Zooming

[aahz_capone]

I know this has little to do with the gameplay, but I seem to miss it more and more. Anc I'm talking about the multiple zoom options you had in civ2. In civ3 there are only normal, and one zoom out level. thats a shame. I used to love zooming way in for huge consentrated battles, and zoom way out to plan my overall strategy.

So how else misses that effeect in civ 3 and could it be reincorperated or is that too much work?

[Todd Hawks]

I don't. I even don't use the zoom that IS available. *shrug*

But that's just me.

[Tiberius]

I'm "zooming" a banana right now, with milk.
Yam-yam.

[Adm.Naismith]

Originally posted by Todd Hawks
I don't. I even don't use the zoom that IS available. *shrug*
But that's just me.

Me too, in fact. More than "zoom" feature, I'd like a "layer view" where I should see at a glance:
- corruption gradient (different color for different corrution level on territory, so I can guess the effect of settling a new town in border territory).
- revenue (gold) distribution (same as above, for showing trade+tax gain). It should use the city radius as focus point for colour level.
- production (shield) distribution (ditto)
- happyiness distribution (ditto)
- military defense (computing with the military power algorithm for a unit, added on every square in movement range)
- attack radius (considering attack range, specially for artillery, planes bombing, missiles)

Some of the map will be quite long to compute (especially the range/movement effect) but will be invaluable to have a better geographical feel than any Advisor screen.

On a different kind of map and combat/building ruleset, zooming and rotation will fit better, not on Civ III IMHO.

[Tiberius]

The only possible situation where I imagine myself wanting to zoom in (and I mean in detail) would be in "capture the princess" games

*sigh* Oh my, I just can't abstain making silly jokes.

[Tiberius]

This is very, very annoying. I've lost my post twice and obviously didn't "save" it

*sigh* Again:
Hey Admiral, you're talking about Caesar (Pharaoh, Zeus)
That would be nice

[Bella Hella]

i zoom out when i have to get a LOT of units from one side of the continent to the other via railroad. that way i don't have to keep moving the screen over to click on the place i want them to go. it would be nice to have different views, though.

Adm.Naismith - that's an EXCELLENT idea. i wish they had included the views you describe (like in simcity).

[aahz_capone]

Actually, when I read Admiral's post I started thinking Sim City 3000: another grandious waste of time according to my parents, but I think a must buy for anyone running for mayor.

The idea of layers showing tax distribution and corruption etc rocks! I heard that Sim City 4 will be comeing out shortly and an adition to that is neighbourhoods, and differentiating taxes and the like between them. Maybe an idea for civ4? You could have people living in the rich, productive center pay more taxes then in the "suburbs"of your empire, there by enticing population flow to the country if you your cap gets overcrowded, or the opther way around if you need more labour hands in your factories.

[wvfoos]

Another map feature is one I like that is in Railroad Tycoon 2. There, you can turn on and off individual "resources" (to put it in terms civ players understand).

So, say you have a cattle farm (in rr2, not civ3), and you need to see where the packing plants are. You can eliminate all the map clutter EXCEPT packing plants.

For example, it would be nice to see where Iron and coal are together, or if you need a source of coal or whatever, you could eliminate scrolling the map "looking" for it.

[Alex]

I don't mind about the zoom option. I thought I would miss it, but I didn't.

But we could have a zoom option in the city view. That would be interesting, with some more features implemented in it.

[Adm.Naismith]

Originally posted by Tiberius
The only possible situation where I imagine myself wanting to zoom in (and I mean in detail) would be in "capture the princess" games

Me too, me too! Tiberius, you are a genius.

[Adm.Naismith]

Originally posted by Tiberius
Hey Admiral, you're talking about Caesar (Pharaoh, Zeus)

Damn, a good idea and someone already had stolen from me in the past! (j/k of course)

Well, I never played Zeus, may be I tried a demo of Pharaoh; I played the first Simcity but not Sim 3000.
Now, if it's a so good idea and so many have used already, why Firaxis' developers never used it?

Also a focus on resources (coal+iron combo over everything else, of course) is a good view filter, wvfoos.

[ducki]

Technically, I shouldn't have answered "Yes" since I didn't play Civ2, BUT, I do wish I could zoom out a little bit more, so see the whole world, or very nearly so.

[nationalist]

Originally posted by Adm.Naismith


Me too, in fact. More than "zoom" feature, I'd like a "layer view" where I should see at a glance:
- corruption gradient (different color for different corrution level on territory, so I can guess the effect of settling a new town in border territory).
- revenue (gold) distribution (same as above, for showing trade+tax gain). It should use the city radius as focus point for colour level.
- production (shield) distribution (ditto)
- happyiness distribution (ditto)
- military defense (computing with the military power algorithm for a unit, added on every square in movement range)
- attack radius (considering attack range, specially for artillery, planes bombing, missiles)

Some of the map will be quite long to compute (especially the range/movement effect) but will be invaluable to have a better geographical feel than any Advisor screen.

On a different kind of map and combat/building ruleset, zooming and rotation will fit better, not on Civ III IMHO.

Wow! These are some really great ideas! I hope that some Firaxian notices them. They would be a great addition for the next upgrade.

[Jaybe]

I rarely used the multiple zooms in Civ2, and after a year of playing '3' I have gotten used to the zoom levels. I voted "who is 'zoom'."