Patch is coming ASAP!

[Lancer]

I've bought 2 copies of CivIV and niether of them work. Tomorrow I'll get another one, you know, third time is a charm.

[Sabre2th]

Originally posted by taybme
I appreciate your interest and desire to help... I have been keeping a log of all the different attempts to get the game working here http://apolyton.net/forums/showthrea...hreadid=141376

I am up for any suggestion...but forgive me if I come across sounding a little dejected.

I posted in your other thread. I'm actually surprised you haven't caught it, if you really are keeping up with all of the "fix" threads.

Originally posted by Sabre2th

Install DirectX from the Civ4 CD when you install the game. It has some features that Microsoft hasn't added to their website.

[Civfreak1970]

The game is a resource PIG! It is crashing peoples systems because is needs to have some more tight programming done to it! I have had no more crashes this my fix as long as I play Large maps or smaller with 18 Civs! If I play Huge maps it will crash for sure around 1600AD+ and you say there isnt a Memory Leak? What ever you are smoking pass it around! When I play on Large maps with 18 Civs by 1900+ it really starts to slow down! I have a good system too and know what Im doing..No matter what a couple of the fools that think they know it all in these forums think! This game is a RESOURCE PIG!

Civfreak1970

**Thanks for nothing FIRAXIS! I semi patched the game myself haha!**

[Sabre2th]

Originally posted by Civfreak1970
The game is a resource PIG! It is crashing peoples systems because is needs to have some more tight programming done to it! I have had no more crashes this my fix as long as I play Large maps or smaller with 18 Civs! If I play Huge maps it will crash for sure around 1600AD+ and you say there isnt a Memory Leak? What ever you are smoking pass it around! When I play on Large maps with 18 Civs by 1900+ it really starts to slow down! I have a good system too and know what Im doing..No matter what a couple of the fools that think they know it all in these forums think! This game is a RESOURCE PIG!

Civfreak1970

**Thanks for nothing FIRAXIS! I semi patched the game myself haha!**

It's unfortunate that some people are having issues, but it's not necessarily everybody. Once the game loads, my memory usage does not change at all until I quit the game.

[Kristian95]

I have the usual black map and faceless leader problems.

I do fulfill all the minimum requirements (including newest Omega graphics drivers) though my ATI mobility radeon 7500 card only has 32 mb ram. I am quite sure it is not the memory of the gfx card that causes this issue though.
Anyway, I left feedback on Firaxis' homepage and less than an hour after that Dshirk from Firaxis e-mailed me, asking me for a copy of my dxdiag log. Thus obviously they want to gather information to look into this.... but I still wish they would spend 5 minutes telling us (by posting on their website or in the forums) that they're looking into it.

[Lancer]

Originally posted by Lancer
I've bought 2 copies of CivIV and niether of them work. Tomorrow I'll get another one, you know, third time is a charm.

Yes, as I suspected, the third copy I bought is working fine. Great game, runs really well! So, to recap, all you have to do is keep buying more copies until you get one that works.

Ahem.

[Repairman_Jack]

IRT BleckLord:

I know it's frustrating as hell. This is exactly the reason I usually wait for a month or two before purchasing a PC game (I'm a console gamer, typically). The only reason I got this one on release day was because of the spiffy extras for pre-orders.

A patch if forthcoming, and will address the problems in order of largest to smallest, just like always. Few companies EVER give release information on the next patch. It's much better for PR to have a few people pissed off that they haven't heard anything, than have them cursing and screaming at you that they were promised a patch a week before and that it's still not out. Everyone has to take into account finding the bug, patching the bug (along with the various other bugs, like the sound issues that not everyone is getting but find almost equally as frustrating), then playtesting it to make sure that it doesn't make EVERYONE have an unplayable copy.

But just because it hasn't been announced doesn't mean that it's not on the way. Firaxis is the last company you should be worried about in that regard.

[taybme]

As someone who hasnt been able to play more than ten minutes of the game, I think its funny that people are getting antsy about the patch. I think the last thing anyone wants is a "rushed" patch. Afterall that is probably what lead to the original problem with the game.

[GAZ082]

**Thanks for nothing FIRAXIS! I semi patched the game myself haha!**

Haha!

[phybre]

Originally posted by Civfreak1970
The game is a resource PIG! It is crashing peoples systems because is needs to have some more tight programming done to it! I have had no more crashes this my fix as long as I play Large maps or smaller with 18 Civs! If I play Huge maps it will crash for sure around 1600AD+ and you say there isnt a Memory Leak? What ever you are smoking pass it around! When I play on Large maps with 18 Civs by 1900+ it really starts to slow down! I have a good system too and know what Im doing..No matter what a couple of the fools that think they know it all in these forums think! This game is a RESOURCE PIG!

Civfreak1970

**Thanks for nothing FIRAXIS! I semi patched the game myself haha!**

I agree wholeheartedly and would like to subscribe to your newsletter.

No, but seriously, that about sums it up. That's the first thing that needs to be patched. There's really no excuse for bad memory management in modern programming environments.

[BleckLord]

Originally posted by Repairman_Jack
A patch if forthcoming, and will address the problems in order of largest to smallest, just like always. Few companies EVER give release information on the next patch. It's much better for PR to have a few people pissed off that they haven't heard anything, than have them cursing and screaming at you that they were promised a patch a week before and that it's still not out. Everyone has to take into account finding the bug, patching the bug (along with the various other bugs, like the sound issues that not everyone is getting but find almost equally as frustrating), then playtesting it to make sure that it doesn't make EVERYONE have an unplayable copy.

How do we know that our problem hasn't been put onto the 'smallest' side? From all the posts I've seen by people with working copies, we're in the extreme minority. Who's to say that they mind a small number of people pissed off (with unplayable copies), as long as the people with non-crashing copies get stuttering sound/movies fixed? Or maybe sound stuttering is a minor issue too, perhaps the truly important problem is unit ballance?

I've had one business class, in it there was a unit on customer relations: you listen to the complaint, you empathize with the customer, you assure the customer that you will fix the problem, and you stay in contact with the customer.

I'm not saying that I want a date for a patch release. I want a blurb on the developer's website, example:
day 1-2: we're working to address customers concerns about Civilization 4
day 2-5: several issues have been identified, and we are working to solve them in a patch
day 5-7: we are testing a patch for some known issues; we will post on Apolyton and Civ Fanatics as soon as it is available for download.

Why can't they offer a beta patch, certainly everyone will agree that there is no possible way for them to test all the PC hardware combinations the user base can. We could give them instant feedback on weather the patch has solved CTDs, etc. I'd do it, even if I had to sign a waiver that the beta patch might cause Civ 4 to be unplayable, corrupt my saves, and ruin my video drivers. MMOs have beta servers, often/some times open ones.

There is no excuse for not communicating well to your fan base. There may be reasons for obfuscation, but none of them are good for the end users

[Repairman_Jack]

Because users who can't PLAY the game are always Critical patch issues. Even the minority. If you think not talking to people is bad PR, try the word of mouth you get when a bunch of players never got their copy even working. The fact that they've put up a temporary work-around is enough to let you know they recognize that there's a problem, and that it's widespread.

On the same token, balance issues typically a while after a game's release, because they need feedback from the users to help in the process.

As for admitting there's a problem that's going to get addressed in the patch, they can't really do that until they know that there's an actual problem to begin with. Who knows whether or not it even IS the game, and not some problem with certain cards conflicting with ATI drivers or some such thing? And while it most certainly IS a software problem, it doesn't make good business sense to announce it before being certain that it's your business' problem to begin with.

[BleckLord]

day 1-2: we're working to address customers concerns about Civilization 4
day 2-5: several issues have been identified, and we are working to solve them in a patch
day 5-7: we are testing a patch for some known issues; we will post on Apolyton and Civ Fanatics as soon as it is available for download.

I called them issues. Even if they are certain that the code is 100% correct, flawless, they could at least state that they are trying to find the hardware incompatibility.

"We are fairly certain that most users' crash-to-desktop issues are caused by unintentional interaction with third party software. We are working to locate the root cause of the crashes and remedy the situation."

They could even say: "we are tirelessly working to find and fix player reported issues".

It makes most business sense to keep your fan-base happily informed. Even if they fix the issue with a patch, many of the people having problems with Civ4 have already stated their future reluctance to purchase Firaxis/2k software on release day. So if in the future Firaxis/2k releases a game, fans may not buy the game until a patch is released. Perhaps this reluctance would be less if Firaxis/2k kept us in the loop.

[Repairman_Jack]

"Even if they fix the issue with a patch, many of the people having problems with Civ4 have already stated their future reluctance to purchase Firaxis/2k software on release day."

This should be the mantra of EVERY PC gamer, anyway. Like I said someplace else, the only reason I bought this game on release day was because of the nifty goodies. Curiosity is the only reason it didn't hang out on the shelves for a month before cracking the seal. I just happened to be one of the lucky ones. But that didn't stop me from being prepared with a backup game in case this one failed to work as advertised.