middle ages REALLY slow

[move_quietly]

is there anything short of buying a new processor to speed up the middle ages scenario ? it's fast enough in the beginning but after you get up into the tech tree a ways it gets really slow. like ... hey i'll move by working and hit the build road button then go have some dinner and come back later after the computer is finished type slow. any suggestions ? maybe if the AI didn't send so many settlers out to siberia it wouldn't be so slow, i don't know what the trouble is. maybe it's just so many AI civs it takes forever. i don't think i'll ever finish a middle ages game the way it is now though.

 

[smackster]

I assume you turned off animations?

 

[T-Money]

You mean it's really laggy and messed-up slow, or just slow because of all the unit shuffling etc? Because if it's just unit shuffling, then usually you can fix it by turning off animations, as smackster said. Sometimes I turn off the "show friend moves" thing if it gets really bad.

 

[smackster]

And when the AI is bombing you our pounding your shores, turning off battle animations makes it more tolerable

 

[move_quietly]

no it's not the animation that's slow, it's the time between moves. i move then sometimes i have to wait for quite a while before i get to move again. it's very much longer than any other conquest map is the thing.

 

[smackster]

What system are you using?

If you do a clean boot, load up civ, load up a save and try to move is it slow, or does it just get worse over time.

 

[T-Money]

Yeah, if it's not actually the time that your opponents spent moving that getting you, then it's probably just because you have a low-end system.

 

[Turner]

Couple of things to try:

• Buy more RAM. Getting a faster processor doesn't necessarily make your system faster. If your CPU isn't being utilized fully because of memory, then adding RAM to your system will increase your system performance. Note: It doesn't actually make your system run faster, but it has more memory to run the tasks that are loaded. It will, however, appear to run faster.
  
• Unload system processes. There are a lot of programs that take overhead. Do a Ctrl-Alt-Del, and either the task manager will show up automatically, or you can select the button that says Taskmanager. A lot of programs load at system start up that don't need to be there. If you have a broadband connection, you probably want to keep your virus protect up and you firewall, assuming that you have a software one. Any program with your username as a process owner is probably pretty safe to shut down.
  
• Kinda related to the previous point, but unload the processes in your taskbar. Right click and unload anything that you don't need.
  
• Don't run other program while trying to play Civ. Again, kinda related to the previous two points. But don't load up winamp (unless you really need music other than Civ3's.) or explorer, or outlook... just run Civ3. This will also help keep overhead down and more memory for Civ3.

 

[ManOfMiracles]

You might also try checking your system for spyware which could be bogging it down. Check out this thread for spyware detection/removal programs.
http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=39597

 

[Turner]

Or look in my sig.

 

[bengood22]

Auto-save takes up some time also ... maybe disable that and save manually every so often