Mod Approval Process - Blue Marble

[pholkhero]

You can knock that up in the WB in not a lot of time, then just open in the gmae with and without BM for comparison. The only real time consuming bit is that you'll need to cover every possible combination of base terrain, hills, FP, improvement, cultural border, etc.

Yes, that's what i thought, too...though, once we set-up the combos, we can just overlay...or rather underlay...the different terrain w/o needing to reset every additional resource.

@ Ruff ~ sometimes, if you notice, plains swirl into grasslands, or grasslands swirl into flood plains in some of the screenshots i've seen, but, we'll see.

also, the "Walk the Scout" idea seems to be more work than is needed. what's the rationale for that??

[Atlas]

-please use "gridded" shots for Vanilla and blue marble so that it is easier to see where one tile ends and the next begins (ungridded will probably also be necessary- as Ruff pointed out). Also don't forget shots with resources turned on/off and with tile yields turned on/off (wow I am really only now realizing the number variations that need to be included )

-don't forget to inclued shots with units too

-don't forget tribal huts (probably you know, but I just did not see it in the list with resources, terrain improvements etc.)

*I don't use an mods, but am just sort of trying to help. Maybe I should try the Blue Marble (what is that is better? or is it just different?)

[Ruff_Hi]

also, the "Walk the Scout" idea seems to be more work than is needed. what's the rationale for that??

This is getting bigger than BenHur. The walk the scout was to slowly push back the fog. I am thinking that the major issue (if any) will be at the fog boundary.

[pholkhero]

Ruff, here's some major issues:

notice the tile bleeding:









this is just from a game i wsa playing as just loaded up BlueMarble for the first time. The highres tiles slow my computer down ridiculously, so i've uninstalled and am now running the LoRes version...i'll see how that changes things, but if this type of bleeding is typical in the fog, it certainly gives more info than Vanilla civ.

edit: I was wrong. Check these pic out, the first are vanilla, the second are marbled. Not much difference, no?










unfortunately, due to kids, i'm going to have to postpone more pics from worldbuilder for tonight. We won't need to "walk the scout" b/c you can set which tiles are revealed and which are in the fog ~ as seen above.

[Ruff_Hi]

There are a whole bunch of screen shots that we need to collect. How do you want to split the work up? I'm happy to gather the resources on terrain variations. Another question - do we look at it with a) normal camera view b) satellite view c) skewed 45 degrees East d) skewed 45 degrees West?

[Ruff_Hi]

Bleeding is not a graphics issue - it is a CIV4 graphic rendering thing. See below.

Left is BM, right is Vanilla

[Munterpipe]

Hey Ruff, on your site you have promised us an adv. 8 report.

[pholkhero]

Bleeding is not a graphics issue - it is a CIV4 graphic rendering thing. See below.

Yes, i noticed it once i did a side-by-side with my screens. I guess i never noticed it as much.

As far as terrain and testing ~ i'm thinking something similar to what you did below ~ a 5x5 or 10x10 terrain where only a portion is revealed and then side-by-side comparisons to see if BM (he he) reveals more than Vanilla through the fog ~ so far, i can't see that it does, but more testing will show that.

Let's see, we've got:

Grasslands
Plains
Desert
Tundra
Coast
Ocean
Mountain/Impassable

these are the basic types and, if i understand the way the terrain is constructed, these attributes are overlaid on top:
Hills
Forests
Jungles
Flood Plains

we also need to consider:
Rivers
Resources
Enemy borders perhaps?

personally, i'd rather have a hard-set idea of HOW to go about doing this so we don't do it willy-nilly and end up with things we don't need and not have things we do ~ and then break up the work ~ (it'd be nice of others who use BM wanted to get involved *hint, hint* ~ what did Sirian say, "plenty who talk the talk, but are short on the walk" ~ esp since my comp might not even be able to use BM at all)

any and all, feel free to add in what you think should also be tested, but the whole crux of it seems to be whether or not the BM terrain reveals more to the player than the Vanilla ~ so far, prelim testing indicates no, but ~ let's go beyond

[Munterpipe]

I think you are doing good work. I'm gone for two weeks now, but when I get back, I'll help out. From what we've seen so far, there's no difference at all.

[pholkhero]

Hey Ruff, on your site you have promised us an adv. 8 report.

yeah, what about that??

edit: oh, and thanks for the help, but shouldn't you be playing a certain save that you were chomping at the bit for Silly Swede!