On the cusp...

[Cainehill]

Frankly, I agree with some of what the guy says. Not map generation - that should happen rarely enough that even for SP it should be acceptable (although it seems that more maps shiped for Dom2, and it would have been nice if the _fixed_ versions of the old maps had shipped).

But turn processing : yes, it's okay for MP games, at least for non-blitz games. But if the turn processing gets longer and longer as games go on (and more battles take place with larger armies, etc), the SP game may have yet another nail in its coffin.

Frankly, I'm not sure _why_ it processes turns so much more slowly now - I don't see Dom3 doing much more than Dom2 did in going from turn to turn, except possibly for performing that @#$* aging check. Wouldn't be surprised if updating the graphics isn't the problem : I worked on some map processing software that took as much as 20 minutes to perform one operation, on a multi-processor minicomputer. Discovered that optimizing how the progress bar was drawn allowed me to knock it down to less than a minute, as it was recalculating and redrawing the bar even if the percentage of progress hadn't changed. Hundreds of times a second, it was redrawing an identical progress bar. Looking at the flickering display during turn processing, I wouldn't be surprised if it isn't the same thing. (And the smooth fade-in when viewing battles also gets irritating and time consuming, since there seems to be no way to skip it.)

Then the battle reports : for two years, players have been asking for at least the same battle report on sieges that we get on other battles. No good excuse for the lack of proper reports on them. And people have asked for more detailed reports, since #1, finding out _which_ 5 commanders out of 24 is tiresome yet sometimes vital. #2, finding out which troops died, same issue : it adds a layer of tedium and irritation to the game, since it's often difficult to even remember what troops exactly went into the battle, so looking at what remains isn't always helpful.

And as Endoperez says : the hostility of at least one response seems unwarranted. Maybe he's catching some blowback from the real idiots who were *****ing about the game, but still....

[upstreamedge]

I actually really like his idea about more interesting battle reports. I think that would get tiresome for hardcore players, but now I think I will start posting how I kicked *** in the multi I am playing on the forum! I would like to know which of my commanders died, but I like watching battles, and my commanders don't die much. I think it is really good that the turns take a long time to load because I do my homework while the turns are loading And who cares about how long it takes for a random map to generate? I mean I can generate a medium map in under a min so I see no problem

[dirtywick]

There are some good points there, the map generator is really slow even on my computer. The battle reports could use some work as well in my opinion. Turn generation isn't too bad, maybe you're not sending that many rockets .

About the map, zooming out makes life easier.

[curtadams]

Cainehill said:
But turn processing : yes, it's okay for MP games, at least for non-blitz games. But if the turn processing gets longer and longer as games go on (and more battles take place with larger armies, etc), the SP game may have yet another nail in its coffin.

Frankly, I'm not sure _why_ it processes turns so much more slowly now - I don't see Dom3 doing much more than Dom2 did in going from turn to turn

Probably the spellcasting AI. Man, what an improvement! Casters pitch at the front row of the enemy army - until yours gets close and then they fire one row back. And they sometimes surprise me with spells I wouldn't think useful - but they are. Missle fire has improved, too. That kind of AI takes time and I'm not surprised that battles with a dozen spellcasters and a hundred archers can take, gosh, several seconds.

[DominionsFan]

Lads, some old users here should moderate themselves. I find some replies a bit too harsh. I think that there is a more intelligent way to discuss in this thread.

[kimmitt]

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.

[Nerfix]

I don't have any notable problems with turn processing, and when I get slow turn it's mostly thanks to having Ermor and Dreamlands R'lyeh on the same game.

Might be that I lived through Dom I turn processing speed where it could slow to the point the comp hang...

[Foodstamp]

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.

There is something else going on here. If it is taking a while for a 5 player game to process there is something wrong not related to the game. My system is a little better than yours, but not too much better to where I should get drastically superior turn load times, but I do.

Now in games with medium+ maps, 15+ AI players, I get anywhere from 2-5 minute load times which are frustrating.

@curtadams: I think even you would agree that "several second" turn load times is a bit of a stretch for the normal single player game.

[Unwise]

My system is a little better than yours, but not too much better to where I should get drastically superior turn load times, but I do.

Not necessarily. A 2GHz Intel (especially if it's a Celeron) might be struggling to process all the battles on even a modest map. There is a lot of data being crunched.

On the "Glory of Gods" map (a big one) with all Early Era races represented, I have seen processing times of about a minute and a half and I am running a fairly beefy rig.

[Foodstamp]

Yes, but a 5 player map in the demo? I think there is something else going on with his system.