02-04-2002 07:54									#1
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Does anyone know when the next patch will be out? Or even a general time frame? I just finnished my current game, and don't want to start a new one until I know that I will be able to finnish it w/o needing to install a new patch...

Really looking forward to 1.18f!

	02-04-2002 08:28									#2
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Dont' know when the new patch will come out so sorry about that. However, I wonder if the reason why no one has heard anything is because the XP is due out soon.

Does anyone have any idea what may be going on at Firaxis/Infogrames?

	02-04-2002 08:49									#3
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i very much doubt an xp before sometime 3rd quarter of 2002...

an XP this early just doesnt seem to make business sense

and in any case, if they plan to release 1.18 with a patch, they would still be announcing when the patch is coming out, me thinks

from my experience, when patches and XP's are close together, the patch comes first.

	02-04-2002 13:20									#4
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Still nothing, man what the hell is going on. I wish they would say something so we know they are alive. What are the plans firaxis?

	02-04-2002 13:25									#5
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I gave them till the end of May off.

	02-04-2002 14:37									#6
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Well, both 1.16f and 1.17f took two months to be released. Following this time line, next patch should come in the mid of April. Considering, that both patches were rushed (ok, partially due to popular demand) and broke as much as they fixed, I wish Firaxis would playtest it better this time and thus support nye's opinion to wait till end of May.

As to the XP: Better do it well and don't release it before end of 2002. May be it comes right in time for the xmas sales? That reminds me of something... what was it?

	02-04-2002 19:14									#7
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The new patch is being playtested

	02-04-2002 21:47									#8
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When ever the XP comes out I hope that they test it. I like Civ 3 I enjoy playing it, but it does have problems.

	03-04-2002 10:19									#9
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It does?
Like what?

I know when.
I might let you know if your good!
I take checks and money orders only!!

	03-04-2002 11:11									#10
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Somebody sure enjoys using smilies.

	03-04-2002 12:14									#11
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quote: The new patch is being playtested

	04-04-2002 05:06									#12
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quote: Originally posted by WarpStorm The new patch is being playtested

By monkeys on a Commodore 64!

	04-04-2002 05:41									#13
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Firaxis announced today that it is hiring 30 chimps from Central Africa as beta testers for the upcoming Expansion Pack to the best selling game of all time--Civilization 3. "These chimps are experienced gamer," said Sid Meier:"with their hard working nature, I'm confident that we will turn out a bug free XP."

	04-04-2002 05:47									#14
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Wouldn't this be hillarious?

"Firaxis is developing a program to do all of its playtesting for the company. This would save almost a dozen hours of playtesting for the company and revolutionize playtesting everywhere.

"Rumors are right now that they are planning to use the Civ2 AI for this task. An anonymous Firaxis employee was quoted as saying "the Civ2 AI is experienced, and should know what a game without bugs looks like."

"Some critics fear however that the new AI might be bribed by 20 gold a turn to let a few bugs slip threw".

	04-04-2002 06:02									#15
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quote: Originally posted by kimmygibler Still nothing, man what the hell is going on. I wish they would say something so we know they are alive. What are the plans firaxis?

The plan is to leave Civ III so effed up, that we the Suckers, will be forced to BUY new versions, and scenario disks, from Firaxis.

Those are the plans.


I'll be in hell before I spend another dime on Civ III - I expect a game to be COMPLETED when I plunk down my fifty dollars, not be a beta playtester.

	04-04-2002 07:30									#16
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quote: Originally posted by kimmygibler Still nothing, man what the hell is going on. I wish they would say something so we know they are alive. What are the plans firaxis?

I think they keep their plans hidden, so that when they do release a new patch all of the sudden, everybody is happy...until we find out that it caused more problems than it fixed.

	04-04-2002 07:47									#17
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quote: Originally posted by Coracle The plan is to leave Civ III so effed up, that we the Suckers, will be forced to BUY new versions, and scenario disks, from Firaxis. Those are the plans.

I sure hope not.

I dont think it would be very smart for them to do so. Consider the mess with AI tech trading in 1.17. And they already promised lethal bombardment toggleing in the editor in the next patch.

If they had the nerve to charge MORE money for us to beta test their product, I think a lot of people, including me, would just forget about civ3. And then Firaxis would have to forget about ever making alot of money off of future civ games. So it wouldnt really be in their best interest at all.

	04-04-2002 17:40									#18
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But those monkeys on C-64s are playing 1.19f and you aren't

	04-04-2002 17:58									#19
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quote: Originally posted by Coracle we the Suckers, will be forced to BUY new versions, and scenario disks, from Firaxis. Those are the plans.

Forced?! Like a mafia thing, or more like a government tax or something?

	04-04-2002 19:40									#20
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quote: "Firaxis is developing a program to do all of its playtesting for the company. This would save almost a dozen hours of playtesting for the company and revolutionize playtesting everywhere.

I think the SMAC manual says something about the Firaxis crew playing dozens of games with 0(that is zero) human players just to watch the statistics at the end. So they could fine-balance the different factions.

...So...not so far away from your idea...

	04-04-2002 21:52									#21
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In one of the early chats, Soren said that he would set up several games with multiple AI civs before going home at night, and check the results the next morning (which I'd like to do btw, but is only possible with the development versions).

There were some pretty funny results along the way. One I remember was that the AI thought there was a way to get from the North Pole to the South Pole, so all of their ships ended up hanging around at the top of the screen.

My guess is that Firaxis has been overly dependent on automated playtesting, and that's where a number of the key problems have slipped in (late-game tedium, communist meltdown, tech trading, etc.). It's obviously a great solution, in theory, from a cost and time perspective, but is not quite ready for primetime.

Did anything ever come of the call for patch beta-testers?

R

	04-04-2002 21:57									#22
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They have a set of beta testers (some of whose names are familiar to those in this forum) currently testing v1.19

	05-04-2002 08:20									#23
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What most of us want NOW, instead of 1.17, is at least the option to use 1.16 WITH stack movement.

Where is it, Firaxis??

	05-04-2002 10:53									#24
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Getting monkeys to beta test v1.19... not easy. The only way they got most of them to do it was by putting the game in a tin box.

	06-04-2002 02:13									#25
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Fix Civ3 please!