Umm, What am I doin Wrong??

LordCanar · November 18, 2002, 20:06

Ok, I am an avid Civ fan, have been sence i was 14 and descovered the original game under my christmas tree. Me and two other friends play RTS first person shooters, and turn based strat games 2 or 3 times a week. We all ran out and got civ III PTW. One friend can't play because earthlink blocks port 80 on his dsl. After figuring out which settings made for the less lag, and less bugs so the game was some what playable, we descovered a major flaw, either by our own fault, or by poor design. We play long games, and large worlds, so we try to minimize the micro-managment. For some reason or another, no matter what mode or turn style game we play, we are never prompted when a certain tech is researched to choose another!! We have to keep an eye on the status box or make sure we go into our advisors window todo it manually when we don't like what the computer selected for us!! Also, I am never prompted to choose the next build order for my cities, even though i selected that option in the preferences, and selected never in all the production options for the city govnor!! I am already P*ssed off about the many design flaws, horible lag (even though i have cable, and both my friends have dsl), and to top it off, the original Civ III should have had the multi-player included. No company in their right mind pulls that trick anymore, and if feraxis wants to keep its fan base, it aught to start changing its ways!! they think just because civ II multi was released as an expansion, they can keep getting away with it, even though multiplayer was a very rare thing when the original civ II came out. Anyways, I certainly hope I have over looked a setting of some sort, cause if I have to manually tell my people what to research everytime I will have wasted my money.
thx for any help

Sheik · November 18, 2002, 21:36

I have the same problem when I play with my friends! I was playing a standard map (wont do that again until the patch) and I would look down and see a new tech being researched. This has been annoying and I hope Firaxis is paying attention. However I do not think that the game is crap. The single player is great and is worth $30. I believe that Firaxis is making a good effort to fix the problems and I am sure you will be more then pleased one or two patches from now.

WarpStorm · November 18, 2002, 22:00

The lack of messages was intentional so as not to slow down the game. I personally would much rather it be an option. It doesn't really bug me a lot though, as I nearly always queue up my tech plans for the entire age.

Dave0 · November 19, 2002, 00:38

OT but, I have earthlink dsl and they haven't blocked port 80 for me. Isn't 80 used for web servers anyways? Can he even look at web pages?

LordCanar · November 19, 2002, 00:45

Actually as the multiplayer in PTW uses port 80, u shouldn't be able to play if u do in fact use earthlink dsl. When u go to launch a multiplayer game, ur game should freeze, u would be able to alt tab back to the desktop and shutdown the program manually. It doesn't prevent u from surfing, email, or regular stuff, they do this to prevent people from using their bandwidth to host web pages, they claim its to prevent spam, here's a link that further explains it. http://www.computerworld.com/softwar...,52911,00.html
Feraxis picked the worst port for multi-player, yet another bright idea from my "EX-favorite" game developer.

Hoznog · November 19, 2002, 02:53

Quote:

Originally posted by LordCanar
Feraxis picked the worst port for multi-player, yet another bright idea from my "EX-favorite" game developer.

I personally blame most of the problems with PTW so far to mostly be due to Infogrames pressure to release it as early as possible. In case you didn't know Infogrames, the publisher, is in dire economic states and is relying on big sales this X-mas to stave off bankruptcy.

They pushed for an early release dates so PTW could be on enough shelves at the beginning of the Holiday shopping. You guys are essentially being Gamma testers, working out the bugs so that when all those kids unwrap PTW on December 25th they will have a bug free game (provided they download patch v.1.infinity first)

Coracle · November 19, 2002, 03:12

Quote:

Originally posted by Hoznog

I personally blame most of the problems with PTW so far to mostly be due to Infogrames pressure to release it as early as possible. In case you didn't know Infogrames, the publisher, is in dire economic states and is relying on big sales this X-mas to stave off bankruptcy.

They pushed for an early release dates so PTW could be on enough shelves at the beginning of the Holiday shopping. You guys are essentially being Gamma testers, working out the bugs so that when all those kids unwrap PTW on December 25th they will have a bug free game (provided they download patch v.1.infinity first)

Wow. I had no idea. So that is why both Civ 3 and PTW were very rushed to market and filled with bugs and other problems.

Civ 3 was loaded with problems, and even four patches didn't solve or resolve all the major annoyances and omissions of important things we needed.

I didn't even think about PTW for two months, and then I come here and it is the same old mess with bugs and problems and patches. Typical Firaxis nonsense wasting our money and time.

Now you've confirmed what we suspected: the parent company is desperate for cash and forcing Firaxis to market shoddy underdeveloped, and underplaytested, products.

I pray Infogrames goes bankrupt and takes Firaxis with it so Civ 4 will have to be done by another company.

notyoueither · November 19, 2002, 03:13

The choice of port 80 is mandated by Gamespy.

Hoznog · November 19, 2002, 03:52

Quote:

Originally posted by Coracle

Now you've confirmed what we suspected: the parent company is desperate for cash and forcing Firaxis to market shoddy underdeveloped, and underplaytested, products.

I pray Infogrames goes bankrupt and takes Firaxis with it so Civ 4 will have to be done by another company.

Infogrames is not the parent of Firaxis. Inforgrames is the publisher for Firaxis. It's kind of like making movies, the Director has the idea and makes the product, the producer puts up the cash for development and sells the product to the people.

So, if Infogrames goes down Firaxis can survive (I hope they do, I look forward to Alpha Centauri 2)

Nevs23 · November 19, 2002, 07:55

Quote:

Originally posted by LordCanar
Also, I am never prompted to choose the next build order for my cities, even though i selected that option in the preferences, and selected never in all the production options for the city govnor!!

Just press the "X" Key to jump to the last events.

planetfall · November 19, 2002, 12:14

Quote:

Originally posted by Hoznog

Infogrames is not the parent of Firaxis. Inforgrames is the publisher for Firaxis. It's kind of like making movies, the Director has the idea and makes the product, the producer puts up the cash for development and sells the product to the people.

So, if Infogrames goes down Firaxis can survive (I hope they do, I look forward to Alpha Centauri 2)

Interesting. I thought Firaxis was owned by Infogrames. Here is the Infogrames information. Note US stock ticker is not GTISD but rather IFGM.

overview
http://profiles.wisi.com/profiles/sc...B1=Get+Profile

corporate info
http://www.infogrames.com/corp_statements.php

stock share prices
http://www.infogrames.com/corp_shares.php

It looks iike infogames and EA are both publishers of Firaxis games. So if Infogames and EA tank, then Firaxis may still survive.

Check http://www.firaxis.com/company_about.cfm for relationship between Firaxis and EA and Infogrames.

Infogrames needs cash so the pressure on Firaxis to have some new product makes sense.

== PF

Tiberius · November 19, 2002, 12:29

Quote:

Originally posted by Coracle
I pray Infogrames goes bankrupt and takes Firaxis with it so Civ 4 will have to be done by another company.

I pray you shut up.