Just Make It Faster

[The End Is Nigh]

Whatever they do, they must make sure they make it faster. It takes way too much time for the AI to calculate everything between turns as the game progresses. And you just cannot leave your computer unattended betwen turns (to go shopping or walk the dog - sometimes even on a short holiday!!!), as you have to respond to requests by other BLEEPING Civs who want to speak to you, or to just press <Enter> whenever the BLEEPING AI informs you that someone has declared war on someone else.

I have a relatively good computer and play other games (whose requirements are much higher in terms of processor, RAM, graphic cards and so on) faster.
Civ has relatively medium-level requirements so I cannot see the reason why it should not be faster.

 

[Texan General]

I agree, for a game of such mediocre requirements it runs remarkably slow. I have a pretty good computer with above average capabilities and yet turns (especially in the late game) can take hours. Frankly, I find it unreasonable. Regardless of the new features or the "shiny new look" I would consider this at the top of my list of priorities (right there with civil wars...lol...had to get the plug).

 

[Sullla]

If your computer runs the Civilization games too slowly, you could always try a smaller map size...

 

[10Seven]

Sloppy code.

I tend to think Civ3 was intended more of a cash-cow, than anything else - as an improvement over Civ2 or, even, Civ1, it wasn't anything to write home about.

Presumably, now that Firaxis should be flush with that and a few other apparently succesful titles, they might actually make a decent go of this version.

At least their designing it so the users can fix it if necessary...

 

[warpstorm]

The issue is perfect path finding. If you are willing to live with less than perfect pathing, then it can be sped up a lot (at the cost that units on moves take the wrong way occasionally and certain trade routes are missed), if you require perfect pathfinding it will slow down.

 

[ForbiddenPalace]

The AI spend most of its time to check trade network between turns. It has to check if a trade route exist between any two cities on the map. If there are N cities on the map, it has to check N^2 times. Thus, if there are 500 cities in the game (I think on a large map), 250000 calculations has to made. If each calculation is only 1ms, about 4 minuets has to be spend. Adding about 2 minuets spent on unit management, the turn interval can last 6 or 7 minuets.

 

[Texan General]

Beyond the obvious basic game there were the scenarios which were tremendously well designed but almost impossible to play without huge amounts of time on your hands because of unit, city, and player numbers. This should be fixxed. I would like to be able to play with 64 or more civs on a map without worrying about turn intervals. I would really like to have my 750 units without seeing the game bog down. I would like to have 2k cities on my map without worrying that it could be next year before my next turn. Those are the issues I'm worried about. The basic game I've never had a problem with.

 

[warpstorm]

Well, in that case, Tex, you'll just have to wait for a few generations of computers to become fast enough to do what you want. There is only so much you can do even if you are the tightest coder on the planet.