jpinard
Martian
Why would you say that? Was there some official press release?
Alarming silence of Firaxis
- Thread starter gunter
- Start date
Why would you say that? Was there some official press release?
Not even a whisper of one... 20 days after the patch was released. Not a word, not a HINT that there will be another patch. Not even an acknowledgment that bug reports are being received or that Firaxis has any desire to finish their patch.
Thats hardly different from all the other "in-between-patch" moments...
Well... From day 1, I had to edit xml files to remove some major bugs with the spies on marathon. I've finished ONE game so far... but started A LOT. And when playing on marathon its not that funny to find bugs after 20 hours of play IMO. Everytime Firaxis attempt to patch the game, they disappoint me with more bugs.
BUT! I could live with the bugs, if Firaxis told me that they were working on a patch with an estimated release day. I know Alexman tried this - but he failed just as much as a man can possible fail IMHO. If he gives an estimate, and that estimate turned out to be twice the time first posted... then it might be a good idea to let us know. Instead of starting a meltdown at CF.
... and then I've been told to not play on marathon
but... thats just the only way I want to play. I dont like small maps and fast gameplay...So basicly I feel like a beta-tester... ONE finished game so far
AfterShafter
Deity
Their last patch made me unable to play it with my friends, and I've yet to hear anything about this weeks after its release... So I can honestly say that I haven't enjoyed playing a patched BTS at all, in any way, shape, or form. I love Firaxis' games, but would you defend the 3.13 patch *at all* if you were in my position? I've just rolled back and shake my head at Firaxis releasing such a piece of garbage patch - if I didn't love their games so much, I would drop their products as a result of this type of thing, as I've done with several lesser games in the past.
There is still time... but I'm not buying any new firaxis products in the future - not at release day anyway
I feel the same way. Lack of communication frustrates the patient and impatient alike because they can't have any idea what to expect. If people get impatient with realistic ETAs then that's their problem.
Personally I'd encourage anyone who is having serious problems to actually forword their concerns to Take Two. Even if they can't help you they may get the hint that the game's got serious problems.
I can never get round the idea that pc games can be released with so many faults. I cant think of any other business where you can get away with this.
Console games work out of the box, why cant PC games?
Yes you can argue that PC's have so many different facets there will be faults, but in that case repair them when they are pointed out. The main reason is a console game cant be repaired once its released, so it has to drop back in schedule till its as right as possible (Assassins Creed as an example).
The saddest thing is most of the faults games are released with are faults for all, not a system specific thing so its just lazyness. Rather than pay for testing and QA they just send it out and wait for the populace to say whats wrong then fix it bit by bit.
I have to say Civ are normally alright for this but not this latest game. The worst culprits in my experience were always the Total War series who would refuse to release more than 2 patches no matter how half assed the games.
I know that 90% of the problem behind this lies with the publisher refusing to put any more money into the project so they get the hate, but it must also be down to the game designers underestimating the resources they need just to get the game published.
I wonder if i will see the day when a game publisher gets sued now more and more people are playing games into their adulthood. I think the main reason that game companies got away with this behaviour in the past was that it was mainly children who played.
lol sorry, rant over. Im just a bit wound up im having to play without any animations since i handed £15 over to Firaxis...
Console games work out of the box, why cant PC games?
Yes you can argue that PC's have so many different facets there will be faults, but in that case repair them when they are pointed out. The main reason is a console game cant be repaired once its released, so it has to drop back in schedule till its as right as possible (Assassins Creed as an example).
The saddest thing is most of the faults games are released with are faults for all, not a system specific thing so its just lazyness. Rather than pay for testing and QA they just send it out and wait for the populace to say whats wrong then fix it bit by bit.
I have to say Civ are normally alright for this but not this latest game. The worst culprits in my experience were always the Total War series who would refuse to release more than 2 patches no matter how half assed the games.
I know that 90% of the problem behind this lies with the publisher refusing to put any more money into the project so they get the hate, but it must also be down to the game designers underestimating the resources they need just to get the game published.
I wonder if i will see the day when a game publisher gets sued now more and more people are playing games into their adulthood. I think the main reason that game companies got away with this behaviour in the past was that it was mainly children who played.
lol sorry, rant over. Im just a bit wound up im having to play without any animations since i handed £15 over to Firaxis...
AfterShafter
Deity
I recently bought a game called Eternal Sonata for the XBOX 360... Not very good, by the way... But anyways, it only starts roughly one out of five times that I put it in the system. Not the only game I've had problems with this generation too...
I know I got my share of crappy console games down though the years especially those rushed for Christmas release. Even back in C64 days I bought some sorry games without any hope of a patch.
You know, I keep seeing this reported all of the place. I didn't install the game in the default directory, and I had no problem installing the patch. It didn't try and stick anything in the "wrong" directory. The game is patched correctly, and reporting the correct version. Did I just get exceptionally lucky?
Bh
I second Bhruic's observation. I have BTS installed in non-default location and patch applied just fine. I have to add that I patched by downloading the patch and executing it, not by internal update-game system (I download and manually apply patches whenever I can).
jpinard
Martian
No, works fine for me too. And mine is not only in a non-default directory, but on another hard drive as well!
King Flevance
Deity
There is still time... but I'm not buying any new firaxis products in the future - not at release day anyway
That makes 3 of us then. I like BTS. I actually still think another patch is on the way too.
But vanilla had all sorts of problems for me. From day one and past the date of 1.61. Warlords, I skipped because I thought it wasn't worth its money. BTS was worth its money. And I get GG's thrown in as a kicker to add to the value pack.
But I am not at all impressed by the support (or lack thereof) from Firaxis/Take2 as far as customer relations and patching goes. I was dissappointed with 3. Especially concerning some very gamebreaking bugs never being fixed. Capture the Princess anyone? ... oh wait. But the thing is, I overlooked these flaws in the game to enjoy it because I like the game of Civ and is the game I call "my game".
I will overlook the flaws in Civ 4 too. A whole lot easier than I could 3 because I have began to get into modding and seeing how I can change what I don't like. But if I am just going to be waiting around for the next patch anyways so I can enjoy the game, I will just wait for Civ 5 complete to come out.
I have had long personal boycotts with companies before. And this isn't really a boycott so much as a smart consumer move IMO. Depends on what I see though. Some companies have 'redeemed' (for lack of better word) themselves in my eyes from later titles and I pulled off the boycott. (Sierra was one)
It sucks to see Civ going down the tubes as far as quality goes. But in the end, I always hope for the game to come out shining. Civ 3 was almost there IMO before it got abandoned. Fixing some of the major bugs would have put it up on a higher pedestal than it currently is. Hopefully Civ 4 BTS will fully live up to its potential before it gets tossed aside for the next project.
And I will soon.
Thanks to Bhruic's great work, obviously the Community brought BtS where Firaxis should have put it. That's the big advantage Civ 4 has over Civ 3. If they don't want to finish it, we can. One major reason for me to buy Civ 4 at all, after bugs and insane copy protection almost drove me completely out of PC gaming.
there goes another theory I have seen quite a lot of reports that had BtS installed in non-default locations and the installer put files in the default location - so I assumed that was the problem, if it is not it is something else. Of course finding it is not made easier by the fact that quite a lot of people reporting broken games use cracked versions for which there is a simple solution (buy the game 
) - but I doubt it is all of those that report problems caused by the patch, just testing this is neigh impossible...Well... From day 1, I had to edit xml files to remove some major bugs with the spies on marathon. I've finished ONE game so far... but started A LOT. And when playing on marathon its not that funny to find bugs after 20 hours of play IMO. Everytime Firaxis attempt to patch the game, they disappoint me with more bugs.
BUT! I could live with the bugs, if Firaxis told me that they were working on a patch with an estimated release day. I know Alexman tried this - but he failed just as much as a man can possible fail IMHO. If he gives an estimate, and that estimate turned out to be twice the time first posted... then it might be a good idea to let us know. Instead of starting a meltdown at CF.
... and then I've been told to not play on marathon
So basicly I feel like a beta-tester... ONE finished game so far
I'd say you have gotten the royal shafting of the pRNG-god. Despite my heavy working schedule, I have finished about 7 or 8 games so far. I've started many more, but quit them because I lost interest in what was going on, or didn't play for a week and felt like starting a new game and not trying to figure out what I was doing the weekend before to pick it up again. The only games I had to quit was when I had "Lock Modifiable Assets" on and then patched the game, only to find my running game as Frederick wouldn't load. It's also pretty obvious why that happened, though, so I'm not going to whine to Firaxis.
I'm convinced ori's observation of using cracked games is correct. My game isn't exactly in the place it "should" be either, but when I boot from the CD I purchased, patch and all, it works like a charm.
Wodan
Deity
Yeah... it always makes me wonder. For some people, cracked games are the norm. Usually because of the country in which they live. I'm not saying that as a negative to them... it's just the exchange rate, and other factors, which makes it economically less advantageous for them to purchase a retail copy. That's the world market for you.
Anyway, my question is what is the correlation with that factor and with incidence of trouble with the game? It would be interesting to find out.
Wodan
Anyway, my question is what is the correlation with that factor and with incidence of trouble with the game? It would be interesting to find out.
Wodan
I'm not sure I misunderstood something here... but my low number of finished games isnt because of instability, cracked game or anything. BTS is without a doubt the most stable version to date IMO, and I'm not running it with any cracks. I just simply quit the games I've started because of the bugs I've found. Then "patched" it with solvers or bhruic's "patches"... but something always comes up, and then I lose interest
I'm not sure I misunderstood something here... but my low number of finished games isnt because of instability, cracked game or anything. BTS is without a doubt the most stable version to date IMO, and I'm not running it with any cracks. I just simply quit the games I've started because of the bugs I've found. Then "patched" it with solvers or bhruic's "patches"... but something always comes up, and then I lose interest
I'm not suggesting you have a cracked version of the game, that was a different part of my post. To my understanding, you quit the game because of bugs. I have not quit a game of BtS for that reason, ever. I have never even seen half of the bugs that people post on these forums...I often wonder where all these mysterious problems are coming from. My game runs smoothly with no problems at all.
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