I have just completed my 5th piece regarding the design of hexagonal maps for strategy games entitled, Hexagonal Maps – Part V; Designing Contiguous Hexagons .
Unlike previous articles, there is no downloadable project code accompanying this piece since it discusses only graphic design.
However, as the piece notes, many internal modifications have been made to the map display (thanks to help from Jjagg on this forum) that the current piece could not cover. Part VI, the next piece will follow and discuss these modifications, which provide for more efficient display of large map boards.
Due to the complexities involved, please be patient when waiting for the next piece as it will take some time to put together. However, once published it should assist those interested in such design and development to finally get them on their way to designing complex hexagonal map boards.
Just like to say, thanks for the articles, I’ve found them very interesting and looking forward to the next one One of the first games I developed was a hex game about 25 years ago. Though I’ve not done anything like this before using monogame etc. Glad to see a fellow PSP user - I’ve used PSP since version 6 by JASC and still use PSP to this day at home - though I use Gimp or Paint.NET at work.
Regarding the Hexes, Have you thought about NOT doing a border on each hex image so the rivers / mountains etc all join up without border lines - it will also then let you give the player the option to press “G” or something to turn on a grid overlay. Though it all depends on your game of course, just a thought.
Adding a grid overlay to smooth out the borders on the hexagons would be a bit of work considering that all of the border outlines on the grid itself would have to match up with each hexagon.
However, doing the reverse would be far more feasible whereas as you design each hexagon’s terrain you simply eliminate the borders by making them mesh with the contiguous terrain on the adjacent hexagons. Then you could simply overlay a grid where each border is a dark gray or black.
Since I am learning all these complexities as I go along, there are some things I have to simply bypass so I can eventually to get to the guts of my simulation with units, unit movement, and AI…
One of the first games I developed was a hex game about 25 years ago. Though I’ve not done anything like this before using monogame etc. Glad to see a fellow PSP user - I’ve used PSP since version 6 by JASC and still use PSP to this day at home - though I use Gimp or 