Civ 7 - Advanced Save File Option

[DeckerdJames]

The advanced save file would store all things that happened during the game. The events would be searchable and you could move to any turn you want with the event finder. You could watch a game at variable speeds.

This new feature would allow YouTube streamers greater flexibility to reach new creative heights in their video making.

Additionally, there would room for a feature that allowed camera scripting. (On turn 12: look at xyz for 5 seconds then look at abc for 3 seconds, etc. On turn 13: Look at ...) That would allow creators to make very precise videos. It would be easier to match it to a pre-recorded audio clip if the scripting engine could calculate at what second a line of the script would begin to execute and allow the creator to schedule a line of script at a particular second. Recording a segment for a specific line of script would be easier if the scripting engine could also show the length of the scripting line(s) in seconds.

 

[Hyronymus]

The advanced save file would store all things that happened during the game. The events would be searchable and you could move to any turn you want with the event finder. You could watch a game at variable speeds.

This new feature would allow YouTube streamers greater flexibility to reach new creative heights in their video making.

Additionally, there would room for a feature that allowed camera scripting. (On turn 12: look at xyz for 5 seconds then look at abc for 3 seconds, etc. On turn 13: Look at ...) That would allow creators to make very precise videos. It would be easier to match it to a pre-recorded audio clip if the scripting engine could calculate at what second a line of the script would begin to execute and allow the creator to schedule a line of script at a particular second. Recording a segment for a specific line of script would be easier if the scripting engine could also show the length of the scripting line(s) in seconds.

Is this a feature that is greatly lacking now then? And how would it be stored besides searchable events in the savegame? Does it also require a video capture of the event or just merely the mention in save data?

 

[DeckerdJames]

Is this a feature that is greatly lacking now then? And how would it be stored besides searchable events in the savegame? Does it also require a video capture of the event or just merely the mention in save data?

My vision is a save file only, but in frames. Turn 1 is a frame. Turn 2 is a frame. etc.

Within the turn frames would be a composite of data objects which describe how the turn came to be, or the events that occurred immediately after the player pushed the end turn.

For Civ, the composite of data is, more than likely, more complicated than I can imagine off the top of my head. Whatever it is, it would be all turns stored in a stack that could be navigated through. There could be a way to scroll through the events in order and the game board would change to reflect the game at that moment. The event navigator would receive a collection of events. The collection could be all events or filtered to natural disasters or your units killed or when your techs were discovered and the list could go on and on. So the navigator would look like a time line of some sort, maybe with thumbnails or maybe with text labels.

If I chose to filter by natural disasters, I would filter it and then if I scrolled to an event that happened in 1000BC and clicked the event, the game board would load up to that exact moment. From there it could be screen recorded if a creator wanted to. The same way they already do now with their own screen recorders. Also, the game could be played from any previous point because you can load up any turn.

Something along these lines. There is a lot that could be added for just creators and I think one day future games might keep creators in mind. Is it worth it? I don't know. Game companies seem to care a lot about creators. The creators help the companies generate more sales. I think it would be worth it, but I don't know how hard it is. I can imagine a save file that is nothing but a collection of events. Everything is an event, from an attack on an enemy to the little run from one hex to the other if the attack succeeded. Two events like that attack and the victory occupation of the hex would be bound together because one is a result of the other, but you could rewind to that exact moment when the attack occurred and hex was occupied. It would look like one event to the navigator, but it is actually two events.

Well, a collection of events and the underlying data.

If the game company wanted to add the ability to play an event animation or to script a series of events to play and then also generate a video clip of the event or scripted series of events that creators could produce and then assemble the produced clips into a complete production in their own software kits, that would be useful I think.

I think the end result would be that much video content could be created from a single saved game and the story of a game could be told from the point of view of more than one civilization and you wouldn't need footage during the game, but that would still be possible, of course. For example, this advanced save file would allow a multiplayer game to played and finished, and then the save could be shared and each player could create video footage from the save file directly.

Would any creator want to use it? I don't know.