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While I haven't done this scientifically or anything, it would seem that this largely "anti-eye candy" forum somehow and for some reason sees leader/unit animations as, at least in one case, potentially "awe inspiring."
Just to clarify:
** While the animations we see in isolation and in large size look good, in-game unit animation will be much harder to see in any kind of detail. Also, those animations will likely be from only limited angles and in the most repetitive format.
** If you want really cool unit animations, play a great RTS game like Age of Kings. Which begs the question: Why do some of the hardcore TBSers among us get excited by stuff taken poorly from the RTS genre? Is Firaxis trying to creep an RTS Civ 4 into the pipeline? (Hmmm, I just remembered that the animations in Heroes of Might and Magic 4 look awfully damn good, but they are done there far more extensively than in Civ 3).
** Speaking of, if you are really all that hot about having units animated, hell, make Civ 4 an RTS game. Perhaps Brian Reynolds can advise?
For my money, the unit animations in Civ 3 will most likely be turned off in short order. They will be nothing compared to unit animations elsewhere I have already grown accostumed to; they will add little to gameplay and atmosphere; AND they likely will eat up some CPU resources in the process...though it looks like the sys specs are modest enough.
And as for the animated leaders: Same thing. I can't imagine how much work must have gone into that effort. If they wanted to stick with their "painting" approach, a really cool and super detailed framed painting of the leaders would have sufficed and maintained the theme of the game a bit more logically.
I don't want to be the wet blanket once again, but I just find some of this excitement about animations a bit odd.
Just to clarify:
** While the animations we see in isolation and in large size look good, in-game unit animation will be much harder to see in any kind of detail. Also, those animations will likely be from only limited angles and in the most repetitive format.
** If you want really cool unit animations, play a great RTS game like Age of Kings. Which begs the question: Why do some of the hardcore TBSers among us get excited by stuff taken poorly from the RTS genre? Is Firaxis trying to creep an RTS Civ 4 into the pipeline? (Hmmm, I just remembered that the animations in Heroes of Might and Magic 4 look awfully damn good, but they are done there far more extensively than in Civ 3).
** Speaking of, if you are really all that hot about having units animated, hell, make Civ 4 an RTS game. Perhaps Brian Reynolds can advise?
For my money, the unit animations in Civ 3 will most likely be turned off in short order. They will be nothing compared to unit animations elsewhere I have already grown accostumed to; they will add little to gameplay and atmosphere; AND they likely will eat up some CPU resources in the process...though it looks like the sys specs are modest enough.
And as for the animated leaders: Same thing. I can't imagine how much work must have gone into that effort. If they wanted to stick with their "painting" approach, a really cool and super detailed framed painting of the leaders would have sufficed and maintained the theme of the game a bit more logically.
I don't want to be the wet blanket once again, but I just find some of this excitement about animations a bit odd.
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