Interface Change?

[ixnay]

Come on Dan, just say yes or no to whether the E stands for espionage. Beyond that, I'll wait till the next Ask-the-Team or Development update for more info.

Maybe you should read his 1st post:

Originally posted by Dan
As far as the status panel in the lower right, the previous interface had icons for diplomacy and espionage, but we wanted to add the histograph/score screen, the palace screen, and the spaceship screen to those, so that's what you have now.

[Gramphos]

Originally posted by Dan Magaha FIRAXIS
When you make a map of that size in the editor, it saves out at about 940Kb, but a lot of that is uncompressed "air" from blank data structures. On maximum zip I compressed it down to about 63Kb.


Dan

Good, that way they aren't as rooming as many map files I know, and they can be attached to Apolyton if they are zipped. That was exactly what I wanted to know

[Tventano]

Continents

I noticed that the shown maps display some real continents, with lot of ocean around it. Quite more realistic than in earlier versions

[SerapisIV]

Originally posted by Kyller
Maybe you should read his 1st post:

I worded it poorly, I was trying to figure out if the espionage was with spy units or espionage like the infiltrated datalinks of SMAC.

[Jarouik]

Re: Continents

Originally posted by Tventano
I noticed that the shown maps display some real continents, with lot of ocean around it. Quite more realistic than in earlier versions

I agree - it seems they have really improved the map generation algorithm from Civ 2, where you would always get scattered and squiggly continents and islands all over the map with no large oceans between.

As for the interface, while it seems very simple, I think it might take a moment to find all the options that in Civ 2 were available in the various menus now that there is no central location for all the items... I take it right-click menus are implemented, though? But still, I believe the interface will be better than Alpha Centauri, which had an overwhelming amount of menu commands.

[PGM]

Great info Dan, thanks.
It's just getting better and better. And sooner too.

[Inverse Icarus]

Originally posted by Dan Magaha FIRAXIS


Sorry, I thought that was clear in my earlier response, the "E" does indeed stand for espionage. And you might as well know that Diplomats and Spies have gone the way of the caravan as well; this is all abstracted to advisor screens and game interfaces.

Dan

hahahah told you esp. would be a kingdom wide menu

[ancient]

So no more spys running around planting nukes in city's with SDI's?
Damn im gonna miss that.
Of course it was awefully cheap but then again i am cheap.

[saracen31]

Hopefully they'll be a lot more espionage options now as well. I'm guessing there will be.

[Juggernaut]

The irrigations still look like swamps.

[Ralf]

Originally posted by Dan Magaha FIRAXIS
And you might as well know that Diplomats and Spies have gone the way of the caravan as well; this is all abstracted to advisor screens and game interfaces.

You guys have learned your CTP-lessons. Great!

Instead of tie too many important civ-functions to a growing number of CTP-style civil warfare-units (and by that, be constricted by AI unit-navigation limitations), you instead put it away in appropriate advisor-screens.

[Inverse Icarus]

again, i just got a used copy of CTP a few days ago for $5 and the first thing i thought was "ew, those damn hebrews are converting my damn cities".

[hardjoy]

I'm gonna miss that diplomat.. He was a classic icon along with the wagon settler and the caravan..

Hope we don't lose that "hands on" feeling Sid has been talking about. I always thought that using diplomats in combination with military units was a supreme strategy. I was never any good at it, but it was very effective against me! I guess those two things are separated now?

[JellyDonut]

What screenshots is everybody talking about? Could someone give me a link?

[Ralf]

Originally posted by JellyDonut
What screenshots is everybody talking about? Could someone give me a link?

Check out the map-screenshot: http://www.civ3.com/gallery.cfm?startimg=19. 3 buttons in the upper left corner of the main screen and several tiny letter-buttons on the 2 mini-screens, bottom left and bottom right.