Loading times for Civ VI

Plus Ultra

Conquistador
Joined
May 27, 2016
Messages
702
Location
Spain
Hello there fellow Civ fanatics.

Everything I've heard from Civ VI sounds like a dream come true. Districts, Religious Victory, Agendas, More Uniques, Cultural tree... I'm on board the hype train.

BUT! I've just finished a Deity, standard, continents game and was reminded of the ugly part of playing Civilization V: Turn Loading times. [pissed]

This is, in my opinion, the single biggest problem with Civ V, which makes the late game unbearably tedious.

The last 80-120 turns take longer to load than to play :sleep:.
It doesn't help that exploration is over at that point and there is generally "less to do".

Remember, this is a standard speed, standard size (8 Civs) map. Don't even get me started on Marathon speed Huge maps with loading times that basically force you to look for an alternative activity while playing Civ V.

We know Civ VI is being built on a new engine, and we also know Firaxis is perfectly aware of this problem.

¿Do we have some information about performance, or whether this issue is being resolved?

¿Are loading times hurting your experience too, or am I just too impatient?



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Edit: I play on a i5 4670k with an SSD, 8GB Ram and a GTX 970.
Edit 2: I am refering to turn loading times, not the time it takes for the game to launch.
 
I totally agree, but there are two sides to this problem. Besides the normal performance optimization of computing power (what a combination of words), there's also the late-game bloat of decisions. Now, it is normal that game complexity grows with playing time, but for me the difference is too stark in civ. So yes, what do they do to make the late game playable?
 
I totally agree, but there are two sides to this problem. Besides the normal performance optimization of computing power (what a combination of words), there's also the late-game bloat of decisions. Now, it is normal that game complexity grows with playing time, but for me the difference is too stark in civ. So yes, what do they do to make the late game playable?

Late-game bloat of decisions?

Leaving War aside, which at the modern era is almost always micromanagment hell, around the end of the industrial era the player is either doomed or has eclipsed the A.I. in tech and is basically "clicking next turn until victory".

For science, diplomatic and culture victory you spend the last third of the game just clicking away to victory, and waiting lots of time to get it.

I want to spend most of my time doing stuff, not waiting for the game to load.

Anyway, I'm sure Ed and his team will work something out, I can't even begin to understand the amount of information that needs to be processed in other for Civ to work, but I think reducing loading times should be a priority for Civ VI.
 
I wasn't saying they were interesting decisions ;-) I was referring exactly to what you described, clicking through building lists, renewing trade routes, listening to leaders - I want less of those :)
 
I wasn't saying they were interesting decisions ;-) I was referring exactly to what you described, clicking through building lists, renewing trade routes, listening to leaders - I want less of those :)

My bad, we agree then!
 
I think there are some easy fixes that they should implement (but doubt they will). E.g., why the eff do AI units have to shuffle every turn in Civ5? If an AI is at peace and doesn't have a goal for their military units (like destroying a barbarian camp or manning a new fort), military unit movement should be skipped completely. That one change alone would cut waiting times in half.
 
I think there are some easy fixes that they should implement (but doubt they will). E.g., why the eff do AI units have to shuffle every turn in Civ5? If an AI is at peace and doesn't have a goal for their military units (like destroying a barbarian camp or manning a new fort), military unit movement should be skipped completely. That one change alone would cut waiting times in half.

I see what you mean, and I agree with the concept (avoid uncessary movement/actions) but that also creates problems... like having your units (missionaries, scouts, any unit) blocked by the A.I., which has decided to stay put in a choke point forever.

I think the developers knew about that, so they force the A.I. to move all units around, clearing spaces for you.

Imagine trying to expand your religion, but not being able to get to within 1 tile of the city.
 
I think there are some easy fixes that they should implement (but doubt they will). E.g., why the eff do AI units have to shuffle every turn in Civ5? If an AI is at peace and doesn't have a goal for their military units (like destroying a barbarian camp or manning a new fort), military unit movement should be skipped completely. That one change alone would cut waiting times in half.

Completely skipping military unit movement is a bad decision. AI at peace could do at least:
- Transporting newly built units to the places of potential war.
- Preparing for potential war (both offensive and defensive).
With 1UPT these actions could cause ripple effects on other units, so there's no easy fix for this, but it would be good to see improvements.

For example, let's say AI reassigns units against potential threat each time the AI sees enemy units. Instead of this it should prepare against attack on broader front and ignore individual units of potential enemy.
 
I think the developers knew about that, so they force the A.I. to move all units around, clearing spaces for you.
I think you're right but you could equally well allow civilian movement through occupied space in peace time. Or you could have missionaries work in a more abstracted way: like traded routes or spies. It's not the only available solution.

Completely skipping military unit movement is a bad decision. AI at peace could do at least:
- Transporting newly built units to the places of potential war.
- Preparing for potential war (both offensive and defensive).
With 1UPT these actions could cause ripple effects on other units, so there's no easy fix for this, but it would be good to see improvements.
That's why I said "without a clear goal." The AI should move their units if they have a reason to, but not otherwise.
 
¿Do we have some information about performance, or whether this issue is being resolved?

¿Are loading times hurting your experience too, or am I just too impatient?

Lets just get straight to the point:
Performance; Civ6 will be x64 and by default will have access to more RAM. In theory this should improve load times and AI calculation times.
There is talk of DirectX12 (or whatever windows 10 comes with) but what, if any, effect this will have on load times is unclear. I know someone will point out that graphics =/= calculation times but I mention this because to most consumers they only understand slowdown. If their GFX card can't keep up then the game will still seem to be running slow regardless of how optimized the game is.

Loading times; Not an issue to me unless I am on a long stretch of skipping turns and at that point I will just quit because the game is not engaging me, I'm just going through the motions.
 
I hope the game doesn't take long to load in the first place. Civ IV loads almost loads instantly while Civ V takes a good while. At launch it took ages to load the game.
 
Civ 5 loads about 2GB to my main memory and another 1 GB to video ram just to get into the game. Your HDD configuration will affect loading speed.

Since not everyone have SDD drives it would be nice if theyve done some optimization to make things move quicker but that's the cost of modern games. Games like Witcher 3 is also littered with loading screens and narrations bits meant to hide loading.

I certainly miss how older games are so much snappier in comparison.
 
I upgraded my windows 10 computer to 16 Gb of RAM recently. I am hoping that will help reduce the load times when I get civ6. I know it has made a big difference when playing XCOM2.
 
Do you want good loading time or a good AI ? Because there must be a trade-off somewhere.
 
Do you want good loading time or a good AI ? Because there must be a trade-off somewhere.
I'd take good AI over speed any day of the day. But as long as Civ has crappy AI, let it be speedy at least. ;)
 
Do you want good loading time or a good AI ? Because there must be a trade-off somewhere.

For me, fast loading times are very important because waiting around with nothing happening on the screen really kills my interest in the game. Slow loading times can make me quit a game.
 
Do you want good loading time or a good AI ? Because there must be a trade-off somewhere.

I want to spend more time playing than waiting, at least on standard maps and standard game length. 8 players, no mods.

Give me the best AI possible in that scenario and I'll be happy.


Loading times; Not an issue to me unless I am on a long stretch of skipping turns and at that point I will just quit because the game is not engaging me, I'm just going through the motions.

Exactly, that is what I do on 99% of the games (caution, hyperbole), decide whether I am going to win or not, quit and start a new game to avoid suffering due to waiting times in the mid to late-game.


Have you tried installing on an SSD, this helps a lot with the loading times.
(Unless you mean turn times)

Sorry, OP wasn't clear. I meant turn times, and I have Civ installed in a SSD.
 
Turn times are quite ok on civ five with an i7 on huge maps unmodded max factions and cs. And a really old gen1 i7 at that. I think CPU will really affect turn times in Civ6 so minimum specs might not be enough for the best experience
 
Turn times are quite ok on civ five with an i7 on huge maps unmodded max factions and cs. And a really old gen1 i7 at that. I think CPU will really affect turn times in Civ6 so minimum specs might not be enough for the best experience

I have around 20 seconds per turn from turn 180-200 till the end of the game in standard speed/maps. Huge maps are unplayable for me.

How long is a late-game turn on your setup?
 
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