No elevations?

[Inverse Icarus]

oh yea.

i r0x0r j00r b0x0r wif my 1337 d3b14n b0x0r.

ph33r!

[Sava]

LOL

[Blake]

You poor poor fools . One of the satisfactions of playing SMAC was terraforming the ugly alien landscape into an earthlike one with forests, farms, mines magtubes etc . I suspect the default gamma is a tad low, and should be raised a little to make the terrain a little brighter.

Decent 3D terrain could be made, with something akin to the Settlers, but it would require a heap more CPU time, and I'm hoping the Civ3 team is making atleast some effort to keep framerates up when the map is smothered with hundreds of cities, units, trade routes, terrain improvments, city workers. 3D terrain is an excellent way to not achieve that goal. Also, while 3D terrain may be awfully pretty, it wouldn't really add any gameplay value.

[dainbramaged13]

i only got the demo to smac and decided i didn't like it, and one of the worst things was the terrain.. ugh!

[aaglo]

Ralph-
Yes I found the thread where you mentioned that 4-level terrain. The Idea is quite good, it's like a mixture of Civ and SMAC.

Fiil-
You mentioned about "SMAC-world seems so small, because you can put several cities in one mountain." Did it never accur to you that the mountains in alien world may be very huge or otherwise different. But then again, Earth is not an alien world, so you have a point in there.

Alltogether it seems that most of the posters here seem to be strongly against SMACish rolling mountainscapes. And we have seen plenty of screenshots from the new Civ3, so maybe most of the posters here are satisfied with the current situation.

[tishco]

i think the reason there are complaints about civ3 grafx is the way its so flat with dimople mountains instad of civ2 mountain ranges. the civ 3 one IMHO are quite groovy at first but also flat, but i dont care, i just loe the game improvement like resorses and diplomatioc trading

and no caravans!!!
caravans =
civ 3=

[Master Marcus]

I have the feeling for some time now that some civers against SMACx features ( graphics or not ) are generally historical-addicts who may have some difficulties to adapt to a sci-fi scenario. Sometimes in the past they have complained about the "bizarre" tech tree, because they are naturally fonded to what science has already produced. They are très pied-à-terre . I respect that, but there's no reason for them to despise a great game they haven't really tried... Just want to say that I was a Civ2 addict , and still an AC addict, and both are landmark games having their distinct charm.

[General Ludd]

Originally posted by Master Marcus
I have the feeling for some time now that some civers against SMACx features ( graphics or not ) are generally historical-addicts who may have some difficulties to adapt to a sci-fi scenario. Sometimes in the past they have complained about the "bizarre" tech tree, because they are naturally fonded to what science has already produced. They are très pied-à-terre . I respect that, but there's no reason for them to despise a great game they haven't really tried... Just want to say that I was a Civ2 addict , and still an AC addict, and both are landmark games having their distinct charm.

I liked SMAC, but the ugly graphics and lack of good replay value sort of wrecked it for me, I still think it's a good game though.

Graphics are usually not a problem for me, but sometimes when they are just plain bad it bugs me. The only other game that has graphics that really bugs me is heroes of might and magic 3... the map graphics in that are just so horrible, especially when compaired the HoMM2.

[DonJoel]

Lets face it. The graphics off SMAC was the worst ever seen and I normally dont give a **** about graphic. In SMAC the world looked like something you could find in a public toilet.... you litarally had to squeese your eyeballs out to see exactly what you were looking at

The most important thing with graphics is that its crisp and clear, like in civ2.

[Fiil]

Originally posted by Master Marcus
I have the feeling for some time now that some civers against SMACx features ( graphics or not ) are generally historical-addicts who may have some difficulties to adapt to a sci-fi scenario.

You're wrong in my case I like SMAC a lot - well not as much as Civ2 but still a lot. And I actually liked the idea of different elevations in SMAC I just don't think this will ever work in Civ! (Reasons: See my last post).

[Inverse Icarus]

im not sure i like the "great leader" solution to the old "caravan add to wonder" option.

i have to sacrifice a "great leader", possibly a blessing to warmongers like myself, to speed up a wonder?

it was always fun in multiplayer games to have 30 caravans waiting for invention

[hexagonian]

From a relistic standpoint, SMAC actually does a good job of conveying an alien world...

However, it wasn't the color/texture of the SMAC terrain that bothers me so much as it is the fact that elevated tiles look more like slivers rather than squares, and when you have a cluster of units, cities and improvements on the slope of a mountain, it bacame hard to select and differentiate what you had on each tile.