Civ 5: In the round or still flat?

[largedarryl]

Only within the last 100 years or so have we been able to fully explore the polar regions. Given the scope of CIV this means a mere fraction of the time you are playing would be reflected in real life. Perhaps in mods it could be useful, but perhaps given the communities ingenuity we will be able to mod this feature into the game. Another aspect about a polar world though is that it would take less tile movements to move around the world in a straight lines (diagonally) than any other method. I guess that's one bit that would be best represented by a spherical map.

This is relevant if you are playing a simulation that uses the same climate as present day earth. Now I don't know if you do the same thing I do, but I rarely play full games where I use a climate similar to Earth's. So is it an unrealistic expectations to have non-traversable poles if Earth had a different climate or land mass distribution. My point is really that no-one plays exclusively on Earth maps, so any other games may have strategical advantages based on the poles.

Also with flight/rockets/etc., poles and real distances are even more important strategically.

 

[silentounce]

If not, we might just as well live in the Middle-Ages, because that's what most people thought the world was like at the time.

Blatant myth. People have known the Earth is round for thousands of years. I'm not disagreeing with your main point though. In fact, this just makes it even stronger.

http://msgboard.snopes.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?/ubb/get_topic/f/102/t/000444/p/1.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myth_of_the_Flat_Earth

Yeah, you say "most people", but that's a hard conjecture to prove or disprove because we don't have good records of what "most people" thought.

 

[largedarryl]

Blatant myth. People have known the Earth is round for thousands of years. I'm not disagreeing with your main point though. In fact, this just makes it even stronger.

http://msgboard.snopes.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?/ubb/get_topic/f/102/t/000444/p/1.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myth_of_the_Flat_Earth

Yeah, you say "most people", but that's a hard conjecture to prove or disprove because we don't have good records of what "most people" thought.

Also "most people" isn't the correct choice of words. If you worded European church oppressed ideals, then yes "most people" thought the world was flat. From my knowledge of history, many societies believed the Earth was round long before Europe exited the dark ages.

 

[Craxymaxy]

Couldn't Firaxis just take a short cut and make it so when you head over the poles on the Mercator projection you show up half way across the board on the same edge. This is in effect what is happening when you go over the poles.

They could combine this with a "pregnant" map so the east to west distances would be shorter at the north and south edges as opposed to the equator all while avoiding actually capping the map providing us (the players) with a globe simulation.

*edit*

While avoiding having to use cumbersome, ugly and un-balancing pentagons

 

[Leifmk]

Also "most people" isn't the correct choice of words. If you worded European church oppressed ideals, then yes "most people" thought the world was flat.

A flat Earth was never taught by the medieval church, AFAIK. Both the shape and approximate size of the Earth had been known since classical times.

Geocentrism, now, that's a whole different issue.

 

[Depravo]

I think a more important feature than travelling over poles is to have east-west distances be shorter at higher latitudes.

Absolutely. This is the main issue. Strategic warfare is important, sure, but only relevant at the end of the game.

To have the ice cap remain impassable to all land units (except explorers; maybe even that ability should require a tech to unlock) would take care of any shenanigans.

Maybe Civ 6 can finally have a spherical world, prevailing winds and currents...

 

[Yakk]

If they replaced hexes with triangles, we could pull off a globe.

Each triangle could even connect to more than 3 other triangles (allow units to cross the corners).

Imagine a hex-type map, where units lived on the corners of hexagons, and could move for 1 unit to any hexagon they are adjacent to. Then make the shapes non-uniform.

For ZOC type effects, you could add the rule that you cannot cross a hexagon without attacking the hostile troops who are also adjacent to that hexagon.

This is not, however, Civ5.

 

[eireksten]

If they replaced hexes with triangles, we could pull off a globe.

Each triangle could even connect to more than 3 other triangles (allow units to cross the corners).

Imagine a hex-type map, where units lived on the corners of hexagons, and could move for 1 unit to any hexagon they are adjacent to. Then make the shapes non-uniform

That would, in effect, create the same sphere as a hexagon-based one with 12 pentagons

 

[Zarthushtr]

Thanks for the technical comments.

However, if at all possible, do post these to the companion thread below, which specializes in the matter:

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=354175

This one is more about exploring the added value (gaming and other) of playing on a sphere/geoid, instead of a flat surface.

Cheers.

 

[Steve the Noble]

Quote:
How so? The "distrations" seem pretty small.

By distractions, I meant that special pentagon tiles might mean special consideration for unit movement, military fronts, and city placement. The pentagon tiles might somehow be more coveted than hex tiles.

 

[Ahriman]

By distractions, I meant that special pentagon tiles might mean special consideration for unit movement, military fronts, and city placement.

Yes... but its a dozen tiles out of thousands. As a distraction its minimal. And you could design the map script to place them in mountains and oceans.