Six months or so later: congratulations!

[be0rn]

Congratulations,

You've won my personal 'YOU FAIL AWARD'. After paying 2x60 euro's for a Delux edition of which the DLC wasn't usable in MP, and the game ridden with stupid bugs and crashes, it still fails to do the most basic thing: let us finish the game in MP.

Somehow you're able to mill out DLC about Polynesia and what not, but are totally inept at getting the game to work. And why does the game still advertise 'unsupported number of players' in MP? Why enable stuff that doesn't work at all? Is it just frustrate people or something? And don't start on the nonsense 'but ooh the single players is fantastic' - why did I pay for a game with multiplayer enabled? Just so you can cash in?

It's bad enough that we couldn't bother ourselves to play it anymore after the first release, since it was unfinishable (and no it's not worth the effort to retry to see if the same or some other bug pops up by starting another game, 200+ turns is a lot of time).

Don't give me that nonsense about the hardware and default checklists. We've got two PCs here, not the latest and greatest, but certainly enough according to your specs. They're linked with a gigabit ethernet link, 4GB ram, 4870 radeons.

Seeing that you finally got to patch the game a bit we tried to play a MP game, huge map, default settings, 2 human players and the maximum number of AI players without getting the warning about unsupported blabla. Then after playing 263 turns in game of which the end of turn processing was taking longer and longer ( during which the game doesn't even cap out the CPUs at 100% it barely hits the 60% on each core) it keeps saying the other player disconnected. Go figure? Maybe it was a fluke, so we tried restarting the game and loading it: same bug. Then rebooting the PC and tried again: same bug.

I dare you to say that I need this or that spec pc: i'll upgrade it and if it still fails you pay the bill for the upgrades and the time I spent on playing the game to get to the bug. (Might be an idea that you actually get diffrent people with different setups to play the game before releasing, no? Wishful tinking probs)

You fail.

But I failed more, 'cause I paid for this crap. If anything, if I want to try another game from this publisher I'll try to check it out first with some hacked copy or whatever to see if it doesn't fail on the most basic thing: let players finish and enjoy a game without frustrating about stupid bugs. Maybe you should invest less in silly DRM and go back at iron out stupid bugs like this. But hey: that's probably less profitable than adding features that might appeal more buyers, which don't even work, but don't get noticed as fast.

It's just sad that the game industry is leveraging DRM to get people to buy broken games.

[civdiss]

Well I felt like you for a long time..now I m just waiting to see if they are going to rectify the situation with MP free of charge. Rectify the situation means make MP as good and reliable as it was in CIV IV BTS with all the necessary options as mentioned in various other posts. It is not much to ask considering they have done it in the past, if they fail to deliver they won't see a penny from me and everybody I know ever again..simple

[Bloody Rose]

I generally agree with you though I need to respond to your following words:


if I want to try another game from this publisher I'll try to check it out first with some hacked copy or whatever to see if it doesn't fail on the most basic thing: let players finish and enjoy a game without frustrating about stupid bugs.

I don't think that would work. As far as I know, illegal versions of PC games normally don't let you play online so I'm not sure if you can somehow use them to see if the game's any good.

[Mansurji]

Civ IV illegal versions were working on MP, and that's how they've catch a huge amount of fans that bought the game after.

[CanuckSoldier]

Civ IV illegal versions were working on MP, and that's how they've catch a huge amount of fans that bought the game after.

Steam has separated legal and illegal players of Civ5 as illegal players have to play hacked copies of torrnets on non-steam underground virtual LAN servers, as they can not play internet games since the steam client would connect to steam.

This really has not done the MP community alot of good as it seems there are people that won't pay for Civ no matter how much they enjoy it after playing a hacked copy, and this just creates a situation were we that run legal Civ5 leagues have to compete for players with these illegal servers. I do really wish 2K had used Valve Anti Cheat system with Civ5, at least that would make it one step even harder to pirate Civ5.

CS

[Sombra]

Yeah and now again some DLC and Map Packs....but not even an ETA for a MP Patch .. Well I moved on to Shogun 2 , sure it has its share of trouble too but at least I think they will fix it. Civ5 is a lost cause, even if there was a good community trying out MP in the beginning they mostly moved on.

[nicksta]

Hi

Im pretty angry too. Steam ripped me off with this game (more expensive than anywhere online and more expensive than a hardcopy version!).

BUT I still paid for it as I was keen to play this with Multi Player online ONLY to find there are ZERO Internet games.... wtf?? am I missing something here anyone?

[Olek]

I agree, it seems they need to advertise for a multiplayer programer, yet they obviously have plenty of those working on the Face book Civ, they are just a pack of liars, but there will always be plenty of fools who line up to swallow this dung, and they know it.

[CanuckSoldier]

Hi

Im pretty angry too. Steam ripped me off with this game (more expensive than anywhere online and more expensive than a hardcopy version!).

BUT I still paid for it as I was keen to play this with Multi Player online ONLY to find there are ZERO Internet games.... wtf?? am I missing something here anyone?

Yes you are missing something, there are still a fair number of internet players, but Steam uses a regional games list design, so if there are not many Civ5 MP players in your area you will not see any games.

To get around this we use Steam chat room to hook up with international players. Come to CivPlayers Leagues www.civplayers.com and click on the Chatroom(Steam req) link on the left menu. This will bring you to our open chat lobby for Civ5. You can organize games their and when a game is ready for you all you have to do is click on the hosts name in the player list, and click Join Game. This bypasses the crappy regional games list in the game.

CS

[Oor-tael]

I just totally agree with OP ... :-(

[eek]

I never intend to play online, so this doesn't affect me in any way . . . . .

but if I did, this would make me a very unhappy bunny indeed, it really needs to be sorted now for the online gamer, top of the list, a priority of the highest magnitude, but 2k don't understand this, they should make it a top priority this instance

[Mansurji]

Thanks eek, i've been pleased also that they've fixed the scroll bug even though i wasn't concerned.

Maybe if solo players starts to claim a functionnal MP instead of cheering every single new DLC things would change, so thanks again.

[Koga]

I bought the game two weeks ago and I feel very similar to a lot of the guys here in this post. Any my comp is more current than our friend the OP. I enjoy'd the multiplayer in Civ for xbox so I decided to take a chance on Civ 5. I have to say that I'm dissappointed so far by what I've seen/experienced.

I don't think that I would have purchased the game if I had known that the multiplayer aspect was so flawed. No combat animations, horrible lag, turns that never end, comps that overheat(that's me), DLC that you'll never be able to use online with a group of players, and games that you'll NEVER see the end of.

I can't justify to myself the purchase of any DLC because in order to use, say for instance, the new Polynesians in an 8-player game all 8 players have to have previously purchased them. Too bad i've wasted the money on all of them to this point though.

The bad part is that I really enjoy the game. I've given it an honest go plenty of times but find myself mostly frustrated and looking for a replacement.

[pontrjagin]

MP has so many problems. I'd almost rather play SP, which sucks because playing with other humans should be much more fun.

My gripes:
1. MP has actually gotten more stable with the last couple of patches, but the lag in MP is still really bad. The turns take too long.

2. There is no point to buying DLC as an online player, because the chances that everyone else has the DLC are slim.

3. Occasionally the game goes OOS (out of sync) and boots everyone back to the loading screen.

4. The internet lobby is a joke, and CiV players league is dead. It's hard to find a good game.

5. On a related note to 4, when are we going to get PITBOSS or PBEM?

[CanuckSoldier]

@4, I can't do anything about the designed lobby, I have already been very clear about what we need, and I know the devs know this. The activity in the CivPlayer lobby is simply a direct result of the state of the MP game, I personally spend alot of time adverising the lobby in as many places as I can to try and attract the new players and centralize the old remaining players in one place. But it is alot like pissing in the wind trying to keep MP alive while we wait.

CS

[Bantams]

4. The internet lobby is a joke, and CiV players league is dead. It's hard to find a good game.

Its the same in civ 4 also unfortunately unless you play teamers which I dont :(

[pontrjagin]

@4, I can't do anything about the designed lobby, I have already been very clear about what we need, and I know the devs know this. The activity in the CivPlayer lobby is simply a direct result of the state of the MP game, I personally spend alot of time adverising the lobby in as many places as I can to try and attract the new players and centralize the old remaining players in one place. But it is alot like pissing in the wind trying to keep MP alive while we wait.

CS

Absolutely, I agree with you. When (or maybe 'if' is more appropriate at this point) MP is finally playable Civ Players League will become a lot more active. Until then, what can we do besides play a different game and retry CiV after each patch?

[Mansurji]

When (or maybe 'if' is more appropriate at this point) MP is finally playable Civ Players League will become a lot more active.

You guys have no clue on the sadness within this sentence. CS and other ppl involved in C4P know it, but all you casual players have no clue. No clue at all.

[Tarka]

Things in the multiplayer side of this game like the lack of animations, the lack of a UI to support the loading / saving of multiplayer games, the lack of diplomacy functionality, the fact that the setup screen for a pre-saved multiplayer game STILL sets itself to "prince" (even though the difficulty was set to something else) all screams of poorly implemented multiplayer functionality. And 8 months later we've still to see ANY of these issues being sorted out no matter how big or small they are.

I wouldn't be surprised at this level of inability to deal with these issues if this was the first product from a company that wasn't so well established. Right now, I'm preferring to play Anno 1404 and Company Heroes (a five year old game) over Civ V. Which is a shame.

Firaxis should be ashamed.

[antonoo]

/agree with op

Pathetic 2k. Pathetic.

[Xill]

It's not 6 months now but almost a year...

[Tarka]

The latest patch notes state:

http://forums.2kgames.com/showthread.php?108900-June-July-Patch-Notes


As we move into summer, we’ll continue to bring new and exciting additions to Civ V, including improvements to Multiplayer, and other core areas of the game.

I don't know about anyone else, but I find such a statement so ambiguous that I won't be holding my breath that future patches will contain all that we have been hoping for. Although I'd love for Firaxis to actually prove me wrong.

[DeltaThunder]

I admit, multiplayer is very rough. But I have managed to play it 2 player (+AIs) quite well. Either as Co-op (for learning the game), or every man for himself (1v1vAIs).

I have had no issues with crashes, and minimal load screens. I have been enjoying playing the game with 2 human players on a daily basis. And each patch seems to improve the game. The main issues I've seen are:

1. Wars are complicated, because of lag issues, it gives the host player an advantage, so we have had to coordinate our war movements to allow fairness.
2. Unable to submit Denouce/Friend status with a human player, to signal support of that player to the AIs.
3. New Bug with the chatbox causes an enter to submit chat count as the enter to signal the end of your turn!
4. No Signs! - (civ4 had the ability to put 'Signs' on the map, allowing for notes to be written for future reference. I miss these.)

Now, I dont play with 5 people, and from what I hear, its not feasible. But 2-player works decently well enough.