(NAB) Animate battles option not working as before

In the original Civ3 and PtW, in the preferences screen (CTRL-P while playing), under UNITS the "Animate Battles" option checked off didn't show the unit animations in battles. It did, however, show the units losing health one notch at a time and eventually one died or backed off. This greatly improved game speed when long battles were fought while allowing to see what's going on.

However, in C3C checking off the "Animate Battles" options makes the battles invisible. When I initiate a battle I can see who won, that's it. When the computer takes its turn and attacks me I cannot even see what happened, the battles happened automatically without visual confirmation. You have to go around the screen guessing what happened.

The "Animate Battles" option checked off doesn't turn animation off, it makes the battles invisible to the player in the computer's turn and instantaneous during the player's turn.

This was intentional to speed up MP games.

Originally posted by Traian
The "Animate Battles" option checked off doesn't turn animation off, it makes the battles invisible to the player in the computer's turn and instantaneous during the player's turn.

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This is something I had noticed in C3C that I hadn't gotten around to checking out myself, but it is certainly annoying. It definitely wasn't this way in PTW 1.27, and the change makes it nearly impossible to see what an opponent has in his city. Before, if you're attacking a standard 1 move defender with a 2+ move attack unit, you would see both sides' hitpoints move down and if you won or retreated, you would know. As it is now, you have no clue if your attacking unit won or had to retreat to a stronger defensive unit.

I don't want to sit there for 3 seconds each fight to watch an animation I've already seen 500 times; I just want to know who won the battle!

Originally posted by warpstorm
This was intentional to speed up MP games.

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For the 90% of Civ3 players who generally play single-player, it's an annoying step backwards. Instead of changing it for everyone, there should be a "Show Battles" option to display the opposing units' health during combat, which is always off during multiplayer games. That would allow multiplayer to stay speedy without removing important information in a standard single-player game.

Warpstorm is correct and I fully agree with Pyrkaige. Expanding the Battle Animation options to 'Full' (normal animation), 'Quick' (no animation/pre-C3C) and 'None' (no animation/C3C) would be welcomed.

I think three states like shirleyrocks proposes would be a very good idea.

It might speed up play in MP but after the computer takes its turn you have to go around the map and wonder what transpired. You have to remember all your formations from the turn before and deduce what battles you won/lost. This actually increases game time in single player mode.

The preference option should then be reworded, "Animate Battles" is a misnomer.

Of course, I'd rather have it as in PTW - invisible battles are not fun and neither is watching the same animation over-and-over-and-over.......