Another Gamespot article

[North King]

I dont know much about 3d engines but my guess is that scaling down the units with zoom would take a very strong engine, and a very good computer to run that engine. I've noticed on 3d RTS games when they zoom the units stay the same size, they look Gods when zoomed all the way in. Although I wish they could scale them down when zooming, as long as it didnt slow down my computer.

I don't believe so; I've seen many games where scaling objects based on, say, your distance to them is easily achieved, and done beautifully... They hardly require a large processor.

 

[T100]

It seems like a city can grow over to other adjecent tiles. Thats freaking awesome!! It's looking great by now, yet it can't touch AoE3's graphics.

And this answers some questions:

"Let's say you are building a Buddhist temple and decide that you really need a better defender, so you switch to an archer. If you were to then switch back to the temple, you would find all of your previous production on that temple is still there."

True,True...the only good thing about Civ4 is that my computer with my 6600 will be able to run it on max...Can you imagine the types of computers it will take to run AoE3. God it looks like rendering at a higher level then Doom3 and Half-life.

 

[Jaybe]

My only complaint about the graphics is how unnatural the borders of forests and jungles look. They seem to end in straight lines.

Square terrain features are beneficial for visuallizing where the square boundaries are for when you are not displaying the gridlines.

--
re Gigantic Units, when you want to enjoy the panorama of the terrain, just turn off the unit display. When you want to PLAY THE GAME taking in military considerations, turn it back on.
I imagine that during a peaceful game, you might start a turn with a brief overview of the military situation, then turn the unit display back off. Could lead to occasional shocking events when you miss something.

 

[Corn Shucker]

They already said there was.

They did? Then what’s all the complaining about?!

They're supposed to make the world seem and feel alive, by the creator's own description. And having giants around kind of takes away from that feeling.

Then what would YOU suggest. If you want it to 'feel alive' and look realistic, you wouldn't be able to see the units at all! They'd be way too small. If your suggesting making them slightly smaller-why? They’d still be giants. If they are any bigger than civIII units (which IMO I don’t really think so) they're not much bigger. It's part of civ! Get used to it lol. And plus-if I’m interpreting this right there will be a unit scale option.

 

[SonicX]

A unit scale option is good, but I think it's overall.
I don't mind them being as big a as 4 mile skyscraper on a low zoom level, but they should be a lot smaller on a high zoom level in comparison (300m or so)

 

[Jeff1787]

I am really looking forward to the game, but I am having a hard time liking the graphics. The units look way too big and the screen too cluttered. I hope I am wrong.

 

[general_kill]

i am very disappointed by this new update. All the little features are nice and everything but gamespot refused to ask the real question: the AI. They hint at it in some questions giving Fraxis a chance to slip by them without exposing the truth behind their AI. I am feeling very grim about it, fraxis intentionally gave short answers to those kind of questions. I know that if they actaully worked hard on the AI, they would have taken every oportunity to brag about it.

 

[Civrules]

...if they actaully worked hard on the AI...

With that kind of statement, you have a good chance of infuriating Soren and other devs working on the AI.

I've heard them say many, many times that they are working very hard on the AI.
Hype about it is a very different story and often doesn't give the full picture of it, if that's what you want.

 

[ForbiddenPalace]

About the unit size, the ship sizes are fine. If the sizes of the land units are reduced by half, the size ratio of the unit and the terrain will be much close to that of civ3.

 

[SonicX]

With that kind of statement, you have a good chance of infuriating Soren and other devs working on the AI.

I've heard them say many, many times that they are working very hard on the AI.

I always tell my parents I'm studying very hard... it's what they want to hear, I know that, but is it the truth ?

 

[Justy]

The 1 unit per tile size ratio has always been the same in all Civs, therefore they have always been city-sized. The only difference is the 3-D effect. If they're too small they would be difficult to differentiate. I agree they look wierd, but honestly it doesn't really detract from the gameplay. Just imagine that they're Giant Death Robots.

 

[North King]

They did? Then what’s all the complaining about?!

Because if I try to scale everything, then I end up with elephants the size of donkeys.

Then what would YOU suggest. If you want it to 'feel alive' and look realistic, you wouldn't be able to see the units at all! They'd be way too small. If your suggesting making them slightly smaller-why? They’d still be giants. If they are any bigger than civIII units (which IMO I don’t really think so) they're not much bigger. It's part of civ! Get used to it lol. And plus-if I’m interpreting this right there will be a unit scale option.

Nonsense. There are ways to do it, such as creating some symbol on the banners they bear representing what unit they are. Or they could just model them to about the real size and have the game defaulted to high zoom.

 

[frenchman]

http://www.gamespot.com/pc/strategy/civilizationiv/preview_6131541.html?tag=boxcar_all_preview_image

Enjoy.

for the information... the screenshots look very good and I'm more and more impatient to play to CIV IV ...

 

[Sullla]

Screenshots look wonderful! Those who are determined to hate Civ4 are continuing their dogged fight, but it's looking more and more like a losing vanguard action.

One thing no one has mentioned here yet - are those SAMURAI in the top right corner of the one screenshot?!

Looking very cool regardless.

 

[North King]

Screenshots look wonderful! Those who are determined to hate Civ4 are continuing their dogged fight, but it's looking more and more like a losing vanguard action.

There are many reasons to hate, but most are lost on civilization *fanatics* center.

 

[nullspace]

Yeah, drawing the units to scale with the landscape is a GREAT idea. Allow me to demonstrate: A mediocre mountain is about 10,000 feet high, and a mediocre person is about 5 feet high, so the person is only 2000 times smaller than the mountain. So in Civ 4, lets say we zoom in real close so that the mountain takes up the entire vertical length of the computer screen, about 1000 pixels. Since the person is 2000 times smaller than the mountain, he is exactly one half of a pixel high. So, there's a little bit of a problem with drawing things to scale.

I'm fine with the way things look now. It's just impossible to show things to scale when you want to include everything from entire continents to individual people.

 

[North King]

Yeah, drawing the units to scale with the landscape is a GREAT idea. Allow me to demonstrate: A mediocre mountain is about 10,000 feet high, and a mediocre person is about 5 feet high, so the person is only 2000 times smaller than the mountain. So in Civ 4, lets say we zoom in real close so that the mountain takes up the entire vertical length of the computer screen, about 1000 pixels. Since the person is 2000 times smaller than the mountain, he is exactly one half of a pixel high. So, there's a little bit of a problem with drawing things to scale.

I'm fine with the way things look now. It's just impossible to show things to scale when you want to include everything from entire continents to individual people.

Look at the houses. Look at the people. They do not mix.

 

[nullspace]

Look at the houses. Look at the people. They do not mix.

It's still the same problem. If you made the people to scale with the houses, they'd be absolutely tiny. And then what about resources like fish in the sea? Do you make those to scale with the people? As it is now, nothing is to scale with anything else so that you can see everything and be able to tell what it is.

 

[joethreeblah]

It's still the same problem. If you made the people to scale with the houses, they'd be absolutely tiny. And then what about resources like fish in the sea? Do you make those to scale with the people? As it is now, nothing is to scale with anything else so that you can see everything and be able to tell what it is.

Maybe he'd be happier if they put [NOT ACTUAL SIZE] under everything.

 

[DiamanteLouco]

Oh man, if I die before playing this, I will hate god so much...
And btw, they didn´t count paganism as a religion, they are really couting "7 religions + 1 non-religion". Enya will be mad.