I've been playing Civ for a while now and am now starting to try huge maps. I've noticed that, on huge map games, the turns ("Please wait...) are getting longer - 15 - 30 seconds now - as the game progresses. This is lenghthening the game considerably.

While my computer is not cutting edge, it's no slouch (P4 1.85 Gig Chip with WinXP, 750M Ram) and it seems like it should be able to handle the game OK.

Is a lagging game huge game just a fact of life, or is there a setting or a mode I can play in to mitigate this?

Cheers,

Ixman

Your computer is fine, actually, it is doing well. Sometimes huge maps can take over 5 minutes in the interturn. The biggest maps (362 x 362) can take up to 30 seconds in the Ancient Age. I wouldn't worry if I were you, you have a pretty good computer.

The main reason why civ takes long on bigger maps is because it has to find trade routes, and the bigger the map is, the more possible routes and civs there are. You can put the line "NoAIPatrol=1" in your CivilizationIII.ini line (are you using plain civ, or an expansion?) which will make the AI take less time in the interturn. Basically it says for the computer civs not to move around in circles during their turn.

Excellent! Thanks!