Beyond the Sword for Mac OS is Shipping!

[NwabudikeMorgan]

@Cmason:
no sorry, i don't know of any online sources yet, as you said amazon has been less then helpful.
I'm getting my copy from my local MyMacDealer store; if you live in an urban area i'd say calling stores and finding out about their stock shipments is your best bet to waiting for online notifications.

 

[Aldernablou]

Youuuu Houuuuu !
my BTS left Paris this morning in the train to arrive in my village at the other end of France tomorrow morning.
that seems to Christmas in July

 

[Hellfire]

Anyone know the game requirements for Mac BTS yet? The press release didn't seem to have it or a link to it. I have the original Civ4, no warlords, and want to know if I also need to purchase warlords, or buy Civ4 gold, and then BTS.

 

[cmason]

Anyone know the game requirements for Mac BTS yet? The press release didn't seem to have it or a link to it. I have the original Civ4, no warlords, and want to know if I also need to purchase warlords, or buy Civ4 gold, and then BTS.

On the Aspyr page it says "Requires the full version of Civilization IV for Mac OS X to play", no mention of Warlords, so stock Civ IV should be fine. I linked to a french site back a bit which said the same thing.

Interestingly both vanilla Civ IV and Warlords run on Panther but Beyond the Sword needs Tiger for some reason.

 

[Brad Oliver]

Interestingly both vanilla Civ IV and Warlords run on Panther but Beyond the Sword needs Tiger for some reason.

BtS was not tested on 10.3, so the minimum requirement was bumped up to a semi-modern OS X revision. ;-) Perhaps it works on 10.3; more likely it does not.

 

[Brad Oliver]

Anyone know the game requirements for Mac BTS yet? The press release didn't seem to have it or a link to it. I have the original Civ4, no warlords, and want to know if I also need to purchase warlords, or buy Civ4 gold, and then BTS.

From our website:

Requires the full version of Civilization IV for Mac OS X to play

MINIMUM SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS

Operating System: Mac OS X 10.4.11, 10.5.6
CPU Processor: PowerPC G5 or Intel
CPU Speed: 1.8 GHz
Memory: 512 MB
Hard Disk Space: 2.5 GB free disk space
Video Card (ATI): Radeon 9600
Video Card (NVidia): GeForce FX 6600
Video Memory (VRam): 128 MB
Media Required: DVD-ROM Drive
Peripherals: Macintosh mouse and keyboard

RECOMMENDED SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS

CPU Speed: 2.0 GHz
Memory: 1 GB
Video RAM: 128 MB

-Supported Video cards:
NVIDIA GeForce 6600, 6800, 7300, 7600, 7800,8600, 8800, 9400, 9600, GEFORCE GT 120, GEFORCE QUADRO FX 4500
ATI Radeon 9600, 9650, 9700, 9800, X600, X800, X1600, X1900, HD 2400, 2600, 3870

NOTICE: Intel integrated video chipsets are not supported.

NOTICE: Apple original CPU’s only, CPU upgrades not supported.

NOTICE: This game is not supported on volumes formatted as Mac OS Extended (Case Sensitive)

 

[cmason]

BtS was not tested on 10.3, so the minimum requirement was bumped up to a semi-modern OS X revision. ;-) Perhaps it works on 10.3; more likely it does not.

I'm running Leopard myself, so not a concern, but I can imagine people with older computers that are still running 10.3.9 since they never upgraded (my Dad was like this until recently.) I can easily see them buying it without double-checking the requirements, since they already know it works on their computer so they would likely assume an expansion would too. Hopefully it does, maybe someone here can test it out.

Anyway, not likely to affect a lot of people since these are just the G5 guys (although there's a fair number of iMac G5s out there), just found it interesting. I think your explationation is probably right, it was just never tested cause everyone was already running Tiger or Leopard.

 

[Graven]

This may be a question better asked in the general Civ4 forums. We didn't intentionally change the behavior here from the PC, but I'm not sure if the PC behavior changed vs. Warlords/vanilla.

All right, thanks again.

 

[msteiner]

Thanks again for the continued updates, Brad. Our mac community is very grateful for your work and dedication on this project.

 

[Blondel58]

I got mine today (in Austria)

 

[scriblerus]

No stock yet showing at Amazon UK

Curses

 

[dojoboy]

My copy has shipped @ 03:48:51 PM from Phoenix, AZ. I wonder if Brad is shipping me an autographed copy.

 

[drudometkin]

Mine shipped today from amazon. Sweet!

 

[Brad Oliver]

My copy has shipped @ 03:48:51 PM from Phoenix, AZ. I wonder if Brad is shipping me an autographed copy.

LOL, no. I haven't seen a boxed copy yet, and probably won't until I either a) go to a store and snoop on the shelves or b) fly to Austin. ;-)

 

[mr.macman]

USPS/Amazon says the package should be here by the end of the week, so there goes my weekend. And since this thread seems to be pretty well trafficked, is there a way I can send some feedback on gameplay and possible improvements for future editions?

 

[nauticus]

Got mine today, a day early! In the end, Amazon wasn't completely crazy. Going to load it now. And I will report how it plays on my specs at some point. Happy CIVing to all!

 

[Macintosh]

I got mine today (in Austria)

mine arrived yesterday eve.

So, next step is getting 319 ....

 

[AlanH]

USPS/Amazon says the package should be here by the end of the week, so there goes my weekend. And since this thread seems to be pretty well trafficked, is there a way I can send some feedback on gameplay and possible improvements for future editions?

Game play is the responsibility of Firaxis, and I very much doubt if they will produce a new version now, but maybe you should wait to see what version 3.19 has fixed. That's out on Windows, but not yet for Mac. I also doubt if Aspyr would make unilateral changes in the way the game plays, as it has to be rules-compatible with the Windows releases for multi-player modes.

There are discussions in the main Civ4 forum about wish lists for game play fixes and improvements. It's far more likely that Firaxis would look there than here if they do still want to see suggestions. I don't expect they ever visit this forum.

If you have specific comments on the way the game works on Mac OS X - startup, graphics, file system operation, external user interface etc. - then by all means start a thread in this forum to discuss them. We do have Brad Oliver as a frequent visitor from Aspyr, and he may take note of valid requests that don't affect cross-platform compatibility. Whether he can get them included in new patches is anyone's guess.

If you want new units, civs and parameters, then mods are the way to go. Check the mods threads here for information on mod packs that have been found to be compatible with the Mac versions. I'm sure the range will increase now that BtS is out.

 

[Hellfire]

Requires the full version of Civilization IV for Mac OS X to play

So does this mean that if I buy BTS, I get all the civs and changes that Warlords has? I want to be complete, but not buy two expansions when only one expansion was needed.

 

[Hellfire]

Doh... sorry about the double post.