A small tip to really faster play against AI

[IKerensky]

Right playing against AI can take a long time because it compute its move after you finished entering your orders.

Why cant we have an option ( because of different computer power ), that make the AI compute his moves DURING plyer turns ?

I guess this can put a bit more of stress on the CPU but not so much because:
- Player usually take a long time planning and wondering during their turn.
- The game in windowed mode work great even with 2 or 3 other programs turning.

All in all it will speed play against AI by a factor 2 or 3. ANd make it far more interesting.

Of course the best could be to have the cooperative ( sector you didn't control ) AI compute that way too, but it could really make too much problems.

[ETF]

agreed its a real turn off to play against the AI as the turns seems to take for ever..........
Maybe for WinTP 2[:)]

[Fallschirmjager]

Im curious. What is your computer speed?
My turns take about 4-6 minutes assuming I skip combat animations.
My computer is 11 months old so that may be reason why.

[Nikademus]

hiting the ESC key during the computer's turn speeds things up considerably too [;)]

[IKerensky]

Well Combat turn aren't so long.. except of course the initial and terminal AI calculation phase. Wich is a planning phase that is ... as far as I guess ... entirely independent of the actual combat calculation. That's why I suggest calculating this phase during player turn..

But of course you have the save problem, or the player quitting before computer finish.

[bradfordkay]

Hitting the escape key really speeds things up as it no longer puts the messages explaining what the AI is doing on the middle of the screen. In a way it is a cheat, because when you notice that in one area all their decisions occur quickly (or the opposite) you have an idea as to the level of operations for that area. I now stop watching during that time and wait for the first sound of a/c flying, troops landing, or battle. I do watch all combats, so my game stops as soon as the first action occurs. As a result, I use the computer's planning phase as a chance to do something else, like relieve the bladder, refill the glass, etc...

[Tankerace]

If I don't watch combat animations, a turn takes me about 2.5-3 minutes to execute. That's only if a lot of stuff happens. usually its about 2 minutes.

[dday]

I was using an 1300 gh with ME, it took about 50 minutes per turn. Yesterday got my new 2800 gh comp with XP, GEEZ WHAT AN DIFFERENT, ONLY 5 - 8 MINUTES PER TURN NOW (v1.3) . So there! [:)]

[Heliotic]

ORIGINAL: bradfordkay

Hitting the escape key really speeds things up as it no longer puts the messages explaining what the AI is doing on the middle of the screen. In a way it is a cheat, because when you notice that in one area all their decisions occur quickly (or the opposite) you have an idea as to the level of operations for that area. I now stop watching during that time and wait for the first sound of a/c flying, troops landing, or battle. I do watch all combats, so my game stops as soon as the first action occurs. As a result, I use the computer's planning phase as a chance to do something else, like relieve the bladder, refill the glass, etc...

This would be a nice option to have in the next patch!

On a more general note, since I have a mere P4 1.6, playing against the AI is something I only really do at work

So, for my home gaming needs, would anyone like to start a game against a bleeding edge newbie? [Only owned the game for about a week - email or pm me if you're interested