Firaxis never focus on multiplayer - get used to it

[CanuckSoldier]

Actually, I read somewhere either in an interview or designer diary or something where they talk about how Civ5 is the most multiplayer focused Civ ever and that was one of the benefits of having it on Steam. Instead, it's the worst multiplayer Civ ever. I never had a problem with Civ3 or Civ4 multiplayer. Maybe it's a difference between playing LAN with friends or online with strangers. Either way, it shouldn't be too much to ask for a stable, fully-featured multiplayer. Multiplayer should be a singleplayer quality experience only with humans replacing the AI.

Actually if you read alot of the previews it does not say it is "multiplayer" focused but "online community" focused. Not quite the same thing, as they were more talking about the mod/community centre(aka the mod hub and the Steam overlay features) and not the standard online or LAN MP functions.

Now MP has never been top priority, but Soren Johnson did put it equal with SP and Mods for Civ4, unfortunately his example was not followed in Civ5

CS

 

[Raider62]

All that is fine and good, civ 4 had MP with mods, so not having it available in 5 is a step back. A step back that wasnt announced btw. Lets not forget all the quotes about MP, best ever and all the other remarks, yet none about mods not working. How odd...

Can I ask you a serious question? I have seen you defend the mods not being available in CIV 5 MP on various civ forums. Why as a MP leauque owner/operater/admin, are you ok with that?

Shouldnt you be for the MP mods? Im just confused why you dont seem to be on the side with the Multiplayer gamers who want more than vanilla. Maybe you are and its just coming off wrong.

 

[CanuckSoldier]

All that is fine and good, civ 4 had MP with mods, so not having it available in 5 is a step back. A step back that wasnt announced btw. Lets not forget all the quotes about MP, best ever and all the other remarks, yet none about mods not working. How odd...

Can I ask you a serious question? I have seen you defend the mods not being available in CIV 5 MP on various civ forums. Why as a MP leauque owner/operater/admin, are you ok with that?

Shouldnt you be for the MP mods? Im just confused why you dont seem to be on the side with the Multiplayer gamers who want more than vanilla. Maybe you are and its just coming off wrong.

I'm not sure were you think I am defending the state of Civ5 MP, as I clearly have said it is in a beta state and needs a lot of work.

What I have said, is simply stating facts like the one I did above, that is neither supporting or criticizing Firaxis. People just tend to post emotionally when they don't like something, and I tend to want to correct false statements.

And just to be accurate Mods in Civ4 sucked, the mechanism to load mods in Civ4 MP was overly complex and incompatible with the virtual file security system in Vista/7, making mods virtually unused in Civ4 MP.

So it's not exactly a shining example to use to criticize the lack of mods in Civ5. With DLC being enabled now, I would hope that mods are not too far away, but are probably waiting for this network engineer that they have a Ad still up for.

Believe me, I have been very clear in my posts about MP as to what needs to be fixed, and I am sure that the MP beta testers have been clear to the developers about the consequences of not fixing MP soon, but right now your guess is as good as mine as to when they will have a MP engineer to fix MP for us all.

CS

 

[Ciek]

LAN is fine, but i find online multiplayer just too unstable, every once in a while i get a good game, but 90% are just pure hell.

 

[ERNIBERT]

The MP can play well in this phase. You just have to know what everybody can play!
Good to play is: FFA´s max. 4 player / Teamer 2vs2 or 3vs3 max. 110 turns / OCC max. 6 player

 

[CanuckSoldier]

The MP can play well in this phase. You just have to know what everybody can play!
Good to play is: FFA´s max. 4 player / Teamer 2vs2 or 3vs3 max. 110 turns / OCC max. 6 player

I agree, I just played a 3v3 teamer last night and while in the last 30 turns we had to reload a few times due to resyncs from all the units being maneuvered on the battlefield, it was still a lot of fun and the eventual winners well deserved the win.

CS

 

[bossconian]

I agree, I just played a 3v3 teamer last night and while in the last 30 turns we had to reload a few times due to resyncs from all the units being maneuvered on the battlefield, it was still a lot of fun and the eventual winners well deserved the win.

CS

Are you serious or ironical Canuck ? Hopefully the latter - You had to reload a few times just to finish the game and the problem was the broken game software. There are no justifications for it. The didn't provide correctly functioning software as advertised. It's been half a year already and they haven't even touched that. Cr.p. Bul....t. Period.

 

[CanuckSoldier]

Are you serious or ironical Canuck ? Hopefully the latter - You had to reload a few times just to finish the game and the problem was the broken game software. There are no justifications for it. The didn't provide correctly functioning software as advertised. It's been half a year already and they haven't even touched that. Cr.p. Bul....t. Period.

Of course I was serious, the point of my statement was that despite the issues it is very possible to have fun and exciting competitive MP games, and the problems with MP do not have to be a game stopper.

I'm not making excuses for the state of MP, or saying it is ok it was shippped this way. But we can either pack up and go home or stay and enjoy the game as much as we can, and I vote for the latter.

CS

 

[ERNIBERT]

There are pessimists and there are optimists! But we are all fans from civ, or? Today i had a very good OCC HERE.
2 reloads, but good game for all players!

I understand all the critics! Please have patience, ok?!

 

[Raethwyn]

I just wish that there was a way to keep games going fast but avoid the click-fest. Civ 4 had the same issue regarding that; Whoever moved their SoD first had the advantage. Now it's the same in Civ 5, but with more pieces to move. Turn by turn games take too long when they involve more than 2 people. I tried to get my friends to do it on Civ 4 but neither I nor they could stand it for very long. Does anyone know of any games that have systems in place that work well for multiplayer and have game mechanics close to Civ?

 

[bossconian]

Of course I was serious, the point of my statement was that despite the issues it is very possible to have fun and exciting competitive MP games, and the problems with MP do not have to be a game stopper.

I'm not making excuses for the state of MP, or saying it is ok it was shippped this way. But we can either pack up and go home or stay and enjoy the game as much as we can, and I vote for the latter.

CS

It is crutial to get back to the root statement of the topic which was a complaint that the developer doesn't give a damn about the multiplayer (also struggeling to deliver other aspect of the game in acceptable state).

It is worth to distinguish it from the fact that playing the game is still giving fun to some people - unfortunatelly not to me. I recall a very simple example where a drug dealer dropped down quality of the stuff he sells. All people would complain but some addicts would take wheatever they are given to get high despite a fact that the white powder has more to do with flour than anything else. I find these irrelevant posts where you share your game experience undermining all the effort to make a preassure on developers to fix the game.

However here we are not talking about how much fun the game is giving us. We are talking about how they failed to deliver something the used to call as the most multiplayer focused civlization game ever.

Developers misled me completely in game prerelease interviews where they were assuring about quality of the multiplayer. Most people would change the dealer and/or return the stuff. None of this is possible with CIV.

 

[CanuckSoldier]

Do you really think Firaxis doesn't know it has to fix MP? And do you really think this thread is going to make them fix it any faster? If they had the cash to hire a MP programmer they would, the fact they have not even though MP is in a sad state, says that the 2K/Firaxis management doesn't have or want to spend enough money to pay the current market rate for an experienced MP programmer that they are advertising for.

Like Denis Shirk has recently said all games need good MP programmers, so they are in high demand and can ask for high salaries no doubt.

http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/...d_The_Scenes_Of_Sid_Meiers_Civilization_V.php

So I don't know what hope we have of them fixing MP soon, but I doubt this thread will make it happen any faster.

Now don't get me wrong, I still hold Firaxis responsible to fix MP, I'm just a realist and don't think it is going to happen soon.

CS

 

[MajorCyco]

If they don't fix the MP, I suspect Civ V will have a very short shelf life. For the second time, my little group of players is going back to Civ IV. Tonight's CIV V game was simply gawd-awful. While the game technically ran, the lag ensure that everyone was frustrated. The fun factor... zero.

 

[CanuckSoldier]

If they don't fix the MP, I suspect Civ V will have a very short shelf life. For the second time, my little group of players is going back to Civ IV. Tonight's CIV V game was simply gawd-awful. While the game technically ran, the lag ensure that everyone was frustrated. The fun factor... zero.

Yes I have that fear myself, though I'm doing what I can to promote MP in all Civ games, I'm not sure if Civ5 MP will last until they fix it, or even worse if they write MP off until Civ6.....

CS

 

[Biz_]

i dont think they've even hired a multiplayer programmer yet

6 months after game release lol

 

[[KC]Bantams]

If they don't fix the MP, I suspect Civ V will have a very short shelf life. For the second time, my little group of players is going back to Civ IV. Tonight's CIV V game was simply gawd-awful. While the game technically ran, the lag ensure that everyone was frustrated. The fun factor... zero.

Congrats on holding out so long

I stopped playing Civ V 3 months ago eck even started to play Earth 18 civs now just to remind me how "Awesome" Civ V Multiplayer really isn't

See you Civ IV where you can actually play with 18 or 24 other players without no game lag

 

[Kaitsuh]

Oh hey, they still haven't added Hotseat. That's cool, that's cool, I guess I really didn't want any value for my spent money after all.

 

[CanuckSoldier]

Oh hey, they still haven't added LAN. That's cool, that's cool, I guess I really didn't want any value for my spent money after all.

Were did you get the idea there was no LAN? It may not always work as well as advertised, but LAN MP certainly is included.

CS

 

[MasterMishi]

I went back to cIV and the crashes and quitters are just as bad as V
V only needs to allow move after end turn and it is all good. Without this ladder games run the timer down every turn. 4 hours for a 90turn cton is gruelling at best. Ive had fun with it, but I will wait for this fix before returning to the league regularly. Open games are more fun for me, despite the noobs and quits, with earlier ending of turns and greater variety of games.

 

[ERNIBERT]

You can also play without quitters and also without cton! CS speaks only of his league and make advertisement for itself. Cooperation is difficult with him.
There is also a european league and we play a lot of FFA: civ5liga.de
I invite everyone to like to play with us. There has to find the MP no grueling!

Erni
(MuffinMan)