Doctor Evil

Join Date 04/2006

GalCiv2 - BETA?

I would not have bought the retail box, Had I known...

Hello All -

First - congratulations on creating this addictive game. Definitley a step up from the original. I did not even bother to read the players manual (more on that), and founf the game fun and compelling.

Here's my beef.

(1.) Releasing a beta as a retail version. Pretty poor marketing decision. Had I known this was still so full of bugs, I would have waited and spent my hard-earned $$$ elsewhere. Don't get me wrong - the game is good. But the continual crashing at the 'good parts' after 6 hours of mind-numbing turns is begining to &^%$ me off.

(2.) The remarkably poor game documentation. I get it - the documentation is beta too! While I do maintain a 2-screen system - the thought that I have to search the web for answers on how to tplay the game is damn poor planning on your part. For example: Waypoints. I forgot about how to do it from the previous version of the game. So I went to the user-manual. It describes what a waypoint is - but does not have any instructions as to how or where to go to use it.

While every new software 'thing' is often released with bugs - these issues are begining to make me think twice before ever purchasing your product near on on the release date again.

Just my $289.50 worth of my time wasted.... on your crashes. If such a thing could be valued...

Please - no snide comments on hardware issues. I run an up-to-date systems that exceeds your requirements. Yes, I turned off everything that could possibly conflict with it.

Testing is a good thing. Testing, by third-party Q&A companies is better. Before you release your problems to the world.

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The game is not a beta. There is currently a beta version of the 1.1 patch available (containing major new content and gameplay enhancements, thus the need for testing), which you likely inadvertantly downloaded.

If you want to have the stable version, just disable the 'show prerelease versions' option in SDC (which is off by default anyway for obvious reasons), then update GC2. That should put you back to 1.0X.010, which is rock-stable for 99%+ of users (prior versions were stable as well for most; .010 contained various tweaks to lessen problems on some hardware confiurations).

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As to the documentation issue, try watching the in-game tutorial videos (which contain directions for setting up rally points), or consulting the official wiki ( https://www.galciv.wikia.com/wiki/Galactic_Civilizations_Wiki ).

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And in case you're running 1.0 right off the retail disc, then you may in fact be having hardware problems. The initial version hungrily used anything the GPU reported support for, and this led to overheating on some high-end systems (resulting in crashes). 1.0X added framerate throttling when rendering in excess of 100 fps to solve this, among other issues.

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I love how posters ask us not to make snide remarks about their obviously snide OP's.

- the game is good. But the continual crashing at the 'good parts' after 6 hours of mind-numbing turns is begining to &^%$ me off

A tad bit of a passive aggressive attitude here ... come on, you can tell us, you really don't like the game do you? No need to try and be diplomatic and disguise what you are trying to say, we are all in this together, No need to be shy...

Testing is a good thing. Testing, by third-party Q&A companies is better. Before you release your problems to the world.

To paraphrase, Thought is a good thing. And RTFM and viewiing the tutorials provided with the game , Before you post your problems to the world.

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seriously, as kryo basically said, inestigate and search a little before you complain about something like this, since you believe the game to be a beta it is likely you ended up downloading the v. 1.1 patch which is in fact in beta form. and users were told only to download it to test and if they were ready to experience crashes and other bugs. the former versions of the game ie the shipping version is very stable, and a solid game EXCEPT for the people who have hardware issues. avoiding any snide remarks about hardware issues, the only problems witht the pre beta version that many are still on, were people who had those problems usually resolved through help here and by help from stardock because they did have a technical issue on their end and needed new drivers, needed to disable something, etc... so before you complain about something being released as a beta, do a little research, because when the game was launched it was not in beta, and has been patched since release and this recent beta patch adds many new gamplay changes and features which is why they are testing

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Played for 6 hours, then complains about crashes, does not tell us which version he has, and claims to run an up to date system....hum

I run an old system, stable, that plays the game great, have had NO crashes, after 14 hours of steady playing. The only flustrating part is the alt tab takes forever to come back to the game, but it does. Celeron 2.0, 1.5 g memory, windows xp, geforce fx5700 video card.

This is not a beta version, unless the OP downloaded the beta, and did not read the disclaimer before he did. Whoops!

Probably just another kid

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I did not even bother to read the players manual

So I went to the user-manual. It describes what a waypoint is - but does not have any instructions as to how or where to go to use it.

So... did you read the manual or not? Becuase you said tht you didn't even bother too, then you said that you did.

Just my $289.50 worth of my time wasted.... on your crashes.

Wow, I have no idea where that number came from, but I guess you value your time.

But the continual crashing at the 'good parts' after 6 hours of mind-numbing turns is begining to &^%$ me off.

That sounds more like a problem of you just not liking the early game (my favorite part). Nothing is perfectly stable, and six continuous hours of any game is asking for somehting to happen.

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Ahem, your points are, to be as polite as I can, unfounded. It is not a beta, out of the box it has got all those lovely editors choice awards you see lining the side of the forums. Then, the documentation is on the wiki. Instead of complaining, go help by updating it. Finally, the financial figure, as far as I can see, has been pulled out of nowhere. If that's how much money you lost when you should have been working or somehting, that's your own damn fault. You CAN NOT sue people for the addictiveness of a game (although I'm sure it's not far away)

And no, most of the people in the beta would have been either devout followers of the original game, or Stardock's gaming power users. Both of these groups know how a game works, Q&A obviously do as well, but are doing it for money and take too much time. The users do it because they want the game to be a success, and they play, and then email problems and how to fix them, as opposed to whining.

If you're running the beta and aren't happy, well then next time read the damn update notice.
If you're running 1.0 and have a REALLY top of the line system, odds are the game is too good for it, and overheating. Download 1.0x

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i am sorry but if u dont know or understand what a beta is then y download it.UR reflections on the game seem less adequate as u dont comprehend wot the game is fully abowt

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Lets do some quick math folks:

Assuming our friend is being straight with us and is not pulling random numbers out of the air....

$289.50 / 6 hours = $48.25 per hour !

Wow! Not even proffesional engineers make that much per hour! Now assuming a forty hour work week and two weeks off for vacation time....

$48.50 * 40 hours a week * 50 weeks a year = $96,500 a year!!

Feel free to draw your own conclusions.

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Well, for what's worth about clarification. I download this game from Stardock central pretty early and play through all its patch. It's very stable and I don't crash even once. Well, I do, when I ALT-TAB but I know the problem is on my end.

Since ever I apply B1.1 I have been crashing on random, nothing big of a deal, just set Auto-save from 11 turns by default to 5 turns and all it swell. The thing is I know I'm playing on a Beta patch on my freewill, and with all of the new features in it I'll be damn not to even with the crashes

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The OP is right about one thing the poor documentation and no one can say the contrary.That there isn't any civilopedia or similar is OK but that the game mechanics, abilities or concepts are not clear is a mistake of devs that they should manage.Personally i have learnt this game 30% playing 60% on the forums and 10% on the wiki and this is not good.A lot of changes made to balance the game weren't supported by changes in typos and documentation in game (i don't refer to the manual) so you have sometimes contradictory or vague descriptions.
About the rest the OP should understand that it's a BETA so he should expect bugs.

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