New Design Suggestion.

[L o k i]

I was drawing on paper some sketch work for the city styles and I accidently drew the city on the wrong angle. But the angle looked really good, I quickly drew a tile around it and thought "Why are we using a tile on such a flat angle?" So I quickly drew a better version on the computer to see what it was like, it works. There are some problems. But I think they are fixable.

Anyway, load up the image here.
http://homepages.ihug.co.nz/~knowles/example.gif

(Its 80k, sorry. I was being quick with it)

Have a look at it, say what you think. Try to use your imagination, don't imagine the trees to look like that, and the mountains,etc. try to imagine them being a lot more detailed and beautiful.

Before I say what I think of it, I just want to say that I think what everyone in this team is doing is great, making a public version of the worlds greatest game obviously has to be done, no questions asked. I'm here till the end. I don't want this thing to die at all.

I am hoping that this idea is still available, because the angle gives a new look and feel to the gameplay. You are tonnes more emerged into the world. So much closer, so much more part of your civilization.
The problem is that because you are so low, it's hard to see behind the mountains or trees. So I thought we could have some sort of transparency on anything that blocks the view or something else.

Also, notice the cave in the background, well while I was drawing a teepee, I accidently made it look like a rock, and when I tied the two together (rock and teepee), I thought why don't we start in caves???

Think of it, you start off with wondering nomads, waiting for their leader (you) to guide them. So you walk all over the map looking for a cave to start in. And you start there. Once your population goes up 1, the cave turns into a building. isn't this so much more realistic and better!?!?
Once all the civs have taken a cave, all the other caves either disappear or become unavailable.

So how bout it?

[Mark_Everson]

Loki:

I looked at your rendition, and it does look good! But the problem is, that at its heart, Clash is a Strategic game. Your presentation would make it almost impossible to work effectively with the maps. In my mind that's why we compromised on the "not too tilted" view. Although we certainly have to work this out as a group, I just don't see how we can make your concept function with the game as it's designed to be played. Now for Clash 2, a walk-through view might be appropriate . But I don't think we can use what you have as the main default view.

[L o k i]

That's ok, I enjoyed it all.

[Paul Crocker]

Loki: Pretty cool looking. Although I agree with Mark that the angle of your proposed tiles is probably not optimum for the map, there may be some promise in using something like this later for some eye candy shots (city views, army illustrations, etc). Keep it in mind for when we get to that point in the project.