Terrain model for Civilization III

[ColdWizard]

dump humidity and replace it with climate

[Andz83]

hmm... I already said that climate should be affected geographically.... but sure, the humidity of a map tile is affected by the climate of that region... but though a player should be able to get information on the humidity (that is a product of climatic effects, ok)...

see the point? why totally ban it?

[ColdWizard]

humidity is part of climate so it should be listed under climatical information if its included

[Andz83]

ok then... climatical information on terrain... and as it changes over the region, every tile has its own informations... as the humidity on that tile

I hope we two are still talking about the same thing... ?

[Dom Pedro II]

I like this terrain idea. If you think about it, if you strip everything and nature down passed the biological aspect, its nothing but rock, dirt, and sand. The only thing that makes one patch different from another is altitude and moisture. Therefore, the tiles should be built up from the skeleton of rock or sand using the factors Andz83 gave. Altitude and latitude would affect type and quantity of vegetation as well as animals as would the level of moisture.

SMAC had a primitive system of this, but it could certainly use improvement. I would like to take this new concept one step further. I say eliminate oceans as we now know them. The reason is that if you drain away the oceans, they are just depressions in the earth's surface. They should, therefore, be simply basins beneath sea level in the game. Water collects there. Thus you would not have ocean shelf or deep sea, it would just be negative altitude. And the depth determines vegetation (kelp) and animals like fish, whales, etc. Water would be able to appear at higher altitudes if the land around it is higher like with some mountain lakes.

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"...The highest realization of warfare is to attack the enemy's plans; next is to attack their alliances; next to attack their army; and the lowest is to attack their fortified cities." - Sun Tzu

Dom Pedro II.... aka Hannibal3

Dom Pedro II - 2nd and last Emperor of the Empire of Brazil (1831 - 1889).

[Adm.Naismith]

Pedro, you are pointing on interesting problem

quote: Water would be able to appear at higher altitudes

SMAC hasn't the concept of internal sea / great lakes at different level than sea level. This was a problem when sea level raised or dropped because of various events (climate change and the like).

Netherlands as we know can't exist on SMAC model (Netherlanders here on Apolyton must protest about this, I suppose ).

In fact, I'm now asking myself if a more complex terrain model is needed in CIV 3 because of:
- better playability
- better simulation / feeling /realism added

With my link from human activities (AKA player decisions) to terrain effects I'm trying to answer myself, but may be isn't the right feeeling for others players out there. Let me know your opinion, please.

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Admiral Naismith AKA mcostant

[airdrik]

Thanks, Pedro, for posting the idea of ocean just being water covering land. I've been trying to say that on this post, but it just didn't come out right.

[Andz83]

I'm surprised that there are still people willing to post in this thread, after my slight fauxpas...

thank you, for your further replies, fellows!

airdrik - I noticed your point before, I was just too freaked by that to reply to it

[airdrik]

I think that all the topics of this thread have just about been dried up, there's hardly more to say, so stop bumping.
(I mean that in a good way though ).

[Andz83]

well, there has still been no reply from a FIRAXIS official

[airdrik]

Well, I guess it's okay to bump it until they reply, but there really isn't much more to talk about.

[Andz83]

a friend of mine just bumpered a Porsche

I hereby bump this thread, to make sure it's not only on page 1 but on its top, yeah

[N35t0r]

the problem with the negative altitude and stuff would be the vegetation change of everything when sea levels rise or drop.

and there are tides

[Andz83]

I haven't ever seen such a spammer like you, HsFB!!!

you're even worse than me!

[Andz83]

airdrik: maybe you're right! I should have made it a little worse and not as perfect as it is now... then there wouldbe more discussion here...

I'm too clever!

but seriously - the tides idea is a question for a climate model, not for the terrain squares themselves! also, the elevation of a terrain area is not the only factor that influences the vegetation!

also, I agree on what some people said, that there's just too many properties given in my version. perhaps some should make proposals on more ration al ideas, I don't know...