As I'm trying to design my Fading Light 2 (Alpha title) I'm thinking a lot about what I like in a game and while I don't need top-shelf graphics I do like pretty things. And I like a lot of visual rewards. Over the last few years, I've played a lot of CIve 2 scenarios and seen a lot of ways visual flair can give a lot of impression to the player. One of the most notable is the battle damage mechanic from Over the Reich where the successful bombing of oil refines and civilian centers will cause them to burst into flames on the ground map until they are successfully repaired.
But this flair can also be seen in American kingdoms where City Walls are renamed infrastructure and cities without it looks post-apocalyptic and severely damaged but look pristine and modern once the improvement is rebuilt and it feels very rewarding to build it. You can also see this in the many suburbs In Nomine or Sea Lion which use Railroads to aesthetic effect to simulate Urban Centers or Med Wars which use them to simulate the Wonders of the World and that was very cool.
The easiest way to reward the player visually is with trophy units. BUT, with 127 units being a hard limit at the moment and no one in a hurry to raise it I don't think we'll be seeing many of those. Resource terrains are nice but you're limited to 16.
Apparently, there's not a way to fix type two terrains (mountains, forests) at certain tiles in certain configs, which would drastically increase the options for trophies and wonders on one map.
But we have airports and teleports! Is there an easy way to place the teleports in maps where they have no use because there aren't other maps or not the full complement of other maps?
Any other ideas to add visual flair? I should mention Fading Lights using Airports as Monstaries and Red Front using Mines as Suburbs and also the original Midgard using the Desert terrain as a shallow sea (with corrals!)
But this flair can also be seen in American kingdoms where City Walls are renamed infrastructure and cities without it looks post-apocalyptic and severely damaged but look pristine and modern once the improvement is rebuilt and it feels very rewarding to build it. You can also see this in the many suburbs In Nomine or Sea Lion which use Railroads to aesthetic effect to simulate Urban Centers or Med Wars which use them to simulate the Wonders of the World and that was very cool.
The easiest way to reward the player visually is with trophy units. BUT, with 127 units being a hard limit at the moment and no one in a hurry to raise it I don't think we'll be seeing many of those. Resource terrains are nice but you're limited to 16.
Apparently, there's not a way to fix type two terrains (mountains, forests) at certain tiles in certain configs, which would drastically increase the options for trophies and wonders on one map.
But we have airports and teleports! Is there an easy way to place the teleports in maps where they have no use because there aren't other maps or not the full complement of other maps?
Any other ideas to add visual flair? I should mention Fading Lights using Airports as Monstaries and Red Front using Mines as Suburbs and also the original Midgard using the Desert terrain as a shallow sea (with corrals!)
