Don't Buy Civ3!!!

[Alexander's Horse]

Re: Don't Buy Civ3!!!

Originally posted by TechWins
Why shouldn't you buy Civ3? Well because you probably won't be able to play it with all the bugs running around with the game. I have been trying to play the game for three hours now and I still can't play because of the video problem. I would have to say this is the worst gaming experience I have ever had. I don't see how a gaming company could put out a piece of trash like Civ3 for sell. Whatever you do don't buy Civ3, at least not for a while (until patch comes out)!!!

Well I won't say I told you so.

Bad luck eh!

[Bane]

Hey AH do you live under a bridge waiting to take a billie goat's gruff...

[Exile]

Horse, I WILL say it!

I TOLD YOU SO!

I warned everyone about firaxis months ago. I told anyone who wanted to listen that this company was inept and deaf. Every single game I have ever purchased from firaxis DOES NOT FUNCTION CORRECTLY. Not one. Not two. Every single one! And don't start whining about inadequate equipment--I own a late model hot rod of a comp and have all the latest bells and whistles.

I feel pretty good. I predicted this disaster.

I was right.



Exile

[AustralianJeremy]

I can't believe we have to wait another two weeks. Bloody hell.

Hey, sounds like a win2000 problem, not a firaxis one.

[Moral Hazard]

Ya got the latest drivers and everything? The video card is really weak, however. I'm having no problems over here, except the tech tree with LE is gimp and there aren't any scenarios with the game. Just Earth maps.

[Alexander's Horse]

Originally posted by TechWins
I'm surprised a pessimist hasn't posted in this thread saying something to this effect "I told you so".

[Alexander's Horse]

Quote of the week

Originally posted by Zylka

This game was quite possibly made over lunch breaks.

[TechWins]

Imran, I'm sorry for being rude, but I was pretty damned pissed at the time. Now I'm a little more level headed, again sorry. For the rest of you that got offended by my comments I guess I'm sorry too. The reason why I guess is because I don't see how my opinion would offend you. Anyways it did, so I'm sorry.

About my PC, yes it is a year old. Don't ask me why a crappy comp like mine would be sold, but it was. My PC isn't all that bad in all reality (at least for the price). Believe me I want a new PC very badly, but I have money problems (not being able to get a job; it's that age descrimination thing). Also, compared to the PC I ran Civ3 on tonight my PC looks muy fantastico.

I went over to my brothers tonight to see if Civ3 would work on his computers. First we tried it on his best computer and lone behold it worked. Then we tried it on one of his poor computers. The specs on that computer are something like this:
PII 233
128 mb RAM
4 mb video card
Win2000
Old Monitor

Civ3 worked on this computer as amazing as it may sound. Since Firaxis is already aware of the problem people are having (""Right after the game plays the intro movie, my screen either goes black or displays the message "Out Of Scan Range", but I can still hear the game running."). That problem would be this:
I have everything fully installed for Civ3 and I start the game up. The game goes throught the intro movie, then when it ends it is supposed to go to the main menu. Instead the screen goes blank, but I am still able to hear sound. None of the escape possibilities are working either, so I have to shut down my PC. That is the problem that is occurring for me.

I was only able to play Civ3 for a minutes; I was mainly just looking at different options within the game. This semi-review will not be biased one bit and will only be honest.

Civ3 will be a great game...in one or two patches from now. Right now it is still a pretty good game but it diffently seems as if it had been rushed. Which in all fairness is fine, as long as the game is fully playably by all. The graphics do add a great feel to the game. I really don't mind the way the irrigation looks in the game, either (I hated it in the screenshots). Even though, the animations look cool I will be turning them off after a few games. The graphics aren't perfect, though, for I found a few glitches in that area. My city was Rome and it expanded it's culture for the second time and you couldn't see the red border on one side of the city. The reason for this is because it was being hidden under some jungle terrain. Also, in the city screen for Rome, the borders made a weird turn on my upper right hand corner of the city borders. The scrolling across the map is very poor indeed. The 'go to' command with your mouse seems a bit weird as well, not weird in a good way either. The flow of the game is much better than before, which is a huge plus. Reiterating on my statement of the game seeming to be rushed, only having two zoom levels seems a bit cheap. Right off the top of my head that is all I can think.

My words of advice for everybody:
If you are one who is willing to pay $50 or $60 (US) just so you can enjoy the great additions Civ3 offers, regardless even if the game seems like it was 'rushed', then do that. If you are one who is willing to pay $50 or $60 (US) so you can enjoy the great additions of Civ3, without the 'rushed' feeling, then you better wait a few more patches from now. This game seems to be pretty fun as it is right now, but I would have rather waited a few months (at this time the ultimate 'Civ experience') to play Civ3 for the first time. Instead of playing Civ3 right now as just a good game, then in a few months playing the the ultimate 'Civ3 experience' for the first time but not as my first Civ3 playing. That is the best way I can describe it right now because I am tired and too lazy to explain it any better.

[Wittlich]

Hmmm, thanks for the insight TechWins...food for thought.

[Asher]

TechWins, do you mind if I mirror your posts on some geek humor sites?

They really are a riot.

What's with your fetish with 4MB video cards, anyway?

[Imran Siddiqui]

Apology accepted .

And yes, there will be bugs. Unfortunetly too many games have them.

[FexFX]

TechWins,
Also, I am not sure what DirectX mode this game uses, but there is a way to override the default refresth rate in DirectX8. Go to Start>>Run>>DXDIAG
Then on the "More Help Tab" Click the Override button and try setting your refresh rate to 60hz.
I keep saying 60hz because that is traditionally the LOWEST value accepted by most video card drivers, tho much older cards and monitor used to run at 56hz. If 60hz works tho, dont be afraid to try 65 then 70 then 72 then 75 until it stops working again, then go back a step.
If you had Windows98 , I would know a registry hack that would fix your problem. In 98, I would set your default refresh rate for all undefined modes to 60hz.
If the DXDIAG trick does not help, then likely what you are dealing with is that your current monitor definition, while close to what you have, is not correct for one reason or another, so when CIV actually goes into 1024x768 mode, your default refresh rate for that mode is too much for your monitor to handle and it goes blank to avoid burning out.
Try changing your monitor definition from whatever it is now to the NEC 3FGe which is a low end 15" monitor type which can handle 1024x768, but only at 60hz, so your system would then default to only 60HZ at that resolution no matter what. Now this may or may not work because Win2K and refresh rates tend fight with eachother, but this is better than trying nothing.
This will not damage your monitor in any way, the only thing it may do is lower your available options for refresh rates and resolutions below what you are now being offered for as long as you leave the monitor defined this way....
To Be Continued...

[FexFX]

Continued...
I understand your frustration, but this is really not a Firaxis specific problem, this is a system specific problem. Please believe me when I say there are almost literally an infinite number of system configurations out there and it is LITERALLY impossible for any software package to run on all of them.
Your symptome sound curable, but from the user end, not from the programmer end.
There is unfortunately no way for a program to dictate what refresh rate a specific mode runs at.
You may have done 1024x768 in the past, but at what color depth? Wiondows stores the refresh rate values for each color depth and each resolution separately, so while you may have tried 1024x768@32bpp, have you also tried 16bpp 8bpp and 4bpp? Each would have its own refresh rate values.
Sorry for the wordy post, and I hope this helps.

[FexFX]

One more post for luck then its off to bed for me:

For those of you with Windows98, I will include the registry hack for setting the default refresh rate:
Remember, always back up your registry before you hack it or with one slip of the keyboard you will find yourself needing to F&R!

Start>>Run>>Regedit
HKey_Local_Machine
System
CurrentControlSet
Services
Class
Display

In Display you may have more than one folder beginning with the number 0, such as 0000 and 0001...you will want to highlight each to determine which is the video card you are actually using, since windows 98 does not clean its own registry, and you may find several out dated listings.

once you have identified the correct folder, open it.
then highlight the Default folder under it.

Then on the Right-Hand side, you will find RefreshRate near the bottom.

The default value for RefreshRate is "-1" which mean optimal which basically means try the highest number possible for your video card/monitor combo...this will cause big problems if your monitor is not 110% correctly defined...so change that number to something you KNOW FOR A FACT your monitor can handle like 60hz...you can bump it up from there if that works...

[TechWins]

FexFX I'm going to try your problem tomorrow, because I have to go to bed (I'll be waking up in 5 hours). Thank you for your help, FexFX, it is greatly appreciated whether it works or not.

Wittlich, you're welcome for the food.

Imran, you are correct on this one.

Asher, I thought I didn't have much of a need for a hi-grade video card. I was going to buy an awesome one early this past summer, but I figured I wouldn't need it much. Oh was I wrong!

And that's all folks.