C3C-mac ships tomorrow! (Dec14)

[dojoboy]

Unfortunately, I'm less optimistic. We had it kicked back to us late last week for a performance issue on the science advisor screen primarily on Macs that had nVidia cards. I was able to fix that on Saturday, but it means that we'll get a new DVD in the mail today (Monday) and Take2 will likely get it Tuesday, which means it'll be really tight for them to approve it in time for us to actually start shipping by the end of the week. But you never know.

Well, I can't be expected to know all of that. If I had any idea,... .

 

[AlanH]

Well, having an nVidia card, I suppose I ought to sympathise with that, but a bit of a slowdown in one rarely visited screen on one video card family hardly seems to justify missing a Christmas delivery schedule. Sounds like Take2 are way harder on Aspyr than they are on their own developers, judging from the howls of anguish from a large number of PC users with Civ4 issues.

 

[Beamup]

Sounds like Take2 are way harder on Aspyr than they are on their own developers, judging from the howls of anguish from a large number of PC users with Civ4 issues.

Seems like a probable case of "once bitten, twice shy" to me. The C4 launch has gone so badly - technically speaking - for them that it's not surprising they might be a bit paranoid about such problems these days.

 

[one_hoop]

Seems like a probable case of "once bitten, twice shy" to me. The C4 launch has gone so badly - technically speaking - for them that it's not surprising they might be a bit paranoid about such problems these days.

Good analysis. However, I thought that this was an obvious case of businessmen knowing that MS users are used to paying alpha prices for a beta product. When does Win2006 ship anywho?



Unfortunately, if there was any business in the decision then that business will also probably delay C.iv long enough to sate all those that would buy C3C to tide them over. (Early February at the latest, right!?!)


M@

 

[AlanH]

.... (Early February at the latest, right!?!) ....

Dream on! Surely you mean "late February earliest" ... and which year?

 

[ejday]

This just in... From the Aspyr newsletter:

DEVELOPMENT NEWS

Aspyr Studios‚ last two internally developed projects, Civilization® III
Complete Collection and The Sims(TM) 2 University, have gone out the door
and should be on shelves shortly. Development focus now shifts to early
work on new games for 2006, including Civilization IV. Civ 4 has been an
interesting project; it uses several external code libraries
("middleware") on the PC, all of which we had to find or build Mac
versions of. For everything from graphics & networking to sound, video,
and user interface, we've had to work out licenses and in some cases port
library code to OS X. The reviews for Civ 4 on the PC continue to be
incredible, so we are very excited about bringing such a great game to the
Mac.

Reading "gone out the door and should be on shelves shortly" would make me think it's been shipped.

It's not until you get the reality dose a little later on:

ASPYR LINEUP

IN STORES
Rollercoaster® Tycoon 3

IN STORES
SimCity(TM) 4 Deluxe Edition

IN STORES
The Sims(TM) 2
TRAILER

[Blah blah blah...]

ALPHA
Sid Meier's Civilization® III: Complete

And then *poof!* I am suddenly confused. Is it out the door? Or are they referring to the approval process that Brad has tempered us with? I'm leaning with "out the door for approvals" – and the cynic in me is sticking with early-mid January for a date on the shelves. The optimist in me is thinking it might come in by "Returns Week" (the week everybody returns and exchanges gifts) – maybe Friday, December 30. But I'm not holding my breath.

 

[shawnpdx]

I know it means nothing, but in case you're interested, Amazon is now saying:

"Availability: This item will be released on December 31, 2005. You may order it now and we will ship it to you when it arrives. Ships from and sold by Amazon.com."

 

[Beamup]

At least they're finally admitting they don't have it yet!

 

[Brad Oliver]

This just in... From the Aspyr newsletter:

Reading "gone out the door and should be on shelves shortly" would make me think it's been shipped.

It's not until you get the reality dose a little later on:

And then *poof!* I am suddenly confused. Is it out the door? Or are they referring to the approval process that Brad has tempered us with?

We just found out yesterday while I was still in Austin that Take2 had approved it, so it's gone to the duplicator! I think the status section at the bottom of the newsletter simply hadn't been updated to reflect the "gold master" status.

I asked what kind of timeline that means for it actually appearing on shelves. The answer is that it's hard to say with accuracy around the holidays. We believe that boxes will be leaving the duplicator around the end of December for store shelves. As to when they start appearing in stores, it seems likely to be anywhere from the last few days in December to the first several days in January. If you're going to MacWorld, there should be a bunch of copies available for sale there as well.

 

[Fredrico]

good news

 

[ejday]

...As to when they start appearing in stores, it seems likely to be anywhere from the last few days in December to the first several days in January.

Outstanding!

Thanks for the update Brad!

 

[audsquad]

Hi. New to the forum here....

In the late 90s I used to play Civ I like crazy on my Mac, but then I got rid of that computer and got an iBook, but since the iBook didn't have a floppy drive I couldn't load my Civ I onto it, so I did without for a long while, occasionally playing (Civ II, Multiplayer Gold, I think?) on a friend's PC laptop, but I felt that the multiplayer version was really slow (at least on his machine), and I never really got used to those supposedly 3-D graphics (I preferred the "top-down" look of Civ I), plus I didn't play it frequently enough to learn all about the new military units and tech advances, etc. (I really missed Civ I!!). A few months ago my iBook got stolen, and while that was a bummer, I wasted no time in replacing it with a G5 iMac, which I LOVE. I soon started thinking about finally getting a new version of Civilization, and so came to this forum to find out what all has been happening with the series. Much indeed!

I initially thought I only had to hold out til mid-December, in order to get Civ III Complete, but I have been reading all the rave reviews (from the press, anyway, if not from customers) about Civ IV for PC, and have also been reading about how the Civ III Complete for Mac has been delayed and that Civ IV for Mac will be available in "early 2006."

So... Do you folks recommend holding out for Civ IV, or grabbing III as soon as it hits the shelves (reputedly in a matter of a couple of weeks), only to buy Civ IV a little later in the year (funds ARE limited, of course)? It *does* sound as if some of the changes between the two are for the better, as I didn't much care for cleaning up pollution, etc., which apparently is less of a big deal in Civ IV. Anyway, I welcome your thoughts, and appreciate everyone's input here and elsewhere on this forum, especially Brad and others on the inside. That is very cool that you take the time to keep us fans in the loop. You deserve a raise.

 

[AlanH]

Great news, Brad. Thanks

@audsquad: Welcome I'm sure Civ4 will be just great ... when it arrives. But let's compare the effort and timetables for the Civ3 and Civ4 ports.

Brad said he's been working on Civ3 since September. He had prior knowledge of the code from his time at Westlake, and all the porting tools for that code were established. He didn't have to port an editor, and the software was stable - the last update to Civs Conquests was over a year ago. It's taken 4 months to do that task.

Civ4 is a whole different game engine. It looks significantly more complex to me, involving more sound and graphics interactions with the operating system and with the hardware. It includes the World Builder. And it's not yet stable. Version 1.00 was released just a few weeks ago, and the version 1.09 patch came out fast. Lots of PC hardware still has trouble running it, and rumour has it there's another patch coming. My guess is that won't be the last. So I'd say Brad has a bigger job on his hands, and will be chasing a moving target for a little while.

Given all of the above, let's speculate that Civ4 will take at least as long as, and probably longer than, the four months porting time for Civ3. I'll put a small bet on May 2006 for the ship-to-customer date.

So what do you do in the meantime? Well if you've been away from Civ since Civ 1, I can see how six months could be a relatively small extra time to wait for your next fix. Personally, I'll spend the $50 for Civ3 Complete to keep my interest going. Amortised over four or five months it adds up to the price of one or two beers each week, and you'll easily save that by staying home and playing Civ3

 

[ejday]

So... Do you folks recommend holding out for Civ IV, or grabbing III as soon as it hits the shelves (reputedly in a matter of a couple of weeks), only to buy Civ IV a little later in the year (funds ARE limited, of course)?

Hello, audsquad. I'll actually be doing what Alan is doing – buying one and then the other. OTOH, if you've got limited funds – and you've been without it for this long – five or so extra months isn't going to kill you. Depending on how tight it is, if I were you, I'd probably wait.

 

[iamliberal]

Alan, I love your rationale about how to pay for it by playing civ instead of going out, lol.

Audsquad, welcome to the Civfanatic community, and the mac civ sub-community I first played Civ1 on my brother's Mac laptop (the first color) in 1993 when he came home from college for the holidays. Then I got Civ1 for my Amiga computer 6 months later, and I was completely hooked! I got Civ2 in 1997 for my PC (gave up the old Amiga for a pc) and loved that one. Then I got Civ3 for pc when it was released (2001 I think). But I can tell you that I thought Civ3 was a much bigger step up from Civ2 than Civ2 was from Civ1. I loved the borders, culture, and resources (although resources can make u crazy, the challenge ultimately makes it super fun). I bought the first exp pack when it was released, and then Conquests when that was released. The first exp pack was a waste of money, but Conquests had some great improvements.

Then I converted to Mac a year and a half ago and had to buy Civ3 for mac, and it's been tough to go back to vanilla civ (no Conquests), so I've been waiting anxiously for something new (conquests or civ4).

I actually think Alan's May 2006 estimated release date for civ4 is optimistic (altho I sure hope he's right). So I recommend buying Civ3complete. I think you'll get a lot of playtime out of it, and you can spend the months getting used to things like boundaries, culture, etc before Civ4 comes out. Considering that you're going from Civ1, I think you'll like Civ3 a lot. But if you can swing it, I'd pinch pennies to get both whenever they come out.

 

[Macintosh]

So... Do you folks recommend holding out for Civ IV, or grabbing III as soon as it hits the shelves

Both....

Both....

and again: both

 

[dojoboy]

So... Do you folks recommend holding out for Civ IV, or grabbing III as soon as it hits the shelves (reputedly in a matter of a couple of weeks), only to buy Civ IV a little later in the year (funds ARE limited, of course)?

Welcome audsquad!

I'm with Macintosh, and the others. Definitely get Civ3 Complete.

 

[classical_hero]

At least you guys will be able to see the problems we have and learn from then.

 

[audsquad]

Thanks first of all for the kind welcoming words (I didn't expect as much from a group of world conquerors! ), but second of all thanks for all the sound advice -- especially the very astute put-it-in-perspective rationale offered by AlanH . That it will be a good chance to learn some of the new aspects before IV comes out was also a good point (thanks, jamliberal), and I am very curious to know what these expansion packs are about, having never really used one before, so that is another nice thing about III Complete.

And, I, too, suspect that it may be later than May, even, before IV for Mac comes out, so what am I gonna do -- sit here and read the forums for six months?!? Heck, no. I'll be picking up C3C ASAP.

Thanks again!!

Audie

 

[ejday]

At least you guys will be able to see the problems we have and learn from then.

Absolutely. I think a lot of the regulars around here are doing exactly that –*we're studying and learning in an effort not to repeat old mistakes... As the folk that "think different" it's our sworn duty to go out and make entirely new mistakes.