First Civ 4 Screenshots!

[Plume]

To Warpstorm: you're right. And with two entire courses in projective geometry I should have known that... Anyway, that's a good point about they being essentially impassable up until the 20th century so forget that. I guess my main point is that I'd like the maps not to be rectangles.

What I'm thinking is having the possibility of round maps. The minimap would be an actual sphere (the planet), but empty in the middle so you could see the main face and the one behind. The main map would still be rectangular and would correspond to a projection of a rectangle on the sphere. You'd play normally on the main map but on the global scale, you would actually be playing on a planet. You could also rotate the sphere in the minimap to get a better view. With this you could have ice caps at the poles, icebergs and a very planet-like feeling. Anyway, I've drifted a little...

 

[MikeH]

Hey, spare a thought for us poor Australians. If I'm not mistaken, I won't see THAT particular issue until around Mid to late January 2005 !!!

Yours,
Aussie_Lurker.

At least you get it. The US version of PC Gamer have an agreement with the UK version to not distribute their magazines in each others' home country. Still other mags will no doubt pick up the screen shots after a month or so.

 

[Mercade]

Wrapping both directions makes a toroidal topology - in other words a donut. I personally don't think that this is any more realistic than the current cylindrical topology. Since easily crossing the poles wasn't really feasible till modern eras, the cylindrical model is a bit better, IMHO.

Couldn't agree more, Warpstorm.

 

[spammikone]

Im also kinda hoping for a sniper/sharpshooter unit

No no! When people understand, that they aren't just one unit. This isn't chess. One unit consists thousands of men. Around 10 000 men in a unit would be "right" amount for this kind of game. That's why spearmen and legions are right units, because they can consist many of those kind of troops. Have you seen or heard of division made entirely of snipers?

It's alway ridiculous to see like in WW2 gigantic whole Europe/World scenarios, that scenario makers add units like "flamethrower" and "mg-infantry". They all can (and should) be in one unit - infantry. Then there can be like "heavy infantry" and "assault infantry", so it wouldn't be so irritanting unrealistic (even that is too, but it's better to have SOME variety in units)...
But in scenarios like landing in Normandy or something like that. Much more different units would make sense, because it is in smaller scale.

Please no multi-units!!! They look so crowdy without adding anything new.

Multi-figure units would be best graphic improvements for this game. It gives you the feeling, that you have armies or divisions, instead of one lousy spearman.
I agree, that in those screenies units are horrible. They just need little bit fixing - like filling the whole sqare with small warriors, would look nicer than few giants.

Little bit like Victoria-style units (in 3d of course):

http://www.eulatino.com.ar/victoria/screens/Victoria4.jpg


What comes to Squares vs. Hexes - squares are better. Why? Well, they can give unrealistic movement possibility (but it can be made more realistic, like using 2 mp's when moving NE, SW, or whatever that kind of direction), but it doesn't matter - have it matter this far? What matter is strategy. Squares allow more possibilities to attack to in one tile and such. Hexagons are so narrow, that it would result to just WW1-style battles...


Where are the other 2 screenies?

 

[Gen]

Where are the other 2 screenies?

There were only two scanned and posted on CFC.

 

[StabbingNirvana]

zoom wouldnt work very well in a game like civilization. zoom is only cool when youre playing real time games and youre sending a huge army to cross a mountain or through enemy territory to invade someone. if you cant see them marching, then zoom isnt really needed. it could be needed if you wanna see pretty detail though, but detail is for sissies and lesser wimps. unless they somehow change the game to a somewhat a realtime game while in zoom, or the closer you zoom, the more troops appear on the square, then the effect is poo. the only good zoom would be zooming out so you could see the whole map.

 

[Chieftess]

Ginger_Ale found them here. It's the German Civ3 site, but you can see the origanal pictures. Atleast until they're taken down...

 

[croxis]

zoom would work well if i wanted to see position of units on a larger scale. zoom will be more than eye candy

 

[Trade-peror]

I have not been able to read through this entire thread, but has it been discussed why the terrain appears to be arranged in a nonisometric square grid (similar to Civ1's)? The fact that 3-D zoom is mentioned makes this even more strange.

Also, I agree with StabbingNirvana that zoom might not be as much of a change in Civ as in other games, where graphics have a very significant role in determining the quality of the game.

 

[StabbingNirvana]

actually, looking at it on the german site, it (the game) doesnt look that bad .... also, to the guy that said zoom would be useful. it wouldnt. period

 

[warpstorm]

I disagree, StabbingNirvana, zoom would be very valuable to me. Not zoom in, but rather zoom out. I would like to see a lot more of the map at times than Civ3 allows.

 

[croxis]

Early screenshots of civ 3 also show the terrain in a civ1 style. I'm sure the gfx will change angles to isometric later.

 

[StabbingNirvana]

i said it would be the only useful zoom, as for zooming out though, it would be virtually useless.

 

[valamas]

is it just me, or does this look CR@P? oh deer me ... why do developers think that we are so shallow as to need pretty graphics to want to play a game? (oh, and by the way, this ain't pretty)

My $0.02 of ranting! (possibly in Euros, as it might be worth more

I am with you on that one. The best memory I have of Civ I was the playability.

 

[GrendelS]

I definately hope the graphics are changed before the game comes out.

Well, in the article Firaxis stated that the whole game will be easier for modders to fiddle with because of Python and XML - but if the graphics are 3D (+multi-units), animated, etc. pp - how many fans actually do have the ability, time and will to create custom animated 3D-multi-units for Civ4? I mean, for Civ3 it wasn´t easy, but doable, I´m pretty sure we won´t see as many graphic packs from fans for the next installment...
my 2cents

Grendel S.

 

[Ivan the Kulak]

I agree, GrendelS. Unless they release some kind of custom unit workshop with civ4 (not likely) we will probably be seeing far less custom units than we did with civ3, to the detriment of the game, IMO.

I wonder, if there are to be many new abilities gained thru experience, how exactly are they planning to indicate all these abilities on the individual unit stats? Let's say you've got a veteran Pikeman, who has learned the ability to defend at an increased value against swordsmen, has now a double defense against Knights, and horsemen, can use enemy roads, and can pacify conquered cities at an increased rate. Where are alll those abilities going to be shown? Seems to me they might need a whole new row of letters or other symbols on the unit somewhere, things could get pretty cluttered. Otherwise, you'd be right clicking on every unit all the time to remember its exact stats, which could get tedious.

 

[Yuri2356]

Unless they limit each unit to only 1 or two abilities, that would help to keep things simple.

 

[Mîtiu Ioan]

Unless they limit each unit to only 1 or two abilities, that would help to keep things simple.

Yeap ! It could be also "groupped skils" for each type of units, like in Panzer General.

Regards

 

[Ginger_Ale]

Ginger_Ale found them here. It's the German Civ3 site, but you can see the origanal pictures. Atleast until they're taken down...

I'm guessing it won't be very long now that it's known...

 

[warpstorm]

Well, in the article Firaxis stated that the whole game will be easier for modders to fiddle with because of Python and XML - but if the graphics are 3D (+multi-units), animated, etc. pp - how many fans actually do have the ability, time and will to create custom animated 3D-multi-units for Civ4? I mean, for Civ3 it wasn´t easy, but doable, I´m pretty sure we won´t see as many graphic packs from fans for the next installment...

I beg to differ. Many of the mod makers were already doing their models in 3D using the same packages that Firaxis uses. They will actually be more productive since they won't have the tedious step of rendering it down to 2D flcs.