Am i the only one who plays the game in strategic view?

I find the normal view to be very confusing, it is difficult to see the grid layouts and you have to scroll a lot because of the camera angle (as you don't view it top down). With the strategic view i can see everything in one glance.

Strat view is all I play in, I agree with you. In MP I think strat view gives an edge.

I personally find strategic view confusing, but that's just me.

Lots of people do play this way because their computers can't handle the normal view. This says more about an old game than it does about their computers.

I only play normal view. Playing in strategic view reminds me of the first computer game I played in 1974- 'Moon Lander' in text mode, with the viewable output being only from a daisy-wheel printout. I play video games to enjoy the beautiful graphics, as well as for the actual gaming. If I want to play a bland board game, I'd buy a board. But that's just me. If you like a board game showing on your screen instead of the actual world, to each their own.

As the game progresses I often play in strategic view while ordering around workers as it is easier to tell if an improvement is built or just partially built. Especially if I'm taking over new cities.

I prefer strategic view too... simply because it seems easier to conceptualize 1-5 moves ahead of my opponents like in chess .

I usaly use it for my workers So I can see all the resources and all the tile improvements and see what I need and don't need

Strategic view gives you an edge when you go for efficiency, and that is a good thing, especially on higher difficulties. It is:
- easier to predict enemy troop movements
- gives you better scouting options (how often did you lose turns with a scout walking along another civ's border?)
- lets you predict how enemy would advance
- lets you plan city building, tactics and other stuff more strategically (settling on a hill - you have to mouse over otherwise, as sometimes a hill under a forest or a jungle looks like a normal grassland or plains)

I spent the last two years playing normal view and only switched to Strategic view about 3 weeks ago. The problem is that since Gods & Kings came out, the lag time at my end of turn has gone from an average of 2-6 seconds, to 15-30 seconds. It's brutal. With Strategic view, my turns are lightning - 1-3 seconds.

I also like the clarity of info from Strategic view - I agree that it is clearer with less ambiguity except for ONE IMPORTANT OMISSION...

In Strategic view, when you are first exploring the map, the blackout/cloudout goes exactly to the edge of all hexes (which makes sense - it should). But in Normal view, you can often tell by looking at the hex that there are no more land hexes beyond it. This may not seem like a big deal, but in the early game when you are looking for Ruins as quickly as possible, saving yourself 2 or 3 extra movements in the wrong direction can be very important. So, for the early game, sometimes I'll tap F10 just to see if it's worth it to send the Scout over further or to change direction.

One day I will have a good PC, and when I do, I will run Normal view. When I watch MadDjinn play, I'm always in awe of how pretty the game is. I've always had to play it on lowest setting. =/

Question said:

I find the normal view to be very confusing, it is difficult to see the grid layouts and you have to scroll a lot because of the camera angle (as you don't view it top down). With the strategic view i can see everything in one glance.

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Just on the off-chance that you don't know this yet: You can toggle the grid on in normal view too (check the icons left of your mini map)! I agree that normal mode without grid can be confusing, and only play with the grid toggled on

Normal view: nice graphic, enjoy landscape - hill, water, even fog
Strategic view: My low-end laptop , sometimes I want to make sure which tile is marsh, forest/hill or riverside.

i mainly always play in strategic because it runs faster but i've been playing in normal view recently and it has been enjoyable. i'm not rushing my playthrough like i do in strategic so i am more careful. many of my tiles were only partially improved though. as of a couple of games ago my computer seems less able to run normal view so i'm not sure what's going on

I play in strategic view because it's faster than playing in normal view, especially on my puttputt laptop.

I do, however, need to turn off the hexed tile layer, regardless of whether I'm playing in strategic or normal view.

It is hard to see rivers whenever a river is on the same hex face as a cultural border when playing with the hexed tile layer. There's been more than one instance where I moved a unit over a cultural border that mysteriously ended that unit's turn.

I appreciate that it exists but I don't really like it.

I play on a 2.56 GHz quad core laptop with no graphics card. It's ok on normal if I use minimum settings, but when I get into the late game I will often switch into strategic mode so I can reduce waiting times. Also the bugs you get where there is endless scrolling or the Next Turn button won't appear don't happen on Strategic. I'll get a better computer soon, but it's ok for now.

Strat View is so much faster...

I always use strategic view, but that's mainly because my computer is older than Civ V.

Occasionally, to take a better "overview" screenshot of some massive action in progress.

As Sgt. Friday would say on Dragnet - "just the facts, ma'm" and that's why strategic view is the only way I play. It has all you need to know with no eye candy and the selection of what to show allows you to cleanly display only the info you want. Even with strategic view it's possible to turn on so many things at once that it's confusing.

Does anyone recall BattleChess? The pieces would come to life and attack each other on a play. Cool, maybe, to see once, but after that you realize it has nothing to do with the game itself.

Nope, it looks hideous. I usually only switch to it to check on roads/railroads as sometimes they are tougher to follow in normal view

Game is so pretty; i wouldn't want to hide that.