Hex vs squares

[Kid R]

@rhawn
There was a huge thread on that a couple of months ago, called something like "the world is round!". I think we definitely confirmed that you can't *quite* hex out a sphere, but people came up with lots of imaginative ways of gaffer taping over those inconvenient little geometry issues. Some good pics in that thread too if you can find it.

Of course Civ 5 will have an earth map - one of the interesting things will be whether it's just wraparound or they went to the trouble of doing something clever to make it (nearly) spherical.

 

[12agnar0k]

"circle tiles" thats just funny,

 

[civ_king]

This thread had really good ideas
http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=356334

 

[fdgsgds]

With hexagonal tiles, won't coasts be very rigid?A coast to the north or south will look

..................... WATER .....................

like this: ..... /.\/.\/.\/.\
..................|..|..|..|..|
...................\./\./\./\./

As you can see, the center of the land looks fine, but look at the sea. Triangles jutting out into it everywhere. Only eastern and western coasts can be flat.

 

[Calouste]

Have a look at the screenshots on civilization5.com. They do a good job with moving the coastline a bit away from the actual border in each hex to create a more natural appearance.

 

[12agnar0k]

with the "triangle" juts you can quite easily turn into into a snaking coastline, very curvy, not triangular at all, have a look at some of the pics, with square tiles you got some very odd looking coasts, not as natural, the hexes cure this disease.

 

[Wolfwood]

As you can see, the center of the land looks fine, but look at the sea. Triangles jutting out into it everywhere. Only eastern and western coasts can be flat.

You do remember that they used squares in Civ4 and managed to cover the fact up pretty well with graphics overlays? The corners of hexagons are far less sharp and edgy than those of a square, so they are that much easier to camouflage.

 

[B-29 Bomber]

That Is Blasphemy!

Yes! Burn the heretic!

 

[rhawn]

This thread had really good ideas
http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=356334

That is a phenomenal thread. That is exactly what I'd like to see in Civ V.

 

[B-29 Bomber]

How about octagon tiles instead of hexes. This would allow NSEW movement without the problems of squares(possiblely).

 

[Celevin]

How about octagon tiles instead of hexes. This would allow NSEW movement without the problems of squares(possiblely).

Not possible. Read up on tilings of a plane, wikipedia has a really good page for it.

 

[PieceOfMind]

Hexes vs. squares?

How about hexes on squares?

Anyone comfortable with a bit of C++ is more than welcome to help.

 

[markantony]

Can anyone explain the specific advantage of the Hex over the Square?

Moderator Action: Threads merged. (I know this thread is a bit old, but it's pretty much the exact same topic)

 

[CivFart]

I like the new hexagons. Its easy to forget how bad the squares was, you actually have to find some old screenshots of the old squares and really look into it again to get the feeling back again how bad it was. Hex is not only technically better, but it feels better. Have a look at an old civ 3 screenshot (its important that you've played civ 5 for a while) and then look how crappy it really looks.

 

[ZhugeTien]

The specific advantage of the hexagonal over the square tessalation is the fact that one regular polygon is closer to circular. Hexagons are the best we can do to tessalate a plane with regular polygons, and it's high time civ got into what board games have been doing for decades. Movement and radii are easier and more evenly calculated with this method. There is no more "fat cross." There is a "fat hex." It may seem inconsequential until one gets out to the 10-hex range. That range is far more like a radius from the starting point than the octagonal nastiness that squares can cause with 1.5ish diagonal movement costs enforced.

I miss Battletech.