Do NOT have hexagons.

[Sirotnikov]

Do not have those annoying six sided shapes. I prefare diamonds.

I recently played Age of Wonders which has them, and it sucks!

In order to move in one sides I have to spend two movement points. I can only move in 6 directions. That sucks ass.

[MidKnight Lament]

I don't think I've heard a good argument against hexagons yet. I think people will get used to playing with them very quickly if they're in Civ3, and then we'd wonder why it wasn't that way all along.

- MKL

[Steve Clark]

Sirotnikov: Are you not bothered at all by the distorted movements of diamonds in moving N, S, E or W? Quite a few people favored hexes as evident by the recent votes. Go read that long thread that discussed the pros and cons of hexes.

[This message has been edited by Steve Clark (edited April 13, 2000).]

[Slingshot]

Aside from a good "tileless" system, I would have to say that hexagons are preferable to squares or diamonds.

But maybe what Sirotnikov saw in Age of Wonders was how a well-organized interface can use any type of grid system and make it look/feel good.

[Sirotnikov]

Although diamonds do make the movement distorted a bit, you can still move in 8 directions. You move to the sides of the diamond and to the corners. That's four sides and four corners. Hexes on the other hand, have only 6 sides. So how do we move in directions? Either we don't, which sucks, either we do, we move E & W (or N & S, depending on the alignment) to the corners. The last options would create a far more distortion.

Steve Clark, I have read the thread some time ago. I just wanted to share my experience of a game that actually uses hexes, and as a result of this (but not this alone), is very bad. But you do have a point. I will read the thread a gain to refresh my memory.

[Victor Galis]

AOW is a good game, and it showed me that hexes CAN work.

Distortion:

On a grid you can make two types of moves:

1. Straight (Length: 1)
2. Diagonal (Length: 1.44)

And they cost the same!

On a hex:

All moves are equal in distance. It takes 2 moves to move straight up, but that distance is root 3 = 1.73. 2/1.73 = 1.154.

Now true you are getting 1/1.154 as much of a move if you want to go straight up, but the distortion is much less than current grid systems. Perhaps if on the grid it took 1.5 to move diagonally, then the grid might be better, but the hexes would still have 6 equal length moves costin equally much.