Re: (TFT) How Many of You Use Megahexes?

["Stan" <srydzews@ix.netcom.com>]

> My campaign is on hiatus for 3 weeks and I 
> am retooling it. I had some questions for you 
> guys: [snip acutal questions]

Well, you know I'm not a huge fan of megahexes.  I  also don't use the small
hex maps for mapping buildings or 'dungeons'.  Those Tolenkar's Lair maps
nearly drove me insane with their strangeness.

I think that hexes are at their best for large scale, overland mapping. 
Trying to make cities/dungeons 'conform' to a hexgrid is not easy.  Buildings,
etc., want to use 90 degree angles, but if you let them do so you get into
half-hexes, multiple ways to form a corner, etc.  It's not clean.  The
alternative is to let the hexgrid rule, and have corridors, roads, etc. meet
at 60 degree angles.  It works clean, but looks weird.  Everything ends up
looking like the map for the old SPI game Sniper.

I did try a square grid, for just this reason.  They have problems of their
own, mostly relating to diagonals, and creatures larger than one square.  

For instance, things end up having an amount of front facings that varies
depending on whether it's facing orthagonally or not.  Consider a 2x2 square
figure.  When facing orthagonally, it would seem reasonable that he would have
four squares to his 'front', as follows (facing to top).

|_|_|_|_|_|_|
|_|f|f|f|f|_|
|_|_|X|X|_|_|
|_|_|X|X|_|_|
|_|_|_|_|_|_|
|_|_|_|_|_|_|

(Or maybe six squares, whatever.  Doesn't matter for my purposes.  It's an
even number, and that's what matters.)

When that same figure is facing to a corner, you end up having to  give him
either three or five squares to his front.  In either case the amount of  his
front-facing squares varies depending on which way he's facing. Strange stuff.

facing to top right corner, 3 front squares:
|_|_|_|_|_|_|
|_|_|_|f|f|_|
|_|_|X|X|f|_|
|_|_|X|X|_|_|
|_|_|_|_|_|_|
|_|_|_|_|_|_|

facing to top right corner, 5 front squares:
|_|_|_|_|_|_|
|_|_|f|f|f|_|
|_|_|X|X|f|_|
|_|_|X|X|f|_|
|_|_|_|_|_|_|
|_|_|_|_|_|_|

I guess you could assume everyone is right-handed:

|_|_|_|_|_|_|
|_|_|_|f|f|_|
|_|_|X|X|f|_|
|_|_|X|X|f|_|
|_|_|_|_|_|_|
|_|_|_|_|_|_|

That keeps his frontage at four squares, but is hardly a clean solution.

Things get really strange on a square grid for creatures longer than they are
wide.  When those guys face on diagonals, weird stuff happens, like they
change size.  This is, I imagine, why hexgrids were first adopted.  

I've taken to using a hexgrid, and 'imposing' 90 degree angle buildings and
the like on it.  You end up with half-hexes and the like, but to me it's the
least of three evils.
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