Pointless Improvements

[johnmcd]

Lots of suggestions can be found all over the forums pointing out some excellent additions and tweaks to the game. Most of them are heavy on programmer time but very few make demands of the artists and animators, but they must be looking for things to do too.

Some things I'd love to see

- Early units accessorise themselves with the skins of slain animals. Imagine a victorious warrior swathing himself in a lion skin!
- The quarry shadow animates with the moving arm!
- Resource animals animate in response to wild animals coming into or near their tile
- Map tile graphics change with the ages. Tiles in view are always the realistic hues they are today, but tiles in fog of war take on the attributes of maps and charts of suitable antiquity.
- Animated wagons and boats traverse the land and sea to show the trade routes of the world (much like Rome TW).

[Pipe tooth]

Re: Pointless Improvements

Originally posted by johnmcd
- Early units accessorise themselves with the skins of slain animals. Imagine a victorious warrior swathing himself in a lion skin!

that would look very cool!

[Strategist83]

Those ideas are excellent but I doubt we will see stuff like that implemented for free. I am especially keen on the animated trade routes - maybe in an expansion?

[Dis]

and my computer would slow to a crawl.

[Imran Siddiqui]

- Map tile graphics change with the ages. Tiles in view are always the realistic hues they are today, but tiles in fog of war take on the attributes of maps and charts of suitable antiquity.

Sounds very cool, and I think it wouldn't do too much to cause a performance hit (just change the color pallete from green/blue to beige/brown for the middle ages, for example).

[Pipe tooth]

Im sure it would only take a short while for a programmer to add the lion, bear or wolf cloak to every unit in the game (im going to buy the expansion anyway, but this would make me even more pleased about it ) and i dont think it would slow the game down at all, as it is just loading a new type of unit.

i really like the new unit promotions to give a unit some individuality, but naming your elite spearman 'steve' was somehow as much fun... this would combine them me thinks (i havent got a unit up to the point to name them if this is possible in IV)

love the idea johnmcd!!

[johnmcd]

You can name units any time you like, just click on the name (Swordsman) on the panel in the bottom left corner. I always name the units that capture towns and name units that win against overwhelming odds.

A couple of further graphical tweaks I’d quite like
- The option to select the permanent location of wonders relative to your city. A little drag and drop ability the turn it is built so if you have a super cool spot to place the Great Lighthouse or whatever you get to choose it and keep it there. I don’t mind the libraries and temples being re-jigged all the time as I don’t really believe it’s the same one for all those millennia, I would like the wonders to choose a spot and stick to it though, anywhere in the nine ‘home’ tiles.
- The menu screen with the earth cycling through day and night are very evocative and really do hint at the march of man. I’d love it if it was possible to turn on a night and day cycle on the game map. You wouldn’t ever play with it on obviously but I can’t believe I’m the only player who sometimes just scrolls around the world admiring it all. It was very atmospheric in Sim City and the menu screen hint at what it could do here.

[LordShiva]

Re: Pointless Improvements

Originally posted by johnmcd
- Animated wagons and boats traverse the land and sea to show the trade routes of the world (much like Rome TW).

[tanathos]

- Animated wagons and boats traverse the land and sea to show the trade routes of the world (much like Rome TW).

That'd be great.

[Rancidlunchmeat]

Wow. And I thought this thread was going to be about windmills!

Doh!

[Willem]

Originally posted by Dis
and my computer would slow to a crawl.

Mine too. I need less animations not more.

[Willem]

Originally posted by johnmcd
You can name units any time you like, just click on the name (Swordsman) on the panel in the bottom left corner.

Ah thank you. I was wondering if I could do that but I wasn't sure. I want to rename my automated Workers so I can tell them apart from the manual ones. It might also be useful for choosing those units that you want to upgrade in the future, as opposed to just deleting.

[Enigma_Nova]

Re: Pointless Graphical Improvements (suggestions)

Good god, No. That would just take up more memory needlessly.
Maybe include "Fix Memory Leaks kthx" in your list of stuff as well.

[LordShiva]

Or maybe have a have a worker option "Fix Memory Leak." Then set him on auto.

[johnmcd]

I have more memory than I'm using, so yeah, use it up.

Anyway, the fix memory leaks would go in the 'Improvements with Purpose' list.