I'm fed up with 1.17

[DGuller]

I'm fed up with 1.17. Since I installed the patch, I've played 3 games on Emperor level. Every game played exactly the same. At first, you're way behind in science, then you eventually buy your way back to AI's level, and then hopefully you have the strength to expand. The games just have no fricken variety at all. In 1.16, depending on situation, my early game differed vastly, I could make a lot of choices regarding tech race, military, size, development. Now, all I have to do is keep my small empire together, lay out the infrastructure to be ready for industrialization, and hope for the best. And the pace of research is so damn fast that before I can finish my first pikeman, everyone is already building riflemen. The game fast-forwards to the infantry-tank period, it's now more like a WW1 wargame. Yesterday, in the middle of the first game, I just suddenly got fed up with going through the motions for the third time as Chinese, repeating everythign I did as Germans and Egyptians. This patch is a DISASTER, I won't mince my words. I think Firaxis must immediately release an old 1.16 patch plus the stacking feature, and I mean right away. The have the code at hand already. Afterwards, they should think through all their changes to the gameplay and try not to throw the baby out with the bath water next time. Whatever loophole Firaxis plugs, their fix unbalances the gameplay thrice as much. I think Civ3 was a good game, but this patch has just destroyed the whole experience. Firaxis must fix this IMMEDIATELY, it's not fun going through the motions instead of playing. If anyone knows how to make sure this gets to Firaxis, can you tell me? They're really pissing away their gem by not thinking through the patches. Unpatch it, Sid.

P.S. I'm not a whiner, at least I'd like to think so. I've never criticized this game before, and I think it was an excellent game before 1.17. However, I'm just bewildered as to how people that came up with this good game can blunder so much with the patch.

 

[Richard III]

Wow!

I haven't patched yet because I am scared too. Because many people seem to agree with your raving fury.

R.III

 

[muppet]

Originally posted by DGuller
........and try not to throw the baby out with the bath water next time.

 

[jimmytrick]

The extreme balance shift is due to the fact that the game came out so early. Then you have the pressure to patch some things right now right now right now and you make a snap decision on something and whoops!

I feel sorry for Soren just this once.

 

[Zouave]

Originally posted by jimmytrick
The extreme balance shift is due to the fact that the game came out so early. Then you have the pressure to patch some things right now right now right now and you make a snap decision on something and whoops!

I feel sorry for Soren just this once.

They have my money. Why should I feel sorry for them?!

Anyway, I'm glad you concur about what many of us have long said - this game was badly rushed with minimal playtesting to be marketed in time for the Christmas buying season.

 

[Selous]

i so almost agree with u DGuller!! ... i was getting VERY angry with the game post patch and was ready to put my fist through my monitor ... but ... in my recent game i have actually managed to get fair trades out of the AI what i did was rather than the usual build settlers as fast as i could start i build a few chariots rather than settlers and the AI actually gave me semi-reasonable teck deals!! needless to say i was shocked and VERY pleased!! ... then with a reasonable start i managed to have fun in the ancient era (note i did say semi-reasonable ... the AI NEVER gives fair deals ... but at least they did deal .. was mostly a teck for a teck and a few gold)

this is only 1 game out of many i have started so it is possable that i was plain old lucky ... also ... i was on a continant with the french, babolonians, zulu, romans, indians and the aztecs and i was the japaneese ... the games i have played with the new patch where i have been near the germans or the russians have been REAL bad .... perhaps it is this? or i was lucky? or perhaps u have to build a few good units VERY early to have some respect ... has ANYone else had a good start with 1.17?

 

[DGuller]

I've gotten fair deals out of AI too. Even generous, like 2 luxuries for 1, or tech for cheap if I was almost broke. I didn't even have a huge army, I just had a relatively small civ (6-7 cities). I just got fed up with the game developing in the exactly the same way time after time. First game, it was actually fun, because AI does treat you fairly if you're a small civ. But, third time, I just felt like I was there before, and knew exactly how the game will develop. No fun. After this post, I've started yet another game, and yet another time I'm a 6 city civ that plays it safe and latches onto AI's research, and builds up railroad network in 1200. I'm going to reinstall 1.16 patch and play on the small maps, so hopefully I won't need stacking feature that badly.

 

[SirPleb]

Originally posted by Zouave
Why should I feel sorry for them?

Me too. I have no sympathy for them at this point. Three more reasons:

1) There was nothing wrong with the AI in 1.16, it did not need a quick fix. Sure it could be made better but they could have taken their time doing so.

2) It took less than a day of play using 1.17 to see that the AI is now seriously out of balance. This was not a subtle thing which was hard to see coming. It is a screwup.

3) I haven't seen them acknowledge the screwup or show signs of quickly fixing it. And this time, it IS something which needs a quick fix. There have been many threads and comments about the problem on CivFanatics. No response from Firaxis that I've seen.

Though I've seen lots of great suggestions which might work to fix it, the suggestions for further changes to fix the new AI all have the chance of just introducing other problems until thoroughly play tested and tuned. To my mind the clear winner as a quick fix is to revert to the 1.16 AI until they have time to thoroughly work things through.

I too have not criticized the game or Firaxis before 1.17. There is so much that is good in this game and so much excellent design and programming. But the loss of fun in 1.17, the obviousness of the mistake, and the lack of response, have shifted me to feeling rather critical of the 1.17 patch and how it has been handled.

 

[Dirk Aurel]

A lot of good points made,am not too fond of it either,yes the AI does trade more fairly,but that´s also what´s so annoying they trade too much, science is almost a waste of money, trading techs makes more sense.The leaps in tech advances is way too high,what I liked about this game among other reasons,was that for the first time in the Civ series one could actually invade another country with knights,musketmen and so on,without all the units becoming osolete within a few turns.I´d go back immediately to 1.16 if it wasn´t for the stack movement,play huge maps,and it is very handy,but I´m also a mouse player so use the keyboard less,pressing "j" is annoying.Anyway I´d like to see 1.16 again with stack movements,the rest one can do oneself with the editor.

P.S.Oh and the little bar where it says how many turns more before the borders expand

 

[D. Boon's Ghost]

I just switched back to 1.16 the other night. The loss of the 'j' troop movement is a killer, but the game is now fun again.
And that is what it is all about, correct? How much fun the game is?