The best help I can give : Don't buy this game and..

[X_Necro_X]

Save yourself the headache & money.

I have spent, so far, for this game :

$50 for the game.

After trying the game(No patches when I bought it) on a 128mb NVIDIA, Windows XP Home SP2, 512 MB RAM I was severely disappointed. The performance was poor - I could only small or tiny maps and multiplayer; forget about it.

In desperation - since I had a Compaq loaded XP version - I bought a copy of Windows 2000 Pro.

Another $100 towards getting this game working

The operating system, believe it or not, was one of the most helpful steps. It really did improve performance quite a bit and I was finally able to play SMALL maps a little better.. but don't think it wouldn't become absolutely sludge in 1700 AD+

So then, I tried the next step - Let's get more RAM. I purchased 1 gb of ram.

Another $80 towards getting this game working

The ram did next to nothing. Hell, I couldn't even tell a difference. Right when I bought the ram I was excited and thought to myself - wow now maybe I can play a LARGE+ map. Nah, forget about it - not even close and STILL having slow downs at 1700 AD+

One ... last... step. I purchased a RADEON 9200 256 MB video card to replace my very outdated 128MB Nvidia.

Another $110 towards getting this game working

The game now stutters and can barely even build a city without massive slowdowns. When I click a unit - I may as well go knit a quilt before they actually respond and the interfaces change. I have tried the new drivers, the old drivers, reinstalling , uninstalling, changing ini's and not even close. Never close. I'm further now then I was from day one.

I know we try to help each other here in the forum but there is a reason why there is supposed to be official technical support and management. There is so MANY answers on the forum - many of which is purely conjecture and related to each individuals machine. This is why developers MUST create universal patches that actually fix problems. This is also why I will never buy a game from Firaxis or 2kGames again.

[DragonSkye]

Re: The best help I can give : Don't buy this game and..

Originally posted by X_Necro_X
I know we try to help each other here in the forum but there is a reason why there is supposed to be official technical support and management. There is so MANY answers on the forum - many of which is purely conjecture and related to each individuals machine. This is why developers MUST create universal patches that actually fix problems. This is also why I will never buy a game from Firaxis or 2kGames again.

I totally agree

Edit: Just take a look at how many people have viewed the first 3 threads on here...well over 140,000 altogether and climbing. One would think that would cause Firaxis and 2KGames to take a closer look at their piece of @#$!!

[X_Necro_X]

Oh and I was rooting for you Dragonskye when you said that the older driver kinda worked there for a little bit. In excitement - I even tried it myself in the hopes something might work which of course, it didn't. My problem sounnds different - the game runs boggy from turn 1. It's simply unplayable and irritating. It's like playing a turn-based multiplayer game with your own computer..waiting for it to end its turn. The scrolling feelings like I'm trying to pull a car by chains across ice. Absolutely staggering.

[DragonSkye]

I hear ya. I was pretty excited about it myself...lol till it took a dump on me. It's total BS. I'm running Windows 2000 pro, DUAL MP palominos 2800+, a gig of RAM, and ATI 9600 128 MB. I have absolutely no problem running DOOM 3, etc. But this game taxes both of my processors at 100% and takes a healthy crap on my desktop....

[TheHateMale]

Quick point - $110 seems incredibly expensive for a 9200. They're about £40. Even a direct exchange results in about $80, and that's not taking into account how manufacturers absolutely fleece us in Britain. (Normally items are about the same in dollars and pounds sterling despite the large difference in value...)

I get the frustration of a game not running for no reason you can see though. It's pretty infuriating.

[DragonSkye]

Originally posted by TheHateMale
It's pretty infuriating.

That's an understatement considering everything I've tried to get this thing to work. I'm just flat out pissed. Especially since there doesn't seem to be a damn thing I can do about it.

[DragonSkye]

I'm considering sending this damn thing back in the box with a load of my Great Dane's dog crap inside along with it.

[X_Necro_X]

Warlord - the exact model I purchased was the VisionTek XSTACY 256M 9200 PCI from buy.com -probably not the best choice to buy a graphics card from. Regardless - it should still work for the game.

[TheHateMale]

Warlord's my rank by number of posts. :-)

Is that normal PCI or PCI-E? If there's that much of a difference it could well put off my next upgrade for a long time.

[X_Necro_X]

Oops sorry TheHateMale .

It was PCI not PCI-E. My computer lacks a PCI-E slot.

[Sabre2th]

PCI video cards are pretty well known for being crap. You'd be much better off with an AGP card

As far as the "don't buy the game" stuff... It runs fine for a lot more people than is represented on a forum like this. People who have issues are much more likely to come to the forums. In addition, your problems seem to be about performance in the late game and anyone can tell you that Civ has never worked terribly well in the late game. It's just a lot of stuff (units, etc) for the computer to keep track of. Your computer isn't exactly stellar, either.

[DragonSkye]

Originally posted by Sabre2th
PCI video cards are pretty well known for being crap. You'd be much better off with an AGP card

As far as the "don't buy the game" stuff... It runs fine for a lot more people than is represented on a forum like this. People who have issues are much more likely to come to the forums. In addition, your problems seem to be about performance in the late game and anyone can tell you that Civ has never worked terribly well in the late game. It's just a lot of stuff (units, etc) for the computer to keep track of. Your computer isn't exactly stellar, either.

I agree with the AGP, but I do not agree with calling it a "working game" when performance problems are still an issue. If you have to restart the game in order to keep playing, with the recommended specs on your machine, then it still has problems. Also, where are the stats that say this game is "working" for more people than it isn't??? Mine is playable, but it runs like dog crap. If you have to turn off movies, make tweaks to your videos settings etc when you have the recommended or above the recommended specs, then it is NOT a "working" game.

[Sabre2th]

Originally posted by DragonSkye
I agree with the AGP, but I do not agree with calling it a "working game" when performance problems are still an issue. If you have to restart the game in order to keep playing, with the recommended specs on your machine, then it still has problems. Also, where are the stats that say this game is "working" for more people than it isn't??? Mine is playable, but it runs like dog crap. If you have to turn off movies, make tweaks to your videos settings etc when you have the recommended or above the recommended specs, then it is NOT a "working" game.

Where are the stats that say it's broken for more people than it works?

"Performance problems" is something that's very much subjective. What some, especially younger folks, see as problems are really just a reality of running complex computer programs. If you ever visit other game forums, especially FPS types ala Counter Strike, you'll see a huge number of complaints about performance. "This game is teh suck because I can't run it with all details maxed out on the highest possible resolution at 300 frames per second!!!1!one " Perhaps that is slightly exaggerated, but not by much.

Another thing that many people either refuse to take into account or are just offended by is the fact that companies like Firaxis are out to make money. They need to make a profit on the games they make for their own livelyhood. That doesn't at all mean that they're trying to screw us over, but it does mean that they have to make some compromises. It also means that they need to make the required computer specs as low as possible in order to sell their game. Will the game run flawlessly with all settings maxed out on a computer near the minimum requirements? No, but it will run in a manner that allows the consumer to have fun with the product.

I won't bother getting into the complexities of testing software with the absolutely massive number of hardware combinations out there, but suffice it to say, it's not easy. Considering how quickly Firaxis reacted to the early ATI issues and apparent memory problem, I'd say we got a pretty good deal.

No doubt you'll want to argue about it/flame me/whatever, but I doubt I'll come back. I'll be having too much fun playing Civ4.

For the record, Civ4 worked beautifully on my old:
P4 1.3GHz
512 MB RAM
GF4mx420

[TheHateMale]

Originally posted by Sabre2th

For the record, Civ4 worked beautifully on my old:

GF4mx420

How can anyone running that card not be bitter and jaded over the tonne of games it can't run due to having no pixel shader?

I know it drove me up the wall.

[X_Necro_X]

Sabre - I'm gonna put some numbers in front of you quick :

1.8 GHZ
512 MB RAM
128 MB Video Card w/ Direct X 8 Support
DirectX Compatible sound card
CD-ROM Drive
1.7 GB Free Hard Drive Space
DirectX 9.0c

Do you know what those are? That's the RECOMMENDED specs for the game. If you have and exceed THESE recommended specs - then the game should run as intended.

My computer isn't stellar - you're right - but it should be able to run this game.

Oh - and one more thing - the "Late game" issue was one that only occured when I had my Nvidia 128MB card in. My Nvidia is the only one that could actually run the game. The ATI RADEON's problems start at turn 1. I've only done about 2 turns on it before I am too frusterated at the performance.

Now please stop defending them. If 25% of people bought a Ford and it broke down - that's a damn bad vehicle.

And another thing - the Radeon has GREATLY improved my computer. NEVERWINTER Nights for instance runs perfect now. I was only able to run it on "LOW QUALITY" on a low resolution but now I can play it on the best settings and a high resolution. My performance has greatly improved across my computer with the 256MB RADEON EXCEPT Civilization 4. Something isn't adding up here.