But of course water in the form of steam does contribute to the greenhouse affect (it's just not toxic and will condense to water vapour quickly enough:)
Will there be an option for real-time or concurrent moves??
I recall something like this for one of the multiplayer modes of a previous civ version (never played it tho). This could be an interesting option for providing different dynamics to the gameplay, both for multiplayer and single player modes. There would need to be a method to resolve conflicting moves etc (eg. two players move a unit to the same square), but I'm sure it could be done. This could either be quasi real-time, where players have a limited time to take their turn, or simply wait for everyone to finish before processing the end of turn. Either method would allow players (human & computer) to take their turn at the same time, and could remove some of the imbalance introduced by a sequential turn system (eg. kill one city just for the next computer player to build another city before your next turn).
Will Civ IV support hexagonal grids, eithere built in or via modding??
The screen shots I have seen are all square grids. Hex grids make for a fairer movement system, as opposed to square grids where a diagonal move costs the same but takes you further than left/right/up/down moves. FreeCiv provides a hex grid/tileset that I find preferable to the 'classic' square style.
If there is no support for hexagonal grids, what has been done to resolve the issue with movement points and other problems resulting from the use of a square grid system?
Will the screen resolution be artificially restricted??
Civ III forced a resolution of 1024x768 or similar, which was extremely annoying given the small amount of map area visible (a big problem with the game IMO). The ability to zoom will somewhat alleviate this problem, but it would also be nice to use the full 1920x1200 resolution I have available. This is particularly relevant to a tactical game like Civ where you often need an overview of an area for strategic planning, and having to scroll back and forth to get this is detrimental to the playability of the game.
btw. FreeCiv allows any resolution (being window based), so if an Open source clone can do it there's no excuse for a commercial release:)
A few years back there was a proposal to build a solar plant in outback australia. It worked like a giant inverted funnel, with a large gently sloping transparant outer section feeding into a steep chimney like neck in the center. Greenhouse effects heat the air underneath, pushing it faster and faster towards the chimney where turbines converted the air flow to electricity. I think it covered a few square kilometers at least, so the air flow build up over that area concentrated in the one place would produce some pretty powerful wind flows. Apparantly it would be able to produce enough power to run a number of major cities.
The thing with this is that the technology is so simple. Very few moving parts and (in it's simplest form) nothing more advanced than turbines producing electricity... given the knowledge of turbines and electricity something like this could have been built thousands of years ago!
I don't know what happened to the proposal or if it's still under consideration... I might do some reasearch to find out.
A point that also applies to other forms of solar power... any method that ends up generating rotational motion to produce power could theoretically work 24/7, regardless of day/night cycle. If you use the generated energy to rotate a very heavy flywheel, in theory this could gain enough rotational inertia during the day to keep turning and generating power all night. This would eliminate the need for expensive, inefficient batteries or conventional power stations.
Thinking big seems to lead to effective, green power solutions that need a minimum of complex technology to work. So think big:)
Slashdot Mirror
Let me guess, three of them?
"I knew Ghandi, he was a prick..." (from Robin Williams live on Broadway, so it must be true)
How about using that old DOS O/S and building a windowing system on top of that?
Happy Valley is real, and not far from where I live...
r ess.do?advertiserId=&streetNumber=&streetName=&poi Type=&suburb=happy+valley&state=South+Australia&x= 17&y=6
http://www.whereis.com/whereis/mapping/geocodeAdd
And no more linking too Google searches when posting in Slashdot :)
But of course water in the form of steam does contribute to the greenhouse affect (it's just not toxic and will condense to water vapour quickly enough :)
How can this be modded "Insightful" when it totally mis-interprets the meaning of the post it criticizes??
This actually makes me glad to be an american... for the first time in a while...
Where does this say they're glad the fins are getting a raw deal?? They're just glad it hasn't happened to them.
The rest of the point may be valid but don't go making it at someone elses expense. Try "flamebait" next time.
Will there be an option for real-time or concurrent moves??
I recall something like this for one of the multiplayer modes of a previous civ version (never played it tho). This could be an interesting option for providing different dynamics to the gameplay, both for multiplayer and single player modes. There would need to be a method to resolve conflicting moves etc (eg. two players move a unit to the same square), but I'm sure it could be done. This could either be quasi real-time, where players have a limited time to take their turn, or simply wait for everyone to finish before processing the end of turn. Either method would allow players (human & computer) to take their turn at the same time, and could remove some of the imbalance introduced by a sequential turn system (eg. kill one city just for the next computer player to build another city before your next turn).
Will Civ IV support hexagonal grids, eithere built in or via modding??
The screen shots I have seen are all square grids. Hex grids make for a fairer movement system, as opposed to square grids where a diagonal move costs the same but takes you further than left/right/up/down moves. FreeCiv provides a hex grid/tileset that I find preferable to the 'classic' square style.
If there is no support for hexagonal grids, what has been done to resolve the issue with movement points and other problems resulting from the use of a square grid system?
Will the screen resolution be artificially restricted??
:)
Civ III forced a resolution of 1024x768 or similar, which was extremely annoying given the small amount of map area visible (a big problem with the game IMO). The ability to zoom will somewhat alleviate this problem, but it would also be nice to use the full 1920x1200 resolution I have available. This is particularly relevant to a tactical game like Civ where you often need an overview of an area for strategic planning, and having to scroll back and forth to get this is detrimental to the playability of the game.
btw. FreeCiv allows any resolution (being window based), so if an Open source clone can do it there's no excuse for a commercial release
Actually, Mimas (another Saturnian moon) is the space station you refer to...
e -details.cfm?imageID=1637
Death star/moon:
http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/images/imag
A few years back there was a proposal to build a solar plant in outback australia. It worked like a giant inverted funnel, with a large gently sloping transparant outer section feeding into a steep chimney like neck in the center. Greenhouse effects heat the air underneath, pushing it faster and faster towards the chimney where turbines converted the air flow to electricity. I think it covered a few square kilometers at least, so the air flow build up over that area concentrated in the one place would produce some pretty powerful wind flows. Apparantly it would be able to produce enough power to run a number of major cities. The thing with this is that the technology is so simple. Very few moving parts and (in it's simplest form) nothing more advanced than turbines producing electricity... given the knowledge of turbines and electricity something like this could have been built thousands of years ago! I don't know what happened to the proposal or if it's still under consideration... I might do some reasearch to find out. A point that also applies to other forms of solar power... any method that ends up generating rotational motion to produce power could theoretically work 24/7, regardless of day/night cycle. If you use the generated energy to rotate a very heavy flywheel, in theory this could gain enough rotational inertia during the day to keep turning and generating power all night. This would eliminate the need for expensive, inefficient batteries or conventional power stations. Thinking big seems to lead to effective, green power solutions that need a minimum of complex technology to work. So think big :)