The Graphics Are Better Than I Thought

[Bkeela]

Dammit, I'm starting to get excited about this game.

Edit: Oh, and I hope and pray they have a decent Earth map. Please, please, please....

Bkeela.
[This message has been edited by Bkeela (edited May 18, 2001).]

[Ralf]

Both the diplomacy- and the domestic advisor screens looks absolutely stunning. They are the anti-pode of gloomy SMAC; bright & fresh colour-scale - and likewise the anti-pode of raw & blurry TOT; crystal-clear razorsharp graphics. Very nice!!! No complaints about unit-graphics either. I am sure they all look great, both with or without animtion.

The latest map-screenshot looks great, except for the turquoise ocean color-nuances (I prefere bluish only - at least in deep ocean-squares) and the terrible irrigation-graphics.

Im getting water-swamped quagmire-associations then I look at them. The canals are wide as regurlar rivers. They should definitely make the irrigation-canals much more thin - and more straight & regular: so that it looks obviously man-made. Also some slightly protruding crops between the thin canals. Its perhaps a tricky job for the graphic-artist, because the underlying original terrain-type must also be able to shine through. Anyway, I think he should give it another try: mostly because there going to be so many irrigated tiles near the end-games, and therefore its extra-important that they really looks great.

Also; I really would prefere a more embossed architectual 3D landscape-look. The level-differences should be small, but clearly noticeable. The level height-differences I suggest is around 20-25% the side of a single tile (again, compare with map-screenshot to give you some idea).

- Level 1: Deep ocean
- Level 2: shallow ocean
- Level 3: Shore, lowland (support all terrain-types)
- Level 4: plateau, highland (support all, except djungle & swamp)

Sea & river both on level 3-4, but minus 0.5 level. The water should be bluish semi-transparent so one can see any sea/river/ocean indentations.
If not above; they should at least have some slight height-difference between land and ocean = 2 levels.

[This message has been edited by Ralf (edited May 18, 2001).]

[SerapisIV]

So far I'm pretty pleased, even with months to go, the game looks pretty polished. The interface appears to be minimal, and the menus easy to use. I'm very happy with things, though I agree with some posters that the forests/swamps look too much like individual tiles then a full forest or marsh.

I think the water will look better when its animated, which I'm confident it is.

About the diplo screen bargaining table view in Gamespy, I like the wide number of options, but I can't figure it out yet. Hopefully it'll appear more intuitive with time

[meriadoc]

The graphics do look good and I think that the domestic advisor screen looks really good too. But I have a favor to ask of Firaxis. In the few screens where a table format is given could the tables be sortable, like in the CTP games. I ask this because I found that feature particularily useful at times, especially near the end of the game.

------------------
The Electronic Hobbit

[Guest]

I agree, the graphics are stunning! Roads are so much looking like roads. I can't wait to see the animations. The colors are blended together well in the scenery while the units look very crisp. Great job Firaxis, if someone needs to upgrade their system to be able to display all of this in its intended glory, then so be it. You guys have 6 months to save your dough and get your sytem up to snuff! Don't come complaining later when its released and the game runs sssssllllllllloooooooowwwwwwww! You've been warned!

[ancient]

nah it looks like most systems can handle this.. not b&w or quake3...

[Darkknight]

Ralf your idea of just "making the map 3D" is not as simple as it sounds, Every single graphic image on the map would have to be re-done about 8 times so that they can slope up and done slopes, The programming involved would have to be completely redone or at least seriously revamped to allow for the idea of the sloping images. Basically it would add months to the current release date and that's not including testing the prototype and playtesting the final game.

Shane

------------------
" Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few "

[Ralf]

quote: Originally posted by Darkknight on 05-18-2001 08:43 PM Ralf your idea of just "making the map 3D" is not as simple as it sounds, Every single graphic image on the map would have to be re-done about 8 times so that they can slope up and done slopes, The programming involved would have to be completely redone or at least seriously revamped to allow for the idea of the sloping images. Basically it would add months to the current release date and that's not including testing the prototype and playtesting the final game.

Well, if it really is that difficult and time-absorbing they perhaps shouldnt do it, I guess. Anyway, i am very pleased to hear that Firaxis make good progress with the map-generator. If, by any chance, they choose to implement map-custom percentage-allocation sliders, I sure hope that those sliders are effective & worthwhile.
CTP had such allocation-sliders, but no matter how one yanked these back-and-forth, the end-result feelt rather inconclusive and not that appearent.

quote: Most recently we have gotten the incredible new map generation system working beautifully ...

[This message has been edited by Ralf (edited May 19, 2001).]

[ContradictioN]

I think the tiles are still too tiley, I know that if you merge the land too much its too hard to tell where to move your unit, so why not have it so that when a unit is selected, you see two different coloured tiny dots appear on the center of each tile that the unit can move to, a red dot to show where it can't go (like mountain or enemy) and a blue dot to show where the unit can move to. Might make it a bit messy, but at least its better than having tiled land, makes earth look unnatural to me =o(