Alarming silence of Firaxis

[Psyringe]

If all the people who spend their time with the umpteenth rehash of the same old arguments would spend this time reporting bugs and discussing fixes, then the next patch would actually be released faster (because Firaxis then has more already approved solutions to work with).

Personally, I'm much more interested in making Civ4 the best product it can possibly be, so please excuse me while I move over to the bug forums and leave this thread to the people who enjoy pointless repetitions of resultless discussions more than I do.

 

[KrikkitTwo]

^ see the unofficial 3.13 patch

 

[GenocideBringer]

blitzkrieg, have you tried resource trading...

Then set the deal yourself, cutting out all the extra stuff. It's annoying AT TIMES, but it's very easy to bargain down the AI.


But yeah. The community's whines ruined it.

 

[TheWilltoAct]

No... you are wrong. The bug is serious and real and you cannot just bargain it away.

Do not stand in judgement of the community, and do not judge what you do not know.

 

[Minoan]

I said it once, and I said it again: If you think Civ IV is buggy, go play Roller Coaster Tycoon 3. I guarantee that afterwards, your opinion on Firaxis will change. Or look at M2:TW prior to patch 1.2. The game was, for several months, almost unplayable. Yes, Civ IV has some serious problems, and it should be patched as quickly as possible, but I believe that some people are seriously overstating the problems with the game, especailly since many of them have been fixed by modders (the multiplayer bug aside).

 

[King of Town]

Based on the fact that someone has already released a fix to the problems people are having for the most part, i don't understand the point of this thread. I loathe the day Alexman came on as a favor to you all that patch was coming out. Unless there are severly game disabling things that happen in the game, that haven't been addressed by Bhuric, get the fixes and move on. We have great people here that can work the bugs out for you, for the most part, take advantage of it. Like the previous post said, they've probably been working on this patch for ridiculous hours and are just as frustrated as you. They care about product quality just as much as you do, if not more, because their names are on it. If after putting together this expansion, testing it like crazy, and putting out three patches to fix what they have missed, they want to take a little siesta I am more than fine with that. Surely they've missed most of the summer do to this game, let them at least go around and enjoy life a little before requesting the bend to your needs.

 

[gunter]

they want to take a little siesta I am more than fine with that.

First, this is a your assumption,maybe they already dropped the support and you are only hoping.

Second,their greatest error IMO is to consider 3.13 the last one BEFORE releasing it,this is witnessed by the long amount of bug fixes that usually are justified only for the latest patch,usually.

Third, a Firaxis programmer earns I assume between 3000 and 8000 euros per month. Considering their salary is definitely high I can for sure justify tiny bugs but not the existing ones.

Fourth and last their constant lack of comunication to super fidel customers irritates me a lot.

 

[dutchking]

I agree with everything the Original Poster says. It's dissapointing that most of it is true. And the second poster too, I'm not surprised either that there will probably be no special channel of communication like that again.

 

[classical_hero]

I think FIRAXIS still had alot of time for real comfortable life with all the features you mentioned MrFrodo, since the last buggy patch for Civ3 Conquests and with your way of seeing things now they should do their job and fix the bugs they have left and adjust the promised features that didn´t work properly with C3C. I hope you got the point.

Even in this Civ 4 thread you can read, that a lot of civers haven´t forgotten the betrayal FIRAXIS did with C3C and I think it´s normal that alot of people worry that this can happen again. Especially with a game that is as doomed by missconstruction as it is Civ 4 (here you can read why: http://forums.civfanatics.com/showpost.php?p=6023466&postcount=29).

I still have not forgotten to what happen with Conquests. They really need to fix it since there are still too many bugs with it. It also showed tha they are willing to leave buggy games without fixing them, which does not look good from a stand point of the customer. Which is the whole point of making games, to please the customer.

 

[ImperialGuard]

I think we all just have to come to terms with the fact that BTS was a "money grab" by Firaxis ....

• They added some new leaders, new civs (not much effort required)
• They added a couple new technologies/buildings (not much effort required)
• They added corporations (enhanced religion concept)
• They added espionage (dug out the code from Civ1 / Civ2)
• Paid Blake for the AI work he'd already done and paid him to make an AI that actually worked good....
• Borrowed mod's from Civ Community and packaged them in the game
• Gave us a Beta of an upcoming new game they will release (Some sort of Space Game)
• Gave us a Beta of an upcoming new game they will release (some sort of squad based game (XCOM?))
• Paid someone a couple bucks to put together a "manual" (and I use that term very loosely)
• did minimal QA on the product (e.g. paid their summer interns to test it)
• did I miss anything ??

They're just milking the cash cow for one more Civ hit... we shouldn't expect a polished, work of art ........ we'll be lucky to get another patch.

It was sure nice of alexman(?) to give us a "heads up" on the 3.13 patch, but Firaxis has moved on .... thanks to sites like this they may hear the uproar from the lack of quality they are producing, but they're sitting in their offices thinking about there next games / consoles ....

...they may be back in 2 years sucking up to the community when "technology has improved to the point that we wanted to remake CIV in a way that honored the franchise blah blah blah" (e.g. Civ5) ...

sorry, sound bitter, but not really .... it's just the way I see it .... I actually enjoy BTS, the AI rocks, and can't wait for GOTM with BTS ....

just wanted to rant

 

[vilemerchant]

sorry, sound bitter, but not really .... it's just the way I see it .... I actually enjoy BTS, the AI rocks, and can't wait for GOTM with BTS ....

just wanted to rant

Despite the problems and bugs it's certainly a FAR better game than warlords. Warlords 2.08 made the AI basically inept at war, AI vs AI wars would be lucky to even see a city change hands. The new Agg-AI in BTS means nice big AI stacks that actually know how to attack and capture cities. Lots of fun!

 

[Tridus]

Unless there are severly game disabling things that happen in the game, that haven't been addressed by Bhuric, get the fixes and move on.

Oh, you mean like multiplayer sync problems?

All they need to do is release another patch that fixes the bugs their last patch created. Thats it. No new features. No balance changes. Just fix the new bugs.

As a paying customer, thats not asking too much. I'll certainly remember in the future if they DON'T fix it, and will take my money elsewhere.

 

[Öjevind Lång]

Oh, you mean like multiplayer sync problems?

All they need to do is release another patch that fixes the bugs their last patch created. Thats it. No new features. No balance changes. Just fix the new bugs.

As a paying customer, thats not asking too much. I'll certainly remember in the future if they DON'T fix it, and will take my money elsewhere.

I suck at moving things like dlls around, so using unofficial patches aren't really for me. I have tried, and I just muck things up. So while waiting for the official patch that may turn up at some time or other, I have reverted to playing the vanilla game. It's a nice, unbuggy game, especially with the 1.74 patch. I had forgotten how much fun it is.

I suspect that the people at Firaxis are much too busy with the new simplified console version of the game to bother about BtS. Still, if they never bother to fix BtS, I will certainly remember it, and such a circumstance would affect my future choices as a consumer.

 

[Wodan]

I suck at moving things like dlls around, so using unofficial patches aren't really for me. I have tried, and I just muck things up.

It wouldn't be that hard for Bhruic or someone to make a self-extracting zip that automatically puts the .dll into the default directory on your machine. This obviously would only be for people who installed the game into the default directory, but that's the exact people such as yourself.

Wodan

 

[Bhruic]

It wouldn't be that hard for Bhruic or someone to make a self-extracting zip that automatically puts the .dll into the default directory on your machine. This obviously would only be for people who installed the game into the default directory, but that's the exact people such as yourself.

Actually, it's pretty easy to snag the install directory from the registry... I'll put this on my "things to do" list.

Bh

 

[Bhruic]

Oh, you mean like multiplayer sync problems?

All they need to do is release another patch that fixes the bugs their last patch created. Thats it. No new features. No balance changes. Just fix the new bugs.

As a paying customer, thats not asking too much. I'll certainly remember in the future if they DON'T fix it, and will take my money elsewhere.

A lot of people have had success with turning off random events. Obviously not a fix, but if you're looking to enjoy MP, that could be the best way to do it for now.

Bh

 

[MarkM]

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 ?

While it would be nice to know what their plans/timetable is, I also know that if I worked for Firaxis, there would be no way in H-E-double hockey sticks that I would ever post a status report at this site ever again. Not after the way alexman got reamed. We've bitten the hand that feeds us, sadly, and now we all live with the consequences. If your dog viciously attacks you, do you really have any obligation to keep petting it?

And it goes on in this thread even, with ImperialGuard's bizarre claim that BTS was conceived as nothing more than an attempt to "milk the cash cow" and did not at all add to the game. Whaaaaa??? It's like a neocon's insistence that the US is winning in Iraq. It really doesn't matter what the reality is any more, they are going to believe that til we leave (and then believe that leaving snatched defeat from the jaws of victory, just like Vietnam supposedly). Relating it back to BTS: Firaxis will be attacked no matter WHAT they post here, it is clear. SO why even bother? I certainly wouldn't.

 

[Craterus22]

We've bitten the hand that feeds us, sadly, and now we all live with the consequences.

I have seen people state this a number of times on the boards (heck even a mod typed up something similar)...

FYI

We feed them.

 

[TheWilltoAct]

Hell yea Craterus.

I really wish people would knock off this zealotous defending of what is basically nothing more than a stereotype of what a "programmer" does. Now, I am no expert and therefore cannot offer definitive judgement, but I think it is absolutely preposterous to position the programmer as some kind of deprived slave o.O For goodness sakes, no one is forcing them to be programmers. If they don't like their job situation they can quit, or they could have chosen a different career path in the first place. Regardless of what we do or say on here I think they will be just fine...

 

[Öjevind Lång]

Actually, it's pretty easy to snag the install directory from the registry... I'll put this on my "things to do" list.

Bh

I'd appreciate that a lot. The list of things you have fixed makes my mouth water. And I suspect that an later official patch would simply overwrite yours, is that correct?