FIRAXIS READ: PATCH 4.0 AND SMACX RELEASE DATES

  Alpha Centauri Forums
  The Game
  FIRAXIS READ: PATCH 4.0 AND SMACX RELEASE DATES

profile | register | prefs | faq | search

Author Topic:   FIRAXIS READ: PATCH 4.0 AND SMACX RELEASE DATES

ZRand007 posted 06-14-99 08:48 PM ET
Dear FIRAXIS,
As you have probably seen, we SMAC fans are in an uproar over the recent actions, or inactions, of your company in regards to the upcoming patch and SMACX. Will you do us all a favor and give us three things:
1)A general list of fixes and enhancments for 4.0
2)Approx. release date for 4.0
3)A general list of features in SMACX, along with its approx. release date.
I hope you will realize that by giving us this info, a lot of discontent people will feel much better. Thank-you for understanding.
-007
The Spy Who Loved Me (Nobody does it better...)
Valtarien posted 06-14-99 09:26 PM ET
Even a simple update to the main & news pages would be nice. ??Last updated 5/25/99??! Come on, I thought this was the "information age". It's been 3 weeks!
Shining1 posted 06-14-99 09:33 PM ET
Uproar? Where?
I know Yin can be pretty intimidating, but one man is not an uproar.
Will someone please post a message to the effect that these forums are not an announcements board for Firaxis. NOTHING has EVER been announced here before it was released to the mainstream gaming media.
Timetables are evil and should be dispensed with. Absolutely nobody needs to plan their computer game shopping ahead to within a day's accuracy.
Having said all that, a few more press releases to said gaming media wouldn't go astray either. Is SMACX a confirmed project? (Yes.) How many quarter years will it take? (??) What stuff will definitely be in it? (7 new factions, ...) What won't?
Patch 4.0 is presently fighting it's way through the eternal quagmire of EA QA, at least according to JKM.

ZRand007 posted 06-15-99 04:22 PM ET
I don't want a exact date for the releases; all I want is a rough estimate, for example, between July 1 and 15 would be more than acceptable. As for timetables being evil- without em, I don't think we'd be playing too many games right now, I there's a safe bet that SMAC would not even have been concieved, because all of Sid's previous games may still have been in production. Imagine, Civ I not even out yet... That's why timetables are not evil. And unless I midunderstood, every game in existance was announced before it went in the mainstream. It's a fundamental part of marketing strategies. If games woeren't announced, then you would just go to EB or Software Etc. one day and say "Wow, that Civilization II game looks interesting, I think I'll but it!" Most people decide they want a game by hearing about it from the company that makes it, or from a computer game magazine. As for the subject of EA, I am assuming that since it is taking all this time, either it has A LOT of fixes and additions, or EA is severly over streched with their resources. I prefer to assume the former.
-007
Never Say Never Again
Darkstar posted 06-15-99 05:13 PM ET
ZRand... July 1 to 15 would be a time table. But, just for you... expect patch/enhancement 4 to be released between tomorrow (June 16, 1999) and August 22, 2002. There you go. Happy now?
Time tables ARE evil. Unless they can slide. Sometimes, things need to slide due to unexpected and unplanned possibilities that need to be corrected, but get discovered too late to keep the project on schedule. But, when they can't slide, programs go out the door in a lot lower quality than they should have had.
I do walk in to software shops and go "That looks interesting." Then I check out the box... and decide to buy it, wait on buying it (price drop, investigate (talk to friends)), or just ignore it ("another battle chess clone?"). I find that works better than listening to market hype (which is generally disappointing) or commercial reviewers (they only played it for a short time, a couple of games, or can't say what they really think due to censorship (whether corporate or just plain good publishing manners)). Do you buy a car on hype? I don't. So why should you buy into the marketing pitch?
-Darkstar
ZRand007 posted 06-15-99 05:40 PM ET
Darkstar,
I see your point. Yes, there are things that can cause time tables to slip. So I've rethought my request.
FIRAXIS,
Will you please create a main thread on this forum where you give us updates on how things are coming along. Please post the expected release dates for your upcoming SMAC products so that we will be appeased. Then, if the timetable does slip, tell us why and what the new timetable is. This would solve your problem of building an update webpage, and would appease me and a select few other SMAC players. Thank-you.
-007
Goobmeister posted 06-15-99 05:40 PM ET
There is a difference between internal timetables which are necessary to complete Projects (Hey maybe that is what MS Project '98 is for...), and published public timetables which while sometimes helpful they can also be harmful to ones image if they are not met.
We know they are working on 4.0 we know that it is under EA quality review. Was it 2 weeks ago that JKM announced that? It would be reasonable for us to surmise that a few more weeks will go by before it will be released.
It would not be reasonable for JKM or any other Firaxian to come on here and announce that they think it will finish with the review with in 3 weeks, because if it does not happen then they will receive tremendous flak.
It would be reasonable and nice for in another few dayys for JKM or another to make a precious appearance to casually say it is still in process, be patient ... yada yada yada.
Internal timetables can slide, as Darkstar illustrates that importance. Public ones are kind of sticky.
Patch 4.o and SMACX have both been "announced" many of us are awaiting them anxiously. They have not been given firm release dates, because (drum roll please....)They Aren't Known.
And as much as I would like to know it really doesn't make one qualitative bit of difference in my life not knowing an exact date.
Goob
yin26 posted 06-16-99 02:18 AM ET
The problem here isn't that they DON'T announce things--it's that the so-called announcement is usually buried in some thread somewhere far, far away, posted in some semi-dream state between coffee breaks. Only the sickest of forum leeches (like me! ) are around consistently enough to catch the rare Firaxis scrap of info.
An easy to see/find--if only seldom updated--page that records these gems is a rudimentary step. And given how easy this is to implement, NOT doing so defies any kind of acceptable logic. The main page does say "French version is out" and so forth, but nothing about current development, which is what most of us are curious about. Maybe somebody here should make their own web page with all this info. and hack a link onto the official site?
So what we have is new people coming to the site who have little or no clue what's going on with the future of this game. How can they for God's sake?
ZRand007,
The last thing I heard, patch 4 was being held up because this time around they wanted to release all language versions at the same time (good idea, in some ways). So, if any one language version ran into a snag, the whole project had to wait. Jeff fairly recently said, though, that the patch was in its final phases and should be out sooner rather than later. If I had to guess, I'd say the end of this month or early July.
Anyway, to quote Clinton:
"I feel your pain." (But unlike Clinton, I promise not to feel anything else of yours.)
To close this thread, click here (moderator or admin only).


Hop to:

Contact Us | Alpha Centauri Home

Powered by: Ultimate Bulletin Board, Version 5.18
© Madrona Park, Inc., 1998.

Author	Topic: FIRAXIS READ: PATCH 4.0 AND SMACX RELEASE DATES
ZRand007	posted 06-14-99 08:48 PM ET Dear FIRAXIS, As you have probably seen, we SMAC fans are in an uproar over the recent actions, or inactions, of your company in regards to the upcoming patch and SMACX. Will you do us all a favor and give us three things: 1)A general list of fixes and enhancments for 4.0 2)Approx. release date for 4.0 3)A general list of features in SMACX, along with its approx. release date. I hope you will realize that by giving us this info, a lot of discontent people will feel much better. Thank-you for understanding. -007 The Spy Who Loved Me (Nobody does it better...)
Valtarien	posted 06-14-99 09:26 PM ET Even a simple update to the main & news pages would be nice. ??Last updated 5/25/99??! Come on, I thought this was the "information age". It's been 3 weeks!
Shining1	posted 06-14-99 09:33 PM ET Uproar? Where? I know Yin can be pretty intimidating, but one man is not an uproar. Will someone please post a message to the effect that these forums are not an announcements board for Firaxis. NOTHING has EVER been announced here before it was released to the mainstream gaming media. Timetables are evil and should be dispensed with. Absolutely nobody needs to plan their computer game shopping ahead to within a day's accuracy. Having said all that, a few more press releases to said gaming media wouldn't go astray either. Is SMACX a confirmed project? (Yes.) How many quarter years will it take? (??) What stuff will definitely be in it? (7 new factions, ...) What won't? Patch 4.0 is presently fighting it's way through the eternal quagmire of EA QA, at least according to JKM.
ZRand007	posted 06-15-99 04:22 PM ET I don't want a exact date for the releases; all I want is a rough estimate, for example, between July 1 and 15 would be more than acceptable. As for timetables being evil- without em, I don't think we'd be playing too many games right now, I there's a safe bet that SMAC would not even have been concieved, because all of Sid's previous games may still have been in production. Imagine, Civ I not even out yet... That's why timetables are not evil. And unless I midunderstood, every game in existance was announced before it went in the mainstream. It's a fundamental part of marketing strategies. If games woeren't announced, then you would just go to EB or Software Etc. one day and say "Wow, that Civilization II game looks interesting, I think I'll but it!" Most people decide they want a game by hearing about it from the company that makes it, or from a computer game magazine. As for the subject of EA, I am assuming that since it is taking all this time, either it has A LOT of fixes and additions, or EA is severly over streched with their resources. I prefer to assume the former. -007 Never Say Never Again
Darkstar	posted 06-15-99 05:13 PM ET ZRand... July 1 to 15 would be a time table. But, just for you... expect patch/enhancement 4 to be released between tomorrow (June 16, 1999) and August 22, 2002. There you go. Happy now? Time tables ARE evil. Unless they can slide. Sometimes, things need to slide due to unexpected and unplanned possibilities that need to be corrected, but get discovered too late to keep the project on schedule. But, when they can't slide, programs go out the door in a lot lower quality than they should have had. I do walk in to software shops and go "That looks interesting." Then I check out the box... and decide to buy it, wait on buying it (price drop, investigate (talk to friends)), or just ignore it ("another battle chess clone?"). I find that works better than listening to market hype (which is generally disappointing) or commercial reviewers (they only played it for a short time, a couple of games, or can't say what they really think due to censorship (whether corporate or just plain good publishing manners)). Do you buy a car on hype? I don't. So why should you buy into the marketing pitch? -Darkstar
ZRand007	posted 06-15-99 05:40 PM ET Darkstar, I see your point. Yes, there are things that can cause time tables to slip. So I've rethought my request. FIRAXIS, Will you please create a main thread on this forum where you give us updates on how things are coming along. Please post the expected release dates for your upcoming SMAC products so that we will be appeased. Then, if the timetable does slip, tell us why and what the new timetable is. This would solve your problem of building an update webpage, and would appease me and a select few other SMAC players. Thank-you. -007
Goobmeister	posted 06-15-99 05:40 PM ET There is a difference between internal timetables which are necessary to complete Projects (Hey maybe that is what MS Project '98 is for...), and published public timetables which while sometimes helpful they can also be harmful to ones image if they are not met. We know they are working on 4.0 we know that it is under EA quality review. Was it 2 weeks ago that JKM announced that? It would be reasonable for us to surmise that a few more weeks will go by before it will be released. It would not be reasonable for JKM or any other Firaxian to come on here and announce that they think it will finish with the review with in 3 weeks, because if it does not happen then they will receive tremendous flak. It would be reasonable and nice for in another few dayys for JKM or another to make a precious appearance to casually say it is still in process, be patient ... yada yada yada. Internal timetables can slide, as Darkstar illustrates that importance. Public ones are kind of sticky. Patch 4.o and SMACX have both been "announced" many of us are awaiting them anxiously. They have not been given firm release dates, because (drum roll please....)They Aren't Known. And as much as I would like to know it really doesn't make one qualitative bit of difference in my life not knowing an exact date. Goob
yin26	posted 06-16-99 02:18 AM ET The problem here isn't that they DON'T announce things--it's that the so-called announcement is usually buried in some thread somewhere far, far away, posted in some semi-dream state between coffee breaks. Only the sickest of forum leeches (like me! ) are around consistently enough to catch the rare Firaxis scrap of info. An easy to see/find--if only seldom updated--page that records these gems is a rudimentary step. And given how easy this is to implement, NOT doing so defies any kind of acceptable logic. The main page does say "French version is out" and so forth, but nothing about current development, which is what most of us are curious about. Maybe somebody here should make their own web page with all this info. and hack a link onto the official site? So what we have is new people coming to the site who have little or no clue what's going on with the future of this game. How can they for God's sake? ZRand007, The last thing I heard, patch 4 was being held up because this time around they wanted to release all language versions at the same time (good idea, in some ways). So, if any one language version ran into a snag, the whole project had to wait. Jeff fairly recently said, though, that the patch was in its final phases and should be out sooner rather than later. If I had to guess, I'd say the end of this month or early July. Anyway, to quote Clinton: "I feel your pain." (But unlike Clinton, I promise not to feel anything else of yours.)