One reason I really like BattleDex and its turn based format is because no advantage is supposedly given to a player with a faster CPU or internet connection. I am starting to find that this belief is not true.

My computer seems to have a "slow mode" and "fast mode," which I can tell from the sound it is making. Normally when I play BattleDex, it will be in slow mode 95% of the time, but will occasionally jump to fast mode briefly.

Ever since the 2X replay speed was released, I have continued to have that box checked. But my replays only really speed up when my computer briefly jumps to fast mode during a replay. In other words, my computer is holding back the replay speed, not the replay speed set in the game. No matter how fast the replay is designed to run, my computer seems to bottleneck its speed, meaning that even with 2X replay speed checked, most of the time I see replays at the same speed as before.

I'm not sure if there is any way to fix this bottleneck short of buying a new computer or shutting down other programs when I play BattleDex, but neither is currently a very viable option for me personally. So, currently I realize I am at a disadvantage, especially in FFA games and coop games when there are lots of units on the board.

1) If my opponent's replay plays faster than mine, he has more time to order units.

2) If I press ESC to skip some or all of my replay, I miss watching unit movement or hidden units firing.

In my opinion, all players should have enough time to watch the full replay once and at that point have the same amount of time remaining to take their turn. If a player decides to skip watching part of the replay, its fine if he gains that extra amount of time to take his turn, that is his prerogative.

Late in FFA games and certain Coop games, if I were to watch the full replay I will often be left with only 30 seconds to take my turn. Often I have had my turn end without submitting orders, causing all my orders to be negated.

I'm not sure why my computer doesn't play replays as fast all the time, because I figured that the calculations for what happens are configured in a main BattleDex server and that the information for what to show is merely sent out to each player's computer. It shouldn't require much memory for my computer to simply show the low graphic units moving and shooting. Maybe someone can help me understand why such memory is required to show a replay quickly?

But if this is not fixable, perhaps the amount of time a player has to watch the replay and take his turn should vary based on how many units are on the map. If there are lots of units moving and shooting, perhaps the turn time should be raised. Perhaps on early turns the turn time should be shortened, when decisions are easy.

Thanks!

It relates to you have other programs open in background and not enough comp power to run other games and replay on fast. I've got fast comp. I can run 4 programs and still be fine. On my slow comp, if ive got an MMO open in background, and another program open, the replay chokes. Nothing we can do since we are not using that much memory. Its likely your other programs that are sucking it up. When you play a big FFA or coop, i think you have to shut down other programs.

Any advice on what would help the most, more RAM or a graphics card? Any other suggestions from anyone?

I've not tested that much but I've noticed that I can't play with 2 account at the same time on my notebook... it's just too frozen... the game get almost stucked and have to click several times to do a move wasting ages... just can't.

I've heard of others playing (coops) with 2 accounts but never tried on my desktop "super"computer I will try. (not that
interested in single player coops eheheh)... what I can say is that as far as I know the problem is the Ram, not the video or the cpu... but as said I haven't tested that much... so I may be wrong... I'm just figuring this out by opening the task manager sometimes.

Closing softwares would help A LOT on older pcs... and in any case if the "problem" is the ram adding some more it's the cheapest solution...