In Civ VII: spheres or cylinders?

[kryat]

After seeing how the new tilted axis map looked and functioned l, I’ve been thinking about whether it’s feasible or not for a hex-based civ game to take place on a sphere rather than a wrapped cylinder. This would maybe allow for some more realistic and interesting polar routes, especially with the new gathering storm mechanics.

I think spheres are possible if you cheat a little bit and allow some tiles to be pentagons.

 

[Eagle Pursuit]

I would love a sphere, but I don't have a lot of hope that Firaxis is willing to go that route.

 

[SammyKhalifa]

After seeing how the new tilted axis map looked and functioned l, I’ve been thinking about whether it’s feasible or not for a hex-based civ game to take place on a sphere rather than a wrapped cylinder. This would maybe allow for some more realistic and interesting polar routes, especially with the new gathering storm mechanics.

I think spheres are possible if you cheat a little bit and allow some tiles to be pentagons.

That could be cool but the map wouldn't be flat. You'd have to 3D-engine the hex/pentagons onto a rotating sphere. And I believe it'd have to be jillions of tiles

at least as a layperson that's what I think I remember. Not cartographer that's for sure.

 

[Kwami]

Just make it a toroid (donut). That's close enough to a sphere for Civ.

 

[SammyKhalifa]

Just make it a toroid (donut). That's close enough to a sphere for Civ.

what are you some kind of doughnut-earther

 

[SammyKhalifa]

thread send me down a rabbit hole which led me to this very interesting blog post. The map generator linked in it is very cool!
https://experilous.com/1/blog/post/procedural-planet-generation

I suppose it's possible that a poster here wrote it, if so thank you. If the game keeps tiles it sounds like it would he a lot of work to get it to function.

 

[Victoria]

Yeah there has been a large thread on this subject a couple of years ago.
Very cool link, worth a visit.

 

[Deliverator]

Some form of spherical map would be a great step forwards.

An interesting write-up trying to solve some of the issues here:
https://www.redblobgames.com/x/1640-hexagon-tiling-of-sphere/

This is a cool related Unity demo:
https://polycount.com/discussion/163125/polygonal-planet-project-a-unity-demo-for-your-browser

 

[SammyKhalifa]

Yeah there has been a large thread on this subject a couple of years ago.
Very cool link, worth a visit.

The generator is super neat, with weather, etc.

 

[kryat]

That could be cool but the map wouldn't be flat. You'd have to 3D-engine the hex/pentagons onto a rotating sphere. And I believe it'd have to be jillions of tiles

at least as a layperson that's what I think I remember. Not cartographer that's for sure.

Agreed. But I think a non-flat map is the next step. Civ VI brought features, units, and buildings into 3D space, Civ VII should bring the map to that next step.

If my math is right, keeping the same number of tiles as VI’s standard, even a tiny map would be about 60 tiles in circumference (conveniently making each tile about 6 degrees wide), while on a huge map it would be about 150 tiles in circumference, so about 2.5 degrees per tile. Those seem reasonable to me. On a tiny map, you’d be able to see the whole globe in 30 tiles, about 3 times more than is usually on screen at a time, while on a huge map, you’d barely notice the curvature.

 

[SammyKhalifa]

I'm not against it. Now custom map sizes would be an issue. So might teaching AI how to walk around on tiles that aren't all the same shape.

 

[shaglio]

I guess I'm the only person so far that voted Cylinders. I'm sure Spheres are more realistic, but I get the impression that they're also much more complicated. For simple game play reasons I'd prefer the usual cylinders since the poles are not navigable anyway.

Although, I'm certain someone will come along and explain to me that Spheres are actually a simple thing to implement.

 

[SammyKhalifa]

I guess I'm the only person so far that voted Cylinders. I'm sure Spheres are more realistic, but I get the impression that they're also much more complicated. For simple game play reasons I'd prefer the usual cylinders since the poles are not navigable anyway.

Although, I'm certain someone will come along and explain to me that Spheres are actually a simple thing to implement.

I voted for them because as a concept I would like it better. I think it would be really tough to implement though, so maybe it's just not worth the investiment.

 

[Ownsya]

Aren't soccer balls spheres made of equally sized hexes?

 

[Ownsya]

I'd love to see spheres, worried about the CPU requirements to run it though. It might make it impossible for lower spec PC's to run? I dont gave a "gaming" pc

 

[Eagle Pursuit]

Aren't soccer balls spheres made of equally sized hexes?

Some are. Others have a mix of hexes and pentagons. There are other patterns too.

 

[CPWimmer]

K.I.S.S.

Stick with the cylinder we all know and lo... hate. This is one of the quirks of Civ, that honestly doesn't bother me at all. I would prefer that they save the brain power in Civ 7 for something else.

 

[Builderphile]

Aren't soccer balls spheres made of equally sized hexes?

I think soccer balls are a mix of pentagons and hexagons.

The question is, would that mix be so terrible on a civ map? Just another thing to consider when placing cities and such - is it a hex or a pent?

 

[SephiBBZ]

Maps are approximations... it's not cause it seems to be related to cylinders that it means it is.

Take a map of the Earth, it represents a sphere, nevertheless as you can see it "seems" to be a cylinder, if you go below antartica you won't arrive on the top of the map, but it is... normal.

Where is the problem?? It's just a question of representations, for me a sphere would not be more realistic but it would be boring for the gameplay.

 

[Kwami]

Aren't soccer balls spheres made of equally sized hexes?

You need at least 12 pentagons to make a sphere of hexagons. So, soccer balls are mixed.