New extreme empire maps will only play in easy mode

Synchronized-turns strategy. Calling all teamers.
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speedandstyle
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New extreme empire maps will only play in easy mode

Post by speedandstyle » Tue Mar 19, 2013 12:35 am

I recently downloaded all three of Peter Karsten's new empire maps{Roman, Byzantine and Persian} and all play fine in easy mode but not at all in medium or hard. I can start the map and do my first moves but when I click finished it just sits there. Anybody else having this problem? How do I fix it. I like the maps but easy is just way too easy. I have played many of his maps before and never had this issue.

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drSnuggles
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Post by drSnuggles » Tue Mar 19, 2013 7:57 am

Hey speedandstyle and welcome to Vox!

That behaviour is normal for those maps and the selected bot type. Due to the map size it just takes that long for the AI to compute their moves. It also depends on your processor type. If you check the running Vox processes, you'll see them being all busy.
If I'm not totally wrong, it will go faster the next moves.

I have to wait ~5-10 mins for the first move to complete.

speedandstyle
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Post by speedandstyle » Wed Mar 20, 2013 1:29 am

Tried giving it time but after 20 minutes it still goes nowhere! I have a Mac Mini with 2.4GHz core duo processor and 2 gigs of memory. Not the best and fastest but hardly old and slow. I guess to play those maps you need much more. If this is so there needs to be a warning on the downloader about such maps.

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mentor09
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Post by mentor09 » Wed Mar 20, 2013 7:17 pm

speedandstyle wrote:Tried giving it time but after 20 minutes it still goes nowhere! I have a Mac Mini with 2.4GHz core duo processor and 2 gigs of memory. Not the best and fastest but hardly old and slow. I guess to play those maps you need much more. If this is so there needs to be a warning on the downloader about such maps.
I had to wait 20 Seconds on Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-2600K CPU @ 3.40GHz w/ 32 GB RAM running Linux (Ubuntu 12.04) :-) Played Extreme Roman Empire at hardest bot level - and took 2 Secodns for the second turn. Quite ok IMO. But I really suggest playing humans, not bots!

Aldauron
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Post by Aldauron » Fri May 17, 2013 12:53 am

I'm having a similar problem...

I'm on turn 164 of an extreme-sized map and my game keeps freezing within a turn or two. Even if I choose not to move any pieces at all, it still freezes on 165 or 166.

I can leave it on all night to "think", it never finishes the turn.

Any thoughts?

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drSnuggles
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Post by drSnuggles » Fri May 17, 2013 1:32 pm

Can you post a screenshot incl. the complete Info Box?

By leaving it possibly over night to "think" you mean Vox keeps hooking your computer cpu at high load w/o ending in turn 165 respectively 166, right?
Can you send a debug report when you believe the game has frozen? It can be found in the "Online" menu.

By the way, what cpu is built in your computer, how fast is it?

Aldauron
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Post by Aldauron » Fri May 17, 2013 9:35 pm

DrSnuggles,

I am using a 3.17 Ghz Intel Duo Core with 4GB of RAM running Windows 7 64 bit.

Here's the link for the screenshot

http://s17.postimg.org/4rbey2ddr/Turn_165.jpg

I used Online -> Bug Report to report the issue.

Basically, for the last 10 turns or so, it has been quite difficult to get a turn to complete so I can move on to the next turn. I thought maybe I had too many units, so I killed a bunch off, and stopped recruiting more. That seemed to get me through turns 160-164, but then it kept happening, so I don't know what to do at this point.

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drSnuggles
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Post by drSnuggles » Tue May 21, 2013 1:11 pm

You seem to have the same problem, it just happens later in the game.
I was testing that map with all Polymath bots when I had to wait longer and longer for the bot moves to complete.

I'm still waiting for an answer from Sillysoft and will post more later.

Aldauron
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Post by Aldauron » Fri May 24, 2013 11:12 pm

How do you even ask Sillysoft for help? I've been looking and looking.

jesterme
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Post by jesterme » Fri May 24, 2013 11:15 pm

I think you have to deposit 10 more dollars in the box, then get upgraded to special service.

Joking, I think Sillysoft is probably working on it already. Keep Calm and Vox On.

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drSnuggles
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Post by drSnuggles » Sat May 25, 2013 7:24 am

jesterme wrote:I think you have to deposit 10 more dollars in the box, then get upgraded to special service.
For you it's telling 10 more jokes and taking some Vox advice to get to standard service. :wink:
Aldauron wrote:How do you even ask Sillysoft for help? I've been looking and looking.
You could
- use "Online -> Email Feedback" from within Vox
- use "Help -> About Castle Vox", click the "Tech Support" link that directs to a page containing an email address

To come back to that extreme maps issue: Unfortunately, there are only workarounds with the current Vox version, but I don't think there will be a fix or something like that, because it's an issue with specific bots, possibly Polymath only.
First option, the recommended one, is to not select hard bots, because at least Polymath uses algorithms that need a considerable amount of time to compute, and that's more significant the larger the map is.
Second option is to limit the turn time with hard bots, but one has to be aware that it may interrupt bot "thinking" resulting in some or more bot moves not being executed. However, it's questionable imho that a bot does compute several hours to finish his turn.

The Vox bot source code is available in the AI SDK in case you like to have a closer look.

Aldauron
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Post by Aldauron » Sat May 25, 2013 12:57 pm

Thanks a bunch for the tip about the turn time limit. I was only about 3 turns away from victory, and I just wanted to finish the game to get the star. That went quick!

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