My bigest problem with GalCiv

from Stardock Forums
I like GC but I find that any maps bigger than large, become too slow later in the game. I have just waited for 90 seconds for the other players to move. one of the major races are out and there is only one minor race left. I can't see the point in playing huge maps they become tedious, due to the lag. I know you have tried to improve this but I think you are still a long way off.

Also when you ally with other race could'nt you merge your culture points. This would make races on the edge extintion still worth allying with, as the extra culture points would eminate from the new planets of your ally, or through yours if the other player has a stonger cultural influence.

Still a great game, just a bit frustrating with the time lag.

Ta
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Reply #2 from Stardock Forums Top
90 seconds? Woha. What kind of system you playing on?

The speed is due to the ships moving.

I think I'd like to put in an option of "fast moving" where players can select this and the ships will simply jump to where they're hoping to get in that turn. That removes the path finding.

You know how RTSs usually limit the # of units to around 200 or so? That's why they do it. In your gmae, there may be thousands of units.

Now, having ships just jump to their destination means that off-screen blockades wouldn't work since it's not going to do path finding but I don' tthink this would be a big deal and it would be optional.
Elemental: Reforged
Reply #3 from Stardock Forums Top
I run the game on huge - and I only have about a 5 second wait at worst- sometimes almost none.

I think it's your system.


I personally Love the huge galaxy - give more realistic approach to the game.

Jerry
Reply #4 from Stardock Forums Top
Playing on Gigantic Galaxy does take time between moves later in the game. Perhaps up to 45 seconds. That I have expierenced whith all Civ's still in play.

This on a 1.5 ghz Machine with 1 GIG or DDR Ram.
Reply #5 from Stardock Forums Top
I play with 1.2 gighz on gigantic and I never wait more than 5 second with all civs.

;p

Jerry
Reply #7 from Stardock Forums Top
Well I have a
1.6 amd xp
512 Ram (100)
Geforce4 ti4400
40 gig harddrive with 20 gig free
so not a slow machine. But if Star Ranger is not having this problem with a 1.2. Then what else could be the problem???
Reply #8 from Stardock Forums Top
I have observed that when I play a game for a long time that saving the game, exiting GC, restarting and reloading reduces the wait time during "next turn" processing. Are you seeing the same thing?
Reply #10 from Stardock Forums Top
I tried what you suggested Jack.
I restored last civilisation No Joy still 90 seconds lag.
I saved restored same.

Any other suggestions. If others ar'nt having tis problem what could be the problem on my machne???
Reply #12 from Stardock Forums Top
I've been playing a huge galaxy for a couple of nights and I too get a major lag now that I'm at the endgame run in.

I suspect its largely due to the shear volume of ships in play due to the current ship combat bug - I'm seeing several stacks of 40+ mixed race ships all trying unsucessfully to kill each other, whilst the Bradians and Drengins crank yet more ships out at a phenomenal rate.

Paul
Reply #13 from Stardock Forums Top
That could be it... with no one being able to destroy ships they just keep building up... moreso than normal.
Reply #14 from Stardock Forums Top
One more observation about the number of ships in play can be taken from the yearly stats:

Now, I've got a Defender, Battle Cruiser, Battleship, Dreadnought, Avatar and Overlord parked in orbit round every plant, and just 2 explorers in flight in the galaxy. On the Military Graph I'm top of the heap, with the Drengins (in 2nd) at maybe 15-20% of my strength - all other major races are extint.

I'd expect my military strength rating on the yearly summary to be 300+ right? Wrong - its actually 106! This is due to the Bradians non-graphed rating. Bear in mind they can't (or maybe just don't) make anything bigger than a battleship, and that the bigger the ship the higher the points rating, and a quick bit of mental arithmetic means they must have one hell of a mass of smaller ships out there.

This opens up other debates which may be better served by their own threads - like shouldn't we be able to get better stats on the minor races too? Also, with the power the Bradians have achieved in this game, I'd class them as a major Race, so how about allowing minor races to be promoted into major's with all the benefits that allows (i.e. UP, different tech tree etc) or relegation for a struggling major power?
Reply #15 from Stardock Forums Top
I dont think there is room on the Diplomacy screen to promote the minor races. I read for beta 4, the Bradian AI is being toned down. Minor races should not build colony ships. Minor = 1 planet.

In my current game, I took Brad's suggestion and made all AI good. I became evil. The Bradian AI was the first to declare war. In 3 turns, all major AI declared war. Their reason: I was at war with the Bradians!

The initial placement of the 5 AI needs to be improved. I had a game in a huge galaxy where 1 AI was in a cornor. By the time I got there, there were only 2 planets colonized. There was no other planets for that AI to colonize. In my current game, the Altereans have only 1 star system.
Reply #16 from Stardock Forums Top
There Bradian civilization won't be in beta 4 at all.

It was just there for testing.
Reply #17 from Stardock Forums Top
I've been on the other side of the stuck in a corner situation, but I don't think it's a bug as much as just what happens sometime.

-Robert
Reply #18 from Stardock Forums Top
I shall put on a wake for the Bradian Civilization. Such fun opponents. (And since its the AI for drengin's, Ill find there skin tasty also...)
Reply #19 from Stardock Forums Top
Red - got your saved game. Found the problem, the units are stacking up on top of each other which sends the path finding into a near endless loop (we have time out code which is the only reason why it's not taking forever).

Thanks for sending it. It's a great test case for optimizing this code and making sure that this sort of thing doesn't happen.
Reply #20 from Stardock Forums Top
Well that's a relief. I bought Heagimonia recently and though it's a good game I have finnished the Campain section and the skirmish is a bit boring. I have found that I still keep coming back to GC because it is always a challenge, it's always different and as I can't get a perminant connection where I live, I can't really go online. This problem was the only thing stopping me from playing more regular as I found I could'nt finnish a game due to Frustration with the lag.


Please have a look at Bete 4 final one. I have posted a reply there about beta testing.

Thanks very much!!!


Red