Long waiting time every turn, especially at deity difficulty

[dark3001]

I know this has been posted several times. I just want to post my suggestions, I really like to play the game and finish it.

The game performance definitely still need improvement. The point is that no computer in the world can handle it this well. The game will just slow down at later stage, especially with deity difficulty. Each and every AI will just have so many units and slow down the turn time so much that I have to put a book beside my computer, and start reading it when my turn is finished.

Can the dev start looking at this please?
From my observation, at the AI turns, their military units just move around randomly every time. Why can't you just make them station around some cities or borders while not in war? I think this is the main bottleneck for the long waiting time per turn. I'm pretty sure it will boost up the speed significantly. And it sort of make them look smarter that they are always prepared for war. Of course, it might still slow down when war actually occurs, but that's understandable, and should speed up reasonably quickly when their units got cleared up.
If I'm wrong then too bad.

This might involve a major code re-development, in terms of Object Oriented systems, all the military units should just be an object under a leader object. And only when he's at war, or threatened by barbarians, or when he needs to expand to a new land (escorting the settlers), then only his military units should be mobilized. At other times his units should just be stationed at cities or near borders.

Please, I would really like to finish a Deity game in huge maps, with domination victory condition.

[Goldbadger]

Huge maps causes me issues. Wait times get silly!

I agree about the pointless jostling of civ units maybe causing slow downs.

i end up playing Large map with 6 to 8 civs to speed things up.

[cescos]

Is there any kind of improvement about this coming up in Gods and Kings?

[QuantumTarantino]

Is there any kind of improvement about this coming up in Gods and Kings?

No, there is nothing that will make time speed up in the expansion.

[dark3001]

No, there is nothing that will make time speed up in the expansion.

With this issue unsolved, guess I won't spend money on Gods and Kings yet.

[QuantumTarantino]

There isnt an issue here to solve.

[domin01]

For what it's worth, I had the worst performance on the game, even at starting. The solution I found was to let the game register with Steam when I first started it (before the splash screens) and then unhook from the internet. Let the movie play and then rehook into the 'net. Sometimes it crashes out after the movie but I just restart it and it works fine, right up to the end, with no slow down. It's like the game is checking stuff online and that's what is slowing it down.

[dark3001]

There isnt an issue here to solve.

I don't know about you, when I have to wait for 1-5 minutes every turn, I just feel frustrated and want it to be "solved".
Sure you can say "play with smaller maps with less AIs", but I don't think it is a good practice, you're encouraging bad game programming.

[dark3001]

For what it's worth, I had the worst performance on the game, even at starting. The solution I found was to let the game register with Steam when I first started it (before the splash screens) and then unhook from the internet. Let the movie play and then rehook into the 'net. Sometimes it crashes out after the movie but I just restart it and it works fine, right up to the end, with no slow down. It's like the game is checking stuff online and that's what is slowing it down.

I would guess it probably won't work for me, as I had no issue at start, till around industrial era. It probably won't be as bad if it is only checking stuff online.
Did you try higher difficulty and huge map?

[QuantumTarantino]

I don't know about you, when I have to wait for 1-5 minutes every turn, I just feel frustrated and want it to be "solved".
Sure you can say "play with smaller maps with less AIs", but I don't think it is a good practice, you're encouraging bad game programming.

But that is not an issue to solve.
Civ is a complex game, with MILLIONS of decisions to make per turn at the later levels, perhaps billions.

If you want to play the most complex strategy games, you need to understand, that the processing of turns gets exponentially larger. That is not somrthing that CAN be fixed.

More tiles + More units + More players = More time.

[oblio]

That is not somrthing that CAN be fixed.

Perhaps this is true as far as the game code is concerned but we don't know what PC the OP has. So maybe there is a fix - the OP investing in a much more powerful PC system so the between turn time is 1-2 minutes. Or maybe zero lag with a supercomputer if the code could be made to run on one?

[dark3001]

More tiles + More units + More players = More time.

That's why I'm suggesting to make all the units "sleep" while not at war.
It's pointless to move them every single turn. Especially city states, their units just move back and forth between the few tiles every turn.
It might not completely solve the issue, but will definitely boost up the performance for every end turn.

Also they may be trying to simulate the units movement even when they're not shown on screen, maybe it can be written in such a way that the units not on screen will reach their destinations instantly?

Just trying to help improve a game series I really like. Civ 4 has similar problem, but not as serious.
If you disagree with me, then so be it.

And if I can invest a supercomputer for "merely" gaming, I could make my own Civilization series already.

[QuantumTarantino]

So, you are saying, that while not at active war, a country should not be able to move its military whatsoever?

That is mind boggling, and VERY un-strategic, Imagine, you go to war with A, and position your military at B's borders, and B can do nothing about your posturing, and positioning, because B is at peace with the world.

Each unit needs to be able to be moved, or not moved, based on the need of the civ, and in order to do this, EVERY decision that civ has regarding that unit, needs to be processed.

[dark3001]

So, you are saying, that while not at active war, a country should not be able to move its military whatsoever?

In that case, you might want to re-read my original post. I said make them station around borders, and so they seem to be always prepared for war, not that they should force all units to sleep while not threatened.

I don't want to repeat myself, but with current game code, the AI (that has occupied very huge area) is clearly not doing this, even at war. A lot of their units are just moving randomly within their land, and not mobilized to take down their enemy.

Each unit needs to be able to be moved, or not moved, based on the need of the civ, and in order to do this, EVERY decision that civ has regarding that unit, needs to be processed.

And yes they were processed. But regardless of the needs, current game code will move them anyway.

[QuantumTarantino]

You stated this

That's why I'm suggesting to make all the units "sleep" while not at war.

If they are sleeping when not at war, you cant have them position them, it doesnt work both ways. Either they sleep until attacked, or they need to be able to calculate their movements.


Just because you dont understand the AIs need, doesnt mean it is meaningless.

[dark3001]

Just because you dont understand the AIs need, doesnt mean it is meaningless.

Then can you explain why are the military units of peaceful city states never stop moving?
I know what you mean by each unit's decision needs to be calculated, but please I mean "current game code".
Currently I can observe that the AI units "always" end up moving away from previous tiles, which is very inefficient, what's worse is that they don't even move to places they belong to (like country borders where conflicts are likely to happen).

[QuantumTarantino]

No, i cant, same reason why you cant.

I dont have full access to all the information the AI has.

You also seem to think, that if they changed the code, and these units DIDNT move, that it would have less calculations that need to be done.

It isnt the MOVING, that takes time, it is the DECIDING that does.

Perhaps these units move in a seemingly meaningless fashion, simply so that the map has some movement on it, for humans to see, while the bulk of the calculations go on in the background.