Colors?

[Elgalad]

Do you all use the 'stock' colors that represent each civilization? Have you changed some, all? What colors have you changed and why?

I've noticed a trend when I start a new game. I seem to usually choose the same opponents and it does have a lot to do with how their colors blend with each other. Is it just coincidence or Eurocentrism that resulted in most of the modern western nations having the most vivid appealing colors?

I'm about to start a new game of C3C and realize that I've never played England past about turn 20, there's just something about the color orange that makes me cringe. It's a pity because I think they have a great combination of traits and UU now with Conquests. I'm heading off to the editor to do something about that. Anyone have suggestions about what color I should make them?

-Elgalad

 

[Philips beard]

Make them red, as their infantry unit uniforms in the 18th and 19th century. That is the colour of the british flagg too, the cross!

 

[Yuri2356]

[RANT]GOD, how obsessive are you people? I'm Tired of people thinking everything about the game is over-eurocentric. Some things I can understand, like the Era Names, Wonders, and a few of the units. But the COLOUR SCHEME??? WHAT ARE YOU SMOKING ELGALD????[/RANT]

The above rant is just me venting a bit of anti-anti-eurocentric rage. As for the British colour, make it a shade of red. Not the same as Roman red, but something that looks good on Britain.

 

[Elgalad]

I like Red for England too. Some other ideas I had... light blue for Greece - it's on their flag. Battleship grey for Germany, White for either Russia or Japan... going to change Barbarians to brown if it'll let me. Maybe change France to that neon green instead of pink.

Here's another thought.. what if Civ 4 offers the option to have random colors assigned to the civs? This way no two games would be alike. I dont know about you all, but when I see that dark blue german swordsman I just feel a certain sense of dread. And who can take the pastel pink Chinese seriously??? I mean even when they're rolling tanks onto your soil.. sheesh. Let them be random and you'd also actually be surprised the first time you ran across a foreign scout or warrior instead of thinking, 'oh Brown again, great it's that annoying troll woman with the vagabond settlers who dont know well enough to stay away from MY future expansion zone. Catherine says, "Have you just come here to admire my beauty (!) or is there something else you wished to discuss?"

-Elgalad

 

[Elgalad]

[RANT]GOD, how obsessive are you people? I'm Tired of people thinking everything about the game is over-eurocentric. Some things I can understand, like the Era Names, Wonders, and a few of the units. But the COLOUR SCHEME??? WHAT ARE YOU SMOKING ELGALD????[/RANT]

ROTF! I'm sorry Yuri! Ack, did Not mean to cause such a stir!

Seriously though, I'm anything But anti-Eurocentric, and I agree with you 1000% about folks getting worked up overpoliticizing the game. I just happened to notice though, that it's like my favorite opponents (Germany, America, Russia, France, Rome, England, Japan, and China) are mostly those appealing colors. Why do I keep picking them? All I can guess is that it has something do with their asthetics.

-Elgalad

 

[ManOfMiracles]

I don't really like some of the colors but I don't know how to change them. I'm not sure it would be worth the effort anyway. So that means I like pie.

 

[Elgalad]

After action report:

(well, the game is ongoing, only up to the middle ages now)

Anyway, I did manage to change a good number of my colors and I really like the new pattern emerging. I decided to make England that dark purple color, much easier on the eyes than bright orange. My only known foes right now are Persia (Light Blue), Celts (grey), China (Aqua), and the Inca (Dk Green). I know this is just a personal preference issue, but when I look at my score screen now, it is Much easier to distinguish the various colors. I weeded some of the colors out of the mix that were just too close together to tell apart, primarily the drab hues (green/gold, grey/green, olive green, etc). I made a backup conquest.biq first of course.

Changing colors is actually pretty easy, ManofMiracles, but before you start tweaking them around, you should first make a backup of your conquest.biq file and store it somewhere safe. Then make a chart of all your civs and assign colors on there first, so that you don't duplicate them too much. There are 32 civs with Conquests, including the barbarians and 32 colors (pastel pink is repeated). However a few of those colors are too close together to tell apart. If you already know how to open up your Conquest.biq file, then just assign your colors there. I picked 16 civs to have static colors (always the same) and the other 16 to have an alternate color in reserve. For the static civs, just assign your 16 favorite colors to both 'default' and 'alternate' colors. For the other 16, the default color can be a repeat of one of the static civ's colors, but the alternate should be a unique one in case that color is already being used.

For example: I kept Rome's colors as Bright Red for the default and Bright Red for the alternate. Rome will always be that color when it is evident in a game. I gave Babylon Bright Red for its default color too, but Gold as its alternate. Now if a game has Babylon but not Rome, Babylon will be bright red. If both are in the game, Babylon will be gold. Rome will always be red. I didn't assign red to any other civs, it's probably best to keep your color choices limited to two or three civs max. I dont know what happens if you have 4 civs competing for the same color, the game probably assigns colors randomly after the first two.

Anyway, I hope that helps for those who might be interested. If not, just enjoy your pie!

-Elgalad

 

[Philips beard]

ROTF! I'm sorry Yuri! Ack, did Not mean to cause such a stir!

Seriously though, I'm anything But anti-Eurocentric, and I agree with you 1000% about folks getting worked up overpoliticizing the game. I just happened to notice though, that it's like my favorite opponents (Germany, America, Russia, France, Rome, England, Japan, and China) are mostly those appealing colors. Why do I keep picking them? All I can guess is that it has something do with their asthetics.

-Elgalad

They are my favorite opponents too! Guess it's because they where the major nations during WW2!

 

[Khan Quest]

A couple of games ago I played Vikings against China, Iriquois, and two other purple civs. Talk about confusing.

Personally, I like the familiarity of a associating a color with a civ, but maybe each civ could have an alternate color and the AI could decide if there is too many of one color. Better yet, I'd like to right click on a leader-head and select a color.

 

[~Corsair#01~]

I've never really cared about the colour scheme- it's too late to change it now, since I'm used to each team having their default colour, I'd just be confused and irritated if I changed any.

 

[Lieni]

For me it would be the best if every Civ has its real coat of arms. I think it shouldn't be a problem to add for example the tricolor instead of the blue shield, after the choice of the AI. The only problem is to find out the coat of arms the Iroquois or the Maya had.

 

[Gelion]

^ Look into Europa Universalis II (or even I)
I do agree some of the colors are messed up and need to be changed...

 

[earthguido]

Guys... you should all go back to monochrome display. I have been confused some times between Zulus and Russians, they have almost the same colors. So, who cares? just destroy them all!

 

[The Last Conformist]

I was faintly disappointed that the Barbarians were no longer blood red in CivIII, but otherwise I don't much care.

 

[Gelion]

Ok Lets post what colours should be for specific nations. Mine:
Russia - Red/Dark Green
Japan - Dark Purple/Brown
Germany - Dark Blue/Dark Grey
UK - Bright Red/Dark Green
France - Blue
China - Yellow
Byzantine - Dark Purple/Orange
Rome - Brown/Red
More to come

 

[Elgalad]

At the risk of spamming my own thread..!

Rome - Red,Red
Egypt - Yellow/Orange, Yellow/Orange
Greece - Lt Blue, Lt Blue
Babylon - Red, Gold
Germany-Prussian Blue, Prussian Blue
Russia - White, White
China - Aqua, Aqua
USA - Blue, Blue
Japan - Yellow, Yellow
France - Green, Green
India - Magenta, Magenta
Persia - Aqua, Lt Blue
Aztec- Dk Green, Dk Green
Zulu - Black, Black
Iriquois - Blue, Dk Purple
England - Dk Purple, Dk Purple
Mongol - Yellow, Black
Spain - Pink, Pink
Nordland - Magenta, Dk Blue
Ottomans - Turquoise, Turquoise
Celtoi - Turquoise, Grey
Arabs - Dk Red, Dk Red
Carthage - Dk Purple, Dk Red
Korea - Pink, Lt Pink
Sumeria - Yellow/Orange, Grey/Green
Hittites - Orange, Yellow
Netherlands - Orange, Orange
Portugal - White, Pale Blue
Byzantium - Dk Red, Red/Orange
Inca - Dk Green, Green/Gold
Mayans - Grey, Pastel Purple

Oh, and I made the Barbarians Brown, Brown

First value is default, second is alternate.

-Elgalad

 

[MaisseArsouye]

I made my own palettes. You can find it here

I can't play another way than :
Roman = purple
Greek = blue/White
Egyptian = sand
France = blue
America = light blue
China = red
Zulus = fades of light brown
Netherlands = orange

 

[Uiler]

In my opinion, China should be red and gold. Chinese *love* red and gold. It is their number one favourite colour scheme - cards, calenders, wrapping paper, lucky money pockets, weddings, decorations, little charms mothers make for their kids to ward off danger etc. - *everything* is bright red with gold trimmings and lettering (and remember, it is *gold* not yellow). Dragon Yellow would also be acceptable as it is the colour of the emperor, but bright red with gold trimmings would immediately make every Chinese player think of China. I don't understand why China is currently blue...You might as well make it green as Chinese doesn't differentiate between the two colours....Blue is the colour of the East. That's all I can think of. The only real attachment to water Chinese have is the Yangtze and the Yellow River and they ain't blue.

Any Islamic nation eg. the Ottomans should automatically be green as this is the colour of the Prophet Muhammed.

Japan should be the pink of Sakura flowers, representative of the samurai spirit.

Romans - imperial purple?

France - what colour is the Fleur de Lis? (if that's how you spell it...?)

Germany - Prussian blue.

US - red, white, blue.

England - "the redcoats"

 

[Elgalad]

I dont think the colors the devs chose for Civ 3 were really done so to represent any aspect of the nation they were assigned, but simply to provide coherency during multinational borders, score screens, units, etc. I didnt use any sort of cultural plan to pick my own colors either, just ones that helped me mnemonically remember the nations better. I couldnt even explain what methods I used cause they were probably subconscious

But I do see value in your idea, of making the colors more representative of the nations they are assigned to. Every modern country has various colors on their national flag and these usually represent ideas or values that the nation espouses. Maybe these might help to set a basis for color schemes too.

-Elgalad

 

[Babbler]

I think that the colours should be randomly selected each and every game, so you don't know which civ are which till you contact them.