New beta patch really speeds up time between turns!

[vaalen]

I would never have believed this, but I started a new game of PON last night, with the latest beta patch that Pocus made available yesterday

I have played only four turns, but the time between each turn, the infamous endless wait that ruined the game for so many people, has been greatly reduced. Less than a minute. each time.

I do have a fairly good gaming computer, but time between turns on the same computer were much longer before the patch.

I do not know what the time between turns will be later in the game, when there are more units, factories, wars, etc, but this is a huge improvement.

This is huge.

[JWW]

Right now I'm playing an EU IV game, and before that a Vicky 2 game. One thing I noticed which I haven't thought about much before is the time I spend just waiting and watching the screen in those games, even on higher speeds. Especially playing Brazil recently in a Vicky 2 game. Now I like the Paradox games. And I like the Ageod games. I think they are both excellent systems with many general similarities -- and, yes, I know, important differences. But my thought was that I am probably spending just as much time just waiting and watching the screen in my Paradox games -- especially the Vicky 2 Brazil game -- as I do in PON. It is just that the waiting is broken up and there is an added element of now knowing when something will happen. The difference with Aegeod is that their games are basically real time programmed pause instead of real time pause on demand. If the PON turn delay could be cleaned up just a little more, and some other things fixed, I think PON could fulfill its potential of being one of the truly great games.

[TXcavalier]

I haven't played Pride of Nations in a long time. With the new patch, I figured I could try it, while waiting for turns, in between doing some other things. Then shockingly the turn process took 10 seconds or less. I was worried something was wrong. Hopefully, the AI hasn't been gutted. I know things will slow down in the long run either way. But, this let's you get easily established in the game first. Pride of Nations with decent turn times would be amazing. So, I'm quite optimistic at the moment.

[uglyr]

First turns were always very fast (that irritates me because if I start a new I have to spend some time before I can enjoy playing and doing useful things at the same time). After patch I loaded my save (1858 with several wars) and can't say if it is faster or not, but it "takes time" so useful things can be done while turn is processing.

[Pocus]

On a complex turn, I believe the new PON is around 15-20% faster than before. This is significant, but I did not find the Holy Grail either here, though I'm happy you are feeling a difference.

[Egg Bub]

I did not find the Holy Grail either here.

Not good enough. Work, damn your eyes!

[bbmike]

Sadly, I think the Holy Grail would be a new game engine for PoN. But I'm glad this game is still getting love. Thanks Pocus!

[V for Vegas]

I'm still getting around 2'30" - 3mins for initial turns. No crashes though so far.

[mios]

Hi,
turns are around 30 secs for me. Still too long for a turn based game, but much better than before, I also think that the UI elements lag much less than earlier!
Thanks for the effort!

[Pocus]

Check the time Civilization V needs for a turn past a few turns, on a huge map. That's above 30 secs!

[Egg Bub]

Hi,
turns are around 30 secs for me. Still too long for a turn based game, but much better than before, I also think that the UI elements lag much less than earlier!
Thanks for the effort!

30 secs for first few turns yes, but soon it will be minutes.

[Pocus]

There is an evolution (a positive one), not a revolution.

[mios]

Check the time Civilization V needs for a turn past a few turns, on a huge map. That's above 30 secs!

Not on my machine

[vaalen]

Not on my machine

Civ 5 does take more than thirty seconds between turns on my machine, once you get past the opening turns. You must have a really nice rig.

[mios]

Sadly not wholly up to date but with family, other expenses are more important, but 16GB fast RAM, i7 Quadcore and 3 SSDs (a small one for the OS, a big one for the games and another small one for the user profile = mods), Graphics cards is average.
But I currently play mainly Civ3 with 2 Mods ("Age of imperialism" and Warhammer TC with a 300x300 WH Worldmap) and on the mods (esp. WH) the turns take longer for me, than in Civ5.

PS: Sorry for the OT ...

[vaalen]

I am now up to turn twenty five, and the time between turns is still less than thirty seconds. That might have some thing to do with the world being at peace.

I know some people have had a very different result, but this patch is making a huge difference in my time between turns.

[jscott991]

I am now up to turn twenty five, and the time between turns is still less than thirty seconds. That might have some thing to do with the world being at peace.

I know some people have had a very different result, but this patch is making a huge difference in my time between turns.

I'm really envious. My time between turns is actually a bit worse (the master file step really hangs) and the entire interface is a little laggier.

[vaalen]

I'm really envious. My time between turns is actually a bit worse (the master file step really hangs) and the entire interface is a little laggier.

I am now at turn fifty five, and still less than thirty seconds between turns. And there is no lag anywhere in the interface. I do not know why we are having such different results.

However, after installing the patch, I started a completely new game, with the 1850 scenario, as France. Maybe tat has something to do with it, but I am just guessing.

[Durk]

vaalen, you guess may be correct. I installed on an existing game and it turned resolution into seconds as you experienced. So may have some other factor.

[Tac Error]

Looks like I'm going to need a new rig to enjoy the patch's speed enhancements...

[Egg Bub]

I am now at turn fifty five, and still less than thirty seconds between turns. And there is no lag anywhere in the interface. I do not know why we are having such different results.

However, after installing the patch, I started a completely new game, with the 1850 scenario, as France. Maybe tat has something to do with it, but I am just guessing.

Could you briefly summarise your rig?

[jscott991]

Well, I'm using this and it's gotten slower.

GEForce GTX 760
Intel Core I7 CPU 920 2.67 Ghz
12 GB of RAM
Windows 7 Home Premium

I can run almost any other game at max settings with no problem.

[vaalen]

Could you briefly summarise your rig?

Intel core 17-2600 3.40 GHz
8 GB of RAM
64 bit operating system
Windows 7 home premium

[Kensai]

Pocus, is it possible to make the engine fast if a user has a lot of Random Access Memory? I mean, for a 16GB make it load most of the stuff in the memory, how slow can it be in a modern PC?

[Random]

Installed the new beta patch and PON does not run at all now. The program hangs on the loading Data... 3/3 screen and the stock Windows "This program has stopped responding" message appears after about 4-5 minutes. So I intend to uninstall everything and return to PON v1.03e until the v1.04 becomes official. That said, for whatever reason my PON installation now sports two Models folders, named Models and Models_ (with the underscore). Any ideas what's up with that?

Thanks.

-C

[bbmike]

Pocus, is it possible to make the engine fast if a user has a lot of Random Access Memory? I mean, for a 16GB make it load most of the stuff in the memory, how slow can it be in a modern PC?

Pocus answered this before and the answer was no. I run PoN on an Alienware notebook with 16gb of RAM and while it is not as slow as some describe for me it is still slow. Haven't tried the new beta patch yet but hopefully that will help.

[jscott991]

Installed the new beta patch and PON does not run at all now. The program hangs on the loading Data... 3/3 screen and the stock Windows "This program has stopped responding" message appears after about 4-5 minutes. So I intend to uninstall everything and return to PON v1.03e until the v1.04 becomes official. That said, for whatever reason my PON installation now sports two Models folders, named Models and Models_ (with the underscore). Any ideas what's up with that?

Thanks.

-C

I have duplicate Models and Units folders.

[czert2]

Check the time Civilization V needs for a turn past a few turns, on a huge map. That's above 30 secs!

Dont mention Civ 5 - on big maps for me turns were longer than on pon , and that game , need to say was much less enetertaining. So unistaled Civ 5 even before finising game for one time, while pon is keeper for long time.

[jscott991]

I've started two new games and played through about the end of 1852 each time.

There's definitely no speed increase for me along the lines of what vaalen describes. The interface is less laggy starting a new game than trying to continue a 1.03 save game, but the speed isn't appreciably better than it was playing early turns (which are much faster than 1860s turns to begin with).

[vaalen]

Up to turn 100, and their is still less than a minute between turns. The Taiping rebellion is on, and I have had some minor colonial fighting, but still, less than a minute.
I know that not everyone is this lucky,but this seems to show that the between turn issue may have a solution, hopefully for everyone.