New grid for Civ - Grid inside existing hex cell?

[TheBlueKing]

Civilization is using hex grid since it was originally created and that is something that makes this game unique and easily recognizable.

But what if each grid cell had another hex grid inside it?

Movement of units can still be done by using main grid, that is 84x54 (Standard).

Each grid cell would have its own grid inside that could be used to create map that has more details. Small grid inside main grid cell could have 19 small hex grid cells.

This would allow map terrain and resources not to be specifically tied to 1 main hex grid cell, they could be split over 2 or more main hex grid cells e.g. cell A and cell B where they take for example 5 cells from small hex grid cell A and 8 cells from small hex grid cell B.

Imagine having Iron resource placed in the middle of main hex cells A, B and C. Where cell A has 4 small grid iron cells, cell B has 10 small grid iron cells and cell C has 5 small grid iron cells. Obviously greatest production would come from cell B.

This would allow developers to create more realistic maps and it would definitely improve map quality and layout. Yields of single main hex grid cell would depend on total of yields of its inner hex grid cells.

Obviously this is not a small change and it would be something to implement in Civ 7 or Civ 8. If Civilization is going to improve then they will have to change the way map is created and improve this section. They have not changed it for 20 years or so. Today's computers are much faster and they should not have problems to handle more complex maps.

 

[kryat]

Civ has only used the hex grid for the past three games: V, BE, and VI. It was a square grid before that. Sorry.

 

[Leyrann]

Civ has only used the hex grid for the past three games: V, BE, and VI. It was a square grid before that. Sorry.

Square and hex is the exact same except for moving every second line of tiles half a tile and cutting some diagonal paths. The main difference is that hex just looks better.

 

[Cerilis]

Sure sounds interesting. But how would unit movement be handled? Do they use major or minor hexes? Where do you build districts, given they stay, and cities, and improvements?

 

[UWHabs]

19 inner cells is too much. I could image splitting each hex up into 3 diamonds, for example, which would give a finer control over terrain. That way, a city would have a lot more workable tiles, yet the units would still occupy the larger hex grid to move around in. But then you have other issues - do you have to pillage each portion separately? Does this now mean that a city would have 36x3 workable tiles, so grows to size 100+, or does one population point let you work 3 inner tiles? How does adjacency work in the inner tiles? Do terrain bonuses just give you the best from the tile, or add them all up? Or does it give you the average? Does one city need to own the entire tile, or can the sub-tiles be split between different cities? Can you have a mountain/impassable terrain on only part of the tile?

I'm sure you could design some interesting things, and it would certainly allow you to give a little more fine control, but there's a lot of considerations with it.

 

[Lord Lakely]

i like the idea of dividing up the hexes but for a different reason: it's amazing for city planning. Being able to zoom in and construct building per hex on the city centre tile sounds like an amazing innovation and if you get 18 of them, you can definitely custimize your cities to whatever your empire needs. It's also tweakable: Stack multiple buildings on top of each other once you're researched Skyscrapers or build additional neighbourhoods on adjacent hexes for more space. Of course impossible for civ 6, but for civ 7 this would be great, i think.

On the strategic map though... I think it might be a bit too difficult to pull off. Increasing map size would be better here, i think.

 

[TheBlueKing]

I would love to have more than one unit at one hex cell, but maximum of 1 unit per inner hex cell.

Unit movement points should be calculated by using inner hex, as terrain would not be the same for all inner hex cells e.g. some of them could be marsh or mountain.

We do not need 19 inner hexes, it can be less, no problem with that. It is just that more inner hexes would give us more realistic maps e.g. we could even have small islands within a single hex. Just imagine how archipelago would look like or delta of river Amazon etc. We could get some nice looking bridges there.