Map Size?

[bman003]

Maybe you guys have allready taken on this question. How big do you think the map size is going to be able to get? Personally I love playing a HUGE earth map. Oh and do you think an earth map will come prepackaged with CIV IV, or will I have to make one or wait till some one does?

 

[Urederra]

Slightly smaller than the CIV III huge map, according to one firaxian (Jesse Smith??) That means to me bigger than a large map, which is the size I am used to play, so I am not worried about size

For other people it seems that it means as small as the civ III tiny map.


On the other hand, it seems that civ IV will focus more in creating a well balanced empire rather than a huge one. My impression from i have read is that they want to penalize highly expansionistic empires and let the players focus in building a well balanced empire rather than a huge but underdeveloped empire.

 

[Trajan13]

Urederra is right, they will be slightly smaller. My hope is that someone can mod the generator to make a bigger map than it would originally, for those of us who like big worlds. And I'm sure someone will come out with a massive earth map days after release, and I'll be there to snatch it up.

 

[Commander Bello]

The problem lies in the statement that the maps are reduced in size due to the 3D-engine.
I don't have any doubt that it will be possible to mod the maps to bigger sizes than provided "out of the box".
I fear, yet, the game will be considerably slow on that bigger maps.

For most players of oversized maps the fun is in encountering as many nations as possible and to have as many units, towns, resources and whatever available in the game.
Since map size has been reduced for the sake of game speed, it seems to be a valid assumption that those oversized maps will make for very slow games (interturns of some minutes, at least after all nations in the game have almost reached their maximum size)

 

[apatheist]

They probably picked the maximum size based on what was tolerable with their system requirements. 256MB, a T&L graphics card, and a 1 GHz Pentium III are what was top of the line 5 years ago. If the limiting factor is indeed hardware, then someone with a relatively recent system with 1 GB RAM, a Geforce5 or Radeon X600, and a P4 3GHz+ or Athlon64 3500++ should be able to run substantially larger maps. There is the caveat that certain map calculations scale super-linearly; i.e., double the map size may mean 1/4 the speed or even less.

 

[vbraun]

The problem lies in the statement that the maps are reduced in size due to the 3D-engine.
I don't have any doubt that it will be possible to mod the maps to bigger sizes than provided "out of the box".
I fear, yet, the game will be considerably slow on that bigger maps.

It should only get slower as you zoom out.

 

[Commander Bello]

It should only get slower as you zoom out.

I think this depends on the internal mechanism of the graphics engine. Does it calculate all movements (horses, birds, whales, rivers, carts and so on) only if they are displayed? Or does it have to do this all the time and then determines whether it will be displayed?

 

[vbraun]

I think this depends on the internal mechanism of the graphics engine. Does it calculate all movements (horses, birds, whales, rivers, carts and so on) only if they are displayed? Or does it have to do this all the time and then determines whether it will be displayed?

At least thats what happens when I play Pirates! Well the graphics that is.

 

[warpstorm]

I think this depends on the internal mechanism of the graphics engine. Does it calculate all movements (horses, birds, whales, rivers, carts and so on) only if they are displayed? Or does it have to do this all the time and then determines whether it will be displayed?

Typically a mixture of both. There is usually some minimal level of processing for all animated objects in the game, but only those in the frustum, get the full processing. Unless you do aggressive culling and level of detail reduction, zooming out will take a lot of power.

 

[Commander Bello]

Typically a mixture of both. There is usually some minimal level of processing for all animated objects in the game, but only those in the frustum, get the full processing. Unless you do aggressive culling and level of detail reduction, zooming out will take a lot of power.

If I understand you correctly, you have confirmed what I assumed:
Unless the graphics engine would be programmed to take special care for this, even at world view it will be quite busy with calculating items. Even if those are too less of scale to be displayed then.
But, as far as I understand it, for the sake of seemless zooming it has to be done, as otherwise the engine would have to check for what it now would have to add to its internal calculations, to load the data and to process them.

In the end this means that a "living, coloured world" does mean - at least to a certain extent - that it will put a heavy load on the graphics engine.
This fits to the already stated reasons for reducing the map sizes. Unfortunatley, it does fit, as I have to say.

 

[Esckey]

I hope big maps are aviable as soon as I get the game. I don't play for big empires, or resources. I play for big wars, and I'm not even a warmonger either. On a small map during a war one or two cities may be constantly getting occupied. On big maps. Its entire areas. Not to mention I'm more willing to sacrifice a city when its one outta 30+ as opposed to being one outta 10.

 

[10Seven]

Give the players choice - if players insist on playing HUMUNGOUS sized maps and taking 12 hours per turn, that's their business - there's no need to restrict it.

 

[Darwin420]

It seems more that the largest maps available in cIV will be smaller than their equivalent maps in C3C... doesn't mean we won't get some large maps, but I think all they've show us so far are tiny or small maps. It just wouldn't be civ without some large maps, and I doubt Firaxis will fail to deliver... they just won't be able to give us the HUGE maps we've come to expect.

 

[10Seven]

It seems more that the largest maps available in cIV will be smaller than their equivalent maps in C3C... doesn't mean we won't get some large maps, but I think all they've show us so far are tiny or small maps. It just wouldn't be civ without some large maps, and I doubt Firaxis will fail to deliver... they just won't be able to give us the HUGE maps we've come to expect.

I found those 'huge' maps rather small - and certainly smaller than I would have liked.

 

[general_kill]

its not the size that matters, its what u do with it.

Personally, I think witht he 3d graphics and all, smaller and closely managed games would be much more fun than in civ 3. In civ 3, playing on maps smaller than large seems almost stupid to me, but i can really see myself playing on smaller maps in civ 4.