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[Footkerchief]

I particulerly support better handling of slices lower in elevation. Wasn't one idea just to scale progressivly every z-level beneath the current one and use a parallax? That could work wonders with things like towers and pits, depending on if we scale up or down the size of lower levels.

That's a very interesting idea.  I kind of want to make some mockups of this, using slices from a Z-heavy map.

[Tormy]

I can't help but notice that none of those mockups have multiple Z-levels.

This one does.

Oh, that's what the dark areas area. 

Ah...I thought that the dark area is some terrain type. 

[Mike Mayday]

Yeah, it doesn't look real but it's one way of prividing info about the elevation in that view. Cavalier (or isometric) makes it much easier.

[Tormy]

3... we could employ something more interesting. How about a 3/4 top-down view? All the tiles could have appropriate textures blended in (depending on material and wall type, as shown above).

Btw, this looks like the display method of Warlords 3.

[Skid]

What if the walls were just cut to half height for the z-level you were currently viewing or building on? That would allow a bit more of a "from the side" view without stuff getting covered up.

[Duke 2.0]

What if the walls were just cut to half height for the z-level you were currently viewing or building on? That would allow a bit more of a "from the side" view without stuff getting covered up.

Actually, this would fix the greatest problems. One-tile halls in virgin rock would not seem so... small.

 How about all wall tiles revealed to you are at half-level, as if half the rock is peeled away to reveal what type of rock it is? So the unmined rock of unknown type would just be dark masses, while the one tile on either side of a tunnel would be half-exposed, as if the dwarves mined them enough to see what the rock is but not enough to enter.

[Neonivek]

Remember that we don't want walls covering items

[i are not good with compu]

Re: the last three posts.

Toggle-able wall transparency should not be difficult given the nature of DF.  I don't see how walls covering things needs a more complicated work-around than that.

[Mike Mayday]

The problem is that if it's togglable, it means that sometimes items could get completely covered by the walls and so you'd have to periodically check the whole map if for important items lying under walls.
You obviously wouldn't play with transparency enabled all the time because it's ugly as hell.

[Reasonableman]

Has anyone here played Stronghold, or Stronghold: Crusader? A system similar to that may be, at least, a starting point.

[Sareth]

lol was that RPG maker grass I saw there?

[Tormy]

Has anyone here played Stronghold, or Stronghold: Crusader? A system similar to that may be, at least, a starting point.

Yeah of course...yet another "isometric game".

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

I still say that we should forget about the isometric display method...it would be quite complicated for a game like DF, and frankly making good looking graphics for that...it's near impossible for us.

Take a look at this CastlevaniaRL screenie:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Imho this display method would be perfect, and making top-down tilesets is not that hard at all.

[i are not good with compu]

You obviously wouldn't play with transparency enabled all the time because it's ugly as hell.

And cutting the walls in half doesn't share this problem?  :p

That said, were DF to go (psuedo) iso, I'd support both as togglable options.  You could play with either on permanently if you want, and resorting to periodic checks isn't exactly torturous.

[Mike Mayday]

Rasonable: since I haven't playes Stronghold and Tormy's screenshot doesn't really show how the problem is fixed there, could you elaborate?

Tormy: pixel isometric is actually exactly as easy to make as top-down. It's cavalier that is difficult because the z-axis is diagonal.

I are: maybe not torturous, but you'd have to check most of your map. Everything should be immediately visible all the time (except for engravings, of course ).

Sareth: nope, it was made by a guy from pixeljoint.

[Granite26]

You obviously wouldn't play with transparency enabled all the time because it's ugly as hell.

And cutting the walls in half doesn't share this problem?  :p

That said, were DF to go (psuedo) iso, I'd support both as togglable options.  You could play with either on permanently if you want, and resorting to periodic checks isn't exactly torturous.

psuedo iso means that it looks isometric but no tile leaves it's square... there's no possibility for occlusion