should i leave my game running?

from GalCiv2 Forums
Hi

I have been wondering if i might be better off leaving my game running when i go to work or sleep at night?

I would like to know if the AI experiences the same production delay as the player when reloading a game? Sometimes reloading a game will result in a permanent production delay - i have a saved game if anyone want's to see this in action?

Do anomalies still get 'vacummed up' by the AI when reloading a game in version 1.4?
I know in Galciv1 the AI ships would instantly claim all anomalies in certain sectors without having to reach them when the game is reloaded.

Is it true that the AI will be more determined to colonise planets near me after reloading?
Sometimes i will save a game at the start, if it is a good map... then later on i can play that map again. It seems the AI will rush past outlying worlds that it colonised the first time, in order to colonise planets nearer to me - this happens every time?

Are there any other reload penalties which would make it worthwhile to leave the game running?



7,750 views 9 replies
Reply #1 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
I would very much like to see answers to the OP questions about reloaded vs. active games, but the thread subject caught my attention for differnt reasons.

Apologies if this appears a hijack, but I want to see replies about both the OP subject and ones about folks who might leave a GCII game running and "ignore" their PC (leaving the OS active but not using the box). Can the AIs use the "idle" CPU time as an alternative or addition to the "more CPU" option? If they can't, how hard would it be to code in that ability?
Reply #2 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
folks who might leave a GCII game running and "ignore" their PC (leaving the OS active but not using the box). Can the AIs use the "idle" CPU time as an alternative or addition to the "more CPU" option? If they can't, how hard would it be to code in that ability?


I'm not sure i understand what you mean? Are you talking about if the AI can make calculations during the players turn (while the player is away)? I think that would be very difficult to code because it is a turn based game.

I'm still hoping i can find out all the reload game issues?





Object Desktop - Get all of our enhancement utilities in one suite
Reply #3 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
The only one of those issues I recognize is the zero production upon load one, which was fixed way back in 1.3 I think. I have not seen the anomoly thing, they seem fine on reloads. I have seen the AI change their moves a little on a reload but not anything drastic. When trying to recreate a crash once, I reloaded several times and the AI did the exact same thing about 80% of the time I'd say. As far as leaving it running, I've left mine running for close to 14 hours straight before with no stability issues, so that shouldn't be a problem.

G.W. The AI seems to only "think" for so long. When I'm alt/tabbed out(like now) I don't see any indication of the cpu being used by the game. It would be cool to have an option for infinate deduction time.
Reply #4 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
The only one of those issues I recognize is the zero production upon load one, which was fixed way back in 1.3 I think.



No it's not fixed. It's not a problem to fix if the AI gets the same production block?

Are you saying the zero production only happens on the first reload?
Reply #5 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
I just tested it on my current game. Note, it is a DA game but 1.4 should work the same. It was also the first reload and there was no production or research lost from either the preceding, current or next turn. You used to see the sharp dip in all the graphs when the zero prod./reload thing used to happen, but if it still happens it's hidden better.
Reply #6 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
In my current game, i just got attacked by the Alterians.

I smashed their initial attacks. Saved the game, came back, kicked ass some more, then suddenly my missiles were no longer effective and many of my ships were slaughtered. Suprising since the Alterians had not yet changed their defences, still had no missile defence?

While all this was going on i had forgotten about my manufacturing capital... it was set up to produce my massive new warships. Finally i discovered it was 'stuck'. Since i had reloaded the game, production had halted. The production meter was saying the ship would be complete in zero turns, but next turn - nothing! This infuriated me and now i am going to have to start the whole game from scratch.
Reply #7 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
The production meter was saying the ship would be complete in zero turns, but next turn - nothing! This infuriated me and now i am going to have to start the whole game from scratch.


That is something entirely different from the 'no production on first turn after a reload' issue that has already been fixed for some time. You should send a zipped save game illustrating the issue with a description of it to [email protected].
Reply #8 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
@Mystik re Q on my last post: Deth seems to get what I was after--I'm guessing that when Brad masters the multi-core stuff, I'll likely get my wish, which is that the GCII AIs will spend all their "free time" (when I have the game running in the background) thinking about stuff.

Re the reload stuff, I was very glad to see the post-load production drop go away. I still see a "problem" with initial influence areas after a reload, but my best guess as to why that's still there is that folks around here also complain passionately about how long loading a large saved game can take.
Reply #9 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
That is something entirely different from the 'no production on first turn after a reload' issue that has already been fixed for some time. You should send a zipped save game illustrating the issue with a description of it to [email protected].


Thank you Kryo, i shall email it tonight, i think i have another game with the same problem but i might have saved over that one.

The no production after first turn issue seems to still be present in my game. I am running 1.4 update as well. That issue dousn't bother me too much - it makes it a little bit harder to replay the same map from the beginning. The 'ripple on' effect would therefore make it more difficult to beat the orriginal victory score for that map.

Back to my topic though... are there any other reload penalties in the game?