Release Date - Page 3

java4me · August 3, 2001, 20:50

I think that they should at least make the resolution for the game at least 800x600 and have the option of uping it to 1024x768 or higher!

Solver · August 4, 2001, 06:49

Guys, thanks for support

. Shortly, I'll start a new thread about it, so that Firaxis see it, asking them about the issue. Hold on...

Zealot · August 4, 2001, 13:16

Quote:

Originally posted by Solver
Guys, thanks for support

. Shortly, I'll start a new thread about it, so that Firaxis see it, asking them about the issue. Hold on...

Just make them feel overwhelmed with protests!

Admiral PJ · August 4, 2001, 14:12

korn692 (or some other number)
stated that people able to could take out a loan to buy a $600 or more computer, but I would strongly disagree with advising loans..
they aren't good as you end up paying more than the original value you loaned, because of interest (banks and companies don't loan out of the goodness of their heart! )
and because of depreciation, where after only a year your computer system could be half the value from when you bought it (if you were to try to sell it) you are in trouble if you lose your job/income and can't pay the loan interest.. you'd have to sell your computer and scrape together enough money probably (on big loans your house can be lost through debt /bankruptcy).

You would be better off saving up in a bank account the money for new hardware.. and buy a mid range system I would suggest, something thats above the average system requirements for your needs ( soon they will go up) and that dosen't cost a lot because its new technology in the CPU etc..

I suppose unless theres a killer applciation that uses the speed of the new P4 processor there won't be a lot of point for people to buy it, unless its more affordable for the power to cost ratio.

Economics.. what b*ll*cks

AdmiralPJ

korn469 · August 4, 2001, 14:38

Admiral PJ

that was one of the suggestions i gave in addition to upgrading your cpu or asking for a new computer as a christmas present...no matter if you take out a loan or not if you sell a computer a lean later you are going to take a loss on it

however on a 750 dollar loan from a bank you end up paying about 820 dollars if you take the loan for one year, or seventy dollars in interest...big deal, i spent 20 dollars just on gas yesterday (hell i probably buy 15-30 dollars in gas a week because i have to do alot of driving)

taking a loand from a bank would be better than going through the dell program which charges like 14% interest a year for four years...if you do lose your job, they will next try to collect from your cosigner before turning you over to a credit agency...but you won't lose your house because of a $70 a month loan...

my thing is there is almost no excuse why if you already own a computer to browse on the apolyton forums and your favorite game is civ that you can't meet the p2 system requirements...

i'm sure anyone of us on here would be willing for those who want to know to help them with installing a new cpu, or motherboard and cpu

check out pricewatch.com

right now you can get the following

750MHz CPU & Large Cooler. K7VZA, Full ATX, SOCKET-A CPU, 4X AGP. Built in 3D Sound. Retail Box

for $102 dollars with $3-$11 in shipping

you can find memory on that site too

so if you want to play civ3 bad enough...i'm sure you can buy what you need to play

Ming · August 4, 2001, 14:47

Keep on Civin

Deal with the reguirerments...

Sabre2th · August 4, 2001, 16:21

While I think it's important for them to provide low requirements, I think it's equally important to support the capabilities of higher-end systems. I don't think Firaxis could change the requirements at all, up OR down. If your computer is too old to run it and you can't/won't replace it, that's just going to be too bad. The civ community as a whole can't suffer just because a few people can't play the game.

I would like for everyone to be able to play. Unfortunately, that is not possible.

Simpleton · August 4, 2001, 23:33

I don't know if this means anything but I was in a computer game store yesterday and I overheard a salesperson said he was certain that Civ3 is to be on the shelves in 2 months....Of course I'm from Canada and we're pretty kooky up here anyway so you probably can't believe a word of it......but you can always hope.

PS. If Civ3 is due in 2 months in Canada it's probably due out in a week in USA!! Damn you southerners!!!

Sabre2th · August 7, 2001, 09:22

Quote:

Originally posted by Simpleton
PS. If Civ3 is due in 2 months in Canada it's probably due out in a week in USA!! Damn you southerners!!!

I think civ3 is important enough to get a North America release, not just U.S. Maybe even a WORLD-WIDE release

I'm covered no matter what

Mahdimael · August 7, 2001, 09:47

Even so, LOTM, strategy games have been doing a number of things that require more powerful machines. Look at any number of RTS games that must manage hundreds of units at once or strategy games that offer 3d this or that. The genre is going beyond representing units with little boxes with x's in them because it has to to sell games to new customers.

lord of the mark · August 7, 2001, 10:12

Quote:

Originally posted by Grumbold
A PII-300 without graphics card has been less than the minimum required for the many styles of games for years. I know it is inappropriate to compare across genres too much, but just think how it must feel to try and keep up if you are a FPS or flight/racing fan. Even RPG's are graphics heavy these days. I've already gone through 3 different 3D cards (one blew up) and expanded to 256MB Ram and 50Gb hard disk space. These requirements are so low it amazes me.

well i guess thats why i thought a hope for lower requirements wasnt entirely unreasonable. When i bought my machine I was told that the CPU chip i was getting wouldnt be good for games like quake or doom. which was fine, for i never intended to play such games, and i still dont. I doubt I am alone among Civ fans in that my gaming interest is completely restricted to strategy games.

LOTM

War4ever · August 7, 2001, 17:20

i am running a p2 266 160 megs or ram..... if i run the game minimaly.... do i have a hope in hell of playing without an upgrade.... ???

some advice would be appreciated... i can upgrade but not sure if i am ready to pull the trigger just yet and just to play civ3 from home....

Lung · August 7, 2001, 17:45

Am i being too optimistic about being able to play Civ3 with a P166 MMX?

I'm sure that Firaxis will make Civ3 old PC-friendly, but i may be pushing my luck

korn469 · August 7, 2001, 19:14

War4ever

don't go upgrading just yet...you should be able to get civ3 to run on your system...if it doesn't work, defrag your hard drive then goto the start menu under run type in msconfig and make sure you are only running what is vital...also make sure that you have all of the latest drivers and patches for you software

although it requires a p2 300 you have way more ram than the minimum civ3 requirement and that should help alot, plus a p2 266 is almost as fast as p2 300 so it should work...

Lung

how much ram do u got? i think you are out of luck...and btw do u have a tower case? if so it is probably ATX compliant so if you want to upgrade you can find amd mother board/duron combos that are around 100 dollars and will fit into your case

War4ever · August 7, 2001, 19:27

thanks korn........

i was suckered into this HP everything computer a few years back when they were the rage... i have one of these recovery disks with win 95 and my sound and video card built in

if i knew then what i know now...there is no way i would buy this piece of crap they call a computer....

Kassiopeia · August 8, 2001, 02:51

Quote:

Originally posted by War4ever
i was suckered into this HP everything computer a few years back when they were the rage... i have one of these recovery disks with win 95 and my sound and video card built in

if i knew then what i know now...there is no way i would buy this piece of crap they call a computer....

Join the club. I at least have Win98, but the sound/audio cards are integrated and so out-of-date that the last time I reinstalled Windows, I "lost" the sound card so that I don't have any sounds!

I think I'll upgrade the whole hunk of junk once I have raised enough money.

SerapisIV · August 8, 2001, 12:17

Now I have a P2-400, which is borderline with the Civ3 requirements. Now we all know that the Civ3 graphics aren't going to be very intensive, but would upgrading my really, really old video card help speed the game up? I have an Nvidia chip but it's about a 3-4 year old card, pre-TNT1.

War4ever · August 8, 2001, 23:59

Quote:

Originally posted by kassiopeia

Join the club. I at least have Win98, but the sound/audio cards are integrated and so out-of-date that the last time I reinstalled Windows, I "lost" the sound card so that I don't have any sounds!

I think I'll upgrade the whole hunk of junk once I have raised enough money.

LOL i had the same problem when i reformatted my computer.... my basic win explorer is like version 3.0 LOL i get errors every page....although i can navigate thru them... it sent me for a loop.....

if i up my ram i should be just fine....if not i have an important decision to make......

probably need around 750 for the cards, motherboard, chip and such.... 750 i would rather not spend on a computer that is behind the times as it is

SerapisIV · August 9, 2001, 10:53

Can't play at 1024? jeez, I have a 19" monitor and get frustrated when I can't get 1280 x 1024. Everything looks too big at even 1024 in my opinion, things are too blocky. The bigger the screen, the smoother the graphics (I don't play many graphics intensive games)

Kassiopeia · August 9, 2001, 11:01

Quote:

Originally posted by War4ever
probably need around 750 for the cards, motherboard, chip and such.... 750 i would rather not spend on a computer that is behind the times as it is

Same problem here. If those figures are USD, then I have just about the same sum as you currently. I'd need a new motherboard, a new processor, a sound card, a (good) video card... maybe not a DVD-drive... and at least 128 MB more RAM. The 8 GB hard drive is hopefully salvageable. I wonder how much I'd get for selling this piece of cr@p for office use.

korn469 · August 9, 2001, 11:11

SerapisIV

i too have a gateway p2 400...it came with 64mb ram and a ati rage fury 8mb video card...well i added in another 64 mb ram from crucial www.crucial.com and i bought a ati radeon 32 mb video card...the video card didn't help at all with 2d games like civ2, smac, starcraft, but with 3d graphics heavy games like fallout tactics, homeworld, diablo2, and emperor: battle for dune it made those games go from basically unplayble on my system to actually pretty good...so it depends on what kind of games you play, but if you do upgrade your chip DO NOT buy a g-force3...a 32 mb g-force2 MX or a cheap radeon would be all you'll need and you can find them both for pretty cheap

here is an g-force2 mx for 89.95
here
and here is an ati radeon ve for 89.95
here

right now i am waiting until next year when the amd athlon4 .13 micron chips hit the everyday market...i wanna see if that will become mainstream or if the cheap p4's will still let intel dominate...i also wanna wait till windows xp sp1 comes out and when the ultra ata 133 hard drive spec becomes standard...i'd also like to wait till the next graphics chips comes out from nvidea and ati...so most likely i will buy a new system late spring early summer of next year

War4ever

to upgrade your system it shouldn't cost you more than about 350 dollars (about 150 max for cpu/motherboard combo, about 100 for a video card, and about 100 for a hard drive)...if you are going to spend 750 dollars to upgrade i would wait a month or so and just buy a new system from dell...the only problem is when you build your own cheap system the single most expensive component is Windows...though you might be able to find overstocked windows 98 for fairly cheap...also since you already have 160mb of ram you shouldn't need very much more if any...unless it is really low quality ram...in which case i'd goto crucial and get you some new ram