Matrix Games Forums

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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...

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.

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! [:)]

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