Have given up on Civ 4

[Bruce Waters]

This is effectively a brief piece of feedback / rant about Civ 4 and the issues that I have experienced with the product.

When I first installed the base Civ 4 programme, it appeared to be a major enhancement in regards to gameplay, but it continually crashed. After a brief upgrade on a range of aspects of my laptop (Dell 9300 with XP SP2), I gave up and parked it for a time.

However, 2 weeks ago I decided to really see if I could fix it, so chased up on a number of forums to see what could be the issue. After loading the latest video driver and installing the latest Civ patches, along with reloading the base game several times, I effectively went backwards to the extent that the game would not even start up correctly. All this despite checking the compatibility of the game with an on-line checker which gave all of the hardware and software a clean bill of health

Consequently, I have decided that Life is too short to waste any more time on this, and have thrown the game away in disgust. I have been a die-hard Civ fan for many years but will not purchase any more of this series because it simply shouldn't be this hard to make it work. Firaxis - take note

 

[Lillefix]

Too bad. You should try it if you ever buy a new computer.

 

[6K Man]

Threw it out? Why not sell it?

 

[krasny]

you do need a pretty chunky PC to run Civ4

maybe your dell just isn't upto the task

 

[aslindy]

Sign up to make one post, saying you are giving up? That's not what *I* would call a "die-hard Civ fan." Ask some questions, be specific with what's not working or what errors you are getting. There's a lot of help available if you make a little effort.
And yeah... it could just be you need a better computer to play the game. Maybe that's not what you want to hear, but that's the way it is.
But Civ IV is not a game for people who give up without asking for help. Have fun playing something else.

 

[Gooblah]

strange. Civ 4's recommended requirements are met and exceeded by the Dell 9300. I would suggest reinstalling the game, checking for scratches, checking out your graphics card, etc, but since you already threw away the game....

Whatever..

 

[Spitefire]

Now i was not going to say anything but you pointing out the system specs of the game on the box now i feel i must, the game requires alot more power then the specs on the box suggest so i dont think going by the recommended requires on the box will do much good most with computers that exceed this by a ways off will not notice this, but others with stats that meet the specs or beat them a little will have issues so that isnt veary good for the company to be found in such an error/lie as that.

 

[PieceOfMind]

The Dell 9300 does not have enough RAM. I run Windows XP and find myself limited with 1GB of RAM when playing Civ.

Some might argue that 512MB is enough but it would not be in my opinion. Especially if you are running any other processes at all such as firewalls or background anti-virus programs. XP alone uses 2 to 3 hundred I think.

Any retailer selling PCs with 512MB for any purpose other than office use should be shot.

 

[Bruce Waters]

I find it interesting the comment about not being a 'die hard' Civ fan because I wasn't prepared to continue the fault finding process. I was always under the assumption that a game should be released as a fully functional piece of software, which is capable of running without significant tweaking or upgrading, and this has been my experience with almost all of the other games that I have played, including the previous Civ versions.

However, when I read the Forums about this product, I really wonder if this version was actually released as a Beta version, due to commercial expediency. As a customer, it would seem to be a normal expectation that the game should install and PLAY well as long as the minimum platform requirements were met, without having to spend hours of fault finding, development or continual installation of patches, yet this doesn't seem to be the case. From what I have read here and on other sites, people are spending a lot of time trying to sort out incompatibilities between hardware, drivers, configuration etc., and what's more, seeing this as normal for a brand new game!!

From my point of view, a game is an opportunity to have some fun and relax, not to spend hours of frustration trying to complete the development of a piece of software that I paid good money to purchase. Perhaps what needed to happen was that everyone sent a 'Nice try, now fix it' message to Firaxis and then boycotted the product until it was fixed.

End of rant

 

[Davor]

Well he is correct, he should have been able to play the game out of the box. You should never have to tweak to play a game when the specs on the box match your set up, or excede it.

Well best of luck and hopefully Firaxis will listen.

 

[T.A JONES]

I find it interesting the comment about not being a 'die hard' Civ fan because I wasn't prepared to continue the fault finding process. I was always under the assumption that a game should be released as a fully functional piece of software, which is capable of running without significant tweaking or upgrading, and this has been my experience with almost all of the other games that I have played, including the previous Civ versions.

However, when I read the Forums about this product, I really wonder if this version was actually released as a Beta version, due to commercial expediency. As a customer, it would seem to be a normal expectation that the game should install and PLAY well as long as the minimum platform requirements were met, without having to spend hours of fault finding, development or continual installation of patches, yet this doesn't seem to be the case. From what I have read here and on other sites, people are spending a lot of time trying to sort out incompatibilities between hardware, drivers, configuration etc., and what's more, seeing this as normal for a brand new game!!

From my point of view, a game is an opportunity to have some fun and relax, not to spend hours of frustration trying to complete the development of a piece of software that I paid good money to purchase. Perhaps what needed to happen was that everyone sent a 'Nice try, now fix it' message to Firaxis and then boycotted the product until it was fixed.

End of rant

YOu are right of course. What you have to understand when you hear others constanly standing up for Civ4's shoddy makeup is that Fireaxis draws its testing group from this site. Members here who lie or or go on about how great civ4 have a chance to become part of the beta team.

Once Civ4 was finished atleast a hundred members returned from thier dreamy Firaxis job fresh from excitin lunchroom chats with SOreen Johnson, they come back to these forums where the game was being ripped to shreds for numerous technical issues.
THese trusted members of the community now did their part to show thier loyalty and gratitude to the company that paid them by belittling the unconnected 'common folk', the mass audience's specs, by saying it was working great on their computers therfor your the one to blame not the game.

So Im sayin don't think we as a whole believe this treatment is ok. If you look close What you will notice is the same people defending civ4 they represent the fanbois and they go agaist flocks of newcomers who are the reality of serious concerns being expierenced by the masses.

 

[6K Man]

The bottom line is, as always, the bottom line. Enough people are buying Civ4 and happy with it (and the positive reviews to show it), that there isn't any real need to put a fix in place. Sure, the game may not work for everyone. It may CTD whenever you try to run a large map windowed. And so on. If there were more people with these problems, it would be an issue. There aren't, so it isn't.

In order to make a business case for a fix, game sales have to be suffering. That doesn't seem to be the case.

 

[gps]

However, when I read the Forums about this product, I really wonder if this version was actually released as a Beta version, due to commercial expediency. As a customer, it would seem to be a normal expectation that the game should install and PLAY well as long as the minimum platform requirements were met, without having to spend hours of fault finding, development or continual installation of patches, yet this doesn't seem to be the case. From what I have read here and on other sites, people are spending a lot of time trying to sort out incompatibilities between hardware, drivers, configuration etc., and what's more, seeing this as normal for a brand new game!!

Yes, because obviously it has become like that as far as computer games are concerned. That's not great, but that's how it is. We have long left the eighties and their simple standard Commodore 64 an ZX Spectrums platforms behind. Hardware is a complex matter nowadays - and from my point of view, CIV has not more and not more severe issues than any other average game on the market. If you have a look at other publishers (EA, Ubisoft, Luasarts) things could even be a lot worse.
On my machine, CIV toghether with a lot of other titels that have hardware problems now and then are working without problems, so maybe investing some time sorting out your hardware issues might help you enjoying the game - and some others as well. If you don't want to invest that time, too bad for you. Maybe you should consider buying a game console (but as far as I know, even they have issues and need constant patching) - or reading a book instead.
And don't get me wrong, I understand and respect your position - I have also walked away from some titles in the past because it had issues and it thought it a waste of time sorting them out. But CIV in general is a great game and definitely worth the effort!

P.S.: And no, I've not just 'returned from' my 'dreamy Firaxis job fresh from excitin lunchroom chats with SOreen Johnson' and I am pi**ed how Firaxis treated (abandoned) C3Conquests/Complete. I also hope, Firaxis use their still existing chance to fix BtS properly. But Vanilla and Warlords as far as I know and am able to judge are as bugfree as you can expect from today's software/gaming industrie. I like and enjoy playing both and that's as much as I can expect from a computer game. No reason to give up on them.

 

[Wenla]

The bottom line is, as always, the bottom line. Enough people are buying Civ4 and happy with it (and the positive reviews to show it), that there isn't any real need to put a fix in place. Sure, the game may not work for everyone. It may CTD whenever you try to run a large map windowed. And so on. If there were more people with these problems, it would be an issue. There aren't, so it isn't.

In order to make a business case for a fix, game sales have to be suffering. That doesn't seem to be the case.

May be that these (and other problems also) are not an issue for Firaxis, but those are big issue for me, personally. Those are so big issues that even Firaxis got my money now (to be exact, they got my money also for Civ II and III, AC and Allien Crossfire, etc etc, I buy usually 5-10 games an year), but they can't count on getting my money for next Civ (if there never be one), so they most propably lost my future money now.

Wenla

 

[aslindy]

I find it interesting the comment about not being a 'die hard' Civ fan because I wasn't prepared to continue the fault finding process. I was always under the assumption that a game should be released as a fully functional piece of software, which is capable of running without significant tweaking or upgrading, and this has been my experience with almost all of the other games that I have played, including the previous Civ versions.

First of all, if I sounded peevish in my previous post, I'm sorry. I should have known better than to post anything when I had a migraine. Pain makes me more cranky than normal.
On the other hand, I have seen a lot people sign up, post one message about how the game stinks and never works and never should have been released blah blah blah and basically just trolling. That also annoys me.
I also agree that a game should be released as fully functional... and for most people, I believe CivIV was. For me personally, I had some problems. Just as I have had problems with almost every other game I have purchased in the past few years. Including Civ III. I came here and tried to find help... I searched, I posted... but there seemed to be no fix for the graphic problem I was having (random black specks all over). It was really annoying... but everything else in the game seemed to work ok. And my video card was supposed to be plenty good enough to handle the game. Patches came and went, video driver updates too, and still the problem remained. Yet I could (and still can) play the game on a laptop that is not nearly as good as that computer. What's up with that??
Eventually I got a new computer, with an even better graphics card (better all around, actually) and of course the problem is gone now.
I think Firaxis really screwed up the minimum requirements list on the box.

But... what is the point of signing up here, just to say "I give up." Unless you're just trolling... or you're not really giving up, in which case you should give details about your problems to see if someone can give you advice.
But don't be surprised if the advice is to upgrade your computer. That topic has pretty much been beaten to death in these forums.
Amy

 

[King Flevance]

I find it interesting the comment about not being a 'die hard' Civ fan because I wasn't prepared to continue the fault finding process. I was always under the assumption that a game should be released as a fully functional piece of software, which is capable of running without significant tweaking or upgrading, and this has been my experience with almost all of the other games that I have played, including the previous Civ versions.
Me too.
However, when I read the Forums about this product, I really wonder if this version was actually released as a Beta version, due to commercial expediency. As a customer, it would seem to be a normal expectation that the game should install and PLAY well as long as the minimum platform requirements were met, without having to spend hours of fault finding, development or continual installation of patches, yet this doesn't seem to be the case. From what I have read here and on other sites, people are spending a lot of time trying to sort out incompatibilities between hardware, drivers, configuration etc., and what's more, seeing this as normal for a brand new game!!
Very good assumption. This is still my take on it after having followed the title since release day.
From my point of view, a game is an opportunity to have some fun and relax, not to spend hours of frustration trying to complete the development of a piece of software that I paid good money to purchase. Perhaps what needed to happen was that everyone sent a 'Nice try, now fix it' message to Firaxis and then boycotted the product until it was fixed.

End of rant

This post is freakin awesome! It should be mailed to Firaxis. Seriously, man I quit reading the thread upon this post just so I could reply and quote it. It even deserves a big fat QFT stamped on it and be mailed to 2K-Firaxis.

The frustrations don't stop upon install either. Then you have to worry about game imbalances, screwy bugs, etc. You are still on step 1 believe it or not. You still have another couple steps to go to make it appear "playable".

Now, I am gonna finish reading the rest of the thread.

 

[Diamondeye]

with Flevance, unfortunately.

On the other hand, the Civ IV Ai might me the most complex AI I've ever seen, and although it still has some minor flaws, it definately has it's plusses compared to any other strategy Ai I've played, including each and every Age Of ... Ais and the total war Ais.

 

[Squarg]

Some might argue that 512MB is enough but it would not be in my opinion. Especially if you are running any other processes at all such as firewalls or background anti-virus programs. XP alone uses 2 to 3 hundred I think.

Any retailer selling PCs with 512MB for any purpose other than office use should be shot.

My dell from 3 years ago has 512MB of RAM and it works fine. It runs Civ perfectly and only CTD sometimes in the modern age of Huge terra maps. Therefore I find his argument terrible since my dell 8300 (I think that is what it is I'm not at home right now) runs it perfectly and his better comp should be able to work it fine without any adjustments.

 

[DagHammarskjol]

The Dell 9300 does not have enough RAM. I run Windows XP and find myself limited with 1GB of RAM when playing Civ.

Some might argue that 512MB is enough but it would not be in my opinion. Especially if you are running any other processes at all such as firewalls or background anti-virus programs. XP alone uses 2 to 3 hundred I think.

Any retailer selling PCs with 512MB for any purpose other than office use should be shot.

My laptop:

RAM: 512 MB
Graphics: ATI X200M
Processor: Turion--I forget exactly which one.

It's pretty much the worst quality new computer one could buy right now without going Sempron or Celeron.

I turn off combat animations, movies, and whatever it is that makes the game zoom in on things like starting religions and so on. I make sure "High Detail Terrain" is turned off.

And the game runs just fine.

I even think it could probably handle the combat animations since it handles all other animations--I just find them annoying in general.

-DaHa

 

[Squarg]

My laptop:

RAM: 512 MB
Graphics: ATI X200M
Processor: Turion--I forget exactly which one.

It's pretty much the worst quality new computer one could buy right now without going Sempron or Celeron.

I turn off combat animations, movies, and whatever it is that makes the game zoom in on things like starting religions and so on. I make sure "High Detail Terrain" is turned off.

And the game runs just fine.

I even think it could probably handle the combat animations since it handles all other animations--I just find them annoying in general.

-DaHa

Ya I think that he was playing with hidef terrain ect. because mine works fine even with movies (thanks to lo def movies in BTS) and unit movements aren't frozen.