How long are your games?

[blim]

I'm relatively new to Civ3, only on my 3rd game (American-Regent) and am about to build my spaceship, basically kicking the AI's butt. I quit my first game since I overlooked railroads, and was stomped in my second cuz every other AI civ allied against me. But I have a question I am curious about....

How long are the games the typical player plays? I've been working on my current game on and off for days and am just about to win for the first time. Are there players who actually complete a game in one night? Am I missing something that can make my games shorter?

I realize there are many variables that can determine the length of a game. But say, 5-6 AI civs and a large map. I'm curious how long others spend on a game and if my playing style is ordinary or if I'm over-micromanaging.

[Qilue]

I play huge maps with 8 civs and a game usually takes about 60-70 hours. I also only have a p2-400 so turn processing takes a while in late game.

[Arrian]

I usually play Normal maps, 8 civs, and my games take a few days, (that's playing 5+ hours at a time). I started a game last night on Marla's Huge Earth Map - bad idea. It's awesome, but my poor computer can barely deal with it... turns are taking forever. I played for roughly 7 hours straight and it's 400AD.

-Arrian

[AndrewJ]

For my second game I'm on a tiny map playing Warlord difficulty. I started off really poorly by not expanding quickly and therefore got a bit cramped for position. I've fought back a bit and now I'm #2 civ.

It's 1350AD, I've been playing for 12-14 hrs. That's not including the time I spend at work and resting - reading / re-reading the manual & strategy guide and studying the printed map of end positions, for inspiration for my next visit to my empire. I reckon as the game only gets more involved later on, if you can't win early, that this will take me 24 -36 hrs playing time.

( I don't sleep well at nights - sometimes only get a few hours kip as my mind runs through every possible strategy - its terrible.)

[Dis]

0

[Calorman]

4.7 inches

[Raion]

Civ 3 is not a couple of hour game. It's a long game on a huge map. It always has been that way. That's why some people ended up playing Civ II for years, well, about 3 for me, I guess.

[pchang]

relatively short

I keep my games short by going for an early conquest victory. My latest game only lasted about 3 hours since I conquered the world in 190BC. I had only graduated to the middle ages a few turns before.

[Raion]

Oh, some people are still playing Sid's Alpha Centauri and Alien Crossfire game. That was out in 1998, and still with upgrade patches and such, it still is played today even.
I give about 3-5 years for Civ III, probably patches will come out, faster computer to make it play faster, and then, Sid's SimGolf will have to fit in there somewhere.

I can still hook up Pirates and play that game also, and might, just to see how fast that pirate ship can move now!

[Arrian]

Raion -

On Pirates! - The speed (sailing, fencing, etc.) is normal, at least on my computer. The problem is the old "too much money" bug - once I get more than 320,000 (rough number, it's actually a bit more) gold in my party, the game freaks out. So, you gotta divide the plunder prior to that. No big deal, really, once you figure it out.

Civ games have always taken longer than most others. The bigger the map, the more civs, the longer the game... especially if you play "continents" rather than pangea and don't poprush the AI to death in ancient times. There, that's on topic, now the Pirates! stuff is ok

-Arrian

[Morganstern]

I've had the game since late October, and am on my third game. Admittedly, with CIV3 I no longer go the multi-hour sessions I used to with CIV2, SMAC and MOO2, because CIV3 is just not that immersive (a topic discussed more at length in the "Disenchanted" discussion). I quit my first game early, won my second game after playing about six weeks, and expect my current game, which I'm winning to last about as long. I can't tell you the number of playing hours, I just know that I spend a lot of time instructing Workers to Build and then harvest forests.

[Flight]

I generally just play a new game for a day (maybe up to 6 hours straight) and either get bored of it when returning to it because of the tedius nature of moving units around or continue it to completion if it is interesting. I must've played about 6 games to completion on varying sizes and styles of map and several more uncompleted with savegames all deleted

When I give up games its normally because it's too obvious that i'm going to win, it'll just take ages to do it