Fundamental flaws in CIV4

[Sovietof17]

1. Lobby room game listings scroll/jump like crazy when using the mouse to scroll the list. Using the keyboard helps some, but eventually you have ot click a game to join, which sometimes results in erroneous games.

2. All games are being password protected in order to partially circumvent a flaw in the game join system. When a player in a game disconnects, the game often takes 3+ minutes to detect that player disconnecting. Then, another player will join in that player's spot, eaitng another 3+ minutes, just to leave again because they didn't like the situation. The reason for this is that the pillar icon (which indicates whether a game has started) is not descriptive enough to indicate ot a user the game has started. A preference should be added, "do not allow other people to join this game when it has already started", which would correct this.

3. Half of the multiplayer games get an "out of sync error".

4. Gamespy service fails on a regular basis. Yesterday (perhaps today also) it failed so completely no one could launch a new game.

5. Ladder games are a joke due to campers and no diplomacy. No points are awarded for players that eliminate other players.

6. Declaring war on another civ causes defensive pacts to be broken. This is terrible. In CIV3 it was not this way. Change it back immediately or provide us with a patch/the code to do so.

 

[Phyr_Negator]

Add this to mentioned list

 

[ivj]

Perhaps you haven't realized, but in order to cut costs, Take2 and Firaxis have decided to use their mainstream customers as beta testers.

 

[AsnoT]

i keep getting "this is not a valid account" from gamespy - i only MADE it for this game, as directed by the site.

this system does not work.

more in general - take2 was an annoying company* before they got their paws on the civ franchise, and they turn out to be as bad as their reputation.

i wouldn't mind the slightly beta or RC status of the game as such, but to have all these problems just so a company can have the sales figures for it NOW instead of next year is disgusting.
(in their hurry, they also produced unusable local versions of the manual, where the lists are translated but not reordered alphabetically.)

if it weren't for the 2 forums, a large proportion of buyers wouldn't be able to run the game at all - without gramphos' tool, no dice.

the biggest german electronics seller's slogan is "geiz ist geil" (german for ~ 'stringiness is sexy') - and here's where this attitude comes back and bites the consumer's a**.



* i think the basic concept of GTA, that violence is pure entertainment, is not a sign of a healthy mind. that goes even more for rockstar's now dropped bully "game".

 

[LordGek]

6. Declaring war on another civ causes defensive pacts to be broken. This is terrible. In CIV3 it was not this way. Change it back immediately or provide us with a patch/the code to do so.

From what I gathered this is very intentional (even the rollover of Defensive Pacts states this ends once one of YOU declare war on a thrid party) to reduce a lot of cheesey exploits with the AI players.

 

[mrgenie]

From what I gathered this is very intentional (even the rollover of Defensive Pacts states this ends once one of YOU declare war on a thrid party) to reduce a lot of cheesey exploits with the AI players.

I would agree with Sovietof17 though..NATO does NOT stop to exist because the US attacks iraq...what crazy person thought such things? a defensive pack is only that others help one another during wartime. it says nothing:"you are not allowed to protect your own interests outside your territory" i wonder which crazy man at firaxis thought that countries like NL or Brittain would stop to support the US because of some stupid war it's like brother and sister, you don't agree with another, but you do stand side by side!

 

[LordGek]

I would agree with Sovietof17 though..NATO does NOT stop to exist because the US attacks iraq...what crazy person thought such things? a defensive pack is only that others help one another during wartime. it says nothing:"you are not allowed to protect your own interests outside your territory" i wonder which crazy man at firaxis thought that countries like NL or Brittain would stop to support the US because of some stupid war it's like brother and sister, you don't agree with another, but you do stand side by side!

I'm willing to bet this is one of those, "for the sake of gameplay" and not based on any reality.

 

[BeefontheBone]

That's also a stupid example - the US at least sees its actions as, at least in part, defensive. In any case, if you haven't noticed, it's a game, not a reality simulator - in order to simulate such an issue (action outside a power's own territory but also outside that of other major powers) you'd need to model a large number of smaller states, which completely alters the game. Civ has never been realistic, becuase it was never intended to be.