Request for a new game option

[Medicine_Man_55]

So I have been playing Fall from Heaven II (v0.30) for a few weeks now and I have to say I love this mod. I'm not sure how often you blokes hear this, but I feel you have all done a wonderful job making FfH. So much attention to detail and so much re-playability.

One thing I have noticed about FfH so far, is that it tends to slow down rapidly during the middle game period (turn 220-280 on normal). This is typical of Civ4, due in no small part to my tendency to play on huge maps, but it seems to be more of an issue with this mod.

After playing a few games, I've realized that the slow down gets markedly worse after the Hyborem come out. With a full map, turns will take 45-60 seconds to calculate. My theory is that the calculations involved in spreading and drawing the creep of hellish terrain is an exceptional burden on the system. I don't know how the python code for this game works; is this a plausible theory? If so, I wonder if a game option could be implemented to only run calculations on the spread of hell terrain every 4-5 turns (with possibly a larger spread)? Or perhaps an option to simply convert territory in the Hyborem culture radius to hell and nothing more?

Anything that makes the game run a bit more smoothly in the middle-late stages would be quite welcome. It is frustrating to have the game slow down so much during what I call the glorious "rugby-scrum" stage.

Cheers.

 

[Grillick]

I always have a book handy.

 

[desemondez]

45-60 seconds? Seriously? Do you have a decent computer with sufficient RAM?

 

[Ekolite]

Play with Compact enforced, stops hyborem and basium from appearing so no hell terrain.

 

[Sarisin]

45-60 seconds? Seriously? Do you have a decent computer with sufficient RAM?

I do. I have an Athlon 3400+ with 2gb of RAM. 256mb nVidia, etc.

I also have the same problem (often the time between turns is longer than the OP mentioned) on huge maps. In fact, I just gave up on them and went to the Large maps. For me, anyway, this solved the problem as the wait between turns is not as long. I could never finish a game on a Huge map because I got so bored waiting for my turn which often only took a few seconds.

I never had this problem with huge maps before Shadow, though.

 

[Kael]

If you can provide a save of 60+ seconds between turns I'd love to check it out.

 

[Nikis-Knight]

I've given up on large maps most of the time. I don't think I get all the way to 60 secs, but more than I'm patient for most of the time...

 

[Medicine_Man_55]

If you can provide a save of 60+ seconds between turns I'd love to check it out.

PM me instructions on where to send the save game, Kael, and I'll give you my current save as the Lurichep. I'm playing on Nikis-Knight's huge map.

 

[Moon Hunter]

45-60 seconds? Seriously? Do you have a decent computer with sufficient RAM?

Pffff, 45-60 seconds.

In my last game I have managed to get 5 mins wait between turns...
On a standard map...
On low setings...
But on the bright side i have about 10 vassals...

More like a game of freakin chess

But my comp IS handicapped, so...

I was playing this game once and had to finish early, so i diced to quick save. The next day when i wanted to continue, i figured i hadnt have had an autosave for hour and 15 mins....

 

[Medicine_Man_55]

I can't think of what else it could be. Vanilla Civ4(BtS) doesn't start to lag out this way until the late Modern Era, with massive industrial armies and a world war or two.

I have noticed that there is a noticeably longer turn calc when a special event happens, such as world-wide pestilence or the Lanum/Sheim decide to fire their world spell, but this is isolated. I don't think it could be massed spell casters somewhere clogging things up either, as I'm not currently playing with AI-building requirements turned off.

I'm going to play with Compact Enforced and AI-no building requirements turned on for my next game, just to see if it runs smoother.

 

[Caradoc]

You kids these days... When I started playing CIV on my mighty 286 PC, turns took several minutes.

I've played a lot of turn based strategy games over the years, and I gotta say that Civ4 (and its variants) is one of the fastest.

 

[Darkheart]

I like to think on it this way.... By mid game who long does it take you to take your turn?

I can imagine Kael recieving Pm's from a frustrated AI about the 20 minute turn around of players, and can he make the game simpler so that humans can process faster.

"and this one even went and made a coffee!"

 

[Medicine_Man_55]

(Yarding this old post back up onto the first page.)

In the latest push, I notice Kael put a new game_option in: disable hell terrain. Yay! Henceforth, the compact will not be enforced during my games. I'll probably also start experimenting with ways to make the Infernals and Mercurians a bit stronger when they come out.

For similar reasons as my earlier request, is it possible to streamline the scripts that check for treant spawn due to ancient forests? Or, failing that, get a game_option to disable the script?

While I rather like the treant spawn feature of the Leaves religion, it isn't really a reliable perk strategically, and anecdotally I can see how the checks needed to make it work slow down a game. My most recent game was as the Ljosalfar. Once I had my empire papered in ancient forests, I could actually make the game pause for 2-3 seconds by giving an archer a move order from one of my cities to another. If some fraction of this calculation is being made for every AI unit that moves every turn, then I imagine this script is causing part of the slowdown that emerges by turn 250 on most games of FfH (so far).

Ideally, treant spawn could be re-worked as some kind of triggered ability, ie. when hostile units are within the city radius, you can destroy the temple of the leaves to spawn 1-2 treants in ancient forest tiles. +1 treant spawned if you have the Commune with Nature tech. +1 treant spawned in the city tile if you have a Grove. That kind of thing.

Anyhow, I realize that this is a "give an inch, take a mile"-sort of request, but Fall from Heaven is like candy that I want to gorge myself on quickly and efficiently. Lacking any of the tools (such as knowledge of python) to test these things myself, I have to share my observations and ask about what is possible.

 

[Medicine_Man_55]

You kids these days... When I started playing CIV on my mighty 286 PC, turns took several minutes.

I've played a lot of turn based strategy games over the years, and I gotta say that Civ4 (and its variants) is one of the fastest.

Kids? I'm 33 Charles.