The Map System

In my first post I listed a number of elements that would be needed to make this system complete. The first is a means of generating maps.

I didn't want to just write a game. I wanted to write a game platform, on which you could play all sorts of games. How wide a range of games can be played on a single platform? With a single set of rules? I don't know yet. I haven't got there. At this stage I am visualising strategic historical games set in the 5th, 7th, 11th, 17th, 18th, 19th and 20th centuries, so it will be a challenge. For some of these there may need to be specific plug-in modules to the game engine, but I do want to keep as many parts as possible in common.

By the same token, then, I wanted to be able to generate any map whatever. My own interest in in historical simulations, but I don't exclude counterfactual or even fantasy scenarios, as long as they occur on an earth-like terrain. Wargames maps are necessarily somewhat abstract. You wouldn't want to rely on one for small boat navigation, nor for your bushwalking holiday. A certain amount of abstraction and distortion is therefore acceptable, but I do want the result to be reasonably accurate (or at least capable of being accurate). I also want them to be aesthetically pleasing. "Beautiful" is perhaps aiming too high, but let me by all means aim for a near miss.

A map in a system such as this must fulfil two functions (apart from the aesthetic).

1) It must encode where things are, how they relate to each other spatially, and what qualities they have. This encoding is the logical map, and it allows the program to regulate movement from one place to another, visibility of transient conditions (weather, the presence of troops, etc.) and what can be seen by whom.

2) Based on the logical map is the visual map, which is painted on the screen to be seen by the human eye. It must give visual clues to the information stored in the logical map. The visual map presented to a particular viewer will generally reflect only a subset of all the information stored.

The logical map must consist of a number of elements, each representing a discrete location, or perhaps an aspect of a location. By that I mean that one might choose to separate, say, the shape and location of a particular region, its climate profile, and its population, into three separate elements. Indeed, there need not be a one-to-one relationship between them - a "climate" element might cover several "province" elements, each of which contains several "settlement" elements. We can see, then, that the elements need not be the same size, or represent the same things. They must be capable, though, of being read (first by a computer, then by a human being) as a coherent whole.

The solution I have settled on for now is the traditional one of a map based on a hexagonal grid to regulate movement. I will set out in my next post why I chose a grid rather than area movement, and why a hex grid rather than square.