Are you finding that the game is much more playable from the cloth map???!!! I am!

from Stardock Forums

Now that I had my first real weekend to focus on the new game, I noticed almost by accident that playing the game on the cloth map is superior in almost every way to playing zoomed in!

 

Why it's better to play on the cloth map:

1)  You don't have to rotate the camera to right-click your destination if it's behind a mountain.

2)  The Grid on the cloth map view is much more reliable and responsive to clicking precicely where you want to go.

3)  The cloth map is the ONLY map that shows you with good precision where the forests start and end.  This is critical to ensuring that you get the most of your move points.  If you zoom in from the cloth map to the main window, you will see that the forests ACTUALLY extend about 1 square further than they appear to on the main game screen.  So if you want your hero/character/whatever to move along the border of the forest but still get his/her full move points, and you attempt to do this by eyeballing the main screen, you will find your guy getting tripped up in forests when it’s not obvious that they should be.  Zooming out to the cloth map always gives you your full move points.

4)  The cloth map is the only map that reliably shows mountain passes in a way that allows you to optimize your moves.

5)  Selecting a city to see its build queue is actually quite difficult on the main screen.  I’m always accidentally clicking caravans and heroes and buildings when I just want to see the city.

6)  Any kind of strategic positioning of units is difficult when you are zoomed in so close.

7)  It is very easy to see the destination markers on th cloth map, but VERY DIFFICULT on the main screen especially if the destination is hilly and/or has buildings on it.

 

Problems with the Cloth Map that should be fixed:

1)     If you’re playing a race with a darker color, it can be difficult to differentiate your pieces from the enemy’s pieces.  The NPC icons on the map should be changed to look more different than the player(s)

2)     The goody huts are hard to see on the cloth map, you have to really squint

3)     The caravan lines / roads are nearly impossible to see on the cloth map

4)     When a unit is in the city and you right-click to move him out of the city, he will move there, but then the cursor gets locked and you can’t give him further orders.  You need to click off your unit then click back on and give them the new orders. 

5)     (PROBLEM WITH BOTH MAPS (BUG)).  There is no way to build on a resource if friendly unit is standing on it, including a caravan.

 

elemental
6,862 views 9 replies
Reply #1 from Elemental Forums Top

Personally, no not really. I go back and forth between the cloth map and zoomed right in. My video card is not having the FPS issues some people are reporting. So I can get right in close and the models and textures look great.

Reply #2 from Elemental Forums Top

I find that resources and goodie huts are more easily visible on the cloth map. The zoomed in map has some "debris" in some squares that really doesn't have any game purpose, and I'm having a hard time distinguishing this from the broken caravans and other goodie huts.

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Reply #3 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting cwg009, reply 1
Personally, no not really. I go back and forth between the cloth map and zoomed right in. My video card is not having the FPS issues some people are reporting. So I can get right in close and the models and textures look great.
End of cwg009's quote
this exactly.

Reply #4 from Elemental Forums Top

I fully agree with you. I am actually only playing on the cloth map, because of the reasons you give. Good points on the bug reports / ideas. I experience the same.

There is also another bug I sometimes notice, and this is that sometimes when I return from saving the game, the normal map is back. I then need to click the option 'only cloth map' twice to get back to the cloth map.

Reply #5 from Elemental Forums Top

I love the cloth map.  It's so much easier to tell at a glance exactly what's going on in your kingdom.  The 3D view is pretty, but the information it conveys is more obscure.

1)     If you’re playing a race with a darker color, it can be difficult to differentiate your pieces from the enemy’s pieces.  The NPC icons on the map should be changed to look more different than the player(s)
End of quote

Use the "smart player colors" option in the settings.  That way you and your allies will always show up as green, neutral players will be yellow, and enemies will be red.

Reply #6 from Elemental Forums Top

The cloth map takes up a lot less resources. I can actually play two different games at the same time if I use the cloth map. The only problems with the cloth map is that I have trouble determining where hills start and I like how it looks in the graphic version.

Reply #7 from Elemental Forums Top

Another (major) trouble with the cloth map (which I've been playing in since it's not nearly as resource intensive) is that you can't see where cliffs enter the sea.

Reply #8 from Stardock Forums Top

Quoting Mtn_Man, reply 5
I love the cloth map.  It's so much easier to tell at a glance exactly what's going on in your kingdom.  The 3D view is pretty, but the information it conveys is more obscure.

Use the "smart player colors" option in the settings.  That way you and your allies will always show up as green, neutral players will be yellow, and enemies will be red.
End of Mtn_Man's quote

Thanks for the tip!  I will try this!

Reply #9 from Elemental Forums Top

Mountains are too high for nothing in 2d view that's for sure! They annoy me...

 

A nice texture of mountains with a certain elevation would be much clearer as to "This is a mountain" and "You can't walk here"

Same with mountain passes or forest limits; They all need different sets of textures for their floor to delimit them clearly.