Spherical map possible

[Kennan]

There have been discussions before about the possibility to play Civ on a spherical map and Civ IV had the option of the weird but game play-wise fun "doughnut map".

It is possible to have an (almost) spherical map with hexes if 12 pentagons are scattered over the map. It's called an icosahedron and Rimworld just made their cylinder maps into spheres using this method:

It would be really awesome is Firaxis included this option in a Civ VI expansion. The only real downside I see (except fixable things like it will be tricky to program path-finding etc.) is that cities built on or next to the pentagons will have fewer tiles to work. The map generation could perhaps favor generating the map so that the pentagons end up in mountain ranges, poles, deep see etc.

 

[Magil]

I thought the toroidal map from IV was the best approach. Not technically a sphere but it also doesn't require pentagons or other weird shapes. That should still be possible with hexagons instead of squares I reckon? I admit that kind of thing is my weak point.

 

[Kennan]

I thought the toroidal map from IV was the best approach. Not technically a sphere but it also doesn't require pentagons or other weird shapes. That should still be possible with hexagons instead of squares I reckon? I admit that kind of thing is my weak point.

I ment the toroidal wrap option when I worte "doughnut map". The planet would look a doughnut if you zoomed out and watched it from space. That is kind of the middle way (should not be to complicated to implement). The problem I have with it in Civ IV (and other games) is that I get no sense of orientation. My brain hurts if I zoom out and pan around a bit. It feels like the cylinder map with teleportering from north- to south-pole. I still think it would be a great addition to Civ VI though.