Nice Touches

[raingoon]

Thought I'd start a thread for those "nice touches" that often make the difference in a game experience. I'm sure there are hundreds we'd all like to see in Civ 3. I'll kick things off with something that just occurred to me --

1. When a unit is activated, I'd like to HEAR the sound of its terrain. When it moves, throw in the sound it would make moving, and when it's all over FADE FAST into the NEXT unit's terrain. That would really create a three-dimensional experience of the game world.

For instance, when my trireme is activated on a coastline and waiting for me to move it, we hear the sound of the surf. Then when it moves up the coast, we hear the surf and occasionally the cry of scattering sea gulls. And when it gets daring and heads out to sea, let me hear the WINDS BUFFETING, and the HULL ACHING to break open -- which of course there is a percentage chance that it will, in which case we hear that Civ 2 GUB-GUB sound, for old time's sake. All in all, a nice touch.

The new graphics engine Firaxis is touting ought to inspire some suggestions. They say it will really "bring the Civ world to life"...

Other civ's units as well? I think that would get annoying very fast (IMHO)

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~~~I am who I am, who I am - but who am I?~~~

[raingoon]

Definitely NOT other Civ's units. Those should be the opposite -- just the facts. And if fog of war, not even that.

As a rule? I'll go out on a limb here, but nothing annoying should be in the game.

haha, hmmmm...there are so many different opinions on what's annoying about Civ...how can Firaxis please us all? :-)

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~~~I am who I am, who I am - but who am I?~~~

[Biddles]

They had sounds in the original railroad tycoon for whenever you clicked on a terrain.... I removed my speakers.

If they are in the background (not much louder than b/g music) than they would be fine, but too loud and they get very repetitive.

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- Biddles

"Now that our life-support systems are utilising the new Windows 2027 OS, we don't have to worry about anythi......."
Mars Colonizer Mission

[general_charles]

I think that it is nice to have little touches like that for a while, but it gets real boring after a short while, take for example CTP, units have to turn to move, they make an awful lot of noice when they do and that is just annoying, because units that travel 10 squares by rail just seem to take forever to go there.

I agree. The less "noise" the better. I'd like to see Civ 3 concentrate on better music as far as sound goes. IMHO, the constant noise would get very annoying.

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~~~I am who I am, who I am - but who am I?~~~

[mwaf]

Try this:
open civII and let it be, do something else meanwhile, something like doing homework, the music will get boring quite soon and you'll switch off the speakers looking like this


I wouldn't mind some sound, however, it must be done well and fit into the background music otherwise it'll soon be turn off in the options menu....

Exactly why better music is a Civ 3 neccessity. :-)

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~~~I am who I am, who I am - but who am I?~~~

[raingoon]

Wow. Well, maybe I should have titled this thread "Nice ANNOYING Touches." If I think of any more nail-scrapers I know where to post 'em!

[Stuff2]

quote: Originally posted by raingoon on 05-04-2000 06:08 PM 1. When a unit is activated, I'd like to HEAR the sound of its terrain. When it moves, throw in the sound it would make moving, and when it's all over FADE FAST into the NEXT unit's terrain. That would really create a three-dimensional experience of the game world.

When my 25 tanks and 10 missiles starts the successful invasion of an enemy i don't want to hear annoying sounds for every move each of these 35 units make. It would simply take too much time and it would be too annoying.
Let's say every tank moves across 5 squares and every missile moves across 10 squares.
225 soundeffects after each other. If i wanted this kind of experience i would simply buy a CD with experimental music. I will certinly not buy a game where a single turn takes more than an hour (with annoying soundeffects).

I think firaxis should concentrate more on strategy and gameplay and less on stupid effects that gets boring and annoying after a while. (It took me three months of gameplay to turn of the soundeffects in civ2). I don't want a game with fancy unit's slowly moving across the screen during several minutes.

[MidKnight Lament]

Well, perhaps that particular idea wasn't a goer (although occasional sounds like seagulls sounds good), but what other "nice touches" can we think of? The thread is still a good one. Much like a similar one in the CTP2 forum actually.

- MKL

I don't know how many agree with me, but I always liked talking to the leader of a country (Civ I). Not a diplomat. (Civ II)
Although in real life you don't just talk to the leader of a country, you talk to a diplomat, I just found it more interesting to talk to Mao or Stalin than a weird dude dressed up in Hosiery who taps his foot a lot. I don't think it'd be 2 much to do to give each Civ an animated leader who you can speak with. But again, I could be the only one feels this way...

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~~~I am who I am, who I am - but who am I?~~~

[DanM]

quote: Originally posted by OrangeSfwr on 05-07-2000 08:54 PM I just found it more interesting to talk to Mao or Stalin than a weird dude dressed up in Hosiery who taps his foot a lot. I don't think it'd be 2 much to do to give each Civ an animated leader who you can speak with. But again, I could be the only one feels this way...

You are right.I always thought those CivII "heralds" were terribly annoying and they always looked the same no matter what time in history you happened to be in.
Lets bring back the original diplomacy screen like you say,but lets improve it.Maybe we could have a different leader represent the nation depending on what period of history they happen to be in,and maybe they could change every time you reach a new era in history.For example,for England during the medieval era you would see Henry VIII,but in the modern era you would see Winston Churchill.
Any thoughts on this?

[Urban Ranger]

That's a good idea.

I also like to be able to customize the interface to a certain degree, esp. the shortcut menu.

[general_charles]

I think nice touches would have to be optionnal, but I'd like to be able to take a tour inside of my cities, with the tour changing depending on where the city is built, what age we are in, what the level of crime and corruption is, the population of the city and so on, because civ2's city view was just pathetic.

[Adm.Naismith]

Nice touches should be only "touches", not very intrusive, not very difficult to programme (so no one will be afraid of "time wasted by programmer instead of...").

I'm not sure if mine will be a nice touche or just an unwanted feature for everyone here (raingoon, now you know how many bitter apolytoner are around here ).

Well, I would like that every now and then a small pop-up will appear with some brief excerpt from real historical documents (translated in current language, of course).

I don't want a full history book, but after a long state of war should be nice to read about some real soldiers life, or after the discovery of industrialization to read about poor workers condition, or after a disease spreading around know some info about losses by real epidemic in past time.

The info's should be related to current game state when possible, so the player can link them to actual actions.

I just want to inject some life into our simulated Civ, and I will like to add the "bottom-down" perspective to actual "from God seat" where every war lost is only a nuisance not a tragedy, every city growth only a sign of power by numbers, not more people you are responsible for.

I would try to show in game a glance of the ethic part of politics (yes, it should be one ) because conquering the whole world on the wings of an apocalictical ecological disaster mustn't be a victory at all.

[general_charles]

I think that there should be some videos available for battles, like when you win a battle with 4 archers and 4 legions (assuming battle looks like CTP), you can then see your archers firind, the other troops dieing, then you can see your legion advancing into enemy lives, and you can see your troops cheering after battle is over. Of course, this could be optionnal, and if you get bored with it, it should be easy to turn off.

I have one - after taking a city from another civ, a ride through town with your army (In the beginning carried (one of those portable throne's carried by slaves) Horseback, then horsedrawn carraige, than car, future?

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~~~I am who I am, who I am - but who am I?~~~

[ajbera]

I agree with Admiral Naismith. 'History Book' style descriptives after/during certain important events would be very cool, or first-hand accounts from witnesses. For instance, there is a food shortage in a city that results in population loss due to famine. A popup window appears with some text, an account of starvation and cannibalism in that city by a historian of the era. I know something of this type can easily take up lots of room in the program, but it would go so far in giving the game that stylish touch of authenticity that's missing from the previous Civ games.

[Adm.Naismith]

Thanks for support ajbera!

About your fear of

quote: I know something of this type can easily take up lots of room in the program

I think that programming code needed is very small, and Firaxis can put lot of (compressed) text and quite some small pictures in few Mb of CD-Rom.
In a game where history play a so big role I think that (as usually happens with good movies and books) background play a main role into the deepness of the whole experience.

Firaxis can make a "trigger system" for pop-up that can be used and customized for scenary and mod, too!

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Admiral Naismith AKA mcostant

This thread is a good one, I'm posting to keep it alive and make sure it doesn't disappear into the archives

Happy posting!

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~~~I am who I am, who I am - but who am I?~~~