Patch Update

[problem_child]

Dear Firaxis,

will the patch have diplomatic warnings for when the player is about to make treaties that comprimise earlier treaties for instance? so allies don't suddenly turn frosty just as you make peace with somebody, and will the Air-Superiority command finnally actually destroy enemy bomber-raids? becouse it seems to work for the AI players. And will communism be a viable option at last? etc etc.

ps- great game.

[AHO]

You guys are pitiful. This forum is full derision-- "this game is broken, too many bugs, Firaxis sucks"--Dan steps up with the patch info and suddenly, when you know that they're actually reading your rants, you're all "thanks Dan, thanks for the update, we love you Dan, will you father my child?"

[Crom]

AHO,

Whoa there, take it easy tiger. I think that people are just fairly relieved to know that Firaxis are looking at the forum comments and pleased that they might be coming up with some solutions for the problems we are experiencing with Civ3.

Even without the upcoming patch I've still really been enjoying all the hours I've put into the game.

[AHO]

Oh, I agree with you Crom, I've been enjoying the heck out of the game, too, which is why I was so amused with the sudden change in tone directed towards Firaxis. I mean, you have to admit, people have been leveling some pretty nasty posts out there, and we all KNEW that a patch would be forthcoming before the end of the month. Now, all of a sudden, all those nasty posts have turned to groveling adoration. I can hardly wait to see how the tone changes again after the patch doesn't measure up to everyone's idealistic expectations!

[cassembler]

I personally could care less about other people's oppinions.

$.02

I've never been icy towards Firaxis. I understand why the game is in the state it's in (not complete, but fun and playable). The last thing I would do is hold a single person responsible...

[cassembler]

I personally could care less about other people's oppinions.

Not really. I DO care.

[crayonx_2K]

'We Love the Patch Day'

I wonder if they have "Patch Parties" whenever a patch is released (kind of like Launch Parties). Or maybe they toast each other with styrofoam cups filled with Barqs root beer....

[siredgar]

A bit of skepticism on my part.

Honestly, I doubt that this patch will be much appreciated. There are plenty of problems with the game that I don't believe will be addressed within a mere month.

Anyhow, anyone who pushes out a product that doesn't even address simple issues from Civ II (i.e. it's still says "Marseilles", not "Marseille") doesn't get much faith on my part.

If the patch addresses just a few major issues, I'll be content for now. These are:

1. The ability to specify player starting locations in the map editor.
2. No more freezing up and lagging down during gameplay.
3. Reduction in corruption and pollution.
4. Giving more power to naval and air units.
5. Making trade more fair (one resource for another), especially when dealing with an ally or a weaker civilization.

Thanks for the update on the patch, but I'm not expecting to be surprised. It will be helpful, however.

Sir Edgar

[taco]

Re: A bit of skepticism on my part.

Originally posted by siredgar
Honestly, I doubt that this patch will be much appreciated. There are plenty of problems with the game that I don't believe will be addressed within a mere month.

Anyhow, anyone who pushes out a product that doesn't even address simple issues from Civ II (i.e. it's still says "Marseilles", not "Marseille") doesn't get much faith on my part.

If the patch addresses just a few major issues, I'll be content for now. These are:

1. The ability to specify player starting locations in the map editor.
2. No more freezing up and lagging down during gameplay.
3. Reduction in corruption and pollution.
4. Giving more power to naval and air units.
5. Making trade more fair (one resource for another), especially when dealing with an ally or a weaker civilization.

Thanks for the update on the patch, but I'm not expecting to be surprised. It will be helpful, however.

Sir Edgar

1: No idea
2: I'd say fixed
3: Pollution is fine, its almost a non issue if you build the right stuff, corruption will be lowered, but i doubt enough to please people on these boards
4: Other than the superiority bug, they are fine in my opinion, and i am sure that bug will be fixed
5: is fine

in conclusion, just because you want a fix, doesnt mean everyone else does. the people on this board represent a VERY small minority of popular opinion. its just that the people that are fine with the game see no reason to come here and post it. while the people who are upset for various reasons want their voices heard.

[Saint Marcus]

the only thing I want is for the freakin AI to respect my borders and stop walking in with dozens of units every turn!

Sorry, just letting off steam. The Americans (who else) piss me off by moving their troops through my territory without permission to invade Greece.

[Fitz]

the people on this board represent a VERY small minority of popular opinion.

I find it hard to believe that you think this is true. I think that people on this board tend to represent the majority of popular opinion. I agree we are a small minority of those who play (I myself am one of 5 friends who play Firaxis games who comes here), but I think that as a whole you can find that the percentage of the people here expressing an opinion is fairly representative of the gamers as a whole. Certainly I find that things my friends tell me they like or dislike tend to be very similar to views expressed here.

[The_Aussie_Lurker]

Actually, a couple of things I'd REALLY love to see addressed in the patch (aside from what I mentioned above) are:

1) The return of that excellent feature, from SMAC, that allowed allies to base units in each others cities!! Without this, you may as well only go for a MDP and never a full blown alliance! It would also allow for even more accurate historical scenarios (imagine having Americans basing their bombers in English cities to help bomb those Nazis!!)

2) The addition of an "escort" mission for fighters when you send bombers out on a bombing mission!!

3) Allow aircraft on carriers the ability to automatically attack units that threaten the carrier!!
Anyway, just my $0.02c worth

Yours,
The_Aussie_Lurker.

[taco]

" find it hard to believe that you think this is true. I think that people on this board tend to represent the majority of popular opinion. "

Well, your wrong and pretty shallow minded to think that.

I don’t feel like getting into an argument, because anyone who can think impartially rather than figure their opinion is what’s ultimately right knows that most people don't care about 90% of the issues brought up on this board. If only for the fact that most people do not dissect the game like people on these boards do.

This isn’t just a civ3 thing, look at the message board for most games. Everquest’s message board made this place look like a picnic, it was a cess pool. However, as bad as that board was it represented the opinion of a very small minority. Otherwise it wouldn’t have over 300,000 players4-5 years after release. When AC, DAOC, AO, Diablo2 online were released, every time everyone on that board said "Now all your customers are going to leave for the other game!!" Never happened, know why? Because those people screaming's view points had nothing to do with nearly all the players.

Civ3 will continue to be in the top5 spot for the weeks to come on the best seller list, why? Because everyone thinks it kicks ass but the 1 percent that inhabit this board.

Bottom line, and the point I am trying to make, firaxis is NOT going to make big changes for a lot of things people on this board want because it would alienate the vast majority of players who like it the way it is, or got used to the way it is. Firaxis knows this, unfortunately most the people on this board don’t, which is why I said there are going to be people upset with the patch.

Do not confuse this with me saying I don’t think you should be here stating your problems with the game (well some people on this board should get lost). As long as you’re not being an ass criticisms can only help.


Anyways, thats my take on the situation. Flame me to hell if you'd like, I am pretty good at absorbing the heat.

[sophist]

Re: A bit of skepticism on my part.

Have you worked in software before? A significant part of the release process is testing. And not fun testing like you might think playing civ3 over and over would be, either. It takes a lot of time and a lot of people. I'm betting there were regular bug jury meetings for months and months before the release. They've no doubt known of the vast majority of bugs. Notice how they talk about showstopper bugs in the patch delaying it. There are certainly bugs introduced by the patch that they probably already know. There are certainly bugs they do not address. But when you have a fixed ship date, your bug jury will go through a list of known defects and ask the question "how long will this take to fix?" Then they will ask, "how long will it take to thoroughly test this fix?" And THEN they will ask, "how long will it take to test that this fix didn't break anything else?" In my experience, fixing the bug is the easy part. Making sure it worked and didn't break anything else is way harder. I'm willing to bet that they forked the source well before the release and have been working on the patch since then, not since they went gold.

Originally posted by siredgar
Honestly, I doubt that this patch will be much appreciated. There are plenty of problems with the game that I don't believe will be addressed within a mere month.

Anyhow, anyone who pushes out a product that doesn't even address simple issues from Civ II (i.e. it's still says "Marseilles", not "Marseille") doesn't get much faith on my part.

If the patch addresses just a few major issues, I'll be content for now. These are:

1. The ability to specify player starting locations in the map editor.
2. No more freezing up and lagging down during gameplay.
3. Reduction in corruption and pollution.
4. Giving more power to naval and air units.
5. Making trade more fair (one resource for another), especially when dealing with an ally or a weaker civilization.

Thanks for the update on the patch, but I'm not expecting to be surprised. It will be helpful, however.

Sir Edgar

[sophist]

Re: Re: Things I would love to see in a patch

I think it would be great if Firaxis opened the scenario/map file format and possibly supplied a C API for it. Then people could write custom map generators to address many of these problems. I don't see a down side to them doing this the way there would be with opening other things.

Originally posted by Wolfgang76


While I agree with what you have here, as it would stop A LOT of the moaning about certain game features (high coruption, scare resources) it would require a MAJOR overhaul of the game map creation setup. Probably not something for a patch but still a great idea for an expansion.
Either way, its good to know that Firaxis hasnt abandonded us like so many other game companies do after they put out a game.

2cents