2D Leaderheads!

[Ivan the Kulak]

As far as other stuff to include, I say: ditch the wonder movies, have a system set up in which multiple graphics are displayed when you build a wonder, fading into each other, along with a custom mp3 file to play while splash displays. This is better than what we have now, and would be easily modded.

I would also ditch the Palace, and spend the time saved on that to making a better city view, allow ALL buildings, standard and custom to be displayed, and have a bit of interactivity - remember the rioting citizens from civ1? That was great. Have some people celebrating, or rioting on the city screen, running down the streets while storefronts burn, if WLTK or rioting is in progress.

 

[sir_schwick]

They ditched the wonder movies from Civ II because they cost too much for the positives. The same is true with 3D leaderheads. I agree with Ivan's suggestions.

ATARI should really consider putting Civ 4 on DVD. It might even fit on only one DVD. By then you will probably need a computer that comes with a DVD player to even play Civ 4.

 

[Ivan the Kulak]

I would guess Civ4 will probably come on 2 CDs. Hmm, if they do the expansion thing again that will end up being a lot of CDs... Not so bad as long as they avoid the "dozen patches" syndrome this time.

I'm pretty sure units and leaderheads will be in full 3d for Civ4, that will be tougher to mod.

 

[Teabeard]

I know I for one was a bit disappointed that Civ 3 only had a few civs, and more were added in expansions, but the original game had only a few and I think the 3D leaderheads had something to do with that... So if you want there to be more Civs in Civ IV then I think 2D leaderheads/flags are the way to go.

 

[Ivan the Kulak]

Hmm, I don't think that's true, Teabeard. From what I understand, leaderheads are fairly easy, if you have the right tools. Lack of more civs in Vanilla was so Firaxis could market expansions, and get more of your $$$...
We'll have to see what they do with expansions in Civ4.

 

[warpstorm]

No, Ivan, leaderheads are fairly expensive to do if you want them as detailed as the ones in Civ3. Each one takes an artist a few weeks to do.

 

[dh_epic]

Realistically, intricate and advanced leaderheads would put the biggest strain on the art team. (Assuming that the 3D engine can quickly display whatever model the artists produce for the leaders). Going the route of 2D leaderheads would most likely result in the addition of other art-heavy features, as opposed to things the developers themselves work on.

Hence the talk of more Civs, multiple leaders per Civ, and unique artwork for different Civs (I want my Japanese version of the Pyramids!). These kinds of things put a large strain on the art team, whereas they take but a few flags for the development team. I'd easily give up 3D leaderheads for any or all of the above.

 

[sealman]

Get rid of them all together.

(ducks under his desk to avoid the flying fruit aimed at head)

 

[J.O.]

The size justificative to avoid taking up too much space is simply pointless, IF civ IV gets too large, they will need to use more than 1 CD to pack it, and you can not select the size of the CD, so if it gets too large they will surely need to add a secondary CD, and since the space won comes in "Chunks" of 700 megs, some of it may be wasted to make 3d leader heads....
The time&money issue is more significative, but anyway, gameplay is much more important than eye candy, so I don't care about 3d or 3d heads as long as CIV IV gets nice...

 

[Mr. Do]

I don't care for leaderheads, so if they disappeared I wouldn't mind. Plus, they're not exactly easy to mod in, whereas a simple picture is not hard.

 

[sir_schwick]

Or instead of intricate 3D heads, true 3D heads with bodies just sitting there, across a table. It sounds like this is well within the design and capability of the Python engine. If not, then leave out 3D heads.

 

[Ivan the Kulak]

I thought that Python would be added mainly as an in-process server to run AI scripts and so forth, not the graphics engine itself.

Warpstorm, I guess you are probably right. Still, if you have a good art team, leaderheads should still not be an overwhelmingly time consuming part of the graphic work. They can ditch Palace view as far as I'm concerned, and spend that time on leaderheads if necessary. Part of this problem would also depend on when the artists could get to work as well.

I would guess we will see maybe 24 civs in the initial release of Civ4, and if we are lucky, another 24 added on through a couple of expansions. Hopefully Firaxis took to heart the complaints about too few civs with the initial release of civ3. I'm sure they will be 3d leaderheads though, you can't expect a company to go backwards where eye candy is concerned in this day and age.

 

[warpstorm]

Firaxis uses the Gamebryo engine in Pirates! and, I assume, Civ4. The Gamebryo engine is in C++ but (like any C or C++ program) can be hooked up to Python for scripting. The actual rendering is not in Python though.