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Civ IV artwork has some real problems
I saw the screenshots and didn't like them for a few reasons:
The landscapes are very busy - this tiring for the eyes - and a problem for quickly finding units, resources etc.
The colour scheme is unattractive - civ 2 had the most attractive and it was very simple - nice rich primary colours - you could easily find resources, units cities etc.
The sprites are way too big - they need to be more in proportion to the landscape - they just look like giants now, and rather ridiculous - but I like the fact the sprites are groups, something I proposed years ago - though I'd rather see little legions and phalanxes with battle flags than what look right now like wresting teams. Can you give us an option for that?
The cities are way too small - this game is about cities. The graphics for cities should give a sense of their wealth, power and military strength, even at a long view. It would also help if their underlying terrain was evident so defensive strength could be quickly calculated. When you look at a group of cities you should be able to easily see which is powerful and which is not.
The graphic team needs to consider players will spend hours staring at the game maps - simplify the graphics and make the colour scheme more attractive please and the essential gameplay relevant bits easy to find and we'll all be grateful. It helps us manage our civs - id new places for cities, find our units, special resources, work out what needs terraforming etc.
If you want that "one more turn feel", players have to be comfortable looking at their monitor for long periods. After the first game or 2 noone cares what the freakin mountains look like or how many loops there are on the rivers, as long as they easy to identify and look at. You want to build something beautiful by your civ, not the underlying terrain.
Get those damn graphic artists under control - these games aren't about eye candy - they are a distraction and really show no understanding of what gamers need from a map. All game graphics and map features should assist gameplay and ease of reference, allow for a wholist view of the state of play, economic development, military strategy etc.
If they don't, get rid of them, or allow players to remove them in an options menu. We want clean utilitarian maps.
Jeez I hope the world map scrolls this time and there are adequate zooms. I couldn't believe civ 3 wouldn't recentre so you could look at the map from different angles the way civ 1 and 2 did - what a giant leap backwards that was.
On the whole I thought the graphics and sprites were ugly and not very play friendly. Its worrying - another gameplay graphic disaster like civ 3 in the making I fear. Civ 3 also had dreadful non gameplay friendly maps and graphics. You could never tell what the state of play was at a glance.
Go play civ 2 and you'll see what I mean. Probably too late now.
The landscapes are very busy - this tiring for the eyes - and a problem for quickly finding units, resources etc.
The colour scheme is unattractive - civ 2 had the most attractive and it was very simple - nice rich primary colours - you could easily find resources, units cities etc.
The sprites are way too big - they need to be more in proportion to the landscape - they just look like giants now, and rather ridiculous - but I like the fact the sprites are groups, something I proposed years ago - though I'd rather see little legions and phalanxes with battle flags than what look right now like wresting teams. Can you give us an option for that?
The cities are way too small - this game is about cities. The graphics for cities should give a sense of their wealth, power and military strength, even at a long view. It would also help if their underlying terrain was evident so defensive strength could be quickly calculated. When you look at a group of cities you should be able to easily see which is powerful and which is not.
The graphic team needs to consider players will spend hours staring at the game maps - simplify the graphics and make the colour scheme more attractive please and the essential gameplay relevant bits easy to find and we'll all be grateful. It helps us manage our civs - id new places for cities, find our units, special resources, work out what needs terraforming etc.
If you want that "one more turn feel", players have to be comfortable looking at their monitor for long periods. After the first game or 2 noone cares what the freakin mountains look like or how many loops there are on the rivers, as long as they easy to identify and look at. You want to build something beautiful by your civ, not the underlying terrain.
Get those damn graphic artists under control - these games aren't about eye candy - they are a distraction and really show no understanding of what gamers need from a map. All game graphics and map features should assist gameplay and ease of reference, allow for a wholist view of the state of play, economic development, military strategy etc.
If they don't, get rid of them, or allow players to remove them in an options menu. We want clean utilitarian maps.
Jeez I hope the world map scrolls this time and there are adequate zooms. I couldn't believe civ 3 wouldn't recentre so you could look at the map from different angles the way civ 1 and 2 did - what a giant leap backwards that was.
On the whole I thought the graphics and sprites were ugly and not very play friendly. Its worrying - another gameplay graphic disaster like civ 3 in the making I fear. Civ 3 also had dreadful non gameplay friendly maps and graphics. You could never tell what the state of play was at a glance.
Go play civ 2 and you'll see what I mean. Probably too late now.
That's a weird view.
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