Civ 5 unplayable post turn 200

[Atlanto]

Ok before i start id like to mention that i love civ, play all of them and have enjoyed each and everyone, including civ 5.

Trouble is, i play on deighty and find that if im not able to finish the game earlier rather than later, my computer opponent (even if there is one remaining) will spam units like crazy to the point where there is barely a tile left on their continent without a unit.

This causes turn times to increase unbearable levels, and unit managemant takes longer and longer. It is however the turn times that start to make it unplayable, and there have been a few occasions now where i actively enjoy the game but once i get close to turn 200, I often quit, and start a new game.

I wish that the developers rather than just progamming the ai to spam like crazy, would spend more time on quality over quantity, and improve the actual ai (requiring less units)

Its actually very disappointing because while i am enjoying the game, and enjoy the challenge, its becomes almost impossible to play out as the turn clock go's upwards.

I hope future patches can remedy this.

 

[aimlessgun]

Couple questions:

-What map size are you playing on? Obviously if it is huge youll have to scale back
-Have you updated your drivers/turned off junk in the background? Sounds like a dumb obvious suggestion but doing those things allowed me to play the game into the later turns when I was having problems.

Anyways, 3rd solution is to simply be a warmonger and chop the units down. Not fun if its the only way to play though.

 

[charon2112]

This doesn't happen to me at all. My turns never take more than 5 or 10 seconds, even at the end of the game.

 

[BobDole]

Can definitely be due to map size/computer specs. For me, turns are no more than 10-15 seconds on a large map, it gets pretty obnoxious on a huge map with 14+ civs plus city states (around a minute per turn) but other than maybe that it really shouldn't be bad unless you're playing something your computer can't handle.

 

[Atlanto]

Couple questions:

-What map size are you playing on? Obviously if it is huge youll have to scale back
-Have you updated your drivers/turned off junk in the background? Sounds like a dumb obvious suggestion but doing those things allowed me to play the game into the later turns when I was having problems.

Anyways, 3rd solution is to simply be a warmonger and chop the units down. Not fun if its the only way to play though.

- standard map, continents.
- ive optimised my comp to play civ, the game itself runs fine, its just those later turns when the ai starts to spam, usually on the other continent.
- very very difficult to do that on harder levels when you have to take care of your own continent first, by the time you are ready for the second..... Crazy turn times and ai has spammed to the max. Usually just aim for diplo/sci/cultural victory and try to end it quick, which is a shame.

 

[KahunaGod]

This doesn't happen to me at all. My turns never take more than 5 or 10 seconds, even at the end of the game.

What map types do you play on Charon, I would like to compare my results with yours. I have a brand new win7 pc loaded with an i7 890 chipset and 16gb ram. Seeing your performance results versus mine would be interesting.

 

[charon2112]

What map types do you play on Charon, I would like to compare my results with yours. I have a brand new win7 pc loaded with an i7 890 chipset and 16gb ram. Seeing your performance results versus mine would be interesting.

I play continents almost exclusively. The biggest size map, and I almost never have more than 5 seconds wait after I hit the turn button. This is my rig and I play at 1600 x 1200 resolution, every graphic detail maxed:

-Intel Core i5-750 Lynnfield @ 3.67 ghz
-GIGABYTE GA-P55M-UD2 Intel P55 Micro ATX Intel Motherboard
-SAPPHIRE Radeon HD 5770
-4GB DDR3 1600 Memory
-Windows 7 home premium

What kind of video card do you have? 16gb is a ton of RAM, but more than 4 isn't going to be used by most games anyway. Oh, and what's the specs of your RAM?

 

[TheMeInTeam]

This doesn't happen to me at all. My turns never take more than 5 or 10 seconds, even at the end of the game.

When you play turns in 5-10 seconds, 5-10 seconds is a long, long time.

30 second times between turns are indeed an unplayable joke...and I'm glad I'm not the only person bothered by this garbage in a "TBS" (supposedly).

 

[PieceOfMind]

Difficulty level matters a lot in these comparisons. Deity AIs really do spam much more, and they can grow much earlier with that free second settler.

My suggestion might be counter intuitive, but try bumping down the difficulty level.

At lower diffs, the AI doesn't get any dumber, it just basically can't expand as fast and doesn't spam as much. It might mean you have to make more of a conscious effort not to quickly exploit an AI vulnerability (like doing a horse rush), but it just might make the game more enjoyable.

I know, I know, I shouldn't have to be saying this, but I think the civ5 devs have not very much playtested the highest difficulty levels. Most of the gameplay is unfortunately more balanced for the people who find a chellenge at the more moderate diffs. If I may mention civ4 for just a moment, I think the gameplay didn't skew so much with adjustments to difficulty level as what it does in civ5.

 

[charon2112]

When you play turns in 5-10 seconds, 5-10 seconds is a long, long time.

30 second times between turns are indeed an unplayable joke...and I'm glad I'm not the only person bothered by this garbage in a "TBS" (supposedly).

well, 5 - 10 seconds is late game..it's more like 2 in the early game. And really, that's not a long wait. Especially for a TBS.

 

[He-Who-Hunts]

you know I used to find performance pretty bad, but then I updated my drivers and now I'm living high on the hog!

 

[charon2112]

you know I used to find performance pretty bad, but then I updated my drivers and now I'm living high on the hog!

I winder if more people updated their drivers, we'd see less threads like this one?

 

[smellymummy]

What map types do you play on Charon, I would like to compare my results with yours. I have a brand new win7 pc loaded with an i7 890 chipset and 16gb ram. Seeing your performance results versus mine would be interesting.

16 gigs of ram ?!?!?! holy *

 

[Becephalus]

I get 5-10 sec turns on both my comps all games. One is below minimum spec, one is brand new.

Below minimum spec one I play on small maps an with strategic view only, other one large with 16 civs and 28cs, though I generally play on immortal or emperor and not deity since deity gameplay is too boring.

 

[Atlanto]

Difficulty level matters a lot in these comparisons. Deity AIs really do spam much more, and they can grow much earlier with that free second settler.

My suggestion might be counter intuitive, but try bumping down the difficulty level.

At lower diffs, the AI doesn't get any dumber, it just basically can't expand as fast and doesn't spam as much. It might mean you have to make more of a conscious effort not to quickly exploit an AI vulnerability (like doing a horse rush), but it just might make the game more enjoyable.

I know, I know, I shouldn't have to be saying this, but I think the civ5 devs have not very much playtested the highest difficulty levels. Most of the gameplay is unfortunately more balanced for the people who find a chellenge at the more moderate diffs. If I may mention civ4 for just a moment, I think the gameplay didn't skew so much with adjustments to difficulty level as what it does in civ5.

Very well put. I could be bumping down the difficulty level but shouldnt have to.

During later ages this does cause the game to get one dimensional and i feel that your absolutely correct in saying that the devs have attempted to balance civ at moderate difficulties but have somewhat skimmed over ai 'improvements at higher difficulties'.

As i love this game, this is some what frustrating.

 

[Gorey]

Turn times are the reason i quit playing this game weeks ago. It's just not fun waiting to play.

 

[firecat318]

My turn times aren't too bad. (Note that these times are all on standard map sizes and Emperor difficulty level).

Turn 1: 1 second
Turn 100: 3 seconds
Turn 200: 6-7 seconds
Turn 300: 10 seconds
Turn 400: 13-15 seconds
Turn 500: Never got that far.

Obviously times vary depending on the amount of civs and city states left in the game. Also my computer is hardly that great, only an Intel Core 2 Duo processor at 2.66 GHz with a ATI Radeon 4870 graphics card.

 

[smellymummy]

(Note that these times are all on standard map sizes and Emperor difficulty level).

standard size plays the best for me. its always been like that in civ, sometimes large works okay, and huge is fine at the start of the game, but to reach the end standard size is what works

 

[skodkim]

I've almost given up by now.

I own what would propably be considered a high end machine and so far my experience with Civ V has been starting over and over again, trying reductions in map size and lowering video quality.

Right now my longest game so far (turn 342!!) won't even load - Civ just crasches. Well I guess that would be the next logical step up from the status some days ago when it took like 10 minuttes to load the save games.

Waiting for Civ VI, patches or whatever. I think I'll just shelve Civ for a bit after being a total addict for 15-20 years...

\Skodkim

 

[TheMeInTeam]

Difficulty level matters a lot in these comparisons. Deity AIs really do spam much more, and they can grow much earlier with that free second settler.

My suggestion might be counter intuitive, but try bumping down the difficulty level.

At lower diffs, the AI doesn't get any dumber, it just basically can't expand as fast and doesn't spam as much. It might mean you have to make more of a conscious effort not to quickly exploit an AI vulnerability (like doing a horse rush), but it just might make the game more enjoyable.

I know, I know, I shouldn't have to be saying this, but I think the civ5 devs have not very much playtested the highest difficulty levels. Most of the gameplay is unfortunately more balanced for the people who find a chellenge at the more moderate diffs. If I may mention civ4 for just a moment, I think the gameplay didn't skew so much with adjustments to difficulty level as what it does in civ5.

Do you think, seeing the list of names on the beta testers, that we were running the game on prince the whole time ?

But given that you know my opinions on UI/time between turns/etc...well let's just say that testing just might not be the problem here.

well, 5 - 10 seconds is late game..it's more like 2 in the early game. And really, that's not a long wait. Especially for a TBS.

I'm curious what modern TBS competition you're playing that takes more time between turns than that.

And on huge maps, which mind you ARE in the default game and supposedly ARE "playable" with the recommended specs (which are all well below my actual specs), the time is a *lot* longer than 5-10 seconds.

Games where it's possible to spend a significant portion of your time being forced into doing nothing are not well-designed.