On the cusp... - Page 5

alexti · #41 October 17th, 2006, 09:14 PM

Quote:

kimmitt said:
But the turn processing time means that I just can't justify buying the game to myself. I spent more time watching turns process than playing them, and this on the first few turns of a 5-person game in the demo.

My machine's a 2 GHz with 768 MB of RAM; my graphics aren't the best, but my problem isn't with graphics processing.

It doesn't sound right. I thought you were complaining about sluggish turn processing on turn 80 on a huge map. I've marginally better computer and turn processing in similar setup takes maybe 1-3 seconds...

Ballbarian · #42 October 17th, 2006, 09:41 PM

Quote:

My only complaint regarding the map generation is the lack of options. Not that the maps it usually generates are bad, but it would be nice to be able to generate a land only map, or lower the ratio of mountains to plains and similar.

You already can!

From the main menu, select 'Game Tools', then select 'Random Map Creator'. From there you can set map:
width/height
province count
sea%
mountain%
ruggedness
rivers(not pretty)
impassable mountains
and finally antialiasing.

Archonsod · #43 October 18th, 2006, 12:52 AM

Heh, one of these days I'll get around to actually reading the manual...

Foodstamp · #44 October 18th, 2006, 01:44 AM

Don't feel bad at all! I didn't know you could customize the RMG either until someone pointed it out to me here.

Daynarr · #45 October 18th, 2006, 03:46 AM

Quote:

Archonsod said:
Heh, one of these days I'll get around to actually reading the manual...

Murphy's Law:

- When all else fails, read the instructions.

thejeff · #46 October 18th, 2006, 09:02 AM

Quote:

alexti said:

Quote:

kimmitt said:
But the turn processing time means that I just can't justify buying the game to myself. I spent more time watching turns process than playing them, and this on the first few turns of a 5-person game in the demo.

My machine's a 2 GHz with 768 MB of RAM; my graphics aren't the best, but my problem isn't with graphics processing.

It doesn't sound right. I thought you were complaining about sluggish turn processing on turn 80 on a huge map. I've marginally better computer and turn processing in similar setup takes maybe 1-3 seconds...

How long are those turns taking? I've never seen it take longer to process than to play. Even when it's taking 10-15 minutes on late turns on a huge map, I'm taking hours to set up the turn.

My system's around the same, 1.8G Athlon, but 1G of Ram, which makes me wonder if the memory is the difference. If you're hitting the swap file, that can make a huge difference in speed. Check your memory usage while it's processing.

PDF · #47 October 18th, 2006, 12:25 PM

Quote:

kimmitt said:
Yeah, my tone was a bit grumpy; I was disappointed by the demo for Dom3.

I agree that the map generation is probably not a big deal; it just shocked me with the 3 minutes it took to do so. But the turn processing time means that I just can't justify buying the game to myself. I spent more time watching turns process than playing them, and this on the first few turns of a 5-person game in the demo.

My machine's a 2 GHz with 768 MB of RAM; my graphics aren't the best, but my problem isn't with graphics processing.

Anyways, I played the heck out of Dom2 and probably will continue to do so. I'm even enamoured of the "no save" aspect. I just can't justify shelling out for (or recommending to friends) a game that I won't end up playing due to the fact that I won't want to wait for turns to process. I figure Ilwinter deserves to know that.

kimmuit,
What the heck do you expect when you state "I won't want to wait for turns to process" ?? [img]/threads/images/Graemlins/Cold.gif[/img] It's like my 6-old son who claims he doesn't like soup !

So IW ought to know they'd better make an instantaneous turn process (good luck to them!)

, but you that you seem to behave like a spoiled brat !

Foodstamp · #48 October 18th, 2006, 01:15 PM

I think his point is the turn waits are excessive. Which in the scenario he described they should not be. But they truly are a bit too long with larger games imo.

MythicalMino · #49 October 18th, 2006, 02:00 PM

but if you figure the amount of information that the game processes each turn....and not just turn orders....what about the battles. I noticed that it processes the battles during the turn (on the turn processing screen, it says what it is processing).

Go back to Civ. Civ has a very long turn processing time...and doesn't have half the amount of detail that Dom (take any version, but especially Dom3) does.

I really do not think the turn processing is too bad, considering the amount of detail the game has to trudge through every turn. Even with 5 AI's, once they get into battles, and then you join in....it will take a while. This game simulates attack, defense, weapon damage, weapon length, repel, magic (everything in magic in just that one word)....really, there is a WHOLE lot that the game processes.

To be honest, I am shocked that the game doesn't take longer to process the turns.

curtadams · #50 October 18th, 2006, 02:11 PM

An interesting idea for SP would be to have the computer pre-compute the turns with background threads. First plan the AI turns. Then, once that's done, calculate all the battles as the player sets them up. Because the turn calc time is small compared to the playing time it should be pretty easy to stuff most of the work into the background from a time viewpoint (the programming, admittedly, isn't so easy).