Civ V Screenshot Analysis

[RPG]

The border looks a bit odd to me. The red looks like that civ's color, but the yellow there doesn't appear to be the adjacent's civ border.

 

[timtofly]

From Camikaze's second graphic, it looks like the defending catapult (city side) has a range of 3 hexes. They would not take out the frontline or the archers. It looks like there is going to be action on both sides during an attack. From the graphic with the arrows across the "pond" you can see the defenders hunched down. Back to the catapult graphic. Would the set of attacking catapults have a choice between the lance defenders, the archers, or the catapults. In defense would just the unit attacked be able to "counterattack" or would a ranged response come from both the archers and the catapult, no matter which unit was attacked?

 

[gskyes]

Lads, I think the lines around farms are nothing more than rough, unfinished graphics. I doubt it will be in the main game.

That's what I was thinking as well.

Some other thoughts:
It appears that the rivers follow the grid lines, but some smoothing has been applied. Hopefully they can do the same to the national borders, as the way they are in the screenshots does look a little off. But, I guess if I can accept my borders making only 90° turns as it does in Civ IV, I might not really notice anyway.

I would hope that archers can't shoot someone 2 tiles away, as the scale of Civ games is usually pretty big. Think about what it would be like playing the familiar earth map and firing arrows across the English Channel.

 

[Alorente]

One thing I noticed. No units in cities. Does this mean we can't put a unit in cities to defend? Or maybe city defense is limited to special units? Either way, it will make city defense much more interesting.

In the Dutch magazine interview, they say cities and forts have automatic ranged attacks. Maybe they want the city to look good and the defending unit gets in the way of it. You'll probably have to defend on the adjoining hexes and range attack from the cities. I like that.

 

[Alorente]

I'm pretty interested in the fact that in several of the screen shots showing borders, they don't seem symmetrical. The borders expand to different lengths in different directions, implying that it's not a static expansion in a set shape.

Maybe you can choose which way borders grow, or otherwise affect them? Maybe the tiles you work, or occupy with units, affect your borders?

I think they are moving back to a Fixed Border arrangement as opposed to a Cultural Border. Removing religions is a good hint that Civ 5 will be less culture and more of a wargame than it ever was. Tile occupied and claimed will add to the empire. Maybe that's why there are few ocean tiles on the screenshots within the empires. Maybe you cannot claim ocean tiles. I like this. I don't like eliminating religions. Will they also eliminate Corporations?

 

[Alorente]

The hexes are fine, they were standard for a lot of good strategic board games.

For mapmakers it could be a little bit more challenging, all even lines most be placed skew, so the whole map must be skew.

I did not see any workers. Did this mean an improved agriculture system?

Maybe there are no workers. Maybe you decide what to build on a tile and it is built automatically over time. I don't mind that. Micromanaging the workers is a bit of a pain in the neck and you can't rely on the AI to do it for you efficiently. It will also clean up the map. Nicer looking. Cities and units only. This would be inline with what to me seems like they are trying to do. Simplifying the game. Thinking of consoles already?

 

[Lord Tirian]

Micromanaging the workers is a bit of a pain in the neck and you can't rely on the AI to do it for you efficiently. It will also clean up the map. Nicer looking. Cities and units only.

You mean more like Call to Power's infrastructure thing? That would be really cool, I feel that the use of Workers really is too clunky, they are really not on the military/strategic level the map represents.

Cheers, LT.

 

[biggles1]

thing is is say 1 horse resource lets you make only 1 horseman you are going to need ALOT of resources, not sure that was the best of ideas.....

 

[DMOC]

I sincerely hope that isn't the case. 1 horse resource for, say, 20 horsemen, I would tolerate. But just one? You would have to keep REXing which had been severely limited in the transition from Civ 3 to Civ 4.

 

[Öjevind Lång]

Civ5 is starting to sound like it is taking more from Civ3 than Civ4, which if it is the case I will enjoy it much more than I did Civ4.

I second that. I also I hope they'll reintroduce the funny High Council from Civ II.

Other thoughts:

Have they taken out religions completely? That would be a pity.

It sounds weird that one can only build one unit per resource. I can't believe that; surely it is a misunderstanding? Of course, treating horses as a resource like mineral deposits is a bit weird in the first place.

More diplomatic options - good.

Reintroducing bombardment is also good, and I pray they have abolished the ability of artillery pieces to commit suicide.

I VERY much hope the espionage slider is gone, and that spy spamming is no longer possible. I'd rather be completely without spies and espionage than have to endure that.

 

[kiwitt]

I like to ZoC possibility. As to cities, maybe they will do some work on the towns/villages/hamlets/cottages. I did not see any of these.

 

[Yakk]

Referring to the screenshots in this post:
http://forums.civfanatics.com/showpost.php?p=8913000&postcount=41

1> Rivers look like they are between hexes, with smoothing.

2> some indication that an area can be partially wooded (with forests moving around hex borders).

3> Farms don't seem to be "full" sometimes.

Between the above, maybe more sub-hex level detail is happening?

4> I see the green/yellow split remaining, with features on top of it (hills, forest, etc). Grasslands/plains still remain.

5> Cows, both in and outside of pastures.

6> A blue line going from a cow hex to a farmed square? (SS #3)

7> The outer line of territory seems to vary. In SS #4, we have the same region being the "yellow side" and the "white side".

8> SS #4 again, a hex more than 2 away is in borders of a city/empire. But only that hex, not all hexes more than 2 away.

9> SS#6 -- more evidence of irregularly shaped zones of ownership around cities.

...

Sorry for repeating comments others made.

 

[Öjevind Lång]

You mean more like Call to Power's infrastructure thing? That would be really cool, I feel that the use of Workers really is too clunky, they are really not on the military/strategic level the map represents.

Cheers, LT.

I disagree. I think handling workers is part of the fun, though of course I would not want to see the constant pollution cleanups in Civ III return.

 

[Seven05]

What I am very afraid of is that it may be so that the Ai will not be able to handle it's military strategy very well so that it will lose while in a better position.

Total War's battle maps are not tile based. Many (most? all?) turn based games with grids, hex or otherwise, tend to have AI that is much better. In fact, many hex based strategy games available have very good AI, many of those do not allow stacking. In fact, when I made my Civ4 mod I applied a stacking limitation and with no other significant changes to the AI code it adapted quite handily to it.

There is a lot of "graphical" grid overlay between hexes. It seems likely that the graphics "grid" is seperate from the troop movement "hex" grid making it more lifelike.

This is likely because the actual terrain mesh is not hexagonal itself. In practice you can easily take a surface composed of smaller quadrangles and select one point out of a group of those quadrangles as the centerpoint of the hex. Imagine Civ4's square tiles and then taking every other column or ever other row and offsetting it by 50%, that give you the same result as a hex based map. So technically the map isn't hexes, it's staggered centerpoints laid out on your typical square tile based terrain mesh and then a hex overlay is laid on top of that to create the appearance of hexes and the terrain textures are drawn in hex shaped tiles but that actual terrain deformation (hills, peaks, etc) are not, nor are the overlying features such as trees, cities and improvements.

Have they taken out religions completely? That would be a pity.

I read one place that said 'religion is not a factor' but whether or not that means religion is no longer in the game is up for speculation. Considering that neither Jerusalim or Mecca are economic powerhouses in the real world I really won't mind them being removed, although I'd prefer that they simply fixed the holy city mechanic.

 

[Lord Tirian]

I disagree. I think handling workers is part of the fun, though of course I would not want to see the constant pollution cleanups in Civ III return.

The actual process of ordering the worker units around? Trying to find the most efficient way to move it across the map? Meh, for me, that's just pointless micro-ing. But selecting the improvements and the order in which they are built, that's where decisions are made and that appeals to me.

Cheers, LT.

 

[robward5]

Lack of religion might not be a permanent thing... perhaps we'll see an expansion pack: "CIV V, The Prophets" bringing it in, along with a few religious/spiritual new civs? (Khmer, Spain etc.)
I'm fairly sure I don't remember corporations in the vanilla of Civ 4.

 

[dirtyparrot]

I wished they showed screenshots with the interface, but I guess that could still be in development.

 

[Luckystrike77]

The actual process of ordering the worker units around? Trying to find the most efficient way to move it across the map? Meh, for me, that's just pointless micro-ing. But selecting the improvements and the order in which they are built, that's where decisions are made and that appeals to me.

Cheers, LT.

Running away with your workers from raiders, or capture other nations workers as slaves, are also cool concepts I would miss if they removed workers from the game.

 

[Commander Bello]

I disagree. I think handling workers is part of the fun, though of course I would not want to see the constant pollution cleanups in Civ III return.

Workers ARE part of the fun, but only in early times/small maps, from my point of view.

Playing on modified gigantic maps, in later ages it just becomes tedious to have to move 3 workers here, 6 workers there....

In total, I think that adopting the CtP terrain improvement building system would benefit the game very much.

 

[Lillefix]

I sincerely hope that isn't the case. 1 horse resource for, say, 20 horsemen, I would tolerate. But just one? You would have to keep REXing which had been severely limited in the transition from Civ 3 to Civ 4.

If you have few horsemen, then so will the enemy. Don't worry, whatever changes they have made they have thought them through. And I hope for a way to make your units more valuable. Upgrades like in CIV4 was a great change.