So where are these Screenshots, Informer?

[Robert]

Originally posted by Adagio
What bothers me is the graphics makes it more diffecult to see each tile

Hmmm, that's true.

It seems like there's always 5 people in a group, is that the health points for a unit?

No, near the top there's a 3-units group and somewhere in the middle there's a 4-units group.
Pherhaps it depends on experience or damage?

[General Ludd]

Originally posted by CyberShy
Nah, the looks are great.
The 3D is looking good.
The zoom options are good
It's possible to change the angle

This is a strategy game we're talking about. A new graphics engine is hardly a worthy enough feature to warrant reselling a game like this. Especially when...

the look of the graphics is not very very much different then cIIIv

[Robert]

Ludd: first you complain about the looks of the game, then I counter how the looks are good, then you suddenly say that the looks aren't important. strange.

[Niessuh]

I have seen some of these graphics before

There are not any sign of stacks. Do you think the multiunits have some use apart from viewing pleasure?

[Maniac]

Originally posted by Nikolai
But, religion first when it's researched? What do Firaxis think the humans believed in before that then? Religion has always been present in human society...

While religion or at least moral systems have always been present in human society, it used to be in the form of magical and mythological thinking. The religions were also very localized. One tribe could have their own gods to worship, while a tribe a few kilometers further could have a set of others. This didn't cause problems. It was considered normal for everyone to have their own different gods.

This all starts changing in the first millennium BC. In the great cultural areas of those days (Middle East, India, China) large empires started forming. In that setting of increasing complexity and interaction, the tribal beliefs no longer succeeding in streamlining behaviour of all the geographically and culturally different peoples in the empires. New religions arose, who all to a certain degree had some characteristics that could appeal to the people living in those new society surroundings, and bind them together. These characteristics are:

1. Claim to universality: "Our religion is the one truth, and it applies to ALL peoples, not just the Greeks/Germans/Egyptians... "

2. Revelation: "These truths are given to me, the holy prophet, by God/The Highest Reality, and I have written them down in these books, which should not be doubted or changed!! " This gave the prophet's words a higher authority than those of a tribal religion.

3. Dogmatism: As said above, if the words come from God, you can't change them anymore after writing them down. Opposed to mythology, which was flexible.

4. Salvation: "Man is in a sad situation here on Earth. However by joining our One True Religion^TM, you can escape from this misery! "

Thus you get Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, Taoism, Confucianism, the world religions that still exist today. Or Zoroastrism & Manicheism, to give two who didn't make it.

So actually, I'd say it's pretty realistic that you could "research" an "invention" called "Universalist Religion" or so, which makes it easier to keep people happy in a growing empire.

[General Ludd]

Originally posted by CyberShy
Ludd: first you complain about the looks of the game, then I counter how the looks are good, then you suddenly say that the looks aren't important. strange.

The only time I mentioned "looks" was when I said that the game looks like the same crappy ol' game that Civ3 is. As in; Same old, same old.

[Maquiladora]

Well at least it doesnt all look like desert island terrain, although it looks a bit too colourful and whats up with those seemingly random pyramid mountains that have popped up out of the ground again like in civ3? Where are the mountain chains... Ill wait to see how modern screenshots look though.

[Krill]

Screenshot 2 shows the mountains surrounded by hills, so it seems like a normal piece of high ground...

[Maquiladora]

The mountains look like coneheads grown from the ground with magic beans with no obvious signs of formation at all. They arent surrounded by hills, there are a few scattered away from the mountain.

[Nikolai]

I see several hills in 3 different directions, so there you're wrong. The screens look good, but I doubt they are the finsihed product, so we shouldn't be too sceptical to the whole game just because of these pics.

[Maquiladora]

I also see 3 hills in different directions, none of which are "surrounding" the mountains. Theyre close to one mountain, the other mountains dont fit.

[Maquiladora]

And I wasnt bein sceptical of the whole game, if that comment was directed to me. but I wouldnt hold back even if I wanted to be sceptical of the whole game, whats the point in candy-flossing everything we say, this is not civ fanatics. I complained about the seemingly random and strange shaped mountains in civ3 too, and they looked the same at this stage of development.

[FrostyBoy]

I showed my girlfriend the pics, she asked me "What are those teepee's for?"

I said "they're actually mountains"

she said "...oookay..."


Firaxis. Fix it.



And to everyone: I have a large 1200x800 pic of the tilted view screen. It's almost 2mb. But if you want it, post your email address in this thread. DON'T PM ME YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS.

[Maquiladora]

Originally posted by Sn00py
I showed my girlfriend the pics, she asked me "What are those teepee's for?"

I said "they're actually mountains"

she said "...oookay..."

I rest my case.

[Nikolai]

Originally posted by Maquiladora
And I wasnt bein sceptical of the whole game, if that comment was directed to me. but I wouldnt hold back even if I wanted to be sceptical of the whole game, whats the point in candy-flossing everything we say, this is not civ fanatics. I complained about the seemingly random and strange shaped mountains in civ3 too, and they looked the same at this stage of development.

Sorry, the second comment was to everybody really. I should have made that clear.