PTW 1.14f Bug & Crash Reports

[planetfall]

Hey Firaxis, isn't it about time you fixed the patch process?

I have been playing this game for a year now and with each Firaxis patch my dissatisfiers keep on growing. Last night when I loaded 1.14 and saw the broken patch process, I felt like giving up on the game. I am so very sick of wasting time fixing my playing prefences. This is not a small task, but will take 4 to 8 hours. Other games don't require this, and if this patch process is not fixed I will stop upgrading and then switch to another game.

In civ3 1.19 needed to be fixed and we mentioned the problems then. 1.21 came out, ok other priorities. 1.29, still not addressed. 1.04 was rushed out. But expected a fix in 1.14. Just copying my old bix file does not do it without a statement in the readme that
1. there are no changes in player editable preferences fields, or
2. you need to recreate your prefences, or
3. use this following method to import your old prefences into the new player preferences.


Why is this a problem?
You may ask why is this upsetting and creating such strong dissatisfiers? Simply because I am no longer a newbie. There are some things Firaxis has set which do not make sense to me and I have preferenced the game to make it playable. Most of the changes are in 2 areas:
1. civilizations, and
2. units.

Unit preferences can be fixed in about 2 hours, but civilization preferences take forever to fix. With 1.04 I didn't fix all my national preferences as I just wanted to get on with the game. But I regretted that decision during the game.

Now with 1.14 I am faced with the same task. I will try two more times, but that is it.

Firaxis nationality preferences
I find no consistency to Firaxis nation preferences. Here is a quick partial review of the first 6 nations:

Civilization	Named cities	Leaders

Barbarian	   74     	0

Rome	           45	        8

Egypt              29           6

Greece             29           4

Babylon            26           6

Germany            16           4 

Nations
In the F3 screen or any screen we don't have a table reporting: Nation, current number of cities.

I got very tired of just counting cities and have different nations having different numbers of cities. I preferenced my game to give all nations 25 cites. So I don't have to count them, I put a number at the beginning of the city name.

For example, default German cities:
Berlin
Leipzig
Hamburg
Konigsberg
Frankfurt
Munich
Heidelburg
Nuremberg
Cologne
Hannover
Bremen
Stuttgart
Bonn
Salzburg
Dortmund
Brandenburg

My default German cities are:
01_Berlin
02_Bonn
03_Bremen
04_Cologne
05_Dresden
06_Duesseldorf
07_Duisburg
08_Essen
09_Frankfurt
10_Freibrug
11_Fuessen
12_Hamburg
13_Hanover
14_Heidelberg
15_Kassel
16_Leipzip
17_Luebeck
18_Magdeburg
19_Munich
20_Nuremberg
21_Rostock
22_Schwerin
23_Stuttgart
24_Tuebingen
25_Weimar

How could Weimar be left out when there was the Weimar republic? I dropped Brandenburg because the name was too long. Duesseldorf stayed simply because it has a nice pheonic foreign sound to it.

Now it is easy to see how many cities any nation has by looking at the highest number prefix, or multiplying 25 X city name.

leaders
Why so few and inconsistent number?

Rome has a good number, 8. Anthony was clarified to Mark Anthony.

Egypt-- only 6? Where's Cleopatra? With all those pharoahs there are no other names. Nassar? who else?

Greece-- only 4? Ming should be steamed What about Socrates, Pluto.
Ming how about the names of 6 other great Greek Leaders?

Germany-- only 4? Give me a break. Hitler, Rommel, Luther, and for humor the famous: Red Baron.

bottom line
Ok got it off my chest. Can't this be fixed? So much of the game is interesting. For me this bug has more effect than the painfully slow F3 bug.

== PF

[Pinochet]

One feature I miss regarding earlier versions of Civilization, is the ability to Customize your leader's name as well as the name of the Civilization you wished to play as. You would still take on the characteristics of one of the available civilizations e.g. The Romans, but you could call your civilization whatever you wanted.

I would love to see not only customizable leader names and customizable civilization names, but also the ability to insert any picture (maybe one of yourself) to represent you as a leader. Maybe three or four pictures could be inserted for the customized leader, one showing anger, one smiling, one frowning, etc...

Finally, it is interesting to me that lately I have gone back to playing my old copy of MicroProse's CivNet game. There is something to be said for a more simplified, albeit less realistic version of the game. (I have owned and played every single version or spin-off of Civilization over the years, this being my favourite game).

[Clegg]

Originally posted by Pinochet
One feature I miss regarding earlier versions of Civilization, is the ability to Customize your leader's name as well as the name of the Civilization you wished to play as. You would still take on the characteristics of one of the available civilizations e.g. The Romans, but you could call your civilization whatever you wanted.

You can do this in multiplayer using the setup screens. I've never done it in single player, but there are some usfeul looking entries in the ptw.ini file that might work:

CustomLeaderName=
CustomLeaderTitle=
CustomFormalName=
CustomNoun=
CustomAdjective=
CustomGender=0

Originally posted by Pinochet
I would love to see not only customizable leader names and customizable civilization names, but also the ability to insert any picture (maybe one of yourself) to represent you as a leader. Maybe three or four pictures could be inserted for the customized leader, one showing anger, one smiling, one frowning, etc...

I also believe that this can be done by replacing the files in the ..\CIV3PTW\ART\Leaderheads directory.

I'm sure someone over in the creation forum can help with both of these items.

[WarpStorm]

In Single Player, all you have to do is click on the name of the leader under the picture and it brings up a window that allows you to customize the names and titles.

Like Clegg said you can replace the leaderheads with (orr add totally new leaderheads) any compatibly formatted flc file.

[Pinochet]

Originally posted by WarpStorm
In Single Player, all you have to do is click on the name of the leader under the picture and it brings up a window that allows you to customize the names and titles.

Like Clegg said you can replace the leaderheads with (orr add totally new leaderheads) any compatibly formatted flc file.

OK, fair enough, but would the people you are playing in an Internet game see your customized names, or would they see what it corresponds to on their computer?

[Inverse Icarus]

in MP theres a button to change your name / empire name /etc.

leaderheads have to be installed in your computer.

if i turned bismark into hitler on my box, and you used germany, i'd see hitler's animation no matter what name / pic you have. (i'd see your name though)

[Pinochet]

Originally posted by UberKruX
in MP theres a button to change your name / empire name /etc.

OK, figured that one out... Thanks for the pointer!

Now, who knows how to edit the default city lists? Would like to modify one of the Civs city list so that I don't have to keep renaming them as I build them...

[WarpStorm]

On the launch screen, click on the button labeled 'Rename'.

[Inverse Icarus]

Now, who knows how to edit the default city lists? Would like to modify one of the Civs city list so that I don't have to keep renaming them as I build them...

the editor.

[paaltio]

Originally posted by disorganizer
does not work. it seems infogrames put up safedisc2 as new copy protection, and the us version seems to use securom... and as such as soon as u install the patch over a europe-version of ptw.... BOOM! "please insert disc".

I think the big question here just is: WHY? Why do companies make this same mistake over and over again? They make some ridiculous change for the European version that breaks patch compatibility, and yet whatever the reason for the change, it never even begins to make up for the problems they created.

I've just had it with this same thing all the time, I simply have. I will NOT:

a) wait longer for a patch than people in North America
b) buy PTW from overseas
c) apply a no-CD crack

I'm so incredibly full of, not only patch incompatibilities, but higher prices, lower quality package contents, smaller boxes, crippled game content -- it just has to stop, it really has to. But it won't until European consumers start being vocal about this issue.

Personally I will vote with my wallet. I will absolutely not buy any product whatsoever where the buyer of the European version doesn't get at least the same level of quality and service as an American would. That definitely is not too much to ask. I encourage everyone else to do the same.

In case Infogrames decides to fix this thing, then I'll buy PTW, but at the moment I'll look elsewhere.

[gnome]

I ran into an error today when loading up a saved hotseat game, I found that it was suddenly running with "Accelerated Production" on.

The only way to load it properly was to turn of "accelerated production" on the new game setup screen before loading the original game--this is an obvious bug as the game should remember its original settings and override anything I happen to have clicked on the setup screen.

Anyone else experience this?

[Inverse Icarus]

i said this before when the editor came out but it's still bugged:

if i disable tundra as "settleable", you can still build on forested tundras.

[WarpStorm]

Ah, but Uber, it's no longer Tundra, it's Forest then.

Kinda goofy, but that's the logic. Not really a bug so much as a loophole.

[Inverse Icarus]

Originally posted by WarpStorm
Ah, but Uber, it's no longer Tundra, it's Forest then.

Kinda goofy, but that's the logic. Not really a bug so much as a loophole.

it's a bug because the forest is auto-removed and ti is a tundra when you settle

if the forst wasnt cleared then it'd be ok (and understandible in realism terms)

[Inverse Icarus]

We lost our supply of AD!!!

label mishap?

i tac-nuked that english naval stack (2 battleships) and carthage declared war on me. they've been getting all pissy cause i'm nukign the crap out of england.

anyway, i lost my supply of AD.

the only thing i was getting from Carthage before the war was Ivory.

[Alexan]

I can't install the patch. It says:
"The contents of this file cannot be unpacked. Th executable you are attempting to run has been corrupted. Please obtain another copy of the file, verify its integrity, and try again."

I've tried several times from civ3.com's patch section and once from the apolyton mirror. I could(and can still) install patches for the regular civ3 game(like 1.29f) if that tells you anything.

[Acererak]

Originally posted by aburtt
Here are a few bugs I noticed during MP

[snip]
3. Regardless of land mass we pick, it always seems to be one giant continent.

I haven't seen that problem yet. I've seen all kinds of land layouts.

7. Lag is still and issue even with VERY low pings on both sides.

Me too. Especially with adjusting the science slider and adjusting the laborers on the city screen.

8. Seems like there are WAY more goodie huts in MP

Hmmm. I haven't noticed this, but I haven't played PtW in single player yet.

9. You can only put 2 things in the production que.

I think there is a bug in the queue, but it's not what you think. I thought this was a problem at first too. The item in the queue that is highlighted in BLUE gets replaced with whatever you SHIFT-CLICK on. By chance that happens to usually be the first item in the queue, but not always. Thus you keep replacing the first item in the queue giving the appearance that only 1 item can be added.

If you click on the last item (something like 'empty' but I forget right now) and then SHIFT-CLICK you can add items to your queue. You can also replace and delete items this way. The key is, whatever is highlighted in BLUE will be the item affected.

The bug is really this: When I first add items to the queue, the item gets added and the first item remains highlighted. Thereafter subsequent SHIFT-CLICKs on items simply replace the first item. I have to manually click on the last item to add additional items to the queue. Very annoying.

However, if I leave the city screen, go back in and bring up the queue, the last item is now highlighted and it behaves as 'normal'. i.e. multiple SHIFT-CLICKs add multiple items to the queue.

[Acererak]

I've run into 3 more issues while playing a long Direct IP game:

Units that can't attack or be attacked.
After receiving an OOS message and reloading the game from the resynch.sav file, I had 1 cavalry that could move but not attack. When he boarded a ship, the cavalry was shown on the sea and not the ship, though the ship could still move and the cavalry could still be unloaded. I ended up disbanding the unit.

I also ended up with an un-attackable Privateer. The ship had been attacked and survived, brought back to port and repaired. I passed by two cities with coastal fortresses and it took damage each time. A civ then attacked me with an ironclad, but nothing happened. I continued to sail around with about a dozen ships from various civs following me around attacking, but with nothing ever taking place. (i.e. I received numerous 'our units near xxx are under attack' messages each turn). No damage would occur to my ship or the attackers.

Captured City still had other Civ's Borders
During a war, I captured the last Zulu city and promptly received an OOS message. Upon reloading from the resynch.sav file, I owned the city but the Zulu cultural borders were still present even though I just eliminated them. If I went into the city screen I could not put any laborers on any squares since the territory 'belonged' to the Zulus.

Going to the next turn eliminated the Zulu borders and everything seemed fine except that the world map in the lower-left corner still showed a big block of yellow which was the previous Zulu border. It still has not gone away on that map.

Can't Continue past End of Game message.
At 2030, me and my online friend both received the 'End Of Game' message telling us the game will end in 2050. I clicked the 'O' button to dismiss the dialog, the computer units moved and the dialog came back. This time however, I could not click on the dialog and 'Enter' would not work. Also, the sound FX were stuck in a loop while the music continued to play normally. I could scroll the map but that was it. I reloaded a previous autosave game and the same thing happened again and a 3rd time as well.

I have the save game file which I'd like to send to Firaxis. Does anyone here know who/where I can send the game file? I'm unable to find any information on Firaxis' site and the Infogrames support site is worthless.

[Inverse Icarus]

i thought this was fixed but apparently it wasn't:

the AI can modify my terrain improvements (turn mines into irrigation) and vice versa. that should onyl be allowed in a RoP (or something else)

[Spiffor]

I have a UK version of PtW installed on a US version of Civ3. It works very well, except for this :

- in hotseat, the difficulty is always chieftain. I know you're aware of this, please adress this next patch. It really kills hotseat.

- in hotseat (my only MP experience so far), you may not know what the computer does, even when it affects you. For example, a player had cities which have been repeatedly plundered by Barbarians. Sometimes but not always, the results of the plundering have not been displayed (same thing for the fight)

- in hotseat : when you leave the current hotseat game, it is impossible to host again without restarting the game. Sometimes, when I try to restart the game, there is an error message in windows (something about a missing dll, I'll edit this post when I see it again), which hinders PtW to start again. I have to reboot to get PtW to work again these times.

- in SP : in my mod, it is impossible to trade communications before radio. It worked flawlessly since 1.17f, but it is different now. In a game on Marla's map, when my Koreans met the Russians, I magically got contact with most European civs. Something similar happened on a random map, when I had contact with a new continent. In both cases, it was impossible to trade communications in the diplo screen.
Map trading is also postponed in my mod, but it works without problems.

- it is possible to begin in very crappy starting pos. now. The last 3 games I started, I had a very bad starting pos : one only in hills, except there was a lake next to my settler. The 2nd in a tiny jungle-only island, where there was a fish next to my settler. The last one was surrounded by desert and sea only, but accessed massive amounts of fish after one move. One of these 3 starts did not have any luxury / early resource around (jungle island).

- I have seen AIs start right next to each other, there was only one empty tile between their capitals. It was on modded map proportions (240*240 for 24 civs), so I don't know if it applies to unmodded proportions.

Overall, I'm very happy with PtW, I can't wait these shortcomings to be fixed to make the game even better

[GrendelS]

Hi there,

I had several MP games, and what I can remember is

pop ups while zoomed to city can´t be clicked away, I have to leave the city, then close pop up

in the chat, matchmaking isn´t matchmaking, but molestation by hords of ****** ****s who
a have a low ping
b spam
c can´t be ignored or kicked

What´s that supposed to be? I had enough bullying back in school! I want to be able to filter not only games, but users as well. What do I need contact to players with a higher ping than 200 anyway? The lounge window for chat is too small, btw. It´s not a bug, but annoying.

When hosting, I want to be able to kick people and filter them. Right now, all I can do is to beg people to leave or leave the hosting screen.

Once, we played with four people, one guys had to check on his baby and paused the game. At that time, two of us had their turn finished (sim move). When he returned and continued the game, I and everybody else was unable to finish the turn. We tried everything, let some units wait or made them skip a turn, etc. pp. Nothing worked.

Therefore, we quit the game (I retired after we decided to load the last year), problem now was that I could see the other players locations in mid-game. That´s not supposed to happen, ...I hope.

Anyway, we tried to regroup in the lounge and load the game. We had the autosave and a manual save, none of them could be loaded. There were suddenly only two slots of players, both of them with the same name, then the name changed. The numbers were not 1,2,3,4, but 1,2,1,2 (left of the names), on the right we had all boxes checked, then tried without it, but even after the launch I could hear only the music, not more. I don´t know about the other players. It seemed like the game was only ready for two players, but we were four before.

...well, that´s all I can remember right now, if I can recall more later, I´ll add it to this posting. Other bugs and flaws have already been refered to by other paying customers.

best regards,


Grendel S. aka Bijutsu

[CerberusIV]

I don't know if this is a bug but..

Playing as the French I built the Hanging Gardens (Industrious) and then captured a city containing the Great Lighthouse and the Colossus (Commercial). This should have started a GA but didn't. All I got was a popup saying "We control the Great Lighthouse".

Looks like the game only checked the most recently built great wonder in that city against whether a GA should be triggered.

[GrendelS]

Hi CerberusIV,
afaik there is no guarantee that a Civ gets into a GA when acquiring an adequate wonder.
ciao

Grendel S.

[CerberusIV]

My mistake - apparently you have to build GW's, capturing them doesn't count.

[canadianbacon]

was looking at the scren shot UberKruX put in a few posts back, and thought "how come his cities and countryside look so much more developed than mine'. Little villages in country, big spread out cities and such.

I've been playing this for moths, and I'm thinking I've missed something in the settings or something, what am I missing?

[gnome]

He is using a graphics mod that simulates urban sprawl by adding buildings to the railroad tiles... since railroads tend to be very dense close to cities, this does a pretty good simulation of it

Check out the files area.

As for my bug, I have a follow-up that a hotseat game that I started adopted settings that I KNEW I turned off. Accelerated production depends NOT on what you picked at the beginning of the game, but on what the setting is before you load it in the "host" screen.

But even worse, I turned off diplomatic victory and culture flipping, and even if I mark them off before loading the hotseat game, it actually turns them ON. So not only is it not saving the game preferences correctly for hotseat, it is in fact saving the WRONG preferences.

[Dimension]

Maybe this has been mentioned before (I think it's been a bug since Civ3 was released), but the sound settings don't reload when you first start Civ3.

For example, I've got my system volume loud for playing MP3's, but in Civ3's preferences, I have it set fairly quiet at around 20% volume. When I start Civ3, the volume is very loud. I have to open the Audio Preferences screen and then close it again for the volume to go back to what it's supposed to be.

[GrendelS]

Guys,
reading through all your postings, I wonder who is testing the priduct before it is released? Many of the bugs and flaws mentioned above are totally obvious, and I´m sure I´m not even the first one pointing that out. ;-)
I don´t know why not, but other software companies have open beta testers, looking on the net for players who would sell their soul if they could try the game in advance (and of course, help the programmers ;-). Does anybody know why firaxis didn´t do that with Civ? Might have been a cheaper, leaner, better way for developing, bugtesting and all that...
bye

Grendel

[Dimension]

Civ3 games take so long it has to be difficult to test, and when people find bugs it's more upsetting than your average game because it can screw up a game you've been playing for days.

A public beta definitely would've been a good idea. If people want to play a buggy Civ3, Firaxis should be very happy for the input.

[GrendelS]

Dimension, reading some reactions on PTW 1.01 or .04, some players seem even to be happy with playing a buggy game and paying for it ;-)