Bugs Aspyr Hasn't Heard Of Before

[Philip Wing]

I've got a few bugs with 1.22A that Aspyr support claims they hadn't heard from anyone else. I'd be happy to give more recreation information if requested:

1. On launch, if you've just inserted the game DVD (but the system has mounted it) or you've done RL for too long and the DVD has spun down, the game may not recognize the disk. You'll get the "Please insert the Game Disk" message although you've already inserted it and you see it on your desktop.

2. Your system displays an honest Low Battery warning dialog, but you're running C3C in fullscreen mode so you can't see it. You try using Command-Tab or Command-H to swap the game out to dismiss it, but the system just beeps at you. Finally, you use your pointing device, quit the game, and dismiss the dialog.

3. You have a system with two or more accounts and Fast User Switching enabled. Your system also had better than 1024 x 768 resolution. You're in the game and decide to swap over to that other account for a bit. You Command-H, use the User Name list menu and swap over. You finish, come back to your original account and swap back to the game. Screen is now 1024 x 768 in only part of your screen shoved into the upper left corner.

Care to recreate any of these, guys?

 

[AlanH]

Hi, welcome

The first one applies in Civ4 as well. Just eject and reinsert the disk. Not a big deal for me.

The other two aren't on my radar screen because my Mac isn't battery powered, and it's mine, all mine! I also *always* play in a window, even when using the full screen.

I think that, in general, people seem not to report bugs to game developers for some reason. In this case, I also rather doubt if any new version will see the light of day to fix reported bugs unless they are clear show stoppers.

 

[Blue Monkey]

Like AlanH, I've experienced (1), which I consider only a minor annoyance because it rarely happens, and the other two don't apply.

 

[Philip Wing]

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The first one applies in Civ4 as well. Just eject and reinsert the disk. Not a big deal for me.
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I think that, in general, people seem not to report bugs to game developers for some reason. In this case, I also rather doubt if any new version will see the light of day to fix reported bugs unless they are clear show stoppers.

Hmm, I think you may not have caught the nuiance of the DVD mounted but not recognized problem. I *did* just insert the disk, so I don't think ejecting and reinserting it will do a great deal of good. Normally, I just need to try a couple of times. It does just plain look stupid, though.

It must be just me, but I just report these kinds of things. Of course, it helps that I've done QA during my professional Macintosh career. Developers (like the ones I would work with) ignoring these kinds of issues always did bug me, though.

FYI, when I ran into the third one today, I *did* get a crash, but it seems only when you had the city zoom screen up. The game might crash here because the city zoom screen is locked in at 1024 x 768 irreguardless of your general screen setting.

 

[Philip Wing]

Like AlanH, I've experienced (1), which I consider only a minor annoyance because it rarely happens, and the other two don't apply.

What would you call "rare"? I only installed C3C the first weekend of this month and I had it happen numerous times since then. I've played Civ, Civ II, Civ III, and SMAC (plus the expansion) in the past, so I'm not a fish out of water with these games (just not *really* good *in* the game. ).

I've seen "I've never heard of that before. You're the first one who has reported that." response so many times that I wonder if it's a stock reply to blow people off. The CarbonCopyCloner creator threw that at me once when I reported an issue on their forums, along with the admonition that I should be plowing through their forums constantly to keep up with their product (yeah, right, like I don't have better things to do. I had a co-worker once who expected me to do the same for other stuff, too. ). Sure enough, when I did a search through their forums, I found a message from someone else who reported the same issue, but it had no replies. Because of this experience, the update nightmare that you must plow through those same forums to look for component updates so it doesn't crash, and the hangs I would often get (around half the time) during my backups, of course I don't recommend it.

 

[AlanH]

Don't get me wrong. I also have had a professional Mac (development) career, including management of a tech support team who I considered as our eyes and ears into the user community. I report the things I find to Aspyr, often in the face of similar cavalier responses. I find they respond better if I emphasise that I'm simply giving feedback to help them make their products better, not trying to score points or demanding an instant fix.

I must agree, Aspyr tech support does seem pretty user-unfriendly. "I've never heard of that before. You're the first one who has reported that." seems a strange way to blow a bug report off. You'd think they would want to know more about a new issue, not dismiss it out of hand as being unique to you.

I think the DVD detection thing is probably a slightly too impatient timeout when reading the disk. If the DVD has spun down, or not yet spun up, then the software doesn't wait long enough for a response from the OS.