I just dropped by the magazine rack on the way to work and took a peak at the new issue of Computer Games. Not much news in the magazine, though I may have missed something in my quick scan, the text (about a 3/4 page) was basically a review of the talking points we've already heard from Firaxis, and the screenies were pretty similar to what we've already seen (though once again, I may have missed an important detail, I was running at the time and don't have the mag with me), but there was one thing I noticed that grabbed my attention ...
Notice: SPECULATION
In the screenies we've already seen there's something similar. Remember the buttons from civ3 which you can hit to have your units take certain actions? Well, they seem to have carried the concept on to civ4. There were three buttons at the bottom of the screenie I saw: a shield with crossed swords (fortify), a skull (disband), and an arrow, turning 180 degrees around a center point.
From the moment I saw it, I said "flanking", but the arrow turns right, shouldn't there be a button to turn left? But, of course, the arrow turns 180 degrees, so it must be an about-face. If this is correct (note: true speculation), then that probably means that in civ4:
1) you must expend a turn to turn around
2) you can only see the three squares in front of you, and the one each to right and left (five total), but not the three behind
3) you can turn into the squares you see, but not those you can't
4) the reason there are four characters in each unit represented is to show what direction they are facing -- when they are fortified they point in all directions
5) there will be units that are able to see more than the regular units
Holes in my argument: what happens when units are stacked, and come from opposite directions? how will the AI handle this?
If this is the case, I like it, but I'm aware that this is mostly guess work. I wish I'd examined the mag more closely, but this is what stood out to me. If anyone else saw it, is there anything I missed?
Notice: SPECULATION
In the screenies we've already seen there's something similar. Remember the buttons from civ3 which you can hit to have your units take certain actions? Well, they seem to have carried the concept on to civ4. There were three buttons at the bottom of the screenie I saw: a shield with crossed swords (fortify), a skull (disband), and an arrow, turning 180 degrees around a center point.
From the moment I saw it, I said "flanking", but the arrow turns right, shouldn't there be a button to turn left? But, of course, the arrow turns 180 degrees, so it must be an about-face. If this is correct (note: true speculation), then that probably means that in civ4:
1) you must expend a turn to turn around
2) you can only see the three squares in front of you, and the one each to right and left (five total), but not the three behind
3) you can turn into the squares you see, but not those you can't
4) the reason there are four characters in each unit represented is to show what direction they are facing -- when they are fortified they point in all directions
5) there will be units that are able to see more than the regular units
Holes in my argument: what happens when units are stacked, and come from opposite directions? how will the AI handle this?
If this is the case, I like it, but I'm aware that this is mostly guess work. I wish I'd examined the mag more closely, but this is what stood out to me. If anyone else saw it, is there anything I missed?
Or most probably a certain worker action.
!) the symbol he described matches the Explore key to a tee, so there doesn't seem to be anything new in this at all!!
