Tweet
Sound problems plaguing the game as well?
It has come to my attention, like other errors, that some sound problems are being reported too. Dominic silla wrote to me on the 28th mentioning;
"The music in the game seems to cut out whenever the Library is accessed. I wasn't sure if this was just my computer but I noticed someone else had the same problem and posted it on the newsgroup. I also wrote to Macsoft and they said they would look into it if a patch were to be issued."
** Personally i have yet to experience any errors with sound but i have seen alot of other remarks on this issue, i thought i would hunt around and compile whats going on out there..
This seem to have first really being report by Jay Swartfeger in comp.sys.mac.games.strategic when he wrote his own bug report. In it he remarked;
"When my CTP screen size is set to 1024x768 or above, the game soundtrack doesn't play. When the CTP screen size is set to 800x600 or lower, the soundtrack does play. I assumed it was a memory issue, so I cranked the memory up but still had the same results: no music. This is starting to irritate me, because a) I hate playing in a res lower than 1024, and b) the CTP soundtrack is pretty good."
Mentioned by Carch an answer was possibly;
"I've noticed that the soundtrack cuts out occasionally on me, too, but it seems to be related to CD access... when the game has to hit the CD to get at some graphics or something, it stops playing the soundtrack. Sometimes it starts up again, sometimes not."
Phil Sulak from Westlake made a timely appearance on the newsgroup in response to the sound issues:
"Hmmm, this is definitely weird. During development, I ran the game in 1024 mode or above all the time, and music was fine. Music playback definitely isn't related to how much RAM you have. It's Redbook audio, and the game barely allocates any RAM to play it. Although your post doesn't mention it, I assume that you've tried to go into the options screens to manually turn the music back on. The music dialog is kinda funky -- if you do anything besides toggle the music to "on" and close the dialog, it won't actually start playing (ie, don't try to turn the music on AND specify a track number to play). This is a leftover "feature" from the PC version. Anyway, we've started preliminary work on the patch, and we'll definitely check this out."
Jay in response posted:
"FWIW, I noticed that I'll have music during my game session if I hear the CD spin up when CTP is loading (during the first load screen after the intro movie, I think). If I don't hear the spin up, that means no music. Don't know if that helps you or not."
** It's most likely a CD Drive related problem, although some of the enquirer's have some pretty impressive systems. What's interesting is that i have a rev. b iMac and i have yet (touch wood) to experience these problems. The only problems i have had yet are memory allocation (there wasnt any initially). I look forward a more definitive answer perhaps within the patch.
At present there appears to be no real solution, although the CD drive seems to be somehow involved in the problem.
Install problems seem relatively common from all accounts
It has come to my attention to there seems to be a common problem with the installation process. Apparently it refuses to outrightly finish the installation process. I have discovered this myself too. You get all the way to the end of the install and then it just does nothing. The computer isn't frozen, but it never finishes the install process.
Apparently the error is that the installer (MindVision) isn't Apple's preferred installer when it comes to QuickTime. So instead of rebooting the machine after it updates, it simply sits there, the wristwatch icon with its turning hand. If that's what's happening, Civilisation Call To Power and QuickTime 4.1 are successfully installed on your computer. You simply have to manually reboot the machine.
** When i restarted my iMac i found it keep asking me to update my "broken" installtion of Quicktime. After connecting to the internet this was done and now i don't see there error any more.
Reported Resolution errors
I have seen two instances of monitor resolution errors today (one on comp.sys.mac.games.strategic and the other by persoanl e-mail). Both on these were on tower G3 units with admirable spec's. Whats the problem? I intend to do some personal investigation... in one case the monitor was an old 15" multiscan but i dont know about the other. I'll keep you all posted as i hunt for the info!
Reported CTP Multiplayer problems ... Various?
As i await my copy of the game to be delivered i have been scouring the internet for first accounts of the game and anything problems. This information was reported on the current (and only) Mac CTP is here thread on the excellent apolyton forum by Carch:
- Can't load multiplayer saved games (ouch)
- Keyboard configuration doesn't work properly (function keys don't work at all).
- This may be a cross-platform bug, but sometimes buying trade goods will cause your caravan count to go NEGATIVE. Thereafter, trade is impossible (double ouch). And the disappointment:
- Where is the PBEM option?!?!?!
If you have any similar or different problems be sure to get in touch with Macsoft Tech Support asap. Reported CTP Game problems... VRAM?
I have also observed the conclusion of a problem realting to VRAM on a Powercenter Mac resolved on the newsgroup:
comp.sys.mac.games.strategic
"Here's the problem..." Wrote Phil. "Your PowerCenter's built-in video doesn't have enough VRAM to handle the Intro Movie. I believe the CTP box specifies that you need a video card with at least 2 MB of VRAM, and those old PowerCenter machines (I think) only have 1 MB."
>> I saw a reply on that same newsgroup indicating that VRAM requirements were not specified on the box itself ... guess i will find out soon enough
If Call to Power presents a DrawSprocket error when switching resolutions to play the Intro movie, here's something that may help. If the game has created a document called "userprofile.txt" (in the "Civilization-Call to Power:ctp_program:ctp" folder), try modifying the file with a program capable of editing DOS text files (such as Bare Bones' BBEdit). Find the following line HiResMovies=Yes and change it to HiResMovies=No Save the file, quit your text editor, and re-launch Call to Power. If Call to Power presents a DrawSprocket error after a Wonder has been built but before the Wonder movie is played, open the "Graphics" window in the "Options" screen, and make sure that "Full Screen Movies" are set to "16-bit".
Reported CTP Game problems ... Conflict Catcher?
There was an unconfirmed report that Conflict Catcher was causing problems for CTP. However it appears that it is not the case as other people have indicated that they're systems have been running without fault.. I'll keep you posted if i hear anything.
Patch to bring Mac in line with PC promised
Phil Sulak, of Westlake Interactive, posted about the non-existing PBEM feature:
"We had to drop Play By E-Mail in the first version mainly because of the way it was implemented on the PC. The Activision guys make heavy use of the fact that Windows can have filenames as long as 255 characters; when you use PBEM it saves a file with a name length of 200 characters or more. As everyone knows the Mac is limited to 31 character filenames. This isn't the only problem with PBEM, but it's one of the big ones. We're hoping to have PBEM back in the game for the first patch, although we may have to limit this feature to being Mac to Mac only".
The only place to monitor the release of the patch is at Macsoft and in the tech support page there was this release of information:
"Civilization II Call to Power can be played in multiplayer mode against PC players of Civilization II - as long as the PC version is the original and has not been modified or patched. When there is a patch available so that the Mac version is the same as the patched PC version, it will be posted here".