Firaxis, you're definately no Blizzard...

[isak]

UberKruX: You should spam a chat just to celebrate

SlightlyMadman: PBEM will certainly be my main dish too - so when are we going to play

[Inverse Icarus]

[SIZE=1] Hopefully, given a bit of time, people will find friends whom they trust, and enjoy playing with. Direct TCP/IP connections to games would make this a lot easier, and really make much more sense, but Firaxis didn't have the resources to design their own network protocol, so they had to use something off the shelf. IMHO, the time and aggrivation this decision has caused probably wasn't worth the time saved, but I'll respect any decisions their team made, since it's still among the best games I've ever played, even without MP.

uhm, they used something off the shelf? i've never seen such a [ghetto] system in any of their games before. did SMAC have something like this (i remember playing TCP/IP in SMAC).

TCP/IP is the SMART way to do multiplayer. it's easily editable to make TCP/IP code work for lans.



whatever. tonight i'll see how well it works with my buddies.

[Sheik]

SMAC had a good system.

UberKrux I haven't gotten the game yet and have some questions:

Was it easy getting into the MP game with your friends?
Did it run more smoothly with friends?
Do you have the latest patch?
Does the new patch fix some of these problems?

And two questions for Firaxis:
Are you reading this thread?
If so what do you have to say?

[NeOmega]

Originally posted by UberKruX


there are two "locked" games called:

"GET THE 1.04f PATCH"
and
"WAREZ DOESNT WORK"

we can only assume thats firaxis.

Get the 1.04 patch was me. I was tired of idiots whining before they even checked to see if there was a patch.

[Unspeakable Horror]

Uber won´t be answering your questions for a while it seems.

http://apolyton.net/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=66124

[FrostyBoy]

Well, I won't buy the game then, not until I hear no more complaints. I'm not going through the same CTP scenario I had years ago. I still have a grudge on that.

[SlightlyMadman]

Originally posted by UberKruX


uhm, they used something off the shelf? i've never seen such a [ghetto] system in any of their games before. did SMAC have something like this (i remember playing TCP/IP in SMAC).

TCP/IP is the SMART way to do multiplayer. it's easily editable to make TCP/IP code work for lans.



whatever. tonight i'll see how well it works with my buddies.

Well, they're using gamespy, for sure. Other than that, I thought I heard somewhere (maybe a post in this forum) that they were using Microsoft DirectPlay. It would make sense, since they're definitely using DirectX and DirectVoice.

I've written a couple of custom TCP/IP communication libraries in my time, and it's never been fun. Java makes it pretty easy for simple stuff, but it's really a chore in C++, and I've really only done fairly simple transactions.

When you think about the complexity and quantity of data that Civ has to transmit, though, you can understand why they made that decision, especially with their limited development staff. Civ3 has a surprisingly small staff, compared to other major releases these days. I really respect that Firaxis is carrying over a bit of the old garage development mentality into today's industry.

As far as it being a ghetto system, that certainly true. Anything by Microsoft is a ghetto solution. People choose them because they either don't know any better or (more often) have no choice (especially in game development).

[alva]

Originally posted by isak
UberKruX: You should spam a chat just to celebrate

The emperor thing could well be only temperary though
sorry Uber, couldn't resist

[SlightlyMadman]

Originally posted by isak SlightlyMadman: PBEM will certainly be my main dish too - so when are we going to play

Well, the big game in my PBEM Manager only needs one more player to sign up, before I kick it off. For that matter PBEM Express 1 only needs one more player, too, and you're not in it. Go ahead and sign up for it, and I'll start it up.

If anyone else wants to PBEM, check out My PBEM Manager and create a game, or sign up for one.

[SpencerH]

Originally posted by NeOmega

Get the 1.04 patch was me. I was tired of idiots whining before they even checked to see if there was a patch.

I would think that it was pretty unexpected to have a patch released virtually simultaneously with the game.

[Craig P.]

DirectPlay is nice to program against. I have no idea how it performs, though.

(I never got to testing the multiplayer game that I wrote.)

[notyoueither]

Originally posted by SpencerH


I would think that it was pretty unexpected to have a patch released virtually simultaneously with the game.

Unexpected? Yes. Unusual? No, not if the publisher decided to send the 1st or 2nd release candidate to press over the objections of the developer...

[Strakorfsky]

Where is the new patch?

And if so, is it only usuable for PTW, because Iam getting it on saturday, please respond fast.

[SpencerH]

There must be a link somewhere around here at poly. Its only for PtW.

[Sheik]

If Uber cant answer my questions then could someone else?