Is this game length normal?

[Stumpy123]

Ok, it may just be me, but I think the games I play in Civ III take way too long. For instance, I have won in everything but name only my current Regent game (was way too easy by the way; gotta move up ). Now, using the great and wonderful CivAssist II, my game has taken over 98 hours thus far, and I'm not even out of the Industrial Ages yet (only 4 techs left though). I have 158 cities as of right now, and I'm not even managing every citizen in every city for most of the game (gave up on that early-middle Middle Ages). I am still managing every worker, and city production as it comes up every turn.

All in all, is this normal for a game to take this long? It is a large archipelago map, but I feel this is excessive. So, should I just suck it up and take weeks on a single game, or am I trying too hard (and is there any tips on using the automation to some useful degree.)?

 

[henry k c]

It usually takes 50 hours for me to complete a game. Aminate the moves of friendy nations and animate your moves.

 

[MeteorPunch]

That's a lot of cities and you're on a large map.To me, standard size is big enough.

 

[Breunor]

Stumpy,

Many people (including me) stop the game once the win is inevitable. If you have won in everything but name, the mop up really isn't that much fun after you have done a few of them.

Obviously, the larger the map the longer it takes.

Breunor

 

[Stumpy123]

Yeah, I remember back in the Alpha Centauri days I didn't "finish" most games, unless I wanted a score in the hall of fame. To me the best part was getting light years ahead in research, then use gravships with the best equipment, then crush the stupid AI's that would declare war on me. In some ways the AI in SMAC was stupider than CivIII's AI.

Anyway, back to my point , the only reason I'm playing this far is for some experience in case higher difficulty games go into the last techs, so I have some idea of a good research strategy, or what the AI might research (although they probably won't make it this game; a few AIs just got to the Industrial Ages just now). But still, I need help in compromising between the governors/auto workers/etc. and micromanagement.

 

[HellboundHeathcliff]

Over 100 hrs for a large map sounds about right to me.

 

[brennan]

and I'm not even managing every citizen in every city for most of the game (gave up on that early-middle Middle Ages

You try to manage every citizen in every city? And you have 159 cities?! I think that's your problem, sounds like some major micromanagement to me. My 100k HoF took just under 30Hrs on Huge world and I was Modernised.

 

[val]

I'm having the same problem, which is contributing to my general lack of sleep this summer. I'm kind of addicted to watching combat, and the automation of workers never seems to have them doing what I want them to do. Does anyone use the governors? I'm kind of at the stage in one game right now where I'd like to stop worrying about what each city is building and go to and focus now on getting the right number of troops assembled for my invasion of Persia.

 

[mastertyguy]

When I have MI against rifles, #1 city culture, 40k more overall culture than everybody, I generally consider that I won. It could be domination, space race, conquest, even diplomatic, I don't mind, it is a win.

 

[HellboundHeathcliff]

Nobody should allow the governors to manage production... citizen moods only.

Auto workers are never a good idea.

 

[DBear]

And I thought my games took a long time--around 50 hours, but I keep a turn log.

 

[RandomInsanity]

for regent that really is too long

 

[Ansar]

Im playing the Earth Map, huge, it takes forever for a TURN to go by.

 

[gmaharriet]

I only play small or standard maps, and I manage everything myself. A small map usually takes 20-25 hours and a standard one 40-45. I wouldn't mind more hours to play a larger map if it didn't mean such long waits between turns. Maybe it's time for me to buy a newer, faster computer.

 

[mastertyguy]

A OCC takes 2 hours.

 

[NintendoNut]

Wow, you people have long games! My longest game was my first and only emperor win. 10 hours.

 

[Bluemofia]

Meh, my games often go to 20 or 30 hours. The TETukurhan map game lasted almost 400 hours IIRC. Either that or nearly 300.

 

[Stumpy123]

Yeah, it must be me. For a while (early on), I managed every citizen. Then I stuck to just worker and production management. I tried the "manage mood" governor setting, but they are stupid about this. They hire clowns instead of scientists (to shave off 1 turn of research), taxmen, or police/civil engineers (for building faster). I for one would find better management of this, like if the game had options to convert excess unhappy citizens to scientists until it takes 1 less turn to research, then move on to police or civil engineers for small cities to build basic stuff first, or taxmen for larger cities. Then governor option would be very useful.

The other thing is when I started to conquer alot of cities. For awhile (about mid Industrial Ages), I did alot of searching for pop rushing to do. This is another tedious thing, and should have some kind of auto-rush as soon as it reaches a certain amount of shields. This would alleviate more micromanagement.

All in all, I like Civ, but it's handling of micromanagement, IMO, is really poor. I think the make or break thing about Civ4 will be if this is fixed or not, along with the AI. After all, its been done before in Galatic Civilizations. I think Firaxis could learn a few tricks from this game.

 

[axehaxe]

Currently I'm playing Celts against 7 civs (I killed 3 already), Huge Continents 70% water map, Monarch, 4 billion, Roaming barbs, and moved up from 540 standard turns in the game to 700 turns. I'm on my 358th turn so far and I'm in the Industrial Age getting a tech every 5 or 6 turns. I know that its likely for me to win but I also know that when I'm done with this I'll have spent like 130 hours (estimate) to finish! Biggest time eater being that right now I'm fighting the Maya who have 42% land area and 35% population. I have 36% land area and 45% population using communism, have TOE (Ahead in tech), have factories in like all my cities, Hoover, railroads like crazy, but a weaker military compared to Maya according to my MA. They just began building railroads so they are not as industrialized. I'm pillaging their coals to slow them down. It'll be one heck of a time consuming battle!

 

[Gargantutron]

i usually play on huge map/continents and max civs on demigod difficulty. i manage everything! however in the industial era (after rail network is complete) i put my slave workers to automate without altering existing improvements, while i maintain direct control over my proper workers. usually every city will have every tile developed somewhere towards the end of the industrial era, and then i usually found 1 or 2 new cities somewhere within my borders and have the majority of my workers join those cities. i save maybe 30 workers to have for cleaning pollution and turning mined grasslands into irrigation as my cities start to run out of food.

Unless i quit because a victory is certain and thus play to the finish line, a game usually takes around 120 hours.