Extreme lag during long artillery sieges

[jrlennis]

Numerous times in my campaign as the Prussians, I've noticed a non-game-breaking but extremely annoying issue that causes the game to become excessively laggy if I'm bombarding a walled settlement's defenders with sustained fire or poison gas attacks. What's odd about this lag is that it only seems to affect the speed at which the combat engine is performing: i.e. the actions of my men and any fired projectiles or particle effects. I can scroll the screen and move the cursor with no problems, though there is a notable delay in input execution on whatever I click on. This lag is something I have only witnessed during sieges when I'm using a lot of AOE against the defenders to whittle their numbers. The game begins slowing precipitously after 15 - 20 minutes of this (with a lot of casualties inflicted), and abruptly snaps back to normal performance about 10 minutes (in real time) after I've ordered my artillery to stop firing. Turning the graphics options down has no effect on this issue.

As I said, this isn't game-breaking, but I'm curious as to why this is happening so consistently. My computer is good enough to run Empire on maximum settings even on the largest set-piece battles with no ill effects. It seems to me more of a game-engine issue than a raw performance issue. What does everyone else think?

[Insaniac]

Something about the AI screwing up if I'm not mistaken. Once you start actually storming the place it ought to go away.

[Empire_TW]

here is the best way to do a siege https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vf79fU_PdlA&index=60&list=PLY8cZUL4pfED1uTQc8f-KyJQol-6JUnt7 (skip to 9:00 minutes in)

[Insaniac]

Originally posted by **PBahG** President Brad:

here is the best way to do a siege https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vf79fU_PdlA&index=60&list=PLY8cZUL4pfED1uTQc8f-KyJQol-6JUnt7 (skip to 9:00 minutes in)

That won't exactly fix lag. But yeah that's a pretty good tactic. Though personally I prefer to soften enemies in the fort using mortars to about <50% effectiveness and then sending infantry to mop up.

[jrlennis]

Originally posted by Kumelowski:

Something about the AI screwing up if I'm not mistaken. Once you start actually storming the place it ought to go away.

I think you're right. In my game the defenders are always shouting orders and then immediately cancelling them, resulting in a kind of stutter step and complete tactical paralysis. By coincidence, the lag usually ends shortly after my infantry are ready to storm the walls. I always limber my artillery before marching everyone else into position, and under the lag it usually takes about 10 minutes of real time (on normal speed) before things get serious.

On the subject of the YouTube vid, I've personally found European forts easier to assault - if your goal is to limit casualties as opposed to scoring a quick victory. Breaches in European walls are much narrower, but that works to your advantage more than the enemy if the infantry are softened up by your mortars first. Also, I like using enemy walls offensively as well as defensively, sending a couple of infantry units atop the wall to rain down musketfire on the breach defenders before comitting to the full assault. I've found it very difficult to get my troops to line up to shoot things inside eastern-style walls. They just stand still or line up facing away from the enemy.

[Empire_TW]

Originally posted by jrlennis:

Originally posted by Kumelowski:

Something about the AI screwing up if I'm not mistaken. Once you start actually storming the place it ought to go away.

I think you're right. In my game the defenders are always shouting orders and then immediately cancelling them, resulting in a kind of stutter step and complete tactical paralysis. By coincidence, the lag usually ends shortly after my infantry are ready to storm the walls. I always limber my artillery before marching everyone else into position, and under the lag it usually takes about 10 minutes of real time (on normal speed) before things get serious.

On the subject of the YouTube vid, I've personally found European forts easier to assault - if your goal is to limit casualties as opposed to scoring a quick victory. Breaches in European walls are much narrower, but that works to your advantage more than the enemy if the infantry are softened up by your mortars first. Also, I like using enemy walls offensively as well as defensively, sending a couple of infantry units atop the wall to rain down musketfire on the breach defenders before comitting to the full assault. I've found it very difficult to get my troops to line up to shoot things inside eastern-style walls. They just stand still or line up facing away from the enemy.

He does the same tactic on a Euorpean Fort later in the video (if you havn't seen more then the part i said to see)

[Wyvern Jack]

Its actually a well known bug with this verison of the Warscape engine. Its the pathfinding during Seiges, which causes some serious issues. This lag being the most obvious. If i remeber correclty It is caused by the AI attempting to move troops over the breeches in the walls, This puts the AI into a command loop. Youll notice that pausing the game doesnt hinder your ability to navigate around the map. When this happens I prefer to put the game in slow motion, usually it runs faster then dealing with the lag itself.

[LSD]

^ That's it completely. The sieges are an absolute mess, and CA has been aware of this issue since 2009 -- as in, when the forums were still kind of alive, there were admins telling us they would "look into" this, only they suddenly stopped caring when they realised they'd actually have to do something...