* These are not final graphics but place holders; however, my prediction: look for the color pallet to remain the same although how it looks in this uploaded web shot and how it will look on your computer = HUGELY different. Can NOT yet speak to the color temperature, the yellow vs. green, etc. It WILL look different. Still, some will be disappointed at first blush because this is already in the ballpark. I like where it's going, so long as they learn the lesson of SMAC and don't fall victim to unclear units. That's to watch out for there.

* The GREATNESS of the map generator as depicted in the global map window on the lower right. This map may or may not be generated from the new algorythm or from the previous SMAC engine, but I suspect it's new; either way it appears that Civ 2's "stringy" continent/island maps are a thing of the pass. I cannot overstate that this is the most important revelation I find on this screenshot, bar none.

* The letter F by each city pop number. Probably a flag, but I will look for this in future screen shots; I wonder if their are more than one "identifiers" for each city. For instance, each city will be color coded for your civ, same as always, but now I wonder if they will be also "culture" coded -- meaning your cities may become more dominated by other cultures. What does this mean? Answer that and win a trip to the moon, but my guess is it's a function, a la MOO, of a conquered city's rate of assimilation to your society.

The city names should be either MUCH thicker and bigger and the date and status at the top should ALSO be covered inside a window, otherwise you cant even see all these things!

quote: Originally posted by Nemo on 04-26-2001 11:56 PM cities: the pink is Mexico, right? if so, then the capital should be Mexico city, right? well, the blue is the US with Washington as teh capital. so, i want to point out that most of the cities are all size 2 (duh! )but washington has more buildings, and the buildings that are teh same, are bigger. at first i thought this to be teh fact that it was a capitol, but upon second glance, the pink size 2 building in teh upper right is "Tenoc..." and this is not the mexican capital, yet is has teh same extra buildings as does washintonn, therefore, it seems as if when an improvement is built, it is shown on the city view w/o entering it! that would be way cool! it is very realistic to know what buildings your enemies have without having to send a "spy" just to find out, which makes this a little more realistic and also, it means that after awhile you would just have to look at a city to know what improvemnts it has, a great time saver!

Actually, the pink is almost certainly the Aztecs and the size 2 city their capital Tenochtitlan, which, just like Washington, has a different look from other size 2 cities because it is the capital city. So, I am afraid the graphics are only generic city graphics and do not show the improvements in the city... although that would have been nice, with high resolution square graphics being used anyway.

The only thing I care about in that screenshot was that you could see the bould que under the city name and that ROCKS. Makes it soo mutch easier to keep track of what your cities build......

Looking forward seeing more in game screen shots.

Lawrence, you're right about those icons. A few cities have two in the upper corner. In kansas City one looks like a sword, the other like an Egyptian eye. Atlanta has something totaly different. Almost looks like a biscuit with a hat.

I see the health bars too. They all llok green. The cities have health bars, too, protruding from a small hut on the left like a flagpole.

What on earth is coming out of the mines near St. Louis?? I zoomed WAY in and I swear one looks like a face. Easter Island statues? Or just fruit?

Good:

The hills and mountains.

The plains and desert terrain looks very nice.

The coastline. It looks good now, but it would be nice to have some animation showing wave action along the shore... similar to the way Railroad Tycoon 2 does it.

Borders look pretty good, but I will have to see how they actually move and function during the game.

So-So:

The forest squares. I know they probably want a general foresty look rather than individual trees, but the plains and especially the tundra squares with forests look a bit splotchy. Actually, the tundra squares with forest look bad. Maybe I'm wrong, but I thought tundra is pretty much free of trees. The forest actually looks pretty good against the grassland squares. One last thing about forest...shouldn't the forest areas on grassland look different than forest in the arctic region? Do palm trees grow in the artic or do pine trees grow near the desert?

The city icons are satisfactory. However, please have a different look for each civilization's cities.

The colored circles at the base of units. I think I prefer the flags from Civ 2.

Bad:

What's with that awful looking irrigation? It looks like Firaxis' artist was trying to paint a river and had a seizure. PLEASE, Firaxis, go back to the Civ 2 irrigation/farmland look.

That said, did anyone else find it interesting the the river seems to go between squares instead of through them? I've only played Civ II; did any other game do this? This could change all kinds of things like movement, trade, and attacking across a river.

Also, the mini-map seems to have areas of deeper green, so jungles probably haven't been forgotten.

That grass stuff just looks like they've made the SMAC fungus green and used that temporarily. (that twisted green vegetation on the land)

If its going to be released in another year (2002??) then there'll be a lot changing hopefully.. nowadays graphics is important so i hope they make a nice looking landscape.

quote: Originally posted by Lung on 05-02-2001 09:47 PM Er, i don't know why, but i can't see any reference to Civ3 on pcgameplay.co.uk !!! Even after a search, there is no reference to it! Why me?!

Try http://www.pcgameplay.co.uk/media/images/Civ3-April/Civ3_1.jpg or go to the news section > last week > last thursday. They update thier web daily.