How to Move like a chess - but on uneven surfaces.

Idea:
I am trying to figure out how to make a game where you have a hex(ish) based tile system overlaid on true 3D ground (tho the HEx Tiles are no seen), The movement - much like chess or the old Xcom / Fallout games - would be incorporated on top of this ground and each piece would only be able to move a set number of hex spaces each round. The lad would be smooth and not cut into cubes.

Example


Sort of like the example above - a 3D map - however you have a hex based grid on top of that allowing you to move a set number of hex titles per round.

My Questions:
Are their any tutorials out their that cover this?
Whats a good way to start a project like this?
What if any is the theory I should look to build on?

Thank Unity Forum - you all rock.
T~

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There’s tons of tutorials on grid systems on the web. Most if it is engine-independent, too.

The height independent part is easy since if you’re not going to incorporate height into game logic, your logic won’t even care – you’ll just line up your units along the correct x,z axis and move the character to the height of the ground/terrain (or just have your characters physically on the terrain).

There’s tons of ways to start. Obviously, the first is to design how your game works! :slight_smile:

I personally like to start from the inside, ie, at the engine level. Write the logic that is your units and what game rules they follow. Then attach the code that allows them to be moved and seen on the screen.

Of course you can do the other way and just start with prefab chars, figure out how to draw a grid on the terrain, etc.

For Unity, you could easily make your terrain in Unity and then have a center GameObject or just use (0,0,0) as a corner or center of the game’s grid. Then every GRID_SIZE on x and z is another grid square: ie, if the character is on square (3,5) and GRID_SIZE = 2, then the character would be at coordinate (6, y, 10) where y is the height of the terrain at that position. I also recommend starting simple and with flat terrain :slight_smile:

Hope that gives you some ideas :slight_smile:

Note that for an invisible hex grid all you have to do is shift over every other row (or column) of tiles.

Like this:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/f/f3/Offset-square_grid.png

@Timmer - Thanks for the input! My back ground is more on the art side then programing however my company is wanting me to branch out and get a proof of concept running. So your suggestions are much welcomed!

@Troy Dawson - I like this offset grid idea… it makes sense. Thanks!