Nice Touches

[raingoon]

Thought I'd start a thread for those "nice touches" that often make the difference in a game experience. I'm sure there are hundreds we'd all like to see in Civ 3. I'll kick things off with something that just occurred to me --

1. When a unit is activated, I'd like to HEAR the sound of its terrain. When it moves, throw in the sound it would make moving, and when it's all over FADE FAST into the NEXT unit's terrain. That would really create a three-dimensional experience of the game world.

For instance, when my trireme is activated on a coastline and waiting for me to move it, we hear the sound of the surf. Then when it moves up the coast, we hear the surf and occasionally the cry of scattering sea gulls. And when it gets daring and heads out to sea, let me hear the WINDS BUFFETING, and the HULL ACHING to break open -- which of course there is a percentage chance that it will, in which case we hear that Civ 2 GUB-GUB sound, for old time's sake. All in all, a nice touch.

The new graphics engine Firaxis is touting ought to inspire some suggestions. They say it will really "bring the Civ world to life"...

[OrangeSfwr]

Other civ's units as well? I think that would get annoying very fast (IMHO)

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~~~I am who I am, who I am - but who am I?~~~

[raingoon]

Definitely NOT other Civ's units. Those should be the opposite -- just the facts. And if fog of war, not even that.

As a rule? I'll go out on a limb here, but nothing annoying should be in the game.

[OrangeSfwr]

haha, hmmmm...there are so many different opinions on what's annoying about Civ...how can Firaxis please us all? :-)

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~~~I am who I am, who I am - but who am I?~~~

[Biddles]

They had sounds in the original railroad tycoon for whenever you clicked on a terrain.... I removed my speakers.

If they are in the background (not much louder than b/g music) than they would be fine, but too loud and they get very repetitive.

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- Biddles

"Now that our life-support systems are utilising the new Windows 2027 OS, we don't have to worry about anythi......."
Mars Colonizer Mission

[general_charles]

I think that it is nice to have little touches like that for a while, but it gets real boring after a short while, take for example CTP, units have to turn to move, they make an awful lot of noice when they do and that is just annoying, because units that travel 10 squares by rail just seem to take forever to go there.

[OrangeSfwr]

I agree. The less "noise" the better. I'd like to see Civ 3 concentrate on better music as far as sound goes. IMHO, the constant noise would get very annoying.

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~~~I am who I am, who I am - but who am I?~~~

[mwaf]

Try this:
open civII and let it be, do something else meanwhile, something like doing homework, the music will get boring quite soon and you'll switch off the speakers looking like this


I wouldn't mind some sound, however, it must be done well and fit into the background music otherwise it'll soon be turn off in the options menu....

[OrangeSfwr]

Exactly why better music is a Civ 3 neccessity. :-)

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~~~I am who I am, who I am - but who am I?~~~

[raingoon]

Wow. Well, maybe I should have titled this thread "Nice ANNOYING Touches." If I think of any more nail-scrapers I know where to post 'em!

[Stuff2]

quote: Originally posted by raingoon on 05-04-2000 06:08 PM 1. When a unit is activated, I'd like to HEAR the sound of its terrain. When it moves, throw in the sound it would make moving, and when it's all over FADE FAST into the NEXT unit's terrain. That would really create a three-dimensional experience of the game world.

When my 25 tanks and 10 missiles starts the successful invasion of an enemy i don't want to hear annoying sounds for every move each of these 35 units make. It would simply take too much time and it would be too annoying.
Let's say every tank moves across 5 squares and every missile moves across 10 squares.
225 soundeffects after each other. If i wanted this kind of experience i would simply buy a CD with experimental music. I will certinly not buy a game where a single turn takes more than an hour (with annoying soundeffects).

I think firaxis should concentrate more on strategy and gameplay and less on stupid effects that gets boring and annoying after a while. (It took me three months of gameplay to turn of the soundeffects in civ2). I don't want a game with fancy unit's slowly moving across the screen during several minutes.

[MidKnight Lament]

Well, perhaps that particular idea wasn't a goer (although occasional sounds like seagulls sounds good), but what other "nice touches" can we think of? The thread is still a good one. Much like a similar one in the CTP2 forum actually.

- MKL

[OrangeSfwr]

I don't know how many agree with me, but I always liked talking to the leader of a country (Civ I). Not a diplomat. (Civ II)
Although in real life you don't just talk to the leader of a country, you talk to a diplomat, I just found it more interesting to talk to Mao or Stalin than a weird dude dressed up in Hosiery who taps his foot a lot. I don't think it'd be 2 much to do to give each Civ an animated leader who you can speak with. But again, I could be the only one feels this way...

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~~~I am who I am, who I am - but who am I?~~~

[DanM]

quote: Originally posted by OrangeSfwr on 05-07-2000 08:54 PM I just found it more interesting to talk to Mao or Stalin than a weird dude dressed up in Hosiery who taps his foot a lot. I don't think it'd be 2 much to do to give each Civ an animated leader who you can speak with. But again, I could be the only one feels this way...

You are right.I always thought those CivII "heralds" were terribly annoying and they always looked the same no matter what time in history you happened to be in.
Lets bring back the original diplomacy screen like you say,but lets improve it.Maybe we could have a different leader represent the nation depending on what period of history they happen to be in,and maybe they could change every time you reach a new era in history.For example,for England during the medieval era you would see Henry VIII,but in the modern era you would see Winston Churchill.
Any thoughts on this?

[Urban Ranger]

That's a good idea.

I also like to be able to customize the interface to a certain degree, esp. the shortcut menu.