JerseyJohn Posted November 2, 2005 Share Posted November 2, 2005 We keep hearing people say they're tired of waiting for Hubert to finish SC-2. Here's a copy of the opening post of a current General Forum thread about the accelerated release of Civ IV. I hope this will instill some patience in those who have been pushing for an early release. -- Ironically, since Hubert's decision to go with tiles instead of hexes, Civilization has been mentioned pretty often by way of comparison. Originally posted by Noiseman: I am an unabashed civiholic, but a word of warning to those thinking of buying this game... I pre-ordered with overnight shipping to get it as soon as possible; refresh monkeyed UPS to make sure it would be on my doorstep when I got home from work. Opened the box to check out my 'Special Edition' stuff. Then... The tech tree poster is in French... For the first time I can remember installation doesn't autorun... The CDs are mislabeled, the 'install' disk is the 'play' disk - and even then the disk is rarely recognized... And worst of all... THE DARN THING ISN'T WORKING WITH MOST ATI CARDS! Who tests these things? This is a major release for crying out loud! No amount of driver updating works, and my case is FAR from isolated, judging by the various Civ forums. I'm stunned that a major release like Civ could have been so incredibly bungled. At this point I've given up trying to get it to work and will wait a few days for the rushed and panicked patch. I'll try and get it to work on one of my work computers I guess (hopefully one will have a nvidia card). What an expensive disaster for the publisher. Just mailing out thousands of replacement tech tree posters has got to hurt the bottom line (At least they're doing that). Pure incompetence... Well, at least the hefty manual that came with the game isn't mistakenly the Flemish language version... Now I know how they were able to move up the release date three weeks... EDIT: The game has been patched and now works with my ATI 9600 card! Linky Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Liam Posted November 3, 2005 Share Posted November 3, 2005 I bought the game, I am yet undecided on the interface it so far not yet going to join my perm list of beloved games. I got it at EB Stores. It was rushed but I will admit it's finished. They have an Army releasing this John, HC doesn't. Sid is a Gazillionare and can afford to push release dates you should get a autographed copy for such an outrage! Write the Publisher! Same with Ages of Empires III, but look what happened they waited so long, it is not much different than Empire Earth at this point and not quite as good. for 70 or so bucks I am not buying it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BRO,JD Posted November 3, 2005 Share Posted November 3, 2005 Does anyone else check this site every day just hoping to see news of a demo release? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jon_j_rambo Posted November 3, 2005 Share Posted November 3, 2005 Stronghold II was/is a piece of crap, released way too easy. I know two of the original testers, they did the worse testing EVER. You know what the problem is? People are too soft, in this case gaming testers. They refuse to deliver bad news. Frankly, I don't care & am not surprised. Isn't it funny (sad) that software customers aren't more demanding! Goto the local Walmart, & watch all the people return stuff for the little reasons. Yet with software, people don't bitch enough. We live in a society that has accepted sorry software as the norm. Rambo says demand the best, Rambo says be the best, Rambo is the best. >>> OUT, sombody rack me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JerseyJohn Posted November 3, 2005 Author Share Posted November 3, 2005 Liam, I agree, Sid Meir is an institution and does have absurd resources behind all his projects. As Hubert and Martin always point out, Hubert is a one man show. I'm glad you found Civ IV to be better than Noiseman, it seems to have a lot to do with the specific machine being used. I'm planning to buy that game way down the road. Rambo and Liam, I think there are two reasons Hubert didn't pick top competitive players to test the game. 1) He wanted guys who would look for specific functions who would go through the system in the order he wanted it checked in. Competitive players might be more inclined to roam all over the system, probably confusing him while he was working things out. 2) He knows you guys will give it the acid test when it gets released and that will actually be the second test stage. I'm sure Mr H is figuring on a monster patch after the game gets bounced around a few months. BroJD A demo would be a nice touch. I'm not really a demo type, but I'd enjoy giving giving the demo a fling while the bugs are being uncovered. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jon_j_rambo Posted November 3, 2005 Share Posted November 3, 2005 @Sir Jersey --- Dude, I'm part of the banned & reinstated on double secret probation, don't think I'll hear the phone ring in regards to testing this puppy. Don't have the really, just wanna play & get cracking! -Legend Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JerseyJohn Posted November 3, 2005 Author Share Posted November 3, 2005 Brother Rambo, The banning was really because of the General Forum. It was unfortunate and, in my opinion not just because many of the guys with even more total posts than you've got have posted far worse things and gotten away with it. I've stopped posting in that place; it isn't worth the aggravation. As the place is divided into many forums I don't think there's any doubt that your contributions at this forum should have counted for much more than anything that occurred in the other one. That's only my own opinion, of course, and I'm not placing judgement on any of the moderators at BattleFront. At my own small website I've kicked about sixty people out in less than two years, and in many cases I was totally wrong, I have to admit that. I think you're right about not getting that call, but in the long run it's pretty meaningless. When the game comes out I'm sure you'll do exactly what you did with SC-1. That game didn't have any patches before you started hitting it, I think you had to be the driving force in at least two or three of them. Anyway, I've got a feeling the release isn't too far away. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jon_j_rambo Posted November 3, 2005 Share Posted November 3, 2005 @Sir Jersey --- Yeah, the Political Forum was insane, wasn't a place of comfort, that is for sure. That Forum was created during the Presidental Election, couldn't have been a more heated time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pzgndr Posted November 3, 2005 Share Posted November 3, 2005 1) He wanted guys who would look for specific functions who would go through the system in the order he wanted it checked in. 2) He knows you guys will give it the acid test when it gets released and that will actually be the second test stage. Well, not quite. We have all been roaming all over the place with both the editor and the game. We haven't been able to get to the late game because frankly it takes time to play via PBEM and we usually get pre-empted by a new version. The important thing is that everything is functional, does what is expected, and generally plays OK. There are still some play balance issues that may need to get resolved over the long term, after release and after many complete games are played. This isn't necessarily a weakness, since there will be so many different play styles and preferences (ie, should it be more historical or more open ended?) that the real challenge is finding the right balance. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kuniworth Posted November 3, 2005 Share Posted November 3, 2005 Originally posted by JerseyJohn: That's only my own opinion, of course, and I'm not placing judgement on any of the moderators at BattleFront. At my own small website I've kicked about sixty people out in less than two years, and in many cases I was totally wrong, I have to admit that. Dammit are Mountain Man and Les to be reinstated ya mean? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JerseyJohn Posted November 3, 2005 Author Share Posted November 3, 2005 Les is already back and we've patched everything up -- with an assist from an annonymous party who popped in briefly to help out, before vanishing. Mountain Man, sure, if he ever wants to reconcile things, but everyone, including him, would be happier if he didn't. Some fences are better when left broken. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kuniworth Posted November 3, 2005 Share Posted November 3, 2005 Originally posted by JerseyJohn: Les is already back and we've patched everything up -- with an assist from an annonymous party who popped in briefly to help out, before vanishing. Mountain Man, sure, if he ever wants to reconcile things, but everyone, including him, would be happier if he didn't. Some fences are better when left broken. Is Les allowed to moderate also??? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JerseyJohn Posted November 3, 2005 Author Share Posted November 3, 2005 I've given up on moderators, there's no point to them in a small website. Also, I did a great job of proving they can turn small problems into major catastrophes; not throwing any blame on the moderators, they were trying to help. It was my fault for thinking I had to have them. Of course, having two dozen self-appointed cybercops and witch hunters didn't help either. Glad you reminded me of those bad old days, I was starting to forget them and that would be a mistake. The only places I still use them are personal forums. Each person who has one is the moderator of that forum only. It's worked out great that way. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bannon DC Posted November 4, 2005 Share Posted November 4, 2005 Originally posted by JerseyJohn: -- Ironically, since Hubert's decision to go with tiles instead of hexes, Civilization has been mentioned pretty often by way of comparison. [/QB] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JerseyJohn Posted November 4, 2005 Author Share Posted November 4, 2005 Bannon, I'm the wrong person to answer as I'm not a game tester. Hopefully either Dave, Bill, Blashy or one of the others will pick up on this. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
J P Wagner Posted November 4, 2005 Share Posted November 4, 2005 Actually, I was surprised at how much the new COMBAT MISSION CAMPAIGNS looked like Hubert's SC2 designs.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Avatar Posted November 4, 2005 Share Posted November 4, 2005 Hi everyone, for those who remember me , I'm still lurking in the shadows.... waiting patiently. And waiting patiently is the subject of this thread... and I full heartedly agree with John, let's not rush. A good release will garner many more sales than a half-ass product. I'm playing Gary Grigsby's World at War at the moment, and it's certainly a good distraction before SC2. John, I think you'd actually really enjoy GGWAW. Very good game, and keeps very much within the historical perspective. Just had super cool match against the top player, beating him with me as Allies. He postoned Barbarossa til 43, as my opponent had instead opted for a 41 Sealion. I never actually did re-conquer England. USA went straight to Spain and France, and Axis had a pool of units in England that never made it back to the continent. Russia was a monster by 43, Axis fell gracefully in mid-44. Great game, worthy of a try. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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