[MUD-Dev] Re: Hex-grid mapping

[Jon A. Lambert]

On  1 Dec 98, Ling wrote:
> 
> On an unrelated note, has anyone got any bright ideas on representing a
> sphere with roughly equal shaped tiles?  Whereby tiles can be a hex or
> otherwise.  A requirement is that the solution can be scalable for
> different sized spheres for representing something like a moon and then a
> large planet.
> 

Yes...no...maybe... I think.
  
How about a 20-sided (dodecahedron?) with each triangular face 
overlayed with a hexagonal grid and the ten points naturally form 
form pentagons.  I have a few laying about somewhere gathering 
dust.  They were easy and fun to make.  You could also easily draw 
maps on them.  And best of all, they were great fun at RPG sessions 
where you could use them as D&D dice to impress your friends and see 
the horror in the eyes of the guy who brought his carefully painted
miniatures to the game.

Scalable...yes.  Simply by varying the size of hexes on each 
triangular face.  Easily translatable to movement and coordinate 
algorithms... I don't think it would be elegant and the pentagon
points might be disruptive to uniform movement across the grid.

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