Longest game so far + pros and cons of a long one

[Webbco]

My latest Legends game is still really interesting....and it's the year 2808! Settings = 1400 star spiral galaxy and an 80% threshold on all victory conditions (with 65% on population, economy and territory).

This is a record for me, previously I got pretty bored after about 30-40 years or so but cool things keep happening.

E.g. a Boskara empire was on it's last legs with only 4 colonies left, but they managed to find a world destroyer and began systematically blowing up my ally's colonies! I ended up trying to chase it with 2 of my main fleets as it kept jumping from one system to the next[:-]

On the downside, I've been experiencing a few bugs that weren't present in the game earlier on, such as character icons not appearing and also the obvious slowdown that ensues as masses of freighters and escorts begin to clog up deep space between colonies.

So what are your experiences? What's the longest game you've had and how do long games end for you...is it the struggle to maintain a vast empire, simply achieving the victory conditions or something else?

[Neotheone]

I play on 100% of capturing 80% of the universe/galaxy. I don't like abrupt endings like some overpowered AI winning an economic game with 5 planets. lol Or the Hive type AI winning the population victory because they breed like ants again with just 5 planets. Unfortunately due to crashing bugs and flaws I haven't gotten to the point where it's become boring. Much the opposite is just when it starts getting good the game started crashing and wouldn't work correctly. This is pretty common in games with long play times though as playtesters rarely get to those points and so can't report all the issues of the endgame (like they should). Just thinking about all the mathematic routines in a 1000-1400 star system makes me bet the game will fail at some point before any endgame happens. I can only imagine how my system will bog down once I get many 100 years into it with millions of dots and diamonds and squares running around on the map.

[Webbco]

Something like this maybe?

[Neotheone]

Yeah, how's that run on your system at different levels of zoom? Plus, what system specs do you have?

[Webbco]

I've got a i5 2400 with 4GB RAM...but my system is not very smiley when I want to zoom in. Still playable though.

I'm beginning to see the slowdown as an excuse to go kill off the Gizureans (yellow).

[blastpop]

ORIGINAL: Webbco

My latest Legends game is still really interesting....and it's the year 2808! Settings = 1400 star spiral galaxy and an 80% threshold on all victory conditions (with 65% on population, economy and territory).

The play and experience is the thing. Once the Galaxy gets going it becomes "personalized" and adds to the interest level IMHO...

[Gelatinous Cube]

I don't like the 15x15 maps, but I do like 10x10 maps with 1400 stars, abundant colonies, hard AI, and 19 other empires!

So far no slowdown really in my current game, but i've had to play at a consistent .5x or (when i'm lucky) 1x just because there's so much going on. I don't mind that, it's just a change of pace.

[Webbco]

ORIGINAL: Gelatinous Cube

I don't like the 15x15 maps, but I do like 10x10 maps with 1400 stars, abundant colonies, hard AI, and 19 other empires!

So far no slowdown really in my current game, but i've had to play at a consistent .5x or (when i'm lucky) 1x just because there's so much going on. I don't mind that, it's just a change of pace.

Yeah, I think I'll play my next game on a smaller grid, I just wanted to test the 15x15 hugeness. What's your year date?

[Gelatinous Cube]

ORIGINAL: Webbco

ORIGINAL: Gelatinous Cube

I don't like the 15x15 maps, but I do like 10x10 maps with 1400 stars, abundant colonies, hard AI, and 19 other empires!

So far no slowdown really in my current game, but i've had to play at a consistent .5x or (when i'm lucky) 1x just because there's so much going on. I don't mind that, it's just a change of pace.

Yeah, I think I'll play my next game on a smaller grid, I just wanted to test the 15x15 hugeness. What's your year date?

(

The latest pictures from my fleet posture thread are in the 2770s, but i've played up to year 2800-ish now. I don't get any slowdown except in when I open those top menus from the main screen, and only then just a quick delay when selecting the filter from the dropdown.

However, this computer's a beast. 8gigs of RAM, Nvidia GT520, and an i5 Quad-core 3.3ghz. Well, not really a beast.. just compared to my last computer, which was 4gigs of RAM, a Core-2 Duo (2.1ghz) and a GeForce 9800M. On the old one, I would get visual lag on the main map screen by this point. Nothing yet on my new computer, aside from those ledger-menu problems.

The biggest thing with playing a game on a REALLY BIG map is that you NEED to trust the automation to do what you're telling it to do. While I don't micro-manage most of my fleets, I do personally create all the fleets and assign them to their bases and postures manually--it's a pretty quick process initially setting all my fleets up as I go, but if a war breaks out and I have to re-assign half the fleet to different areas, that's almost an entire evening's session.

Conclusion? The larger maps require a very different approach to the game. When both you AND your enemies have over 30 colonies and 20,000 Military Strength, you can't just micro-manage one or two invasion fleets any more.

[Webbco]

Indeed....and now, things have gone wrong for my really big game.

I got an error report saying: "Error Cod: ProcMn System.NullReferenceException: Object reference not set to an instance of an object...blah blah..." But I can't save a screenshot.

Any idea how I can get this to Tech Support without typing the whole thing out?

[Gelatinous Cube]

ORIGINAL: Webbco

Indeed....and now, things have gone wrong for my really big game.

I got an error report saying: "Error Cod: ProcMn System.NullReferenceException: Object reference not set to an instance of an object...blah blah..." But I can't save a screenshot.

Any idea how I can get this to Tech Support without typing the whole thing out?

Your best bet is to upload a save. When you get those errors, you can usually still still click menu and save.

[Webbco]

Thanks for the tip, I'll do that next time. Looks like I left the error message too long and when I tried to get to the main menu...CTD. Will load my last save and post it tomorrow.

[Erik Rutins]

Yes, upload a save file please, or take a screenshot with Control-Printscreen and paste it into Paint.

Regards,

- Erik

[feelotraveller]

You can also usually copy the text of the error message with control-c and paste it into a text program, before or after exiting.

[Neotheone]

ORIGINAL: Webbco

Indeed....and now, things have gone wrong for my really big game.

I got an error report saying: "Error Cod: ProcMn System.NullReferenceException: Object reference not set to an instance of an object...blah blah..." But I can't save a screenshot.

Any idea how I can get this to Tech Support without typing the whole thing out?

How interesting!

[tjhkkr]

This is your brain.

[tjhkkr]

This is your brain on Distant Worlds...

ORIGINAL: Webbco

Any questions?

Sweet Savannah: that is almost psychadelic... not that I would know that personally~!

[the1sean]

LOL

[Gelatinous Cube]

DW is a very psychadelic game. I think.
This woman thinks so, too--at least, I think thats a woman.