.

[Meffy]

warpus: You got it, two spatial dimensions plus time. To posit a hypothetical third dimension is unnecessary as Olleus fuond where heaven/hell is located right there within the plane. [If I'd had to guess, I'd have said heaven would probably be in the city that built Rock 'n' Roll... and hell would be an IHOP restaurant on the outskirts of that city at three in the morning.]

Time is a different kind of dimension in the Civ world. Worth mentioning and keeping in mind, but in terms of game mechanics it appears to be related to spatial dimensions only through speed ratings.

I'd think time is managed as a scalar inside the game engine, whereas each motile unit has its spatial coordinates stored within the object that represents it within the game's list of units. Unit objects don't have to store the time, as it's the same for each object under consideration during one turn.

 

[ChrTh]

Quick comment:

0,0 is wherever Stonehenge is built.

 

[Meffy]

I like the idea, but then tiles wouldn't have coordinates until someone built Stonehenge.

How about... Great Artist performs new hit single, "(0, 0) is Anywhere I Hang My Hat" -- now available in stores!

 

[Danghis Khan]

Heaven or hell to us should have to exist outside of our dimensional frame of reference, if we found heaven or hell, it would only appear to us a some place that fit with our recognition of dimensional space (i.e. you could get a GPS reading, and a time) but we would not be able to recognize any extra-dinensionality because we lack the means to describe it. This would hold true for the civ world as well, where units are unable to describe their world in more than 3 dimensions. So it is very possible that a z-axis exists for the civ world (beyond terrain) and that heaven or hell is a line at our afterlife coordinate. Perhaps instead of a z-axis this would be a karma axis, where units that were evil could be placed on the line in one direction and good units would fit onto the other. Since the line could extend to infinity (or close enough for game purposes) the odds of ever finding a unit on said square would be infinitely small, units would seem to "disappear" and would escape the mortal plane.

 

[scienide09]

That's at best a pseudo-dimension. For it to constitute a meaningful dimension, it would have to be possible to travel from, for instance, tile (3, 8, flat) to tile (3, 8, hill) to (3, 8, mountain).

But it's interesting just the same. Is this elevation used when submerging tiles as global warming progresses?

What about the globe view clouds? This would be, above origin, maybe (0, 0, +4), and perhaps (+2) for air units? And what about a (0, 0, -1) for subs?

 

[Apopp]

This is further proof that civ is the one and only true path to god.

By looking at the loggs to try and understand what my python script is doing I opened the MPlog.txt. As I had been fighting a few battles i looked at what it said about them. I soon realised that every time a unit died the game moved it to its current square to the square

**********-2147483647:-2147483647

This is therefor the location of the after life.

btw this probably explains why you sometimes see units running off the edge of the board.

Hmm...I think the real question is can we move the afterlife square to something on the board? It might not be possible now, but think about what would happen if a unit died, it got respawned as a barbarian unit someplace on the board (some barbarian stronghold?). You'd have to win the game before you killed off too many units, because the barbarians would simply overrun you at some point.

 

[Meffy]

@Scienide: Again, these strike me as pseudo-dimensional. We the players interpret these conceptual layers as having spatial positions, but that's because it's what we're used to. In game terms there's no reason why submarines might not be a kind of dirigible that can hover only over water tiles, nor why aircraft can't be viewed as subterranean tunnelers. :-D

Sure, it's absurd to imagine things this way, and I wouldn't put it forth as a serious idea. My point is that positional significance isn't inherent in the levels of elevation you mention -- it's something we as natural intelligences assign to make the game of numbers feel as if it represents familiar real-world objects and situations.

Anyway, I don't think the game engine assigns such z-coordinates to any unit, does it? To me that's the test, when considering such things from a serious angle.

 

[Bushface]

@Meffy - and when did you (or I) start to consider things from a serious angle ? And, he added with pride, who got the Palantir Point ??

 

[warpus]

@Scienide: Again, these strike me as pseudo-dimensional. We the players interpret these conceptual layers as having spatial positions, but that's because it's what we're used to. In game terms there's no reason why submarines might not be a kind of dirigible that can hover only over water tiles, nor why aircraft can't be viewed as subterranean tunnelers. :-D

Sure, it's absurd to imagine things this way, and I wouldn't put it forth as a serious idea. My point is that positional significance isn't inherent in the levels of elevation you mention -- it's something we as natural intelligences assign to make the game of numbers feel as if it represents familiar real-world objects and situations.

I agree.

The world of Civilization 4 can be viewed as a finite collection of 3 dimensional (2 space, 1 time) layers stacked on top of eachother.

The key word here is finite. If it was an infinite collection, we would have 3 spatial dimensions. Since it's finite, we have 2.

Anyway, I don't think the game engine assigns such z-coordinates to any unit, does it? To me that's the test, when considering such things from a serious angle.

The game might very well assign z-coordinate information for units. In fact, that would make a lot of sense. It would be a very sensible way to diffrentiate between units that move on different planes.

But that would make the game engine a 3 spatially dimensional world, while a vanilla game of civ4 would remain 2 dimensional.

 

[ICBM'S]

Lol i wish zombies would appear frm time 2 time wud b a laugh 2 c a warrior frm 3960 bc just appear. wud b a laugh if they all were 100 streth and belonged 2 barbs hehehe barbs wud rule