CivIII- CPU or memory?

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.games.civ3 (More info?)

I'm now in year 2334 after having won the game
wanting to see if the AI would get bold and
challenge me. So far it hasn't and I'm still the BIG duck.
The game has slowed to a crawl however and wondering
if it's my 1.8MHz CPU or the 512 RAM that is struggling
to keep up. Just upgraded video card to 8XAGP/128 from
AGP4/64 with no results.
Any ideas?
Xeno

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.games.civ3 (More info?)

On Fri, 27 May 2005 00:09:23 GMT, "Xeno Chauvin"
<arfulbrank@houston.rr.com> wrote:

>I'm now in year 2334 after having won the game
>wanting to see if the AI would get bold and
>challenge me. So far it hasn't and I'm still the BIG duck.
>The game has slowed to a crawl however and wondering
>if it's my 1.8MHz CPU or the 512 RAM that is struggling
>to keep up. Just upgraded video card to 8XAGP/128 from
>AGP4/64 with no results.
>Any ideas?
>Xeno
>
Start a new game?

Steve
--
www.thepaxamsolution.com

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.games.civ3 (More info?)

On Fri, 27 May 2005 00:09:23 GMT, "Xeno Chauvin"
<arfulbrank@houston.rr.com> wrote:

>I'm now in year 2334 after having won the game
>wanting to see if the AI would get bold and
>challenge me. So far it hasn't and I'm still the BIG duck.
>The game has slowed to a crawl however and wondering
>if it's my 1.8MHz CPU or the 512 RAM that is struggling
>to keep up. Just upgraded video card to 8XAGP/128 from
>AGP4/64 with no results.
>Any ideas?

CPU, I'd guess. You can check memory usage by doing ctrl-alt-del
and looking at the performance tab (in WinXP). If Commit Charge or PF
usage is well over 500 megs, you might benefit from more ram. Or
shutting down background tasks, something which slows me down. Lots
of disk access also suggests that memory is the limiter. Civ3 isn't
dependent on the video card speed for much at all, so that won't make
a difference.

The AI has a couple huge time-wasters. One, automated units. Two,
wars. If an AI vs. AI war is going on, they'll blow a lot of time
coping with that. Both involve the AI making many decisions every
turn.

Less aggressive AI won't attack unless they have at least military
equality, unless you provoke them. Failed espionage is one way to
annoy them, and refusing demands is another.
--
*-__Jeffery Jones__________| *Starfire* |____________________-*
** Muskego WI Access Channel 14/25 <http://www.execpc.com/~jeffsj/mach7/>
*Starfire Design Studio* <http://www.starfiredesign.com/>

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.games.civ3 (More info?)

The bigest time waster is the AI explore routine along rails, where
the unit will litterally transverse:

1. Their entire rail network
2. For good mesure netural tiles on rail net.
3. And if they have an RoP with a neighbors, it will include there's as
well. [And so will that AI's]

As to AI's behavior in Civ III, actually the more powerful you are
realtive to them, the less likely they are to get bold and attack you.
Couple this with extra defenders in those cities the AI cares about
more [missing luxaries / resoruces of that AI], and they won't
challenge you.

If you have an overwhleming army size compared to them, your just
going to have to declare the war yourself.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.games.civ3 (More info?)

Hi,

switching animations of AI Moves etc. off might give You more performance,
if You not already did so. The main performance brake is IMHO not
calculating all AIs' moves, but showing them on screen...

Regards


"Xeno Chauvin" <arfulbrank@houston.rr.com> schrieb im Newsbeitrag
news:Tytle.3029$j51.1653@tornado.texas.rr.com...
> I'm now in year 2334 after having won the game
> wanting to see if the AI would get bold and
> challenge me. So far it hasn't and I'm still the BIG duck.
> The game has slowed to a crawl however and wondering
> if it's my 1.8MHz CPU or the 512 RAM that is struggling
> to keep up. Just upgraded video card to 8XAGP/128 from
> AGP4/64 with no results.
> Any ideas?
> Xeno
>
>

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.games.civ3 (More info?)

"Xeno Chauvin" <arfulbrank@houston.rr.com> wrote in message
news:Tytle.3029$j51.1653@tornado.texas.rr.com...
> I'm now in year 2334 after having won the game
> wanting to see if the AI would get bold and
> challenge me. So far it hasn't and I'm still the BIG duck.
> The game has slowed to a crawl however and wondering
> if it's my 1.8MHz CPU or the 512 RAM that is struggling
> to keep up. Just upgraded video card to 8XAGP/128 from
> AGP4/64 with no results.
> Any ideas?
> Xeno

Install more memory and start a new game. This one was over a very long time
ago. I'm surprised it hasn't crashed for some wierd bug reason by now.

What slows it down the most is the calculation of the trade routes each
turn. By now i would guess every city in the world has multiple trade
routes. Roads, harbors and airports.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.games.civ3 (More info?)

"The Stare" <wat1@not.likely.frontiernet.net> wrote in message
news:bvFle.2305$8g.1485@news01.roc.ny...
> I'm surprised it hasn't crashed for some wierd bug reason by now.

A couple of bugs I've found so far is you can't upgrade
any units without it crashing, and after building a unit it doesn't
always tell you it's finished building and moves to another build.
Xeno

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.games.civ3 (More info?)

On 27 May 2005 07:19:54 -0700, joncnunn@yahoo.com wrote:

>The bigest time waster is the AI explore routine along rails, where
>the unit will litterally transverse:
>
>1. Their entire rail network
>2. For good mesure netural tiles on rail net.
>3. And if they have an RoP with a neighbors, it will include there's as
>well. [And so will that AI's]
>
>As to AI's behavior in Civ III, actually the more powerful you are
>realtive to them, the less likely they are to get bold and attack you.
>Couple this with extra defenders in those cities the AI cares about
>more [missing luxaries / resoruces of that AI], and they won't
>challenge you.
>
>If you have an overwhleming army size compared to them, your just
>going to have to declare the war yourself.

I noticed the AI likes to go barbarian hunting when they are not at
war. They seem to expand a decent about of forces and effort
traveling around the world to exterminate barbarians.

They also sometimes go crazy finishing off enemy civs. I have seen
them trek 100+ units through impossible terrain to finish off a single
city. Of course this is sometimes my own territory and I have to wait
painfully for them to advance hoping they don't turn on me midway.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.games.civ3 (More info?)

On Fri, 27 May 2005 16:42:33 GMT, "Xeno Chauvin"
<arfulbrank@houston.rr.com> wrote:

>
>"The Stare" <wat1@not.likely.frontiernet.net> wrote in message
>news:bvFle.2305$8g.1485@news01.roc.ny...
>> I'm surprised it hasn't crashed for some wierd bug reason by now.
>
>A couple of bugs I've found so far is you can't upgrade
>any units without it crashing, and after building a unit it doesn't
>always tell you it's finished building and moves to another build.
>Xeno
>

Are you sure your at the latest patch level? Or are you playing a
modified version of the game? I've never had problems upgrading units
within and un-modified game.

To be notified during completion of units you need to either modify
your options or governor settings. There is an option to get notified
when something completes. But there is a separate option to notify
when a "unit" completes.

 

[daran]

Archived from groups: alt.games.civ3 (More info?)

P12 <nowhere@all.com> wrote:

> They also sometimes go crazy finishing off enemy civs. I have seen
> them trek 100+ units through impossible terrain to finish off a single
> city. Of course this is sometimes my own territory and I have to wait
> painfully for them to advance hoping they don't turn on me midway.

My impression is during warfare, each unit is moved towards the nearest (in
the sense of turns to move) enemy unit or city not judged too strong for
that unit to attack. The only exception is that sometimes they appear to
hate some civs more than others and will attack the hated civ's units in
preference.

--
Daran

The problem with defending the purity of the English language is that
English is about as pure as a cribhouse whore. We don't just borrow words;
on occasion, English has pursued other languages down alleyways to beat them
unconscious and riffle their pockets for new vocabulary. -- James D. Nicoll

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.games.civ3 (More info?)

The AI considers each unit orders seperately.This defines the AI at war
routine

For each unit, for every tile moved until out of movement points.

1. If while traveling it stumbles upon an empty city, take it. This
includes declaring war to do so.

2. If wounded [even 1 HP] head home.

3 A. If offensive, head to weakest defended enemy city on the same land
mass, best speed. If multiple cities have the same exact defense, then
head to the closer one.

3 B. The defensive units try to end movement paired with an offensive
one when it's not staying in a city.

4. Head to closest barb unit on the same land mass, best speed.

5. Otherwise, if on rail, explore the entire rail network it's on.
[Only rail inside the cultural boundary of a civ it doesn't have an RoP
with skiped.]

6. Otherwise explore the border region. This may infact be the same
routine as above, only the min 1/3rd MP each brings it to a much faster
halt.

 

[Buck]

Archived from groups: alt.games.civ3 (More info?)

On 2 Jun 2005 13:45:44 -0700, joncnunn@yahoo.com wrote:

>3 A. If offensive, head to weakest defended enemy city on the same land
>mass, best speed. If multiple cities have the same exact defense, then
>head to the closer one.


I love to take advantage of this. Border my land near a city about
three or four blocks inland. Then build a gauntlet of area affect
troops between the sea and the city. Watch the ai drop off troops
with their boats and the troops die off trying to march to the city.


Buck
--
For what it's worth.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.games.civ3 (More info?)

On 2 Jun 2005 13:45:44 -0700, joncnunn@yahoo.com wrote:

>The AI considers each unit orders seperately.This defines the AI at war
>routine
>
>For each unit, for every tile moved until out of movement points.
>
>1. If while traveling it stumbles upon an empty city, take it. This
>includes declaring war to do so.
>
>2. If wounded [even 1 HP] head home.
>
>3 A. If offensive, head to weakest defended enemy city on the same land
>mass, best speed. If multiple cities have the same exact defense, then
>head to the closer one.
>
>3 B. The defensive units try to end movement paired with an offensive
>one when it's not staying in a city.
>
>4. Head to closest barb unit on the same land mass, best speed.
>
>5. Otherwise, if on rail, explore the entire rail network it's on.
>[Only rail inside the cultural boundary of a civ it doesn't have an RoP
>with skiped.]
>
>6. Otherwise explore the border region. This may infact be the same
>routine as above, only the min 1/3rd MP each brings it to a much faster
>halt.

This doesn't explain a lot of other tactics the AI uses. For instance
they will send weaker units to disrupt luxury and resources.

If they are severely losing on a city attempt they will start blowing
out terrain or even send troops off to another mission.

They prefer to land on high defensive land square as a opposed to the
quickest route. For instance they will most likely move in through
the mountains or jungle.

Faster units might skip turns to protect a stack.

If something is in the AI's way they often stop altogether.
Sometimes they won't even pick up again on the next turn. Workers on
the other hand will keep on going with their task even your terrain
expands onto the square.

A stack of weakly defended workers is preferred over a city attack.
This can even start a war. Often times the workers are disbanded once
captured.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.games.civ3 (More info?)

its mainly memory

512mb is slow late game
1024mb is much better.

Ive seen memory useage in some custom games reaching into the 700mb range.

--
From Adam Webb, Overlag
www.tacticalgamer.com
CS:SOURCE server now active

"Xeno Chauvin" <arfulbrank@houston.rr.com> wrote in message
news:Tytle.3029$j51.1653@tornado.texas.rr.com...
> I'm now in year 2334 after having won the game
> wanting to see if the AI would get bold and
> challenge me. So far it hasn't and I'm still the BIG duck.
> The game has slowed to a crawl however and wondering
> if it's my 1.8MHz CPU or the 512 RAM that is struggling
> to keep up. Just upgraded video card to 8XAGP/128 from
> AGP4/64 with no results.
> Any ideas?
> Xeno
>
>

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.games.civ3 (More info?)

> >3 A. If offensive, head to weakest defended enemy city on the same land
> >mass, best speed. If multiple cities have the same exact defense, then
> >head to the closer one.
>
>
> I love to take advantage of this. Border my land near a city about
> three or four blocks inland. Then build a gauntlet of area affect
> troops between the sea and the city. Watch the ai drop off troops
> with their boats and the troops die off trying to march to the city.
>

I sometimes do the same, you garrison outer cities with massive ammounts of
troops etc, or build a fort line, kinda like the one between france and
germany.

the AI will try and find easiest route to easiest city, and my walls of
forts can force all the units to one path.

This is where the fun part comes in. 100s of Artillery and Bombers can kill
90% of those attackers then i can clean up with tanks, on my own land,
hopefully creating leaders in the proccess....

--
From Adam Webb, Overlag
www.tacticalgamer.com
CS:SOURCE server now active