Unbearable turn times? Can they be fixed?

S

Squatty Tubster

Chieftain
Joined
Jun 17, 2012
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I figured it was time to finally join the forums after years of observing and hopefully get some advice.

I've realized lately that I haven't finished a game of Civ 5 in months. I start dozens of games but usually quit once I get into the modern age because the turn times just get ridiculous. I'd love to play games on large or huge maps all the way to the end, but I've found that unless I keep it on standard map size or lower, turn times just make this thing slow to the point of being unplayable. And even on standard size maps turns still get to be pretty unbearable by the modern age.

My specs are all above the minimum recommendations but I'm not expecting a miracle here. I'm running hardware that is a couple years old but runs the game well enough (mix of med/high graphics). I just want to be able to play the game without waiting 30, 60, 90 seconds between turns.

My question is, is this a hardware or software issue? And if it's hardware, what upgrade would be the best?

1. I'm considering an across the board upgrade, but what component would give me the biggest bang for the buck? I realize this game isn't that graphically intensive so the highest end graphics card isn't crucial. So more RAM? SSD? CPU? What is the best tradeoff here?

2. Is the late game turn time a problem that new hardware can even fix? Or is this just a software issue that's going to be a problem until Firaxis hopefully goes through and optimizes things?

Any input would be much appreciated. And if you're going to suggest "play smaller maps" or "play in strategic view" just save it, because you clearly have missed the point.
 
I think it is rather normal for the AI to take forever regardless of your computer specs.
 
You can disable combat and movement animations. This helps.

I have a decent machine and even then, most of the "drawn out turn time of the AI" occurs when it's computing animation after animation in my field of view.
 
Yeah, I haven't played with combat animations on in over a year. Maybe I'll try turning off movement animations as well.

I read another thread that talked about calculating AI worker moves is what causes a lot of the problem in the late game.

So is there any hardware on earth that can actually run this game with decent turn times? Or is such a mythical system not even possible?
 
Mine was fine before the patch.

After patching I verified my files and started a new game on a small map.

Turn times after 1700 were ridiculous.

Then on the last turn (would have been a cultural victory) the game locked up on me for ten minutes. I had to use task manager to kill the program.

This is a two year old game? Firaxis, THIS IS PATHETIC.
 
Squatty Tubster said:
Yeah, I haven't played with combat animations on in over a year. Maybe I'll try turning off movement animations as well.

I read another thread that talked about calculating AI worker moves is what causes a lot of the problem in the late game.

So is there any hardware on earth that can actually run this game with decent turn times? Or is such a mythical system not even possible?
Click to expand...


My longest turn times on a huge map with 20 civs are in the 20-30 sec range. My game machine currently has an i7-2600k overclocked to 4.3GHz, only 8G Ram but I have an expensive GTX 690 card... kinda like "putting an Aventador engine in a 2010 Camaro".
 
Sherlock said:
Mine was fine before the patch.

After patching I verified my files and started a new game on a small map.

Turn times after 1700 were ridiculous.
Click to expand...

Try #4 c

-------------

Oh...I remember Civ3 and Civ4...turn times of 5 minutes in the late game...seeing someone say "Long turn times! 30 seconds!" is always funny :D.
 
And posting it here just in case (I actually doubt that it will solve the OP's problem, as his problems are only late-game)

If you have an 'older' computer, or have a single core CPU, then do the following:

Open up your config.ini (My Documents/My Games/Sid Meier's Civilization V/)
Look for the following line: EnableGameCoreThreading = 1
Change it to: EnableGameCoreThreading = 0
 
The_J said:
Oh...I remember Civ3 and Civ4...turn times of 5 minutes in the late game...seeing someone say "Long turn times! 30 seconds!" is always funny :D.
Click to expand...

Or the first turn in Civ2's and Civ4's D-Day scenarios taking 15-20 minutes for the AI to complete. :)
 
I do remember late game Civ 4 taking forever as well. I'm just worried that with everything G&K is adding, it's going to be even worse.

Sounds like a hardware upgrade would do wonders (20-30 seconds between turns in the late game sounds amazing) but it sounds like I'll still have to have a book/laptop nearby to kill time between turns.

This is why my pc gaming has petered off to just Civ 4 and 5. Having to buy brand new hardware to run a two year old game seems really stupid.:sad:
 
Lone Wolf said:
And posting it here just in case (I actually doubt that it will solve the OP's problem, as his problems are only late-game)

If you have an 'older' computer, or have a single core CPU, then do the following:

Open up your config.ini (My Documents/My Games/Sid Meier's Civilization V/)
Look for the following line: EnableGameCoreThreading = 1
Change it to: EnableGameCoreThreading = 0
Click to expand...

This along with no auto save, and no animations makes the game fly no matter year. :) So glad I found this tip, real crazy how that one line speeds the game up so much. :)
 
This is one thing I never see discussed. I thought by now they would of fixed it, but it's still bad. After the patch, If you have animations on and other civs units in your fog of war, it shows every animation individually and the turns take longer than pre patch. Without animations it's faster but late game the turns take 8-10 seconds for me without animations, it's annoying and it stops me from playing the game. I thought for sure that 2 years times was enough to fix the game, hell even the expansion doesn't even fix all the A.I's problems and the diplomacy from what I read. I think Firaxis doesn't haven enough resources or enough people in the studio to really fix up Civ 5 is my guess.
 
Yeah, I built myself a new PC for the exact same reason. My old laptop restricted me to playing only small maps and even then, the loading times could get pretty long in the renaissance era and beyond.
 
I changed the ""enablecorethreading" to 0 but my turn took 1 min 40 sec on turn 245 ca. 1670ad (if that matters), any reason it is still miserably slow after the patch?
 
I haven't played on later turns yet, but probably turning off movement animations helps. Turning off combat animations is probably useful too, but movement may have plenty of impact on its own.
 
The turn times are pretty bad I have to admit. Thankfully, playing on Duel/Tiny maps with a few civs and no CS made the turn times fly by, but what fun is that? I want a 16 Civ/20 CS game on bigger maps and still be able to do more than a few turns per hour. Hopefully with a hotfix or two they can fix it. I am a little scared of what the X-pack will bring to the base game turn times in later stages of the game. I have faith 2k will do the right thing.

Supposedly, I think it was MadDjinn, said that the AI is taking longer because it's improved and the decisions are better. I guess you take one for the other and come out even in the end.
 
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