Beyond the Sword ruined Civilization

[loki59]

Here Here I'd love to see the ship traffic and land traffic even if it's only minor like in Rome Total War at the very least it would let you see if blockade is working with a visual cue.

You know if your blockade is working when you hear the coins jingling at the start of each turn, it also tells you on the screen how much you gained from which city.
As far as bugs go, I've played probably 150 hours of BTS and so far have encountered only 2 known bugs, both in the last game I had to abort last night. I had Sitting Bull on my continent and had isolated him early on and limited his area to only 5 cities. I had 3 privateers blockading his 4 coastal cities, one privateer was blockading 2 cities. Sitting Bull had stacks of caravels, galleys and triremes but never attacked the privateers. The second bug was the "waiting for civilizations" bug and I couldn't do anything to get out except Ctrl+Alt+Del. I suppose I should have just crushed the CD at that point, but I'm patiently awaiting the new patch.

 

[LiberiGlacialis]

Besides my computer crashing every so often after playing for hours on end, and one odd bug (Hey, guys? Move to that space. What? You fortified? %#$@!), I haven't had a problem.

It's a shame you crushed your disk I was going to ask if I could buy it off you, there were a few bugs on mine so I sprayed it with flyspray but it screwed up the surface and won't work anymore.

Try Windex next time...might work faster...>>

 

[Terry_pdx]

Spearthrower: "Changing active spy missions, removing spies and changing airships to not be able to bombard would take approximately 5 minutes."

OK, so I hit a raw nerve, I see. Sorry for the bad temper. I agree that I loved a lot of the features you all mention as high points in BtS. I looked at ways to modify the spies and nukes, but couldn't find any way to do it. I decided to try the Warlords expansion instead (?). Any help to get me into BtS with moderated spies so I don't have to live with state terrorism would be great.

Another aspect of BtS I noticed that someone else here mentioned was the easier path to cultural victory. Nearly every time I played I ended up with four religions, which was nearly impossible in the original, and the one game I played all the way through (because it did not lock up with Steam Power) was a cultural victory. Maybe a patch helps?

 

[Handel]

I still didn't get BTS because from what I read it has too many disbalances. Not to mention the bugs which are literally hundreds (just check the 3.13 patch change list). But there are things - like forts and privateers which I should like to try so I will eagerly wait to see if the disbalances will be patched. Untill then I will stick to Warlords.

 

[vilemerchant]

I still didn't get BTS because from what I read it has too many disbalances. Not to mention the bugs which are literally hundreds (just check the 3.13 patch change list). But there are things - like forts and privateers which I should like to try so I will eagerly wait to see if the disbalances will be patched. Untill then I will stick to Warlords.

Bugs and disbalances or not, I don't know of anyone who would play even a game of Warlords after playing BtS. Despite it's faults, it's absolutely LEAGUES ahead. I wouldn't touch Warlords with a 40foot pole now, I couldn't think of anything worse to be honest.

 

[Seras]

funny how he complains about too many nukes ..... i've yet to ever see the ai use even ONE nuke in the hundreds of hours of gameplay of vanilla/warlords/bts under my belt.

of course...i strive to control all the uranium in the world but still...not a single nuke other than the ones i launched.

come to think of it..i don't recall ever seeing the manhattan project built in warlords or bts.

 

[Spearthrower]

OK, so I hit a raw nerve, I see.

Not so much a raw nerve, but we do get a lot of these posts from new members. It's quite a strange way to join a community in my opinion!

I don't particularly disagree with you, I just think they're your opinions and not everyone will agree with you. For the most part, I happen to... which is why I pointed you to modding them for your pleasure in much the same way that I modded them to suit me too!

Honestly, it will take no more than 10 minutes of your time to research and then implement the changes you want to see. There's really no need for a patch to address personal requirements.

 

[picahulu]

for me, BTS made CIV to a perfect Multiplayer Strategy Experience.
(Nearly) everything is very well balanced.
The Warmongers and the peaceful people both have a lot of different choices how to win by superior strategy.

 

[0R4NG3]

I have probably played about 20 BTS games now and in only one of them nuclear weapons were used, in all the others the UN banned them, so I don't see the problem.

 

[Psyringe]

Well, the OP proves the point that no matter what you change or add with an expansion, there will always be someone who thinks that exactly these changes totally ruin the game.

Personally, I'm playing a BtS game with a super-huge map in Marathon, with 34 civs, and I never had so much fun with Civ in all my life. And I had *a lot* of fun with Civ, I'm playing it since Civ1 came out (Civ1 still holds my personal record of non-stop playing with 35 hours straight).

Civ4 BtS is definitely the most complex game of the series, and I like this a lot - even though there are some additions that I won't use a lot, for example I'm not an espionage enthusiast either. But that's not a problem once you learn how to defend against it (which is easy) and once the bug with the over-long durations of "foment unhappiness" and "poison water supply" on marathon have been fixed (which will be so after the next patch).

Also, the incredible modability of the game makes it possible to mod out any units or game features that you really can't tolerate.

I suggest that the OP simply tries again after his anger has worn off. I don't believe he actually destroyed his CD. There are less expensive methods of venting one's anger, like (as a random example) log in to a forumn and rant about the game in question.

 

[Dominico]

What's not working properly for you? (I frequent the Bugs forum so I know whats up)

What are the specs of the computer you are playing it on?

I have the latest patch, or so I think... The units dont animate properly in battles with them all falling over and getting back up etc. There are a few more little things but im sure they are going to fix them all! (able to build military academy when you shouldnt etc)

My computer is an Athlon thunderbird 1.4 with 512 mem and a Radeon 9600 card. All of that works fine though it is dated now. Tis fine for this game!!

Gonna upgrade soon though caus i have loads of games i want to play which wont work on this puppy. It has done me well though, lasted about 4 years or more.

 

[Oddible]

It is nice that the OP did eventually return to his thread.

As you mention, Spies and Blimps can be turned off in like 5 minutes - so why destroy your disc? If you've been playing Civ since Civ1 then you know you can just drop in on the modder forums and ask how to do it - or better yet probably find someone with your exact same issues and just copy what they did.

There has been a LOT more introduced to Civ4 in BtS than spies and blimps, and I'm not just talking about Corporations (which are a cool though often unuseful addition). The AI has been tweaked, unit balance has been tweaked, basically I had to drop down a couple levels in difficulty to figure out the new style of play just to get back in the game! Very cool when I get 2 levels of difficulty to work through with an expansion pack.

Seriously though, if the OP had been playing Civ since the early days... why does he only have 2 posts on CFC? And the only post is to come here to bit$%? If the OP has seriously been playing since Civ1 then he will surely remember the MANY botched expansions and patches that took several corrective patches or mods to resolve. Maybe I can refresh your memory with one from recent history: PtW. There, now stop overreacting and just simmer down.

 

[peter450]

Having played all the civ's i have to disagree BTS is perhaps the most complete civ experiance since the original classic

Civ 1 is a classic it created the franchise

Civ 2 was a super polished version of civ 1 an i liked it a lot

Civ 3 i never really jelled with

Call to power, less said the better!

Alpha Centauri/Alien crossfire, were simply surberb in some respects, but had a lot of flaws that were never fixed despite numerous patches (i hope they remake this game since it had some excellent idea's & concepts that at the time couldn't be fully delivered upon

Civ 4 i enjoyed, i never really jelled with Civ 3, but civ 4 rekindled by enjoyment of the civ franchise, but i felt apsects were underdeveloped, the diplomacy system for example seemed a step back from that in Alpha C in terms of your options etc, although the combat model was excellent (at least for land units), the AI didn't seem to very dynamic either

Warlords improved the diplomacy side quite a bit with the additions of vassels it gave the diplomacy aspect broader scope than the prev war/peace style of relationships

BTS further sweetened the diplomacy aspect with the colonies feature, and the expanded combat system, particualy for late era land units with mobile sam & artilery filling the late game unit void in those area's, sailing ship naval combat was also got spot on in my opinion, and the AI is both more competive an more fun too, In short i think this is the best overall Civ package since Civ1, the only area's i think that still need work is the espionage system that is fairly solid in principle but could use a simplified interface an espionage screen aswell as a few tweaks here an there + the late game naval combat that lacks a proper counter system like the one in place for all the land units an ironically the sailing era beforehand aswell

 

[Bushface]

Civ1 was very, very good.
Civ2 was excellent.
Civ3 was rubbish (oh, the horrible corruption !)
Civ4 was superb.
Warlords improved on Civ4.
BtS is by a long way the best yet.
True, it still has some bugs and could well do with a few tweaks beyond those listed for the upcoming patch, but it's great fun to play and I find it utterly absorbing. About the bugs: it used to be said, many years ago when I first began programming, that any program with over 1000 lines of code would inevitably have at least one bug - and that was long before interactive high-resolution programs were even thought of. Something the size and complexity of BtS must be expected to have flaws somewhere, regrettably.

 

[Rusty Edge]

Here Here I'd love to see the ship traffic and land traffic even if it's only minor like in Rome Total War at the very least it would let you see if blockade is working with a visual cue.

I don't know Rome Total War, but Pirates and Railroads can be fun just to watch.

Before trains there could be caravans on the trade routes, strings of camels.
It would be a nice nod to CIV I.

 

[The Foo]

I disagree with the review. Here is my review:

I would make love to BtS, but I sadly purchased via Steam and so have no disc with which to attempt such.


I hope this helped.

 

[Arlborn]

I disagree with the review. Here is my review:

I would make love to BtS, but I sadly purchased via Steam and so have no disc with which to attempt such.


I hope this helped.

Uh-oh....

 

[seasnake]

BTS is amazing, and like Spearthrower said it takes minimal time to make any changes to "fix" the things that bother you. I've got a list of standard changes now I make, and after the new patch I'll put them in and launch another fun game.
Think Imperialistic sucks? You can fix it. Hate Airships? Turn em off completely or just turn off bombardment or add intercept. Takes about 5 minutes to do so.
That's why I love Civ 4 so much, it's easy to edit so you can figure out what seems worthless and fix it. It's awesome.

 

[Civinator]

That's why I love Civ 4 so much, it's easy to edit so you can figure out what seems worthless and fix it.

How do get rid of that worthless and bad low poly 3d-engine in Civ IV and fix that?

 

[Padraig]

I disagree with the review. Here is my review:

I would make love to BtS, but I sadly purchased via Steam and so have no disc with which to attempt such.


I hope this helped.

You could still make love to one of BtS not-as-hot sisters.