Huge map, 32 civs and my comp....

[Spec]

How much time between turns? I have a 1000
mhz, 512 ram and a 64meg video card. Should I buy 256 more ram before starting my game or will it not change anything?
Thanks.

SPec.

[Alex]

You have a 100 Mhz computer? How did you manage to install Civ3 on it?

[alva]

A good indication will be the first turn, which takes quite long because so many cities being plopped down.
The good news is that the next hmm 50 turns will be faster eugh less slow

Looking back at you config, I guess you have a gigahertz(1000Mhz) processor.
In that case, you should be ok.
No real need for more RAM, unless you can afford it offcourse (and it is cheap ATM)

[Spec]

Sorry, it IS 1000mhz.

So how much time will I wait between turns in 1500 A.D.? 5 min or less?....or more?

Spec.

[Skeeve]

I used to play on a 600MHz machine and it could approach 5 minutes in the middle industrial age, but at 1000MHz, I think it should be under 5 min.

Currently, I have a 2400 MHz, and it hardly goes over a minute.

Good luck,
- Skeeve

[Jahi]

my laptop has the same specs and its about 2 min a turn at the modern age with 16 civs

[MoonWolf]

More RAM won't help you that much. Reaching the modern world with 16 civs on a 256*256 map, it can take 10-20 min pr. turn on my computer (XP1800/1533Mhz). I have recently changed my motherboard so I can't tell if that helped yet, but I have a feeling Civ3 is very CPU-depended

[alva]

my laptop has the same specs and its about 2 min a turn at the modern age with 16 civs

The difference is in the amount of civs, and it is a huge one at that. (The delay is manly in things as culture and trade caculations.

[alva]

Originally posted by MoonWolf
I have recently changed my motherboard so I can't tell if that helped yet, but I have a feeling Civ3 is very CPU-depended

Although a better cpu is nice of course, the biggest boost you can get is RAM.

Take a look at your swap file (task-manager) when entering modern or there about. 500 to 600 MB isn't unusual.

[Mad Mariner]

The difference is in the amount of civs, and it is a huge one at that. (The delay is manly in things as culture and trade caculations.

Is this right? my computer is proper garbage but if i reduce the map size the game proper speeds up which it does not do by reducing the amount of civs. Fair enough ive never played with 32 civs but still..

[TheStinger]

On big maps if you have lots of civs it means the cpu has to calculate for every civ in every city every turn.

on small maps there are less cities so the calculations take less. if you reduce map size and number of civs it speeds up alot.

[Mad Mariner]

Yes fair enough but doesnt he tile management that the cpu have to calculate slow the game down more than the city management?

[Willem]

Originally posted by TheStinger
On big maps if you have lots of civs it means the cpu has to calculate for every civ in every city every turn.

on small maps there are less cities so the calculations take less. if you reduce map size and number of civs it speeds up alot.

The biggest problem is in the pathfinding. The larger the map, the more choices the AI has to make as far as movement is concerned, and the longer it will take to make a decision. You'll notice that things slow down as more and more units enter the game. This was confirmed by someone at Firaxis.

[alva]

therefore, more civ's = more units.....

there isn't a big difference between 7 or 8 or 9 civ's of course.
But try it out with 24 civ's on the map map.

[Mad Bomber]

Originally posted by alva
therefore, more civ's = more units.....

there isn't a big difference between 7 or 8 or 9 civ's of course.
But try it out with 24 civ's on the map map.

I have a 1.5 GHTZ P4 and it starts to slow down after the 1000 unit mark (with 32 civs that would be around the early industrial) turns can take more than 5 min with about another 5 with the city production move. One thing that is not mentioned though is the time you will need to complete your turn and after I reach the 1000 unit level for my civ (about 2200-2500 in game) I will need aprox 45 min to complete the turn (more if you do not automate any workers) I only have 256 MB of RAM so your game should be a little faster but not by much. One thing that will speed up the game is to not check the options to animate moves under the preferences menu. Time spent on diplomacy is a variable in the length of turns as is the number of wars fought (more wars=more units=more time per turn)