What the heck is wrong with you people?

[King Flevance]

Gee, Civ works right out of the box for me. Defragging your drive, spyware protection, and pruning the registry can all be done with easily available software. No tech experience required. These are things you should be doing to your computer, anyway. Like changing the oil in your car.

Yep, no one actually left on here after almost a week of release and still having issues knows any basic knowledge of computers and maintenance. We are just running around hoping geniuses like him will solve our problems. (sarcasm)
We all know how to perform maintenance.
The important thing to note here is doronron got it working right out of the box. Which means he has no clue and obviously no sympathy for anyone who it didn't happen the same way for. As you will see in all the following posts, who people are quoting like mad like me to point out the error in logic here.

Jeez. The problems people are finding are compatibility issues. Think about it. If someone else has the same system specs as you and can run the game fine, then the problem is not with the game, but with your machine.

So far, for every complaint I've read on these forums that listed their specs, I've seen a similar counter post from someone with the same hardware that said they can run the game without difficulties.

The game works. The problem is with your computers.

You must have read 1 or 2 posts where this is the issue. Cause I cant even find any like this as far as my issue is concerned as well as a few others.

Let me guess. You have trouble finding that on switch thingie, right?

Follow the logic. If Person A has GFX Card 1, CPU 2, and RAM 3 and cannot play the game, but Person B, with the same GFX Card, CPU, and RAM can run the game, then there's something else in Person A's machine that's causing the problem. The game does run right out of the box, the problem has something to do with Person A's machine, or rather, what Person A has done to the machine.

You go have fun with that boardgame, though. Let yourself be defeated by a videogame's instruction manual.

EDIT: @getter: This applies to you, as well. There's something you missed in your sweep.

Great attitude here man. Act like we are all morons so you can feel superior.
Where is my switch thingy?
The whole person A/B thing here I already addressed. I actually, didnt see anyone having my same issue until this thread. and his still aint working either as far as I am aware. I wish I could be more like dorunrun so I could fix this in a jiffy.

The main thing is here. Tech geniuses, we all dont want to be like you. I like computers and know plenty to get me by. I may not be the smartest and never claimed to be but I know enough. I dont feel inferior to anyone knowing more about computers than me and I am not going to. It simply means I have invested logic in other areas of life besides just computers. But you acting like I am a moronic village idiot because Firaxis has released a game that is as someone stated before "Req'd to have the user be a tech engie" is rediculous." Besides, most people that dont know how to do basic maintenace has been scared off this site now because of attitudes like this by now. I can't believe this is called a 'civ community.' This is one jacked up superiority flexing community.
Before this games release this placed seemed cool. That was the first time I stumbled onto this site. The game gets released and people are acting like rabid wombats cornered to submission biting at anything that doesnt appeal to them, which is almost everything. That alone should state how bad this release is. It has we fanboys turning into primitive ego maniacal crazies. But then you have to be willing to admit there are valid problems here.

 

[Libertarian]

The game has worked absolutely perfectly on my machine, which is far from top of the line (amd 2400xp, ati 9800). It's also worked perfectly for the 4 other people I know who bought it. Granted, that's not a very large sample size, but 5 out of 5 isn't bad.

It also isn't right. It can't possibly be. There is no reason why, for example, you would be able to cash in a Great Prophet for a Tech when the inability to do is one of the items in nine pages of documented bugs on Apolyton.

 

[redvtt]

Mislabled disc is no biggie but the game was definitely rushed with a lot of technical issues. The designers should have worked overtime to make things right, Thursday mini fix was a start but things have been quiet since then. My apologies if they have been working on it, if that is the case, communicate more to let us know you are at least trying.

Actually, this website helped me out once I realized things weren't going well with the installation and operation:
http://www.2kgames.com/civ4/support.htm
I set it up about Thursady or Friday last week. I had the video driver problems and the CD problem, really no biggie to me. Not as bad to troubleshoot as some other games I've had in the past.

 

[Libertarian]

Follow the logic. If Person A has GFX Card 1, CPU 2, and RAM 3 and cannot play the game, but Person B, with the same GFX Card, CPU, and RAM can run the game, then there's something else in Person A's machine that's causing the problem. The game does run right out of the box, the problem has something to do with Person A's machine, or rather, what Person A has done to the machine.

Sweeping generalization fallacy. There's more to a machine than what you listed, and not just hardware. There are also practically infinitely variable OS settings, file versions, and system corruptions as well as companion software like anti-virus. A robust game ought not to depend on a system being tweaked just so. The obvious fact is that Civ IV has been sold to us for beta testing.

 

[cplarsen]

Let me guess. You have trouble finding that on switch thingie, right?

Follow the logic. If Person A has GFX Card 1, CPU 2, and RAM 3 and cannot play the game, but Person B, with the same GFX Card, CPU, and RAM can run the game, then there's something else in Person A's machine that's causing the problem. The game does run right out of the box, the problem has something to do with Person A's machine, or rather, what Person A has done to the machine.

You go have fun with that boardgame, though. Let yourself be defeated by a videogame's instruction manual.

EDIT: @getter: This applies to you, as well. There's something you missed in your sweep.

Yeah, building my own systems for years has left me too blind and feeble to find the ON/OFF switch.

You ever consider that some of us were doing this on punch tape when you were still in diapers?

Jeez, go read the tech forum over on Apolyton (which, btw, is actually useful). ATI Bugs. Intel Bugs. Memory Leak Bugs. Bugs galore. You name it, this game has a bug for it.

Now, want to tell me all you know about the Feature Transfer Error - C++ Runtime Libraries 7.1 issue, the missing msvcr71.dll issue, and last but not least, Insert Disk 0, genius?

 

[Libertarian]

Yeah, honestly. It's hard to see why people are complaining when all the problems can be fixed in one easy step. Just open the program with a disassembler, change the code you don't like, and recompile! What could be simpler?

 

[Chayton]

"Yet as you say yourself "Turned from (as in it came out as "ground breaking rpg/rts game") into a stupid ...
I never said their patches were great. You got me there man, I agree Blizzard can screw up a game that fine by fixing something that isnt broken. Their hacker/exploit protection is poor too. I wouldnt doubt WoW gets hacked and ruined by cheats soon."

No, with turned from i meaned, that in the developing they turned it from a ground breaking rpg/rts game into a stupid rts game. It already came out as such a stupid rts game. Thats why Spellforce took over Warcraft 3 place as ground breaking rpg/rts game.


And i remember reading that Bet of Soldiers got before it hit the stores a 800mb patch. I would say CIV 4 problems are sadly very comon these days, nothing unusally anymore there. Today you can be lucky if the developers are allowed to finish the game concept at all, and dont have to patch that later.

 

[butlerj1982]

Im a Lurker on these boards, havent posted much until now, but would like to say that Libertarian is way off base.

First of all, that class action lawsuit thing was ridiculous. That wouldnt get past day 1 in American court. What on earth would your cause of action be?
Not to mention the fact that you contracted away all rights to a lawsuit in the EULA...

Second, you dont have a fundamental right to civilization IV. Most of us out here run the game fine. With all the millions of configurations out there, there are bound to be problems. There are with every game. You were just in the percentage that had them. Grow up, quit complaining and return the game if you arnt satisfied.

 

[Matte979]

Agree.. Return the game if you are not satisifed or go to the tech forum and report the bugs so it can be fixed. Just stop pestering us in this forum that actually wannt to talk about the game mechanics.

Bugs are for the tech forum. Complaing and wining can be done there aswell

 

[TracerBullet]

Blizzard is the company that makes Warcraft and the Diablo 1 & 2... they may have a couple more games but I cant think of anymore atm. They ensure a game is practically 99% bug free before releasing it. If Blizzard made the game you can bet you'll be playing the game when you get home and the reqs are 100% correct. Now as a result they dont crank out the games like alot of other companies but when they do it is high quality. I hear there are some issues in WoW with bugs and such but it is their first try at an MMORPG. And those stand alone in their bug infested online environments.

Not coincidentally, Blizzard is both the developer and publisher of their games.

 

[wilebill]

Bad day to compare Blizzard to this ... with Blizz servers hiccuping and chucking their cookies. Thing is, computers are now cheaper and owned by people who are most generously described as "not the sharpest tools in the shed."

 

[Dearmad]

Just say it: fing idiots! (My "supervisor" at school has a post-it in a drawer with this reminder on it: ctrl+alt+delete when it freezes up!)

LOL

 

[EdCase]

Thing is, computers are now cheaper and owned by people who are most generously described as "not the sharpest tools in the shed."

And it appears a lot of them work in QA for Firaxis

Just so you can quantify my response...I've built and owned my own computers since 1979...whippersnappers

 

[Neomega]

There should be a new minimum requirement specified:

You must be a savvy Windows power user capable of tweaking your system.

Damn straight. You say it sarcastically, but I say it literally.

If you are ever going ot try to run a game on minimum specs, you very well may have to turn off a whole bunch of garbage running on your computer, and maybe your AV and firewall programs as well.

You cannot expect to be running Norton AV and Personal Firewall, Quicktime, real player, itunes, music match, weatherbug, Windows Media, Service PAck2 firewall and autoupdater, AIM, and 15 other AOL programs, and possibly expect your game to run on a minimum spec machine. If you want to enjoy the woprld of PC games on a minimum spec machine, you have two choices...

1) get online, or go to a library, and learn about your computer, and how it functions

--or--

2) get a new computer.

This is not new, it has been this way since the first Civilization game and before.

 

[avitarx]

Neomega, your comment is BS

The first civilization and before was pre multiasking and real memmory management in the OS.

You did not have it so easy as ending countless programs. You had to edit the config.sys and autoexec.bat files to make sure you had enough of the propper types of memmory, than make a boot disk, because it may break something else. The sound wants XMS, but the game wants EMS, but make sure all your drivers load high, or your won't have enough base memmory. Now the fun part, hopefully your memmory management program is small enough that it des not take up too much base memmory because it cannot load high.

Minimum specs should have trouble, it is the absolute minimum to run a game and should include relavent tweaking, if less of a machine could run it, than it wouldn't be minimum. People who are not having smooth sailing with the recomended specs I have more sympathy for though, and I am sure there are some.

The other thing worth mentioning is ATI drivers are a mess, they frequently have trouble with before the first patch of a game, that is not entirly Fireaxis' fault. If ATI did not have such a large part of the market I bet a lot of programmers would ignore them altogether. I bet a lot of the people complaining are more casual gamers who have never seen these problems before.

 

[Neomega]

Neomega, your comment is BS

The first civilization and before was pre multiasking and real memmory management in the OS.

You did not have it so easy as ending countless programs. You had to edit the config.sys and autoexec.bat files to make sure you had enough of the propper types of memmory, than make a boot disk, because it may break something else. The sound wants XMS, but the game wants EMS, but make sure all your drivers load high, or your won't have enough base memmory. Now the fun part, hopefully your memmory management program is small enough that it des not take up too much base memmory because it cannot load high.

Minimum specs should have trouble, it is the absolute minimum to run a game and should include relavent tweaking, if less of a machine could run it, than it wouldn't be minimum. People who are not having smooth sailing with the recomended specs I have more sympathy for though, and I am sure there are some.

The other thing worth mentioning is ATI drivers are a mess, they frequently have trouble with before the first patch of a game, that is not entirly Fireaxis' fault. If ATI did not have such a large part of the market I bet a lot of programmers would ignore them altogether. I bet a lot of the people complaining are more casual gamers who have never seen these problems before.

Yes, I know, I remember all the trouble, I didn't say the first civ required opening task manager in Windows 3.1. I do know many times I had lots of trouble getting it to run.

Minimum specs should have trouble, it is the absolute minimum to run a game and should include relavent tweaking, if less of a machine could run it, than it wouldn't be minimum.

hmm... since that is a synopsis of my post, I say YOUR post is total B.S.

 

[Nwoll]

First: I've seen many people make the claim "if you don't like it then return it" - In the U.S. companies dont let you return software once it has been opened.
Second: I've also seen people post that "it works fine for most people so it must be you" - there are no facts that support this. There is a list of KNOWN bugs. There are also more people saying they have bugs than people saying they don't - this can be proven by reading the forums.
Third: People keep saying "you can't expect it to be perfect right away" - WHY NOT! I don't buy products EXPECTING them to be defective! Where do you shop? You're an idiot (pardon the expression) if you purposely spend $50 on something expecting it not to work!
The simple truth is that the product was released befoer it should have been. We need to voice our complaints to Firaxis\Take two so this doesn't happen again.

 

[briarthemage]

I play WoW...
if you want to talk about bugs... go play THAT game
out of the 5 people i knew in my hall who bought the game... 4 of us had sets of bad disks. (my disk 2 & 3 were dumb, my frind's disk one, another's disk 3 and 4, and thirds disk 1) now.... ouch!

it took 3 hours to sort that mess out... CIV4 took... hmm... 2 hours!

everything is relative.

of course, the lable switch was pretty stupid... then again... they spelled environ'e'ments wrong on Zelda 64 foil emobssed package.

 

[oldpreach]

Just my own 2 pennies worth.

Been playing Civ since the first one came out in 1991. Been playing video games since before asteroids.

I remeber when PTW came out, and it was totally useless. Not as many justified the rushed release of that mess. It sat on my shelf for a month till they got it to run in a minimal fashion. I lost interest, and never waited to see if they really got that one working.

Fast forward a couple more years, and we have this rushed release of Civ4, and it is hard to understand all the justification that some give... like this gem :

"Minimum specs should have trouble, it is the absolute minimum to run a game and should include relavent tweaking, if less of a machine could run it, than it wouldn't be minimum. People who are not having smooth sailing with the recomended specs I have more sympathy for though, and I am sure there are some."

Do you really feel that thousands of people that have systems that far exceed the mins and still can not play the game is Okay ? So, we are supposed to dig around and jury rig a fix so the thing almost runs ? Face it, they rushed the release for the holiday's, and did not even test it on some of the most common system configurations out there.

It is almost unreal that they would do something like this. Or is it? PTW anyone ?

Mine is going on the shelf until they release a patch that makes it work decently. If this does not happen right before the warranty is about to expire, I am sending this back and saying it is defective...for it certainly meets the criteria. To deny this is to deny reality. Give it up already.

 

[Neomega]

I play WoW...
if you want to talk about bugs... go play THAT game
out of the 5 people i knew in my hall who bought the game... 4 of us had sets of bad disks. (my disk 2 & 3 were dumb, my frind's disk one, another's disk 3 and 4, and thirds disk 1) now.... ouch!

it took 3 hours to sort that mess out... CIV4 took... hmm... 2 hours!

everything is relative.

of course, the lable switch was pretty stupid... then again... they spelled environ'e'ments wrong on Zelda 64 foil emobssed package.

I knew people talking about Blizzard and their "flawless" games were full of it. I just did not want to take the time to google forums with people saying "Let's file a class action against Blizzard!"


google:

WoW Technical Support
Blizzard says hey WTH can we do..... So umm yea i assume after all this time ... need to get together and file a class action law suit against blizzard they ...
forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread-search.aspx?ForumName=wow-tech-support&Author=Armagedon&Cluster=Wow - 109k - Cached - Similar pages
[ More results from forums.worldofwarcraft.com ]

Of course this was at a Blizzard forum, so they erased the post... but I bet these guys wanted to file a class action against Blizzard because everyone's machine ran WoW perfectly...

NO COMPANY I have EVER seen release a P.C. title has released the game in FLAWLESS condition.... ESPECIALLY games made in 3D!