TheMeInTeam
If A implies B...
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Ah, I gotcha. I did mention in the guide that if you enjoy doing things a certain way, not to change them. Speed doesn't = fun by itself after all.
TMIT's Guide to Speed Civving
- Thread starter TheMeInTeam
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haha TMIT nice new signature!
mostly an off topic response again (sorry)
I also spend very little time in the city screen at the new build, but the fact the screen has to open is a good second or something again (and then it has to be closed too). I have all my graphics on low, though I run my screen's full resolution 1280x1024 which could be a factor. I also use resource flags and tile yields for convenience but these probably contribute to lag.
off-topic again
Also when I talk about lag it's not normally the time between turns. If it were only the time between turns that took long it wouldn't bother me in the slightest. It's the fact that selecting unit x and moving him to point y takes a few seconds where it should take less than 1. I've got 2GB RAM, an 8600GTS vid card, but my cpu is 2.66GHZ dual core, and obviously the dual core means nothing as you said. When you get used to a nice RTS like SCFA you appreciate more the effort the programmers put into the UI to make it work very efficient and lag free. Do you play FA? I'd imagine it would be right up your alley.
Also I've mentioned this before in various places but I'm fairly certain the reported game time at the end of each game usually under estimates. I've had games take me no less than 10-20 hours yet the game tells me I did it in 7 or something. I haven't figured out yet how much it's off by or why it happens though.
mostly an off topic response again (sorry)
I also spend very little time in the city screen at the new build, but the fact the screen has to open is a good second or something again (and then it has to be closed too). I have all my graphics on low, though I run my screen's full resolution 1280x1024 which could be a factor. I also use resource flags and tile yields for convenience but these probably contribute to lag.
off-topic again
Also when I talk about lag it's not normally the time between turns. If it were only the time between turns that took long it wouldn't bother me in the slightest. It's the fact that selecting unit x and moving him to point y takes a few seconds where it should take less than 1. I've got 2GB RAM, an 8600GTS vid card, but my cpu is 2.66GHZ dual core, and obviously the dual core means nothing as you said. When you get used to a nice RTS like SCFA you appreciate more the effort the programmers put into the UI to make it work very efficient and lag free. Do you play FA? I'd imagine it would be right up your alley.
Also I've mentioned this before in various places but I'm fairly certain the reported game time at the end of each game usually under estimates. I've had games take me no less than 10-20 hours yet the game tells me I did it in 7 or something. I haven't figured out yet how much it's off by or why it happens though.
Yeah has anyone else every reported this? It's usually off by so much I assumed everyone would notice at some point.
TMIT do you take this into account when you report your game times? Do you time using a real timer or do you use the time reported at the end of the game?
Perhaps the differences comes in because the timer records the time waiting for user input? When you get lag opening city screens, selecting units etc. there is a significant amount of time where no input can be taken.
Now I am very very interested to see what actual variable is being reported at the end of the game. What time is actually being recorded?
TheMeInTeam
If A implies B...
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Never found discrepancy vs in-game and real times - possibly it could be something like 10ish minutes and I'd not notice.
I don't get unit order lag at all. Or entering the city. Those things generally go pretty quickly for me ( <1 second).
I can verify that idle time IS recorded though - my forum post games are always slower than the ones I don't write up as I play. I'd guess that it perhaps "loses" timing any time something gets slowed down from user input, but I honestly have no idea.
What's FA? Too many possibilities.
Another thing that can cause lag are the mods. Especially if they log your every action or something. The first time I tried using BUG mod I couldn't stand it -----> it was so slow. I had to turn the logs/constant saving off and I even turn a lot of the notifiers off heh. Once it conflicted with HoF I just took it off - both of those are custom mods I can load now but I only load HoF when I am playing for that and BUG only when a player on here posts a game using it.
I don't get unit order lag at all. Or entering the city. Those things generally go pretty quickly for me ( <1 second).
I can verify that idle time IS recorded though - my forum post games are always slower than the ones I don't write up as I play. I'd guess that it perhaps "loses" timing any time something gets slowed down from user input, but I honestly have no idea.
What's FA? Too many possibilities.
Another thing that can cause lag are the mods. Especially if they log your every action or something. The first time I tried using BUG mod I couldn't stand it -----> it was so slow. I had to turn the logs/constant saving off and I even turn a lot of the notifiers off heh. Once it conflicted with HoF I just took it off - both of those are custom mods I can load now but I only load HoF when I am playing for that and BUG only when a player on here posts a game using it.
I wasn't suggesting idle time isn't recorded. Just time where user input is not allowed (which is I suspect a huge amount of the time in my games, due to the selection lag etc. I described). See I believe I can make fairly quick decisions too but I'm constantly slowed down by this sort of lag, so for me finding the best ways to tweak settings to minimise this lag is key. Using the HOF mod at the moment, I'm wondering whether that is causing much of the lag? I'm playing a BOTM game so I can't avoid it but I'll try turning off all the "fluff".
I suppose the HOF mod does a lot of logging so that may be the problem. Would it log anything just by me selecting a unit out of a large stack? I should make a video of how bad this lag gets so you can see what I mean.By the way I mean Supreme Commander Forged Alliance. One of the best RTS games I've ever played (particularly for multiplayer). Here's a vid I made from that game. (sorry for the blatant plug).
RRRaskolnikov
Goldfish
Sorry TMIT, a little of topic...
@Oyzar: what for?
Optimal whipping? (whip once the food bar is full so one turn of this?) I can't see other uses but I am sure you will come with a cool tip...
CBPE
Warlord
Thank you for this guide: extremely useful! 
Just a couple of stupid question:
1) is there a way to assign a destination for every unit you'll build in a city queue?
I.E.: I want to build 12 longbowmen in my militar city and send each of them in one of my 12 city. Is there a way to automatize this process?
And if there isn't, in which way you would do it?
2) is there a way to order a unit what to do after going in the tile you want?
I.E.: I want send a Knight on a hill 3 moves far and then sentry. Can I order to do this before I move it?
Thank you again
P.S.: using BUG mode, if it can help
Just a couple of stupid question:
1) is there a way to assign a destination for every unit you'll build in a city queue?
I.E.: I want to build 12 longbowmen in my militar city and send each of them in one of my 12 city. Is there a way to automatize this process?
And if there isn't, in which way you would do it?
2) is there a way to order a unit what to do after going in the tile you want?
I.E.: I want send a Knight on a hill 3 moves far and then sentry. Can I order to do this before I move it?
Thank you again
P.S.: using BUG mode, if it can help
TheMeInTeam
If A implies B...
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Thank you for this guide: extremely useful!
Just a couple of stupid question:
1) is there a way to assign a destination for every unit you'll build in a city queue?
I.E.: I want to build 12 longbowmen in my militar city and send each of them in one of my 12 city. Is there a way to automatize this process?
And if there isn't, in which way you would do it?
2) is there a way to order a unit what to do after going in the tile you want?
I.E.: I want send a Knight on a hill 3 moves far and then sentry. Can I order to do this before I move it?
Thank you again
1. Use waypoints as I describe in the guide - select the city (or cities), hold down shift, then right click on the target you want your longbows to head toward. You can queue up 12 longbows or hold alt and click on it to get the city to loop-produce it.
2. You can do it with worker commands/shift...never tried it with units though. I recommend against major in-advance unit queuing. Too often, the situation changes and you wind up re-doing it anyway.
vale
Mathematician
If you use the arrow keys to cycle through your cities quickly, a quick scan of your cities each turn doesn't take too much time in the early going.
Of course my play speed could never in a million years be described as quick.
Of course my play speed could never in a million years be described as quick.
Sorry TMIT, a little of topic...
@Oyzar: what for?
When you build a granary over half full foodbar it can often be wise to stop growth one turn so you grow one turn later as the extra food get +100%(say you finish a granary at 16/24 and you are growing 4 food per turn. You would normaly go 16/24-> 20/24 -> 8/26 however by stopping growth one turn you can go 16/24-> 20/24 -> 24/24 -> 16/26. You gain an extra 4 food(which is unlikely to be matched by the extra tile you work). The other option is of course when you are at health/happy cap(not in hrule/not in slavery, either before you get those or after you switch out of them or maybe slavery but you are recovering from whip anger). This second option of course assumes that the secondary yeild of whatever food tiles you work is better than what other tiles you work(or maybe you just pause one turn to let whip anger wear off before whipping and hence regrowing 2 food lower). There are a few more cases like this, but safe to say there are some where avoid growth is needed for optimal play. This is pretty far derail from the purpose of the thread though. This is about less MM or how to do MM faster. I am usually in the other end of the spectrum, what can i possibly do in a turn to optimize it? Is there any more MM i can do now that would give me a fractional advantage?
DMOC
Mathematician
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I tested this out today while playing as Hatshepsut on the Earth 18 Civ map, on Epic speed.
I started playing at 2:12 PM and ended at 3:57 PM. Not once did I pause the game. I checked the timer at 3:57 and it recorded 1:12. The time really should have been 1:45. That means (I believe) that the timer shows only 77 percent of the actual time.
Interesting... I doubt the 77% is anything special but thanks for doing the test. Should we start a new thread on this?
CBPE
Warlord
Yes, waypoints are clear, but I mean: if I want to send each unit of the queue in a different city?
If I have city A, B, C, D and E and I have a queue of 5 longbowmen and I want to send the first in city A, the second in city B, the third in city C, etc...
Which way would you use?!?
I'll try!
Of course here the problem is my english, sorry
Unfortunately there is no way to automate that.
The is because the timer doesn't move when the game is working compared to when the player is... This is a well known fact. In pitboss games i play the timer is usually set to 21 hours or something but it plays like 24 hours because the timer actually goes slower than it says...
This is what I suspected. I'd imagine that going for culture victory on a huge map with about 16 civs would be a clear case where the timer would look like it's way off. Hitting end turn a lot of the time and would cause a large gap in the actual and reported game times.
I guess it's meant to be like a chess clock.
cripp7
Playin' Bored
The biggest thing that slows me down is not being able to use the shift-control-alt key/mouse clicks. So no build queues, waypoints, etc. etc. CivIV disables the Windows 'sticky keys' I submitted that to Firaxis several times, but they are not taking it too seriously
TheMeInTeam
If A implies B...
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Isn't there a way to map keys to have that function? I know a lot of people did something along those lines in other games.
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