So, When is a new BTS Patch comming?

Any ideas? BTS is awesome but it really needs a patch. Does anyone know if one is comming?

 

Didn't you here? All Firaxis money and developement is going to Civ Revolutions instead of Civ4. They want to get it done as soon as possible so only crashing errors are being patched. Firaxis plans to drop all support of Civ4 by January. Sid Meier, said that Beyond the Sword was the worst addition added to the series, and he wished he could of replaced it by buying Call To Power Series instead of further funding Civ4 development. He fears that if Civ Revolutions doesn't do well, then Firaxis will not consent to a Civ5, and he doesn't want his Civ legacy to die with the shame of Beyond the Sword.



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ROFL Im only Kidding.

 

Probably in 1-2 weeks...

Look the probably.

 

Firaxis has already finished the new patch, and it's being tested in QA right now. If no serious problems are discovered there, the patch should be released in 1 or 2 weeks, as Arlborn said. However there's always the chance that QA *does* discover a serious bug and rejects the patch - in that case, all ETAs are off.

 

If it's the same testers from the original release I think the chances of them discovering ANYTHING are extremely low

 

Maybe you got it right!

 

Do you have a link for all this information?

 

I guess that the remark "ROFL I'm only kidding" at the end of the post kind of makes this question obsolete.

 

I've heard people say this elsewhere, and one of my mates said in in RW too.

 

You honestly believe that Sid would call the expansion they are selling right now "the worst addition" of the series? That he wanted to replace Civ4 with "Call to Power" - the series that had to be stopped so that he could do Civ3 once he got the Civ franchise again?

Wow.

But if "people say this", and one of your mates too ... well ...

 

No not that part for crying out loud..

But no Civ 5, not much more support... everything going into this Revolutions crap..

 

Ah, *that* part ...

Well, I still wouldn't believe it. For one, long-term product support is an integral part of Sid Meier's design philosophy. It's a necessary part as well. You can't sell complex games without long-term support, because with complex games like Civ, the customers will always find problems that QA never thought of. People buy Firaxis' games despite the inevitable bugs on release because they know that Firaxis will eventually fix them, and Meier knows this as well.

Second, setting a short-term deadline for support while the game is still on the shelves would be incredibly stupid. Now Meier certainly isn't infallible, but he also isn't plain daft. It *may* be possible that they plan to wrap BtS up by January, but trust me, when BtS hasn't reached AAA quality by then, they'll spend more time on it until it has. They never abandoned any of their games in an unfinished state.

Third, after Civ4 being a huge success (it sold way better than Civ3), it would be stupid not to go on to Civ5. Although doing something different for a while might be a good idea, because Civ4 raised the bar very way, and its modablity will ensure a long shelf life anyway. I wouldn't expect Civ5 before 2010. If you ask me, they don't have to hurry, Civ4 hit my sweet spot of Civ gaming pretty well, and probability dictates that Civ5 won't be so exactly matched to my personal tastes anyway.

Regarding the "Revolutions crap", I think it won't hurt to bring new customers to the Civilization franchise. Granted, the product won't interest me. But it doesn't have to. As I said, Civ4 BtS will hold on its own for years to come. I hope that Revolutions becomes a sound success - the more Firaxis have in their pockets, the more leverage they have for Civ5.

 

Really? I cant access game site from here, but I thought it sold about half as many copies?

 

**Cough cough** Railroads?

I would use that as an example!

 

How about a revisit to Colonization? Or am I the only one that really liked that game?

I can wait on a Civ5, but a patch for some of the issues in BtS would be nice.

 

Yes, I loved Col. Did you know the wierd cheat how to play all 4 countries at once by clicking off the screen? I was for ever holding tea parties lol

 

Actual sales figures are hard to get (if you have some, I'd be interested in them), but AFAIR all Civ4 products fared better in the sales charts than their respective Civ3 counterparts (and that's not even taking into account that video game sales have increased in general over the last few years). The difference is most noticable for the first expansion - while Civ3tW pretty much tanked (it entered the NPD charts on #9, and fell off the next week), Civ4:Warlords did not only manage to lead the chart as #1, it also brought vanilla Civ4 *back* into the top 10.

Based on this data, I seriously doubt that Civ4 sold less copies in the two years after its release than Civ3 did in the same timeframe. But I'd be very interested in hard numbers if you can provide them.

 

Yes, I do too remember Vanilla re-appearing after Warlords release!

 

Okay, obviously I can only talk about the games I played, and I don't have every Sid Meier or Firaxis game in my collection. But those that I do have (Civ 1-4, Colonization, SMAC, Pirates, Railroad Tycoon, Covert Action, plus all expansions if there were any) have been suported very well imho. I've never been disappointed and I certainly don't expect to be disappointed by the support for BtS.

If Railroads didn't get the support it deserved, then that's truly sad, but I can't really say anything about it as I know zilch about that game. I wouldn't conclude from such a story that Firaxis won't thoroughly patch their flagship product, though.