Civ4 BTS Patch v3.13 is up
- Thread starter MrDrizzt
- Start date
I think the question may be a bit more complex than that. One of the things which we heard often in connection with this patch was that it's impossible to give an ETA; that it will be ready when it's ready. Adding the element of limited resources and trade-offs having to be made, essentially makes "ready" (or "done" or "finished" or whatever term you may choose) mean that point at which Firaxis (or any company) decides they've reached a point of diminishing returns and/or they've simply decided they aren't willing to apply any more resources to the project in question.
No patch in a game as complex as BtS is ever going to be perfect. So, the decision as to when a patch is "ready" becomes somewhat arbitrary. That's a tough call for any developer. But I'm sure it's made by considering all the business imperatives (time and money needed to go further, other project priorities, etc.). I also feel fairly certain that, from Firaxis' POV, they made a reasonable decision as to when they believed the patch was "ready" (based on all those factors).
For example we've already seen, in the case of Bhruic's patch, that it didn't take many person hours to identify and fix the resource trading bug. So, Firaxis either knew of the bug and decided not to devote a few more hours to fixing it, or they didn't know of the bug because they decided not to devote more hours to testing the patch. Either way, it was a business decision/resource allocation call on their part.
However, our view as customers as to what constitutes "ready" may differ from Firaxis'. Speaking only for myself (and putting the whole "communication" issue aside), I could have waited much, much longer for the patch. I'm fortunate in that I had none of the game-breaker bugs some others had. I'd much rather they had taken more time and gotten it right.
So, to say trade-offs had to be made because of limited resources is true. But, it's also so broad a rationale that it could be used to try to rationalize virtually any problem with the patch. The question is more, given Firaxis' limited resources, did the stop work on the patch at a time which, though reasonable to them, resulted in a satisfactory patch for the end user. Since the polls I've seen indicate about one-third of users now believe the patch was not "worth the wait" and, in another poll a roughly equal percentage said they wouldn't even install the patch, it's not unreasonable to conclude that some additional resource allocation may have been in order, even if it resulted in a longer wait.
Jamesds
Great Scientist
Anyone else having a problem with the governor randomly assigning specialists, particulary spy specialists? I'm having to check my cities more often that i'd like because of this
Now that you mention it, I saw a city today with 6 spy specialists...I had to change it to 3 engineers and 3 spys since the city had a low production.
Jamesds
Great Scientist
Well, I think I can detect a performance boost. I've got a year old laptop, plain AMD Turion chip (no dual core/centrino) and shared graphics, 128Mb. Turns seem to be faster, and I'm in the 1970's on a standard map. This is a great help to me, since the game loses its appeal (only a little
) when it gets sticky. I have Render Quality on medium currently.
QuoVadisNation
keeping your angel alive
Well, I think I can detect a performance boost. I've got a year old laptop, plain AMD Turion chip (no dual core/centrino) and shared graphics, 128Mb. Turns seem to be faster, and I'm in the 1970's on a standard map. This is a great help to me, since the game loses its appeal (only a little
Ah, that is all I needed to hear. Thank you
I use Vista 64-bit and have no such problem. So, I suspect it's not the OS.
I wonder what the problem could be then...
It worked before the patch flawlessly.
Specs:
nVidia 7900GTX 512MB
2.5GB DDR2
Core 2 Duo E6300 1.86Ghz
redifederal
Chieftain
Why oh why???? All the games in MP (and I do mean all) have been going OOS at least every 10-20 turns since the release of the patch..... Can this please be fixed?? I am tired of hearing that its because people have pirated versions because thats not the problem (I bought my copy and so did the other people in our games). Im not trying to be a prick (ok maybe I am a little so sorry) but did you guys even test the patch for MP outside of a lan?
redifederal
Chieftain
I noticed that when playing SP all my buildings that create culture did not show their culture when I could choose them?????? In other words all it said was Temple +1 happiness but I still got the culture (i checked). Small bug no big deal.
CivAgamemnon
King
It's a display bug that's been observed. Bhruic's unofficial patch fixes this. Click on the link in my signature for the patch thread.
aod
Chieftain
This patch made 1 in 5 MP games get OOS. Doesnt this guys in firaxis play MP games? AI sucks!
Carthago Delenda Est
Carthago Delenda Est
redifederal
Chieftain
thank you very much sir
Now.......... Can you or someone you know fix the MP OOS problem please?
Now.......... Can you or someone you know fix the MP OOS problem please?
ASL Veteran
Chieftain
I don't have that problem but then I'm on a 32 bit system. I have an nVidia 8600 series card though. Could it be a problem with the 7900 series cards? I'm not a computer guru though - just tossing it out there.
Welcome to CFC
Its not Vista but something else, there are dozens of crash reports due to the patch, as of yet we could not find any common theme that causes it 
CivAgamemnon
King
redifederal
Chieftain
Thank you again sir, and I will DL as soon as I get home.
Lobsang1979
Chieftain
Welcome to CFC
With all these reports of crashes, I get really confused as I am running BTS on high settings on a P4 2.8/1GB Ram/xp1650pro system and have yet to get a CTD at any stage with 3.13. I am also using the Direct2Drive version.
I am not doubting, of course, that people are indeed experiencing CTDs and graphical problems. I am sorry to hear as such. What I am curious about is just how many people keep their PCs optimised so as to ensure good running.
For example, I only have about 18-20 processes running in background memory, keep defragmented, update drivers when necessary and run AVG without the background virus shield (so as to reduce resource usage).
I just wonder, purely academically, how many CTDs and suchlike in many games are caused by lack of awareness of PC maintenance? Or by other installed software conflicts?
Or maybe it's just the luck of the Irish!
redifederal
Chieftain
With all these reports of crashes, I get really confused as I am running BTS on high settings on a P4 2.8/1GB Ram/xp1650pro system and have yet to get a CTD at any stage with 3.13. I am also using the Direct2Drive version.
I am not doubting, of course, that people are indeed experiencing CTDs and graphical problems. I am sorry to hear as such. What I am curious about is just how many people keep their PCs optimised so as to ensure good running.
For example, I only have about 18-20 processes running in background memory, keep defragmented, update drivers when necessary and run AVG without the background virus shield (so as to reduce resource usage).
I just wonder, purely academically, how many CTDs and suchlike in many games are caused by lack of awareness of PC maintenance? Or by other installed software conflicts?
Or maybe it's just the luck of the Irish!
If its PC maintenence then people would have been having this problem before the patch right??? Something in the patch is causing instablity in MP.
