Dear Firaxis, do you hate eyes?

rkade8583

Realism Invictus Player
Joined
Jun 30, 2003
Messages
772
Location
Washington
Now I will say this up front, I am very angry and, originally, I was just going to delete BE and wait a few years until my $50 wasn't just a waste of money but no. Not after all the noise I made about Stratview not being in. If I were a conspiracy nut, I'd say they did this stuff on purpose because I pitched such a fit but my guess is these three huge eye-hating problems were just A. oversights or B. "artistic vision"

1. Fuzzy/Depth of Field

This problem is directly tied to the Depth of Field and UI Blur settings in one of the cfg files so it's easy enough to fix as told to me by various helpful folks HERE. Basically, if it's not in the DEAD CENTER of your screen, it gets blurrier and blurrier the further out it is. Got a unit nor'east of center? Good luck noticing it. Get a tech? Get ready for EVERYTHING to get blurry! No in-game option to fix these? Why? Also, why did you guys put this in the game in the first place? What could possibly be gained by making the game HARDER TO SEE???

2. Skyline

This is a small-yet-big problem. That skyline (especially on Desert planets) is impossible to see around and there's no way to get rid of it. For shame!

3. UI/graphics issues.

The text is tiny. The map is tiny (and mouse over it, I dare you.) I can't see hardly any of it. "But RKade! Why not reduce the resolution?" I would except 1280x720 doesn't exist to Firaxis for some reason but OK. I'll reduce to the only other resolution that works on my moniter without cropping (because I've got the time to check) 1024x768. Now I can't see around my humongous (and very dark purple on black which makes all kinds of sense on its' own) city label. "What about lowering the settings?" I did that too. I lowered the settings to the ground. Now Miasma is almost impossible to see because it's hardly there, I STILL can't either see the text (1920x1080) or see around my city label (1024x768) and that skyline STILL obstructs a third of the screen on 1024.

Not adding in strat view is one thing. You guys made an excuse about the orbital layer. Fine. But this crap? This is unfathomable especially when you pair it up with Civ 5's UI scaling right out of the box (if I'm remembering correctly) and distinct lack of DoF fuzz and lack of an obstructive skyline... oh yeah, and an included strat view. Can't forget about that.

I tried to be polite. That didn't work. All I got were excuses. Not even a "we'd like to add strat view in a patch" or an acknowledgement of any of the ideas my wife (through me) and I put forth like a pgup/pgdwn orbital view feature so you can actually put strat view back in. I'm done being nice.

FIX! THIS! CRAP! I've been a loyal civ player since Civ 1 for dos and I am supremely insulted that, in this world of accessability for all, a game with these glaring issues can be released even after I personally offered to give my two cents on the matter (and, indeed, did without prompting.) If this isn't fixed, you will have lost one of your most loyal players and every single person, sighted or otherwise, I can tell about this because these issues (save the skyline which, nevertheless, wasn't as bad in 5 and could be circumvented entirely) in a game using THE SAME ENGINE where none of these issues existed that has been released in 2014 is inexcusable.

Ryan (RKade8583)

Edit: I want to clarify that, in its' current state, I am physically unable to play the game for more than a few minutes, even after getting rid of the DoF stuff, because of the text size or the inherent fuzziness of running a 1024 game on a 1920 moniter. $50 all for naught as it stands.

Edit 2: Stepped out of Stratview in Civ 5 and noticed it does have a skyline but it's much more reasonable and, well, I'm always in Stratview anyway.

Edit 3: A picture by Anandus (unintentionally?) showing all three issues.

Edit 4: If you can edit XML, you can change font-sizes. Thanks Darkskies. Now if only I knew how to edit xml...

Edit 5: So it turns out that only the desert planets' skyline is a raging pain. Choosing fungal or lush worlds negates the skyline issues somewhat.

2.66/3 problems can be fixed thanks to the wonderful civ communities on various sites. Keep up the good work, people who know how to do these things.
 
The first one there's a fix for. Head to:
Documents/My Games/Sid Meier's Civilization Beyond Earth/
Open the GraphicSettings.ini in notepad or equivalent.
Find the line: Enable DoF = 1
Change the 1 to 0.
Blur gone.

READ ME
When you do this, you will change your in-game settings from any preset to Custom. If you change any graphics options, it will reset this. So set the graphics level you want, THEN change the GraphicSettings.ini
As for the other two, I hope you find a solution to your issues. Happy Hunting.
 
Minimap land is grey and the water is also grey and the fog is grey too! Fungal biome suffers from a similar problem on the main map...
 
I feel like the map looks really flat and painted on. It appears to be a complete downgrade from Civ 5 in the graphics department.
 
Somehow I don't see the Problem with DoF /small texteither. Could you offer a screenshot or something else?
 
Anandus, I have tried every combination of settings because I have the time and, while editing the .cfg file in the link above got rid of the DoF fuzziness (some low/minimum settings do this too,) the big skyline is a nightmare to see through on all settings and the font is way too small on my native 1080p and on 1024, which is the only other resolution that works on my monitor for some reason, I can't see around some of the more intrusive UI things (like the city plates.) No matter what setting, nests are impossible to see. I had to be lucky with the mouse to find the one I did before I had to stop playing. Also, everything else is up to date and beyond editing the cfg file to get rid of the DoF, I haven't touched anything save the options menu.

Fabien, the DoF only comes on if the settings are in the mediums or above and the small text is due to my having to play it on 1920x1080 and having no way to scale the UI (which Civ 5 had by the way.)

Speaking of things that Civ 5 had, I have to edit my initial post.
 
Is your screen different from the screenshots/Youtube-videos? Or the same?
(Checking to see if it is the game, or maybe on your end)

Do you have the latest drivers? And maybe you've customized some 3D-settings, try to put everything on default.

Edit:
Quickly started up the game, this is what it looks like for me (1920x1080):
http://cloud-4.steampowered.com/ugc/535127104722614147/F666E87E1AC85F6D39887FA210F13D5A55026DB5/

Hm, my miasma is not like that, definitely it's blending with terrain texture in my computer as well.
 
As you can see, the skyline is massive, the text is small, and your computer is a good one because when the quality is high, the miasma is easy to see. If you look though, as far back as a couple of tiles, the fuzz starts hard and doesn't stop. Also, good luck playing around that city label.

Literally all that would be needed to assuage me (and people like me) is a UI scale and an option for the disabling of DoF fuzz and an option for the disabling of the skyline.

I'm getting a headache from blowing the image up (so I could nitpick it properly) and staring at it but thanks, Anandus, for saving me a reinstall on a slow connection.
 
Hm, my miasma is not like that, definitely it's blending with terrain texture in my computer as well.

You might want to check that again:

The miasma in the soft fog (ie. explored but not currently visible) is substantially easier to see. Its as though it is not affected by the fog itself, so is very bright in comparison.

Its the stuff that you can see, that is difficult to see :crazyeye:
 
Registered just to bump this comment. The UI is hideous, especially compared to Civ 5. I guess it looks futuristic, in kind of a 1982 EPCOT kind of way, but man, the eye strain is horrible.
 
Hey, Firaxis.... WTF? 15 to 25 year olds play FPS's..... older people play turn-based games.

IS THIS NEWS TO YOU?

I will definitely pass on this.

Go play 'Endless Legend' and turn on the 'BIG UI' option and see HOW A STRATEGY GAME UI SHOULD LOOK.

I can't believe it's 2014 and game developers are still doing crap like this. What idiots.
 
Hey, Firaxis.... WTF? 15 to 25 year olds play FPS's..... older people play turn-based games.

IS THIS NEWS TO YOU?

I will definitely pass on this.

Go play 'Endless Legend' and turn on the 'BIG UI' option and see HOW A STRATEGY GAME UI SHOULD LOOK.

I can't believe it's 2014 and game developers are still doing crap like this. What idiots.

Too bad the game itself isn't done yet. Have you seen the AI? Bad news, baby. I bought the hype on that one too. Yet another game to try in a few years when they get the AI working... sigh.

CAN'T ANYONE RELEASE A HALF-FINISHED GAME NOWADAYS???
 
WTB colour blind mode. I'm red/green colorblind (most common type). Trying to see green miasma on brown or green tiles is awful. I have to mouse over and read the text. I realize this only affects a certain portion of the player base, but it makes gameplay very difficult.
 
WTB colour blind mode. I'm red/green colorblind (most common type). Trying to see green miasma on brown or green tiles is awful. I have to mouse over and read the text. I realize this only affects a certain portion of the player base, but it makes gameplay very difficult.

It's mind-blowing that an A-list company like Firaxis had NO ONE who raised these issues before the game was released.
 
Steam lets developers release games that are far less than half finished.
 
I have 20/20 and perfect colour vision, and the UI is just right for me!
 
WTB colour blind mode. I'm red/green colorblind (most common type). Trying to see green miasma on brown or green tiles is awful. I have to mouse over and read the text. I realize this only affects a certain portion of the player base, but it makes gameplay very difficult.
I'm not colorblind, and I also have to mouse over tiles to check if there's miasma or not.
 
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