Patch 1.09 released!

[blue3c]

As of today, 11/29, 2K Games is posting a link to the 1.09 patch, at 31.5 MB (I think elsewhere folks were indicating a somewhat smaller file). So, I think they heard us, and responded.

Now, I hope the patch works.

No offense there sgtfury, but lets look at this. The patch is not the size they say it is. Attention to detail is important when making a game. This sloppiness shows in the entire game and now in the website. Sounds like and looks like take2/firaxis is just one large cluster **** right now. To top it off you have sid touring to promote the game. LOL. Talking about how take2/firaxis would like to take over PC gaming. Please for the love of god somebody shoot the dam anti-christ. If this is how the plan to take it over. He is the anti-christ.
Do not let him put us through another game (at least that is what they are calling it), that needs patching to patch the patching.
Sid I say this with all my heart. YOU ARE THE ANTI-CHRIST.

P.S. yes the coffee has kicked in

 

[Raven236]

I just downloaded the patch, but got the same '1706' Error that Graun reported. And yet it kept on going, and said I was patched to v1.09. I guess I'll see.

... OK. Started up (choppier beginning movie). Game 'kindly' tells me my system is sub-par. However, selecting Play Now, I get a starting postion without 'Dark Terrain'! A definite improvement! Too late to do much now, but I'll check it out more later.

I have a Pentium IV, 2.4 GHz, 512 MByte RAM with an Intel 82845G Graphics card.

I got '1706' error too but it just continued patching the game, have no problems with the game other then my previous save game files are not compitable.(before 1.09)

 

[blue3c]

OWNER DOES NOT REPRESENT, WARRANT OR GUARANTEE THE QUALITY OR THE PERFORMANCE OF THE SOFTWARE OR ACCOMPANYING MATERIALS OTHER THAN AS SET FORTH IN THE ABOVE LIMITED WARRANTY. OWNER ALSO DOES NOT REPRESENT, WARRANT OR GUARANTEE THAT THE SOFTWARE OR ACCOMPANYING MATERIALS' CAPABILITIES WILL MEET YOUR NEEDS OR THAT THE SOFTWARE WILL CONTINUOUSLY OPERATE, BE ERROR FREE, OR THAT PROBLEMS WILL BE CORRECTED. OWNER DOES NOT REPRESENT THAT THE SOFTWARE WILL OPERATE IN A MULTI-USER ENVIRONMENT.

OMG LOL. Basically you bought it. Deal with it. All they are saying here is that I have you money, you paid for nothing and it is not a multiplayer game.
LOL. Sucker born every min. PT you said it best.

I will be starting my own webpage against everything sid and everything firaxis/take2. My mission in life is to show the world what a terrible product these two put out. I am here to put them through the hell they have put me through for over a month now. I will point out how the lowly EA is even better at patching and support. I will point out how the don't even know the size of the patch they put out. They use third party support thats not even on site. It basically a service that answers phones and has a script. They really know nothing about the game. If you ask them one hard question they point you to take2's homepage.
You all can go along with the dream that is civIV actually working. I will go on with the reality that is the shortsighted early release of the game has lead to a raping of the customer.

 

[Artanis]

I have the boxed version of the game that I got at Best Buy and I get the same "no version of Civ 4 is installed."

I have the same problem as well. I've tried the ingame downloader about four times, and three different web-hosted patches, and all of them say "no version of Civ 4 is installed" no matter what I do with them.

My hope is that my CD (straight from a brick-and-mortar EB) somehow ended up with the Direct2Drive version and that THEIR patch will work for me

 

[Natronomonas]

How about some of us with problems share them with the wider community?

Go to Amazon.com, IGN Games (http://pc.ign.com/objects/620/620513.html) etc and rate the game - how it should be rated, and explain why. You may see the one I wrote at http://rr.pc.ign.com/rr/620513/035/035400.html. If you agree, or otherwise, with the review please rate it.

You might have to create accounts at some of these places, but it's worth it. I spent $90 on this game, every other game I've spent that much on has been A-OK, but not this one.

Perhaps that might prompt Take2/firaxis to _provide tech support_ and FIX THE CTD ISSUE!!

I'm tired of having to try workarounds etc when no other software I have has any issues whatsoever. I shouldn't have to fix a newly released game, I should only have to play it. The only frustration I should be feeling is losing a city to barbarians, not wanting to yell at the creators of the game.

edit: valid criticism of original post incorporated.

 

[Psyringe]

I have the same problem as well. I've tried the ingame downloader about four times, and three different web-hosted patches, and all of them say "no version of Civ 4 is installed" no matter what I do with them.

My hope is that my CD (straight from a brick-and-mortar EB) somehow ended up with the Direct2Drive version and that THEIR patch will work for me

This is highly unlikey. I doubt that a D2D version on disc exists. I'm not even sure whether Take2 *has* a D2D version which they could accidentally put on the discs. Take2 obviously has the unprotected version that Firaxis sent them, and the retail version where Take2 added the copy protection. When they sent D2D the unprotected version, upon which D2D then placed their own copy protection, then there is no way how you could have possibly received a D2D version on an official disc.

Regarding your problem: Perhaps your Civ4 installation is incomplete. Did you have any problems installing? Did Civ4 register properly, does the game show up under "Settings -> Software"?

 

[blue3c]

I have the same problem as well. I've tried the ingame downloader about four times, and three different web-hosted patches, and all of them say "no version of Civ 4 is installed" no matter what I do with them.

My hope is that my CD (straight from a brick-and-mortar EB) somehow ended up with the Direct2Drive version and that THEIR patch will work for me

Dude, here it is, Check the shortcut on your desktop. Does it lead anywhere.
If there is no shortcut, check the folder you installed the game to for the exe.
My guess is that file is gone. I have seen many versions of the patch that have nuked the exe file that starts the game.
If that happened you will more then likley have to go through a few steps and reboots to get this back to your original install.
Without the exe the game will not uninstall. So you have to reinstall, reboot, uninstall (because the patch did update somefiles, you will have to uninstall to get back to your original state), reboot install game to different directory then you install the first time. I suggest this to help with a totally clean install. Old reg keys that are not removed in the uninstall will not be pointing to your old install. No files that may have not been installed will be there in your install.
If you feel you need to patch again after this. God be with you.
As I have said before, Sid is the Anti CHrist.

 

[Artanis]

This is highly unlikey. I doubt that a D2D version on disc exists. I'm not even sure whether Take2 *has* a D2D version which they could accidentally put on the discs. Take2 obviously has the unprotected version that Firaxis sent them, and the retail version where Take2 added the copy protection. When they sent D2D the unprotected version, upon which D2D then placed their own copy protection, then there is no way how you could have possibly received a D2D version on an official disc.

I know it's virtually impossible, but I couldn't think of much else, so I figured it might be worth a shot, since it seemed similar to the symptoms reported by people trying to use the initial retail patch on their D2D versions

Regarding your problem: Perhaps your Civ4 installation is incomplete. Did you have any problems installing? Did Civ4 register properly, does the game show up under "Settings -> Software"?

Didn't have any problems installing, and it should be properly registered. I don't know if it shows up under "Settings -> Software" off the top of my head, I'll have to check it when I get home (no internet connection there at the moment, so I'm ferrying stuff from work via a USB drive).

If the patch doesn't work (which, like you said, it most likely won't), I'll try just uninstalling/reinstalling Civ4 and see if it decides to patch after that. Next time I manage to get back here, hopefully I'll have a better idea of what's wrong.


Edit:

Dude, here it is, Check the shortcut on your desktop. Does it lead anywhere.
If there is no shortcut, check the folder you installed the game to for the exe.
My guess is that file is gone.

Civ4 is still there. I played it repeatedly over the past couple of days between patch attempts, including this morning before leaving to go to class. There's nothing more sinister than the patch simply not working.

 

[blue3c]

"...There's nothing more sinister than the patch simply not working..."

Sure there is, the patch that removed my exe. By the way, cool mental note.

edit, I know you had to dl the file to usb, maybe you should find someone here who got a good patch, and compare the size. I heard there where different sized patchs.

Man any way I put that last one I knew it would sound bad.

 

[Artanis]

"...There's nothing more sinister than the patch simply not working..."

Sure there is, the patch that removed my exe. By the way, cool mental note.

I meant on my end

 

[Psyringe]

If you agree with the review please rate it!!

I just went there. I don't agree with your review. I hope you don't mind me rating it nevertheless. (Telling people to rate the review only if they agree to it puts the intentions of a review in a rather dubious light in the first place, btw.)

I honestly fail to understand how you can praise gameplay (and give high marks to other aspects), yet give it nearly the *lowest* possible overall score because of its technical issues. To me this looks more like an attempt to skew the rating average than a fair evaluation. If such things are going on, then the very high marks that Civ4 keeps achieving on many customer rating sites are to be regarded even higher.

But providing (fair) reviews is actually a good idea. I think I'll put one up that I wrote for some friends of mine. And no, I won't give the game the highest mark, not in its current state. That would be as silly as giving it the lowest.

 

[blue3c]

Silly Rabbit Tricks are for kids.

 

[Natronomonas]

I just went there. I don't agree with your review. I hope you don't mind me rating it nevertheless. (Telling people to rate the review only if they agree to it puts the intentions of a review in a rather dubious light in the first place, btw.)

I don't mind you rating it other than my own opinion. I'm really just trying to warn people that they may experience major issues with this game, and if those that have experienced these issues rate it, it's clear it's not just me (as all the posts in the forum would suggest).

I honestly fail to understand how you can praise gameplay (and give high marks to other aspects), yet give it nearly the *lowest* possible overall score because of its technical issues. To me this looks more like an attempt to skew the rating average than a fair evaluation. If such things are going on, then the very high marks that Civ4 keeps achieving on many customer rating sites are to be regarded even higher.

I can easily give gameplay a great score, because the gameplay IS great when it all works fine (which it can, sometimes, for a while). The technical issues are what drags the whole thing down, hence the overall low score.

But providing (fair) reviews is actually a good idea. I think I'll put one up that I wrote for some friends of mine. And no, I won't give the game the highest mark, not in its current state. That would be as silly as giving it the lowest.

You might not think my review is fair, or maybe you do. In my eyes, it's a fair review. A great game let down by many bugs. And yes, I did give it a low mark partly to drag down the average, but also, at the end of the day, I felt it was deserved. I paid $90 for the game, and I can't play it. You can't really return games these days because the shop thinks you've pirated it etc, so for me, I may as well almost not have the game.

 

[pdschmid]

still CTDs, crashes freeze my entire computer and give me a black screen, and oh..a new one..a blue screen of death
On the good side, I can actually play on high graphics settings now (was way too slow before), and the crashes happy every 3 hour or so as opposed to 20 minutes...

 

[Psyringe]

I don't mind you rating it other than my own opinion. I'm really just trying to warn people that they may experience major issues with this game

I agree that this possibility should be mentioned in a fair review. Actually, the first line in my review to my friends was something like "It's a great game, but watch your specs, and try whether the game runs before you buy it."

I can easily give gameplay a great score, because the gameplay IS great when it all works fine (which it can, sometimes, for a while). The technical issues are what drags the whole thing down, hence the overall low score.

My problem with this is that if your technical problems are so rampant that they merit a score of 1.0, then you simply wouldn't be able to play enough to rate gameplay at all. I also think that you don't make clear whether your review is meant as your private experience with the game (as the score suggests), or as an overview about how the game is generally received (as the usage of CFC polls suggests, which you chose and interpreted a little one-sided imho). But you're entitled to your opinion of course.

Anyway, this is vastly off-topic here. I do hope that Firaxis manages to fix your game soon.

 

[Natronomonas]

I do hope that Firaxis manages to fix your game soon.

Me too : )
All this angst, it's not good for a person

 

[Natronomonas]

My problem with this is that if your technical problems are so rampant that they merit a score of 1.0, then you simply wouldn't be able to play enough to rate gameplay at all.

Unlike some, I've been able to actually launch the thing. Playing with CTD and freezes, well, it's called persistence and a lot of saving the game
I haven't played past Steam Power yet though.

I'm considering buying a second PC to be able to play this darn game! (well, that's the excuse which the significant other _might_ just buy : )

 

[blue3c]

Unlike some, I've been able to actually launch the thing. Playing with CTD and freezes, well, it's called persistence and a lot of saving the game
I haven't played past Steam Power yet though.

I'm considering buying a second PC to be able to play this darn game! (well, that's the excuse which the significant other _might_ just buy : )

Don't count on that being the end all fix all. It is not. At least not for everybody. I guess it all depends on which stars are over you house at what time.
Or if sid the anti christ deciedes you can play. I guess you must worship this antichrist to be able to play. A deal with devil, whatever it may be.

 

[Yrth]

Hey, on another thread in this forum dealing with memory leaks, a member named The_Kangaroo posted some changes he made to his .ini file. It's the last message on page 13:

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=137706&page=13

These are the changes:

AllowScreenShots = 0
SyncInput = 1
D3D9Query = 1
LoggingEnabled = 1

I tried them and I was able to play for the last couple of hours with not one single CTD; from 1951 to 1988. Prior to making the changes, it was crashing on me every 1-3 turns. I wouldn't have tried the changes but another member posted that it had worked for him so I decided to try it.

I don't know what these changes do or why I didn't CTD tonight, but I hope they keep working for me (and hopefully it'll work for some of you as well even though our machines are different) The only drawback from the changes is that a) it seemed to take longer to load and b) the one wonder movie I got (the Internet) was choppy. But gameplay was good.

For the record, I had reduced all my settings to the lowest possible prior to this and I didn't change them to make them higher. I just wanted to try out the .ini changes first. I would have kept going but I had to stop for the night. I have an Athlon 4000+ at 2.6 Ghz, 1 GIG RAM and X600 ATI. EDIT: I have the 1.09 patch (which I downloaded from in-game and installed without problem)

Just thought I'd let you guys know in case you wanted to experiment with your .ini file -- but just in case, make a clean copy of it before messing with it.

 

[blue3c]

HA! you can play. You made the list, NO SOUP FOR U!