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I'm aware of the status. My issue is not with the cloth map,or the map at all, or what will eventually be 3d graphics, but with the interface. Fantasy games have typically had nicely rendered interface elements. Stardock's philosophy is to sacrifice the look of the game for "infinite" scalability. The result, in my opinion, is a very sterile looking interface, devoid of much in the way of personality. They did the same thing with Gal Civ 2 , and I see the same thing happening here.
I understand the reasons they do it. It doesnt affect my wanting to buy or play the game. I just find it unfortunate. I appreciate a bit more personality in my fantasy games. I like painted textures and interfaces. Vector graphics are bland and boring, in my opinion. That screenshot is rough and simplistic, but the interface has much more personality, like fantasy games of this sort have traditionally had. Like I said, this has no bearing on me buying the game. I'll simply wish it looked a bit more interesting.
I get you now, and I'm caught square on the fence with some complaints about non-scalable parts of the GC2 UI and my sympathy with your concern about how scalability might be an ugly factor when it comes to art parameters. If this were GC3 we were talking about, I might easily ditch any concerns about strong art in the UI. But they really seem to be aiming for more with Elemental, so I guess I agree with you after all. At least if I'm allowed to still want to have my cake and eat it too...