5 months on and still a problem

[dlotus]

*please read this long thread*

Hello guys,

Its been 5 months since I've last posted here and the same time since I last played RFTS and it is raining so i thought *why not try again, i mean i have a new asus motherboard new cpu and a new gfx just maybe it was my computer and not the game that was faulty*
So off i went and installed the game, set up the game, and started to play the game, I set it up as did 5 months ago, (multiplayer, 4 players, large map, random stars, medium computer players) and I hit start game button, and this is what happened, *5 turns down and just starting to build fleet and get out and about, 10 turns down and no sign of enemy and im thinking great it was my computer that was the problem, no enemies in sight, 15 turns went, then 20, 25 turns still no enemy, but better still no crashes, 30 turns no crashes dribs and drabs of enemies, *got a nice fleet starting to happen* turn 31.... BANG crash *little computer symbol with red ball going around it* so I thought ok maybe in 5 months theres a fix so I come here and what do you know nothing, no replies to other posters about anything on this game. So what I figure is matrix games milked this game for what they could and then gave up on us with the problems. I started to think back and went to read some posts about eta on fix and this is what i find:

Hi Guys

The guys at SSG are still working in this and have not been able to nail this down. This is happening on just a small amount of PC. At this time we do not have a ETA on the patch since we are still working on the problem.

David

Ohh wait no eta when that was posted, so they dont know when or if it will be fixed, so i decided to read some more about this problem and i find this:

Hi everyone,

We're as unhappy as you are that some customers are having problems with RFTS. On all of our test systems (as well as SSG's) of course it runs without a problem, but around 5% of customers seem to have severe issues with crashes and freezes. We've been trying to work out these issues with SSG and they have made several attempts to resolve them. As those of you who own other titles from our line know, we are not interested in selling a product that doesn't meet our customers' expectations and neither is SSG. In fact, SSG is generally known for solid, bug-free games.

Now this one was posted on 10/20/2005 (long time ago now), It seems 5% of the RFTS buyers isnt enough to do something about this problem but they are not interested in selling products that dont meet customers expectations? well i expected this game to work in multiplayer and single player, what about my expectations matrix games? Doesn't that count?
But wait if you read a little further on this post of Erik's it states the following:

With that said, after our last discussion with SSG on this last week we have hopes that a new programmer may be able to unravel these issues. I hope we'll have news on that soon. If that doesn't happen, we'll come up with something to make it right for the group of customers that have been affected. Thanks for your patience everyone.

Regards,

- Erik

we will have news soon? when is the news coming? I dont see it does anyone else? and then Erik goes on to say they will make it right, Unless they at matrix games has done something that I havent seen yet im still waiting, or have they done something that doesn't work like RFTS? (now this may be harsh and probably get deleted for somewhat critisising Erik's post but he did post it so I would expect him to follow through).

Now I am making a copy of this post to send on to the management at Matrix Games if need be, (one would hope not but i dont like getting faulty products then nothing being done about it when first brought to light), I will leave this for a few days though and hope it gets replied to, I would like to think we are all old enough to sort this out in a manner suitable for no further action to be taken. So please Erik or any other admin on this game don't ignore this post and please respond to it.

Thank you for you time in reading this post.

Dlotus
(unhappy customer)

[Erik Rutins]

You're right, it hasn't been fixed and we need to make it right for those who are affected. I'm sorry this slipped off my radar. I'll make it a priority in the next week to come up with a resolution.

[dlotus]

Thank you for the fast reply on this Erik, I hope you can come up with a solution to make this right and that it doesnt slip off the radar again.
 
Again thank you for letting us know you will be doing this over the next week.
 
Dlotus
 

[kiwi_mikey]

There hasn't been an update on the crashing issue in a while, just wondering if anything is likley to be done?

[Uncle_Joe]

FWIW, I had to stop playing the game a few years ago due to crashes as well. And my friend who has a copy (old edition, but updated with the 1.40 patch) has never had any luck either. And we never succeeded in playing multiplayer despite many tries at it with different configurations.
 
I sort of just wrote the game off as a loss, but it sure would be nice if the problems were actually resolved and I could play the game again.

[Erik Rutins]

Yes, we're still working on this. As soon as we hear back with the latest from SSG I'll have something to post.

[dlotus]

Hi again,
 Just wondering how much longer this is going to take, For almost a year ive been hassling about this issue and constantly being told the same thing, I understand that you guys can't move on this until SSG lets you, god knows why that is since you guys have the rights to sell this product, fair enough you cant fix the problem itself but I'm guessing you can come up with a solution that helps all the customers that this game doesnt work for.
  Should we contact SSG as well? Would that actually help? If so whats the contact details?  I see you still sell a product that is faulty for some users with no warning except these forums, and thats only if the customer decides to read here first, this may seem a bit impolite,unfair perhaps but if someone doesnt keep on top of this nothing will be done in my view anyway.
I know you posted yesterday Erik, I know you said you can't do anything until SSG get back in touch with you but to me, in all the time ive asked for something to be done SSG has NEVER gotten back to you, I have to ask do you think they really will? I'm not having a go at you lot at Matrix Games but you shouldnt sell something that doesn't work for all users without some guarantee to the minority that this doesn't work for. Remember I brought this up when I first got the game and still all i get is waiting for SSG to come up with a solution, can't do anything til then, got to sit on hands til SSG reply, HELLO, I don't think thats going to happen. As I said this isn't aimed at Matrix Games as such, they only sell the product, but if SSG doesnt act on this matter asap I think Matrix Games should.
 
Dlotus,
(Disgruntled Customer)
 

[Erik Rutins]

To update on this issue, which I agree has taken far too long to resolve... we've discussed this at some length with SSG and they feel it's worth taking one last look at seeing if it can be fixed, so that is in process now and I will update you as soon as we hear the results. If it can't be fixed, we'll make it right one way or another.

[Uncle_Joe]

Thanks for the updated Erik.
 
RftS looked like a pretty cool game but was just too frustrating trying to play through the mouse issues and the incessant crashes. I'm glad that SSG is going to look into it again. I look forward to any solution that they might be able to implement.
 
Thanks again!

[Cmdrcain]

Hope its fixed, have had problems myself,
Gave up using game... kinda wasted money there,

I have the Original RFTS but thats the older game
DOS, never had a problem there so possiable if the
spiffed up one is simply the Dos game then problems with something between XP and DOS

[dlotus]

Hiyas,
Again I upgraded my whole comp and tried to play and it still crashes, It's been ages since we heard anything on this so can someone tell us whats going on, you all can ignore me but im not going away until something is done.

Give us a solution because clearly SSG aren't/can't fix this so do something Matrix games, How long do we have to wait?, until you lot get tired of saying we will get this resolved asap?, Until you lot realise I won't let this go?, I want something done about this and i want it done yesterday!

dlotus
(Really Annoyed Customer)