At what city size does the game get too slow, judged by the slow moments, not the average?

A big city makes the game slower, and players leave when it stutters, not when it is on average fine. Averages hide the stutter. This entry shows how to find the size where the slow moments start to be too slow, and how to avoid reading thin data.

Why this works

Players do not feel the typical moment, they feel the worst ones. A game can be smooth on average and still stutter every few seconds. Looking at the slow end of each size band, and ignoring bands with too few samples, finds the size where it really starts to hurt.

When not to use it

Do not use it when the slowness comes from something other than size, such as a memory leak, a weak device or one costly effect. Then the size bands blame the wrong thing. Test on the weakest device you support and look for the cause directly.

In the full entry

• What to build, step by step
• Starting values and the reason for each
• 3 common mistakes and the fix
• 27 lines of example code with 4 checks that pass
• How your AI shows you that it works

Say this to your AI

Use the Spielerando entry "At what city size does the game get too slow, judged by the slow moments, not the average?" (read_entry city-size-frame-time-limit) in my game. Build it step by step, and show me how you checked that it works.

Or skip this and connect the MCP: your AI then finds all of this by itself.Connect the MCP