Any reason not to uninstall?

[Sovietof17]

Well, I'm at wits end. I turned down graphics to low and played for about 2.5 hours before a CTD (ran out of memory resources to render a picture). Map was 18 civ huge earth, about 5 civs have been eliminated already. I provoked a global war on me and I'll probably reload to an early save and just press OK button 100 times.

Ok, is there any reason not to uninstall this game? Here are my reasons in no particular order:

* Tech support on the boards has been abysmal. As stated earlier my computer runs Oblivion fine on medium settings which uses MANY of the propietary technoligies in this game such as GAMEBRYO and SCALEFORM. The tech support has ranged from 'LOL BUY BETTAR COMPUTAR BUY MOAR MEMORY to LOL DEFRAGMENT'. Unlike Oblivion no one has provided me with any software tweaks. Buying another gigabyte is unacceptable to compensate for poor programming and design. Only positive thing I can say is that 1.61 has completely removed any random reboots this app has caused.

* AI in this game is stupider then my pet rock. Once you are in the lead, it is so easy to win. And by the lead, I mean, you are at 4,000 some odd points and the next AI is at 1.7-2k points. The AI, designed to maximize its gameplay, loses every time by failing to take risks. You never get gang raped and you are always safe as long as you build military units [as far as I can tell, the AI algorithm to attack you seems to be obsessed with comparing army size]

* The promise that AI wont build cities in crappy places is bullfeathers. I see them spamming cities everywhere in places where even cockroaches wouldn't live. It is clear the algorithm still tries to expand even when it makes no sense.

* Combat makes no sense. It is too easy to get chip damage in with crappy units on excellent units which are far better then you. I can't remember specific examples here

* Multiplayer is broken. Players seem to cheat all the time and I have witnessed one player move an entire stack including cataputls one unit into my city, bombard, and attack all on the same turn. I have also seen another player destroy a stack of 12-16 macemen at full health on grassland with a stack of about 6-8 catapults. Clearly, these incident are examples of players using some kind of exploit.

* Gamespy is atrocious. It will often report games are full. No one wants to join your Hamachi hosted games because they believe they will get a trojan/virus/get hacked if they install Hamachi. 7 times out of 10 you are unable to connect to a peer today that you connected to yesterday. This is a clear example of how Gamespy is a complete failure and this game should be hosted on a more reliable multiplayer service.

* Like Oblivion, it seems like this game has been dumbed down for the masses. Alot of things that made the game fun like armies, advanced espionage, revolutions, paratroopers were removed.

* This game is driving me crazy and I am sick of the crashing on huge maps. I refuse to play smaller maps or lower resolution

1st conclusion: I should uninstall this game because it sucks ass.
2nd conclusion: Intelligent computer and console gaming is getting flushed down the toilet in order to appeal to the masses by offering flashy graphics and simplified gameplay.
3rd conclusion: I should quit gaming entirely because all new games seem to suck these days and don't capture the feeling of the older titles such as Ultima VII, Civilization I, Master of Magic, Final Fantasy 7, Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri, Morrowind, etc etc etc.

Agree, disagree, or discuss?

 

[Salamandre]

I think very few people here will agree with you. This game is amazing, and computer issues are due often to lack of video driver updates. I have a 1.3 GHZ, which is very low, but I can handle small map and enjoy them. And it ask much less memory than Oblivion , which is my main reason to change computer, after pillaging my bank.


The details you put on are how this game works. The catapults are tremendous strong, but only if infantery or Cavalery follows. I doubt someone killed your stack only with catapults.


The computer plays very well on monarch and is a kick ass on imortal/deity. Try them if you are so bored then come whine here

I dunno about Gamespy, as I never used it. It seems it is not good. But there are other options to connect to people, no?

Some aspects from CIV3 were removed, but there are so many new features to make us happy. The editor is thousand times better than previous, and I suggest you to give a look on the Mods already out.


I am sure everyone here were a bit/or a lot dissapointed when played first time CIV4 because the changes are drastic. But once you get in the depth you start to fly over the game. It's a great game.

 

[malclave]

I refuse to play smaller maps or lower resolution

If the game always crashes on you on huge maps, and you will not play anything smaller, then you're not playing.

I don't understand your question. If I stop playing a game, I normally uninstall it after a couple of weeks (in case I change my mind). Do you normally leave games installed which you don't play?

 

[oopsy poopsy]

Well, my computer can barely run Oblivion at minimum settings (although I hate that game, I gave it a shot but was bored to tears). I can however play civ4 on the same computer with fairly decent resolution and although I get some crappy lag for the late game on huge maps, I've only ever had one ctd and I'm pretty sure it was because I had Azureus/Notepad/Photoshop/Opera all running in the background, meaning my own damn fault. Mine's just an old 2.4ghz p4 with a gig of ram, and a 9800pro on a board that doesn't even support 8x (only 4x) for agp. IMO if you're getting lots of CTD with a computer that runs Oblivion decently then it has to be a driver problem. That's not to say it isn't still the developers fault, but it doesn't mean it absolutely is either. As for the dumbed down part, I don't agree. I'm not a huge gamer and I'm definitely not among the elite in this game, so I understand if you're frustrated with parts of the game, but I can't believe you're playing deity or sid (or whatever they call the levels I haven't even looked at yet) and still finding the game to simple. It's frustrating when developers take out parts of a game that you really like in later versions, but IMO there's lots of neat things in this game to keep it interesting. If you find it too easy to marshall your resources to keep the ai from attacking you, then move up another level, try a variant or a succession game where you may have to play very differently based on how the other players play. Have you fully explored playing with different leaders, different traits, and different maps? Also, IMO huge maps, even with 18 civs are no a very strong map for forcing AI combat with you. There's usually enough land at the start and unless you're totally outclassed at a difficulty level there's always a weaker target to go after. Huge maps don't mean you're playing the best version, there are all sorts of challenges on standard and small maps that you don't face on huge maps. I can understand that this game may not be as complex for you as some older games, but there is a lot there, at least for me. If you're unwilling to give the game a thorough test first, you might miss out on something you could really enjoy.

Not trying to start a flamewar, just a friendly dialogue and I hope you can get some help with the technical stuff, but I'm not the best person to ask, so I won't try.

edit: the only advice I have for civ4 techwise and it may be total layman advice is to make sure you've got your virtual memory settings setup to allow you to use some harddrive space as RAM. I've also seen a lot on this board that the nicer computers out there have a harder time with this game then some of the older less advanced rigs.

 

[Underdawg]

Maybe tell us your comp specs so I can infer upon them?



When I still had onboard video (x200) and only 384RAM (512 DDR SDRAM), playing on a large map in the indutrial ages was totally unplayable (turns took nearly a minute long). I got a gig of ram and voila, it was smooth as butter. Became even smoother when I got my X1600 Pro, which handles Oblivion quite nicely I might add.

 

[Sovietof17]

ATI RADEON 9800 PRO
3GHZ Pentium 4 Northwood Core
1GB memory, Dual Channel Configuration

When I turned graphics to low it played fine without lag, then all of a sudden CRASH TO DESKTOP after 2.5 hours. Unacceptable.

Maybe tell us your comp specs so I can infer upon them?



When I still had onboard video (x200) and only 384RAM (512 DDR SDRAM), playing on a large map in the indutrial ages was totally unplayable (turns took nearly a minute long). I got a gig of ram and voila, it was smooth as butter. Became even smoother when I got my X1600 Pro, which handles Oblivion quite nicely I might add.

 

[ThERat]

I agree partly with the OP. The game has been dumbed down to cater for the flashy (that's what they think) graphics.

some claims about elements that have been eliminated are plain wrong as well. I have witnessed useless and annoying city spamming as well. It just takes the AI longer to fill the land, but they will spam nevertheless. In many games, we (SG) owned a whole continent and would refuse to fill the last tundra corner because it's a useless piece of land. You can bet that the AI would come and settle that spot, even though it adds zero value.

SOD is alive and basically needed for survival. Play AW games and see how the AI would stack all their units combined to attack. Only if you got very few units, it would make sense to spread them out. Else the stack protects the wounded units. The very fact that the medic will heal units within the stack tells you something...

The computer plays very well on monarch and is a kick ass on imortal/deity

Well, that's just plain wrong. The computer AI is pretty dumb (don't believe me? play a team game with the AI, and check what they when they play). The difference between diety and let's say noble is the insane bonus the AI gets. This has nothing to do with AI, but plain cheating.

The computer now plays more defensive and rather hides. It doesn't play to win (it is programmed that way) except for SS. Thus, after a while the game does seem to become pretty repetitive.

 

[oopsy poopsy]

ATI RADEON 9800 PRO
3GHZ Pentium 4 Northwood Core
1GB memory, Dual Channel Configuration

When I turned graphics to low it played fine without lag, then all of a sudden CRASH TO DESKTOP after 2.5 hours. Unacceptable.

Well, you're using a better box than me, with an identical card. What are your drivers. I upgraded mine before I installed, but I haven't touched them since. Mine are 5.10 and I think ATI's up to 6.4 for the catalyst drivers. I don't know if there's a problem there or not. I'm assuming that by dual channel configuration you also bought dual channel ram (bought in pairs for boards with dual channel)? If it came with a computer you bought, it's feasible that might be a problem as well. Other than that I have no explanation for why you get ctds and I don't. As for lag, on huge maps by the renaissance, I'm getting about a 10 sec. wait before it really starts the IBT stuff, but then it's a decent speed. Also, occasionally I'll get little stutters during my turns once the map is totally filled in and there are dozens and dozens of units running around everywhere. It's enough of a drag, that I usually stop at large size maps, although I like the Earth and Europe maps enough that if I want to play them I'll suffer through it.

I will fully admit that some of the parts of the game that were supposed to be eliminated, have not been. That being said this AI is smarter than previous versions of civ. Not by the leaps and bounds that some people think or wish, but it is better. It isn't close to human intelligence and it makes up for it with prod. bonus' for higher levels. You can call it cheating, but since human intelligence on a DVD seems like hoping for a lot, what else are they supposed to do to replicate the effect? There's lots of difficulty settings and they're moddable so if you want a custom difficulty level for your skill, it'd only take an hour or so to figure out how to do that, if you don't know already (I don't).

 

[vinstafresh]

I have tried many games I didn't like or could have done better. I moved on to the next game, why can't you? Either uninstall or live with the imperfectness.

 

[Commander Bello]

I have tried many games I didn't like or could have done better. I moved on to the next game, why can't you? Either uninstall or live with the imperfectness.

maybe because we have been promised that much - way back in the good old times, when Civ4 was not yet out and everybody was sure that it would become THE game?

I agree with the OP upon the fact that the AI has - if at all - only marginally improved.
Fortunately, I don't face many technical issues, except for the still existing mouse-over bug and the memory leaks. Well, and once in a month I get a CTD, but that is something I can live with (therefore, I have the auto-save set to 1 turn).

Nevertheless, much effort has been put into that game, yet not really enhancing the features which have made Civilization something special, in the past.

So, I can completely understand the OP's frustration with this game.

 

[Armorydave]

If I felt that way about the game I would uninstall.

 

[joasoze]

ATI RADEON 9800 PRO
3GHZ Pentium 4 Northwood Core
1GB memory, Dual Channel Configuration

When I turned graphics to low it played fine without lag, then all of a sudden CRASH TO DESKTOP after 2.5 hours. Unacceptable.

That is almost exactly the same as me and I have had no problems whatsoever with lag/CTD/bugs (only exception is that the game freezes for a few seconds the first time I trade world map with someone).

 

[ese-aSH]

you're unfair, civ 4 is bugged, but not as much as was civ 1 (i paid 45€ for civ1 in 1992 and only 50€ for civ4 ^^) ; i did not enjoy neitheir civ2 nor civ3 but civ4 gave me back the feelings of the genuine civ1...
of course its not perfect, but the world is not perfect too ^^ (but the real world never get patched)

 

[troytheface]

uninstall by all means. If i had half as many complaints that bothered me i would not even write them down.
Quit gaming all together and get an engineering degree and design a bridge or meet a gal, and all these issues of horror will fade-
of course pining for old games is indicative of some kind of other psychological issue- maybe lost youth or something.

 

[boneys26]

ATI RADEON 9800 PRO
3GHZ Pentium 4 Northwood Core
1GB memory, Dual Channel Configuration
.

your systems better than mine apart from ram and mine runs fine. The only thing i can think of is a hardware problem or some other problem with your pc (to many background programs running, virus, spyware etc..)

 

[Syagrius]

I agree with first poster on one thing: the game has been dumbed down to please kids who are not clever enough or too lazy to learn to play a strategy game

 

[pub hero]

ATI RADEON 9800 PRO
3GHZ Pentium 4 Northwood Core
1GB memory, Dual Channel Configuration

When I turned graphics to low it played fine without lag, then all of a sudden CRASH TO DESKTOP after 2.5 hours. Unacceptable.

That's goofy, really. My specs are worse than yours (9600 XT, 2500 Barton, 1 gig noname DDR) and I can play any mapsize with medium detail @ 1280 x 1024. Something's bottlenecking your game from what it sounds like.

 

[wmtrexler]

Any reason not to uninstall?

None at all. You should immediately uninstall and leave the rest of us in peace.

 

[buldozer]

None at all. You should immediately uninstall and leave the rest of us in peace.

amen to that !

 

[JustAnotherUser]

Reason to not uninstall?
You could want to try some mods, there are some that are very good, I kinda agree with you, even if fortunately I seems not to suffer from crashes, but before to uninstall I plan to prove some of the mods to see if they make the game more interesting..