Issues with pre-release version 0.97.7.0

from GalCiv3 Forums

 

Everything I say here is meant as constructive feedback and nothing I say here is meant as negative.

Here are the issues that are still present, I am with some that believe as it sits the game is not ready for gold but, hopefully gold release version 1.0 has fixed some of these issues and then I would say it would be.  All that said I still love this game and believe that Stardock is doing everything they can to produce a wonderful game and will not hold anything I'm posting against them and hope you don't either.

Game Stability -

It has been a long road getting to this point and the game is many, many times more stable then it was even a week or two ago.  With that being said there are still too many crashes especially in multiplayer.  There should be no reason that a game ready for gold release still crashes multiple times with in 100 turns in a multiplayer game.  I updated my ticket to educate on this however, no dump files have been generated and seems very far and in between when it does.  Unfortunately my debug.err file wasn't saved which is my fault for not saving it but did include my saved game.  

Black screen still present sometimes when going into combat viewer.  Now with that being said this is the first time I've seen this since beta 5, so not a huge issue for me although I did submit a ticket with my info everything except dmp files as none were generated.

Possible cause for bad reviews after release -

Game locks up on game start with insane map and 50+ races.  The game will sit at 100% processor use for 5-10 minutes (High End AMD Processor 8 core 4.4 GHz FX9370) makes it appear the game has locked up or froze.  This could cause people that don't understand that the game is still setting up and cause them to think the game is broken.  After this period of time the game progresses normal with up to 2-3 seconds of high processor use per turn.  Ticket has been created on this as well, hopefully addressed in version 1.0.

After all the game is said to support up to 128 players with that being said some may attempt to hit this right away and this may become a focus point to complain on.

Minor issues (No big deal and fine with game releasing with these still needing to be addressed.) -

  1. Multiplayer limited features, no custom races, no larger map sizes.  (This is expected because of the above points although it will be nice when these features are re-enabled in a stable format.)  With that being said when this does come back in the opponent selection constantly moved back to top as soon as selecting a race more than 12.
  2. Game auto changing colors of major races (Terran - deep yellow), (Thalan - light yellow) for both Terran races and Thalan races in game as there is two of each.
  3. AI, letting one know frequently of various issues almost every turn whether they like your Ideology choice, they need something or want to give you something, usually different races each turn, however, becomes annoying.
  4. AI, still knows where perfect class 26 planets are or where perfect mining places are on map even if unexplored in challenging difficulty (Gifted)
  5. Old Custom races saved prior to the change in starting credits only has 3000 starting credits versus 5000.  Copying these races and recreating them does not resolve this issue and still starts with 3000.  The only way to correct this at this point is to create race brand new and re-type all descriptions and input features from scratch.
  6. No copy paste option for text in game (chat or custom race setup)
  7. No chat in multiplayer diplomacy or trade screens.  (This would be very helpful especially if you're looking for a specific thing from another human player.)  Right now one has to either exit the screen and chat with the in game tool or chat with the steam client which I feel is a pain.  After all it is diplomacy with other players, the main screen for communicating with other players there should be chatting going on here.
  8. Abundant planets should mean abundant planets, especially in relation to Galactic Civilizations II.  Right now about half the stars in the game don't have any useful planets tied to them, either no planets or one or two dead or mining worlds.  This was better in beta 4 or 5, however, has come back down as the possible release versions have come out.  In the current game just generated revealing FOW Insane map with abundant stars/habitale/extreme just searching at the first 30-40 stars looked at I've come across 18 stars with either habitable planets or extreme worlds and 16 stars with no planets that I'm able to colonize either extreme or normal.  That seems low to me it should be around a 2:1 or 3:1 ratio not a 1:1 ratio
  9. Game settings are reverting to default upon starting the game fresh.  Have to put in all settings all over again.

Multiplayer Lobby suggestions (I have suggested before) -

  1. As DLC's/Expansions become available it would be nice to see multiplayer games waiting in lobby for other versions so one may change their version if able to be able to join them.
  2. No option to name your game.
  3. No option to make game private (require password to join)
  4. Can't see if game waiting has abundant stars/planets/extreme/anomalies.  (This should either display in a description in lobby or once you join game to see if you really want to play it.)
  5. Maybe a more difficult to put in play, however, put an option in to see multiplayer games in progress.  
    1. This may allow you to see yes this is being used and look at all those games.
    2. Have it show the number of turns into game (that way one may reach out to the host and ask to join if less than 4 players in game.  Host may decline or accept and have them join game in progress...  This may create a major headache and may not be easily added in but I think would be cool :)

 

Final Point, again this is meant to be constructive and not as a tear down and hope that most of these issues/suggestions can be addressed either have already for 1.0 or will be with 1.1 patch.

Thanks again for all the hard work that the team has put in and created this great and wonderful game.

 

7,159 views 2 replies
Reply #1 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

There should be no reason that a game ready for gold release still crashes multiple times with in 100 turns in a multiplayer game.

Black screen still present sometimes when going into combat viewer.

I hate to say it, but the game is going to get hammered for this if it's in the release (it's probably too late to fix it as reviewers are likely already playing on the beta -- gotta get the game reviews out on launch day).

Long load times + regular game-stopping crashes = bad reviews (6/7). The shame is that they've done a really amazing job at making GC3 this an 8/9 game from where it was at Beta 3. I guess it's just time to cross your fingers and hope that the reviewers don't have any of these problems.

AI, still knows where perfect class 26 planets are or where perfect mining places are on map even if unexplored in challenging difficulty (Gifted)

Brad has said that any AI difficulty above "Normal" has FoW disabled. Seems like they could slip another level of AI between Normal and Gifted that gets some bonuses but still has to play with FoW.


Abundant planets should mean abundant planets, especially in relation to Galactic Civilizations II.

Ah, the curse of the RNG...

 

Reply #2 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

Though I don't agree on everything posted here I think this is a well though out and reasoned post.

Stability is an interesting issue in PC games;

I played for 4 hours yesterday (single player) on the beta and had one crash right at the end, that's as stable as any release game I've played recently earlier betas where not so stable for me. Now being a PC game I've no doubt at all stability is much worse with some other hardware\driver\OS\OS Patch combinations there are after all literally 100,000s of possible PC configurations and drivers vary greatly.Not that all of the crashes are necessarily down to that I suspect they still have some memory leaks to track down, but again memory leaks are common in PC software. In addition sounds like they have sync issues causing major issues in multiplayer.

They can and should continue to work to improve stability and no doubt will. But as far as releasing without getting shot down in flames that is mostly down to how many machines it's pretty stable on now and how many have extreme stability issues. We will quickly find that out post release.

I can't comment on multiplayer issues much because I haven't tested it and have no intention of playing multiplayer, from what I've read though I think that multiplayer is the biggest concern release wise it does sound like it's not very stable and still very buggy and I think they will get negative press over that.

There are also a few things I think they should have fixed before release; playing a synthetic still feels totally broken when it comes to colonization event's, how does radiation cause physical mutations in synthetics? Why do I care about the most fertile soil on the planet for farms? How does that organic virus replicate in me since I have no cells for it to infect?

The power resetting when it reaches 5000 so the AI starts making silly decisions.

Have to say despite that I'm very much enjoying the game but these are still concerns for how the games received, even though I have seen games in a much worse state get released and get good reviews I don't want this game to get good reviews, I want it to get great ones.

 

End of the day they have decided to release now and only time will tell how much these issues will impact the games reception, I suspect multiplayer will be slated initially but single player will be received ok.

 

 

 

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