Screenshot analysis!

[DudewiththeFood]

I think I could get used to the graphics but at the minute it's reminding me a lot of Civ:Rev. I hope the gameplay doesn't take a step in that direction too or else I'll be keeping Civ V.

 

[Erudain]

Yeah graphics are not great so far, in fact, the couple photoshoped pics some players made look way better.

But this is still a strategy game, it's features/gameplay/AI is where the good stuff must be, if those rock, then the graphics will be secundary, besides, how long before someone mods it? a week? modding textures is usually faster & easier than making a "community balance patch" to fix the gameplay.

 

[_hero_]

1st screenshot- Boats that look like Frigates or Galleons, a unit that looks like a Crossbowman, a unit that is no doubt a Samurai (Japanese confirmed). Lower there's 2 guys with capes holding what looks like signs. Missionaries/clerics perhaps? Or Diplomats?


2nd Screenshot- Great Lighthouse, a unit that's an Archer/Bowman, The Great Pyramids, what looks like an Iron mine, a unit that looks like it's probably a Swordsman, horses.

3rd Screenshot- Horsemen, Pikemen, Samurai again, fish, crabs, and something that looks like it might be coral reef, a Trireme off in the distance, a building/wonder/terrain improvement that has what looks like an amphitheater but there's also dinosaur bones outside of it. I'm really curious to find out what THAT is.

 

[Eagle Pursuit]

I wonder if the maps will be bigger since cities occupy so much more space.

 

[CivCube]

I wonder if the maps will be bigger since cities occupy so much more space.

I hope the maps stay small enough to make a mess of things. This is a game about decreasing space as much as expanding empires. But I'm sure they'll find a way to keep it looking epic.

 

[MPoxon]

Really not a fan of the bright cartoon-like graphics. Lets just hope they don't make the gameplay fluffy as well.

 

[Matthew.]

They still have Civ 5's 36 tile space... how is that so much more??

 

[Eagle Pursuit]

I wonder what kind of resource the flowers in the forest are in the third screen shot.

 

[learner gamer]

3rd Screenshot....a building/wonder/terrain improvement that has what looks like an amphitheater but there's also dinosaur bones outside of it. I'm really curious to find out what THAT is.

Could the bones be the signs of a relic having teched archaeology?

 

[Lord Tirian]

You can see that everything is, in fact, pretty flat. The texture work itself is beautiful - almost painted in terms of a slightly washed-out adherence to realism (the trees in particular).

That's what really bothers me. Civ5 had such gorgeous texture work (the UI, the terrain, the wonder paintings)... that's why Civ6 feels like a step back. Everything in Civ5 looks like artwork. It's fully realising the "watercolour" idea Civ3 tried out.

Civ6 has superior modelling and rendering but the textures feel like CivRev/Civ4 era. I'm not even expecting highly detailled textures (that'd be incredibly noisy), but a nice crisp watercolour style for the ground and the "forests" would be nice and really give it cohesion (with that diorama look it's partially going for already).

On some level, I'd just be happy if it was more moddable than Civ5. I miss the freedom Civ4 modding had (modifying city styles, forests and so on), if Civ6 can deliver that again, then a graphics tweak is fairly straightforward.

 

[AriochIV]

I'm saying the same untouched un-ported game still sitting on your desktop Steam library will not have suffered. I know the sacrifices made to move something to a tablet or phone. But it isn't the same build as the one people will use on PC. I have no idea how much of the game engine persists, but the wrapper at least will need to be in Objective-C (assuming iPad iOS still runs on that). It's a completely different package.

I get what you're saying, but that depends on whether the touch version is a port, or whether the game is designed as cross-platform from the start, like XCOM was. There are some mildly irritating UI issues in the PC version of XCOM that are side-effects of being designed from the ground up to run on both PC and consoles.

I think the concern being expressed (founded or not) by the people who are crying "mobile graphics!" is that they fear Civ VI is being designed from the ground up to accommodate a mobile version, and that it may suffer accordingly. I don't see any evidence of that, but I can understand the concern.

 

[Big J Money]

The art could look great in animation. I agree it's lackuster presented this way. Also, if it improves performances, we could see much larger maps. We might need much larger maps, given the way cities will work.

Well, people focused on the art more than picking info from the screenies, lol.

 

[TheMarshmallowBear]

I get what you're saying, but that depends on whether the touch version is a port, or whether the game is designed as cross-platform from the start, like XCOM was. There are some mildly irritating UI issues in the PC version of XCOM that are side-effects of being designed from the ground up to run on both PC and consoles.

I think the concern being expressed (founded or not) by the people who are crying "mobile graphics!" is that they fear Civ VI is being designed from the ground up to accommodate a mobile version, and that it may suffer accordingly. I don't see any evidence of that, but I can understand the concern.

Hm, I find that fear quite strange, because I don't think many games from major franchises have actually gone that route. I mean Civ has its own mobile/console version with CivRev.

The art could look great in animation. I agree it's lackuster presented this way. Also, if it improves performances, we could see much larger maps. We might need much larger maps, given the way cities will work.

Well, people focused on the art more than picking info from the screenies, lol.

This is my general feel, to me this says "We care more about gameplay rather than beauty" A game like Civ should be more about the GAME rather than the LOOK of it. Europa Universalis is one of the better games and doesn't rely on necessairly realistic graphics to be amazing.

Let's be honest, I feel that the fancy graphics for Civ 5 kinda hurt it because it caused the performance to be worse than it could've been. I still have lack of farms in late-game and grey tiles when loading late-game games. To me these graphics shout better performance.

 

[o_rety]

It looks to me like they just decided Civ V graphics were so good they can't be improved. Then to make it cartoony was the only viable option to save face and cover up their utter capitulation.

 

[hugojackson18]

Inspired me to quickly do my own version. I personally would probably want it to look a bit like this:

Spoiler :

Probably -too- desaturated for most people, but I like it.

Other changes include:
- Quick and dirty ground textures for the Forests (just to get some color, also didn't do a good job at cleaning up the forests in the distance)
- Sharpened edges (and a tiny bit of depth of field)
- Darker Shadows

Biggest flaw are still the ground textures imho.

And you inspired me to take it a bit further

- Took your version and layed it on top of the original
- Added atmospheric and depth of field in the background
- Enhanced the mountains textures, rivers and ocean
- Some post effects

I think it looks more a less like Civ5 now looking at it, but for me that would have been the minimum... Having a before/after is quite shocking how saturated the original is...

Spoiler :

 

[Big J Money]

The shadows add to uncanny valley IMO.

They make the units look like actual giants walking around the world.

 

[m15a]

I am almost certain everyone here rather play Civilization VI on their gaming desktop.

You are wrong. (Proof: me. I don't have a gaming desktop and would rather not play on one.)

 

[Camikaze]

Heh, where was that forum when I entered before?

I'm quite busy now to read all that has been said, sorry, but as I performed an analysis of the districts in the screenshots here, maybe is worth to share.

That's good analysis, probably worth sharing in this thread in full:

I think that is the case, I read somewere there are 12 district types, and there's more improvements than that. They seem to be color-coded to game mechanics (this reinforces the cartoony style, btw), so we seem to have in the screenshots

WHITE - Religión
In Screenshot 1 (front) (Main temple, circular columns, pagoda)
In Screenshot 1 (back) (Only circular columns)
In Screenshot 2 (Main temple and circular columns, but no pagoda).

BLUE - Sicence
(could be also religión due to the angel-like statue, but color-coding screams science to me)
In screnshot 1 it seems more developed than in screenshot 2, but could be also due to the terrain in which it is. Screenshot 1 is cut at the edge of the image, so I'm not able to tell if additional buildings have been added to the main group besides the "pool" (in screenshot 3, we seem to have the same district than in screenshot 1, without any new building.

YELLOW - Gold
Screenshot 2 features what seems a marketplace-district next to the main city, most probably groveable with Banks and others.

Pink - Culture
Screenshot 3 features a remarkable pink-roofed district featuring an amphiteater and some sort of open-air dinosaur museum...

ORANGE - Happiness
To the lowest part of screnshot 3, there seems to appear as well a "circus" district, probably for leisure improvements.

DARK RED - War
The encampment on screenshot 3 seems the ideal place for barracks and so on...

Wonder if farms (food ), Mills (hammers, ) and docks (all sea-related improvements - they are taking a full sea tile, right?) will be its own districts.

Also seems brownish ones (some with obelisks, some not), represent city centers.

I'm excited about this. It was something I discussed here some time ago, and seems quite logical and natural (no more I'm missing a sea exit because I seetled just une tile far away from the beach, i.e.).
Also i find a good move to benefit certain technologies (and probably cultural traits) in function of what you build... it seems logical you find easier to develop better weapons if you have extensive solider training, or comercial technologies if your citizens are mostly merchants. It will need a lot of tuning, howerver, as the benefit should be noticeable, but you should still be able to unlock the techs even if not really focused in the área.

As said, this two features are risky and could go downhill, but also have an interesting potential to enhance the game experience... we'll need to check how this develops.

 

[Lord Tirian]

And you inspired me to take it a bit further

*snipped image for size*

- Took your version and layed it on top of the original
- Added atmospheric and depth of field in the background
- Enhanced the mountains textures, rivers and ocean
- Some post effects

I think it looks more a less like Civ5 now looking at it, but for me that would have been the minimum... Having a before/after is quite shocking how saturated the original is...

Spoiler :

Huh, I like that. I really, really like it. It keeps the whole bright toy model look and feel but looks a lot shaper, defined and pleasing to the eye. Same vibe but doesn't feel "cheap".

You should post it on the /r/civ subreddit, too, so it gets a bit more exposure!

 

[dexters]

Not completely sold yet. Hope there are some atmospheric effects, depth of field and maybe even clouds if zoomed out.

There should also be an option to turn off ui and overlays for screenshots