A simple solution to "stacks of doom"

I don't know how easily this could be coded, but the best solution from a gameplay perspective would probably be to subdivide each hex into 7 smaller hexagons.

untitadsled1.jpg



Have each 7 hexagon "clump" still represent one tile/hex when it comes to city management, but for moving military units it would increase the amount of tiles x7. This would almost completely eliminate the "traffic cop" aspect of unit management and open up the game significantly to actual tactics. Also, it would allow for actual navigable rivers and solve the "blue worm" problem. It might also allow for some "mountain pass" areas on the map where mountains no longer become this impenetrable forcefield. There could be a few hex pass through from which to send a few units.

Moderator Action: Merged into another 1 upt thread in Ideas and Suggestions
 
I used Micro$softs awesome paint to create this image that visualizes some problems dividing larger hexes in subhexes.

Agree that that kind of scale would fit better with 1upt unit combat but don't think this is the answer. Maybe changing scale of cities/map/everything would be possible in future modding, but if Firaxis can't seriously optimize the game engine, it simply wouldn't work on most machines.

Maybe those "gaps" in way 2 would not be problem though. It would not just be pure 7 subhexes but some hexes would belong to 3 hexes simultaneously. That could allow something new..

smallandlargehexes.png
 
I used Micro$softs awesome paint to create this image that visualizes some problems dividing larger hexes in subhexes.

No, a subdivision would work like this:

untitleasdasd1.jpg


The blue represents a city "tile"
The red represents a unit
The green represents a resource "tile"


If you still use the zone of control rule, in the above image you have created a front, because there is never more than 2 hexes inbetween the units.
 
I am not at all a fan of the subdivision approach (note, there have been a few other threads on the idea, so it is one that has been doing the rounds). Civ is not a war game. And it is not a tactical game. Those are two things Civ are not, and two things that a subdivision approach indicate or necessitate. Adding an entire extra layer for units and combat, and adding what KevinMiles9000 calls 'actual tactics' is not a good thing IMO.
 
I am not at all a fan of the subdivision approach (note, there have been a few other threads on the idea, so it is one that has been doing the rounds). Civ is not a war game. And it is not a tactical game. Those are two things Civ are not, and two things that a subdivision approach indicate or necessitate. Adding an entire extra layer for units and combat, and adding what KevinMiles9000 calls 'actual tactics' is not a good thing IMO.


I think cities should also take up several hexes and grow in organic and unique ways, but that is not what this thread is about.
 
Oh, but it *IS* about how hexes have inherent limits to their direction pathfinding.
Even if you were to subdivide the "principle" of 1upT, the basic problem remains physical location - both defined or graphically relevant to what exactly can fit in.

It's not the re-sizing estimates (you might as well have 19, 37, 61, 91+ hexes within a single Vanilla tile!) that cause 1upT carpets - it's the limit in all directional movements of Units in any given configuration that can't escape a 7 tiles gridlock for every step they must take *as a group* during a turn.
 
Some of my thoughts:

Allow xUPT; have a % based penalty for each additional unit in a tile, say 20%, so that the user will have to assess whether he should really place that extra unit on that tile. 1 unit=100% strength, 2=80% 3=64%, 4=51.2%, so on. The problem is that this would be incredibly hard to program into an AI.

Stick with 1UPT; set a CAP of military units (only), say 20 or so. Thus, the AI has less work to do, because to be honest, the early game of the AI is not quite so bad for them, but the late game becomes their downfall because of how they must manage their forces. IMO, the difficulties could regulate the cap; for example, the easiest difficulty allows the AI to create 10 military units, while Deity could allow 40 for the AI, and the player is always allowed 20 military units.

Even better could be a mixture between these two ideas or any ideas made previously by other people.
 
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