Can a patch do the trick for civIII ?

[ColdWizard]

Originally posted by docken
No MP in a patch? don't be so sure. If you don't believe me, check out the file 'jackal.txt' and the .jpg file in your root civ3 directory. I think you will be quite interested to read what it says, to say the least.

yeah, i read it. but there's no way a certain publisher will let MP come out in a patch when they can charge for it by releasing it separately.

[Skanky Burns]

No patch Firaxis could release would satisfy everyone here. Ever.

For example, the first 'bug' listed was the 'broken' combat system. Its not a [i]bug[i/]. Its a design decision. Ancient units were designed so they could sometimes defeat modern units.

The point is that people are after different things, have different ideas about how the game should work. No matter what Firaxis do, they wont be able to please everyone.

[docken]

Originally posted by ColdWizard

yeah, i read it. but there's no way a certain publisher will let MP come out in a patch when they can charge for it by releasing it separately.

Unfortunately, I tend to agree with you.

Did I mention that I hate infogrames? It is hands down the worst "big name" publisher anyone could get, they also happen to be French- any connection? Even microsoft is better, in part because when they act like bastards, they at least make it VERY CLEAR that they are doing so.

[Dravin]

I wouldn't be so sure about Infogrames, Interplay is pretty bad, as is Activision if their Trek line is any indication.

[Moraelin]

Originally posted by Vonotar
So if I put a tent up on the piece of scrubland behind my house and start growing potatoes any potential future buyer of the land should recognize my right to that piece of land??

Colonies are not town/cities/metropolis's they'r a couple of shacks thrown together to farm a resource. Start giving them borders and rights and you might as well call them a city.

First of all, I'm a country, not Random J Squatter.

A) There are a bunch of my people there, as well as an investment. If someone came and just took over, say, one country's offshore drilling plaform (which is a pretty good modern day example of a resource colony), I do believe it would be seen as an aggression. Noone would see it as "oh, it didn't have enough population to be a city, so it's ok. They can have it."

B) Again, there are a bunch of people there. Asking that it has a border around that 1 square it occupies, doesn't seem that much. Towns have at least 3x3 area, so 1x1 for a colony wouldn't make it a cheap alternative to towns.

C) Methinks military presence alone should count for something, if we're talking countries. If I have two riflemen regiments guarding that mining outpost, I do believe that that square is mine. If another country wants it, they'd have to attack my troops, not just claim it.

In fact, even if I don't even have a mining colony there, but just decided to build a fortress in the middle of nowhere and put some troops in it, methinks that that square is mine. I was there first. You want it, go ahead and attack me.

[Libertarian]

Originally posted by yin26
I believe Civ3 is fundamentally flawed. No patch will ever make this the game Firaxis itself claimed it to be. Besides that, the company QA guy believes that bugs in a game make for a strong community, so you have programmers with very little clue how to make the game even close to the hype and a QA department that thinks giving patches is a kind of needless gift.

Add those up.

Okay.

They add up to a mousey curmudgeon who rips out tongue-in-cheek remarks from their context and misrepresents them as vain attempts to support his own lame strawmen.

Of course, we can't just add. We have to multiply. Because there isn't a converstation, nor a topic, nor a forum in cyberspace where he does not repeat his silliness. Over. And over. And over.

"Do you believe in God?"

"Oh, you mean the God of Abraham, Isaac, and the Firaxis QA guy who thinks we like buggy software?"

[yin26]

Re-read the damn article. He wasn't joking. Sorry ... is denial and poor reading your chosen advocation or just a hobby?

[Libertarian]

And now a false dilemma.

Here's five bucks. Go buy a new song.

[yin26]

My new song: I'll go around with the same 'Get a new song' song. Brilliant!

[yin26]

Oh, and I'll be sure to make claims I can't support.

[Libertarian]

If nothing else, I'll say this for you: you have a sense of humor and irony, having chosen Yin over Yang.

Nurse Ratchet, I want MY cigarettes!

[yin26]

That's the only insightful comment you've made in the past 10 minutes. Bravo!

[Libertarian]

Stop that. You're making me horny.

[yin26]

I got there first.

[Nadexander]

Originally posted by DATarbell
Everything can be fixed, and anything can be changed via a patch. However, many of the things that are being complained about on these boards are design and gameplay issues, not programming flaws or technological limitations.

Firaxis isnt producing database software. Design and gameplay issues that reduce the fun-factor of a game are just as serious as software bugs.

Originally posted by DATarbell
What is most interesting to me is how many of the complaints have to do with features that were specifically requested on these very forums while the game was in development. That, and the fact that the game is simply harder to beat, requires new and varied strategies, and so forth than any of the previous Civ's (at comparable difficulty levels).

Well firaxis could have made it so that AI cities grow 5 times faster than human cities and never have unhappiness and we couldnt complain that the game wasn't harder to beat. Im not upset with what firaxis has made though i am upset at their decision to release without a public beta and without any serious attempt at play testing (did anyone even make it through their first game without noticing the air superiority bug?)

Really the ball is in firaxis' court right now. Either they can catch up and reallly wow us with a steady series of patches addressing gamer's key concerns or they can toss us a minor bug fix or two and make us hope (vainly) that the game play balacing/improvement comes along with the inevitable expansion pack that turns out to be 4 new civs, some bug fixes that should have been caught in the first beta and 17 more tracks of kenny G for our listening pleasure .

Come on Firaxis! Take the high-road. Show us you are still a civ addicts best friend!