When civ 3 comes to town, APolyton will EXPLODE! - Page 2

Footie Mad · June 17, 2001, 13:14

Who will control the abuse and ban people from the forum when the time comes?

Rasputin · June 17, 2001, 13:17

jsut bored actually a quiet time at work..

i hope though that we do get a new bunch of people do come here, might bring some newbies that i can whip at civ 3

Ralf · June 17, 2001, 16:41

Quote:

Originally posted by Rasputin
jsut bored actually a quiet time at work..

Well, thats all good and well. But why not post your one-line replies over at the Off-Topic section instead?

OneFootInTheGrave · June 17, 2001, 18:40

There will be a horde of newbies, but they will all be forwarded to the general forum, while the 'oldies' will gather in the creation/ scenarios forums...

Dan, Mark, Imran, Snapcase will be busy shutting down spam threads, and Civ III general forum will be the closest thing to the on-line war zone

It will be fun.

If Firaxis actually mentions Apolyton in credit or help section.

The site will go down. I am sure, unless Dan and Mark don't invest substentially. The site already shows the 'connection timed out' symptoms. *scared*

OneFootInTheGrave · June 17, 2001, 18:43

There will be a horde of newbies, but they will all be forwarded to the general forum, while the 'oldies' will gather in the creation/ scenarios forums...

Dan, Mark, Imran, Snapcase will be busy shutting down spam threads, and Civ III general forum will be the closest thing to the on-line war zone

It will be fun.

If Firaxis actually mentions Apolyton in credit or help section.

The site will go down. I am sure, unless Dan and Mark don't invest substentially. The site already shows the 'connection timed out' symptoms. *scared*

It has happened just now

rah · June 19, 2001, 15:02

I remember when Gold came out and MP started gaining speed.

The CIVII MP forum was actually getting more posts than the OT forum for awhile.

It was a lot of fun as everyone started to discover the differences that MP brought.

But since distribution of the game wasn't even worldwide, it took a few months before everyone was in on the fun.

The first few weeks were euphoria (like CTPII, but with more traffic) and similar to CTP II after a few more weeks some reasonably major bugs were discovered. Unlike CTPII though, they were fixed quickly with patches and discussions for new patches continued. While eventually patches stopped coming the game was playable and still is years later, Unlike CTPII.

Granted that there were a lot of new people, but they seemed to show up in waves, and it is a tribute to the regulars that they took the patience to either answer the newbies questions or referred them to other threads.

I'm hoping/expecting that CIVIII will be the same but just a little bit more busy due to the anticipation buildup. And I expect that the people posting in this forum will make up a majority of the posts for the first coupld of weeks.

RAH

eNo · June 19, 2001, 17:44

Quote:

*Imran remembers what happened to the Official SMAC forums when the game was released*

I'm still recovering from the influx. Probably why they shut down OWO. When Black and White came out I just left the Lionhead forums for a month or two. Imran and Snapcase, John III is there too.

If the same thing happens here I'll just run away again.

Hopefully when I return this place is still recognizable.

Bay Skipjack · June 19, 2001, 18:57

I agree that there will be a massive influx of newbies, though hopefullly (like RAH points out) that they will come in waves - I believe that I am riding in on the tail end of this wave that seemed to begin back in April with the release of new info and screenshots. I've been reading (and learning!

) for many months, but haven't really had much to say.

Reading this thread it occured to me how different it was when Civ, and Civ II came out. I didn't have access to the net; I expect many here didn't as well; anywhere but at work, (and not always then

). I didn't even think to look for sites like this. The process of learning these and other games in relative isolation was truely something. Of course, when I came here, my playing level jumped a few

levels. I surely hope that there will still be a board that remains as couretious as these here at Apolyton have been (at least until recently

) without exception.

Keep up the good work, and I look forward to playing y'all MP CIVIII in a few months.

peace

Imran Siddiqui · June 19, 2001, 19:49

Quote:

If the same thing happens here I'll just run away again. Hopefully when I return this place is still recognizable.

Eeep... hope the same thing doesn't happen here!

I'm staff now!

Unfortunetly Snapcase and I can't shut down threads... though maybe with an influx of newbies.... HEY...Snapcase, I gotta plan!

Eeeeh... the SMAC forums. Suddenly the main forum was no-vets land. All the vets retreated into the Off Topic where we basically bunkered down while the newbies screamed bloody murder at SMAC. Any vet that would venture away from the friendly confines of the Off Topic would be torn asunder... it was scary. Vets like Thomas A. Stobie dissapeared when the influx began when the demo was out. They never were found again (although TAS was a beta tester, so I can see that). Unfortunetly the OT wall wasn't big enough. Crashes galore moved us to the Firaxis forums, where we had a retreat line in case things got bad. The influx was sooo horrible, that Firaxis pulled the plug. The vets went to the retreat bunker known as the Firaxis forums, until the newbies found us there as well

. By that time I had already been posting on Apolyton, so I shifted over a bit more to here...

Ohh, it was ghastly! *shudder*

Dr Strangelove · June 19, 2001, 22:41

Actually, the way the forum has been acting up recently, with the shut downs and the slow response times, I suspect that the forum would come to a grinding halt with a sudden influx of newbies. OTOH this may frustrate them and drive them away quickly.

LaRusso · June 20, 2001, 06:44

Well, it has been over a month since the last update on Firaxis. I have a kind of suspicion that their 'polishing', 'last15% of the game' phase is really really slow, or already hit a break.
There were many talks here about release date, beta (I reckon everyone gave up by now) and gauging release date by the hype Firaxis generates online.
After E3 (which they simply could not avoid), they went undercover, maintaining radio silence. Official website is really pathetic, updates every 5 weeks or so and the FAQ is really empty.
I try not to check their site every day, but I do it 5 times a day, I bookmarked that bloody http and I just refresh. I bet lot of people are doing the same thing, too. I feel exausted. It is only June, and I really wish I just stop caring because another 5 months like this would be too much....

Provost Harrison · June 20, 2001, 07:00

Yeah, hopefully we should have new recruits, and it makes an Emperor like myself (and nearly a Deity) look big and scary

Paiktis, you really need to truncate that signature a bit as well.

I wonder if Firaxis will give the URL to Apolyton in the box somewhere, like in the manual (preferably pride of place

)

Adm.Naismith · June 20, 2001, 08:54

Well, I'll be here lurking for a couple of weeks, maybe a full month, reading about players review of the game. If comments will look fair and positive I'll go to the shop.

I'm not a cold blood iron man, ready to ignore the game box lurking from the shelves, surely we'll have the game later here in Italy, so it won't be a real long wait anyway

I know, I'm leaving out the other alternative: if comments will be negative...
But the sun is shine and sky is blue today out of my window, and I don't want to consider the nightmare

Adm.Naismith · June 20, 2001, 09:39

Quote:

Originally posted by Imran Siddiqui
Eeeeh... the SMAC forums. Suddenly the main forum was no-vets land. All the vets retreated into the Off Topic where we basically bunkered down while the newbies screamed bloody murder at SMAC. Any vet that would venture away from the friendly confines of the Off Topic would be torn asunder... it was scary. Vets like Thomas A. Stobie dissapeared when the influx began when the demo was out. They never were found again (although TAS was a beta tester, so I can see that). Unfortunetly the OT wall wasn't big enough. Crashes galore moved us to the Firaxis forums, where we had a retreat line in case things got bad. The influx was sooo horrible, that Firaxis pulled the plug. The vets went to the retreat bunker known as the Firaxis forums, until the newbies found us there as well

. By that time I had already been posting on Apolyton, so I shifted over a bit more to here...

Ohh, it was ghastly! *shudder*

Imran, I was there and I think your memories feels a bit... strange

It seems the fault of OWO and Firaxis forum closing was by newbies

I remember a stream of nasty posts by a Firaxian member, a denial of bugs recognizing, some (limited) flames.
Posters divided somewhat, but not exactly into veterans/newbies, AFAIK.

We posted lot of suggestion for SMACx, but we failed to recognize SMACx was not intended to be a SMAC 2, nor a SMAC 1.5, so our hopes where... hopeless.

Just an example: SMACx demo crashed on my machine while SMAC worked stable, so it was funny by Firaxis to ignore my (polite) asking for hints as if it was my pc configuration faults

I don't asked for support for a free demo, but the lack of help keept me away from the full price product.

I hope Firaxis learned something from last time, and I suppose Apolyton will act as a "demilitarized zone", just to avoid some skirmish become a nuclear war again

Adm.Naismith · June 20, 2001, 09:48

Quote:

Originally posted by Provost Harrison
I wonder if Firaxis will give the URL to Apolyton in the box somewhere, like in the manual

Into Civilopedia, a proper working URL, just for that urge of a midgame hint or that strategy tip you can find into the forum

eNo · June 20, 2001, 16:32

Heh..SMAC demo. I downloaded that thing with a 33kpbs. And I had one phone line.

Quote:

I wonder if Firaxis will give the URL to Apolyton in the box somewhere, like in the manual

Sure hope not. That's just shoving more C4 into the forum for a more spectacular explosion. People that have something to contribute will surely find their own here without the manual.

Provost Harrison · June 20, 2001, 18:55

Well yeah, I suppose they will, but this place is constantly expanding. I wonder if Firaxis are going to launch their own 'official' forums when they release the game. Somehow the expression 'once bitten twice shy' springs to mind

Lung · June 22, 2001, 00:39

Quote:

Originally posted by Ralf
Dont forget:

If Civ-3 becomes commercial success for Firaxis, we can surely expect an greatly enhanched SMAC-style addon-package for Civ-3 as well - perhaps a year later. With new added techs, units, civs and other features. This provide us with something to discuss, suggest and debate over, here at Apolyton of course.

That would explain why there are so few techs, units, civs, etc. They're giving themselves room to move for an add-on pack, for sure

Provost Harrison · June 22, 2001, 05:08

You're so cynical. But probably with good reason

Buck Birdseed · June 22, 2001, 09:42

Hey! Someone picked the Baron-Krypto Space Puppy Avatar I put in! Cool!

Actually, the closing of the Firaxis forums wasn't really the Newbie's fault. I'd say it was Dan Magaha's "fault", but what caused him to make the decision was a bunch of really long threads abut Jeffrey Morris, written by yin26, and kept up by just about everyone.

Snapcase

a.k.a. tOFfGI, Hugo Rune

Provost Harrison · June 22, 2001, 09:49

Alas I missed the demise of owo, it sounded like fun. It took me a while before I returned to the scene on Apolyton (Feb 2000) and now I am a regular once more!

LaRusso · June 22, 2001, 09:52

i was not on smac forums, but let me get this straight: they closed the forums because you did not put up with a buggy product?

Provost Harrison · June 22, 2001, 09:54

I think that was the jist of it

And then came the defections, loads came to Apolyton, loads went to ACOL. Some frequent both, but not all. Oh, and there are other lesser places

eNo · June 22, 2001, 11:02

LaRusso, I think the problem with SMAC is that you had to have the patience to let the game grow on you. Let's be honest, the game isn't very pretty with the red and dark blue colour scheme. The struck a lot of people the wrong way at first and then if I remember right, a lot of "bug complaints" wern't really bugs but rather a person failing to understand the game. Also the sheer volume of new members just overwhelmed Firaxis I guess, whether they were friendly or not.

Quote:

Oh, and there are other lesser places

LOL I went to sidgames first. Then I did nothing for a bit before coming here. Anybody know what happened to them? I don't think their site works anymroe.

June 22, 2001, 22:55

Just play the game and enjoy it.

Rasputin · June 22, 2001, 23:06

has anyone actually seen any preliminary relase dates yet... i ownder how far behind the US relaes in australai would be,

wouldnt it be coo lto get a world wide release of civ 3 similar to Windows 95 release...