New Game Performance Question

[Maltay (OP)]

I created a new game with a realistic population for Earth.  7,287M according to Wikipedia.  However, performance is horrible.  A single 30 day increment takes between 2 - 5 min.  Any thoughts as to the point at which population begins to seriously degrade performance?  I know they scale against each other inversely, but it seems there is some population value after which you are basically screwed.

[Ostia]

Sounds about right for a 30 increment imo. Aurora is just that slow. And I doubt population plays really into it.

If you have pre-generated NPRs they are probably responsible for the slow down, as the game needs to manage them too.

[83athom]

I am not sure why you are running that slow that soon. I've done similar starting with a 7b-8b pop but my 30day increments have always only took a few seconds at the start. Do you have any ships, civilian shipping lines with ships, or started with pregenerated NPRs?

[SteelChicken]

New games should run pretty quickly...but maybe there are some NPR's starting in the same system and fighting each other, or some spoilers started in a system with NPR's.

[Vandermeer]

I created a new game with a realistic population for Earth.  7,287M according to Wikipedia.  However, performance is horrible.  A single 30 day increment takes between 2 - 5 min.  Any thoughts as to the point at which population begins to seriously degrade performance?  I know they scale against each other inversely, but it seems there is some population value after which you are basically screwed.

Here is a thread where I tried to document what exactly causes what kind of slowdown in Aurora.
Further down there was tested proof that neither population count nor amount of installations on colonies has any say in game speed.(could simply be tested by upping those numbers a couple factors in SM) So those definitely aren't the reason you face the slow-down, and you can probably test it yourself by artificially lowering the numbers.

Tldr version and my guess on the specific problem: Ground units and officers. The calculation burden that the tracking and updating of the numerous officer profiles takes is probably considerable on production intervals, and might be akin to total ship count when determining the slow-down effect of late game empires.(I would recommend to keep it between 15-20 academies total throughout all colonies; - at least the officer window loadup will definitely be pleased with that limit)
I am not sure though if you even spawn with more officers when not starting conventional (, because I always start conventional), so this might not be your problem right now. That leaves the plethora of ground units as possible culprit, though they only tend to paralyze the colony window loadup, and I have never really been able to sort them out as a general impeding factor.
They still might be one, but as athom, I have also started with 5, realistic 7, and even 10b population, and not seen those problems at all, so ground units seem more unlikely. (maybe I had just "scrapped" them fast enough though)

So my personal bet is that the non-conventional start generated you too many officers, but I am shaky, and there might be something about your game that is entirely different for some reason. Have you created NPR with you for example? Those would spawn with ships, and there you have the reason, because the ship count depends on their population, which depends on your population.
Otherwise, if it is none of those, can you post a screen of your game setup?

[Maltay (OP)]

I ran some experiments.  I created five games with the same conditions.  Pre-TN start, 7B+ population, no ICBMs, and one pre-generated NPR.

In two of the games, I had things slow to 5 sec intervals within the first few months.  It then stayed at 5 sec intervals for 2+ years of in game time before I gave up.

In the other three games, stuff ran fine with no problems.

Not sure what was different between the two outcomes.  Presume something to do with the one NPR encountering special stuff.  But those sort of 5 sec interval slow downs generally do not last 2+ years.

[Sematary]

Open up the events page its the weird blue and yellow icon on the row of icons on the systems map page, turn it onto SM mode which will be in a drop down menu. Then read what it says, my guess is NPRs are in the same area and are duking it out.

[linkxsc]

5 sec intervals almost always means a fight.
If its really that annoying (and trust me, it is) just set there to be no npr when you start.
Second you keave sol, itll start trying to generate 1 on a suitable new planet.

[Vandermeer]

I think the problem has been solved, because it sounds like Maltay had also created NPR in his original generation. If you start with 7b and generate an NPR with you, they will start with like 500+ ships maybe, and since ship (or any) movement calculation is the one sole predominant cause for any interval slowdown in whole of Aurora, it is to no surprise that here even the early game was compromised.
Nevermind the issue with 5 second intervals starting too. This is why I normally only have NPR generated on discovery for me. They still present themself pretty much the same with all the advancement, ships and industry they get generated, but the game stays playable at least for up until then. (We will see how that works out in 6.5 ) The only major negative about this old tactic was that you could never stumble upon developed multi star system races this way.

[Maltay (OP)]

Yes, problem resolved.  Maybe not solved, per say, but certainly avoided.