Hammers called sheilds- why?

[Lunargent]

I've been meaning to ask this for some time now, but I keep forgetting ( or maybe hoping someone else will ask first).

Time and time again, I've seen people refer to a mysterious propety called "sheilds". Not seeing anything like that in game, I shrugged it off and continued on my way.

After a little bit it dawned on me that all these people were in fact calling hammers sheilds. So all I had to do was a simple find and replace in my brain, and all those old posts made sense.

But that grings up the question, why do people call hammers sheilds? They don't look anything like a sheild to me. Or maybe I've got it all wrong and they're calling something else sheilds....it still makes little sense to me, as I see nothing that looks remotely like a sheild when I play.

 

[Ultima Dragoon]

I've been meaning to ask this for some time now, but I keep forgetting ( or maybe hoping someone else will ask first).

Time and time again, I've seen people refer to a mysterious propety called "sheilds". Not seeing anything like that in game, I shrugged it off and continued on my way.

After a little bit it dawned on me that all these people were in fact calling hammers sheilds. So all I had to do was a simple find and replace in my brain, and all those old posts made sense.

But that grings up the question, why do people call hammers sheilds? They don't look anything like a sheild to me. Or maybe I've got it all wrong and they're calling something else sheilds....it still makes little sense to me, as I see nothing that looks remotely like a sheild when I play.

It's the term that (and all other previous civ games) production units were called. A lot of the people on here are still used to saying "shields" instead of hammers (me for one).

*edit* I didn't know that. Thanks for that piece of trivia, Zyphyr.

 

[zyphyr]

I wasn't just Civ3... they were shields in 1 and 2 as well.

 

[Lunargent]

I figured there was a chance of it being something like that, thanks for the info!

 

[zx1111]

I think that "production" is better to be called as "hammer" than "shields".
When I first played Civ II, I was little confused to find out "shields" icon is used to mark city production. Shield? Has shields anything to do with constructing a building?
So it good choice that they have switched to hammer icon..

But Civ IV made big mistake : using "round yellow gold coin" for commerce yield. Gold coin from ground? confusing... They should have call it "tax" or "money" or "income" and use more appropiate icon like "$".
What make mattetrs worse, they used same icon for commerce gold and (changed later to icon of stacks of coins) continued to use term "gold" or "commerce gold"... This confused a lot of people...
the the term "commerce" should not be used here. commerce gold, commerce culture, commerce research.. It doesn't ring a bell and only confuse peoples.
The term "fund" / "budget" or "expense" can be used for that..
Maintainance budget/expense/fund, research budget/expense/fund, cultural spending/budget/expense/fund or reserved budget/surplus fund... etc.. It is more intutisive than vague and confusing term "commerce" or "gold"
Great mistake than using shields for production.

 

[Kurbads]

I quess Shield comes from CIV 1. those who remember this time - the screen resolution was low, you couldnt make any symbol You like, and in game design it was more importatnt to make things symbolic and easy to tell one from another. So probably thats why its shield. or any other reason..

 

[Zombie69]

Another misleading term that everybody uses is beakers. There are no beakers in Civ 4 (or 3, or 2, or 1 for that matter). What you see in the game is an Erlenmeyer, or flask. A beaker in a cylinder, not triangle in shape.

 

[rmill27]

Another misleading term that everybody uses is beakers. There are no beakers in Civ 4 (or 3, or 2, or 1 for that matter). What you see in the game is an Erlenmeyer, or flask. A beaker in a cylinder, not triangle in shape.

Really. If everytime someone was talking about science in the game and they all called them Erlenmeyers, I think we'd go insane. Beakers are just the way of keeping it simple. Flask sounds too rpg'ish as well.

 

[Azash]

Why did shields represent production anyway? I never got it.

 

[Roibeárd]

Another misleading term that everybody uses is beakers. There are no beakers in Civ 4 (or 3, or 2, or 1 for that matter). What you see in the game is an Erlenmeyer, or flask. A beaker in a cylinder, not triangle in shape.

Wow - I never noticed that before. But now that you've pointed it out, it is so obvious!

The word "Flask" has connotations of concealed liquor bottles for most people, I would assume.

 

[Zombie69]

Huh, just because they have flasks in RPGs doesn't make flasks RPGish. I hate RPGs and never play them, but i have a degree in biology. So when i hear the word flask, i think lab, therefore science and research.

Flask is even shorter and easier to type than beaker, so no reason no to use that word. I bet the only reason people call them beakers in Civ is because someone once started saying beaker online in the days of Civ 1 and it caught on. I know people won't switch now, but it still seems wierd to call them beakers when they clearly aren't.

 

[Zombie69]

Why did shields represent production anyway? I never got it.

Just read a few posts above yours, that seems like a plausible explanation :

I quess Shield comes from CIV 1. those who remember this time - the screen resolution was low, you couldnt make any symbol You like, and in game design it was more importatnt to make things symbolic and easy to tell one from another. So probably thats why its shield. or any other reason..

 

[N3pomuk]

HHAAAAhHAA GG I would have never thought that I am this old! Thinking about it this might be the changing of the Guard! people who have no idea about shields, or the Armor-sperman dillema! Killer dude... ok so just that you know, the combat system, up through civ3 was a little bugged, always a bit less but still existant, in the extremest was Civ1 where a single spearman would wipe out a wole armored colum, or a battleship armada(thats what the spearman and tank smiley are all about). Wellcome to the club dude!!!
cheers

 

[Zombie69]

some people know to much. you are one of them.

It's impossible to know too much. However it is possible to be intimidated by people who know more than you do, as you've clearly shown.

I'm required to know a flask from a beaker in the field that i studied. Should i try to forget all that i've learned just to make you happy?

 

[Zombie69]

HHAAAAhHAA GG I would have never thought that I am this old! Thinking about it this might be the changing of the Guard! people who have no idea about shields, or the Armor-sperman dillema! Killer dude... ok so just that you know, the combat system, up through civ3 was a little bugged, always a bit less but still existant, in the extremest was Civ1 where a single spearman would wipe out a wole armored colum, or a battleship armada(thats what the spearman and tank smiley are all about). Wellcome to the club dude!!!
cheers

In Civ 1, i've had battleships destroyed by militia many times! That's a lot worse than a tank by a spearman.

 

[Roibeárd]

Even with the higher resolution and greater range of color afforded by today's video standards, designing a recognizable and appropriately symbolic icon within the constraints of 16 X 16 pixels is much more difficult than it seems. It actually takes quite a bit of design skill to pull off.

 

[Sirian]

Shields are called Shields because old fogies like me have "shields" hard wired in to their brains.

They may LOOK like hammers (and anvils) now, but those are really still shields.

Come home with your shield or on it.


- Sirian

 

[pub hero]

It's impossible to know too much. However it is possible to be intimidated by people who know more than you do, as you've clearly shown.

I'm required to know a flask from a beaker in the field that i studied. Should i try to forget all that i've learned just to make you happy?

I'm sure he's crapping his pants now man. It was obviously a joke.

 

[Myxer]

I thought they used shields to show production in Civ1 because most of your production was aimed at military production. Let's ask Sid!

 

[pholkhero]

Another misleading term that everybody uses is beakers. There are no beakers in Civ 4 (or 3, or 2, or 1 for that matter). What you see in the game is an Erlenmeyer, or flask. A beaker in a cylinder, not triangle in shape.

Well, also, to many people, any glass object that looks like it belongs in a lab is a beaker. Most don't know the distinctions between a flask and a beaker.

Plus, having a shield stand for "resource" just seems to make more sense to me, but i guess hammers are here to stay ~ did they change it so that they wouldn't have to make a "5 Shield" Icon??