The problem with this game.

[Ruzz]

is that the games take too bloody long. game is immersive as hell and probably one of the most in-depth games I've played but I want to be able to finish a game in less than 5 hours. christ, I've been playing for almost 2 months and haven't finished a single game to the end either because,

1. I would already win by domination and it would just be a waste of time for me to the fight to the end
2. tried getting a science victory, spent almost the entire morning + afternoon and got fed up of how time consuming it was

im playing on the 1 land mass map type, and only at normal with 4 players (8 CS). the heck? am I doing something wrong?

 

[Streams]

You can always go for Quick. Makes mistakes more important, though and units get outdated fast.

Otherwise, Save and continue another day, although it isn't fun for me either to come in the industrial era and just whip away at units or at the next button.

 

[Zezima]

If the game were shorter by design, it's likely we would have to sacrifice some of the depth and complexity. I don't see the long games as a problem. In fact, I've started playing on Epic and Marathon because I like the longer, drawn out games.

Try to take your time with the game and your micromanagement, maybe bump up the difficulty, and you might appreciate the length of the game more.

 

[fufie]

How long in hours are people's typical games? I find myself at around 15-25 hours for a standard-sized map at standard speed at emperor level and I feel that is a bit long. Maybe I think too much

 

[Ruzz]

how is it that you civ fanatics don't find it annoying to spent 20 turns dragging your army over a body of water and land to conquer another city? by the time they were over there, troops would have been outdated already. doh

 

[smallfish]

how is it that you civ fanatics don't find it annoying to spent 20 turns dragging your army over a body of water and land to conquer another city? by the time they were over there, troops would have been outdated already. doh

Timing. Planning. Powerful units that are still useful two or three eras later.

 

[DrunkenRine]

civilization has always been a game that takes long.

your post actually makes no sense. that it takes long is not the problem with this game, it actually IS ITS MAIN ASPECT.

it is like saying a story told in a book of 7 volumes and extending over several ages is too long and should be told in a shorter way. no, the time and detail are intended man and civilization has never been focused on the way you finish it, but on all the way up to that finish. so usually people play some turns, do other things, some days later play more turns and so on and eventually a week later or so they finish the game.

when i started with civ 1 i could only play in the office of my father, where there used to be the only computer in my reach. maybe i could play once per week or even per month, so finnishing a game could take me up to half a year.

so

am I doing something wrong?

does that answer your question?

 

[Aldor]

How long in hours are people's typical games? I find myself at around 15-25 hours for a standard-sized map at standard speed at emperor level and I feel that is a bit long. Maybe I think too much

Now that'd make an interesting poll (actually, I think there was such one already a while ago, would need to search for it)

I play standard continents map, standard speed, prince level. Usually takes 4-5 hours to finish. Although I've never actually taken time, it feels like most of that (3+ h) is spent on the industrial and later eras.

 

[civvver]

I do agree that monotony during clear win domination games is a turn off. But as far as length, that's just what civ is, long. Save and pickup later. There were certain civ4 gigantic earth maps that would take me several weeks to finish on marathon speed, in excess of 30 hours. It's part of the fun of civ to have an immersive game that spans a long time.

 

[joncnunn]

Civ V doesn't take nearly as long for me as either Civ III or Civ IV.

Going for peaceful victories takes more turns, but is a lot less time consuming. (Eventually you explore everything and so your military is sitting at home)

An OCC is extremely fast (only one city to manage)

 

[joncnunn]

how is it that you civ fanatics don't find it annoying to spent 20 turns dragging your army over a body of water and land to conquer another city? by the time they were over there, troops would have been outdated already. doh

With G&K: Use naval units to take over the coastal cities on the other landmass instead.

Also Astronomy is one of the techs that speed up embarked units.

 

[Smokeybear]

There are people who just like quick magazine articles, and there are people who prefer settling in with a good novel that will take some time (and a lot of enjoyment) to read to the end. Civilization is the 'novel' of the gameworld.

 

[Zezima]

that it takes long is not the problem with this game, it actually IS ITS MAIN ASPECT.

it is like saying a story told in a book of 7 volumes and extending over several ages is too long and should be told in a shorter way. no, the time and detail are intended man and civilization has never been focused on the way you finish it, but on all the way up to that finish.

Definitely agree with this. Typically my games take around 3-4 hours. Multiplayer games or larger Epic games will take longer, obviously.

And if your offensive force is obsoleting 20 turns after you begin your attack, then you failed in your planning. Even in quick speed that sounds like an exaggeration.

The only units that are close tech-wise that I feel have a large gap combat strength-wise are Great War Infantry and Infantry.

 

[Eagle Pursuit]

I play 2-3 hours a night and sometimes skip a night and it takes me about 1.5-2 weeks to finish a marathon game.

I like that it takes a long time. That's what makes it feel like it's spanning the entire history of mankind.

 

[Human Crouton]

I agree with most of what you are saying. I do like that the game takes long; it's not supposed to be a one sitting game, but it needs some new mechanics to maintain variety near the end.

 

[RedFuneral]

And I find by default the game goes by too fast. I play maybe 2hrs a day and it usually takes me over a week to finish one.(I play CCTP extended where games typically last 1000-1250 turns).

If you want it to go by quicker play on quick. The shorter the game, that should get you within the 5hr window you're looking for. Just keep the map on the smaller side as the more civs/CS the longer the wait time in between turns is.

 

[Unresolved]

How long in hours are people's typical games? I find myself at around 15-25 hours for a standard-sized map at standard speed at emperor level and I feel that is a bit long. Maybe I think too much

I've never counted, but I think my games are usually 7-10 hours long on standard speed/size. I'm not the most careful player though, so I don't like checking over everything to make sure it's right.

 

[Civking5]

To the OP; Then may I suggest u start playing total war games?

 

[kaspergm]

how is it that you civ fanatics don't find it annoying to spent 20 turns dragging your army over a body of water and land to conquer another city? by the time they were over there, troops would have been outdated already. doh

I'm with the majority who don't mind the long aspects of the game, but I do feal that the interface and management of unit movement, particularly on water, really could need some love. You should be able to "link" an embarked civilian unit to a naval unit to have them move together instead of having to manually move first one and then the other in order to prevent them from getting "out of sync" courtesy of higher movement of naval unit. And you should be able to mark several units as a group, like dragging over an area and say move all units within this area in the same direction. This might not work on land because of terrain etc. but on water this could save a lot of pointless clicking.

 

[civ54lyfe]

Possible idea(?) -fix the damn turntime processing! that's most of your game. Improve whatever algorithms and/or coding baggage that could use it.