Anyone else severely disappointed in Civ4? (RANT)

[NanoDingo]

Originally posted by Falconius
And the SMAC graphics were dreary to the point of depressing. That horrid dark-red terrain: Uggggghhhh!

Those who can't cope with edgy, post-apocalyptic death-scapes are going to suffer by necessity come the revolution...
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Originally posted by Falconius
Also, I think the unit workshop was over-rated. I would give units either the highest defense or highest offense values. Nothing else made any sense, so the choices you had to make were really an illusion.

Now, do I give this Garrison Non-Lethal Methods (double Police power), Clean Reactor (waivers support), AAA Tracking (x2 versus Air Attacks), Hypnotic Trance (x2 versus Psi Attacks)...basically, you're forgetting Special Abilities. And imagination.
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...Hey, Senethro! You're the Head of Vecna!

[Montesquieu]

Also, I think the unit workshop was over-rated. I would give units either the highest defense or highest offense values. Nothing else made any sense, so the choices you had to make were really an illusion.

Unit workshop just sucks. I made a few units in SMAC, but really, most of the units you can make are useless. Better to add another good feature to the game, possibly a faction.

[Brad Mayer]

Originally posted by Montesquieu
They should have released Civ4 in 2006. The current version is full of bugs. It's really "funny" for those who paid full price and pre-ordered the game to face such big problems. These guys who say civ4 crashes frequently are a sizeable majority, and that really reveals that Firaxis made a bad thing rushing it into the stores and then announcing a patch soon after. Better would be to release it in 2006 with less bugs and better code, so they wouldn't have to announce a patch a week later. This is really annoying to customers.

Fortunately, I will wait and buy Civ4 later, paying a better price and facing less bugs. But I suspect it is only eye-candy, flashy graphics and no gameplay. Just like MOO3.

I'd agree with the first but not the second, so far. The gameplay I've sen so far is a definite step up in the Civ series, truly a "Civ 3.0", finally.

Actually, the midgame crashs are a blessing in disguise - they remind me that I need to sleep

So I am willing to wait months for a proper patch. There is plenty in the Ancient, Classical and Midieval eras to learn about. (I like to play Large, and it usually begins to crash frequentially come Renaissance when global exploration kicks in, like every 5 turns).

[Dis]

Originally posted by Montesquieu
They should have released Civ4 in 2006. The current version is full of bugs. It's really "funny" for those who paid full price and pre-ordered the game to face such big problems. These guys who say civ4 crashes frequently are a sizeable majority, and that really reveals that Firaxis made a bad thing rushing it into the stores and then announcing a patch soon after. Better would be to release it in 2006 with less bugs and better code, so they wouldn't have to announce a patch a week later. This is really annoying to customers.

Fortunately, I will wait and buy Civ4 later, paying a better price and facing less bugs. But I suspect it is only eye-candy, flashy graphics and no gameplay. Just like MOO3.

I haven't encountered a single bug in civ4.

I haven't had any of these crashes people are talking about. And I'm running a Radeon card!

Those sound issues I mentioned a few days ago cleared up when I changed my audio settings to 5.1. It sounds better too. As I get kind of an echo with Leonard Nimoy's voice. I think that's the way it's supposed to sound. It sounds fuller.

[Unspeakable Horror]

Originally posted by Dis


I haven't encountered a single bug in civ4.

I haven't had any of these crashes people are talking about. And I'm running a Radeon card!

Those sound issues I mentioned a few days ago cleared up when I changed my audio settings to 5.1. It sounds better too. As I get kind of an echo with Leonard Nimoy's voice. I think that's the way it's supposed to sound. It sounds fuller.

Me neither, and I´m playing with my ancient P3 800, 320RAM, gForce4 mx440 (tiny maps only , it slows down too much in the modern era otherwise )

My list!

Civ2 and XPs
CTP2
SMAC*
CTP1
Civ3

CIV4: TBD after I get the SDK

*About SMAC, it had a GREAT story, ambient, mindworms, etc
But it had no customization at all, just the faction gfx and that´s it, no way to change the units the map...
Some steps forwards from civ and a similar number back from it

Civ3, better graphics but similar to civ2 and NO events

I like customization

[Senethro]

Originally posted by NanoDingo
...Hey, Senethro! You're the Head of Vecna!

Ahhh, I don't want to talk about it. Could we PLEASE change the subject?


Oh, and I'm amazed at the SMAC ignorance being shown here. If you have no creativity to bring to the Unit Workshop then of course the great range of options given will be lost on you.

As for a modified map...bah, I was going to post a screenshot of my modded terrain palette but all my screenies are of my PBEMs...

[piotrr]

No, I'm not disappointed at all.

Why?

I have found bugs, and I have played SMAC, but I'm still not disappointed with Civilization IV.



I have found, in my life, that most disappointments can easily be prevented simply by not letting ones expectations get away with oneself.

I, for example, was severely disappointed in 1994 when I found out that Atari's new "3D-look" GUI for TOS was no 3D stuff at all, but just the faceted look that all buttons have today - you know, with a thin white line on the left and top of the button, and thin black lines to the right and bottom.

That sure taught me. Taught me not to paint too vivid a picture of the future, but to enjoy it once it reaches me. Or grabs me by the privates and shakes me around until I'm not sure if I'm Per Edman or Cyrus the Great.

[siredgar]

Okay, I played again last night and my opinion of the game is improving. I'm starting to enjoy my game of the 1000AD scenario.

Thank you, glsunder, for the advice on speeding up some actions. But I don't think I really have a problem with the speed of the game. It's just load times and button clicking seems to stall a bit. Yes, I have 3GHz and a GeForce 4 (not 3 as stated earlier- sorry about the confusion). I purchased my computer last December and paid $3,000 for it, so it should be up-to-date.

Anyhow, does anyone else get these messages like "Intro_TEXT_legal" at the beginning? Seriously, the game looks like it's 80% finished, not 95% or more like most games. And why do the AI greetings pop up again after you're done talking to them? It happens about 90% of the time. Very annoying.

And the videos for the wonders often break up into static at times.

Also, in the scenario, why did they use the color red for Peter the Great of Russia? It looks like I am constantly in war with him.

Regardless, I've decided that I am 100% definitely, definitely going to wait at least a year before buying the next version of Civilization. Sending out an unfinished game like this is just disrespectful of consumers.

[Urban Ranger]

Originally posted by Falconius
Also, I think the unit workshop was over-rated. I would give units either the highest defense or highest offense values. Nothing else made any sense, so the choices you had to make were really an illusion.

You are missing out a lot.

You have never made any 1-1-jump infantry units that you can land into any base you have created/captured on the other side of the planet?

[piotrr]

Originally posted by Adagio
"Unfortunatly" it's not the whole Civ1 intro, it just contains two pictures of the Civ1 intro... also, the Civ1 intro took 7 minutes, while in Civ4 it takes like 7 seconds

Only if you click the "PLAY NOW NOW NOW NOW!" button as soon as it appears.

Hint: Wait.


/ Per

[Urban Ranger]

Originally posted by siredgar
Yes, I have 3GHz and a GeForce 4 (not 3 as stated earlier- sorry about the confusion). I purchased my computer last December and paid $3,000 for it, so it should be up-to-date.

You paid US$3000 for a computer and got only a GeForce 4? Man, you got ripped off big time.

[piotrr]

Originally posted by siredgar
Yes, I have 3GHz and GeForce 4 (not 3 as stated earlier- sorry about the confusion). I purchased my computer last December and paid $3,000 for it, so it should be up-to-date.

It's not.

That's a budget system from last year. Are you sure it wasn't December TWO years ago? For $3000, it would make a lot more sense.

I'm amazed you can run it on a GeForce 4 - I can only assume it's a GeForce 4 TI or you're owning a private miracle (the GeForce 4 MX is a horrible, horrible piece of hardware).

/ Per

[Urban Ranger]

Originally posted by piotrr
That's a budget system from last year. Are you sure it wasn't December TWO years ago? For $3000, it would make a lot more sense.

I say at least 3 years ago.

[piotrr]

Originally posted by siredgar
Anyhow, does anyone else get these messages like "Intro_TEXT_legal" at the beginning? Seriously, the game looks like it's 80% finished, not 95% or more like most games. And why do the AI greetings pop up again after you're done talking to them? It happens about 90% of the time. Very annoying.

And the videos for the wonders often break up into static at times.

As to your actual complaints, most of these things sound as if you are getting corrupted data read from your hard drive, or possibly it gets corrupted while passing through your system RAM.

Have you opened up your computer and vacuumed it solidly since you got it two years ago? Dust can start clogging up the air intakes and increase the temperature inside your computer - resulting in data corruption in RAM and on your video card. In most games - like Civ 3, Civ 2, Civ, SMAC, etc, that's not really a problem. It's not until you need heavy 3D visuals that your video card needs to flex all its muscle, and that's when these heat problems can escalate.


Or, like I said, it could be bad data. Run a scandisk on your hard drive. In fact, uninstall Civ4, run Scandisk, run defrag, then reinstall Civ4. See if that does anything.


/ Per

[piotrr]

Originally posted by Urban Ranger I say at least 3 years ago.

Hm. December of 2002? The GeForce 4 Ti 4600 models came out in February of 2002. Hm. It's certainly possible. And if he bought a GeForce 4 Ti 4600-equipped brand name system later that same year, it would probably be a very expensive system.

I do that too. I was so certain the GeForce 4's were only two years old, but days go by....


Sorry for the digression. The GeForce 4 Ti is still a capable DirectX 8 video card. We'll get this problem sorted yet.


(Unless all kinds of tech support are deemed off-topic in this thread about disappointments, of course.)


/ Per