No Rollover Text on Options Screen

[Ardrikk]

Here's an odd little issue I seem to be having. When I go into the big Options Screen to try and customize and tweak various things (such as Show Friendly Moves, No Unit Cycling, etc), I find I don't necessarily know exactly what a lot of these options will do.

So I open the manual. It tells me to [Rollover] each option with my mouse and it will explain more about what it does. Problem is that I've tried that and there doesn't appear to be any text popping up and telling me. I've tried hovering my mouse over different parts of the option name, over the checkbox, etc, but nothing.

Is anyone else having an issue like this? Am I just blind and missing it?

I love to customize my gameplay experience, but without an explanation of the options, it's like flying blind here.

[archermoo]

I'm having the same issue, so you aren't alone.

[snoopy369]

Hmm, no it looks like the rollovers aren't there ...

Any specific options you are curious about? We can just tell you here ...

Show Friendly Moves means showing the moves of allied or non-warlike civs. IE, if you're friends with Japan, it will show you the moves of the japanese units if you select yes for this; otherwise the units will simply be wherever they are suddenly, essentially.

No Unit Cycling I don't recall off the top of my head the specifics of it, but it's essentially just a speedup if you have slow graphics or computer, i think. It may be unit animations, or it may be how it selects a unit for you; i'm not sure. Either way it shouldn't affect gameplay, but just visuals.

[Ardrikk]

Well, honestly, I'd like to know exactly what every option does!

I'm probably getting the name wrong about Unit Cycling. Maybe it's Automatic Unit Cycling? Anyway, I tried that one and found that turning it off means that the game won't automatically jump to centering on the next unit it activates for you after you finish moving one. By default, it auto-jumps.

[Ardrikk]

So, I wonder how long it will be before Firaxis patches this issue up?

[JdeFalconr]

Oh MAN would I like it if that rollover text worked. It drives me crazy when a manual like Civ 4's doesn't tell you what each of the options does. How am I to tell the difference between Discrete 5.1 and Dolby Surround and EAX 2, or what Single Unit Graphics means?

I really wish they'd take the time in the manual to describe all those things. Or, at the very least, if they'd have rollover help enabled when the game is released. Another symptom, I'd say, of the common trend of releasing games before they're done. Games didn't used to need patching...a company would get it right the first time. Despite the vast increase in program complexity and size I really wish companies would respect their customers enough to give them a finished and fully working product at release.

This is only partly aimed at Firaxis, I'm still annoyed with EA over releasing a screwy BF2 and starting on the expansion pack before the main game was fully fixed. But that's for another topic.

[AstroCat]

I as well really want to know what all the options do. For example is there any benefit in this game to using EAX?

[Dr.Zoidberg]

single units means that you will only see one worker or one solider, instead of the group of two or three. Personally, I prefer this option as the map is a lot less cluttered.

As for 5.1 discrete vs. EAX, I would assume that EAX uses your direct sound input and then adds whatever surround or special effects to that. So if you have your sound settings set to 5.1, EAX would be discrete 5.1+surround effects. I'm not sure about this though.

[Backpack]

You can read this help text in this xml file. The help text popups for that screen are about 3 pages down (open it with notepad)

C:\Program Files\Firaxis Games\Sid Meier's Civilization 4\Assets\XML\Text\CIV4GameText_Misc1.xml

Hope this helps.

Backpack