What Settings Do You Play With?

[Underdawg]

I'd like to survey what map settings (most importantly map size, game speed and number of AI opponents) the forum members play on.

Also I'd like to know how long the computing time in between turns takes your computer at your map settings. Your hardware configuration would also be good, stating your CPU and RAM is enough since they are biggest factors in Civ 4.

So I'll start off... I play mainly Huge Fractals, Hemispheres, and Terras with 13 to 18 AI's (Not winning all that much... ). Aggressive AI and Choose religions are usually on. Turns during the ancient to the medieval age are near instant and turns from renaissance and on usually take 1 or 2 seconds. Turns during late industrial and modern are where it tends to bog down and turns can take 4-5 seconds (sometimes more during wars). This is with a C2D e6300 OC'ed to 3.0Ghz and 2GB RAM.

Oh yes, I nearly forgot, I'd like to know if you play at your settings because of computer hardware limitation or if just prefer as so. ex. I don't really like to play normal speed standard maps because they just don't feel epic enough for me personally (specially when the the ancient age takes less than 5 or so minutes to get through most of the ancient age (depending on your hardware) - but that's just me... it's not to say I don't like them, I just prefer the huge maps with more AI... the GOTMs are mostly normal and epic and they are always fun.

 

[Kevin J]

Huge++ (GK's Earth Map), Huge Terra, or Huge Big and Small
Marathon
18 Players
Emperor
Cities can flip after conquest
Aggressive AI
Raging Barbs
Random Personalities
Unrestricted Leaders
New Random Seed on Reload (Hey, I need it some of the time)
No Cultural or Time Victories

Comp: c2d e6600, 2gb ram, 8800gtx

About a 15 seconds per turn around 1000 A.D. now . . . with display moves etc. turned off and quick combat (The savegame file is getting bigger and bigger all the time . . . 1.3 MB now, and growing every turn!)

 

[Roland Ehnström]

Usually standard size, "Big and small", "Medium and small", "Continents" or "Terra" map style. Basically all settings at normal/default except I turn on "Aggressive AI". All victory conditions allowed.

 

[Underdawg]

Huge++ (GK's Earth Map), Huge Terra, or Huge Big and Small
Marathon
18 Players
Emperor
Cities can flip after conquest
Aggressive AI
Raging Barbs
Random Personalities
Unrestricted Leaders
New Random Seed on Reload (Hey, I need it some of the time)
No Cultural or Time Victories

Comp: c2d e6600, 2gb ram, 8800gtx

About a 15 seconds per turn around 1000 A.D. now . . . with display moves etc. turned off and quick combat (The savegame file is getting bigger and bigger all the time . . . 1.3 MB now, and growing every turn!)

I noticed that.... that say, on Rhye's Scenario, around 1000AD turns take almost 15 seconds I would say, yet on a normal epic 18AI map during the same time period, turns take nowhere as long. Must be all the additional map scripts.

 

[Gelvan]

settings: standard or large, 7-8 AI, normal game speed, warlord, unrestricted leaders (only if I choose them), choose religion, no cultural nor domination victory, alliances on.
computer: P4 3066Mhz, 1024mb ram, nvidia 6600.
it takes about 4-5 seconds on a large map, sometimes more.

 

[Yzman]

My current game is

Huge, 18 civs, marathon speed, noble

Computing time probably takes 2-3 seconds.

I have nvidia 6600 and 1 gig of ram.

 

[Sjaramei]

Emperor, Standard, Marathon, Aggressive AI, Unrestricted Leaders. (Default amount of leaders +1 sometimes, don't remember how many there is )

AMD Athlon 3600+ 1,90 GHz
1 GB Ram

If i try bigger maps than standard (which is a stretch with Big and Small) i will start lagging late ancient ages, and i don't want to find out how much time the industrious age will consume. At standard the turns last 1-2 secs during most of the game with 3-4 later. (if i get there I like domination)

I play standard maps cause they are the biggest my comp will handle, i'm not sure if i want to play large/huge if i could, i get angry if i have too much to do during one turn

 

[Jabarto]

I always play with:

-Huge size
-Temperate climate
-Epic speed
-Noble difficulty
-No tech brokering
-Low sea level
-No random events (I always used to leave these on, but now I'm completely sick and tired of dealing with them).
-No diplomatic victory (again, I used to leave this on, but I got tired of being bound by the Apostolic palace well into the 1970's just because one city gained the Apostolic religion 1,500 years ago.)

As for map types, I prefer Hemispheres and Fractal. I play with 7-11 AI's depending on which map type I choose.

 

[Palpster]

-Large Size
-Epic Speed
-Prince Difficulty
-Standard amount of Civs
-Whatever map type I'm feeling like at the time
-Permanent Alliances on
-City Flipping after Conquest (not always though)
-Aggressive AI and/or Raging Barbs occasionally

Using nVidea 7800GTX, 2 gigs of RAM

 

[Underdawg]

-Large Size
-Epic Speed
-Prince Difficulty
-Standard amount of Civs
-Whatever map type I'm feeling like at the time
-Permanent Alliances on
-City Flipping after Conquest (not always though)
-Aggressive AI and/or Raging Barbs occasionally

Using nVidea 7800GTX, 2 gigs of RAM

My current game is

Huge, 18 civs, marathon speed, noble

Computing time probably takes 2-3 seconds.

I have nvidia 6600 and 1 gig of ram.

It's nice and dandy that you have posted the video card you use, but you both forgot the CPU! (GPU doesn't affect computing time at all AFAIK).

 

[GodBen]

Standard size,
Normal speed,
6-8 civs,
Graphics and textures set to lowest possible,
Particle effects off,
Movies off,
1.7GHz Pentium 4,
256MB RAM.

Turn speed during industrial era: 2-3... minutes.

That's around about the point that I stop playing. I played into the modern era 3 times, I think. And that's why I'm planning on getting a brand new PC next week so I can finally play on the largest map possible, epic speed, 18 Civs, graphics turned up to high... It makes me smile just thinking about it.

 

[IronCrown]

I play about 70% of my games Standard size, 7 civs, Normal speed. The other 30% are Tiny, Small and Large maps, always Normal speed and usually default number of civs.

Until recently my hardware was an Athlon XP 3000+ with 1.5 GB DDR RAM. Some weeks ago I upgraded to Athlon64 X2 4600+ and 2 GB DDR2 RAM. To be honest the difference is not very noticeable. Turn calculation times are bearable, but can go up to several seconds in the late game. Never more than ~10 seconds, though.

 

[dutchking]

Now with my Huge Earth map (revived from Civ III see the sig ) I like to play on that map, like Dutch people starting in China or something. Quick speed, no real options on. 18 civs. My machine can handle them really good.