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Observations on long response time between turns.
I'm playing civ3 on a 450 MHz AMD K2 with 128 megs of RAM. I just love civ3 (now the editor - that's another matter) and I play the game as much as I can. I am, however, really tired of waiting up to 10 minutes between turns (note that I have all AI moves turned off), so I got to thinking why it was so.
We have previously discussed in these forums, that perhaps the calculation of the trade network was a possible cause for the long delays. I now submit to you that the sheer number of units that the AI controls is by far a greater factor in this than any trade network calculations.
The way I discovered this was by using Gramphos copy tool (see files forum for a thread on this tool), or rather the built in save game editor. In one game I was getting my butt seriously kicked by the Americans, and since I was enjoying this particular game a lot, I decided to relieve ole Abe of some of his units. So that's what I did. I must have cropped out app. 100 units. Offensive ones, mind you. The ones that the AI moves around the map. And BANG...the wait between turns was reduced by some 50%. So now I crop AI units regularly: Frigates, Battleships, Cavalry - you name it.
Now, I know that this is cheating, and that most of you are going to cry out that I am ruining the fun for myself. But look at it this way: Before discovering this, I could play maybe 20 turns in an entire day of playing - now I can play twice that, or maybe more. And since I am a VERY peaceful player (I almost never wage wars, and when I do, I don't crop anymore), I figure that whether Mao, Hammurabi and Abe has 10 battleships or 100 really doesn't matter, when the only wars they fight are against each other.
Anyway: Firaxis...a question for you: Is it possible that you could look into this for the next patch. The number of units that the AI has to move clearly makes for long waits in the middle and endgame. This is with all AI moves turned off in preferences, so graphics are not an issue here.
Asmodean
We have previously discussed in these forums, that perhaps the calculation of the trade network was a possible cause for the long delays. I now submit to you that the sheer number of units that the AI controls is by far a greater factor in this than any trade network calculations.
The way I discovered this was by using Gramphos copy tool (see files forum for a thread on this tool), or rather the built in save game editor. In one game I was getting my butt seriously kicked by the Americans, and since I was enjoying this particular game a lot, I decided to relieve ole Abe of some of his units. So that's what I did. I must have cropped out app. 100 units. Offensive ones, mind you. The ones that the AI moves around the map. And BANG...the wait between turns was reduced by some 50%. So now I crop AI units regularly: Frigates, Battleships, Cavalry - you name it.
Now, I know that this is cheating, and that most of you are going to cry out that I am ruining the fun for myself. But look at it this way: Before discovering this, I could play maybe 20 turns in an entire day of playing - now I can play twice that, or maybe more. And since I am a VERY peaceful player (I almost never wage wars, and when I do, I don't crop anymore), I figure that whether Mao, Hammurabi and Abe has 10 battleships or 100 really doesn't matter, when the only wars they fight are against each other.
Anyway: Firaxis...a question for you: Is it possible that you could look into this for the next patch. The number of units that the AI has to move clearly makes for long waits in the middle and endgame. This is with all AI moves turned off in preferences, so graphics are not an issue here.
Asmodean
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