I remember playing TradeWars way back in the 80's when a 2400 baud modem was screamingly fast.

First off I feel I need to qualify myself... I am talking about turn games and/or tournament type games.

Back then the game was set up for having slow connections and single players at a time so cit times were slow (I am guessing so everyone had a chance).

Today we have TradeWars and what has changed?
We now are able to have multiple people in the game at the same time all hunting down your planets that are upgrading.

Why hasn't cit times decreased? Back in the 80's games often lasted months so the long cit times were understandable today games usually are over in a couple of weeks to a month.

I know people want to be nostalgic; but when was the last time you had to hand crank your engine to start it?

There are lots of creative people out there that seem to enjoy modifying edits can someone try and speed the game up.
I am getting old and my attention span is reverting to my childhood... Oh look shiny objects.

In general, they have. A stock edit takes a month or more to go mobile. Most "stock-like" edits aim for a week,
with some edits (pirates, KI, moo2, etc) that have 0-day mobiles.

But there's a problem there. Now that people can be online a lot more, they tend to use those mobile planets
to fire fotons. That shifts the advantage away from skill and towards keytime and team organization. It also
makes it very difficult to move, and not everyone likes those changes. Some people like a game that develops
a little more slowly, permitting for more ship to ship combat. Hence the week to mobiles compromise.

Different strokes for different folks is what makes this game fun.

I've had games that are over in less than a day, even if you discount blockaids. There are all sorts of games out there, some quick, some slow, you just have to find them.

moo2?...play EIS about 2 weeks off maniac...should be fast...lol