Strategic View!! Screenshots!

[Yarp]

The hex grid is turned off in these screenshots
I really regret forgetting to put that in the article! Yes, the game is completely playable in this view (I personally spend most of my time in this view) and one of the coolest parts about it is that yes, the video card does a lot less work while in this view.

Greg, does this include simpler diplomacy screen? Personally, I would like to play in this minimalistic design but I don't want to wait for minutes (as in C-IV on my old machine) to get glancing animated Montezuma's head telling me he has declared war...

Will it be possible to turn off diplomacy leader animations and get quick static portraits instead?

 

[Tomice]

cities can defend themselves, building stuff like walls castles, and maybe barracks improve defence power of the city, maybe hit points, and provide abilities such as a ranged attack.

So you don't need to garrison a unit in a city, but it might make it survive an extra attack or two, but in order to survive a proper siege your gonna have to meet the units in the field before you lose your city.

A city combined with a defender might be the strongest "unit" you can get, so you might want to always fight close to your cities, to profit from this strong combination.

Not sure if this is a bad thing, though. city walls have played a major role in many real battles, maybe it's fun like that. I just imagined it differently.

At least undefended cities are no longer an easy prey.

 

[d4rKi]

Great feature; if it's close to being as useful as the overlays in Europa Universalis , this just might be my personal fav for Civ5

On a blasphemous side note, I'd prefer it were a bit more along these lines i29.tinypic.com/29w4q42.jpg . Might just be me, though.

 

[2K Greg]

Great feature; if it's close to being as useful as the overlays in Europa Universalis , this just might be my personal fav for Civ5

On a blasphemous side note, I'd prefer it were a bit more along these lines i29.tinypic.com/29w4q42.jpg . Might just be me, though.

You can make it look very similar to that by turning on one of the overlays

 

[mjs0]

You can make it look very similar to that by turning on one of the overlays

Are the overlays designed to be cumulative?

(I'm guessing some may not be because they reflect a binary choice between display styles or use the same metaphor to convey information (e.g coloring tiles), but hopefully unrelated choices can be stacked in arbitrary ways.)

...and if so, can I create and save custom overlays that combine several existing overlays into my favourite views?

 

[AriochIV]

@Arioch: Good thoughts, but you are clearly in an advantage! Where are those screns from?]

They're screen captures from the gameplay videos: the Gamespot E3 interview video and the one from the official site.

I'm not sure how much I like units inside cities, as this is an indicator that the game is balanced around having defenders in core cities. We might be forced to put them inside, especially with faster unit movement...

I don't think needing to place one unit in a besieged city is any kind of problem, and a good defensive position may be close to your city, so that you can take advantage of the city's ranged attack. But this seems to be living dangerously, as even a garrisoned city in the current screenshots only has a strength of 10-15, which is about the same as a typical medieval-era unit (pikeman 10, longswordsman 16). Hiding behind your walls when you're horribly outnumbered is historically accurate, but if you've got any kind of army you're going to want to (and you'll have to) meet the enemy in the field, which is also historically accurate.

 

[Wezqu]

I don't get what is so big deal with the unit in a city thing. If you think it there has to be possibility to unit to be in a city. First that it has to appear there when its build and second in some cases the units would have to go through the city to get to the other side. It would brake the game if it would not be possible to a unit to go through the city and its totally realistic to have one unit in a city to defend it. Also why does this come up now as something so major what I remember it was mentioned in one of the first game play info we got from the reviewers who got to play it.

 

[Mercade]

You mean this?

1) Two different views, once 3d, the other strategic.
2) More importantly, the symbol would block the civilian unit symbol possible to appear on the tile northeast, e.g. a fishing ship. I doubt two symbols would overlap in the strategic view.
3) When was it mentioned that units could defend cities from inside? Greg made a statement that units could defend a barb camp from inside* but I never heard of your own units. The only thing I can remember was a magazine stating that "units entering cities heal the HP of the city and do not defend it literally.
4) The symbol to the left is attached to the city name bar, while it could be closer and somehow attached in the right screen , but isn't. It's completely on the other tile withou relation to the city.

So IMO on the right screen it is a troop transport (civilian unit slot), and the symbol is bigger because you control this unit in the screenshot right now.

I agree the reason why the symbol is larger is simply to indicate it's the active unit. It would also be odd if Tokyo was the only city that had a defender in it. None of the other cities have that.

Btw, did anyone pick up on the fact that even in the strategic view you can zoom in and out? The middle image (AD 229) is clearly zoomed out further than the two other screenshots. You can easily see this by the fact that the city names are rendered with just the name and the population count.

 

[Tomice]

If you think it there has to be possibility to unit to be in a city. First that it has to appear there when its build and second in some cases the units would have to go through the city to get to the other side.

Smart thought, unbelievable I didn't think about it

It's no big deal, I just understood it wrong before and needed to get used to the thought.

 

[Mercade]

With the Strategic View being confirmed, and the fact you can play the game exclusively from the Strategic View, it would be very nice if there was an installation option for Strategic View Only that cut out all the eye candy so you could actually install it on a moderate laptop that doesn't have 6-9 GB of hard drive space available.

 

[PinkHammurabi]

With the Strategic View being confirmed, and the fact you can play the game exclusively from the Strategic View, it would be very nice if there was an installation option for Strategic View Only that cut out all the eye candy so you could actually install it on a moderate laptop that doesn't have 6-9 GB of hard drive space available.

Better yet, I think it'd be nice if Civ5 came with a gaming laptop, but so far there's no been no word even hinting at it.

Gah, does 2k do anything right???

 

[AriochIV]

Better yet, I think it'd be nice if Civ5 came with a gaming laptop, but so far there's no been no word even hinting at it. Gah, does 2k do anything right???

The laptop comes with the ultra-super-mega-deluxe exclusive Amazon.com Civ V version, but unfortunately that version doesn't come with the game itself: that's extra.

 

[Mercade]

With the Strategic View being confirmed, and the fact you can play the game exclusively from the Strategic View, it would be very nice if there was an installation option for Strategic View Only that cut out all the eye candy so you could actually install it on a moderate laptop that doesn't have 6-9 GB of hard drive space available.

Better yet, I think it'd be nice if Civ5 came with a gaming laptop, but so far there's no been no word even hinting at it.

Gah, does 2k do anything right???

Make fun of it, but it's a serious request / suggestion. While I like to play Civ 5 in all its glory on my desktop, for running it on my laptop during flights / travel, if you can play it "light", why not have the option to install it "light"?

 

[PinkHammurabi]

The laptop comes with the ultra-super-mega-deluxe exclusive Amazon.com Civ V version, but unfortunately that version doesn't come with the game itself: that's extra.

It may not have Civ5, but it WILL have Babylon. No Meso-map pack though.

Make fun of it, but it's a serious request / suggestion. While I like to play Civ 5 in all its glory on my desktop, for running it on my laptop during flights / travel, if you can play it "light", why not have the option to install it "light"?

.

I'm not making fun of your request/suggestion per se. I don't do a lot of computer gaming at all outside of Civ and my off-and-on love/hate relationship with WoW, so, I don't know if your suggestion is either a reasonable one or a common one. Do games often have install options with THAT much of a disparity?

And again, it's not your comment so much as all the people who keep asking for very mundane additions/subtractions/whatever and then complain if they're not met.

"I don't think there should be ANY circular icons in the game since circles are nearly impossible to make perfect. Can we have the option to turn Circles off? If not this ruins the game imo."

 

[AriochIV]

Very few games have "light" install options, because they're a serious pain to do, and only benefit a tiny percentage of users.

 

[PinkHammurabi]

Very few games have "light" install options, because they're a serious pain to do, and only benefit a tiny percentage of users.

I assumed as much.

Oh hey look, a disembodied foot.

 

[StittsvilleJame]

"I don't think there should be ANY circular icons in the game since circles are nearly impossible to make perfect. Can we have the option to turn Circles off? If not this ruins the game imo."

I love this comment.
I've been thinking of all the belly-aching about this feature, that feature, and what not and this sums it all up in a wonderfully sarcastic way for me.

 

[Mathalamus]

With the Strategic View being confirmed, and the fact you can play the game exclusively from the Strategic View, it would be very nice if there was an installation option for Strategic View Only that cut out all the eye candy so you could actually install it on a moderate laptop that doesn't have 6-9 GB of hard drive space available.

every laptop, even old ones have hundreds of gigabytes. at least.

 

[PinkHammurabi]

Just noticed your sig, Arioch. Assuming you did the accumulating of information that's excellent work and a very informative read. The high-res TechTree image confirms the mystery tile-improvement from the third screen to indeed be a Lumbermill (in Engineering, sorry if it's already been mentioned).

Two questions:
1) Mining, Bronze Working, and Masonry. Assuming those are two Axe icons and a Sword icon and that two of them unlock Clear Forest/Jungle.. what would the mining Axe be?
2) What are the stars in some of the techs? i.e. Optics, Philosophy

 

[AriochIV]

Thanks, Hammur.

I think the axe icons in Mining and Bronze working are for being able to cut Forest and Jungle, respectively. I don't know what the stick/staff icon in Masonry could be.

(Link to image so people know what we're talking about)