Castle of the Moon: Hexagons are the Bestagons

Well it appears as though I can't get this silly idea out of my head!

But today I wanted to talk about something a little more generic than my turn-based MMORPG pipedream. The discussion I'd like to bring forth is hexagons as they relate, not only to the game I'd like to create, but also to Hive itself and the world at large.

Hm! Interesting.

This guy REALLY likes hexagons amirite?
Not only does this video mention graphene, but also bees and honey.
It's all very Hive-coded.
Or maybe Hive is just very hexagon-coded.
That actually makes more sense considering the global scope of this shape.

So wut r we doin here?

I've been looking around here and there for examples of other strategy games that use a board to represent where characters are standing and how they can interact with the other characters around them. My original idea was to use pattern blocks to represent such a board. One such shape in the pattern-block toolkit is the hexagon, so it seemed like a decent idea.

Kek... remember Drug Wars?

So the original idea was to have these pattern blocks organized in different ways and then the characters would stand on them and claim that location on the board. Then, based on what abilities those classes had they'd be able to perform certain actions and get bonuses based on their positioning. In some situations the area of the tile would come into play, in others the angles might come into play depending on the skills being used.

I was somewhat married to this idea for a while, but have recently decided that it is probably needlessly overcomplicated compared to just tiling the board with hexagons only. Actually the first real indication that I needed to abandon this plan (after legit years of being convinced it would work) was a short conversation with AI.

There are basically tons of examples and documentation on how to make a hexagonal grid work and literally zero examples of using pattern blocks. In addition, simply displaying characters on different sized tiles would be an annoyance and potentially look very bad and out of place. So I thought about how this might impact a loss of strategic input based on the reduced complexity, and my conclusion was that it wouldn't be so bad.

It's more about the abilities than the shape of the terrain.

Just the fact that characters are on the board and can be related to other characters and structures (like walls or lava) is the massive upgrade compared to just characters floating in the air on a battle-screen attacking each other. The real question becomes what the classes can accomplish while standing within the playing field, and how does that playing field matter in a strategical sense?

Which way is the character facing?

I realized that six sides can create six different orientations, which can add a lot of strategy to the game. Each character can face one of six sides of the hexagon. The two sides adjacent to this side would technically be in front of the character, while the three in back would be the back of the character. Characters that get attacked from behind could suffer flank damage and even become overwhelmed or suppressed if they become swarmed, which could mean they've been stunned for a turn or simply less effective with their abilities.

Example

This hexagon shows the character is facing in the bottom right direction.
Light green sides are front-facing but not the focus.
Attacks from the yellow sides are flank and the red would be backstab territory.

I find this an interesting way to do it because it can lead to other complexities simply by using the hexagonal architecture. For example if a character attacks their focus target but that target does not attack you back and chooses to put their focus somewhere else, some kind of damage bonus or advantage could be coded into the battle system.

Ranged characters firing into the backline.

We can take this one step further and allow ranged characters to focus one of the six points of the hexagon rather than one of the six sides. In order to attack any of the 6 spaces within the blue triangle a ranged character would have to focus a point, leaving them more vulnerable with two backstab locations instead of one. Something like this could further differentiate classes like the hunter and the ranger; with the hunter being able to gain two focus points in this situation due to being a utility character while the ranger makes themselves more vulnerable being a purely dps class.

Knockback

A fairly classic mechanic in a lot of different game genres is the ability to push an opponent away to create some space. On a hexagonal grid this becomes a trivial addition, as every side of the hexagon has an opposite side that mobs could be pushed to. Additional complexity/damage can be added if the entity being knocked back hits a wall or another mob.

Drag

This mechanic would be the opposite of knockback. Rather than push an entity away: pulling something in. Imagine your wizard getting bit by a wolf and then getting dragged back into the pack where it gets torn to shreds. Yikes! The atmosphere I'm trying to create with these types of outcomes is a vibe of horror and terror. The kind I experienced as a kid playing the original Diablo.

Leap/Dash/Blink

Movement abilities in a game like this where positioning is of the utmost importance are clearly going to be some of the most important utilities a class has to offer. Imagine a Brawler jumping into the middle of a pack of bandits and then going ham with AOE abilities. Spellswords will have a dashing slash attack. Wizards may be able to teleport to a safer location.

Line damage

The hexagon allows for three different orientations of line damage. An example of this might be a sorceror casting firewall, or a pikeman getting a little extra range on an attack. Of course attacks that have more of a curve to them would be more ideal in a lot of situations because they could hit all the baddies trying to surround a friendly character.

Null zone

Other powerful abilities could include the utility of making a space uninhabitable, mimicking the same functionality as a wall or a pit of lava for a short period of time.

Friendly fire?

Still unsure as to whether friendly AOE abilities should negatively impact the group. It would definitely add more strategy to the game and not allow the party to just rain down AOE attacks on itself, but also that's a lot harder to incorporate into multiplayer and stop trolls from ruining the game for everyone. Unclear.

Elevation

The hex grid also makes it very easy to create a kind of pseudo elevation and 3D playing field. If the elevation is too high the connection is broken and characters can't walk over it with a normal move. Sea level is an elevation of zero and a maximum traversable incline could be something like +/- 10. Then a bonus can be added for characters who have the high ground (say something like +1% damage for every point of elevation in their favor and vice versa).

Conclusion

Well I have a lot more to say about this but I've been working on this post sporadically throughout the day... and the day is now over. Bottom line: hexagons are the bestagons. Been thinking about this project so much recently I might just have to buckle down and start actually coding some things. Obviously I'd start with the hexagonal grid, as it is the foundation of the entire playing area.