Map Size / Speed

[McSterling]

I've just starting playing Civ again after a long hiatus. I've always enjoyed playing on Huge Maps, but the end of turn waits become unbearable after a while (about mid-way through a match). I've noticed on a normal size map this doesn't happen and the game progresses quickly. The waitin is killing me.

My question is, is this - which is optimal a huge map with fewer opponents or a normal size map with more opponents?

Thanks.

 

[Grawss]

Normal size with more opponents I'd imagine. They'd be pretty close, but on a huge map with, say, two opponents, you'll still have to wait nearly as long due to the amount of calculations needed. That same map with 30 opponents won't change much since the amount of land, cities, and to an extent calculations won't change.

Of course, you'd have to take into consideration transitions between AI players and all the calculations that go with that. More AI means more diplomacy between those players, etc.

 

[TheMeInTeam]

Normal size with more opponents, or a godlike computer.

What's slowing you down is all that data and movement. In theory if your pc was good enough it wouldn't be an issue.

My laptop is pretty good though, and huge maps can still get obnoxious. I don't think the game was really made to move turns quickly, based on how long it takes a lot of players to get through one game. Some people put more than 20 hours into one game! That's about 5x longer than me, and I play epic speed!

So if you want the game running smoother and faster, take the map size down. # of civs don't matter...the map will have approximately the same amount of total cities/units anyway, I think.

 

[Silver Marmot]

I've noticed that it's map size that slows me down. Large maps for me are unbearable halfway through, but standard maps with 8 or 9 opponents get only a little slow. As long as you have enough civs to fill up all the land, the size won't matter.