How can I lower turn time?

[Sarvoth]

In my latest single player game with only four opponents, it takes me roughly 7-15 minutes (15!) to resolve each turn...
I am well above the hardware reqs for Dominions 3, is there any possible way to cut down on the time it takes to resolve each turn?

[Edi]

How big is the map you're playing, and how many nations do you have on the map?

The turn resolution time is directly proportional to the number of units on the map and the AI tends to recruit hordes and hordes of chaff, which causes this problem.

You can find a mod that disables most independents here. (http://www.shrapnelcommunity.com/threads/showflat.php?Cat=&Number=518972&page=1&view=collap sed&sb=5&o=&fpart=1) People who have tried it have reported a drastic decrease in turn resolution time when using this mod.

[Velusion]

Post your system specs as well.

[jutetrea]

Reduce your graphics settings as well, I'm not 100% sure, but I think the game draws each battle on turn execution. Heard it reduces times.

I had the same problem on large maps (10-15 opponents), couldn't deal with the turn waits so now I just play 5-8 opponents.

[Ironhawk]

Are you running the server in a window? Or as a background process?

I'm guessing it runs slower in a window as it would have to deal with all manner of windows/graphics stuff.

[jutetrea]

Actually that's something i do for long turns as well, make sure its in windowed mode then surf the web while the turn is running.

Sarvoth, what type of specs do you have for your machine?

[Gandalf Parker]

Yeah, a watched host never boils or something like that.

[jutetrea]

got a dual core, so set affinity to one core, keep task manager up and when I see the little green bar go to 0..ding! turns done.

[Sarvoth]

Hey, thanks for the replies guys. The No Independents mod definately helped with turn time, but I'm hoping I'll manage to play a normal game on a large map.

I admit I was playing on Glory of the Gods (480-122), with four opponents; in a window. But I wasn't working with any other program while playing the game. Gradually the length for turns got worse and worse until around turn 40 it was averaging even 20 minutes a pop... Yikes.

My general system specs are..

Intel R Pentium 4 3.06 GHZ
1GIG PC3200 DDR400 Ram
Nvidia 6600 256 O/C

[Velusion]

20 minutes? That does seem awfully excessive.

It takes 1000 province 62 player game only about 2.5 minutes to process on turn 15. Its a single proc duel core with 1 gig of RAM - a good machine.

If you want you could zip up your game and post it here and I can run it on my workstation (dual core 3800 with 2 gigs of RAM) and we can see if its the game or your system...

[Sarvoth]

Unfortunately I deleted all my large games, due to the extensive down time. I will start up a new large game soon and if the waits become excessive I will likely post my game here.

Thanks :-)

[JayThomas]

One thing I noticed on my system is the virus software going ape during a Dom session. If I disconnect from the internet and turn off the virus program, my turns blaze.

[Edi]

Which AV software do you use? If a particular AV suite causes problems, it would be good to know. I use Avira AntiVir with ZoneAlarm and I've never noticed any problems.

[JayThomas]

I'm using Security Shield '07 by PCSecurityShield.