The final straw.

[Duntoran]

Tried many times to play this game, done all the "fixes" suggested too. Spent lord only knows how many hours just reading these forums for tips, but this game is FUBAR!

The final straw, was playing a large map game, got to with 50 turns of the year 2050 cut off, was about 2-3 turns from space race victory, when BAM, the usual slowdown and ctd happened.

I tell you what, I am glad I couldn't get to London to see Sid Meier, because he would have had a very angry customer to talk to. Please please please tell me the memory leaking, bugged, glitchy piece of crap will be fixed properly! It is no doubt a FANTASTIC game, but I simply cannot put up with it anymore!

One thing you guys might be able to help me with, is there a file generated by the game after a crash? Like an "error.txt" or something? I would at least like to be able to send any useful info to the devs, whining on here might make me feel better briefly, but it isnt too productive .

 

[Jimbo30]

Press <Shift> F5 to autosave the game every turn late on.

Play on a standard map with 12 civs, my P4 2.8 can handle that nicely post-patch right up to the end.

 

[Urederra]

try this:

www.civanon.com

Now, seriuosly, I think I have read that the shift key press in some way liberates memory or something.
Maybe some other civfan could help us with this issue.

 

[El_Machinae]

You mean it's a type of 'reset' that purges some of the over-run? I can't really imagine that ... but maybe ...

The current answer is just 'deal' by expecting less than what you want. Not really fair, but if you just play a slightly less complex game (smaller map) you'll do fine.

Though that error.txt was a great idea. I wish more things in life were created that could review negative feedback quickly.

 

[Mercade]

Now, seriuosly, I think I have read that the shift key press in some way liberates memory or something.
Maybe some other civfan could help us with this issue.

In the 1.09 patch readme it is said that if you press shift during start-up, it will purge the cache. It doesn't quite say that it will purge the cache mid game, nor does it say when exactly and for how long you have to press shift. It would be much better to have the cache-purging in the INI file.

 

[spa]

I have had a few problems with CTD on my machine but I have recently reduced the problem to a much more manageable state. This is what I did.

1. Upgraded ram to 712.
2. Turned on quick moves and no combat zoom so as to not tax the machine so much with unnecessary zooming and animation. This doesn't sacrifice much in the way of graphics but greatly speeds things up.
3. Increased my virtual memory which was set at 728 up to 3000 since my machine has the space to spare (might be a bit of overkill putting that much up but I really don't know enough to recommend any particular amount).
4. Play large maps instead of huge ones with a normal number of civs (no 18 on huge).

These three steps have greatly improved Civ on my machine.

 

[El_Machinae]

Yeah, like I said, settle for less. There's still a huge amount of game to play. Huge, huge amount.

 

[Asterothe]

What does CTD stand for?

 

[John L]

What does CTD stand for?

"Crash To Desktop". I had the same question the other day also.

What is amazing is that so many are simply suggesting that we all learn to live by expecting far less than normal. Hey, if you are going to get raped, at least learn to enjoy it in the process.

I find this attitude unacceptable. I am calling support again and ask for someone higher up the food chain. I need to express my frustration to those further up the chain of command.

I would suggest that if the average, non Civ person were to go through this forum, and see what is being written by those who are willing to accept substandard performance, they would be convinced that the average Civ fan was a Wacko, and not smart enough to come in out of the rain.

 

[Asterothe]

Thank you John L.

 

[calyth]

The final straw, was playing a large map game, got to with 50 turns of the year 2050 cut off, was about 2-3 turns from space race victory, when BAM, the usual slowdown and ctd happened.

I'm curious about your system specs.
Try getting prime95 and run their stress test to see whether your computer is actually stable in the first place. If it says that floating point error is greater than 0.5, try a stress test that stress RAM and the other that stress CPU.
I'm getting the impression across the forum that people with CTD problems may not have a stable enough computer. (I'm not blaming anyone when I say this.) Mainly because the people with CTD and without CTD kinda matches the ratio that I associate with unstable computers.
If Prime95 memory stress test says something wrong, but CPU doesn't, find memtest86+ and check out the RAM. Most likely memtest86+ will find the problem, and you might want to borrow a set of a known good ram somewhere and see if the game CTD anymore.

 

[Gazaridis]

Part of the problem is that graphics card manufacturers are always tinkering with their drivers. The recent versions of ATI's Catalyst drivers aren't stable and I got occassional graphics gliches and CTDs when using them, I downloaded 4.10s or 4.12s and everything works fine. It wasn't the game, it was the drivers.

 

[jayeffaar]

was about 2-3 turns from space race victory, when BAM, the usual slowdown and ctd happened.

Did it suddenly slow down and crash right away? I find that when I get a serious slow down, I have plenty of time to save, exit the game, reload and keep playing normally for a few more hours.

I find this attitude unacceptable. I am calling support again and ask for someone higher up the food chain. I need to express my frustration to those further up the chain of command.

I understand your frustration but seriously, what is that going to accomplish, besides letting you vent and making a support dude's day even worse than it already was? Do you expect them to tell you that they'll fix it just for you, since you're unhappy? They already know about the preformance problems and are most likely still working on making the game run better.

Yes, it should have been fine out of the box but it wasn't. Yelling at them isn't the answer. All we can do until they make it better is deal with it and find ways to work around the problems. Is saving and restarting every few hours completely ruining the game for you?

 

[Pbhead]

waiting... for... the... next... patch...

then it better be better...

 

[Culture Shock]

Part of the problem is that graphics card manufacturers are always tinkering with their drivers. The recent versions of ATI's Catalyst drivers aren't stable and I got occassional graphics gliches and CTDs when using them, I downloaded 4.10s or 4.12s and everything works fine. It wasn't the game, it was the drivers.

Actually I just updated to the new Catalyst 5.11 and my game improved a little bit. Not a whole lot but enough to notice (i.e. a little faster and fewer long pauses).

 

[Asterothe]

I'll crown a new abbreviation : Ct4BD
Crash to 4 Bit Desktop, 16 colors! Today
third time it happened. It started to happen
after the patch. I have to restart after that ofcourse.

 

[Dairuka]

Civilization 4 kicked my dog, and stole my watch!

 

[Kid_icoris]

civ 4 anully raped my grandmother and poured sugar in my gas tank

 

[HounddogLGS]

I'll crown a new abbreviation : Ct4BD
Crash to 4 Bit Desktop, 16 colors! Today
third time it happened. It started to happen
after the patch. I have to restart after that ofcourse.

lot of people with Nvidia cards having this problem, pre- and post- patch. What driver version are you running? I think it might be specific to the 81.95 release but not sure.

 

[Duntoran]

To answer the question up there, yes it just suddenly froze and died. Up to that point it was running marvellously.

As for the testing of my pc stability, great idea, I will return later with the results.