Any news about the new patch?

[Franses]

Not long after the v1.14f patch release, Firaxis Games programmer Patrick Dawson announced in a chat with CivFanatics (CF) yesterday that further optimizations to Civilization III: Play The World`s multiplayer components are presently being explored and refined. As such, another patch is already in the works and is on the near horizon of release at present.

The above was posted on Apolyton on december 7. Has anyone heard any news since? It has been three weeks now and if it was on the "near horizon" one would expect something to happen by now. I am looking forward to mentionedd optimizations since even one of my 1 to 1 games now starts to lag unacceptably.

[WarpStorm]

Well, all I can say is that they are working on it (well, I'm guessing that they are taking a break for Christmas this week).

[Nikolai]

Didn't they release a patch once a month/every second month after the release of Civ3? I might remember wrong, but nevertheless, I don't think we'll get any new patches before the new year.

[WarpStorm]

Like I said, they are on vacation.

[Nikolai]

Yeah, just as you said. I just backed up your view. BTW, how long is it since last patch? I haven't followed so closely the last weeks.

[Willem]

Originally posted by Nikolai
Didn't they release a patch once a month/every second month after the release of Civ3? I might remember wrong, but nevertheless, I don't think we'll get any new patches before the new year.

More like once every three to six months IIRC. And dealing with MP is much more complicated than tweaking the normal game.

[Franses]

I agree, probably no patch for this year any more. I am patient. As long as it will come! I fear to hear some day that Firaxis decided to stop supporting PTW. It would not be the first time a company decides to do that. Grrrrrrr

[WarpStorm]

Well, there is no money in patches. The last thing an employer wants his employees (especially expensive ones like lead programmers) working on is patches. If PTW doesn't sell well enough to warrant another expansion, I wouldn't expect more than one or two more. It would make business sense to move these people onto the 'next big thing'.

On the upside, Firaxis recently patched Gettysburg, Antietam, and SMAC. There probably was no money at all in doing that, so their motivations aren't totally moeny driven.

[Franses]

If they do want another expansion they will have to make PTW work. If not, who will want to buy another expansion?

[aahz_capone]

I disagree, there is money in patches just not directly.

If a review magazine says it's crap put with the path its excellent than it wont hurt sales that much. If a company is known never to release a patch than no one will by it because everybody knows that PC games need patches nowadays, especially if it's an MP game.

[Datajack Franit]

Just as Sierra does

[Willem]

Originally posted by WarpStorm
If PTW doesn't sell well enough to warrant another expansion, I wouldn't expect more than one or two more. It would make business sense to move these people onto the 'next big thing'.

Judging by the chat recently, PTW is doing well. They were even discussing the possibility of another XP.

[mazzz]

i'd spend $50 just for the editor

[Panag]

Originally posted by Willem


Judging by the chat recently, PTW is doing well. They were even discussing the possibility of another XP.

hi ,

instead of thinking about an XP they should better fix what they have now , ......



have a nice day

[WarpStorm]

Like I said earlier, it doesn't make business sense to add features in a patch. Bug fixes, yes. New features, no. Why pay your workers to improve something that isn't selling anymore?

I expect that PTW will have a couple of more patches to get it working well, but I wouldn't expect to see many enhancements in the patches (contrary to Civ3 where there were a lot of enhancements).

Unless....





































Unless...they have the front money from another new expansion to continue work on the Civ3 line.