Make turns go quicker - turn on the strategic map

[TomMcV]

Hi, just thought I'd post this as I haven't seen it mentioned anywhere else, although it might be common knowledge...

If you turn on the strategic map then the AI will process their turns incredibly quickly.

On large maps I tend to play those final world wars on the strategic map (once I have a good 'pretty' picture in my head).

And you can turn the map on/off mid-AI turn. So if the game seems to be chugging over the AI's movements, click the map button on. The only problem is that in a big war it can be hard to track what AI units are damaging your units, so you may want to leave it on normal view if you want to follow the progress of combat.

 

[Nightshades]

Makes sense -dunno why I haven't thought of it before
I've always used it to locate resource and plan my tile improvements

 

[Becomedeath]

I've used this when I have a very unit heavy map during an open war. I do however forget that it's there most of the time.

When your map starts to get cluttered the strategic view is a brilliant way of clarifying what you have and where it is, but I have to say that this view isn't always the clearest. But I guess that's more of a personal point than a generalisation.

 

[TheMeInTeam]

Is this actually true?! It hadn't occurred to me to try to up the snail pace of the game via strategic view; it doesn't make sense that the AI would play a turn faster or slower based on display.

So that slowdown that people were telling me was the AI taking its turn and using lots of deep strategic algorithms was BS after all, and the game is just choking on its own graphics? I might actually play it now, in strategic mode X_X.

 

[Steelyglint]

This works really really well. I'm not used to it yet though, so I have to keep flicking back and forth whenever I need to fight.

 

[Ellye]

I play in Huge Maps on my Notebook.

On the normal game view, the game takes a while between turns.
On Strategic Map View (which I play in 99,9% of the time), it's pretty much instantaneous.

 

[Martin Alvito]

So it's a visual output problem rather than a processing problem, eh? I bet you that you'd get the same result if it were possible to turn unit animations off.

 

[mass09]

Could this be some kind of bug? If so, Firaxis should take note!

 

[TheMeInTeam]

So it's a visual output problem rather than a processing problem, eh? I bet you that you'd get the same result if it were possible to turn unit animations off.

Amazing. That option would be REALLY nice .

 

[PieceOfMind]

Shouldn't be too difficult to test this.

I suspect if turn times are mainly due to watching unit animations, you'll see big improvements. If it's actually AI code at work, you won't see much difference at all.

 

[wcbarney]

Hi, just thought I'd post this as I haven't seen it mentioned anywhere else, although it might be common knowledge... If you turn on the strategic map then the AI will process their turns incredibly quickly. On large maps I tend to play those final world wars on the strategic map (once I have a good 'pretty' picture in my head). And you can turn the map on/off mid-AI turn. So if the game seems to be chugging over the AI's movements, click the map button on. The only problem is that in a big war it can be hard to track what AI units are damaging your units, so you may want to leave it on normal view if you want to follow the progress of combat.

Is this actually true?! It hadn't occurred to me to try to up the snail pace of the game via strategic view; it doesn't make sense that the AI would play a turn faster or slower based on display. So that slowdown that people were telling me was the AI taking its turn and using lots of deep strategic algorithms was BS after all, and the game is just choking on its own graphics? I might actually play it now, in strategic mode X_X.

So it's a visual output problem rather than a processing problem, eh? I bet you that you'd get the same result if it were possible to turn unit animations off.

Amazing. That option would be REALLY nice .

Shouldn't be too difficult to test this. I suspect if turn times are mainly due to watching unit animations, you'll see big improvements. If it's actually AI code at work, you won't see much difference at all.

Well, yeah --- I've played this way almost from the get-go; at least after I decided I didn't want to watch the AIs battle each other & the barbs one.little.battle.at.a.time. So you just hit F10 to enter the strategic view, and all these little battle animations don't occur. Thus, the only time spent on turn changes is just the processor time normally spent to process the AIs' moves & such. So, consider it tested, and what TomMcV says is absolutely true!

 

[TheMeInTeam]

CONFIRMED! Turn times are roughly 1/4 as long during the late BCs with strategic view. In other words, the game is 4x faster.

Unit command lag is improved also, lending me to believe that animation times are a serious strain as while I can still outplay the UI on my turns, it's quite difficult. I've got to go for now but later on I'll be running some strat-view only games for more thorough testings...

 

[PieceOfMind]

I do find strategic view a bit inferior for visibility though. I think it's to do with all the icons being monochromatic so not distinguishable enough. The terrain textures are good though.

When I've been playing I often switch to strategic view and back in less than a second to skip a battle, saving a few seconds. I wasn't sure how it'd affect the really long turn times though, as I've usually quit by that stage!

 

[Ellye]

For example, in my case, my Notebook has a pretty decent CPU, but a somewhat below-average GPU. So turning on Strategic View really increases performance for me, a lot.

Also, I personally prefer Strategic View anyway, and would likely use it even if the performance was the same.

(Anyone here played Elemental: War of Magic? I also always played that game on the "parchment map" mode instead of the fancy 3d graphics)

 

[apocalypse105]

thanxs for the tip Does this olso works in multiplayer that turns goes faster?

 

[AbbieRevo]

I've never actually played in normal view.

 

[Becomedeath]

thanxs for the tip Does this olso works in multiplayer that turns goes faster?

You would probably save some time, but in MP you really are waiting for the other human players! (must figure out who they are in SP...always wondered who's hiding in my computer!)