Civ V Screenshot Analysis

[Öjevind Lång]

How so?

Building roads and railways everywhere is time-consuming and also a bit weird. And very ugly when they run everywhere. It's been a problem ever since Civ II.

 

[jb2386]

Roads... Would be good if they were automatic... but i wouldn't mind them being the same as civ3/4. If those are the roads in the pictures and you have to build them yourself, they don't stand out enough IMHO.

In regards to the resources, it'd be good if a resource in your territory gives you 1 of it, while one inside a city radius that is worked on gives you more, with the possibility to build it up to produce more i.e. build a stable, get more horses.

 

[Takhisis]

Could we have city imps (only a few key ones such as walls, aqueducts, docks) showing as small buildings on the map?

 

[Silv Something]

I'm sure they will be; currently the cubes you see now are just placeholders, methinks.

 

[kivanc]

While looking VERY carefully at these screenshots, I've realized something...

Most actually the farm borders getting out of the hex is a graphical mistake. Or it's just to make a realistic land view. When you remove hex grid borders, land would seem more realistic, so some seem like a hex and some seem a bit like a rectangle (in fact all of them are hexes)
but OTOH, i still believe that it seems there are some sub-hexes inside of imrpoved terrain plots or that can be a graphical mistake as well.

It's probably not strategically necessary. With limited units and dynamic borders, it'd probably be wise to post units on your borders in case of war. I'm sure you could post units in cities, but there'd be no reason to if you are on the coast like in the two cities we see (peninsula/ isthmus one and Asian one).

Well, it's better not to have any units in the city. it's better to have them in border forts, much more realistic. only some city garrison kinda units should be there for maintaning order in the city. it seems 1 of the obvious changes is that, they will change the Hereditary rule system which was overpowered
we already know civics will change (and it has always changed for each civ version) and this is 1 of it. Oh, at least the great persons are IN.

My guess would be that that's an effect of the angle of the image, rather than something to garner a game feature from.

possible.

 

[Chimera1804]

It looks like a lot of people here seem to think that the "growing" farm idea is merely because the graphics aren't quite finished...I disagree. The main argument seems to be about the farm on that hill next to the pond, but from what i can tell this has been missed:

Notice the farms...they are all at different stages of what appears to be growth. I would assume that Firaxis found the cottage idea really successful and applied to to farms. Also, something that seemed a interesting is the farm grid is on it's own, apparently completely unaffected by the hex grid. The only other thing that affects it is the city grid, which, by looking at other screenshots of the same area (at different stages in the game, the cities are different sizes), is evidently a "plan" for the city. The horses hex also caught my attention...are farms a "sub-improvement" upon which you could possibly build others?

While typing this post, I noticed something else...where the heck is the water source coming from? Ever since Civ III (I believe) you needed FRESH water specifically, not just water...so unless farms by default spread irrigation, which I dearly hope is not in this game, I um...I haven't got a way to end this sentence...

 

[viz]

It looks like a lot of people here seem to think that the "growing" farm idea is merely because the graphics aren't quite finished...I disagree. The main argument seems to be about the farm on that hill next to the pond, but from what i can tell this has been missed:

Notice the farms...they are all at different stages of what appears to be growth. I would assume that Firaxis found the cottage idea really successful and applied to to farms. Also, something that seemed a interesting is the farm grid is on it's own, apparently completely unaffected by the hex grid. The only other thing that affects it is the city grid, which, by looking at other screenshots of the same area (at different stages in the game, the cities are different sizes), is evidently a "plan" for the city. The horses hex also caught my attention...are farms a "sub-improvement" upon which you could possibly build others?

While typing this post, I noticed something else...where the heck is the water source coming from? Ever since Civ III (I believe) you needed FRESH water specifically, not just water...so unless farms by default spread irrigation, which I dearly hope is not in this game, I um...I haven't got a way to end this sentence...

We cannot be sure that those farms are irrigated, all we can gather is that they are being worked as is evident by the small huts present, whereas the upperleft farm is golden in colour and has no hut. As for the underlaying textures, I think it's more likely that this is a generic texture applied to all tile improvements, notice that the deer plot has not been improved and thus has no texture.

 

[mitsho]

Am I the only one who thinks the cities look better this way (than if you would see the single buildings)? In civ4 it looked like cities were just consisting of these buildings. But that's so minor

 

[Chimera1804]

We cannot be sure that those farms are irrigated, all we can gather is that they are being worked as is evident by the small huts present, whereas the upperleft farm is golden in colour and has no hut. As for the underlaying textures, I think it's more likely that this is a generic texture applied to all tile improvements, notice that the deer plot has not been improved and thus has no texture.

What about the farm just west of the eastern city? There's no hut and the farms aren't golden...it also just so happens it's the one with the least amount of "filled" squares...

 

[Beardy Dan]

The "golden" farms could represent a farm built on a wheat resource, it makes for a more noticeable tile, and is far better than the cIV giant stalks approach.

It also has larger fields than the others, but less fields overall so they cover roughly the same area. Maybe when we build a farm now we have to say what is being farmed?

 

[CivOtaku]

Maybe they're not near a source of fresh water because they made these with civ 5's "worldbuilder".

 

[viz]

What about the farm just east of the western city? There's no hut and the farms aren't golden...it also just so happens it's the one with the least amount of "filled" squares...

There is a hut, it's on the edge facing the deer...

Unless of course you mean the plot with the horses in? In my opinion that is not a farm, as I suggested in my previous post I believe that the grid texture is a generic 'improved tile' texture which is present due to the pasture.

 

[Ddude97]

I read on the Civ 5 website that trading land will be allowed, do you think this is trading cities or tiles? (I know you can already trade cities)

 

[rysmiel]

Yeah, but I never remember it being sound strategy to leave cities undefended before...

Non-border cities in a Civ 3 game before paratroopers, with a reasonable stash of fast movement units and roads so you can get defenders to a city as needed ? Core cities defended is just wasting unit upkeep, there.

 

[rysmiel]

.
I heard somebody else say (not sure what their source was) that they were trying to reduce overall units on the map, especially late game (i.e. even late game you will rarely have more than 10-20 units total, or something like that). If you're only going to have a small amount of units, then this 'one rescourse one unit' could work fine. Alternatively, each 'rescourse' could have 3 or 4 stacks within it. i.e. Take your horse tile, with 4 'horses' within it. You build one horseman, one of those horses dissapear. You may have the 'one rescourse one unit' but one tile may not equal only one unit.

That's the most offputting notion I have heard yet.

 

[rysmiel]

Building roads and railways everywhere is time-consuming and also a bit weird. And very ugly when they run everywhere. It's been a problem ever since Civ II.

I think if it as one of the more rewarding bits of the game; it's a form of constructive development that has both a game-mechanical and an aesthetic value.

 

[Chimera1804]

There is a hut, it's on the edge facing the deer...

Unless of course you mean the plot with the horses in? In my opinion that is not a farm, as I suggested in my previous post I believe that the grid texture is a generic 'improved tile' texture which is present due to the pasture.

no no, the one with the unit on it...I realize now I messed up my east and west...

 

[exorbit]

About the 'one resource' thing - I think that mechanic may go hand in hand with other mechanic changes.

I heard somebody else say (not sure what their source was) that they were trying to reduce overall units on the map, especially late game (i.e. even late game you will rarely have more than 10-20 units total, or something like that). If you're only going to have a small amount of units, then this 'one rescourse one unit' could work fine. Alternatively, each 'rescourse' could have 3 or 4 stacks within it. i.e. Take your horse tile, with 4 'horses' within it. You build one horseman, one of those horses dissapear. You may have the 'one rescourse one unit' but one tile may not equal only one unit.

and what do you do with the deer ? deer-mounted units would be cool , or deer armys!

 

[MethanalCHO]

The major thing to get out of the screenshot would be the hexes. Completely new, completely different. Big change. I'm surprised that they went with it, to be honest. Such a large change suggests that they won't be shy with making large changes, so from the screenshots I think we can infer that we can expect to be surprised with new and exciting game features.

One large change I'd like is for promotions to be removed and replaced with the simple conscript-to-elite HP system in Civ3. I'd also like for units to have seperate offense and defense, like in Civ3, as Civ3's units were easier to understand than Civ4's. Please consider this when making Civ5.

 

[morss_4]

Yeah, but I never remember it being sound strategy to leave cities undefended before...

People leave cities undefended all the time I think. Of course there's always a warrior or an archer or something hanging around, because the game punishes you with unhappiness otherwise, but when you get to the medieval era a warrior isn't going to do anything if the city is actually attacked.

I would probably leave interior cities ungarrisoned in Civ IV if the game would let me. What's the point? Wasted unit maintenance.