Bonyduck Campersang
Odd lookin duck
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I will only accept Napoleon coming back to Civ 7 if they make him look like this
Poll: For Civ VII, which art direction style do you prefer?
- Thread starter queenpea
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shaglio
The Prince of Dorkness
Oh god! These are giving me flashbacks to the Land of Confusion video from genesis.
shmily_dana
Warlord
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- Mar 7, 2006
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I hope that the large number of anime mods on Steam DOES NOT influence the Civ 7 art style.
I would highly doubt that.
Boris Gudenuf
Deity
Said 'other' because I posted years ago my preference: take terrain depiction from the artists.
Examples:
More detail in the landscape, but Discreet: is there any doubt in the upper picture that you are looking at a combination of Plains and (decidious) Forest? Or in the second, that the stream/river is flowing through a forest and then across a plain? Or any doubt that in the background of both pictures those are Mountains and not mere bumps on the map?
Give me a good-looking map to play on, and you can use stick figures for the Leaders: I never look at them except in the diplomatic screen anyway (BUT I think caricature is the way to go there, if it is done well. Bad Caricature, unfortunately, is too much of what Cov VI gives us.)
And this is what a Medieval City Center should look like. Obviously without the mass of buildings, which would be impossible for most of our computers to do justice to, but fewer buildings with similar detail-rendering so they don't look like the background to a Tom & Jerry cartoon.
Examples:
More detail in the landscape, but Discreet: is there any doubt in the upper picture that you are looking at a combination of Plains and (decidious) Forest? Or in the second, that the stream/river is flowing through a forest and then across a plain? Or any doubt that in the background of both pictures those are Mountains and not mere bumps on the map?
Give me a good-looking map to play on, and you can use stick figures for the Leaders: I never look at them except in the diplomatic screen anyway (BUT I think caricature is the way to go there, if it is done well. Bad Caricature, unfortunately, is too much of what Cov VI gives us.)
And this is what a Medieval City Center should look like. Obviously without the mass of buildings, which would be impossible for most of our computers to do justice to, but fewer buildings with similar detail-rendering so they don't look like the background to a Tom & Jerry cartoon.
This is 100% what I have in mind.Said 'other' because I posted years ago my preference: take terrain depiction from the artists.
Examples:
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More detail in the landscape, but Discreet: is there any doubt in the upper picture that you are looking at a combination of Plains and (decidious) Forest? Or in the second, that the stream/river is flowing through a forest and then across a plain? Or any doubt that in the background of both pictures those are Mountains and not mere bumps on the map?
Boris Gudenuf
Deity
Oh, and if you want to know what part of the map something important is happening on at the moment, use Light:
Would there be any question in your mind that something is about to happen on those Mountains in the upper Picture? Or to those Sheep in the lower?
Civ VI gave us day-night lighting, which have produced a lot of loverly Screenshots, but we could use the lighting to do a lot more useful things in-game, like Focusing our attention. That would be especially helpful to the Newbies (you know, the folks who've 'only' played the game for a few hundred hours) who might otherwise be overwhelmed by the sheer number of things going on each turn . . .
Would there be any question in your mind that something is about to happen on those Mountains in the upper Picture? Or to those Sheep in the lower?
Civ VI gave us day-night lighting, which have produced a lot of loverly Screenshots, but we could use the lighting to do a lot more useful things in-game, like Focusing our attention. That would be especially helpful to the Newbies (you know, the folks who've 'only' played the game for a few hundred hours) who might otherwise be overwhelmed by the sheer number of things going on each turn . . .
Civ is a game about history. The leader art should be realistic. Proportions should be right. Signs of the leaders having aged through their experiences are a good thing, not to be avoided as in VI. There can be some imagination, especially for rulers farther back in history, but it should at least be plausible that someone who looked like that ruled Babylonia or whoever the civilization may be.
The terrain art should make things distinct enough that you can tell at a glance if a tile has cows, for example, or is a desert. Some realisticness can be sacrificed on the altar of making things clear visually. Civ V may have gone a little bit too realistic in this regard.
The interface in general should be practical. I didn't mind Civ V's art deco approach there, it can have some style to it, being easy to use is the most important consideration there.
I voted "realistic" because I think VI veered much too far towards cartoony. That may have been okay for Civ: Revolutions, but not for a main iteration in the series. Overall I think Civ IV had the best graphics approach in the series (with the caveat that 2005 was a couple years early for 3D graphics to really stand the test of time), with Civ3 as the runner up with its final-generation 2D approach. Both went for a realistic style, but with the map having board game elements to its level of details so you could see at a glance what was going on.
The terrain art should make things distinct enough that you can tell at a glance if a tile has cows, for example, or is a desert. Some realisticness can be sacrificed on the altar of making things clear visually. Civ V may have gone a little bit too realistic in this regard.
The interface in general should be practical. I didn't mind Civ V's art deco approach there, it can have some style to it, being easy to use is the most important consideration there.
I voted "realistic" because I think VI veered much too far towards cartoony. That may have been okay for Civ: Revolutions, but not for a main iteration in the series. Overall I think Civ IV had the best graphics approach in the series (with the caveat that 2005 was a couple years early for 3D graphics to really stand the test of time), with Civ3 as the runner up with its final-generation 2D approach. Both went for a realistic style, but with the map having board game elements to its level of details so you could see at a glance what was going on.
Daniel Boone
Go Royals!
I would want want the artstyle to be somewhere around civ4’s. It is kind of a happy medium between civ6’s super cartoony style, and civ5’s ultra realistic grimdark style.
- Map graphics: more colourful than civ5 which was admittably dull in comparision, but less arcade - cartoony - board game than civ6, which just doesn't look like the real world for me. Before Humankind's release I'd say it has my dream style of 4x map graphics, but then it turned out its art style is horribly unreadable, as 'it is genuinely hard to discern different district and terrain types'. Hence I guess this matter requires fine balancing between pretty colors, readability, and looking like the real world from the sky.
- Leaders: civ6 animations but overall design like civ5, dignified and with realistic human proportions, not Pixar cartoons. I like Pixar cartoons and I rate civ6 leader designs highly overall, but they still feel slightly off to me. Even the best are weirdly juvenile for the context (no, for my taste Queen Victoria shouldn't be 'cute' in empire building game, nor should Sumerian king be 'bro') and the worst are downright caricatures or plastic dolls.
- Unit proportions and designs... I don't like civ6 cartoon proportions here either, but I won't say 'like civ5' since it had extremely eurocentric and kinda bland unit designs
so let's just say 'realistic yet inspired version of units for each continent' would be great. So we have sets for Europe, Middle East, Africa, South Asia, East Asia and Americas.
- UI style. Civ5 Art Deco has completely won my heart over okay UI of civ6 and especially over Humankind's weird insistence to slap the same perfectly bland "modern bank manager game" UI on every game of theirs, no matter if fantasy, history or scifi. So I just want some UI art style which is distinctive, cool and full of character.
- Leaders: civ6 animations but overall design like civ5, dignified and with realistic human proportions, not Pixar cartoons. I like Pixar cartoons and I rate civ6 leader designs highly overall, but they still feel slightly off to me. Even the best are weirdly juvenile for the context (no, for my taste Queen Victoria shouldn't be 'cute' in empire building game, nor should Sumerian king be 'bro') and the worst are downright caricatures or plastic dolls.
- Unit proportions and designs... I don't like civ6 cartoon proportions here either, but I won't say 'like civ5' since it had extremely eurocentric and kinda bland unit designs
so let's just say 'realistic yet inspired version of units for each continent' would be great. So we have sets for Europe, Middle East, Africa, South Asia, East Asia and Americas.- UI style. Civ5 Art Deco has completely won my heart over okay UI of civ6 and especially over Humankind's weird insistence to slap the same perfectly bland "modern bank manager game" UI on every game of theirs, no matter if fantasy, history or scifi. So I just want some UI art style which is distinctive, cool and full of character.
This is a non sequitur. What do history and realistic art style have to do with each other?
Ah, yes, realistic Civ4.
queenpea
King
This is a non sequitur. What do history and realistic art style have to do with each other?
Ah, yes, realistic Civ4.
View attachment 654410View attachment 654411View attachment 654412View attachment 654413View attachment 654414
Those Mayan nipples definitely hit different in 2005…
Bibor
Doomsday Machine
Civ is definitely not about history. It’s just a game with historical flavor. That’s why I don’t mind cartoonish leaders & graphics much.
Some things never change, looking at you Gandhi.Ah, yes, realistic Civ4.
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Daniel Boone
Go Royals!
nzcamel
Nahtanoj the Magnificent
I'm with these guys re leaders. In the first yearish (?) after Civ 6's release Firaxis dropped some early drawings of the leaders which were less cartoony. Somewhere halfway between 5 and 6's style. I'd love to see something like that.
Re the overall art style I don't mind more realistic, but they've gotta keep the map easily readable if they do head in that way. Then there are hills
I just want to be sure whether I'm looking at a hill or a flat tile without having to switch to strategic view (usually more nessecary when the tile has foliage cover).
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What exactly is your argument regarding the relationship between Steam Deck verification and realism? As an example, Control, which is essentially a story-driven tech demo for raytracing, is Steam Deck Verified.
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