zooms & graphics

[V. Soma]

I took another look at the Civ IV screenshots circulating...

Warpstorm said in another thread that they are probably at max zoom
(e.g. the "Cologne" one).

Now, I see this and there the forest has miniature trees and the warriors ar giants comapred to them...
...like in CIV III.

Now:

Couldn't it be when having zoom "in" that it be more realistic?
When having only few tiles on the screen, the terrain features (forest, mountain, city etc) could be just way bigger as compared to the units?

I mean, the point is that units should be visible,
so I understand that at zoom "out", when lots of tiles are covered,
units must be unrealistically "big",
but when closed in, they can be still big while terrain can be even bigger,
so not having the same compared "ratio"...

I hope I could tell what I mean...

 

[thescaryworker]

I think there should be a ratio, so that you can see a general overview of where your units are, not just a twisted hink of metal and flesh (except when playing Katamari Damaci).

To see what I mean, look at a sim game, or at the plant or door down the hall. As you move closer, it 'seems' to get bigger.

That is how I want it to be.

 

[JanSobieski]

I like the idea of the units being just big enough to see, while the terrain gets bigger as you move in. Maybe so that a unit could still take up a square, when you zoom in all the way you see an entire army rather than just one guy representing the army. I'm not sure if this will have any technical difficulties with creating graphics though. It might be hard for the game to have 2,000 little guys fighting rather than 2 guys fighting. Still, I'd like the zoom in function to allow terrain features to get bigger compared to units, even if the number of guys per unit stays the same.