This is a beta.

[ManiacalLlama]

For the people who seem to be confused as to what's different about diplo:

You can't see modifiers. We don't know what's pissing them off, what's making them happy. Maybe it's the same for you if you played on Noble or Prince, but if you were on Immortal or Deity in CivIV, then playing dip carefully was a major facet of the game.

As it is right now, even if you can guess whether a civ is pissed at YOU (which is somewhat possible), you can't tell whether they like/dislike other civs (beyond the occasional request for a treaty or a DOW). That makes it impossible to pick your allies carefully, to pit them against each other, to know who you have to avoid at all costs, etc. It's just a crapshoot at the moment. Instead of making strategic decisions in the diplomatic game, you have to make educated guesses.

Not to mention, even if you figure out if a Civ is pissed at you/likes you, there's no real way to know to what extent. That will eventually come out when people dig through the code, but it should be somewhat available within the in-game UI.

 

[Ahriman]

but it should be somewhat available within the in-game UI.

Agree completely, I dislike their diplomacy design decisions, but that is not the same as saying the game wasn't finished.

And some minor multiplayer functionality issues in a primarily single player game? No big deal.

Anyone who think this feels like a beta has clearly never played a beta, or a game that was released in a beta state <cough> Elemental <cough>.

 

[Decrepus]

You can't save in multiplayer, nor can you specify joining a private game from an in-game menu (I had to use steamfriends. Good thing neither of us was retail).

I'd say thats not finished.

It automatically saves every single turn. Maybe you could actually play the game you are raging so impotently about.

 

[ProphetofProfit]

always better to get a game out there making money and then fix the problems while people have the game in their hands, rather than fixing the problems and making a loss before the game's release.

Capitalism my friend.

Capitalism is the reason the Civ franchise exists.

 

[krzysp]

new to pc games i must assume.

Its 24 hours after launch. No game launches flawlessly. NONE

Agreed.

Lol try and get a MMO game on launch day *This* is fun

I remember SWG the very first month, it was a massacre

So in other words - it's normal. Game industry is not car industry. And I try to tell people, that software should not be considered a product, software is a process

 

[GustavBjorklund]

No, Civilization V is not a beta, you are wrong.

 

[chadsexington]

It automatically saves every single turn. Maybe you could actually play the game you are raging so impotently about.

Where is the load game button?

Where do I specify the name of the saved game?

These things should be in there.

 

[VenomSeed]

Beta? How is it unfinished?? You don't provide any specifics.

The game seems incredibly stable for me (including to alt-tab), and seems like a highly polished product.

You may or may not like the design decisions, but I can't see how you think it isn't finished.

Well, I have hardly played Civ 5 since launch because I get random epidemics of whole-screen graphical errors that mean I can't see anything/move the units etc. Re-loading doesn't fix the problem.

Before you join the legion of people who say "it's not lovely Civ's fault, it must be your graphics card" I'd like to point out that (1) This is the SAME graphics bug that occurred on the livestream these fools at 2k put out a week before the game released and then feigned surprise (so either they knew it was a bug and didn't fix it, or they found this bug during livestream and didn't investigate) (2) Civ 5 is the only game I have this problem for.

So I have Civ 5 and I can't play it reliably for any length of time. That feels like a beta to me - I agree with the OP. For all those people it is running smoothly for, I can see why you haven't been to the 2k tech support forum. My post was buried at the end of the 4th page 8 hours after I posted my problem - I suspect I am not alone in this "beta feeling"! There are a lot of people running a beta for 2k right now, doing the work they should have done in the first place.