Extreme slow down after selecting Diplomatic Map Mode

[kptom]

I often get a crippling slow down of gameplay (2-3 seconds to get through one game day at speed 4) when I select Diplomatic Map Mode. Been playing version 2.2. Anyone else experience this anomaly? I wouldn't say it is totally repeatable, but has occurred a number of times.

I am on a Mac PowerBook 2.53 GHz Intel Core i5 with system 10.8.5, 8GB RAM, and NVIDIA GeForce GT 330M 256 MB graphics card.

I had always played an older Gamergate version (1.1, I think-which ran like a dream) and just switched over to Steam and the latest DLC's (Rajas and Charlie).

Any help or suggestions are greatly appreciated.

 

[AndrewT]

We've had reports of Diplomatic map mode being slower than others over the years, but not by any means cripplingly so, no.

The reason it affects you worse is probably your Mac's video card, which has only 256mb of video memory - the game's published requirement is 1gb of that. You might consider upgrading to OS X 10.9.x , as that has better video drivers than 10.8 does (I wouldn't try 10.10 yet, I don't have confirmation the game runs OK under that yet).

Another option is to turn off all graphics options within the game you doesn't really need (eg trees, shadows), and consider one of the low-res graphics mods available.

 

[kptom]

Thanks Andrew, I'll look into your suggestions.

 

[kptom]

Just to follow up with you Andrew, I did the "draw_trees=no", but that did not help. I tried to look around for a low-res mod, but couldn't find one (easily) or figure out how to implement one (kind of a computer idiot).

But one thing that seemed to help quite a bit and made the game playable, was to turn off the fog of war in the console. When I did that, I actually played more that 5 years of game time without a crippling slowdown or CTD!!

If you have a suggestion for a low res mod, please let me know and I'll give it a try.

Thanks again for your continues assistance.

 

[AndrewT]

The Steam Workshop should allow you to search for mods like that? Failing that, the User Mods forum here has a master list of mods sorted by type.