Strategic View

[OzzyKP]

http://www.civilization5.com/#/community/feature_strategic_view

I am very excited to reveal some screenshots of a really cool feature in Civilization V that has not been shown anywhere else. I present to you "Strategic View."

What is it, you say? Strategic View allows you to view your empire in a very clean, easy-to-read fashion. By default, each hex has icons for special resources, improvements, and any units in the tile. You can also customize the view by selecting only a single icon to be shown. So, if you want to get an overall view of how your military units are deployed, you can turn on the option to only show units and see the information you need without any extra noise.

In addition, you can enable different "overlays" in Strategic View to make it even easier to find what you need. For example, turning on the "unit type" overlay to have each hex colored based on if the unit in its square is melee, ranged, artillery, and so on.

Check out the screenshots below for examples of how this awesome feature looks in the early, middle, and late game and post your questions and comments about Strategic View in the Civilization V 2K Forums

[OzzyKP]

I assume the black splotches on the mini-map are city-states.

[DaShi]

Hexes get annoyingly ugly really fast.

[ColdPhoenix]

I assume the black splotches on the mini-map are city-states.

That appears to be the case judging by Vienna in the second screen shot. There seems to be quite a few of them!

[Jaybe]

Oslo is a Maritime city-state (steering wheel to right of name). It appears that the black icons are the non-resource worked hexes.

Square tiles have been ugly & irritating since the day I discovered Civ2 (mid 1990s). Hex grids have been beautiful since the late 1960s.

Tactics II in 1964 had a square grid, but I didn't know any better back then.
Give it time, DaShi, give it time.

[Ming]

Yeah... Tactics II was one of the rare Avalon Hill games with squares. Most had Hexes, and I was glad for that.

It's about time Civ went to hexes!!!!!!!

[Elok]

Hexes get annoyingly ugly really fast.

But that jagged hexagonal coastline looks much more natural than a jagged square coastline, and doesn't distort the map at all! Just like the real world, all peninsulas and bays are bulbous and lumpy.

[Guynemer]

Zoomed in, hexes look great. Zoomed out... yikes.

[Elok]

The truth of it is, imposing maps onto a tessellation of any kind will inevitably distort them, so appeals to prettiness don't work.

[Tstorm]

Returning to the thread topic...

If this is what replaces the 'Globe View' from Civ IV, then it looks good to me. That globe view was of limited usefulness, and just plain awkward, to me.

[OzzyKP]

Yea, I agree. The next question is whether we can interact with the map from the strategic view. It looks like all the information is presented there as on a regular map, it is just abstracted. One annoyance with the Civ4 Globe View is that it was pretty much just eye candy and nothing you could manipulate so it was generally useless in the game. If we could move units and enter cities from this strategic view it'd be awesome.

[SpencerH]

It reminds me of the civ I map.

[Jaybe]

Yea, I agree. The next question is whether we can interact with the map from the strategic view. It looks like all the information is presented there as on a regular map, it is just abstracted. One annoyance with the Civ4 Globe View is that it was pretty much just eye candy and nothing you could manipulate so it was generally useless in the game. If we could move units and enter cities from this strategic view it'd be awesome.

From Strategic View!! Screenshots! @ CFC, post #109.

I really regret forgetting to put that in the article! Yes, the game is completely playable in this view (I personally spend most of my time in this view) and one of the coolest parts about it is that yes, the video card does a lot less work while in this view.

[OzzyKP]

Fantastic!

Yea, I expect I'll be using that view quite a lot then. Yay Firaxis! Thanks Jon!

[Sabre2th]

I assume the black splotches on the mini-map are city-states.

Given the number and placement, some people have speculated that a couple of those might be conquered cities with puppet governments.