Game-world size of hexes

[larsdangly]

'If a half hex is occupied, then the occupying figure is considered to also occupy an adjacent half hex'

Done.

[Shostak]

The half-hexes in Steve Plambeck's tiles don't bother me. You can simply rule that they are off-limits, as he does recommends in the notes, or that they are fair to move through, as you prefer. Either way, they don't bother me, and the architecture they create on a table are easily understood as the kinds of rectilinear spaces we tend to be familiar with.

[larsdangly]

It is a fair question as to what you do when your only choice is to move through either of two half hexes. This might be just one narrow situation, but it actually will arise in the case where you move down 1-hex-wide spaces at certain orientations. But I think it is quite easily resolved with some explicit rules about how half hexes work:

1) A 1-hex figure or part of a multi-hex figure may occupy a 'half hex' just as it would a full hex (that way half-hex-only spaces are not artificially 'blocked') .

2) Any full hex adjacent to an occupied half hex is considered to be unoccupied by but adjacent to the figure in the half hex, i.e., with respect to rules governing engagement, rear attacks, etc.

3) Any half hex, 'A', immediately adjacent to (i.e., sharing a common hex side) an occupied half hex, 'B' is considered to be also occupied by the figure in half-hex B.

4) Do your best not to draw your maps in such a bizarre fashion that you create three immediately adjacent half hexes (this should never occur if your half hexes arise from attempts to draw straight walls, but you never know what some people will try to do!).

[ParadoxGames]

Originally Posted by larsdangly

4) Do your best not to draw your maps in such a bizarre fashion that you create three immediately adjacent half hexes (this should never occur if your half hexes arise from attempts to draw straight walls, but you never know what some people will try to do!).

I made a map with straight walls that has three+ adjacent half-hexes. In this case, as the rules go, the unit gets to occupy another legal half hex, player's choice.

Picture:
https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachmen...64/unknown.png

[tomc]

Since the hexes themselves don't exist in the physical world, but are just a tool, would it make sense to logically separate the hex grid from the map, and slide the grid over half a hex in your mind when convenient?

[David Bofinger]

Originally Posted by tomc

Since the hexes themselves don't exist in the physical world, but are just a tool, would it make sense to logically separate the hex grid from the map, and slide the grid over half a hex in your mind when convenient?

As long as everyone's mind is sliding in the same direction I guess that would work. But minds are tricky things: sometimes it's almost like they think for themselves.

[tomc]

Originally Posted by David Bofinger

As long as everyone's mind is sliding in the same direction I guess that would work. But minds are tricky things: sometimes it's almost like they think for themselves.

If a character is in a half-hex, there's only one way to virtually "slide" the grid underneath them to put them in a full hex. It's not hard.

[larsdangly]

Originally Posted by ParadoxGames

I made a map with straight walls that has three+ adjacent half-hexes. In this case, as the rules go, the unit gets to occupy another legal half hex, player's choice.

Picture:
https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachmen...64/unknown.png

I see; you accomplished that by drawing rectilinear features that don't follow the guidelines I suggested above. Of course you are free to do that, but it naturally will break up the hex space in much more complex ways. I was imagining that all rectilinear features would have borders that either trace along the 'dashed line' defined by a set of hex sides in one direction, or along the 'charlie brown's shirt zig zag' along the orthogonal direction. In that case, what I wrote should be always or almost always true. If instead you draw features freely, without considering hex boundaries at all, then of course you will create all kinds of peculiar geometries and you would need a different rule. The one you suggest (pick which adjacent half hex you want to also occupy) might be good. Personally, I would still prefer my original suggestion, as it avoids having to keep track of a piece of information that isn't obvious to both sides just from looking at the map.

[Steve Plambeck]

Originally Posted by David Bofinger

Look at a one-hex tunnel, 90 degrees misaligned from the orientation that would fit the grid neatly: the tunnel is one hex, then two half-hexes, then one hex...

There is a much easier way to look at it and draw any one-hex wide tunnel or path that's perpendicular to the "grain" of the grid. Just let the line of (whole) hexes weave. It is still one hex wide at any point, just as a tunnel that ran with the grain would be. It takes the same amount of MA to move the same number of hexes. Just think of that apparent weave as the optical illusion you get peering into that other universe from ours :) To the players it looks like a zig-zag path, but to the characters it looks like a perfectly straight line. To them, it has to be a straight line, because there is no shorter distance they can move from one end of the tunnel to the other except through each hex. If it takes 10 MA to move 10 hexes down the path, and there's no shorter move to accomplish it, then it must geometrically speaking be a straight line even when the god looking down from above thinks it looks wavy.

Originally Posted by Shostak

The half-hexes in Steve Plambeck's tiles don't bother me. You can simply rule that they are off-limits, as he does recommends in the notes, or that they are fair to move through, as you prefer. Either way, they don't bother me, and the architecture they create on a table are easily understood as the kinds of rectilinear spaces we tend to be familiar with.

Thanks for the mention Shostak. If anyone here would like a free copy of that, just send me a PM with an e-mail address and I'll send it to you -- the tile set/book is a pdf.

[Skarg]

Alternatives to treating all half-hexes as blocked include:

* All half-hexes are treated as full hexes (GURPS suggests this).

* Hexes whose center dots are visible are treated as full hexes, others are blocked.

* Similar to the above, with hexlines - if an obstacle crosses the midpoint of a hexline, or both sides of a hexline, the hexline is blocked, otherwise passable.

* GM discretion... after playing several battles with free-form hexes, a GM can get pretty good at just ruling what the effects of free-form terrain in, and their players can get used to what they're likely to rule, without needing to be much/any discussion.


And BTW, using a transparent hex overlay allows one to draw the terrain free-form on paper and then place the hexes - usually, you can find positions which are fairly convenient where it matters.