Civ3 PTW= teh s(_)x

[FX]Roman · October 31, 2002, 17:47

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OMG... I just bought this game, and I am very shocked. The fact that there was a patch for it just as it went retail is a first sign of sadness. Well, I didnt have a choice so I got the patch, and then re-joined the PTW room filled with angry people that also bought the game.

After som frustration I went to bed. The next morning I got up and went to see if nyone was in the room that might want to play. After flaming PTW for a bit, I decided to hop into a game with three other people... This should be fun. We all entered the pre-game setup room, and even the chatting had great delay, could this be a foreshadowing of things to come?

After clicking in, and being unclicked a number of times by some unknown force... We finally were all clicked in and ready to go.

*oops*

There goes a player... Great, someone was dropped, now there are only three of us. No matter, we want to play, so we continued. The ten second count-down began, which really seemed more than ten seconds, and the game finally launched. Is this a good thing?

Upon entering the game, I was presented with a settler, placed in a really sweet location close to cows, rivers and some wheat. Nice, I really want to place a city here! To bad the only thing holding me back was a dialouge box making me wait for other players. I suppose I will have to wiat for them... I have no other choice.

After a few dreadful minutes, the box vanished and I was ready to go, wasn't I?
I hurredly clicked my settler and hit the ''create city'' button. Nothing...
Ok, odd. I did it again... Nothing.
So I decided to click and hold it, try to over-power the lag

...The button turns red, and then, you guessed it, Nothing.

By this time, the host starts chatting, asking if we were there. So I responded to him, and we began chatting. But, where was the third player, was he dropped, too? After moments of ragging on the game, chatting very, very slowly, I deducted that our third player was also, like the fourth; gone.

So, my fellow Civers... What does this mean?

It means that this game sucks. If you can actually get into a game(which will not work), you will lose 50% of the players doing it.

Sounds more like a fruitless arctic journy to me, than playing a game.

Wanna reply?

Nikolai · October 31, 2002, 17:51

This doesn't sound promising...

But, as the dumb optimist I am, I hope it'll get better... It did so with the original game, didn't it?

Nikolai · October 31, 2002, 17:53

But tell me: isn't it any positive experience somewhere? I think I saw one earlier this evening...

NeOmega · October 31, 2002, 17:55

I get so tired of saying this, but, I PLAYED 2 GAMES WITH 4 PLAYERS THE FIRST DAY.

It was a tad laggy, but what do you expect for playing people with pings of 230 or greater. When more people on the west coast recieve their games, I am sure I will get better results, do to lesser pings.

Jon Shafer · October 31, 2002, 18:01

I'm jealous of your ability to have even gotten into a game.

WarpStorm · October 31, 2002, 18:03

Just remember a 500 ping means a half second delay minimum on actions in MP. Only join with low ping players.

Whohangs · October 31, 2002, 18:05

Thanks for sharing your experience. Posts like these help people make informed decisions about where to put their money. I wasn't planning on getting PTW unless the multi-player made it well worth it (the single player didn't hold my attention for as long as I would have liked and I'm playing a lot of Warcraft 3 as it is).

notyoueither · October 31, 2002, 18:10

Quote:

Originally posted by [FX]Roman
Wanna reply?

Yup.

During testing we discovered several things that can effect games and starting games.

If you are behind a router, you may have problems getting into games. You WILL have problems hosting games unless you follow the instructions in the readme and have a bit of luck.

If you have software firewalls and/or anti-virus programs running, you will have more problems than if you turn them off.

Once you get into games, there will be greater or lesser amounts of lag depending on distance and number of players. Getting a game going with people in Europe and America will lead to major lag in most cases. Also, the more people involved, the more lag.

I have hosted games where it took me 15 seconds to move a unit 1 tile. I was hosting 5 other people, 2 from Europe and 3 from the US.

I have also hosted games with people in the same city as I am. 1 on 1. It ran smooth as a baby's bottom.

All in all it's a mixed bag. With a small number of people who are 'close' to each other as far as the internet is concerned, and who are configured properly, the game works well. If you try to get 8 people from all over the world, each running various processes in the background, and all behind home routers, into a game... you may well crash.

The point is that if PTW was important enough for you to spend $30us or $45cdn, then it is probably important enough for you to be patient, learn what works and what doesn't, and have some fun.

You can make it work. I did.

alva · October 31, 2002, 18:16

Its nice to see all the ptw beta testers coming out of the closet

SpencerH · October 31, 2002, 18:22

Can someone tell me how you are determining these ping times. Is there a board or something at the game site that tells you

JoeBlow IP 111.111.11 500 (isnt it ns)

WarpStorm · October 31, 2002, 18:24

On the join screens you can see it.

notyoueither · October 31, 2002, 18:26

In the MP lobby you can see the ping times from you to the hosts of games.

In the join up screen you will see the ping times from you to each of the players who are also in there.

There is no indicator in the MP set up screen or after that.

[FX]Roman · October 31, 2002, 18:27

Quote:

You can make it work. I did.

OMG. Thats utter BS. I Could try to make it work... But I shouldn't have to, because I paid for the game.

This game should work, no questions asked. Do you understand that.

The box says: "Multiplayer" not "Multiplayer - If you can tip-toe and work around retarded problems"

If you try to defend this steaming turd of a game, which it IS RIGHT NOW, then I don't know what has gotten into you. It doesnt work in all scenarios, it should. It lags horridly, it shouldn't. People drop all the time, they shouldn't.

I feel sorry for all the testers that waisted their time, thinking that they were actually doing something. And If you actually did test and troubleshoot this game before it was launched, I shun to think what this game was like, ~6 moths ago.

Dear god.

notyoueither · October 31, 2002, 18:29

Also from my observations, the ping times between players are important too, not just from each to the host.

SpencerH · October 31, 2002, 18:34

Thanks for the info.

notyoueither · October 31, 2002, 18:35

Quote:

Originally posted by [FX]Roman

OMG. Thats utter BS. I Could try to make it work... But I shouldn't have to, because I paid for the game.

This game should work, no questions asked. Do you understand that.

The box says: "Multiplayer" not "Multiplayer - If you can tip-toe and work around retarded problems"

If you try to defend this steaming turd of a game, which it IS RIGHT NOW, then I don't know what has gotten into you. It doesnt work in all scenarios, it should. It lags horridly, it shouldn't. People drop all the time, they shouldn't.

I feel sorry for all the testers that waisted their time, thinking that they were actually doing something. And If you actually did test and troubleshoot this game before it was launched, I shun to think what this game was like, ~6 moths ago.

Dear god.

Take a pill Jack.

This is computer software. No, you may not do whatever you want and have everything work fine.

If you want to play the game, I have told you how to have success. If you want to rant, then go ahead. I will however point out, after quite a bit of experience, that your observations do not seem entirely valid.

For instance, I have not seen anyone 'dropped' from inside the game for some time.

[FX]Roman · October 31, 2002, 18:42

Well, that still does not subtract from the fact that this game is NOT stable enough to be played online. The box says multiplayer, but I guess I was wrong when I bought the game thinking I could play online.

Another horridly pathetic thing is the lobby chat room. No list of active people in the room, five lines of text, and the fact that it isnt even fully fuctional itself. EG: using the bold or italic command, mainly the bold command, changes all the text, even of others, into bold. Converting the enire five lines into bold.

What does it all boil down to? Well, its seems that we have paid for a poorly coded and underplanned chat room, and a game with slight prospects of playing.

I am in no way saying this game sucks. I doubt that by a long shot. But, its rather depressing to see a game of such potental crippled by a myriad of bugs and non functioning mechanics. Thank you Firaxis.

notyoueither · October 31, 2002, 19:08

Check. The lobby does suck. Well, suck is a strong word, but it could be so much better. Hopefully that can be spruced up.

As far as playing is concerned, I suggest you find one person from near you geographically. Make sure you are both set up properly to have best success. Then give it a go.

Once you get on there with humans and it works, you'll be a happy camper. It's all a matter of finding out what works and what doesn't.

In the mean time, I think that Firaxis will work to improve the product. I have no guarantees about that, but they have done so in the past.

Jon Shafer · October 31, 2002, 19:25

I've tried everything I can think of and everything suggested. Hasn't worked once for me.

notyoueither · October 31, 2002, 19:27

Joining or hosting?

Jon Shafer · October 31, 2002, 19:28

Both.

[FX]Roman · October 31, 2002, 19:31

Thanks to the guys at Infrogames and Friaxis (the axsis of evil), you will have to wait until they release some patchs to make the game stable again... Again... I mean... Make it stable.

asleepathewheel · October 31, 2002, 20:06

I have played one full game and one half.

one simultaneous, one turnless.

turnless was pretty hectic. Of course I won (1-0 baby Whoohoo)
simul is saved for later (with monkspider) but that was going ok

MS is in wichita and I am in columbia mo, probably only a couple hundred miles away.

Is it perfect? no

the start up page needs work, everything needs work. but I could at least play a game, for some reason, guess I'm lucky

asleepathewheel · October 31, 2002, 20:08

Quote:

Originally posted by notyoueither

During testing we discovered several things that can effect games and starting games.
.

Hey hey, I thought they limited the Beta testing to Americans, not you damn canucks

haha.

[FX]Roman · October 31, 2002, 20:12

Yea, I didn't realize that multiplayer (on the box), means that you can only play with other people geographically really close to you.

Excellent ploy...

rob.derosa · October 31, 2002, 21:37

Quote:

Originally posted by [FX]Roman
Yea, I didn't realize that multiplayer (on the box), means that you can only play with other people geographically really close to you.

Excellent ploy...

Where does it say you can play with anyone, regardless of geographic loaction?

WarpStorm · October 31, 2002, 21:52

The speed of light, it's not just a good idea, it's the law.

asleepathewheel · October 31, 2002, 21:52

Play the World was just a metaphor

Tuberski · October 31, 2002, 22:18

Quote:

Originally posted by rob.derosa

Where does it say you can play with anyone, regardless of geographic loaction?

The name of the game isn't Civilization:Play a Game With Somebody In Your Geographic Location.

It's Civ III: PTW

Not Civ III: PGWSIYGL.

ACK!

notyoueither · October 31, 2002, 22:22

Actually Tuber, I have had some good games with some people from Europe. It all depends on the number of people and the quality of the connection. I definitely wouldn't try 8 players like that, but 2 or 3 player wasn't bad.