ezolak

Join Date 02/2006

I really want to like this game, but...

I am a big fan of the original GC, I love the design of GC2, and I'm glad it's getting such good reviews. But am I the only one who thinks it is too buggy?

I have what many people might consider an unreasonable expectation -- I expect the software I pay for to work. Some people may consider my attitude to be too pessimistic, and perhaps it is. I'm sure my experience as an IT manager -- where I know I would be embarrassed to release something this unpolished -- has clouded my judgment.

As for GC2, I stopped playing almost immediately after I loaded it. The main reason was because I couldn't save and reload without my production skipping a turn, but there were countless other "minor" bugs as documented in these forums. Now I just check in every once in a while to see if the game looks finished yet, but it clearly wasn't when it was released. I see we are now on the third beta. Guess I will wait a while longer. Kudos to Stardock for being so responsive and communicative -- and I mean this sincerely -- but the QA process leaves a lot to be desired.

Will someone do me a favor and make a post called "The game works!" when it finally does, that way I know it is safe to come back to it. Seriously, great game concept and I look forward to playing it again, but for now the bug frustrations outweigh the fun.

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The game works.

Don't know what planet you are living on. Drenga perhaps?

Give me a break, the save/reload thing is a deal killer? Sounds more like something you found that you could pick on by reading the forums.

Perhaps if you gave specifics, posted a debug.err log, instead of just broadly referring to 'bugs', in a version that was released months ago, I might take your post seriously, rather than the work of an, 'ahem' , troll.

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I also had problems when i first bought the game. However, once I upgraded to 1.0x I had virtually no problems. Now I am helping with the beta patch, and I have also had few problems with the game (if I am playing for multiple hours it has a chance to err out) so I don't know what you mean that it is too buggy.

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I agree with Oldstatesman, I had more problems getting my network running to DL the game then I do running it. The only problem that I have had was figuring out how to get my ships to work in different games. I am running it on a 3 year old computer that gets formatted 3 times a year and that was patched together from various parts and is probalby one of the most unstable computers around (if I accidently bump into it I have to wiggle some wires to get it to work again) and this game runs beautifully.

Well thats my two cents!

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Game works for me.. no crashes or anything else funny.

I find it ironic you tout your "IT manager" experience and then say the release is unpolished. In my experience buggy half finished software is the norm, not the exception. In fact the term "software engineering" is a disgrace to engineering professionals in general.

But I digress. I love this game and it has been rock solid.

BTW the production skipping "bug" is by design. It's to keep people from saving every turn in case something doesn't go your way.

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1.0X is stable and production quality. The current Beta is for the changes that 1.1 will bring.

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Yeah, you're not alone, Ezolak. It's getting better. I doubt there will ever be a "everything's fixed' moment, but I'd say give 1.2 a shot when it comes out. They've addressed a good chunk of the issues already.

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Show me any piece of software (especially game software) that is more polished than GC2 at the same price point at 1.0 release date.

The vast majority of software is riddled with bugs, and game software is at a distinct disadvantage because a) it has to run on top of DirectX *and* Windows, both of which have their own problems;

it has to deal with diverse hardware problems in the areas of video and audio that the vast majority of other software does not; c) it does all of this at a price point that no other type of software developer trying to make their living solely from programming would ever consider. Compared to a lot of games on a lot higher budgets, for instance Civilization IV, GC2 is relatively bug-free.

I don't like the bugs any more than anyone else, but this kind of whining is unbecoming of a "professional IT manager".

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I've been a beta tester on many games and was even the coordinator for one, a very big game, and no game will ever be relased 100% bug free. Even with the CTD bug this game is very playable. I just set the auto save to every 2 turns and away I go. I would much rather see a playable game come out with a few bugs than wait another year r two for the game to be perfected, as long as th edevelopes support the game. So, for me this is a great game.

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Don't listen to the fanboys Ezolak, this game is unusually buggy, however I'm still having a blast playing it. I've caught myself adapting to all of the bugs, rather than expecting them to be fixed. Disappearing/reappearing ships, screen doesn't always center on the selected ship, planetary emprovements that lower my influence rather than raise it (doesn't happen everytime), game crashes sometimes when I save over my old designs. I know there's more, but sadly, I've gotten used to them.

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I frankly have had only 2 problems so far when playing the game. I've had 1 CTD on one of the beta versions (it was a save from 1.0x though that probably resulted from me runnign out of virtual memory. My other problem was the audio skipping in the tutorials which is easily fixed by setting the video to fullscreen. This is probably one of the games i''ve had the feest problems with. But that doesn't mean you can't be part of th 2.5% that does get problems.

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BTW the production skipping "bug" is by design. It's to keep people from saving every turn in case something doesn't go your way.

Are you sure it's by design? Did one of the developers say that, or is that just a guess someone came up to explain the situation. There's must be a 100 ways to cheat already designed into the game, why would you try to penalize someone when they load the game? And it's not even a real penalty since all the races lose a turn of production.

I think it's a minor annoyance and certainly don't consider it a serious problem, but it does look more like a bug than a design feature.

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Honestly, I don't mind some of the bugs. I am running b3 and have occasional CTD issues. I have had this issue since 1.0 and I am pretty sure it is related to thermal issues, but I'm not sure. I have the most recent drivers, freakin' huge page file (4 Gb), etc... I have grown to see the CTD as a feature. The game usually crashes after 4-5 hours, which is when I should go to work, go to bed, or maybe talk to my wife. The point is, for a game, GC 2 is pretty stable, and it is compelling enough to keep me playing through the crashes and still want more.

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Show me any piece of software (especially game software) that is more polished than GC2 at the same price point at 1.0 release date.

heres one

Elder Scrolls IV Oblivion

http://www.elderscrolls.com/

http://www.gamespot.com/pc/rpg/theelderscrollsivoblivion/review.html

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Yeah, don't listen to us Fanbois.

Spend a few hours reading the bug report forums here. Go ahead, I dare you.

And you will come to find out that the majoriy are people with old driver issues, don't have the right size page file, are trying to run the game in 16 bit, are running at resoulutions that their card or monitor don't support,etc. Most have been helped. A few still have issues, but then again there will always be a small percentage whose configuratin will just not play well with other software.

You will also find a lot of the bugs are misunderstood game mechanics, from peple who just did not take the time to look at the manual or Tutorial, or to explore the interface on their own.

You will find a lot of people who are reporting bugs that the developers are working on and are already fixed if you take the time read the Beta Change logs in the Journals section.

You will find a lot of bug reports to be in fact wish lists of things people want in the game, not problems. They want a game to be a clone of Moo2; or some other game that was left unfinished by it's developer.

You will find a lot of simple trolls who get thier rocks off starting crap on public boards.

And yes, you will find real honest to goodness bugs. A fair amount, but nothing out of the ordinary for software. And you will find that the developers are on top of 99.9% of them.

Yeah, don't listen to us Fanbois. Get the facts for yourself.

Go on, I dare you.

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I also have to disagree with the original poster of this topic

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heres one

Elder Scrolls IV Oblivion

Link

Link

Truely an amazing game from what I have read and seen on the net, but keep in mind, that is not a strategy game.

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this game is unusually buggy

I take it you never played (for example) Championship Manager 4 or Black & White?

OK, I had many crashes with 1.0X ... until I read the forums and realised my display drivers were way out of date (2004).

I've had several crashes on 1.1 Beta 1 and 2, but hey, they're BETA.

Not a single crash on 1.1 Beta 3 so far.

Even when I had the crashes they were nice friendly CTD where, with autosave every two turns, I only had to restart the game, reload latest autosave and away I went - GC2ing to my hearts content (with a CTD maybe every 3 or 4 hours) and losing not much game play time at all.

I've never posted a debug.err here, never complained about the bugs; because basically it's a damned fine game, a lot LESS buggy than others I have played, and it's improving with every beta Stardock release. Even if I do get creamed on "challenging" more often than not.

As for GC2, I stopped playing almost immediately after I loaded it.

People on these forums, players or devs, are knowledgeable and always willing to help. Unless you're the trolling type who moans and can't even be bothered to post a debug.err ... which are you - someone who wants to genuinely get some help or a troll?

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Thank you, Mr. (or Ms.) CapitolShip. Your insight has removed the scales from my eyes and I see the truth now. My only complaint is the low bar of entry for the forums.

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Thanks for the feedback.

I expected a lot of folks to rush to the game's defense, but I'll admit the attacks on me personally gave me a few chuckles. Apparently some people are not only completely tolerant of bugs, they expect everyone else to be also. Yes, as an IT manager, we did in fact deliver polished software. True enough that nothing is ever 100% bug-free, which is why I stated "too many" bugs instead of "a" bug. I have less tolerance than other people, admittedly. For those who interpret my comments as "whining", I'd say you have a lower tolerance for open discussion than I have for bugs.

I don't think it's necessary -- or even constructive -- that I post all of the bugs I encountered, since I've seen them all appear in other posts on the site. Again, I appreciate that the developers are working on fixes, and I'm glad to see that things appear to be getting better. I'll take Veblen's advice to try 1.2.

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That bar should have been a quote. Oh, the irony.

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but keep in mind, that is not a strategy game.

BTW he did ask for:

any piece of software (especially game software)

not strategy, Oblivion is an RPG

Truely an amazing game from what I have read and seen on the net,

and yes Oblivion is a great game, I'm playing it until the new GalCiv2 patch, as I really enjoy the 4X game and I for one have had no issues at all with bugs, just looking forward to the forthcoming game changes in the new Patch

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Is oblivion as compatible on such a wide variety of systems? If you guys want a bug free game go buy a chessboard.

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Wasn't there a major bug in Oblivion so you couldn't run AA and HDR at the same time?

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If you guys want a bug free game go buy a chessboard.

You're forgetting about the possibility of a bunch of ants crawling all over the chessboard when playing in the park...

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I've CTD'd three times in the last 5 days playing Oblivion. I've CTD'd twice playing GalCiv2. Since the day after release. Case closed for me.

What ezolak wants to do is to vent about the experience he wanted to have. He doesn't seem to be looking for any answers or solutions or logical arguments about why his expressed point of view might be wrong. He doesn't even appear to want a good game experience. Just some kind of “closure" through ticking off other people. If they respond harshly, his opinion is validated. In other words, he is trolling.

If it wasn't for the mention (by someone else) that Oblivion was a more bug free game, I wouldn't have commented at all. Please, don't feed the trolls.

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