What's the fastest way to cut down a game's time?

wilmer007 · Sep 17, 2012

Just got done playing a game that took about 1.5 days (or roughly about 16hrs in game time)

I really want to cut down my game time to about 2hrs or so. I come from Civ Rev where game's last about 2hrs or less which is great. Most of that 16hrs where waiting for AI's to finish their turns which took about 30-60 seconds per turn.

AriochIV · Sep 17, 2012

Two options come to mind:

1. Play on a faster setting (Quick) and/or a smaller map.

2. Play Civ Rev.

Aaron90495 · Sep 17, 2012

Well, unless you have a supercomputer, don't play on maps bigger than standard and expect reasonable turn times. I've figured out that by the end-game, each map size takes about twice as long as the immediately-smaller one for AI turns. For example, duel maps take half as long as tiny maps to finish turns. I don't know what size maps you play, but I prefer small maps, as the turn times don't get ridiculous but the game can still develop well.

I don't think you'll ever be able to get your games down to two hours; I play on tiny (occasionally small) maps with quick timing, and mine are usually at least five hours. But if you're not playing quick timing, that would obviously help a lot too.

wilmer007 · Sep 17, 2012

I played on Quick and Small Map and it took that long (I was passive and peaceful the whole time and won with a Science Victory).

What about Victory Conditions? If i play on Duel and Quick and take all his cities quick how long would a game like that take?

elprofesor · Sep 17, 2012

Just before clicking on "end turn", put strategic view on. Apparently, Civ 5 processes the graphics, even if they aren't displayed on screen, which is particularly glaring during AIs' turns.

But yeah, even with everything done to reduce turn times of the AI, and even on quick, you will never reach 2h long games, unless you are a virtuose of domination strategies, and either play on a very low level (relative to your skill) or with very few AIs, which seems like excessive cooking of the setting.

Just to give you an idea, even assuming the two extremes, that is, that your last game lasted 300 turns, and that each turn the AI took 60 seconds to process their actions, and that you could somehow cut it down to 0 seconds, your game would still have lasted 11h...

Seabastian Civ · Sep 17, 2012

AriochIV said:
2. Play Civ Rev.

lol.

Yeah Civ takes a long time. Just enjoy it.. play in 2 hour blocs... or set the victory conditions to score, and set a turn limit.

Avatan · Sep 17, 2012

Well That's not entirely true. First 300 minutes is "just" five hours, but for the first 150 turn or so the AI computation time is almost negligible. Plus you still can check stuff out and micromanage specialist or what not during their play.

My peaceful game on small standard speed won't take more than five hours. But the best games are the one that keep you riveted to te screen as you don't know if you're gonna survive/succeed until the end.

To answer to the question of the fastest VC I would say diplomatic, but it is not the most exciting neither :/

wilmer007 · Sep 17, 2012

Which are the best Civs that win games quick? I mean surely some Civs have the better military early and other civs can win a Diplomatic Victory faster than others.

Rooftrellen · Sep 17, 2012

If you really want to win fast domination, go Huns on a smaller map. You might finish the game before the ram goes obsolete and if you war well, you should still have a capital or two from your enemies.

For a fast diplo victory, go with the Maya. They get a decent science boost and if you rush theology, you can be the first religion founded by several hundred years (at least up to king difficulty), both of which can help a lot with diplomacy.

OmniPotent42 · Sep 17, 2012

The smaller the map size, the more appealing domination can be. On bigger map sizes, science is usually the easiest to secure, but Diplomatic can be quicker if you do it right.

I don't think you'll get your time down to below 3 hours though. CiV is a patience-testing game.
Good for science:
Korea
Babylon
Maya
Good for culture:
Siam
Gandhi
Egypt
Good for Diplomatic:
Carthage
Persia
Siam
Greece
Arabia

All of the other civs can be good (especially for conquest) if you play it out right. Press your advantages as hard as you can without giving up other aspects. For example, use Arabia's extra gold from trade routes to afford one less trading post, which means your worker can be cutting down a forest to speed the production of a camel archer. Don't feel like you HAVE to go a certain victory condition because your civ is "best" for it.

Carnifaux · Sep 17, 2012

Win the game faster obviously

AriochIV · Sep 17, 2012

If you're playing Quick on a small map and Civilization still takes too long for you, you're seriously playing the wrong game.

I suggest Angry Birds.

Suliz · Sep 17, 2012

AriochIV said:
If you're playing Quick on a small map and Civilization still takes too long for you, you're seriously playing the wrong game.

I suggest Angry Birds.

That's what I do while waiting for the AI to finish.

markusbeutel · Sep 17, 2012

wilmer007 said:
Just got done playing a game that took about 1.5 days (or roughly about 16hrs in game time)

I really want to cut down my game time to about 2hrs or so. I come from Civ Rev where game's last about 2hrs or less which is great. Most of that 16hrs where waiting for AI's to finish their turns which took about 30-60 seconds per turn.

Have you tried CIV IV? Not super speedy during the end-game either, but at least 2X faster if you have a decent rig - at least that's my experience. On one of Firaxis' early podcasts before V was released, they talked about how the engine for V, while apparently a custom make for the game itself, was - (I can't recall for sure - but they said it was either originally built for Civ Rev 2 or console versions of Civ), and then transformed into the Civ V engine.

Would help explain why the game looks really nice, but suffers from turn-times that are worse than in any other Civ game to date.

mintcandy · Sep 17, 2012

One time saving method I use is playing in Strategic View as opposed to Normal View.

Sure, it cuts out on the majority of the gorgeous graphics, but that's the trade off.

One thing I wish that could be turned off is how the player HAS to acknowledge EVERY SINGLE City State Quest request...is there an option to turn off having to acknowledge these things? I imagine that turning these things off could shave off significant time...

krc · Sep 17, 2012

Rooftrellen said:
If you really want to win fast domination, go Huns on a smaller map. You might finish the game before the ram goes obsolete and if you war well, you should still have a capital or two from your enemies.

Attila on a great Plains Plus map can give an incredibly fast domination victory....

Uzumati · Sep 17, 2012

Have you done an advanced set up game where you do quick movement and quick combat enabled? Sounds like you are rather new at Civ 5 and may not know about it. Cut's the game time down alot.

azbestor · Sep 17, 2012

Turn off move and attack animations or use strategic view.

Thyrwyn · Sep 17, 2012

Uzumati said:
Have you done an advanced set up game where you do quick movement and quick combat enabled? Sounds like you are rather new at Civ 5 and may not know about it. Cut's the game time down a lot.

Quick movement and quick combat definitely help.

What's the fastest way to cut down a game's time?

wilmer007

Chieftain

AriochIV

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Aaron90495

King

wilmer007

Chieftain

elprofesor

Pluri-editing poster

Seabastian Civ

King

Avatan

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wilmer007

Chieftain

Rooftrellen

King

OmniPotent42

King

Carnifaux

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AriochIV

Colonial Ninja

Suliz

Chieftain

markusbeutel

NiGHTS

mintcandy

King

krc

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Uzumati

Chieftain

azbestor

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Thyrwyn

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