First of all, please don't be mad at me for posting a "optimization" suggestion, as I am pretty sure you thought alot about the ordering and distribiution of the simulation calculations, and as I obvioulsy don't know the source code I could only guess how you do it. But this Idea came along my mind and I wanted to share it with you.
I recognised especially in later stages of the game and on higher speeds, that the game goes fast for most of the days and then slows down heavily at the end/start of the month. I guess this is the case because the calculation for the population and station output for the whole galaxy is carried out.
So my suggestion is now to evenly distribiute this calculation over the whole month so all days seem to pass at the same speed and no lag should be noticable. In my Idea all empires (regular, fallen, primitive) are getting numbered. Then on the first day of a month the output calculation for all player empires are carried out. Then on the other 29 days of the Month each day the output calculations for [Number of AI empires]/29 rounded up is carried out. This should distribute the calculation load over the days of the month. But it would resut in some AI empires getting their ressources a few days before some others. But as it is a maximal delay of 29 days to the player it shouldn't matter too much in terms of game balance. And the discrepancy could be shifted to +/- 15 days to the player by giving all the empires that would get their ressources after the 15.th of a month their first output directly at game start on 01.01.2200.
So what do you think about this? I would be really happy to get some feedback for this, whether you think it is a good or bad Idea, and in this case especially the why it is a bad Idea as I am realy interested in that. (I really liked to read those optimization / technically dev diaries)
I recognised especially in later stages of the game and on higher speeds, that the game goes fast for most of the days and then slows down heavily at the end/start of the month. I guess this is the case because the calculation for the population and station output for the whole galaxy is carried out.
So my suggestion is now to evenly distribiute this calculation over the whole month so all days seem to pass at the same speed and no lag should be noticable. In my Idea all empires (regular, fallen, primitive) are getting numbered. Then on the first day of a month the output calculation for all player empires are carried out. Then on the other 29 days of the Month each day the output calculations for [Number of AI empires]/29 rounded up is carried out. This should distribute the calculation load over the days of the month. But it would resut in some AI empires getting their ressources a few days before some others. But as it is a maximal delay of 29 days to the player it shouldn't matter too much in terms of game balance. And the discrepancy could be shifted to +/- 15 days to the player by giving all the empires that would get their ressources after the 15.th of a month their first output directly at game start on 01.01.2200.
So what do you think about this? I would be really happy to get some feedback for this, whether you think it is a good or bad Idea, and in this case especially the why it is a bad Idea as I am realy interested in that. (I really liked to read those optimization / technically dev diaries)
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