Firaxis Employees Discuss Quality Assurance, Artwork

[Kristian95]

I would say that patch support from Firaxis has been a mixed bag at best! I agree that the Civ games (especially 3 & 4) have had nice support in form of patches... but a lot of other games have been totally trashed in terms of support! Just take a look at the (almost) non-existing support for: Pirates!, Railroads and Colonization.
In my book that is foul play by Firaxis' side and has had me _not_ supporting them by refusing to buy Colonization (and no I don't play a pirated version of it either!). It also has me considering not buying any non-Civ game they make in general until they remedy their track record for non-Civ game support!

 

[Afforess]

I would say that patch support from Firaxis has been a mixed bag at best! I agree that the Civ games (especially 3 & 4) have had nice support in form of patches... but a lot of other games have been totally trashed in terms of support! Just take a look at the (almost) non-existing support for: Pirates!, Railroads and Colonization.
In my book that is foul play by Firaxis' side and has had me _not_ supporting them by refusing to buy Colonization (and no I don't play a pirated version of it either!). It also has me considering not buying any non-Civ game they make in general until they remedy their track record for non-Civ game support!

I own Sid Meier's Pirates! too, and I don't think there was a lack of support. There wasn't any patches because their wasn't any bugs. The game as a whole was much simpler than Civ4, and so there were just less chances for bugs, and less bugs occurred. "Why fix what isn't broken?"

 

[JosEPh_II]

Those are some kind of air/space craft in the pyramid pic. Click on the pic to get a better view.

Maybe the next iteration of CIV will be more Future oriented?

CIV MoOIV?

I've enjoyed the game for 4 years now and I have No complaints. I got my money's worth of Fun out of it.

I'd love to do QA if I could survive financially from it.

JosEPh

 

[Afforess]

Those are some kind of air/space craft in the pyramid pic. Click on the pic to get a better view.

You guys are all blind. It's two seagulls. Case Closed.

 

[binhthuy71]

You guys are all blind. It's two seagulls. Case Closed.

Nuh-uh! Those are the Navy's incredibly advanced GU11 aircraft.

 

[Darsnan]

Btw, what is that hovering to the right in the Pyramids picture?
Is it bees? Looks a bit like spaceships

Well, there definately not seagulls. Look pretty cool, actually.

 

[binhthuy71]

Well, there definately not seagulls. Look pretty cool, actually.

They're Ibis. They were held to be sacred in ancient Egypt.

 

[Dida]

Heh, Civ 4 got best PC game of the year in 2005 from Gamespot, IGN, GameSpy as well as Time Magazines top pick.

What is it really about the quality of the game that is lacking you who comment about the nonexistant QA team?


Btw, what is that hovering to the right in the Pyramids picture?
Is it bees? Looks a bit like spaceships

Remember when civ4 was initially launched, it didn't work on half of the computers, especially those with ATI video cards? If the QA persons were not brain dead or too busy smoking joints they would have caught such massive problems before the game's release.

 

[V. Soma]

...Civ 5 would have a tall mountain to climb.

All very well said, sir - sooo, when to get to the top of that mountain?

 

[Afforess]

Remember when civ4 was initially launched, it didn't work on half of the computers, especially those with ATI video cards? If the QA persons were not brain dead or too busy smoking joints they would have caught such massive problems before the game's release.

I believe that's an issue with ATI, and that company sucked before AMD bought them in '06.

...Civ 5 would have a tall mountain to climb.

All very well said, sir - sooo, when to get to the top of that mountain?

I don't think so. I would purchase Civ5 for $50 right now, if it was identical to Civ4 in every respect, except had multicore support and rendered graphics using the GPU. That alone would speed the game up 3-5x.

 

[binhthuy71]

I believe that's an issue with ATI, and that company sucked before AMD bought them in '06.



I don't think so. I would purchase Civ5 for $50 right now, if it was identical to Civ4 in every respect, except had multicore support and rendered graphics using the GPU. That alone would speed the game up 3-5x.

If I recall correctly, you had to backrev from ATI's then-current driver to get the game to work properly.
I feel your pain regarding mulitcore CPUs and rendered graphics. Unfortunately I don't think that "Civilization 5: just like Civilization 4 only with higher system requirements!" would have that baby flying off of the shelves.
I'd enjoy seeing heightmapped real 3D terrain with the ability to create maps from user-generated grayscale bitmaps. It would be nice to have functioning plateaus, river valleys, mountain passes, etc. to play on.

 

[Afforess]

If I recall correctly, you had to backrev from ATI's then-current driver to get the game to work properly.
I feel your pain regarding mulitcore CPUs and rendered graphics. Unfortunately I don't think that "Civilization 5: just like Civilization 4 only with higher system requirements!" would have that baby flying off of the shelves.

Not higher requirements, just multicore support. Other games have had this added in the form of a patch. (See: Team Fortress 2)

Although better graphics is always a plus.

I don't think CivIV was that huge of a jump compared to CivIII, concept-wise. Sure, it had a whole new game engine, but really, the core gameplay elements were all still there.

I just hope CivIV ends up being like SC4; with no real successor.

 

[J-man]

I just hope CivIV ends up being like SC4; with no real successor.

I sure hope Civ5 doesn't end up being like Simcity Societies!

 

[NBAfan]

I sure hope Civ5 doesn't end up being like Simcity Societies!

Please do not remind me!

 

[binhthuy71]

I sure hope Civ5 doesn't end up being like Simcity Societies!

Better that than ending up like Sim Copter.

 

[Afforess]

Better that than ending up like Sim Copter.

What!? Sim Copter was awesome! You could play in cities you built in SC2k, and do cool missions. I wish that kind of interoperability was available with more games. Sure, the graphics were awful, and the voice acting was non-existent, but the concept was great. Plus, the cheat codes were funny.

 

[Vortilex]

Well, there definately not seagulls. Look pretty cool, actually.

I think it's UFO's XD My grandpa was a member of the Ancient Astronaut Society (the head actually) but I think it's bogus. It would explain how they built the pyramids without the wheel or something like that...Is there a thread about that kind of stuff I wonder?

 

[Kristian95]

I own Sid Meier's Pirates! too, and I don't think there was a lack of support. There wasn't any patches because their wasn't any bugs. The game as a whole was much simpler than Civ4, and so there were just less chances for bugs, and less bugs occurred. "Why fix what isn't broken?"

Regarding Pirates, maybe they're not bugs but at least the game was shipped with several pieces missing... I think a patch could have (and should have been made to) addressed these issues...

For instance the game is set up for diplomacy with the indians as well as the missions (hence you can get the various items like the golden cross)... yet this was never worked into the game and I think that is something Firaxis should definitely have remedied!

 

[Vortilex]

With all due respect to Firaxis, I think they like to protect the "jewels" or the treasure or whatever you want to call it. Civilization was the most successful of Sid Meier's games, and they want to make sure that they don't lose their assets. Pirates was one of their more popular non-Civ games, so they made (if I'm correct) three versions. the original, Pirates! Gold, and Sid Meier's Pirates! Live the Life

Colonization was less popular, but they decided to revive it as Civilization IV Colonization to give it a better chance. The otehr games, like Railroad Tycoon I haven't seen except for the original.