resurfacing for air

[rone]

After about 48 hours of Civ4, i'll have to catch up to see what i've been missing.  I will say this: the so-called "minimum" and "recommended" system requirements, as far as RAM goes, are a joke.  The game sucks up 410 MB of RAM, and i saw it hogging over 700 MB of virtual memory after i exited the game.  When your stripped-down Win2K installation uses 180 MB of memory just sitting there, it's inescapable that you need a minimum of 640 MB, and you should really get a gigabyte in there to be comfy.

Comments

[eagle]

Don't worry, you didn't miss anything. You can go play more. :)

[ronebofh.livejournal.com]

I would, but it takes 5-10 minutes just to start and load my game. Which is why i decided to just leave the game up instead of shutting down when it was time for bed... ugh.

[wisn.livejournal.com]

So what you're saying is that if you'd bothered to drop another $50 to pad out the RAM, you would have played only 2-3 hours of Civ 4?

[ronebofh.livejournal.com]

Maybe a total savings of an hour.

[kodi]

Also, you need a substantially beefier system if you want to play on the hugest maps - otherwise, it runs out of space for graphics, and everything gets funky.

Fortunately for me, I'm awful at Civilization, so I can generally get slaughtered before I even explore the medium map.

[sanspoof.livejournal.com]

Yeah, it's a jerk on my machine too. Also video card fun, with texture misallocation and freakouts.
BUT I STILL WISH TO PLAY IT.

[solipsistnation.livejournal.com]

How stable is it?

Have you done any multiplayer stuff? I was trying to play Civ3 with stophittinyrslf, but there were so many obvious and repeatable crash bugs that we finally gave up on it.

[dpk.livejournal.com]

Civ4 singleplayer is solid. Never had a crash.

I haven't played multiplayer yet. I tried Play By E Mail (PBEM) but found it lacking some very basic features. I was hoping I could just point it at a POP server and a SMTP server and let it manage it. Turns out you have to handle email attachments manually. Hassle.

[palecur.livejournal.com]

Have you patched it up to current? (There's an 'update over teh_INTARWEB' feature under 'Advanced.') The patched up version includes low-res textures that according to all reports really ease the burden.

[anavolena.livejournal.com]

oh, i am on to your evil plans.

i will not succumb to the urge to play civ 4.

i will not.

really, i won't. you cannot tempt me.

--stevi
so any really cool new wonders?

[ronebofh.livejournal.com]

All kinds. I have lots of questions that, alas, are not answered in the game manual. The documentation is submediocre.

a better patch

[mjlewis.livejournal.com]

http://apolyton.net/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=145105

it makes a huge difference in terms of memory hoggitude.

[ronebofh.livejournal.com]

Hmm. I am loath to install a third-party patch.

I was too

[mjlewis.livejournal.com]

especially one coming out of Russia. But Apolyton is a pretty well-trafficed Civ4 site and there are a ton of responses to the thread, so I sucked it up and did it, as have a couple of my friends, and we've been pleased so far.

I can't say for certain that it's not eating out my RAM from the inside, but I'm happy with what it did for Civ4.