I can't play this game any more - AI takes 10 minutes to complete a turn

[Kartoffel]

Contained at the end of the post is a link to the save game for the turn preceding the slow AI turn.

Although the 10 minute wait I experienced (most of which was not AI/human unit interactions but just a frozen screen) was particularly egregious I routinely experiences waits of 5 minutes or more on other games.

I loved the original iteration of the game, and I do not think it a embellishment to say that that the CAMO workshop has made it twice as enjoyable. Without Don and Andy we would still be using outdated OOBs, limited nation-states, horrible palettes and less complicated and realistic unit interaction mechanics as well as a simplified and less cunning AI. With this accolade being said I must now say, with a heavy heart, that I can no longer play the game. It is not because the game is bad, in fact, it is superb in all other facets save the sluggish turn length but waiting 10 minutes is unacceptable.

Some specifics: My force (Red) is on a defend mission against Green and my forces value is under 10k. Both "nations" at this point have expensive, industrialized armies (e.i. point-sink AFVs) and so AI pathing sluggishness from too many cheap formations is not a issue. My PC is a budget machine purchased around 6 months ago, (specifics can be provided upon request) and is up to date with defragmenting, game patches and anti-virus/spyware software.

I, a user that has purchased both compact discs and recommended this game to others, will no longer be able to play (at least on defend) or recommend this game to others until the slow AI turn problem is fixed. I keenly await a reply and hopefully a fix.


Sincerely,

A devoted SP fan

[Mobhack]

Well - let's see.

"My forces are on a defend mission" - so the AI will be getting about 3 times your points.

The enemy is green so:
It has masses of junk, not "expensive industrialised armies", the best being a few Leo-1. Everythying else is EE-9 scout cars, T-54, and M3 halftracks, since green is used for the unnamed central American armies (Red being used for the unnamed bits of the former USSR).

Greens experience at this date seems to be the mid to high 60's - so it'll get about a 10% hike in numbers since units will be cheaper.

Loading the save game as a scenario we see:
green has 492 elements
Green has 144 formations
The artillery pages extend to 3.5

There are about 2, maybe 3, entire battalions of tanks, same of mech inf in tin can halftracks or cheap wheeled things, and of course the same or greater amount of leg infantry and engineers. The top right of the map is absolutely stuffed with junk. You can only see a few forbearers of the horde at the moment, which is what your Hinds are plinking.

There are absolutely no "high ticket" elements to soak up points (such as modern fighters, or ADA, or any truly expensive arty - plenty of 210 point 155mm M114 platoons though). Its air strikes are a few dragonflies, and its ADA a few Igla MANPADS and som AAMG tracks.

It's a "North Korean horde" - no wonder it will take 5-10 minutes to play it's turn (is the AI complaining when you take a half an hour to do your bit?)...

The map does not help matters, being a crowded "Balkans" type set up of heavily wooded hills, with spots of rough and rough slope to navigate through.

It's not the points value that makes for a long time, it is the sheer number of AI elements. The AI spent about 2 minutes taking low-value main gun potshots at those 2 stationary hovering Hinds. The rest of the time is spent in moving the horde forwards, plotting its artillery etc. All that took about 5 or 6 minutes on my 6 year old 3Ghz P4 single processor Dell with 2MB RAM.

If you want the enemy to have a low unit count - then use a technically advanced (NATO, WARPACT, Israeli etc) one, not one that generates an "Orc Horde".

Cheers
Andy

[Kartoffel]

I take this thoughtful and informative post to mean that as a result of the high ratio of total formations to total points my game is naturally slowing down and that this is not in any way being caused by hardware anomalies or bloated software-related system resource utilization.

Thank-you for your reply, I shall modify my gaming accordingly along the lines you suggested. This will no doubt reduce temporal delays and increase my gaming satisfaction.

[Kenny]

Originally Posted by Kartoffel

Thank-you for your reply, I shall modify my gaming accordingly along the lines you suggested. This will no doubt reduce temporal delays and increase my gaming satisfaction.

No doubt in my mind that it will.

Good grief,I've never seen a Dat file that large! No wonder you made your computer cry uncle.

[Kenny]

Red defend vs Green

This scenario starts where the other one left off for the Red at turn 10 as to it's existing force. The Green side is a highly streamlined,and much economized attacking force. One tank battalion and one mechanised infantry company,no aircraft or helicopters, so no more 10 minute waits for the A-1 to do it's thing. BTW,the Green force doesn't consist of much junk in my estimation and if the year was 2010,the Red force would be dealing with the Bradley IFV.

If you play from the Red side,good luck as the Green force will probably still go through your forces like crap through a goose.

KWB,15Aug12