Alarming silence of Firaxis

[gunter]

After the 3.13 effort several issues have remained and it is only thanks to Bhruic & friend that those issues are beeing fixed out.

My dard goes to Firaxis...and I question about their silence because it would be sufficient to say : " guys, we are aware that several issues are still present and we will work to release 3.15 within a month to fix them all " ........or : " guys,the 3.13 has been the last one so stop moaning and take it easy".

In your opinion which is the reason of their silence ?

I am convinced nowdays more than ever where customers have became the only real betatesters that at least a faint level of comunication between Firaxis and its customers is mandatory,above all considering we are paying them since roughly a dozen years,more or less.

It is also clear that such a gorgeous site deserves at least a special comunication channel. It seems to happen the opposite...neither big rock star are so snob with their fans....

 

[warpstorm]

Considering the reaction they got here when they did give an Estimated Time of Arrival on a patch and were a few days late, I'm not at all surprised.

The flaming that Alexman, who was actually trying to help by giving dates and contents of the next patch, took makes it unlikely that this will be a special channel again.

 

[Soneji]

Yup, the masses ruined it tbh.

 

[blitzkrieg1980]

What else is new?

 

[ripple01]

I believe it was more than a few days late, depending on how alexman's comments were interpreted, but it is still a sad fact that the only communication from Firaxis was unofficial communication through a staff member. Let's not forget that Firaxis does not maintain any official forum of it's own, and that they direct site visitors to the forums here at CFC.

To blame the masses is unfair, IMO. If you want to blame somebody, blame Firaxis for not providing an official communication channel to fans for one of the most popular gaming series of all time.

Cheers,
ripple01

 

[Horizons]

I'm still happily playing 3.03 - even with 'broken' corporations etc - and wouldn't honestly care if I never patched it ever again. It would be nice to have a 3.15+ which fixes the 3.13 issues but not essential

 

[LiberiGlacialis]

Woohoo! Go Soxs!

Alright, back on topic...well, Bh has made an unoffical patch to the patch, and this is the most moddable Civ yet, so even if Firaxis abandons Civ (which I'm betting against), Civ 4 can still be patched to a point.

 

[blitzkrieg1980]

If Firaxis abandons Civ after Civ4, then we can probably count on the modders and serious community members to pick up the pieces, and perhaps even release their own open source Civ5. I truly believe that after the formation of a community so involved in the product, that even if they pulled it from the shelves, Civ will live on! Huzzah!!!!

 

[Duuk]

Woohoo! Go Soxs!

Alright, back on topic...well, Bh has made an unoffical patch to the patch, and this is the most moddable Civ yet, so even if Firaxis abandons Civ (which I'm betting against), Civ 4 can still be patched to a point.

User mods can't fix the multiplayer out of sync issues or the fact that Firaxis introduced different version issues for Warlords and Vanilla with this patch.

 

[jray]

I would at least appreciate an announcement from Firaxis regarding which unexpected changes in 3.13 are "bugs" and which are "features." That would help us figure out how to preserve unaltered gameplay as we're making our own patches.

I understand that their silence is probably motivated by some kind of "play it safe, don't rock the boat" attitude, understandable in this day and age of frivolous lawsuits, but I'm still very disappointed in their silence. Grow up and take some responsibility for your mistakes please, Firaxis! Just ignore the flamers and know that many of us here will appreciate your communication.

 

[gps]

Hmm, maybe we should take it easy, the patch has been released just five days ago, so in my opinion that's not really an 'alarming' silence.
Nevertheless I do see some worrying parallels to the disaapointing way, they treated Civ III Conquest. BTS is the second addon, the game gets more complex, the number of bugs is rising and might require more and more efforts to solve - while the Civ 4-project team is disolving, budgets are used up and basically everyone has it's mind set on Civ Revolutions, Civ 5 or whatever new cash cow they have in mind for us spent our hard earned money on.
I hope, the don't go the cheap way simply abandoning BTS as they did with Conquests. I also think, we should give them some time to realize, there's still work to do. But if there wont be any reply within the next four to eight weeks - I guess then that's the inglorious end for Civ 4 as well.

 

[TheWilltoAct]

I see no reason for a response the second that someone in Firaxis actually tries to use their own wacked out patch... something like oh s*** we forgot to put the culture value next to the building! Or, ***? Why does Alexander want my iron when he already has his own?

 

[blitzkrieg1980]

<WAR HORN> Yankees fans (Bronx/Staten Island/New Jersey) declared war on Red Sox Fans (Boston)! The enemy has been spotted near Fenway! good luck to the Sox. I'd rather see the Cubbies actually win, but what can I do? Yankees season is over and now there is no hope for my 1-4 Jets .

Oops... shoulda posted in the Sports Forum,

Personally, I don't see that many problems with the patched BTS. I tend to ignore non-gameplay related glitches and I try my best to adapt to any unbalance issues (which many have been resolved)

 

[Rince]

Let's give them a bit more time. The patch is only out a few days. I expect a response by the end of the week. Maybe not on CFC but at least on A*****on.

Greetings,

Rince

 

[Soneji]

I don't see what everyones problem is with that.

I mean how long have people been able to extort rediculous amounts of resources for one Iron for example?

If you need to rely on foreign goods, your crap at this game.

I can happily play a whole game without needing anything from the AI, and actually if you refuse their first offer and get them to try again.. they throw something else and some money on top.

 

[TheWilltoAct]

Soneji, there's no reason to tear down other players for playing the game as it is meant to be played. It is common to lack valuable resources that your neighbors possess - trading is the only way to acquire those short of open war.

blitzkrieg - my understanding is that there are a couple of problems, such as the AI not realizing it already has a resource and then trying to trade for your copy of it. Also, it will demand exorbitant amounts of resources in exchange for something common, where it should just be a 1:1 ratio in general (unless it's something key like iron) ... at least that has been my experience in the past on monarch.

 

[Soneji]

Yes, well if its a common thing... why do players expect an unfair advantage?

All I can see this patch doing is making it far more fair, the AI acts more like a humar player by keeping resources close to its heart.

 

[TheWilltoAct]

A 1:1 ratio is scarcely an "advantage"... but perhaps I am missing something here? You mentioned earlier someone being able to extort lots of resources from other civs in exchange for one (or few) of their own...? Do you have a specific example?

 

[Duuk]

blitzkrieg - my understanding is that there are a couple of problems, such as the AI not realizing it already has a resource and then trying to trade for your copy of it. Also, it will demand exorbitant amounts of resources in exchange for something common, where it should just be a 1:1 ratio in general (unless it's something key like iron) ... at least that has been my experience in the past on monarch.

Not only does the AI not realize it has it, but when trading for it there is no way for the human to KNOW the ai has it and thus avoid offering it.

MP sync issue.

Culture icon issue.

Firaxis made patch issue.

 

[blitzkrieg1980]

AFAI remember, every version of cIV from vanilla on have had the player able to trade exorbitant amounts of GPT and AI lux resources for a human player's one (1) strategic resource.

My game has redded out the resources that the AI already has.