Already Suggested: Visualizing the city

[DeletedUser106680]

I think it would be a useful thing if the city could be viewed as a 2D view, ie birdseye view. Still with the ability to build/move/sell/collect etc. Because of the current 3D nature of cityview, oftentimes it can be difficult to see things hiding behind others, even if things in front become transparent, also sometimes it can be awkward to select things like roads for example.

So requirements would be to view city from directly above, and addition of 2D images/icons for the buildings and roads and stuff. There would be no requirement for any animation, and they could be fairly small - the 2D cityview could be zoomable. This could be done as a mode switch of the whole cityview between 3D and 2D (probably easier), or by opening a dialogue to display the map (it would be harder if you wanted the 3D cityview behind the dialogue to repeat what was being done in the 2D cityview dialogue - but cool )

Just as a quickie, it would be nice to have a further level of zoom out, since cities can get rather large

 

[DeletedUser]

I have often thinked about this... I like this idea - +1. maybe there should be a small button on the bottom, which switches some sort of a map version! There you can even name your buildings and streets and be like a real architect!

 

[Cuthwolf]

Surely one of the skills of the game is placing your buildings in such a way that things you need to get to aren't hidden.

 

[DeletedUser105579]

Welcome to the Forums leosuth!
If you want your ideas to be considered you should put them into this standard format (Click here!)

I think it would be a useful thing if the city could be viewed as a 2D view, ie birdseye view. Still with the ability to build/move/sell/collect etc. Because of the current 3D nature of cityview, oftentimes it can be difficult to see things hiding behind others, even if things in front become transparent, also sometimes it can be awkward to select things like roads for example.

So requirements would be to view city from directly above, and addition of 2D images/icons for the buildings and roads and stuff. There would be no requirement for any animation, and they could be fairly small - the 2D cityview could be zoomable. This could be done as a mode switch of the whole cityview between 3D and 2D (probably easier), or by opening a dialogue to display the map (it would be harder if you wanted the 3D cityview behind the dialogue to repeat what was being done in the 2D cityview dialogue - but cool )

This idea has been proposed before, but the idea of a 2d view has multiple problems for the devs to implement, I recommend checking this thread out to see why (Click here!)

Here is a few quotes from that link if you are too lazy to check it out :p, they explain why this idea cannot work:

The developers mentioned how the buildings are done when addressing the question "can we get the ability to rotate buildings". The buildings are all done as a 2d image from a certain perspective and as such they ruled out being able to rotate buildings (or even camera view). I'd imagine that this would also extend to changing the camera view to a top down perspective as it'd require having an image for every item from another perspective.

I agree that it is painful to reorganize various items in towns due to others blocking your view (I have this problem mostly with decorations and roads), but it looks unlikely a top down view will come.

Also using the dark areas to temporarily store buildings would be rejected as it is far too similar to adding a "holding" section which has been rejected before. The developers intended to keep us restricted to the area we have unlocked and in order to rearrange our towns we have to pay the price and sell stuff to make room for reorganizing.

The idea in the opening post to have a means to view your city from overhead view, has been suggested in several similar variations of the idea before, some of which have been passed on to the game developers for their consideration. The links below will take you to some of these posts (where you are also able to see the correct format for putting forward ideas for consideration)

Area grids to show for building ideas?
Hide 3d model when building
Add a button to make buildings invisible/transparent
A couple of suggestions
Building view toggle
A Great Idea
Hide Buildings Option
Road View Mode

I think the simple answer is it would take a huge amount of development time to accomplish it so there is virtually no chance of this ever coming to fruition. When something relatively simple like the army management filter/sort for attached/unattached which has been requested numerous times is still to see the light of day a project of this magnitude is pie in the sky.

So here is a link to an idea in the Popular section on the Ideas forum that doesn't cause these issues, http://forum.en.forgeofempires.com/...utton-to-make-buildings-invisible-transparent, check that out, it is probably the best way for you to get a 2d-ish view

 

[DeletedUser]

The problem isn't that you cant see the building.

 

[DeletedUser105579]

Then +1 a solution.....

Here is a few quotes from that link if you are too lazy to check it out :p, they explain why this idea cannot work:

The developers mentioned how the buildings are done when addressing the question "can we get the ability to rotate buildings". The buildings are all done as a 2d image from a certain perspective and as such they ruled out being able to rotate buildings (or even camera view). I'd imagine that this would also extend to changing the camera view to a top down perspective as it'd require having an image for every item from another perspective.

a 2d floorplan will not work.. I know my response is long, but it would be appreciated if you took the time to read it before commenting, as one could take it as an insult if you respond to someone without reading the information he/she obtained... (unless I explained it really bad, then feel free to inform me of that )

 

[DeletedUser2989]

This idea is being marked "Already Suggested" due to the following idea:
http://forum.en.forgeofempires.com/showthread.php?27535-Put-a-top-view-of-city-in-build-menu-please!