[quote name='Acharis' timestamp='1311329905' post='4838834']
Additional cons for Hexes:
- AI movement might give you troubles (check Civilization V design notes, they said they had a lot of trouble with it)
Do you have a link for this? I'm curious why it gave them trouble. The SRPG I'm working on originally started with hex tiles and the only thing that changed was the functions to get neighbors tiles and affected tiles when using area of effect skills. The AI remained the same and works just as well with square tiles.
[/quote]No, I don't (maybe it was in the game manual's designer notes?) It surprised me too, a company of the Firaxis level complaing about troubles with switching from squares to hexes...
One of the main differences is how you measure distance. With hexes you have approximately the familiar Euclidian distance, but with squares you'll have to use the so-called Manhattan distance. If the squares/hexes are small then the difference will be small too, but otherwise squares might penalize diagonal movements compared to hexes. But that also depends on how you design the game rules.
openwar - the real-time tactical war-game platform
Games almost never use Manhattan distance (it would happen only in games that allow movement in 4 directions, but almost all allow 8 direction instead). So it is Chebyshev distance which is 1/2 of Manhatan distance cost and less than Euclidian for moves not in stright lines.
I'm in early stages of game development, focusing on game design and I've already got stucked. Game is turn based with 2 players.
I can't decide whether its better to use square or hexa game board. Both have its pros and cons. I've also made small list of them. Feel free to correct me or add some new.
I feel like Hex board might be good choice, but on the other hand you can't go wrong with good old square board.
Square:
+ classic
+ 8 surrounding tiles
+ easy to understand
+- harder to master
- old, looks boring
Hex:
+ cool
+ strategy part seems more fun to me
+ board feels bigger
+- looks more complicated then square, but I believe it's way easier to master
- 6 surrounding tiles
- harder to understand
- people aren't very familiar with this option
What are the design goals? Personally I prefer square boards for two reasons: it's "traditional" for SRPGs to use square boards and because even though it is not as realistic, it can produce more tactical options especially if units can't move or attack diagonal squares (assuming a range and area of effect of one square).
If you are worried about the distance issue between square and hex boards, you can use a D&D approach. First diagonal is 1 square, second diagonal counts as 2, third counts as 1, ect. This way you still can calculate accurate distance, and it is easy to explain.
My choice: Hex. I like the look and the way most hex games have played for me.
I've never played a hex game before, but I very much like the idea of it, especially not having to worry about diagonal neighbors. Diagonal movement in square-tile games has always bugged me.
I prefer square, never got into many games just because they were hexa, I think I just don't like the aesthetic of it, with no regard to actual gameplay impacts. Besides, I still consider Chess to be one of the most interesting games and it was on a square grid, so, to me, an idea would have to be 'undoable' on square and REQUIRE hexa to use it.
The fact you were there before they invented the wheel doesn't make you any better than the wheel nor does it entitle you to claim property over the wheel. Being there at the right time just isn't enough, you need to take part into it.
I prefer square, never got into many games just because they were hexa, I think I just don't like the aesthetic of it, with no regard to actual gameplay impacts. Besides, I still consider Chess to be one of the most interesting games and it was on a square grid, so, to me, an idea would have to be 'undoable' on square and REQUIRE hexa to use it.
Chess is designed around using a square board. There are no health bars. The pieces have rules to how they can move. It is a completely different scenario.
Of course you could make use of the imbalance of a square board in the strategy game, but I don't think I've ever seen that.
