Turn Speed: A Game Breaker?

[Falconius]

OK, what do I have to do to get the game to play at an acceptable speed? More Ram? More mhz? Higher MB video card?

I love the game, but the waiting is excessive, especially in the modern era. I'm waiting 5 minutes for the AI to move (and I'm only playing against 4 opponents). Not only that, but my own units move painfully slow.

I've turned off all the graphics that can be turned off. I'm not sure what else I can do besides investing in upgrades to my system.

My specs:
128 MB RAM
333 mhz processor
Video card: Unknown, and I can't find the info anywhere, not even in Control Panel

I'm not even sure upgrades will help. I've seen other posters here list specs that far outshine mine, but they say the game still plays slow. Anyone out there not having this problem? Please tell me your specs.

[Yolky]

I see people with 1 ghrz computer having slow problems as well. I dont think much we can do to make the game faster.

Try turning the music off. I have read that here. Try getting more memeory is you have the money.

Personaly I think its the same creators of Diablo 2 Lord of Destruction. That game runs really slow too. It is the way the game was designed.

As someone else mentioned in anthor post, the graphics are not that complicated that we need super computers to run. They are simple enough.

I believe the computer is actually thinking (some of the time) and maybe that is why the game takes awhile between turns. Better AI = longer turns. I could be wrong.

Davor

[Falconius]

Originally posted by Yolky
Try turning the music off

Yeah, I turned that off on day one. It was choppy sounding anyway.

Originally posted by Yolky
Better AI = longer turns.

Probably right. But why is MY turn so slow? My units practically crawl to their destination. I have a great game going, but its just too frustrating to play.

[Reibisch]

Not to play devil's advocate, but a 333 is only *just* barely above the minimum specs. It seems reasonable that a minimum spec machine would play at the minimum speed.

[ElitePersian]

The biggest problem here is that the AI doesnt know what to do with his military units, so he just aimlessly patrols them, and you have to see him patrol them (unless its in his territory), thats mostly why turns take so long. They said a patch will address this issue. As far as YOUR units moving slowly - well thats because you dont have a very fast processor, and you need more ram. If you upgrade your system a little, it WILL speed things up, but the major problem here is that the AI has SOOOO many units and he always moves them around - most of the time i dont ever sign Right of Passage cause the AI will come in my territory with 100 units and move them around for nothing, hence slowing down my game.
Hope this helps.

[kmj]

Originally posted by Reibisch
Not to play devil's advocate, but a 333 is only *just* barely above the minimum specs. It seems reasonable that a minimum spec machine would play at the minimum speed.

I have a 300 with 128MB RAM, and my game isn't excessively slow. I do have to watch the enemy pieces move around for a bit, but it hasn't been longer than a minute or so. I have a Voodoo 3 2000; perhaps it is your video card. I think I read something about issues w/ certain cards somewhere, but I don't really recall.

[StarGazer]

Originally posted by ElitePersian
The biggest problem here is that the AI doesnt know what to do with his military units, so he just aimlessly patrols them, and you have to see him patrol them (unless its in his territory), thats mostly why turns take so long.

My experience indicates that it is NOT just seeing the units move around that causes the turns to be so long. Here's the skinny.

I'm using a Pentium III 550 Mhz, 256 Mb RAM, nVidia GeForce 2 Ultra 64 Mb video card, under Windows 98.

Since I created a huge world with 80 percent water and 20 percent archipelago, eight civs, for the most part each civ is on a separate island-continent. As a result, I seldom see any foreign units being moved around while I'm waiting for my turn, just one or two ships passing near my island every once in a while.

Nevertheless, the delay between turns has risen to between two and three minutes (I'm now at 1957 A.D.), which is really unacceptable -- especially since the screen is frozen, thus making it impossible for me to examine my cities, etc., while I am waiting for my turn. All I can do is sit there, waiting and waiting and waiting and .... I've never played a solo computer game in which I have had to wait such a long time for my turn, and I've been playing them for 20 years.

[Akaoz]

Slowdown on 966Mhz PIII on Huge Maps

I run a 966Mhz PIII, GeForce2 (64Mb), 256Mb RAM, WinMX machine. When I play the game on huge maps (255x255) w/ 16 civs, it slows down to a crawl between turns.

It goes from no delay to a 1-minute delay in the middle ages. Then it gets worse. I'm currently in 1920 and I have to wait 15-16 minutes for the game to complete the AI moves.

The game is not slow at all on my moves, except when I raze or conquer a city. Then I get a 2-minute delay while the map updates. I have no problems with scrolling or anything like that though.

BTW the save file is up to about 9Mb!

Does anyone know if this is a bug or a feature? And if it's a bug will it be fixed?

-Alech

[Elowan]

Try holding down the shift key when the AI moves

[Akaoz]

I could try taking off my clothes to, but it's not going to help either...

-Alech

[Falconius]

Originally posted by Elowan
Try holding down the shift key when the AI moves

I saw this so-called solution on another thread and tried it. I also tried Ctrl-Shift. Neither one has any effect. They appear to be a rumor someone started. And they may in fact work psychologically for some people. But I have actually timed them and they don't do doodley-squat.

[Logan 5]

I think the biggest problem for me as far as slow turns is seeing my stupid workers move. When you've got over 50 it seems to take forever, even with all animations and whatnot off. . . Oh well... perhaps the patch will give that as an option.

[dweez]

Originally posted by Falconius


I saw this so-called solution on another thread and tried it. I also tried Ctrl-Shift. Neither one has any effect. They appear to be a rumor someone started. And they may in fact work psychologically for some people. But I have actually timed them and they don't do doodley-squat.

But it DOES do something - it turns off the AI unit animations. Of course if you've already turned them off in the preferences, it won't do much

[trader]

Turn Speed: A Game Breaker?

I don't know if this helps (maybe it's too obvious and everyone did it already) but if you go to Preferences and turn OFF all animation (friendly and enemy units, automatic and manual actions and battles) then it increases the speed a lot. Well, at least in the early stages of the game - that's where I am right now.

[trader]

I forgot to mention (to Logan 5) that when I turned off the animation then I don't see my units do anything - they just finish the task and wait for your orders.