Game is completely screwed

Here is my experience. As you will see, SEX is involved!

I edit a bit "scenario" file - so that I can play 256*256 map with 16 civs on diety.

I start playing. It goes all ok. But soon it starts to take quite a lot of time between turns. Then it gets worse. Then it gets completly ****ING (excuse me, but I have jerked it off 3 times between turns tonight) unberable.

At age 1000BC (BC!!!), when I have only 2 cities and 10 units, it takes more than 5 MINUTES (yes, 300 seconds) for computer to complete its turn!

How much it would take to complete turn in 2000AD (when I would have dosens of cities and hundreds of units) I can't even imagine (this things run quite exponentially).

My computer? P2 533Mhz, 128 MB RAM, 10 GB HDD - and all the other applications work normally (concerning speed of execution, at least).

I tried all the things to speed up: made sure that there is a lot of disk space free (but that did not seem like problem in the first place - disk is silent during computer moves!), reinstalled game, etc, etc. Nothing - the same result.

Moral of the story: I am ****ing idiot for trowing away the receipt, now I can't get refund. I bought Civ3 thinking "5 years after Civ2, they must have made huge progress. Sid Meier can't be wrong with Civ3 after Civ1 and Civ2" - I was ****ing stupid.

I am going to hang all my Civ3 crap on the wall - just to keep me remembering to be smarter some other time.

If you haven't bought it yet - DO NOT. This is from someone who spend *weeks* of his life playing Civ1 and Civ2.

They have killed Civilisation series, as far as I am concerned. The only thing that can save the situation is FREE PATCH that fixes ALL THE WORST problems with game.

But we are not going to get it. They just decided to make one (and last) milking of Civ players.

Guys, you will not sell Civ4 to me; and I doubt that you will sell it to anyone else.

Perhaps you should try and play the game on a smaller map, like 180*180 with 8 civs? Ofcourse it will take alot of time between turns on a 256*256 map with 16 civs and on deity :crazyeyes

A P2 533Mhz is simply not enough on a edited 256 map, atleast not with 16civs.

I hope your joking!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (regarding the thread starter)

Your PC lacks somewhat in the memory dept,

I imagine CIV3 is very heavy on MEM usage.

Try a small map and turn off the music?

Your computer sux dude...

For 700 pounds I equipped myself with a pentium 4, 1.6 Ghz, 512 MB ram monster with a TnT2 graphics card...THAT can play a game like civ3 quickly!

Is the game that slow when you play with 7 civs?

I have played Civ3 (the Civ3 GOTM) for about 5 hours. So far the game has been very enjoyable and I have no complaints. The game is fast and stable on my 1.2 GHZ system. The music is also pretty good IMO.

Take look at this histograph of my game.. I am doing much better after a bad start.

http://www.civfanatics.com/civ3images/gotm/mygotm01/histopower500ad.jpg

256x256 isn't even officially a map size. They probably left it out cause of its heavy CPU and memory requirements. And 16 civs? Sounds like your trying to test the game's limits.

I am in like 500 AD, on a small map, with 5 civs, and it takes like 5 seconds between turns. I guess it makes since if you add civs, and map size its going to take longer and longer.

I have a 800 Athlon, with 256 MB of PC-133 RAM.

This game is incredible, and I believe the word will get out, that it truly is a great game, despite some of the criticisms.

I have just a P2 250MHZ with 32 MB RAM. I haven't bought civ3 yet as it's not yet available in Tokyo. My computer is quite enough for civ2 even with 250*200 maps, all civs, max cities, etc. Do I really stand no chance with civ3 ?

I'm gonna skip slammin' you 'cause that's already been done

However, one thing I would highly suggest you try (you didn't mention trying this) is change the preference that animates computer moves.

I dunno if that just hides the PC's moves (bad) or if it makes them chess-like (hopefully) but that *could* technically speed things up.

By the way, if during those 5 minutes you're zoomed around and see stuff going on then consider this...

if the computer was as slowass as you at making up your mind ruling your puny country, the wait would be 16 minutes, not 5.

You slowpoke!

Seriously, try that animate thing!

I have a nice computer. P4 1.5Ghz 256 PC-800 ram. On the large earth map with 16 civs it takes 3min between turns. The year is around 1965 so there is lots of stuff going on but still it is really bad. I get board sitting for 3min between turns. Maybe it is because most of the civs are all involved in a huge world war that I have managed to stay out of but gee I move12 workers or so, maybe move my battleship or carrier in a good location should I be drawn into the conflict then wait for 3min.

I'm planning on getting another 512M of ram but not for another month. We'll see what happens then.

Originally posted by Julien
I have just a P2 250MHZ with 32 MB RAM. I haven't bought civ3 yet as it's not yet available in Tokyo. My computer is quite enough for civ2 even with 250*200 maps, all civs, max cities, etc. Do I really stand no chance with civ3 ?

Click to expand...

I have a 233Mhz, so I know how you feel. Just use a standard size map and turn the music off (or else it will mess up and kick you out - too bad, too, 'cause the music's not all that bad). The graphics will be a little slugish, but it'll run just fine.

I have a thunderbird 1.3GHZ, 256MB DDRAM, Geforce 2 and i'm using the Huge verison of earth and i'm in 1700AD(there must be over 200 little white dots on my map) with 16 civs and it takes about a minute for a turn to complete, so i'm pretty happy with that

Looks like I will be only playing on medium sized maps then...I will definately have to try 16 civs though because it sounds really cool. There could be loads of mini wars or one huge one between the comuter players. It would be interesting to see how much you can capitalise on them fighting if you do not join in. I realise you could do this in Civ 2 but this would be with double the civs and double the carnage...

Wow, thinking about it, i only have a P3 600, I hope Civ3 works OK on my comp... Maybe if I just close everything in the background and turn off animations and music... I really want to play huge maps with 16civs, the games would get really interesting.

Well, all I have is Celeron 500mhz with 128mb sdram, just over 2 years old, with a 6.5 gig HD.

I've been playing on the huge map with 16 Civs and there's less than a minute lag between my turns, even in the later periods of the game. I'm playing on the Chieftain and Warlord levels until I get used to it. Maybe the AI on the more difficult settings takes more time to think about what it's going to do, like a chess program.

The only "glitch" I've seen so far, is when I start a game the screen shrinks towards the upper left hand corner until the game begins. After that everything runs fine although I can't minimize the game to do anything else on my computer.

Good luck to those with problems !!!!