Alarming silence of Firaxis

I have to say you've got me there. I haven't played MP in a while (though I've been meaning to get back into it... I tend to go in waves), but I have heard some alarming reports of, how to say, rampant disconnectivity. That would annoy me to no end, during one of my MP "waves".

That's good question, though. Are the MP problems (hotseat games aside) something that an unofficial patch is incapable of fixing, because of the nature of the MP interface? Thus, the only solution is an official patch? Anyone know?

Wodan

If I recall correctly, the multiplayer issue is hardcoded, and can't be fixed by a modder. So yeah, it'd need an offical patch.
 
I don't think a lot of people understand the process a patch has to go through before being released and I'm not just talking about the beta-testing, but from the beginning. Anyone who's worked at any sort of medium size company and bigger knows how slow it takes to get anything done. Solver and Bhruic are individuals working on their own. They make all decisions and do not have to answer, or seek a higher authority to do it. Firaxis does not have that capability. I don't think people understand the full process.

I fully understand the process, and I still think it's ineffective in every way possible. Firaxis is heading down a path that is hard to turn back from. When they lose the customers goodwill, then they have nothing.

Sony Online Entertainment is already on my list of companies I dont buy from, and Firaxis/take2 arent far from ending in that list.

Dont get me wrong. I love Civilization as an idea, its just sad that the branche has been lost in the grinding machine of take2, and not some more passionate publisher.
 
It's the silence that's so frustrating. It's not difficult to say, "We're working on another patch. No ETA"

Many of us remember how Conquests was left hanging with problems. I love playing Civ but I'm wondering if this is going to be a repeat problem with the second expansion pack.

I, too, refuse to purchase a SOE game. Star Wars Galaxies was the biggest disappointment I've ever had with a PC game.
 
What's "alarming" to me is that you guys don't understand why Firaxis is silent. Their future silence was roundly predicted in the alexman-bashing thread. This thread is equivalent to wondering why your boss doesn't come around to chat much after you mock him publicly ...
 
What's "alarming" to me is that you guys don't understand why Firaxis is silent. Their future silence was roundly predicted in the alexman-bashing thread. This thread is equivalent to wondering why your boss doesn't come around to chat much after you mock him publicly ...

Yeah if your boss always walked around with his zipper undone and uncomfortably failing to hide his flatulence every 30 seconds or so
 
no, firaxis ruined it by releasing terrible patches that had maybe 20 minutes of playtesting max

Yeah if your boss always walked around with his zipper undone and uncomfortably failing to hide his flatulence every 30 seconds or so

Moderator Action: Warned! - The first quote is borderline trolling, as you making an outlandish statement. The second quote for spam, since it doesn't pertain to the discussion.
Please read the forum rules: http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=422889
 
Moderator Action: Warned! - The first quote is borderline trolling, as you making an outlandish statement.
Please read the forum rules: http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=422889

I agree that it's outlandish to suggest it was tested for 20 minutes. It's quite obvious it wasn't tested for anywhere near that long!

Moderator Action: Warned! - You probably expected this when you posted.
Please read the forum rules: http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=422889
 
I don't mind if someone wishes to post their complaints, but please do so in a reasonable manner. There's no need for such outlandish statements, as they only turn it from a discussion into a flamewar. Keep it reasonable. Note that goes both ways.
 
I have to say you've got me there. I haven't played MP in a while (though I've been meaning to get back into it... I tend to go in waves), but I have heard some alarming reports of, how to say, rampant disconnectivity. That would annoy me to no end, during one of my MP "waves".

That's good question, though. Are the MP problems (hotseat games aside) something that an unofficial patch is incapable of fixing, because of the nature of the MP interface? Thus, the only solution is an official patch? Anyone know?

Wodan

I've had no problems with multiplayer using 3.13. My friend and I have played several LAN games totaling 40+ hours of game play since updating and have not had any issues at all.
 
It's the silence that's so frustrating. It's not difficult to say, "We're working on another patch. No ETA"

Many of us remember how Conquests was left hanging with problems. I love playing Civ but I'm wondering if this is going to be a repeat problem with the second expansion pack.

I, too, refuse to purchase a SOE game. Star Wars Galaxies was the biggest disappointment I've ever had with a PC game.

For me, Master of Orion 3 takes the cake.
 
What's "alarming" to me is that you guys don't understand why Firaxis is silent. Their future silence was roundly predicted in the alexman-bashing thread. This thread is equivalent to wondering why your boss doesn't come around to chat much after you mock him publicly ...

There were maybe 10 loudmouths persistently posting in that thread. It is extremely unprofessional for company representatives to alter their public behavior based on such a tiny sample. Unlike the average poster, this is their full time job, they ought to be above such petty nonsense.

The first quote is borderline trolling, as you making an outlandish statement.
I wish I could agree with you, but his statement was merely an exaggerated version of the truth. I have worked in software development, and I know firsthand that some bugs are inevitable in any complex system. However, the kind of bugs that would be obvious to almost anybody during normal use of the software are not inevitable, and point to the fact that Firaxis has a completely broken QA/release process. I'm not pointing fingers at any individuals, but it is sadly obvious that 3.13 testing was far from adequate. And let's not even get started on 3.03 - "built from a wrong branch"??? Such a thing would not be even remotely possible at any software development shop that wasn't completely screwed up.
 
...And let's not even get started on 3.03 - "built from a wrong branch"??? Such a thing would not be even remotely possible at any software development shop that wasn't completely screwed up.

Makes me wonder... have their main/seasoned/veteran programmers moved on to "revolution" and assigned whats left of civ4 to an intern? :crazyeye:
 
Age old argument, with an age old answer. Don't sell crappy products that don't work. It's as simple as that.

Problem is, we got so used to patches over the past 15 years of gaming, that what should in any other product, be a major exception has become the norm with regards to software. No other industry can get away with selling such broken/defective products freely to the public. In a sense we brought this on ourselves buy continuing to buy from companies that release unfinished/buggy crap. None of this is new or shocking, just the reality of the situation.

I give Firaxis credit for at least releasing a patch, which is more then one can say anymore about a lot of major game companies. Companies like Activision, and EA, just to name a few, have given up on making patches so much that the only patches you do see come from Major releases, or ones that the developer has to make with their own out of pocket resources. I'm not saying it's right, thats just how it is.

It's no wonder so many companies are gearing for consoles, because in that world most of the time, if it's buggy, your stuck with it, and thats it.
 
Yes, thats why I think Firaxis are going to the consoles... so they can sell buggy crap and no one can do a thing about it once they have finalised all the discs!
 
What's "alarming" to me is that you guys don't understand why Firaxis is silent. Their future silence was roundly predicted in the alexman-bashing thread. This thread is equivalent to wondering why your boss doesn't come around to chat much after you mock him publicly ...

I don't know and I didn't read that Alexman-bashing thread ( BTW do you have a link please ? ) therefore I can't judge it.

Anyway if I didn't read it I can say that it seems to me not quite fair to get offended by some thread statements and as a consequence of that close the whole company press/fans relationships.

We can say that the Fireaxis' war weariness is always on, despite time,peace treaties,non aggression pacts,mutual defense agreements and resources offered ( Dj Anjon and Bhruic for instance are the great scientist leaders ) ..... ... should we start to use some expionage points to drain infos ? ;)
 
Makes me wonder... have their main/seasoned/veteran programmers moved on to "revolution"

Actually, Soren (who was lead before BTS) left Firaxis totally to work on Spore.
 
I've had no problems with multiplayer using 3.13. My friend and I have played several LAN games totaling 40+ hours of game play since updating and have not had any issues at all.
That's good news! Are the people having problems just because they have different versions of patches, then?

Wodan
 
Yes, thats why I think Firaxis are going to the consoles... so they can sell buggy crap and no one can do a thing about it once they have finalised all the discs!
Consoles require much more exhaustive testing precisely because you can't patch it.

The reason to go to consoles is that the programming and testing is all easier and standard because you have one fixed, stable platform, instead of a different hardware setup on every single customer (which is what the PC version has to deal with).

Wodan
 
Top Bottom