Looking for fast gameplay tips

[MDPhillips]

I know this is slightly off-topic, but the folks who know the answer are here in this forum . . .

I've noticed when looking at the results for some of the GOTMs - where everyone is playing the same size map and game speed - that the amount of time the game was played varies widely.

What tips does anyone have for speeding up your gameplay? I might get more sleep if I could finish a game faster.

Thanks!
Mitch

 

[Softnum]

1) Don't reload. It's a filthy habit, and doesn't really make you better.
2) Plan. If you plan ahead for what's going to happen, then you know. 'Oh, if this happens then I will do X'.
3) Save and come back later? Honestly, I do my best thinking about the game when I'm not starting at the red dot.

You can turn off the unit fight animations, that will save some time.

 

[civ_steve]

Turning off Fight Animations is a big one.

I think you can turn off all animations as well. Not as visually interesting, but faster.

I use single unit display

I also turn off the 'Show me Friend moves ...' etc; turning off enemy moves can be risky!

Explore the options menu - there may be other settings to speed up the game.

 

[mboza]

Auto workers and auto explore should both save considerable time. In the quiet building phases I often realise that half my turn is spent shuffling a handful of caravels around the map, chasing the last black patches, and nmuch of the rest is spent deciding how to improve tiles that are not yet being worked, so not really critical. I try to avoid both automations, as I disagree with the worker actions too often, but I always end up with 20 hour games.

Admittedly, I leave the game running and walk away from the pc for hours at a time, so my times will be substantially longer than my actual playing time.

 

[DynamicSpirit]

Admittedly, I leave the game running and walk away from the pc for hours at a time, so my times will be substantially longer than my actual playing time.

LOL! I regularly do that too. Think I managed to accidentally leave a GOTM running overnight when I went to bed once too. That should really have bumped up the time..

 

[DynamicSpirit]

On this topic, does anyone know if it's possible to disable the animations of rival leaders in the diplomacy screen? That's the thing that often really slows down my game, because on occasions, esp. in the late game, the animation just plays incredibly slowly and hangs the game until it's played through. It's even on some occasions slightly harmed my game by discouraging me from opening negotiations about something that I really would have liked to.

 

[Equendil]

Looking at the result tables, I seem to be completing my games in a shorter time than most. Reasons are multiple I expect, a few guesses :

- I usually play in one long session. No leaving the computer turned on with civ running for two hours while I'm having dinner. Probably the major reason hehe.

- Some people seem to take the GOTM a bit too seriously, resorting to excel spreadsheets and the like to compute optimal growth/research/culture/whatever. I sure as hell don't do that. No spending 15 minutes computing whether I should merge a GP in a city or use it to discover a tech.

- Similarly, I don't micromanage everything. Handling workers manually, checking cities every turn, timing my chops and what not is fine and all in the early BC years, but as the years pass, the amount of micro-management decreases in my games. By the time I hit the middle of my games, most of my workers are automated (with settings so they don't chop forests on their own, or replace previous improvements). The AI can finish building roads/railroads, connecting new ressources (from new techs or border expansions or whatever), building lumbermills etc just fine without my help.

- Game settings. There's only so many times I can see the same animations. "Show ennemy moves" and "Show friendly moves" are disabled, "quick moves" and "quick combat (offense)" are enabled, I only have "quick combat (defense)" disabled because it's hard to tell what's going on in between turns without that when I'm at war.

Now that being said, I play fast but I score low, though that's not necessarily related.

 

[Thrallia]

I tend to play through the game pretty fast as well, and the tips I've got for that seem to be pretty much the same as Equendil.

- I prefer to play the entire game in 3-4 sessions, although sometimes that's not possible.

- I generally do some basic calculations in my head, but don't take calculating stuff seriously enough to compute anything optimally or use spreadsheets.

- Micromanaging...is something I do not do much of, sometimes I'll micromanage a few cities for awhile, and I will control all my workers until the late middle ages, usually. After that though, I start automating my workers with the orders to leave previous improvements and not chop forests active. The automation is generally more effective for connecting resources and setting up my trade networks.

That's about all I do though, and as for my scores...well, I've yet to finish in the top half in a GOTM, but I prefer to think that is because I've only submitted completed games on Emperor and Monarch when my preferred level is noble or prince.