Things to do in the 2-10mins between turns

[Wrong_shui]

1. Read threads on the apolyton forum
2. Have a shower
3. Wash up the dishes
4. Sit at the computer holding the shift key
5. Round up a couple of friends and invade france

[xane]

6. Play Civ2

[campmajor!]

Buy a DECENT computer......

[Kolyana]

Actually, my computer kicks ass, but sitting through the AI move 20 workers up and down my borders, or his entire army in and out of his cities (because he doesn't understand how to fortify), leads to a loooooong time between turns.

I don't want to switch off animations, because then I may miss an incursion into my terriroty .. so a few minutes is the price to pay.

6. File your nails.
7. Blow the nail dust out of your keyboard.
8. Wonder why the F4 key is sticking.

[LaRusso]

wrongshui, i would have reccomended masturbation, but i reckon i need not to

[Moraelin]

Originally posted by campmajor!
Buy a DECENT computer......

Actually, I have an 1333 MHz Athlon, on an ASUS mobo with AMD 761 chipset, 256 MB of DDR RAM, two latest model 7200 RPM IBM hard drives, and a GeForce 3 graphics card. Now I realize it might not exactly be a 2 GHz system, but it should still be more than decent.

And even turning animations off doesn't help much.

E.g., the Germans, Babylonians and English have had a f***ed-up war, and now the whole map is a patchwork of their cities and mine. On account of higher culture, mine take up most of the space, while theirs have like 3 free squares each. I don't mean a RADIUS of 3 squares. I actually mean 3 free square TOTAL, each of them.

Now each of their cities also has like 4 cavalry units patrolling that territory, and since they're roads, it's a lot of moves per unit. And since they're right next to my cities, I get to sit and watch each of those units move around in their tiny patch of land, each and every single turn. You'd figure that such a "smart" AI would figure that with 4 units covering 3 squares, he doesn't even need to PATROLL. Just put each of them in a square, and that's it.

Which also makes me wonder about another thing. How the heck CAN the AI hold to those conquered cities? I mean they're all the way across the continent, and one of them is an ex-capitol so it should have some mondo culture of its own. How come THOSE cities don't deffect, nuking the whole armies in them? Or for that matter, how come that if _I_ have a city all the way across the map, corruption nukes all the income and production leaving me with a loss, but the AI doesn't seem to have any problem holding on to a far away city. Am I missing something obvious, or?

Oh well.

9. Have a meal.
10. Watch TV.
11. Play one more level of Gauntlet Legends on the Dreamcast.
12. Reinstall CTP2 and download the latest mods for it.

[simwiz2]

"Actually, I have an 1333 MHz Athlon, on an ASUS mobo with AMD 761 chipset, 256 MB of DDR RAM, two latest model 7200 RPM IBM hard drives, and a GeForce 3 graphics card. Now I realize it might not exactly be a 2 GHz system, but it should still be more than decent."

i dont think it has anything to do with computer speed, because my computer is below the civ3 req, and it freezes and loads slow, but it never, ever takes a long time for the AI to move.

[LaRusso]

i am puzzled.
on my dell600 laptop it is pretty quick

[MarkG]

Originally posted by LaRusso
i am puzzled.
on my dell600 laptop it is pretty quick

computers bought with firaxis' bribe money play just fine

[Nexus VI]

13. Have a trip to the opposite side of our planet.

[Fredric Drum]

What matters is MAP SIZE. You guys with lousy computers who still have little waiting time between turns don't play on HUGE maps. Am I right? But those of you with kick-ass computers with lots of waiting play on HUGE maps. Am I right again? The thing is that if you want to play on HUGE maps, you should expect the game to slow down. I know it stinks, but that's how the ball bounces.

I would like to see that guy with a below spec machine play on a HUGE map.

The number of civs is irrelevant, only the number of cities and units,which is limited by map size.


Fred

[MarkG]

Originally posted by Fredric Drum
The thing is that if you want to play on HUGE maps, you should expect the game to slow down.

true, but it feels good to whine about it anyway

[Magician]

14. happy with my girlfriend

[Akka]

Originally posted by Moraelin


Actually, I have an 1333 MHz Athlon, on an ASUS mobo with AMD 761 chipset, 256 MB of DDR RAM, two latest model 7200 RPM IBM hard drives, and a GeForce 3 graphics card. Now I realize it might not exactly be a 2 GHz system, but it should still be more than decent.

A 2 GHz system would be a P4 one, which means that it would cost twice yours and have the same performances

The slowdowns are because of the size of the map, and probably because of the path/commercial network. You can still try a smaller map while the patch is on its way, and cross your fingers hoping that this patch will solve it all.

[Bubba_B]

I recommend in the patch that they put in a pop-up screen with Joan of Arch in a spandex jumper leading you through a workout routine . On the big maps with lots of Civ's I'm pushing 4 min between turns. I really don't mind, but I'm snacking like crazy between turns.

I used to rely on Civ as a appetite suppressant.

[LaRusso]

Originally posted by MarkG
computers bought with firaxis' bribe money play just fine

well, some consolation for having to trample what's left of my moral and cheer on a broken game

[Pythagoras]

15 Call your girlfriend who you have neglected since the end of October.
16 Do homework.
17 Alt Tab to IM or ICQ and chat with friends
18 Dance to the exciting music in the modern era.
19 Take naps, if you sleep through each 12 minute turn you could play nonstop forever! All you need is an IV and you are set to live Civ3!

[Wrong_shui]

Originally posted by LaRusso
wrongshui, i would have reccomended masturbation, but i reckon i need not to

lol

this was suppose to be a list so u should of put a number with it.

[sachmo71]

6. Hold down the shift key. It works for me...

[Zealot]

20. Get a trained dog to press shift for you while you take a bath.
Or, you could forget the dog and use the time to take 3 baths!

Wow, 3 baths between each turn. Now that would make me a clean guy!

[homegrown]

21. Apply for Social Security. Get the denial. Appeal the denial. Win the Appeal.
22. Learn a foreign language.
23. Alt-Tab to Stronghold and work on my castle there a little more.

What matters is MAP SIZE.

See, guys, size is the most important factor.

[Wrong_shui]

ew stronghold is nasty

[darthx86]

Hmm... I have very little problem with slowdown - even in late game where 5+ rivals civs are moving all their units. It's seldom more than a minute in late game, and I always play on (at least) a large map with 5-7 opponents.

I think most of the lag time may be due not so much to map size, but how many opponent AIs you play against, including the barbarian level!

For the record, I'm on an SMP Duron (1GHz) with 512MB DDR and a 3 year old GeForce 256 DDR (the original GeForce). I've done no tweaks for CPU affinity to play the game, leaving it all up to Windows 2000 to handle. Maybe this is why mine moves so well? I'll have to install it on my wife's Tbird 800 and see how it performs...

[Johnny_Was]

Originally posted by campmajor!
Buy a DECENT computer......

What an arrogant ass...!

I have this -

P4 1.8ghz
512 MB RDRAM
GeForce 3
SB Platinum
Sony X52
all the latest drivers, blah, blah, blah...

Every other game runs fine.

This game takes FOREVER to process turns.

After the 15 Century it takes FOREVER for pieces to move around the map.

It is simply unoptimised.

TIP:

The best thing to do while waiting for the AI turns - UNINSTALL THE GAME AND PLAY SOMETHING ELSE!

have a calm day

was

[Akka]

Originally posted by homegrown
21. Apply for Social Security. Get the denial. Appeal the denial. Win the Appeal.
22. Learn a foreign language.
23. Alt-Tab to Stronghold and work on my castle there a little more.


See, guys, size is the most important factor.

Yes. Size DOES matter

[aznblader]

simply put, it's ridiculous to wait for around 5 minute per turn late game, when i run unreal tournament at 32 bit, high res, max quality at 60 frames per second. i don't care what excuses you make about "map size" or "AIs" or how you diss my "crappy system." when all's said and done, Civ III IS a 2D game. there's no excuse for me being able to play a high end, 3d game at max quality and to wait for a 2d game 5 minutes a turn. it's just sloppy coding. if they had programmed unreal tournament, and it ran at 5 minutes per frame on my same system, would you tell me to play a smaller map, or would you be pissed off at the programmers?

[Johnny_Was]

Originally posted by aznblader
simply put, it's ridiculous to wait for around 5 minute per turn late game, when i run unreal tournament at 32 bit, high res, max quality at 60 frames per second. i don't care what excuses you make about "map size" or "AIs" or how you diss my "crappy system." when all's said and done, Civ III IS a 2D game. there's no excuse for me being able to play a high end, 3d game at max quality and to wait for a 2d game 5 minutes a turn. it's just sloppy coding. if they had programmed unreal tournament, and it ran at 5 minutes per frame on my same system, would you tell me to play a smaller map, or would you be pissed off at the programmers?

Amen.

[Darkknight]

Actually maybe it's a laptop thing.
P3 633
256 RAM
8mb ATI Rage Mobility Pro

and it works fine just turned 1500ad on a huge map with 8 civs.
Less then a minute a turn.

Try pillaging all their roads taking a few of their cities then forcing them into peace again

[Darkknight]

Originally posted by aznblader
simply put, it's ridiculous to wait for around 5 minute per turn late game, when i run unreal tournament at 32 bit, high res, max quality at 60 frames per second. i don't care what excuses you make about "map size" or "AIs" or how you diss my "crappy system." when all's said and done, Civ III IS a 2D game. there's no excuse for me being able to play a high end, 3d game at max quality and to wait for a 2d game 5 minutes a turn. it's just sloppy coding. if they had programmed unreal tournament, and it ran at 5 minutes per frame on my same system, would you tell me to play a smaller map, or would you be pissed off at the programmers?

duh!
It's nothing like a 3D game. This is running to millions of operations a turn for the AI. Even a simple where do I want to move would take about 100 ops. Then there's the production and diplomacy. Don't forget it needs to read and write all these ops to RAM so it can look back at what it's just done. That calls for high-speed RAM and a lot of it. Even then it's still going to take a long time going through every unit and city and then starting over again for the next civ.
A 3D game is just a graphics engine with at most 50 units. It's all in a set path as well until an action ( like you walking within sight of an enemy) occurs. All you need for that is a decent gfx card.

[Kaesar]

Originally posted by aznblader
simply put, it's ridiculous to wait for around 5 minute per turn late game, when i run unreal tournament at 32 bit, high res, max quality at 60 frames per second. i don't care what excuses you make about "map size" or "AIs" or how you diss my "crappy system." when all's said and done, Civ III IS a 2D game. there's no excuse for me being able to play a high end, 3d game at max quality and to wait for a 2d game 5 minutes a turn. it's just sloppy coding. if they had programmed unreal tournament, and it ran at 5 minutes per frame on my same system, would you tell me to play a smaller map, or would you be pissed off at the programmers?

Gosh, you really don't understand programming and computer systems do you?

The reason you can run Unreal smoothly is because of your video card. I don't even think you can run Unreal in software mode(cpu calculates the polygons).

The mechanisms causing the slowdowns in the two games are completely different. In unreal, it is the graphics. In civ3, it is the calculation of the AI moves. The computer has to figure out where to move its units, calculate culture, recalculate borders, figure assimulation, happiness, etc, etc. On a huge map, there is likely more than 300 cites and 2000 units. That in itself is quite a lot for the cpu to process.

In Unreal, the bottleneck is the calculation of the 3d graphics, which is all handled by a specialized graphics processor unit on your graphics card, that's why you can run your 60 fps.

If it's possible to show civ3 fps, you will see that there is no slow down at all. It is the game mechanics that takes a long time to calculate.