IGN Article" How Civ6 will redefine art design"

[cpm4001]

Leaving aside the cartoony terrain, I will admit I'm looking forward to the wonder videos, the day-night cycle, the fog of war, and the UI.

 

[m15a]

I geniunely think that all it takes is just a slight change of color correction. I've seen the mockups other people did where they just make edits to the picture, looks way better.

But I think they want the specific yield-color-coordinations to pop out more.

The coloration could also be tied to the day/night aspect that, according to the article, is still being played around with. Could be that the images we've seen are the super-high-contrast noon images (which are easier to read from far away, and also clearer on any arbitrary news website) and then 6 pm will look exactly like you want. So, if the option is in place, they could satisfy both groups. (And people whose preferences change over time.)

For example they could have transformed several horsemen into one large horseman when you zoom out just like it is done in "Fantasy Wars" game.

That is a solution, but not one without tradeoffs. You might like it but other people might find it jarring. There might be issues at mid-level scales. There might be additional art/animation requirements of using different graphics on multiple scales. Etc. It's a fine option, but it doesn't make the art designer's reasoning invalid, and certainly doesn't mean that they didn't think of it. (They may even do it in some cases, but didn't mention it in the interview.)

 

[Eagle Pursuit]

I hope the cities light up at night and hopefully road traffic with torches or headlights. If that is the case, I might just set the time for midnight.

 

[Luckystrike77]

That is indeed a good thing! I'd say FINALLY. It took a long time... The Ethnicity mods were the ones I could not play the game without...

It was in Civ4 after a few expansions.

 

[nyyfootball]

"A new Civilization game demands a new art style".

Does copying Civ Revolution qualify as "new"?

 

[Gorbles]

"A new Civilization game demands a new art style".

Does copying Civ Revolution qualify as "new"?

Insofar as it's not a copy, yes.

Art style is significantly more complicated than "realistic" or "cartoony". Not that you'd think so, reading these threads!

 

[Browd]

Moderator Action: Threads merged.

 

[nyyfootball]

Insofar as it's not a copy, yes.

Art style is significantly more complicated than "realistic" or "cartoony". Not that you'd think so, reading these threads!

Do you prefer the more "realistic" depictions reminiscent of Cities: Skylines or the more "cartoony" depiction which are reminiscent of Settler of Catan or another like board game?


The screenshots provided bare a striking resemblance to Civ Revolution.

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I would prefer cities that look like this:

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Or at least districts like this:

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Instead of like this:

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[m15a]

The screenshots provided bare a striking resemblance to Civ Revolution.

Things can have a striking resemblance (although I don't find it that striking) and still be new.

 

[MosheLevi]

The coloration could also be tied to the day/night aspect that, according to the article, is still being played around with. Could be that the images we've seen are the super-high-contrast noon images (which are easier to read from far away, and also clearer on any arbitrary news website) and then 6 pm will look exactly like you want. So, if the option is in place, they could satisfy both groups. (And people whose preferences change over time.)



That is a solution, but not one without tradeoffs. You might like it but other people might find it jarring. There might be issues at mid-level scales. There might be additional art/animation requirements of using different graphics on multiple scales. Etc. It's a fine option, but it doesn't make the art designer's reasoning invalid, and certainly doesn't mean that they didn't think of it. (They may even do it in some cases, but didn't mention it in the interview.)

That solution works great in "Fantasy Wars" so there is no reason Firaxis cannot make it work for Civ 6.

Players prefer realistic graphics over cartoony graphics.
For me (and I am sure for many other players as well) cartoony graphics is a big turned off.
This mistake of theirs is going to cost them a great deal in sales.

 

[TheMarshmallowBear]

That solution works great in "Fantasy Wars" so there is no reason Firaxis cannot make it work for Civ 6.

Players prefer realistic graphics over cartoony graphics.
For me (and I am sure for many other players as well) cartoony graphics is a big turned off.
This mistake of theirs is going to cost them a great deal in sales.

Right.... Except that they've already sold enough to be a top seller...

So I don't think its' going to cost them that much.

 

[nyyfootball]

Things can have a striking resemblance (although I don't find it that striking) and still be new.

I would have preferred something truly new, and not simply a little bit bigger version of a mediocre game.

Spoiler :

There are kernels of good ideas there, it just appears to have been poorly executed.


My main issue is with the scaling and the individuation of tiles, not necessarily the quality of the graphics.

 

[TheMarshmallowBear]

I would have preferred something truly new, and not simply a little bit bigger version of a mediocre game.

Spoiler :

There are kernels of good ideas there, it just appears to have been poorly executed.


My main issue is with the scaling and the individuation of tiles, not necessarily the quality of the graphics.

I can NEVER understand why people push Civ 5 to be a realistic game when it has NEVER been ever about realism and has always sacrificed realism for gameplay. (For crying out loud the leaders are immortal!)

I think the "desire to have fancy graphics" is a shallow need that makes absolutely no pint. Graphics rarely define the game, there's countless of games that are amazing who have had bad graphics. Graphics aren't that bad to begin with.

Civ 6 relies on visual language.

They want you to know where your units are and what those units are.

The big wonders are to pin point that the AI/you have an important thing that you could potentially conquer and gain, where a small size Pyramids would have you scratching for which city to actually conquer.

The color coordinated districts are also a rather obvious.

And now that we have the annoucement of a time cycle means we can play around with lighting and I'm sure there's going to be mods fairly quickly that bypass all of that.

To me makes no sense to judge a game purely by graphics as opposed to gameplay. It's like dissing someone saying they're not attractive enough without getitng to know their personality.

Not to mention that the simple graphics are undoubtedly going ease the specs fo the game.

 

[Gorbles]

I would have preferred something truly new, and not simply a little bit bigger version of a mediocre game.

The problem is your logic doesn't hold up, because by that logic the art style you wanted for Civ VI was "a little big bigger version of" CiV. That's what you would've preferred, right?

 

[Eagle Pursuit]

I would have preferred something truly new, and not simply a little bit bigger version of a mediocre game.

Spoiler :

There are kernels of good ideas there, it just appears to have been poorly executed.


My main issue is with the scaling and the individuation of tiles, not necessarily the quality of the graphics.

Hopefully things will look better in the Renaissance to Modern Eras.

 

[MosheLevi]

Right.... Except that they've already sold enough to be a top seller...

So I don't think its' going to cost them that much.

Firaxis sold almost 6 million copies of Civ 5 to date.

I bet their objective is to sell 8-10 million copies of Civ 6 for the next 6 years.

But what if the cartoony graphics are going to turn off so many players and they end up selling less than 5 million copies.

Won't that cost them a lot?

 

[TheMarshmallowBear]

Firaxis sold almost 6 million copies of Civ 5 to date.

I bet their objective is to sell 8-10 million copies of Civ 6 for the next 6 years.

But what if the cartoony graphics are going to turn off so many players and they end up selling less than 5 million copies.

Won't that cost them a lot?

I doubt they're going to sell less than 5 million copies in 6 years.

The fact that the game's is already a top seller suggests it's sold quite enough quantity.

 

[Haig]

Have you "Civ VI is a simple game for mobiles" ever looked at any of the FEATURES the game will have?
If mobile games are that epic and feature-rich, damn tell me some good ones I want to play them.

If looking just the graphic side of things, we will have different units for cultures, day and night cycle, more details when zooming and probably much more.
I launched Civ V, and after 2000+ hours, daaaamn that game looks static and moldy compared to what we have seen of Civ VI so far.

These internet "George Luca$$ raped my childhood with Jar Jar" -complainers sometime feel like they are just on bandwagon.

 

[AriochIV]

I like the features; now if they could just make it look good.

 

[m15a]

That solution works great in "Fantasy Wars" so there is no reason Firaxis cannot make it work for Civ 6.

Yes, there is no reason it *couldn't* work, but there are probably reasons why the art designers decided against it. Maybe very good ones. But the article didn't go in depth as to why the artists didn't use every particular solution. I don't think any of us (people who didn't design the art) can come up with all the reasons why the artists would decide not to use a certain solution, so I don't think it's reasonable to extrapolate from their decisions to explain why they made them.