Dale_

[quote who="ZehDon" reply="416" id="2626602"]I love the Civ series too, which is what makes this entire fiasco all the more bittersweet. Then again, I've yet to see anything indepth with Civ V, and if they take Civ V the way that most companies are taking their games (i.e. make them as pathetically simple as humanly possible) then it's simply another series and developer who lost my buisness through bad design and business decisions.[/quote] Please do not equate design decisions

Thanks for confirming. I've been wondering/waiting for it to appear too. :)

That's Ubisoft's DRM, not Steam's. You need a permanent connection and Ubisoft account even if you get the retail non-Steam enabled version.

Let me know if you need some explanations of how things tie in. :)

I found this XML tutorial, maybe it can help to understand the files. I haven't read through it so don't know if it'll be useful or not. :) http://www.w3schools.com/xml/default.asp

[quote who="Tormy-" reply="3" id="2622309"] quoting post There are also numerous XML editors to help new people to XML become familiar with the layout and usage of XML files. Which is the best available XML editor in your opinion?[/quote] They're all much the same truth be told. I did all my Civ4 XML modding via notepad. XMLSpy I've heard is a really good one.

Mostly it was because the civopedia was available from the main menu. This meant the datastore had to be loaded before the main menu was displayed. There's things that could've been done in Civ4 to avoid that, or even to have the civopedia in the main menu but still a dynamically loaded datastore. I don't think anyone conceived that modding would be so popular in Civ4 so maybe they just didn't spend the resources to make it that way. All Elemental would need to do is

I've had a fair amount of modding experience, from modding the map in Pirates on the C64, through various games, Call to Power Series, Europa Universalis, SimCity 4, Victoria and Civ 4. If there's one thing I've learnt in over 20 years of modding it's this: some engines are built with modding in mind, some engines are not. The ones that are built with modding in mind open the game to new levels allowing modders to take an existing idea and change it, or in the case of Civ4 totally

[quote who="Nick-Danger" reply="365" id="2619516"] Quoting Dale_, reply 361Just to touch on the "approval" question, I think I have an answer there to confirm the process. A friend of mine went for a job at 2K titled "Civilization Community Manager" a month ago. He needed lua, xml and c++ skills. Part of the role was to check uploaded mods to ensure no copyrights were breached, that the code was not malicious, and that no new processes were spawned. He was go

Just to touch on the "approval" question, I think I have an answer there to confirm the process. A friend of mine went for a job at 2K titled "Civilization Community Manager" a month ago. He needed lua, xml and c++ skills. Part of the role was to check uploaded mods to ensure no copyrights were breached, that the code was not malicious, and that no new processes were spawned. He was going for the mod approver job. (He didn't get it, they hired from internally).

I love Firaxis's games, and their method of developing games. I love their games so much I spent 12 months / 20 hrs per week creating Road to War to ship with BtS. But I'm disappointed with 2K's decision. Whilst I have no problems with Steam, I don't like the "must have" point, and don't see a reason why a AAA title has to go this path when they could make their own, or use other solutions. I use Steam to give my support to Indie developers (Steam has a huge catalog

SMAC is too story driven. Feels like being herded down a single path. Not good for a strategy game. I also feel the same about Rhye's Civ4 mod. That mod scripted history way too much. Left no choices as there was only one right choice. And no choices is a BAD thing for a strategy game. I prefer the open-ended choices of Civ personally. But I will say the story and how Planet related to the story were brilliant! :)

I vote YES! * So my pre-order can be processed *

[quote who="Nesrie" reply="300" id="2616887"] Quoting Dale_, reply 298 I was pointing out that the US case law you used to justify your position is not relevant in Australia, and actually is different to how it would've ended up in Australia. I would advise reading up on the Berne Convention, WIPO, how both treaties were implemented in the US and how it differs to most countries who signed those treaties (and why it's different). I didn't point to

[quote who="TCores" reply="301" id="2616895"] quoting postActually, copyright holders do have control over individual copies by law. This is the full purpose of Copyright Laws. If you carefully read the EULA of software, you will also notice that you are only granted a license to use the software, that it is in fact not regarded as a "copy" of the copyrighted material (since mastering produces "originals" not "copies"). You don't actually own the software, just the righ

[quote who="Nesrie" reply="296" id="2616862"]I must be blinde, because I looked over my posts and didn't see anywhere where i said otherwise. Hell i didn't even say you had to use US court cases. By the way, this bs ACTA is basically taking the worst bits of the US law (DMCA) and trying to spread it.[/quote] I was pointing out that the US case law you used to justify your position is not relevant in Australia, and actually is different to how it would've ended up in Australia. &nbs

[quote who="bonscott" reply="288" id="2616792"] Quoting KickACrip, reply 285 The "Steam is not valuable to me, I'll never use those features" argument seems a bit - well, self centered. Okay, so - you don't have to use the extra features. To say the whole system should topple down and any attempt to come up with a dedicated community center that aims to benefit the whole community should be demolished, well, that's a bit much. <b

[quote who="KickACrip" reply="285" id="2616728"]I guess I really just don't understand the "we don't like it because we want choices - I just don't want it installed on my computer," position. It seems so...trivial.[/quote] It's quite simply because you MUST use Steam. There is no other option. There are many other solutions that allow choice of client, or even no client at all.

[quote who="ZehDon" reply="2" id="2616658"]Spore wasn't sold via Consoles. PC DRM systems are now expanding past the PC - Avatar's Blu-Ray release was all but destroyed by the inclusion of DRM on the disc. Imagine if Assassin's Creed III requried your Xbox or PS3 to be connected to the internet at all times.[/quote] True Spore itself wasn't on console, but Spore Hero for Wii, Spore Creatures for DS, Spore Hero Arena for DS, and a Q4 2010 untitled Spore for PC and consoles.

This isn't new. EA locked out Spore via the same method.

[quote who="Nesrie" reply="274" id="2616352"]Okay, first, wikipedia is great for a lot of things, but it's not case law and citing cases is a lot stronger than throwing up wikipedia articles. Second, i want you tp look at what you are actually saying and what i am saying. They have a rights to control copying, copying, the act of making copies. They do not have the right to control INDIVIDUAL copies. It's completely different. Making backup copies of legally obtained media, reselling leg

[quote who="SwerydAss" reply="269" id="2616318"] Not true - even with Steam you can easily install mods to the game yourself (downloading from the mod site, and installing it yourself Actually if any of my friends buy an rts off of steam they can't use my custom maps. Also steam likes to make people pay for mods and such. Kind of kills some of the advantages of playing a game on pc.[/quote] This has been confirmed as possible by Dennis Shirk (Producer

[quote who="Myles" reply="265" id="2616297"]doing anything other than clicking the game icon to play single player is an inconvenience to me.[/quote] That's all I do to play single player Steam games. Just double-click the desktop icon (which Steam makes for me too). ;)

[quote who="TCores" reply="251" id="2616061"]I am not a lawyer and have no interest in law. But if I am going to make claims about the legality of a thing, or the realities of the law, I should actually research what I'm saying before I saw it. It's a good principle.[/quote] Did you look up what Copyright actually means, or did you just find a couple of specific points to try to refute me? [quote]Copyright is literally, the right to copy, though in legal terms "the right to co

[quote who="Nesrie" reply="248" id="2615825"] Quoting Dale_, reply 245 Actually, DRM is about control of copyright and intellectual property. So both piracy of software AND reselling games fit into the sphere of DRM. In that respect DRM is a good method to protect a company's copyrights and intellectual property. However, the types of DRM implemented have little to desire in most cases. It's unfortunate that most companies take the "restrict" appro