that uses win98.

First off, Warlords only officially supports 2000 and XP, so chances are you will have problems using 98. Second, add more RAM. And tjird, what are the specs on the ATI card? ATI has made a lot of cards, one option may to upgrade your graphics.

 

[Craterus22]

First off, Warlords only officially supports 2000 and XP, so chances are you will have problems using 98. Second, add more RAM. And tjird, what are the specs on the ATI card? ATI has made a lot of cards, one option may to upgrade your graphics.

I dont have the ati card info handy right now - it was one of the higher mem tv cards - keep in mind -------> CIV 4 WORKED! Did cIV not support 98? Why would warlords NOT work? And the program appears to work except for the text being displayed properly.

I am going to try and do a fresh install of both programs on my low spec laptop (though civ4 was freshly installed only a month ago on the win98 with no mods added). Followed by a fresh install on the win98 machine.

EDIT -
laptop fresh install still has the slowdown that was introduced in 1.52 or 1.61 (civ4 and warlords have the slideshow speed issue)

win98 fresh install - still no text

 

[Craterus22]

Here is the solution for the no text issue in win98 for warlords
http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=179084

I would like to take this time to thank firaxis for setting the expectations bar lower with every new release.

I would like to take this time to thank the poster that solved the problem (with his third post on the board!) without ranting and raving about how my low memory is the cause of my text problems.

And on a serious note - I want to thank civfanatics.com for providing a place for people to discuss potential solutions to problems with cIV (once you sort through all the "buy a new computer n00b!" and "upgrade your memory!" answers).

 

[Xanikk999]

Im still wondering why you have windows 98 int the year 2006. Are you old fashioned? Sorry if that appears rude. Its just your machine is really old and should have been updated at least 5 years ago to play any games well.

If moneys a problem then i wouldnt bother with high end games. Its either A: Not going to work at all, or B: Be very very slow and crappy.

 

[Craterus22]

Im still wondering why you have windows 98 int the year 2006. Are you old fashioned? Sorry if that appears rude. Its just your machine is really old and should have been updated at least 5 years ago to play any games well.

If moneys a problem then i wouldnt bother with high end games. Its either A: Not going to work at all, or B: Be very very slow and crappy.

I will take it easy on you because you were obviously not able to read this ridiculously long thread about the no text issue for warlords installed on a win98 machine...

cIV is not a highend game.

 

[Xanikk999]

I will take it easy on you because you were obviously not able to read this ridiculously long thread about the no text issue for warlords installed on a win98 machine...

cIV is not a highend game.

It isnt? Its pretty high end if you want to play it without slow downs.

I have a 256 something or another nvidia card (a good one), 3.8GHz processor and 2048MB of ram and it slows down on huge maps in the middle of the game.

It might not slow down in the beginning but it sure will soon after ALOT on your machine.

If you still find it enjoyable go for it! But i dont think i would find it enjoyable waiting 5 or so minutes for end turn and all the lagginess moving the cursor and map.

 

[Xanikk999]

Excuse my rudeness.. Ive just been in some pretty low level moderation forums for the past week and the level of respect has been low.

And ive been hearing leet speak so you get used to it. I have to tune myself to the mature forum that this one is!

 

[Underseer]

You keep ignoring people who suggest you get more RAM.

I'm sure Windows98 runs fine on 256MB of RAM, but if you plan on playing huge maps in Civ 4, then plan on getting over 1GB of RAM, or you will be dealing with unecessary performance issues.

 

[Craterus22]

You keep ignoring people who suggest you get more RAM.

I'm sure Windows98 runs fine on 256MB of RAM, but if you plan on playing huge maps in Civ 4, then plan on getting over 1GB of RAM, or you will be dealing with unecessary performance issues.

I have made no mention of playing on huge maps. I don't need anymore ram on my win98 machine. When I upgrade to vista I will be upgrading my memory.

Until then... win98 with 256mb runs hl2, guildwars, and many other games (including cIV small maps) with little or no problems.

 

[Danicela]

Im still wondering why you have windows 98 int the year 2006. Are you old fashioned? Sorry if that appears rude. Its just your machine is really old and should have been updated at least 5 years ago to play any games well.

For several things, WIn 98 > XP

 

[Pounder]

There was someone who posted that he has a duel boot with Win98 and XP on the same machine and he reported that the performance is better with Win98, probably because Win98 is less of a hog on system resources.

 

[vilemerchant]

Altho I've had no real problems I have noticed warlords does seem a little slower than vanilla civ4 was on my old 2.4ghz system. My 2.6ghz duel-core/6600GT system hasn't noticed tho, still runs huge maps 18-civs etc with no probs.

 

[HypnosTene]

Well, for me Warlords is significantly slower than vanilla (an an athlon 2500+). A pity, really, as big maps are becoming less and less possible.

 

[Gumbolt]

Its quite interesting the slow downs in game play. On old 1.52 (ish) patch my civ 4 ran fine. Upgraded to patch 1.61 okay for a while then ran really slow for a few weeks.

I then ran 'fast defrag' program on my ram and also did a hard drive defrag using windows tool. Civ 4 now runs fine with 512mb ram. I played and finished a domination win with Romans with no slow downs.

How strange. Never realised ram got so clogged up from general running of pc. I think defragging memory did trick.

I think i will hold back on memory upgrade.