Civ3 official patch?

[Peoux]

Any word on when the official patch will be available? Firaxis? Anyone?

The game is really enjoyable, but a few key features need to be fixed and adjusted, as has already been brought up in a number of threads in this forum. I can't believe that it's impossible to use precision bombing and air superiority for example, how could the beta-testing miss that? It sort of makes the game hard to enjoy when you get to the middle of the modern age and your bombing missions are intercepted by AI jet fighters, yet their ordinary bombers are never caught by my numerous fighters set on air superiority... And I really want to be able to define where each civ is supposed to start on the maps I make!

How about it, Firaxis?

[Grumbold]

If you are hoping for official news of the patch, Civ3.com is the place to look ... although enthusiastic apolytoners will be spamming MarkG to have it pasted up as a hot news item about 8 picoseconds later

[ScottVib]

Read the Soren Johnson Chat Transcript some things have been revealed about the patch in that... Also Jef Morris posted some information on it.

This comes right out of the chat transcript:

[ACS_MarkG] let's get the upgrades/patches question out of the way no
[Soren_Johnson_Firaxis] cultural acquisition of cities does not make the AI get mad b/c
[ACS_MarkG] Soren, what decisions are there right now for the patches?
[Soren_Johnson_Firaxis] it is not really directly under the user's control (unlike capturing a city) * nidz-onehalf would like to ask a rather silly, but fun-to-know question
[Jannekorv] ok, thats the only way I aquire cities so
[connorkimbro] Soren_Johnson_Firaxis: i've noticed that alot of times, the AI seems to really like to share techs with other AI civs. . but not with the player. It's almost as if, diplomatically, they're ganging up on the player. Is that intentional?
[Soren_Johnson_Firaxis] oh sorry... we are working on a patch and it will address bugs and interface issues first as well as a few balance and AI holes...
[ACS_MarkG] upgrade on the editor?
[Mark13] Any hint of a release date?
[Soren_Johnson_Firaxis] ...sorry, I can't be too specific b/c we don't want to promise anything until it gets through testing...
[ACS_MarkG] Ok, thanks
[Misfire] ?
[Soren_Johnson_Firaxis] the editory will be upgraded soon although I am not sure if it will be in the first patch...
[SamSmithnz] But we're talking before christmas for the patch right?
[ACS_MarkG] thechief, please ask
[TheChief] Is simple trespassing enough of an excuse to start a war with an AI player without losing points with other AI players. In other words, I don't want to ruin my reputation in the long run to win by the UN vote.
[Soren_Johnson_Firaxis] yes, before X-mas
[ACS_MarkG] yes, sam, Jeff Morris mentioned "end of month"(this month).

Hope this helps...

[Rasputin]

firaxis probalby waitting to see all the bugs before rushing a weak patch out that onyl fixes a few things,,, Hopefully !!!

[Fidel]

Originally posted by Grumbold
If you are hoping for official news of the patch, Civ3.com is the place to look ... although enthusiastic apolytoners will be spamming MarkG to have it pasted up as a hot news item about 8 picoseconds later

hehe, i bet it will be before the end of this month
picoseconds

[Herder]

Well, my patience is running thin on the air superiority thing.

They should release a patch just for that.

The late game sucks because of it and I haven't finished a game correctly yet.

Their lack of updates on Civ3.com has me worried though. Why the hell should you have to get that info from the log of a chat script. Jesus, game companies are going to hell.

And bring back sentry mode dammit!

[protista]

I too am disappointed with Firaxis/Infogrames with regards to information about possible patches and updates. Civ3 has awesome potential, but several of the bugs and anomalies have to be addressed.

I would have hoped we would have some kind of patch by this time. When I purchased Tropico, we had three patches out within the month, and the game site provided constant commentary on the progress of patches.

The Infogames Civ3 information site is very limited, and seems to be mainly advertising their own Civ3 Strategy guide.

All we can do at this point is to keep reminding them that we need a patch. I have emailed both Firaxis and Infogrames, but have not received any reply.

[Peoux]

Yeah, it's not really Firaxis I'm getting irritated with - it's obviously the publisher Infogrames that have forced them to rush the product release. And it is probably again Infogrames that are keeping Firaxis from giving us any real info about the patches, the multiplayer (expansion pack or patch), anything. I'm just speculating, but I bet Firaxis can't tell us yet because it hasn't really been negotiated yet whether they'll do multiplayer as a patch or as an expansion pack, whether Infogrames will pay Firaxis to do this or if they are going to drop all support at a point in the near future the way CTP2 was dropped by their publisher (was it Activision, can't remember?)

In short, Firaxis good, Infogrames bad
I remember the same frustration when Black & White came out, buggy as hell and with no response from neither programmers nor publishers. I DO feel less frustrated with Civ3 though - I am very thrilled with how much of the game we can actually modify using the editor.

[Grumbold]

If another recent purchase of mine is anything to go by, the developers had a patch ready in days that t took the publisher over 3 weeks to QA and approve for release. You'd have to infiltrate their company information to find out though, with everyone being so tight lipped

[Dale]

I DO feel less frustrated with Civ3 though - I am very thrilled with how much of the game we can actually modify using the editor.

You obviously never tried the CTP series (1 & 2). Literally EVERYTHING was editable in that game. And I mean EVERYTHING. They even had an internal event script where you could reprogram the AI completely.

Well, how else did you think Activision expected us to fix all the bugs in the games?

[Dinner]

Originally posted by Dale


You obviously never tried the CTP series (1 & 2). Literally EVERYTHING was editable in that game. And I mean EVERYTHING. They even had an internal event script where you could reprogram the AI completely.

Well, how else did you think Activision expected us to fix all the bugs in the games?

This was a very good thing though. That means that senerios, unofficial patches (like the Apolyton pack), and mods could all be done. I'm not sure I can say the same about Civ 3.