Zoom Levels and Pretty Graphics

from Elemental Forums

In Sins of a Solar Empire, I spent most of my time zoomed out to the point where all the 3d ship models became icons. It was just easier to manage from that perspective. As such, I spent a lot of time looking at a bunch of icons instead of ships and lasers.

A similar thing happens with demigod. The game looks absolutely amazing when you zoom down to the height of the minions and look up at your demigod kicking ass, but most of my time was spent zoomed out so the minions were just tiny figures being stomped on. That was cool too, but didn't look as good.

I'd like to suggest that the devs spend some time thinking about this. It's been stated that the game will be fun without the 3d engine, but please structure the ui and gameplay to take advantage of the pretty graphics.

7,674 views 6 replies
Reply #1 from Elemental Forums Top

With Elemental mashing mechanics from both RPGs and empire builders, we also had to be aware of the HUGE difference in visual scope between the two (RPS tend to be up-close and personal with a party, Empire Builders have you managing thousands of units and dozens of colonies/cities).

Having built with extreme zoom levels in mind, our engine allows the game to feel like an empire builder when zoomed out, then feel more RPG-ish when zoomed in close. With several features unique to both, you should never find that the game is only playable at some arbitrary zoom level (there's always a playable portion game at whatever zoom level you're at).

Reply #2 from Elemental Forums Top

I suppose one point here is that penalties for playing at a particular zoom level should be reduced. I mean that in sins of a solar empire, if you play at a high magnification you can focus fire, judge damage better and use abilities in more interesting ways. However, you can only ever be at one place at any time, and therefore become blind to any event outside that gravity well. (notifications exist, but are very annoying to the point of uselessness... you will have dozens of 'an allies planet is under attack' messages if you've set two empires against each other for example). A question could be, can you control events in a useful way while maintaining a high zoom level? Can you for example command all units not set on standby or given guarding orders to merge on your location? can you adjust production in other areas, without having to know the name of the place you want to affect? How pretty will late game actions be? Sins is best when fighting on one front from a visual point of view... and then it's easy to lose track of production or research in a fun battle.

With elemental there isn't the rush like RTS, so moving in and out in zooms is possible, but for those who want to stay zoomed in... how about on/off buttons for production prompts? anything that could get annoying should be able to be adjusted. I like knowing for example, when an enemy has found an artifact, when I'm being raided and it's not within my field of view and when I've left something idle for a while. (having 10,000 men sat beside the enemys castle idle for a few turns because you forgot about them due to an attack on another front would be annoying... being told you have idle troops, while you're looking at them, each turn of waiting for reinforcements would also be annoying.) All general thoughts. I think having things idle for significant periods is the most annoyingly unrealistic event for games in general, to me anyway. Thinks like Sword of the stars, lacking a research prompt and using a ticker instead... nice for minor events and an easy way of finding post battle reports... but stupid for something so significant.

 

I just hope at a minimum when you're watching your city grow, turn after turn. You get some form of visual notification at that zoom level for significant events (meeting a new empire or finding an empires capital/city under attack/wandering dragon) e.g. a glowing rune or throbbing red mark on a minimap. Something that you wouldn't just click past if it was in a start of turn report.

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Reply #3 from Elemental Forums Top

Gotta agree. The notifications in sins took up quite a bit of screen space but i just flat out ignored them the whole time. Every single scout ship seemed to generate dozens and the important ones got lost in the mess.

On zoom levels, there might be something on each one, but i don't want to have to change to each and every zoom level every turn just to make sure did everything i needed to every turn. Don't want to have to micromanage both the game AND my view.

Reply #4 from Elemental Forums Top

With several features unique to both, you should never find that the game is only playable at some arbitrary zoom level (there's always a playable portion game at whatever zoom level you're at)
End of quote

Does this mean that for the players with very low-end machines, some features like maybe quests or tactical battles will not be playable?

A large chunk of my GalCiv2 playing time was zoomed-out because the 3D stuff wrecked performance on my 'out-dated' box, but nothing substantial about how I played changed when I moved to a rig that let me zoom in to watch a ship combat in 3D or look at the city-glow on the night side of a large-pop world.

Reply #5 from Elemental Forums Top

I admit, whenever people start talking about awesome details, i get a little nervous. My machine isn't that bad, its upgraded decently, but at the same time, its not cutting edge, nor even close. Although i am sure that elementals will be able to run on lower end machines, makes no sence to exclude them, just what are we calling a lower end machine?

I am still using a pent4 w/ 2gigs ram, but after putting in a GF GT 220 it seems to be able to run pretty much any game, even if some are on lower settings. I suspect that elementals might be different as it will actually require the computer to figure things instead of just making it spam shiny polygons. The talk of taking full advantage of 64 bit also made me twitch since i would need to pretty much get a whole new machine to take advantage of the x64 higher possible ram.

Most games, if your computer is substandard you don't really miss anything, just less shadows and shinier armors. My worry on elementals is that i really will need to upgrade my whole machine, get a new one or something, to be able to play all of elementals.

Reply #6 from Elemental Forums Top

Thanks for the reply BoogieBac, it's good to know that this is being considered.

Regarding performance, it's been mentioned that one of the goals is to be able to play on netbooks, so I would guess that older machines will work too.