How long does it take to play a game?

Maelhavok · May 14, 2002, 00:01

Hello Civ III fans,

I have owned Civ III since Christmas and due to a TON of computer problems (including a worm that fried my hard drive) I was unable to play the game untill recently (ver.1.21 about 3 weeks ago).
After a multitude of ancient defeats on diety/huge I hit the boards and found some excellent info on the How and Why of my problems. Now I am playing a Standard/Raging/Monarch and am #2 in the world circa 1600 ad and I have no doubt I will conquer the world In the fullness of time. Herein lies my problem. Turns are taking to long.
I have turned off animations, and moved to a standard map. I dont like the governers nor auto-workers. My new 850mhz processor and 20gig drive should handle any single cd game but I have played this same game off and on for 12 days and I would prefer not to spend the next 12 mopping up a won game.
I have not seen on the boards how long your games take, Is this normal? How long do your games last? Is it slower on higher lvls? Can I turn off useless screens (AKA screenshots of cities/palace building etc). in the mystical editor?
What do you do to speed up your games? I would prefer to not go to a smaller map, rather the reverse.

Maelhavok

Jaybe · May 14, 2002, 01:43

Huge map, 12+ civs takes me 6-12 weeks at probably an average of 18 hours/week. But I am a bit meticulous, don't use city governors and control almost all my workers. I don't mind that it takes so long -- it's the journey, not the destination.

I play on a 800Mhz Macintosh and a 1.3GHz Wintel.

Alanus · May 14, 2002, 04:47

Civilization games (any of the series) are adictive but really too much time consuming, especially when you have a full time (and more) job + a family + others things to do.

I've played Civ3 with a PIII 700Mhz / 128 Mb RAM, with all animations on, and didn't notice any problem with the computed part of the game. Now, I play with a brand new Athlon 1900+ / 512 Mb RAM / ATI Radeon 8500, so performance is not an issue

Some gave an good tip on another thread of this forum : when the computer is playing, moving your auto-workers and the other nations, press SHIFT to accelerate.

Other than that, I have now tasted auto-workers and find it very convenient. So I have a hord of auto-workers that are not doing too bad, plus a very few that I manage manually. It really saves time, because micro-management is really boring when you start to have a large empire

. I don't use governors either, but I use the saved typical queue any time I have a new city.

The domestic advisor and city queue interfaces would require improvement (sorting by type of production, easy insert in the middle of queue) to speed up periodic city reviews. The corresponding interface of CtP2 was quite well done in that respect.

Anyway, I don't anticipate that a full game will last less than 20 hours of play.

Mannamagnus · May 14, 2002, 06:27

I used to play only on huge maps.
With civ3 I favour small maps; I can play one game in a sunday afternoon.

Inverse Icarus · May 14, 2002, 06:40

i usually play large maps, because huge (or marla's GIGA) run too damn slow on a 1.2 athlon with a gig of ram. i play my games for an hour or two a day, and they usually take a week or so.

so figure, 20 hours tops.

Jethro83 · May 14, 2002, 07:14

Since I only play on standard maps, I can get a game finished in about two to three days. Of course, I do get out after a few hours, when there is a major turning point.

redstar1 · May 14, 2002, 07:15

I think it depends a lot on how you play the game. Most of the time I play for the peaceful victory so I tend not to have to move a lot of units around. This leads to a shorter game. Times when I have to go to war (or just want to cos I hate the Romans!) the game takes much longer.

TBH I don't see much slowdown from the AI moving excpet for those times when its moving about 40 units into your territory.

running an Athlon XP 1800 with 512 PC2100 DDR ram so I guess its running about as fast as its going to.

Dr. Stiby · May 14, 2002, 08:05

Playing on a huge map with all the civs, I don't finish a game within one months time. But I only play this game in weekends, alas. Calculating the hours it takes me to play a full game, maybe about 80? I have to say I'm quite the control freak and never automate workers!

dojoboy · May 14, 2002, 09:16

Quote:

Originally posted by Alanus

Some gave an good tip on another thread of this forum : when the computer is playing, moving your auto-workers and the other nations, press SHIFT to accelerate.

Hey, I'll have to try that. I play on a Mac 8.6 w/ 288 RAM (333 hz processor) using standard maps or smaller. My current game is taking about 2.5 minutes per AI's turn in the year 2015. Sure, I'd like it to be faster but I spend that time considering all that may happen the next turn. I would like to play larger maps but it is too slow even in the ancient era.

Jawa Jocky · May 14, 2002, 10:40

Auto-workers will cut your game time in half. I'm playing with a PII-450 with 256ram so you know that I've done everything possible to speed up games. Victory types also make a big difference. Wars so the game down a lot so conquer/domination take longer than diplomatic/space race. When I reach the modern era I usually go for a space race victory, fortify all units, and grab a good book. I'm reading "The Runaway Jury" and hitting the enter key every 30 seconds." I should win by Chapter 6.

BillChin · May 14, 2002, 11:18

I estimate 60 hours of actual playing time, for relatively new players on standard size maps. After a few completed games, this can be cut in half or more.

Automating 80% of the workers with Shift-A (will not tear up mines or irrigation or cut forests) will save a bunch of time. Save the other 20% of workers for high priority projects such as a road to a new city or connecting a key resource.

Using governors in outlying cities cuts down on time. Only the core cities near the capital and the Forbidden Palace produce much, so especially in war time, use the governors to help with happiness and civil unrest.

Another useful tip for the early game is to have units auto explore using the "E" key. Again, save a few units for manual, but having the bulk on auto saves a large percentage of time during the early game.

Fortifying units with "Y" (or is it shift-Y?) puts units on sentry duty, activating if they spot an enemy, saves a lot of time.

Moonsinger · May 14, 2002, 12:42

It usually take me about a month to finish a game, since I can play only about an hour or less every day. So far I have always played on random generated large or huge maps with at least 12 or more civs.

Akka · May 14, 2002, 12:53

I play always on large map, 16 civs, I never use governors but I do automate slave workers after my core cities are upgraded.
A game take me 2-3 days usually, for a grand total of 20-25 hours a game.

zulu9812 · May 14, 2002, 14:07

I usually play intensively for a few hours a day on Huge map 16 Players. Only ever takes me 3 or 4 days at most.

btw, here's a health warning in the readme:

"Some people may experience fatigue or discomfort after playing for a long time. Regardless of how you feel, you should ALWAYS take a 10- to 15-minute break every hour while playing. If your hands or arms become tired or uncomfortable while playing, stop and rest."

Rest??? During Civ3???

Akka · May 14, 2002, 16:02

Quote:

Regardless of how you feel, you should ALWAYS take a 10- to 15-minute break every hour while playing.

God, if I had to follow these advices...

I can't count the times where I spent 15-20 hours in a row playing a game

Maelhavok · May 15, 2002, 21:45

Thank you Civers,

This is exactly what I was looking for. So it is not my computer (whew) From the posts I see my gametime is in (slow) step with responses. I was mainly woried my new processor/motherboard was not liking my bioelectrics again. I will try the speed up suggestions. I guess I'll have to automate for speed. It would be convienient to have a road and mine everything button or at least a dissallow irrigation button.

Maelhavok

PS I would like to know how long it takes some of the designers to play a game. I tried looking at the chat but no one seems to have asked.

PPS I take about a 10-15 minute break (as advised) an hour just waiting for my turn

Jon Shafer · May 15, 2002, 22:27

Quote:

Originally posted by Maelhavok
PPS I take about a 10-15 minute break (as advised) an hour just waiting for my turn

*Snickers*
Perhaps the turn length is part of a massive government conspiracy.

Theseus · May 15, 2002, 23:53

What bugs me is not the time period between turns, but the big lag in the middle of your turn when all of the automated and in transit units process.

I keep a book or magazine around during the late game.

I've only completed one game... it took probably 50-60 hours.