Originally posted by ProPain
Graphics not over LAN sounds logical but then I still don't understand why there's lag in movement. Feel free to express your dissatisfaction to Blizzard but don't suggest I'm *****ing.
Sorry, didn't mean to imply you were b**ching. I was just referring to how I would probably react.
Firaxis have already said there are still issues they want to fix in an upcoming patch, but from how I understand the game mechanics, there is no way we will ever get instant movement, (for example), in MP games. Simply because, every time you click to move a unit, before that unit gets moved the game has to check that no other player has moved into the same square simultaneously. This involves sending data back and forth and also requires processing on other computers than your own, so if the players on those other computers are doing other things, which is taking up their processor power, your machine's request to move the unit will get queued and delayed until the processor(s) is free again.
Isn't that what they do all the time? They write programs that run on your system, supporting different graphic and sound cards for example. But as I said I'm no programming expert so maybe I misperceive this.
They write programs for hardware and software standards, but since many manufacturers of hardware usually deviate slightly from these standards, even that is an arduous task. This still isn't really the same as helping you configure hardware device XXX or utility YYY to leave the game alone and let you play. Actually, the only reasonable place to take your complaint if your hardware or software doesn't work with Civ3 or PtW is the manufacturer/developer of that hardware/software. They'll probably not give a toss, and game companies realize this, so they try to fix games up to be compatible with as much hardware and software as possible, but that is really just to keep the customer satisfied, not something we can demand from them, IMHO.
Never said they were evil I said they were/are disrespectfull. The fact that they don't force you to buy it doesn't change the fact they started selling a game that doesn't work properly from the box. I have my own business and I'm pretty sure my customers would never return when I tried to pull this off.
If you were the only one supplying what they wanted, I'm sure they would return, even if you beat them with a stick every time
But seriously, I second Sumthinelse's views on this - Firaxis (and Infogrames for that matter) need money to exist. And if publishers decide that a game is ready to be released, there's not much the developers can do about it, short of working for free which I'm sure not many of us would want to do in the long run. Not those of us with families to support anyway.
Warning hair-splitting philosophical question below
... and when
is a computer game finished anyway???
Don't say "when it works" cause it worked for me from day one
And don't say "when it works for everybody either", cause in that case, no game has ever been finished to this day.
(. 
