Major slow down problem.

from GalCiv2 Forums
I'm currently playing on the maxium size galaxy with max planets/stars/artifacts/normal tech speed and AI level of challenging with 9 AI players. Normal is what I mostly play in games, but the computer seemed to not fully utilize their worlds. So I felt bad about beating 'em.

This is my sixth or seventh trial & error play through..After the newest patch came out, I started a new game (and I swear I remember reading somewhere that there were new icons for player created races..can't find 'em though) with the settings I always use as listed above. So this time around I'm actually doing fairly well ( I suck early on with the military rating so the other races like to pick fights or try and take my money). However..After the whole galaxy has been claimed by the races and about 60-150 turns into that I experience a game killing amount of lag during the Turn Phase.. Before clicking the Turn Phase the game plays perfectly and it isn't until I actually get back to my turn that my sound skips repeatedly and mouse freezes several times for around 10-15 seconds sometimes more. While I'm a patient guy, those seconds add up in the terms of hundreds or thousands of turns.

So just to make sure it wasn't my computer giving me trouble, I reloaded one of my older saves from a different play through (it's also pre-current patch) where I was roughly the same size and had about a 10million difference in population (so I figure it's all about the same size then with the same amount of things going on in the map) and sure enough..It plays perfectly. Zero lag on turn phase..So it has me kinda bummed out that I've done so good this time around and it's totally killing me with the delay in turns. I don't want to even bother playing through again if it'll just get eaten by the lag monster in the later game..And that is a true bummer indeed.

If anyone has this problem and found a way to fix it, any help would be awesome and many thanks for taking the time to read through my rant.
14,616 views 10 replies
Reply #1 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
So no one has any helpful information eh? That's a bit depressing..Welp, I guess I'll try another game and maybe it won't happen this time around. *crosses fingers*
Reply #2 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Have you tried saving your game, then quiting GalCiv 2, maybe rebooting and then starting it up again and loading. A fresh load of the saved game might speed things up a lot.

Also check your video card temp. There is the known issue about them getting very hot while playing. Might be causing you slow down as well.
Galactic Civilizations IV
Reply #3 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Greetings, Nilus1.

Yes I have saved the game and rebooted fully. Even went as far as leaving the comp off for a while..Anyways that's not the issue nor is it my video card temp. I know this cause I can play any other pre-current patch game and it works without a hitch. Just something has gone wrong with either my new game that has the current patch or it's a possible problem with the AI doing something silly..Like how in another game of mine the AI would build so many tanks/units that it would clog up their base and since they couldn't get out of the base they'd simply keep building and building and that slowed my comp down to about 5-8 fps heh..

So in short, yes I've tried it all..I've also lowered my graphic options to see if that would help and it didn't. Just something wrong with the save game I guess..Murphy's Law is in full swing when it comes to me

Thank you for your reply however.
Reply #4 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Greetings, Nilus1.

Yes I have saved the game and rebooted fully. Even went as far as leaving the comp off for a while..Anyways that's not the issue nor is it my video card temp. I know this cause I can play any other pre-current patch game and it works without a hitch. Just something has gone wrong with either my new game that has the current patch or it's a possible problem with the AI doing something silly..Like how in another game of mine the AI would build so many tanks/units that it would clog up their base and since they couldn't get out of the base they'd simply keep building and building and that slowed my comp down to about 5-8 fps heh..

So in short, yes I've tried it all..I've also lowered my graphic options to see if that would help and it didn't. Just something wrong with the save game I guess..Murphy's Law is in full swing when it comes to me

Thank you for your reply however.
Reply #6 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Regarding the sound stuttering, I'm inclined to put this down to the fact GalCiv2 uses the miles sound system. I've no idea what the Gaming Industry thinks of this system but my personal opinion is that it's very very poor. I've lost count of the games that use this sound system which have stuttering sound.

The delay in turns is something i've also experienced, however until I read your post I thought it was merely the game processing all the moves/information etc of the current game I was playing on such a large map. I've only played the latest version, as im new to galciv2 so I couldnt really comment on its performance prepatch

Thanks
Reply #7 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
I noticed this on my game i just finished i also had some slow down

Huge GAL, 4 races, Normal Difficaulty

OK when it was two races left (me and the terran alliance) i got about 5-10 sec lag between turns.
So i mInimized the game- ALT-CRT-DEL

The Game was using 900mb of my 2gig of ram and 50% of my X2-3800 AMDs Cpu usuage.
Luckily the AI finally surrened to me so i didnt have to take every single planet from them.
Reply #8 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
You may not have any or enough virtual memory allocated for the game. This link has some info on how to check/change your VM settings:

https://forums.galciv2.com/?ForumID=162&AID=103696
Reply #9 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Many thanks for all of your imput. I shall put the VM settings to the test now. My computer was top of the line about 3 years ago Now days it's just a waiting for me to upgrade it.
Reply #10 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Well, I just found out what caused the utterly massive slow down..I tried what everyone suggested and what not..and all seemed well till my next turn (which I saved..but don't know where to send this stuff) and all of the sudden..one of my planets discovered some precursor ships..It said it found a few..Hah..A few indeed! A few Hundred! I had about 200+ corvettes hovering one of my planets. I couldn't even look at the area or my computer wanted to throw a fit. So uh..where do I go about sending these save files I have? Hopefully someone can fix this bug and maybe solve my problem..I'd like to keep this game goin if possible.