Semitechnical Questions

[derekroth]

Sorry if this should be in technical support, but be it that I don't really have "problems" with the game I will just ask here.

1. Is it possible to get the game to randomly generate a Super huge map (362 x 362) upon starting a new game? So far, all I have been able to do is create a map in the editor and then load it as a scenario. However, I don't like this because I can see the whole map before I play.

2. Not suprisingly, these games end up taking forever because of the amound of time the computer takes to do the AI turns. I was waiting about 20 minutes or so between turns before I called it quits. I have a 2Ghz processor with 512 megs of ram. What is the limiting factor that determines game speed? Is it just running out of ram? Any player experience with these huge games would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advanced

 

[Ranos]

1. Open the editor then open the file in your main folder (If Vanilla Civ, then the main Civ 3 file. If PTW, the CIV3PTW folder. If C3C, then whatever the name of its folder is called) with Civ in the title. This file is where the game gets its base information from. Edit one of the sizes to whatever you want your world size to be. When you have done that, you can have a randomly generated map of that size.

2. I have never had this problem so I can't help you there.

 

[jeannie]

question 2
I have a 2.8 Ghz Pentium IV processor with 512 Mb DDR Ram, and when I run Conquests, there are times it will 'slow down'. When I look at the task manager, tho, I see that Conquests is only taking up about 50% of my CPU, with the rest as 'idle time' -so I'm not CPU bound.

I've found that I'm actually bound by my video board. I have an ATI Radeon 9200 64 MB video board (I assume from the game refreshing the screen)

I downloaded the latest driver for my video board, and that helped some.

Turning off the animations helps a lot, and even turning off showing my manual and automated moves helps.

 

[Willem]

What is the limiting factor that determines game speed?

The main factor in turn slow down is the pathfinding. So the larger the map, the slower the game will be; it takes longer to calculate possible moves for a unit.