Trading ship & ox spam

**lampros69** · March 08, 2015, 10:36 PM

From mid-game onward, ships and oxen that get spammed along trade routes become an eye sore. Does anyone know if this affects performance (I'd have to think it does)? And if it does, any way to reduce it?

Edit: Hmmm, just in case people get confused, the transports along land trade routes look like horse-driven wagons, not oxen.

**Silverheart** · March 09, 2015, 07:21 AM

What performance are you asking about? The performance of the game itself, or something else?

The increase of those trade caravans (on both land and sea) are indicators that trade has grown and is prospering, which is a good thing, since this means greater income - not exactly the kind of thing you´d want to reduce... I´m pretty sure that their presence doesn´t do anything to affect the performance of armies or agents and such (and if their increased numbers are causing trouble with the games´ performance, then you should have noticed it by now, due to lag and such).

**lampros69** · March 09, 2015, 08:46 AM

Originally Posted by Silverheart

What performance are you asking about? The performance of the game itself, or something else?

The increase of those trade caravans (on both land and sea) are indicators that trade has grown and is prospering, which is a good thing, since this means greater income - not exactly the kind of thing you´d want to reduce... I´m pretty sure that their presence doesn´t do anything to affect the performance of armies or agents and such (and if their increased numbers are causing trouble with the games´ performance, then you should have noticed it by now, due to lag and such).

Game performance - turn change lag, etc.

I have no clue whether it lags the game, so I was asking. I do get a lot of lag mid-game onward during turn change, but I don't know whether the trading route animations contribute to this, or whether it is mainly due to the number of scripts and/or the number of units that AI factions accumulate eventually.

**Silverheart** · March 09, 2015, 11:07 AM

Most likely a combination of both - though the trade caravans are so small and poorly rendered (they look pretty similar to the ones that were in the first Rome...) that I hardly Think they would have much of an impact on general game performance. It´s more likely to be caused by simply having a lot of characters wandering around all over the map.
Maybe you ought to invest in a better graphics card, or a better gaming computer? How are battles working for you - does it lag there as well, or are they working as they should?

**Comrade Roboto** · March 09, 2015, 12:42 PM

Originally Posted by Silverheart

Most likely a combination of both - though the trade caravans are so small and poorly rendered (they look pretty similar to the ones that were in the first Rome...) that I hardly Think they would have much of an impact on general game performance. It´s more likely to be caused by simply having a lot of characters wandering around all over the map.
Maybe you ought to invest in a better graphics card, or a better gaming computer? How are battles working for you - does it lag there as well, or are they working as they should?

You are right, what's most important when it comes to lag is battles. Lag during turn changing is almost always there.

**lampros69** · March 10, 2015, 05:38 AM

Originally Posted by Silverheart

Most likely a combination of both - though the trade caravans are so small and poorly rendered (they look pretty similar to the ones that were in the first Rome...) that I hardly Think they would have much of an impact on general game performance. It´s more likely to be caused by simply having a lot of characters wandering around all over the map.
Maybe you ought to invest in a better graphics card, or a better gaming computer? How are battles working for you - does it lag there as well, or are they working as they should?

I don't really have issues with battle lag; I play with the max 250-men per unit for infantry (and 100-men per cavalry), so I get battles with 10k-plus men, and I have no issues.

Originally Posted by Comrade Roboto

You are right, what's most important when it comes to lag is battles. Lag during turn changing is almost always there.

That's too bad; I guess I will have to live with it then.

**Silverheart** · March 10, 2015, 09:04 AM

The thing that really makes me sure that it can´t be the presence of trade caravans causing the game to lag is the fact that you say it happens specifically during a turn change - so it happens after you press the "End Turn"-button, while the AI does its´ moves, I guess?
While that is going on, there shouldn´t be any trade caravans visible on the campaign map (and you may notice that they just begin to pour out of cities and ports at the start of a new turn), so they can´t be causing the game to lag. It is therefore almost certainly caused by there simply being a large amount of characters everywhere.

On the plus side, if the lag only occurs during the changing of a turn, and not while you´re playing your turns or in the middle of battles, at least it´s not affecting the gameplay itself.