On Icon Graphics

[darroldtg]

I understand that computer geeks don't know much about geology, but by any chance did they get the colors of the uranium and aluminum ores correct in G&K?

If not, is there any way I can change them. This is something that has bothered me since Civ3...I can barely remember Civ1 and 2.

No, that's not all that bothered me, but it's something I have never seen mentioned; and, it's so obviously wrong, I always wondered why it didn't come up in a rant thread.

 

[JanghanHong]

I understand geology students don't know too much about living people, but do you really think that will improve gameplay?

 

[Lyoncet]

Guys, (or I guess "guy" now since one of the posts got deleted), let's relax a little. He asked if there's a way he could change something that bugs him. No need to get mean about it.

To answer the question, there's gotta be a way to mod it, but I don't know the first thing about modding, so I don't know if you'd need to supply your own graphics or be able to do a simple pallet swap on the existing ones. I doubt that G&K will chance it if it's been wrong all this time, though.

 

[Buccaneer]

That the number of ores in the game and come up a unique color for each so that they not are distinctive but readily noticeable when zoomed out. Only one can be silver in color.

 

[Lyoncet]

That the number of ores in the game and come up a unique color for each so that they not are distinctive but readily noticeable when zoomed out. Only one can be silver in color.

But they actually look very different as ores.

Spoiler :

Bauxite (Aluminum Ore)

Uranium Ore (thank you US Federal Government!)

I think if anything, they chose the graphics they did so they would be easily recognizable at a glance by those who aren't familiar with how the ores themselves look which, until 5 minutes ago, included me.

 

[Buccaneer]

If they (the ores, not the finished product) were to be represented accurately, they would all be earth-tone, which was my point.

 

[Lyoncet]

Fair enough. I guess I just think bauxite and uranium ore look distinct enough they wouldn't be confused. And having visited the great Iron Range a bunch of times as a kid I can pick out hematite pretty easily.

 

[Birdjaguar]

I understand geology students don't know too much about living people, but do you really think that will improve gameplay?

Moderator Action: I realize that you are new to CFC, but this kind of gratuitous and unprovoked "attack" on another poster is not welcome. darroldtg had made a very reasonable comment on game graphics. Your post twisted the discussion into a personal attack that was not needed and added nothing to the discussion. Please refrain from such comments in the future and keep things civil. Thanks.
Please read the forum rules: http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=422889

 

[darroldtg]

I can't say much about geology students or their personal habits...never got to know any of them.

With the improved graphics in Civ4 and 5, it seems a shame not to get bauxite correctly reddish and uranium the light grayish most of it is. I can understand why silver and gold are represented as their refined colors...well, I guess I do--we just like to look at them in that state. I remembered that in Civ3 we could change civ colors, so I thought there might now be a way to change overlay coloration.

I know in the list of gripes, this might not be critical to gameplay, but it has always struck me as something that was visually obviously wrong (really wrong as to color) and easily mended.

Anyway, I pre-ordered G&K because I think it fixes more than it messes up.

 

[Buccaneer]

I can't say much about geology students or their personal habits...never got to know any of them.

With the improved graphics in Civ4 and 5, it seems a shame not to get bauxite correctly reddish and uranium the light grayish most of it is. I can understand why silver and gold are represented as their refined colors...well, I guess I do--we just like to look at them in that state. I remembered that in Civ3 we could change civ colors, so I thought there might now be a way to change overlay coloration.

I know in the list of gripes, this might not be critical to gameplay, but it has always struck me as something that was visually obviously wrong (really wrong as to color) and easily mended.

Anyway, I pre-ordered G&K because I think it fixes more than it messes up.

How would you tell the difference between light grayish uranium and silverly silver?

 

[Ajuga]

How would you tell the difference between light grayish uranium and silverly silver?

I guess one could make the uranium a dull gray and silver a shiny, bright gray.

I still prefer the green glow and blueish aluminum though, makes it easier to tell all of them apart.

 

[The Little One]

If you mean the actual icons, yes, that could easily to be modded to something you like more. As for the actual map, there is (as far as I know, trust me I've tried) no way to change that. What you can do is give it the same graphic as another resource but you can't make your own for the map.

 

[Uberfrog]

It's purely so they're easy to see on the map. Knowing where your (and your enemy's) uranium is is pretty crucial, and having glowing green rocks is handy for spotting it in the fog.

 

[darroldtg]

All the resources can glow, as they do when you first discover them, and if bauxite were colored red (and semi-processed bauxite is really red) and glowing, it would be very apparent. As for uranium, true a glowing gray isn't as eye-catching as glowing irradiant green, but it was something I always thought would add a dose of reality to the game.

It was Civ4 that really got me thinking about this because in Civ4 we have copper ore represented as reddish (not bluish), aluminum as bluish (not reddish), and uranium as green and iron as a dark gray. So, I thought switching the copper and aluminum, and tinting the uranium and iron (which is confusingly enough, an ore with different shades of red mixed with steely colored rock).

And, as for copper, whatever color, since it was one of the earliest vital resources and people are still stealing it today, seems like it ought to be in the game. We would need another thread to talk about the vital importance of salt and beer to civilization...since the beginning of civilization, I mean.

 

[Uberfrog]

And, as for copper, whatever color, since it was one of the earliest vital resources and people are still stealing it today, seems like it ought to be in the game.

I have good news and bad news.

Copper is being added in Gods & Kings, but it will be red.

 

[Hyper Nova]

While I understand your point that the ores are not the right colour.

I think the resources looks are a pretty reasonable representation since most people don't associate the resource with what its ore looks like but what the resource itself actually looks like. Also the resources are not called iron ore or Aluminium ore they are the final product names

Therefore it make more sense from a game play point of view to stick with actually making the resources look more like the final product than the ore, otherwise I believe a large proportion of players might not understand why Aluminium is red when its a grey metal or why copper is green/blue when the metal is a red/brown.

As for Uranium I think they picked something that was different to stand out from other grey metals and decided on the pop culture idea of glowing green, like in the Simpsons, even though that fluorescent green colour idea of radioactive materials comes from radium paint a different radioactive material altogether.

Although it's a shame that you can't seemingly mod it for those people like yourself that want a more realistic experience.

 

[Ymir9]

I think sandy-looking bauxite is pretty distinctive, and it worked pretty well that way in the Rise of Mankind mod for civ iv, but realistic uranium would either be confused with stone or iron.

 

[darroldtg]

Would "The Little One" please say how those changes in color could be made.

Ymir9, I don't know "Rise of Mankind"...do the ores change to a finished color once "mined"? Seems like that would be neat, too. Games like Caesar and Cleopatra required something like a "manufactory" to make something useful (and shiny) out of the ores.

 

[Ymir9]

The resource graphics didn't change once mined, but in the RoM mod, bauxite was the naturally occurring resource which allowed players to build the aluminum factory - which only then would produce useable aluminum.

Oil and the "Oil Products" worked the same way with oil refinery buildings.

With the Civ 5 system of limited strategic resources, a similar effect should be superior, since in RoM one could theoretically supply the whole world with aluminum from only one source of bauxite.

 

[Buccaneer]

With the Civ 5 system of limited strategic resources, a similar effect should be superior, since in RoM one could theoretically supply the whole world with aluminum from only one source of bauxite.

And there you hit upon the sillyness of Civ4 (in comparison) and the ridiculousness of RoN (which I tried).