v1.16f: Issues? Bugs? This is the thread

[Droximus]

quote:

Originally posted by Whohangs
Well, I don't know what to do. I've downloaded the new patch a third time. I've uninstalled both the patch and then the main game. Reinstalled both and still have the same problem. If I run in Compatibility mode Win98/ME (the mode I ran in originally that worked without the patch) I get the locked up process. If I run in any other mode or without the Compatibility mode the screen goes into power saving mode. Is there a fix for this? A workaround? Is this being looked into? This is kinda bugging me. The game runs fine in compatibility mode Win98/ME without the patch. I'm running in Windows XP.



Add Refresh=60 to your civiliation3.ini file. If the problem still occurs try lowering the number. This solution is listed in the list of fixes for the patch under the additions section. (list of fixes can be found on on the official civ3 web page) Btw I run XP home edition and the same problem occurs when I try to run in Comp mode. Turn this off after doing the above.

As for the patch:
The good :
The addition of prefs to not see AI moves really speeds gameplay.
Workers staying on auto even when there is nothing to do also speeds up gameplay.
The issues :
I've noticed a worker irrigating any tile it moved to even when the tile is outside my border. Irrigating occurs instantaneously without the usual delay. Haven't found any others yet.

This doesn't fix the problem I'm having, which appears to be the same problem that Whohangs is having. One problem that I'm having that Whohangs is not having is that I cannot uninstall or reinstall the game. After going into either the Uninstall or Reinstall process, it quits and displays the message..."Finished maintenance operations on Civilization 3." Or something similar to that. This may be a separate problem to the not starting problem.

[mattbolas]

What did they patch anyway

My comments on the Patch are:

1) The Governor still will not turn off. After a unit is completed, it still starts making whatever it feels like. Also the governor starts making s swordsman even though you can make a mechanical infantry.

2) Player locations are still not fixed, and this must be fixed. In short the editor must the same capability and flexibility that the Civ 2 had.

3) AI opponents are still insane. They attack when I am much stronger, and they do not bargain a good deal at all. By the way this is in the Chieftain version ?

4) The use of " Strategic resources" still does not work. Often the game goes back in time because you run out of rubber or whatever.
When in real history has a nation had to make swordsman instead of infantry ? It is just not realistic, and badly cripples the game. I have taken to using the editor to allow the units to be built when the advance is meet, and ignore the "Strategic resource" nonsense.

Hey Jeff, it just doesn't work !! The game in general is not balanced

I like the trade aspect, and the culture I should note.

Let's fix Civ 3

[cassembler]

Problems with the patch:

1) It won't fix my financial problems... PLEASE FIX ASAP!!!
2) It won't fix my woman problems... PLEEEEASE NEXT PATCH!!!
3) It won't let me "really" rule the world!!!

It feels to me like you guys are "living normal lives" when you SHOULD be spending every hour of your life- LITERALLY- to make ME happy with a patch that addresses these issues.

[Edit: really, really sorry for the flame-ness of this post]

[barefootbadass]

Re: There isn't any tech bug

Originally posted by ChrisShaffer
Thus, when a technology is traded, the cost to research that technology is reduced. If the AI is researching that tech, the reduced cost might be less than the stockpiled beakers, giving the AI the tech. This works in reverse too - and explains why the number of turns to complete research often drops without a corresponding increase in beakers collected.

It's easy to verify this. Just take a save game where everyone is at the same tech level, research a new tech, and compare offers. As you trade the tech to each AI, the other AIs will reduce their offers - and if you trade it enough, some of the AIs will suddenly have the tech.

I have gained techs(pre-patch) this way. I don't remember if it happened during the ai's turn, or at the beginning of my turn, but what would happen is I would have like 3 turns or something left to research and I would get it by the next turn. This might be what is causing this, but it sounds like a bug, from those saves that demonstrated the problem.

Also, it is true that ai's do not all stay at the same tech level, those who get heavily beaten up in wars usually fall at least 3-4 techs behind in my games.

I'm still on my first game after the patch, monarch, which is really tough because of a rocky start, the fact that my last game was on warlord(got cocky and skipped regent ), and because it is soo much more agressive. I also have to say, that while the ai isn't stellar at war, it is significantly better. Serious shortcomings however are that it doesn't make major use of mounted units(still early mideval) and doesn't use artillery type units.

I concur about the problems of lines not showing up in diplomacy, but actual negotiations are much better, it is much harder to rip off the ai(it won't take gold per turn to sell you a tech even if you have the economy to support it, you have to have at least most of the money up front).

[Whohangs]

Originally posted by codemast01


Add Refresh=60 to your civiliation3.ini file. If the problem still occurs try lowering the number. This solution is listed in the list of fixes for the patch under the additions section. (list of fixes can be found on on the official civ3 web page) Btw I run XP home edition and the same problem occurs when I try to run in Comp mode. Turn this off after doing the above.

Thanks Codemaster! this worked like a charm! I saw some others with this problem, I'll give them this info! Hope you don't mind me quoting you.

[Badtz Maru]

Computer seems to be getting a bit wiser to dirty diplomatic tricks.

Russians told me that they would declare war on me if I didn't give them saltpeter. Not wanting a war, I gave it to them. They went to 'Polite'. I then immediately pillaged the roads on my two saltpeter resources patches. When I talked to them again, they were 'Annoyed'.

Ideally they should have declared war on me, but I guess the AI had no way of knowing that I was responsible for cutting off the supply. It didn't permanently hurt my relations, later I traded saltpeter for a Mutual Protection Pact and they have been Gracious to me every since.

[Frosty]

Espionnage Menu bug

Something that happen to me everytime I'm trying some espionnage attempt vs a big civilization.

The russians got around 250 cities, I plant a spy, I go for some 'incite propaganda' but I can't select the city I want to corrupt in the russian citie's list. The menu pop-up but he is too big on the screen. I can't have the choice of citie I want, just those in the middle of the big menu.

I'm playing with the default resolution, I have no problems except this thing and my game crash when i'm pressing F11. I can play a turn but the game close and send me to my desktop.

Its still a good patch for this excellent game, good work.

[genghisvick]

Originally posted by cassembler
Problems with the patch:

1) It won't fix my financial problems... PLEASE FIX ASAP!!!
2) It won't fix my woman problems... PLEEEEASE NEXT PATCH!!!
3) It won't let me "really" rule the world!!!

It feels to me like you guys are "living normal lives" when you SHOULD be spending every hour of your life- LITERALLY- to make ME happy with a patch that addresses these issues.

[Edit: really, really sorry for the flame-ness of this post]

lol!!!!!!!!

[WesW]

I have a bug report that I have not seen from anyone else.

I had some cities which suddenly went into revolt for no apparent reason. When I clicked on one of the unhappy people, I was informed that 80% were mad because of overcrowding, but for the other 20% there was no accompanying message beside the number.
I was in a Republic, at peace, and had not founded any new cities in a long time. I had a few more military units per city than I normally have, but only about 4 per city, I would say.
Any ideas?

[Martina]

Re: Re: Unavoidable Crash

Originally posted by Obi Wan


Soren, I got the same crash with one of my saved games. I downloaded the game from justin_sayn and it crashes, too. Like justin_sayn I'm using W2k and the 1.16f patch. Do you have any idea how to avoid this problem (I mean any idea except waiting for the next patch or just starting an new game ...)

NOTE: TWO POSTS BELOW IS MORE INFORMATION AS WE HAVE BEEN ABLE TO IDENTIFY THE DRIVER FOR THE BUG: UNITS (here: workers) NOT ACCEPTED BY THE GAME ANYMORE.

Soren,

I have the same issue playing with the game of justin_sayn - this is the same issue I am confronted with in my own games (attached is a savegame one round before it crashes). Even if I step back several rounds to replay, I get these crashes. Tried it on my own W2K SP-2 installation as well as on my boyfriend's Win98. In both cases we used the revised (ie second) 1.16f patch.

This is really disturbing as you never know how long you can play your game and always have to be afraid of being forced to stop playing a long and beloved game.

Any ideas where this might come from?


All others,

Could you please shortly download this and confirm or re-confirm that this is a stable bug ?


Thanks,
Martina


NOTE: TWO POSTS BELOW IS MORE INFORMATION AS WE HAVE BEEN ABLE TO IDENTIFY THE DRIVER FOR THE BUG: UNITS (here: workers) NOT ACCEPTED BY THE GAME ANYMORE.

[PN]

This is getting ridiculous

I think that what we (the customers) need is for Firaxis to lay their cards on the table and tell us:

• a list of known bugs in the gameplay
• a list of known bugs in the AI
• a list of known problems with different hardware/software combinations.
• a list of features in the game/editor that customers are asking for (including muliplayer), a definitive statement of whether they will be added, and a prioritised order. I'm not so unrealistic that I expect Firaxis to tell us 'when', just 'if and in what order'.

I am a Civ I (Amiga) ,II, Col, SMAC, CTP veteran, a general strategy games (turn and RTS) junkie, and I have been in IT software development and service delivery for over 20 years. Regrettably, this is the most anticipated but disappointing game I have played. I've not enough confidence to play the game as I have been suffering crashes and corrupted save games, and with a game that requires many, many hours of time investing in it, to have this happen is just too risky.

I'm considering taking my copy back to the store and asking for a refund, something that I thought I'd never say about a Civ game.

[Te Rauparaha]

When my Riflemen move around I get sfx of them firing shots every square they move into. It's not bombardment or anything, either, just moving them around inside my peaceful borders.

[Martina]

Re: Re: Re: Unavoidable Crash

Originally posted by Martina



Soren,

I have the same issue playing with the game of justin_sayn - this is the same issue I am confronted with in my own games (attached is a savegame one round before it crashes). Even if I step back several rounds to replay, I get these crashes. Tried it on my own W2K SP-2 installation as well as on my boyfriend's Win98. In both cases we used the revised (ie second) 1.16f patch.

This is really disturbing as you never know how long you can play your game and always have to be afraid of being forced to stop playing a long and beloved game.

Any ideas where this might come from?


All others,

Could you please shortly download this and confirm or re-confirm that this is a stable bug ?


Thanks,
Martina

Soren,

We have identified the driver behind the bug: By using trial and error and disbanding units of the same type, we learned that:

In the above attached game, workers crash the game - as soon as we take out ALL workers (from the human player ie Greece), the game runs smoothly into the next turns. However at the very moment we build a new worker from scratch in one of our cities to compensate the disbanded ones, the game crashes once more (assumably at the time when the game activates the worker for orders).

This is definitely a bug as I can promise you the above attached savegame is definitely a new game from a fresh re-install of Civ3 1.16f without any modifications.

Please help, as we can not play any further until we know how to fix this.


Thanks,
Martina

[Obi Wan]

Re: Re: Re: Re: Unavoidable Crash

Originally posted by Martina
However at the very moment we build a new worker from scratch in one of our cities to compensate the disbanded ones, the game crashes once more (assumably at the time when the game activates the worker for orders).

Martina, did you put the worker in automated mode? Did you try to let it work manually on certain tiles only?

[Desert Dog]

Solution for patch problems!

I solved the problem that the patch causes. I unistalled the game, reinstalled without the patch. Instead I am using Korn's Biltz mod and having fun WITH NO CRASHES. It still has many problems of course. The Patch is just another example at the POOR programming that has been put into this game. Or maybe the programmers were not given enough time by the publisher. In either case we are the ones suffering. I myself trusted Firaxis that they would deliver a great game. Instead we are presented with a sequel that bares LITTLE likeness to the original instead it looks, feel, and smells like Call To Power sequel instead. I am sure all you CTP fans are delighted, but myself being a civ fan am VERY DISAPPOINTED!
My question is how much money did you guys pay everyone to give your game a good review? Or is that NONE of these reviews were given by someone who actually finished the game. I have not been able to complete one game since I bought it for various reasons. Alpha Centauri was loaded with bugs too. It still has many unaddressed bugs to this day. However at least SMAC was playable until the patches were all ready.
I am REALLY upset at how many messages I have sent to Jeff Morris and Firaxis and they do not even ackknowledge my complaints or questions. Civ 3 has great potential to be a good game, a sequel it is not. I think the truth about this game should come out!

Desert Dog