Any sort of overview/planning mode?

[ModernKnight]

I suspect the answer is no, but maybe I've missed something...

Is there any sort of planning, blueprint, or overview mode for Civ4?

I like to play in a semi-sandbox mode (at Noble) on the Huge Earth map; often I'm the only person in the Americas (past a few feeble attempts).

It would be nice if there were some sort of "master map" where I could plan out where every city would go, ahead of time. I don't necessarily mean, seeing how all the tiles will be developed (in the future); just how the cities will overlap or not, etc.

I don't imagine there's any way to do this per se in Civ4, past what you can do with the naked eye. And needless to say, I always win my games crushingly in the end... but for me, it's about the meticulous planning and care. It can be played a zillion ways - and that's the hallmark of a great game.

If it can't be done in the game or with a utility, I suppose that a fallback might be, if it's possible to e.g. print a master map (perhaps with "zooming in" on continents), and then mark it up by hand. Is there any such map printing utility out there?

Anyway - all thoughts invited.

FWIW this was a more serious problem for me in the Caesar games. Future developments could greatly impact planning. I gave up on that series years ago, for that reason, and others... but will never give up on Civ, I trust!

Thanks - MK

 

[Maydrock]

Are you talking about dot mapping? You can hit "Print Screen", then go to Paint and paste in the screen and draw all you want on the map. This is a good way to see how your BFC's overlap. There's some good threads about it in the War Academy I believe.

 

[ModernKnight]

You're right, that would be a way to do it, Mayd. I guess I can try it, and why not, eh?

I checked around the War Academy - my first time there. Tons of info - but it looks like it needs a wiki. I realize there IS a wiki. I hope sites will stop making extensives threads and instead use wikis as libraries. That said, I had to make a post at the end of comments on Power Plants. So I've continued the non-linear format. Don't get me wrong - forums are great for talking. But wikis are made for summarizing info. Like what's in the War Academy. Just my impression.

I couldn't find anything about a better way to "blueprint" plans for land, in the War Academy. Lots of stuff there - thanks for the idea, Mayd. It's not obvious from the article titles. If anyone has additional thoughts, that'd be great.

Thanks - MK

 

[Maydrock]

Yeah, I have a hard time finding info. Good stuff around, but hard to find what ya need. What's a "wiki"? I have heard the word, but never really looked into it.

 

[RLesink]

Just look at http://www.wikipedia.com It's articles that anybody can add to, but anything an article mentions that has its own article has a link. Uh, hard to explain, best to see for yourself.

If you zoom way out, the little buttons above the map in the lower right change. The leftmost button lets you draw lines on your map. They stay there when you zoom back in to a playable distance. It might take some zooming in and out and a little bit of practice to get everything drawn properly since you are zoomed out so far. Even so, I find it to be an easy way to map out a large area for my future cities.
It might help to have CivScale (you can download it off these forums) to turn off the clouds. I hear flying camera mode will do the trick too, but I don't know how to do that.

 

[JoeBlade]

I prefer the in-game line drawing tools and signs because they save me the hassle of switching back and forth to another application. The one annoying aspect is that resource signs are automatically hidden when drawing lines. Signs can be placed anytime with ALT+S however.

Line drawing/signs tools are available when zoomed out (= globe view). It's the leftmost button among the ones one the lower right of your screen then; forgot the name for a moment.

Heh, seems RLesink was posting the same thing at virtually the same time

 

[oyzar]

flying camera

 

[ModernKnight]

Thanks everybody, this sounds like something to play with. That's the good news. The bads news is, I just got Supreme Commander and Europa Universalis 3 for my birthday, hehe! Currently deep into EU3 - SC is buggy as hell with my GeForce 8800. I'll just wait til they patch it.

Mayd, there's a wiki for Civ4 here. In my experience, it has an eccentric structure. But it's always hard to present the many types of "angles" a game like Civ might need. Anyway, wikis are a great place for "storing" thoughts... think of them as an encyclopedia where ideas are organized and revised/polished in situ, whereas a message forum is a bar where conversations are recorded and labelled (by their topic). Both types of approaches are extremely useful, in their respective ways. FYI wikis are very easy to contribute to; there are only a few very simple rules. Let me know if you need any help.