Strategic View!! Screenshots!

[Tomice]

What is the terrain type west of Nara? It looks different than the flood plains to the north and not all of the tiles are next to the river...

 

[PinkHammurabi]

What is the terrain type west of Nara? It looks different than the flood plains to the north and not all of the tiles are next to the river...

Marsh.

 

[2K Greg]

I guess this might still change in the dev process, and the screens showing england are an older build. Shouldn't be an issue, at least not before more civs than 18 are in the game.

All three screenshots are from the same build

However, these screenshots were created to show off strategic view to you guys, and the game is still a work in progress. It's most definitely possible that some nitty-gritty details in these shots are subject to change.

 

[The_J]

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.

Thanks again for the infos .

 

[cccv]

I have to imagine they'll fix the problem, if not by the time the game is out, then with a patch when enough people make it obvious that Greece and Japan sharing boarders makes the minimap confusing.

Though frankly I had a hard enough time telling Rome from China in IV and that was never changed >.> But maybe it was just me.

 

[Calouste]

Marsh.

Marsh (or maybe it will be called swamp) is an interesting addition to the game.

(Speculation alert!) In the early game I expect it to be a pretty much useless hex economically, maybe 1 or so, but a useful hex strategically. Marsh hexes will have a heavy movement penalty, ending the movement of all but the fastest units and units in a marsh hex will have a negative modifier to their strength. That makes it easier for a defending army to set up a chokepoint with a ranged attacker and hammer the invading forces stuck in the marshes. With a middle to late game tech, something like Engineering or Steam Power it will become possible to drain the Marsh and turn it into a Grassland.

In general I think there might be more hexes that will be fairly useless until later in the game, but that will be compensated by the cities having a larger radius. One of the consequences of that is that it will be possible to build super cities (40-50 pop) once you unlock the proper techs to improve all the land and have something like Biology improve the food yields.

 

[mjs0]

Those are actually different icons. The one you are talking about is red with a white shape and at the moment the thought is that that is an improvement that is being build. The one I think is a barbarian camp (although it could also be ancient ruins thinking of it) is mutli-colored with a lot of black/brown, some red and some white, and can be seen in the 2nd hex from the left, 3rd hex from the bottom in the 1595AD screenshot.

No, they are the same as you can see in this image:

 

[PinkHammurabi]

Marsh (or maybe it will be called swamp) is an interesting addition to the game.

(Speculation alert!) In the early game I expect it to be a pretty much useless hex economically, maybe 1 or so, but a useful hex strategically. Marsh hexes will have a heavy movement penalty, ending the movement of all but the fastest units and units in a marsh hex will have a negative modifier to their strength. That makes it easier for a defending army to set up a chokepoint with a ranged attacker and hammer the invading forces stuck in the marshes. With a middle to late game tech, something like Engineering or Steam Power it will become possible to drain the Marsh and turn it into a Grassland.

In general I think there might be more hexes that will be fairly useless until later in the game, but that will be compensated by the cities having a larger radius. One of the consequences of that is that it will be possible to build super cities (40-50 pop) once you unlock the proper techs to improve all the land and have something like Biology improve the food yields.

Considering all the talk that they've focused on Military Strategy and how it relates to terrain tactics I think this is a likely scenario, which makes me very excited. Developing a strategy around local terrain was pretty shallow in Civ IV, though I still founded cities in locations that made it LOOK like it was strategically placed for military reasons just to add a bit of realism.

So yes, these possibilities excite me very much.

 

[Churchdown Yank]

In general I think there might be more hexes that will be fairly useless until later in the game

This is one of the things I noticed - look how some of the hexes are unclaimed until the late stages of the game - like the neutral mountain hex in the middle of Japan on the last screenie.

Either the growth of cities is quite smart about picking which hex to expand into (or do we get some choice on that? not that I've seen) or a lot of the growth is through buying hexes so we do get some choice?

 

[StStutter]

I still founded cities in locations that made it LOOK like it was strategically placed for military reasons just to add a bit of realism.

So yes, these possibilities excite me very much.

Har, I did that too .

I'm very excited for terrain to play greater role in military tactics. This along with the the cultural borders expanding towards food should lead to empires dictacted by their geographic surrounding. Should be a lot more immersive!

 

[kozzer]

the growth of cities is quite smart about picking which hex to expand into (or do we get some choice on that? not that I've seen)

I hope we get to choose every hex of expansion. You can choose which resources to go after, whether you go after pure value or go after something else less valuable but choose to expand toward another civ, or whatever.

 

[mjs0]

This is one of the things I noticed - look how some of the hexes are unclaimed until the late stages of the game - like the neutral mountain hex in the middle of Japan on the last screenie.

Either the growth of cities is quite smart about picking which hex to expand into (or do we get some choice on that? not that I've seen) or a lot of the growth is through buying hexes so we do get some choice?

I believe it was said at E3 that tiles are chosen automatically based on the needs of the city.
So if you have automated the city for food growth the routine will acquire grasslands, whereas a focus on production will result in hills being chosen. It was unclear to me how the choice would be made if you are micromanaging the city. It is also more likely to spread along a river than to cross and acquire a tile from the other side (unless it is particularly useful).
I also recall it being said that you can see which tile will be chosen next (it was shown in the demo at E3).

 

[Calouste]

No, they are the same as you can see in this image:

Pic doesn't show.

 

[mjs0]

No, they are the same as you can see in this image:

Pic doesn't show.

Not sure what happened there...is this better?

 

[timtofly]

The hex grid is turned off in these screenshots

Hopefully the nitty-gritty change to come is the "blurring" of the lines. The hex pattern does definitely "show" and is irritating.

 

[PinkHammurabi]

Not sure what happened there...is this better?

I'm fairly certain those are/will be Barbarian Encampments, considering it's nothing like any of the terrain improvement icons. Someone earlier mentioned its proximity to a Roman city, but I think that's because we're not seeing screenshots mid-game so much as a dev's custom make for the purposes of display.

In short, those screens will likely look nothing like the way our games play out as far as geography and such is concerned and they wanted to include a lot of info on each screen.

 

[Calouste]

Not sure what happened there...is this better?

Yes, better. I missed that one and thought you were talking about the one above the mini map, sorry.

So we still don't know what it is then really. It is in the improvement display slot, so it isn't a resource. I would also expect Natural Wonders to be shown in the resource slot rather than in the improvement slot, or just take up the whole hex. User build improvements are black and white, so that doesn't seem to be it either (besides it showing up outside cultural borders). The two possibilities we have heard about so far are barbarian camps and ancient ruins, which would both logically be shown in the improvement slot, but neither of them would be expected to survive until 1590AD within a civ's cultural borders.

 

[mjs0]

I'm fairly certain those are/will be Barbarian Encampments, considering it's nothing like any of the terrain improvement icons. Someone earlier mentioned its proximity to a Roman city, but I think that's because we're not seeing screenshots mid-game so much as a dev's custom make for the purposes of display.

In short, those screens will likely look nothing like the way our games play out as far as geography and such is concerned and they wanted to include a lot of info on each screen.

Greg could tell us for sure but those certainly look like they come from a real game based on the progression and growth from screen to screen. (but I admit that doesn't mean some worldbuilding didn't take place also!)

Of course he could also tell us for sure what the icon is.

 

[Maniac]

I think the strategic view looks ugly. At least if this mode is something which can be played on permanently, I think an effort should be made to make it prettier, something like Battle for Wesnoth.

 

[ZimbuTheMonkey]

I'm curious about how this works.

In CIV4, when you zoomed out all the way you got the 2D view with some of the 3d graphics converted into flat textures.

Is this the same way? When you zoom out all the way does it enable strategic view? Also, is the "3d globe" effect gone?