Why we have useless Ice block tiles....

[VainoValkea]

Indeed, I was keeping my hopes up for a globe map in Civ V as well but nope - cylinder as usual. Granted, it's not a very big deal, and making the world a globe instead of a sphere is far more challenging from both modeling and interface perspective.

However, the race to the frozen wastelands around the poles would definitely be a fun science challenge for the game. Maybe in Civ VI...

 

[m15a]

It's a shame no Civ game has a true globe map, there could be a science race for North and South poles.

is a globe possible on a tile-based map? or, i guess, is it possible in an intuitive way (in terms of play)?

 

[VainoValkea]

A globe isn't possible without cheating a bit (unless we'd enjoy an icosahedric map!). I believe a passable "globoid" could be achieved by not forcing the tiling to be exactly regular and uniform - there could be differently shaped tiles at the poles, for example.

As for intuitivity, that would be the real challenge. For example, I have no idea how I'd project the minimap for easy and accurate viewing.

 

[Hulking Lummox]

As for intuitivity, that would be the real challenge. For example, I have no idea how I'd project the minimap for easy and accurate viewing.

I imagine that could be accomplished similarly to how it works now. The minimap could just be a flat "skin" of the globe layed out in thhe corner of the interface. The globe as it is on the game map would only need to process if you zoomed out all the way (in theory), and 50% of the world is not seen when you zoom out.

Sorry for off topic! Back to ice everybody!

 

[pilot00]

Maybe because all of those civs you mentioned are in the mediterranean and never in their time they dealt with polar regions, apart from the portugese they not even settled to new world ??Of course Egyptians have no problem with non existant ice blocks

If you asked a Greek sailor around 600BC about something called Aborea, he would speak to you about some hot Swedish blondes (or not so hot at the time, but you catch the drift)

We have some relics from up there in the Atalos museum in Athens. It appears those horn cups and a couple of trinkets were traded in the frozen lands of Scandinavia at the time.

 

[VainoValkea]

I imagine that could be accomplished similarly to how it works now. The minimap could just be a flat "skin" of the globe layed out in thhe corner of the interface.

It's not that easy, I'm afraid. The current map is essentially rectangular, and it's easy to scale it down to a smaller rectangle (the minimap). As for the "skin" of the globe, you can't flatten it into a rectangle without distorting it.

But yeah, this is something the Devs have to ponder, not us.

 

[Loaf Warden]

Given the history of the Northwest Passage, I'm perfectly fine with having useless ice tiles blocking routes. The only thing I might conceivably alter is to have them gradually migrate to open and close routes over time. That does happen, and it would be interesting if ships could actually get stuck. I don't know how well it would work in practice.

As for the globe, I know it's off-topic (I will self-flagellate for twenty minutes in penance), but I've wanted a globe for a long time. Why couldn't there just be one hex at each pole with more hexes radiating out in concentric rings that meet in the longest ring at the equator? Compare this image I found online:

Spoiler :

Admittedly the mini-map in the corner is ugly. But for the main map itself, is there any reason this wouldn't work? I'm no tessellationist, and you can't see the entire globe in that image. Maybe it doesn't work on the other side?

 

[VainoValkea]

I believe that does work for the entire globe. My hardly educated guess is that they aren't regular hexagons but there is some minor stretching involved to make them cover the entire globe. It wouldn't be an issue in Civ as long as it looked decent.

 

[Loaf Warden]

And they could program it so that each tile in the rings nearest the poles could have certain odds of being ice, such that in some games you'll get Northwest Passage situations, where the route over or under a continent is blocked, but rarely you might actually get a viable path through the entire ice sheet to come out the other side. That could be really interesting.

 

[Luziadus]

I explained several times that Im not meaning the ice terrains, paths, or whatever, but the Ice pieces we have in the ice terrain coast= icebergs which dont give any resource or yield....

 

[Luziadus]

Maybe because all of those civs you mentioned are in the mediterranean and never in their time they dealt with polar regions, apart from the portugese they not even settled to new world ??Of course Egyptians have no problem with non existant ice blocks

they settled in a small land in what is now Canada before Columbus and even with that they didnt had problems with ice.

 

[Ryoga]

I explained several times that Im not meaning the ice terrains, paths, or whatever, but the Ice pieces we have in the ice terrain coast= icebergs which dont give any resource or yield....

You are not being perfectly clear.

What people here are assuming is that by "ice" you don't mean a terrain at all, but the ice that floats on water. In other words the tiles that can't be accessed by any unit except the submarines. This is the only ice tile in the game and of course it doesn't produce any yield.


The terrain found in northern regions is called snow terrain not ice. That also doesn't produce any yield unless it's near a river, but it doesn't block units at all nor it slow their movements.


So which are you talking about snow or ice?


EDIT: By the way if you are talking about beaches and tourism then why not ski resorts?

 

[Luziadus]

You are not being perfectly clear.

What people here are assuming is that by "ice" you don't mean a terrain at all, but the ice that floats on water. In other words the tiles that can't be accessed by any unit except the submarines. This is the only ice tile in the game and of course it doesn't produce any yield.


The terrain found in northern regions is called snow terrain not ice. That also doesn't produce any yield unless it's near a river, but it doesn't block units at all nor it slow their movements.


So which are you talking about snow or ice?


EDIT: By the way if you are talking about beaches and tourism then why not ski resorts?

im talking in what the title says, ski resorts? it could do, but i was refering beach as a terrain with tourism yield, and not about hotels and resorts on the beach, BUT that could be the other improvement of the tile, could do the same if you had a mountain with snow near you could improve with a resort by a great engineer.

 

[whyidie]

Ice tiles are useless because ice is largely useless. I could stand for giving them science, but thats about it. If you build on snow/ice regions, that should be nothing more than an outpost.

Icebreakers...I want canals but admit its a fetish. Same for icebreakers, except I don't really want them.

Units crossing ice...no unless you want to treat them like mountains and have health impacted. Ice tiles represent polar regions which are largely unpopulated and impassable. Keep them the way they are.

Beach tiles aren't in because they aren't prevalent enough to warrant inclusion. I am in the "coast tiles are underpowered" group and have felt they needed a boost. Tourism is an interesting way to boost them a bit, but with ITRs giving coastal cities a boost and river tiles losing gold, the argument for coastal tiles being underpowered may be a lot weaker in BNW.

 

[SamBC]

A good way to make it spherical would be to move to triangular tiles - the geometry is still the same as hexasgons and pentagons, but you would have a few vertices that are five meeting, while all the others are 6.

 

[Katharsis]

they settled in a small land in what is now Canada before Columbus and even with that they didnt had problems with ice.

..

You counted list of mediterranean just because they were seafaring and claimed that they have no problem with ice terrains(what did you expect anyway)

Now you are mentioning vikings

No one is actually having problems with ice other than you anyway. They are unworkable tiles for the sake of realism and actually are useful in late game naval warfare.

About your suggestion involving beach tiles, I guess a building of some sort that adds bonus to coast tiles would be better imo.

 

[Hulking Lummox]

Couldn't mountains also be considered directly (but not indirectly) useless? Acting as natural walls on the map, allowing for Observatories, Incan UI, and Machu and Neusch seem to be the extent of their helpfulness.

My friend and I have discussed at length how nice it would be if during war, your citizens could work mountain tiles for +1 or 2 city defense to reflect the population acting as guerrillas/running to the hills.

 

[Luziadus]

..

You counted list of mediterranean just because they were seafaring and claimed that they have no problem with ice terrains(what did you expect anyway)

Now you are mentioning vikings

No one is actually having problems with ice other than you anyway. They are unworkable tiles for the sake of realism and actually are useful in late game naval warfare.

About your suggestion involving beach tiles, I guess a building of some sort that adds bonus to coast tiles would be better imo.

in fact i was mention the portuguese, as far as i know the vikings didnt settled, just passed by...

a resort or a hotel building per example?

 

[ptoss1]

I honestly think ice blocks should be destructible and reemerge after a period of turns. Three turns would be good.

 

[BSPollux]

I honestly think ice blocks should be destructible and reemerge after a period of turns. Three turns would be good.

what destroys a few thousand kilometers of ice? maybe 10000 nukes?