posted 05-18-99 04:26 PM ET
The most important part of the graphics, IMNSHO, is if it slows down the game. The high-resolution images in SMAC were great, but they were unacceptably slow, even on my PII 300 with 64MB of RAM. The low-resolution files, which looked just fine and ran super-fast, were buried on the CD. There should be a choice during installation of if you want high- or low-resolution graphics (if that option is available).The graphics should not get in the way of gameplay. In games like Command & Conquer, poor gameplay could be overlooked if the game had awesome graphics. But people don't play Civilization III for the graphics. So make the graphics as good as you can without hindering the true reason for TBS games: gameplay.
A 3D format is a must. In modern games, 2D isometric units, such as those in CivII are simply not acceptable. The system in SMAC was great, but it will obviously need updating because it will be old technology by the time CivIII comes out. If a modular system is used for units (choosing the chassis, weapon, etc. to make custom units), the individual parts should be clearly visible. I found it just fine in SMAC, but some people were complaining about not being able to distinguish different weapon types on the main map.
If a proprietary 3D format is used, there should be an alternate format (such as .pcx) for user-made units. In SMAC, you cannot customize the unit graphics, making MOD packs less flexible. For example, I'm currently working on a historical MOD for SMAC, but it will look really wierd with the regular units. A user-editable graphics file would be really useful.