More City Styles!

[El hidalgo]

Originally posted by BeBro
El hidalgo, I agree that even more details would be fine, however, I also think that there is a limit somewhere. Perhaps in Civ3 we have more than the 255 (?) cities from Civ2 , so when many of them are of the same size it would be a LOT of work to make so much different gfx for all those cities. And this would be only for one culture, at one age, the same amount of work would be needed for other cultures/ages too...

I agree, there does have to be a limit, for practical considerations. I held out some hope for the idea that wonders would be visible at the map level -- that way you could see, for example, the Eiffel Tower in the skyline of the city that built it. But I read that this was considered, but didn't make the cut. Oh well. I just hope there is more differentiation than in Civ2.

[dainbramaged13]

Re: Re: well, gee, who coulda seen that coming...

Originally posted by red_jon


So London looks the same as New York? And Hong Kong looks like Rome?

no, but the differences are not culture differences anymore. e: they all have the same TYPES of buildings, whereas in earlier times they style of the buildings differed. The only differences now are a few historical landmarks, which of course can be looked at with cityview

[El hidalgo]

Re: Re: Re: well, gee, who coulda seen that coming...

Originally posted by dainbramaged13


no, but the differences are not culture differences anymore. e: they all have the same TYPES of buildings, whereas in earlier times they style of the buildings differed. The only differences now are a few historical landmarks, which of course can be looked at with cityview

That's not quite true. The Bank of China Tower in Hong Kong (pic: http://architecture.about.com/librar...nkhongkong.htm), for example, is based on the priciples of Feng Shui (as with so many buildings, perhaps most or all of them, in Hong Kong). That's cultural. And it really doesn't look like any other skyscraper out there. Also take the Chrysler Building in New York: again, culture plays a strong role, and that building functions as a symbol of New York, as does the Empire State Building. The Petronas Towers are as consciously Islamic as the Blue Mosque. So while there are all sorts of relatively anonymous glass boxes out there, there are also many signature buildings as well, which are unique to a particular culture, indeed to a particular city. It would be wonderful if Civ3 reflected some of that uniqueness in all ages, not just premodern, but it probably doesn't.

[red_jon]

Re: Re: Re: well, gee, who coulda seen that coming...

Originally posted by dainbramaged13


no, but the differences are not culture differences anymore. e: they all have the same TYPES of buildings, whereas in earlier times they style of the buildings differed. The only differences now are a few historical landmarks, which of course can be looked at with cityview

Modern buildings vary wildly from city to city - London isn't exactly covered in skyscrapers and US skyscrapers look very different to Asian ones.

[St Leo]

Even more importantly, there should be more city style SLOTS.

[Roland Ehnström]

"The Bank of China Tower in Hong Kong (pic: http://architecture.about.com/librar...nkhongkong.htm)"

Whoa! That's one great-looking building!

-- Roland

[TCO]

-log cabins
-Mycenaean forts
-Minoan palaces (with big-boobed, bare-breasted girls jumping over bulls)
-log cabins
-teepees
-suburban houses
-igloos
-thatch roofs
-mideavel castles
-etc, etc. etc.

[marcuspeddle]

Originally posted by Roland Ehnstr?
"The Bank of China Tower in Hong Kong (pic: http://architecture.about.com/librar...nkhongkong.htm)"

Whoa! That's one great-looking building!

-- Roland

I've been there and it does indeed look great. A friend of mine living in Hong Kong told me the shadow of the building is shaped like a blade and the shadow falls on the British government offices. Well, I guess they aren't British Government offices anymore but in any case the Bank of China knows some pretty clever architects.

Sorry for being a bit off-topic.

[Urban Ranger]

Originally posted by Anatolia
I've been there and it does indeed look great. A friend of mine living in Hong Kong told me the shadow of the building is shaped like a blade and the shadow falls on the British government offices. Well, I guess they aren't British Government offices anymore but in any case the Bank of China knows some pretty clever architects.

Sorry for being a bit off-topic.

It was designed by I.M. Pei, one of the greats.

[BeBMan]

Re: well, gee, who coulda seen that coming...

Originally posted by dainbramaged13
the only city style that was the same for all cultures in civ2 was modern, which i actually think SHOULD be the same, because the level of difference in city styles is less and less as time goes on in the real world, because this is one aspect of realism that would affect the gameplay absolut++++nada and therefore should be included.

im not trying to be cynical, just why are you guys so excited over this?

1 - I think the industrial style in Civ2 was also the same for all, not only the modern.

2 - Well, in the same way one could ask why some players are exited about new unit graphics... More different city styles may not be the most important aspect of the game, however, they will add some atmosphere (not to speak about that it is not very realistic that all cities of a certain age look exactly the same), and that is always fine

[jsw363]

Originally posted by El hidalgo
I suppose it would be too much to ask, but I'd like to city differences in individual cities of the same civ -- so that all my size 21+ cities don't look exactly the same.

While it WOULD be ideal to have every city look different I don't think this is possible. Why would it matter if London was different from Birmingham if it was the same as Bejing? I'm just hoping that the differences between cultures are presevered through the modern era.