Why can't CivIV be more ethnic?

C

Cyberviking

Chieftain
Joined
Mar 8, 2007
Messages
21
Location
Norway, Kalmar Union
In civilizationIV, the Asian, African and American units look almost like the European or Mediterranean. For instance, why can the Chinese civilisation make a European knight? In the ethnical mods, they have made very many unique units to the civilisations. Why not make some kind of "ethnic art definition tag" for every unit?
 
Because it costs a lot of money to program those unit models. There's about 80-something units in Civ4; if there had to be different models for every cultural group, you'd end up with 300+ units, an absolute impossibility under budget constraints.

These kind of things just have to be abstracted. It's a game. Use your imagination. :)
 
Perhaps there can be ethnic city looks in a scenario. Let us say it's my Dawn of Civilization example, where every civilization gets its ethnic city look upon advancing to the Iron Age.

European - Iberia, Etruria, Mycenae, Celtia
African - Numidia, Libya, Nubia
Eastern Mediterranean - Egypt, Israel, Phoencia, Hittites
Fertile Crescent - Babylon, Sumeria
Persian Gulf Basin - Persia, Arya, Harappa
 
SkippyT, I bought Warlords in August 2006. It still looks bad having Aztec or Arab cities look like Western ones in every age.
 
I have to agree,I like Warlords alot but I prefer Civ3 in general a whole lot more,partially because theirs no worldbuilder that can destroy your game,and I liked that simplicity of the map,but how they differed the civilizations,and how their civilization looked through the ages and the change in backdrop for the leaderheads. but I like how the leaders whole body moves and each leader has their ownmovement for their emotions.like Catherine(Russia) would slap you if u insulted her.But Id really like it if u could talk to the leaders,like u could hear their voice through the speakers and type to them saying whatever you want.
 
Well if they can't make ethnic units, at least change architecture look to fit all the cultural groups. It's a lazy on the part of developers not to include this.
 
Here is an idea. Go into Creation & Customization Forum & download stuff like WhiteRabbit's Ethnically Diverse Units Mod. This will give you the feeling you have been missing ;) :p.

Aussie_Lurker.
 
covok48 said:
Well if they can't make ethnic units, at least change architecture look to fit all the cultural groups. It's a lazy on the part of developers not to include this.
Click to expand...

Have you ever worked on a game before? Do you have any idea what you're talking about? Posters here seem to think that these games magically spring out of the ether, in a world where developers have infinite time and money to create them. Heh. The last three months of work on Civ4 were incredibly hectic, with 14-hour days and 6-day weeks all around for the core team. Something this incredibly trivial didn't even register on the list of priorities - not when there were unfinished leaderhead graphics, balancing issues with the unique units, flaws in the diplomatic engine, and a million other things that somehow were ironed out in time for launch. Calling the developers "lazy" because your own irrelevant little graphical touch wasn't included reveals both extreme ignorance and selfishness.

See, this is why I never read posts in this forum. :) After you've actually worked on a game in development, you realize how unbelievably silly 99% of these posts are.
 
Stop patronizing me. I shelled out $30 (on top of $50 for original civ 4 and $25 for the Guide = $105 + Tax) for a half-assed expansion that was missing something as simple as different city art for all cultural regions. So what happens, modders have to do your work for you.

I may no be a programmer, but I'm not a chef either and I get pissed when I pay good money for lousy food, so the same standard applies for games, because guess what? I use the same currency for consistently-great meal as I do for a product that was rushed, expensive, and quasi crap.

If you can't make computer games that actually meet users expectations, move your operations to foreign countries in which workers will do more with less pay, or switch to console games...oh wait...that's already happening.

And before I get another temper-tantrum as a response, my "selfishness" (read: reasonable expectations) is the result of a time where expansions changed the entire game from top-to-bottom and made their games even more addicting.

Comparisons-

Gold Standard: Age of Empires II - The Conquerers

Your Product: C&C Covert Operations
 
Come on, guys, get off the name calling on Firaxis.

Features are a cost:benefit calculation. There's nothing "lazy" or "lousy" about it. During development, they have X number of man-hours to spend on the game, literally. They prioritize the "wish list", and estimate how much each will take. At some point in the list, the line gets drawn, and things below the line don't make it in.

If you think that this one feature is important (and I agree with you), then a better question is, What exact feature(s) would you have omitted from the game, to give the designers time to do this thing?

Wodan

ps I agree this is a great request for the new expansion.
 
covok48 said:
Stop patronizing me. I shelled out $30 (on top of $50 for original civ 4 and $25 for the Guide = $105 + Tax) for a half-assed expansion that was missing something as simple as different city art for all cultural regions. So what happens, modders have to do your work for you.

I may no be a programmer, but I'm not a chef either and I get pissed when I pay good money for lousy food, so the same standard applies for games, because guess what? I use the same currency for consistently-great meal as I do for a product that was rushed, expensive, and quasi crap.

If you can't make computer games that actually meet users expectations, move your operations to foreign countries in which workers will do more with less pay, or switch to console games...oh wait...that's already happening.

And before I get another temper-tantrum as a response, my "selfishness" (read: reasonable expectations) is the result of a time where expansions changed the entire game from top-to-bottom and made their games even more addicting.

Comparisons-

Gold Standard: Age of Empires II - The Conquerers

Your Product: C&C Covert Operations
Click to expand...

oh come off it. this is a cosmetic issue, not a functionality issue. its like a spoiled brat teenage girl that whines about getting the wrong color car from daddy.

you cant control the wind, but you can change your sails. think about it.
 
I have played and will always play CIV because of its addictive play and challenging AI. Graphics are nice but they take a back seat to balanced gameplay.


As far as graphics go, my units could be stick figures and I would still play CIV4 more than any other game ;)
 
I'm playing for the game, expansion, 2nd expansion, strategy guide totaling around, and sales tax (Texas it's 8.25%) totaling $146 of my money...the teenage girl is getting a a car from her daddy totaling $0. Big Difference.
 
146 is what % of your yearly income? how many hours has it provided entertainment? sure you can gripe about a lot of things but a cosmetic issue, thats something that makes you look foolish. especially when its at the level youve taken it to.
 
I agree that ethnic based units and architecture is nifty but I think its up to all you dedicated modders out there to do it. I've been searching these forums and saw some pretty darned good work. Keep it up!
 
I think the main point that needs to be brought up is that with improved quality the price of the product will have to increase. Sure, they can make ethnic based units, and it would be nice if my Malinese riflemen were not white but it is something that you can look past.

However, I guess it depends on what is important to you. I guess some people complain about the lack of ethnic based units so much, because the whole unique experience with each civ is very special to them.
 
The units are 3D now, it shouldn't be too hard to add a colour to the skin, that can be replaced by a different tone for each race. Many games do this already to add player-specific colours to armour or vehicles. However, different kinds of armour and weapons would be far too much work for Firaxis.
 
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