When I switch to the globe view, it suggests that about 50% of the land mass is ice caps (and unexplorable). I think it would be neat if some method of mapping a sphere was used to make the sphere-shape more apparent, and the globe view proper.
For example, keeping the square based grid, some squares would, as the poles are approached, be rectangular. They would be as wide as two squares visually and adjacent to two squares in the direction of the equator. For movement and harvesting purposes, it's only one tile. Two cities at the southern or northern edges of the map would be very close to each other. The optimal path for long journeys would be an arc: moving to the poles to take advantage of the wider tiles and then returning south to complete the journey, from the flat representation. This is how planes travel in real life.
Other possibilities would be triangles or hexes, though I'm not quite sure what shape a city would be in. The current square arrangement is designed such that cities must have overlap or dead tiles. It is not possible to have a uniform tesellation.
For example, keeping the square based grid, some squares would, as the poles are approached, be rectangular. They would be as wide as two squares visually and adjacent to two squares in the direction of the equator. For movement and harvesting purposes, it's only one tile. Two cities at the southern or northern edges of the map would be very close to each other. The optimal path for long journeys would be an arc: moving to the poles to take advantage of the wider tiles and then returning south to complete the journey, from the flat representation. This is how planes travel in real life.
Other possibilities would be triangles or hexes, though I'm not quite sure what shape a city would be in. The current square arrangement is designed such that cities must have overlap or dead tiles. It is not possible to have a uniform tesellation.
Comment