We Slip Further Behind

[VimesUK]

/popped in for a visit...

My SL system (haven't bothered to "upgrade to Lion" as yet), seems to be used less and less these days as I more often use my Windows 7x64 PC.
In fact I haven't even bothered to install Steam on it as I would imagine that Civ V would run much better anyway on my PC, not just because of the game being optimised that way but due to to the PC specs being superior.

I have used a Mac since around 1991 and, IIRC, it was running System 7 then. It was a little later on that I got my first MS Dos 5 and Windows 3.1 PC.

I never bothered running Civ IV on the Mac I had at the time as I realised that many of the mods which were available, and I wanted to run, would never work.

I do tend to favour my Windows PC for, amongst other things, the versatility and price of software. Gradually, over the years, the need and desire to use the Mac has continued to fade to a point where I hardly boot it up any more.

Best of luck to those who are waiting for the Mac updates to Civ V and I am eagerly awaiting the full modding tools to give those very clever modders greater access to the core game files to make it even more enjoyable.

Hopefully Aspyr will be soon to release all the previous updates, as well as this latest one, for you to enjoy

/moves on out from the Mac section...

 

[mass09]

Firaxis don't do the mac version and pass the buck to Aspyr.

Ah, I see.

There is a code translation period.

Most definitely. Yet I can't think that it would take 4 months+ to translate code that took less time than that to develop.

 

[manu-fan]

We've got the free cultural building in the first four cities. We don't have the other one or the finishers or anything. But Legalism has been that since our last patch, which was four(?) months ago.

Whoops. Bad example sorry. I never have looked at that policy tree because it says it's for small empires, and I never have small empires

Cheers.

 

[Hyper Nova]

Most definitely. Yet I can't think that it would take 4 months+ to translate code that took less time than that to develop.

too be fair we're only 2 months behind (at the moment)

 

[Mavfin]

too be fair we're only 2 months behind (at the moment)

Still, to me, that's unacceptable. It's not Aspyr's fault, it's Firaxis'/2000's fault.

They don't care about the Mac playerbase at all, they just want their profit.

I'm going to cease buying games from anyone who won't keep the Mac version up with the PC version *unless the game is so awesome as to be worth booting into Windows for*...and I don't have any of those atm.

Imagine if Starcraft 2 was two months/three patches behind on the Mac side, and you could only multiplayer with other Mac users. Yeah. That's where we are with Civ 5, and it's Firaxis' doing, not Aspyr. Aspyr is working their butts off to catch up, and Firaxis just keeps putting out patches for the PC people, and ignoring the Mac users. Firaxis got our initial money for the game already, so they don't care at all if they support us as well as the PC market, as far as I can tell.

 

[Graven]

Firaxis got our initial money for the game already, so they don't care at all if they support us as well as the PC market, as far as I can tell.

QFT.

We'll see if their decision has any consequences. Time will tell.

 

[coffee junkie]

Wait a minute, you've got the patch with free culture buildings in your first four cities!

As soon as I've got something solid to share, I'll do so.

Also, about this latest patching being a "minor patch," keep in mind that things like "Multiple out of sync causes found and fixed." and "Multiple minor bug fixes." can be deceptive.

I agree, minor patches are not always the best way to improve a game as far we get quickly ( and not months later ) a patch which brings Mac and PC players on the same side ...

But more than any patch, I wish I could have NOW the SDK tools ... Already 2 waiting mods in creation process on my computer and I'm getting mad to do nothing with these !

Firaxis definitively doesn't care about Mac users !

 

[AlanH]

You'll be a long time dead before any Civ5 modding tools are released by Aspyr, for two reasons.

First, the Civ5 SDK relies way too heavily on Microsoft frameworks. The tools would require a major rewrite to port to the Mac, and the financial benefit for that effort would simply not make any sense for Aspyr.

Second, Aspyr don't support modding in any shape or form on Civ3 and Civ4, so I see no reason to expect them to change their minds for Civ5.

 

[coffee junkie]

Then, I'll be dead and mad !

I already know your point but I still hope there is a way, a firaxis one or an aspyr one or a third one from someone who might program something ...

 

[OmegaKabob]

I hope I can get these god darn patches before I die. >.< Or else I'll also be dead and mad! And I really wish they would just make Worldbuilder separate from SDK so there might be some possible chance of a port. I love map-making. But alas, the chances are extremely slim.

 

[AlanH]

If you have Civ4 you can use its WorldBuilder to make maps and then import them into Civ5. Dunno how good it is in detail, but it certainly works in general, because I tried it.

 

[Skwink]

Why can't Firaxis realize people who use Macs like they're games too. EA figured it out with Sims 3.

 

[forty2j]

Why can't Firaxis realize people who use Macs like they're games too. EA figured it out with Sims 3.

It's a process. We can't expect the entire game industry to acknowledge the revolution simultaneously. (Although it would be VERY nice..)

Up until quite recently, market share or no, there just weren't consumer-priced Mac that would hope to run the latest games.

 

[fmlizard2]

I've reached the point where I have grudgingly accepted the fact that this is basically a PC-only game. Thank goodness for Steam selling both versions for 1 price and having a Windows instance I can boot into for Civ.

Not to say it isn't a major pain...

 

[autumnmist]

I've reached the point where I have grudgingly accepted the fact that this is basically a PC-only game. Thank goodness for Steam selling both versions for 1 price and having a Windows instance I can boot into for Civ.

Not to say it isn't a major pain...

Steam makes it possible but Aspyr is the one that chose to make Civ SteamPlay. Thank goodness.

 

[OmegaKabob]

If you have Civ4 you can use its WorldBuilder to make maps and then import them into Civ5. Dunno how good it is in detail, but it certainly works in general, because I tried it.

Thanks for the suggestion, but I do not have Civ 4. However I found a solution to map making if you have a PC and a Mac. I installed Steam and Civ 5 on my old PC and got world builder up, now I just make maps and USB them over to my Mac.
And Skwink, excactly! Sims 3 ports everything to mac! The patches are always on time, but the latest that came out with Generations won't allow me to play :/

 

[Premier]

I installed Steam and Civ 5 on my old PC and got world builder up, now I just make maps and USB them over to my Mac.

Do maps created with the Worldbuilder work on the Mac version, even when the patches are out of sync?

Except for the few times when PC/Mac versions were at the same patch, I've always had problems using Worldbuilder-generated maps on the Mac. They simply crash the game upon loading. Some things, like the addition of stone in the PC patch, seem to make the maps incompatible.

Please let me know if there's a trick to this. I, too, am a huge fan of making my own maps (I love a map with an isthmus or two).

 

[OmegaKabob]

Do maps created with the Worldbuilder work on the Mac version, even when the patches are out of sync?

Except for the few times when PC/Mac versions were at the same patch, I've always had problems using Worldbuilder-generated maps on the Mac. They simply crash the game upon loading. Some things, like the addition of stone in the PC patch, seem to make the maps incompatible.

Please let me know if there's a trick to this. I, too, am a huge fan of making my own maps (I love a map with an isthmus or two).

Good to see another map maker . I just finished a game that I made with Worldbuilder and I think if you just don't put stone or something that we don't have yet, it won't cause problems? That's all I can think of.

 

[AlanH]

@OmegaKabob: I was trying to offer Mac-only solutions, since that seems to be the issue here.

It should go without saying that, if you have access to Windows, you can run the Civ5 SDK and get the full modding capability. In fact you can get access to the latest versions of everything, so "slipping further behind" is not really an issue in this situation.

@Premier: When you transfer the maps, do you do so in the form of Civ5Map files or Civ5Save files? The Civ5Save file formats do change quite often, and newer saves will certainly not run on older Civ5 versions. There was certainly a significant change in the map data format that's stored in the Civ5Save at the last major Windows patch, so if that was reflected in a Civ5Map file change, that would stop those files loading on a Mac..

 

[Premier]

@Premier: When you transfer the maps, do you do so in the form of Civ5Map files or Civ5Save files?

It's been a while since I tried this, but I believe I transferred the Civ5Map files. I understand it's unlikely the Civ5Save files would work cross-patch.

If I try the Map files again, per OmegaKabob's suggestion, I'll eliminate stone and any other map-related differences in the patches (if I can think of anything else).