mutonizer
Arcane
- Joined
- Sep 4, 2014
- Messages
- 1,041
I want to say 100% hex grid but I've been grinding my brain to the ground for a fucking long time on how to make it workable with an RPG. Pardon the rambling which might be off topic slightly but since this shit been on my mind for a long ass time as said, I'm in a hijacking mood.
For outside areas this works great and it's very simple but fuck me if I can sort out how to handle hex grid in an actual dungeon.
The "best" use of them for an RPG I've seen lately is Blackguards 1 & 2 but EVERYTHING in there is pre-designed and you can ONLY fight in widely open areas as it carefully prevents the player (though it's between battle/forced encounter system) from ever having to do anything where hex grid can be an issue, ie: corridors and whatnot. All the maps have carefully pre-rendered backgrounds made to fit perfectly for it's intended hex grid, and that sucks balls (and look structurally fucked up sometimes).
If you're not willing to go the "let's fuck the player over" way like that, it means opening up areas that can be a bitch for hex grids, dynamic generation AND structurally/architecturally sound areas.
As an example of what I mean:
How the fuck do you do this kind of areas that can actually work with a hex grid system...dynamically for a cRPG.
Just look online, do a search for hex grid. Nearly ALL of them are outdoor hex-crawl stuff. There are almost no actually usable dungeon hex grid maps anywhere that are somewhat sensical, as if nobody ever figured out how the fuck to make it work and not look out of Gibbson's fucked up brain.
Even some interesting concepts like the one below (which might be used more dynamically) is actually a nightmare if you think about it (take the upper wall and imaging it continues right...in between hexes...)
Another solution is to use hex geomorphs which would be pre-generated with their various attributes and would just connect when dropped. In code that's not too hard, just have a bunch of tables storing the various values and whenever you insert a geomorph, insert that table (since this is hex based, it's of course a fucked up table) at the right place into your "overall map table" (or whatever). The advantage is that you can provide variation via rotation, keep "movement" areas pre-registered (including all terrain modifiers, semi-walls, etc) on the geomorph object itself, and yet keep the whole thing structurally sound while being dynamically generated.
After that you can drop couple tables, doors and other props in there, maybe in random "pre-calculated" hook points and you have a perfectly usable hex grid for all other mechanics you need, that still looks somewhat decent.
By keeping all "transit" areas on geomorph faces and keeping track of other connection types (open wall, etc), you can pretty much connect anything with anything relevant.....
Edit:
Another huge advantage of these is if you do "multi level layers", ie: balconnies, etc. As they are all geomorphs, they'll stay structurally sound with what's around them and what's above/below them as well, which is a HUGE plus once you start to play around with that shit...
Other than that...yea...hex grid for the win..and the nightmare.
As for square grids, I wish I could just "accept" them as they are so simple to fuck around with but they just won't do.
For outside areas this works great and it's very simple but fuck me if I can sort out how to handle hex grid in an actual dungeon.
The "best" use of them for an RPG I've seen lately is Blackguards 1 & 2 but EVERYTHING in there is pre-designed and you can ONLY fight in widely open areas as it carefully prevents the player (though it's between battle/forced encounter system) from ever having to do anything where hex grid can be an issue, ie: corridors and whatnot. All the maps have carefully pre-rendered backgrounds made to fit perfectly for it's intended hex grid, and that sucks balls (and look structurally fucked up sometimes).
If you're not willing to go the "let's fuck the player over" way like that, it means opening up areas that can be a bitch for hex grids, dynamic generation AND structurally/architecturally sound areas.
As an example of what I mean:
How the fuck do you do this kind of areas that can actually work with a hex grid system...dynamically for a cRPG.
Just look online, do a search for hex grid. Nearly ALL of them are outdoor hex-crawl stuff. There are almost no actually usable dungeon hex grid maps anywhere that are somewhat sensical, as if nobody ever figured out how the fuck to make it work and not look out of Gibbson's fucked up brain.
Even some interesting concepts like the one below (which might be used more dynamically) is actually a nightmare if you think about it (take the upper wall and imaging it continues right...in between hexes...)
Another solution is to use hex geomorphs which would be pre-generated with their various attributes and would just connect when dropped. In code that's not too hard, just have a bunch of tables storing the various values and whenever you insert a geomorph, insert that table (since this is hex based, it's of course a fucked up table) at the right place into your "overall map table" (or whatever). The advantage is that you can provide variation via rotation, keep "movement" areas pre-registered (including all terrain modifiers, semi-walls, etc) on the geomorph object itself, and yet keep the whole thing structurally sound while being dynamically generated.
After that you can drop couple tables, doors and other props in there, maybe in random "pre-calculated" hook points and you have a perfectly usable hex grid for all other mechanics you need, that still looks somewhat decent.
By keeping all "transit" areas on geomorph faces and keeping track of other connection types (open wall, etc), you can pretty much connect anything with anything relevant.....
Edit:
Another huge advantage of these is if you do "multi level layers", ie: balconnies, etc. As they are all geomorphs, they'll stay structurally sound with what's around them and what's above/below them as well, which is a HUGE plus once you start to play around with that shit...
Other than that...yea...hex grid for the win..and the nightmare.
As for square grids, I wish I could just "accept" them as they are so simple to fuck around with but they just won't do.
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