[Freeciv] Re: world as a globe

[John Wheeler <jdwheeler42@xxxxxxxxx>]

--- Christoph Petschnig <cpet0101@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> [snip]
> Wouldn't it be cool to have bombers fly over the
> poles to attack
> targets unreachable in a cylindric world? I also
> think the freeciv
> poles are just to big for a realistic world.

As I see it, these are two completely seperate issues,
which have different solutions.

I see a simple solution for "flying over the poles":
say you are at 40,0 on a world that is 120 wide.  If
you go north (assuming Y=0 is the north pole) from
there, you end up at 100,0 -- in other words, exactly
half way around the world.

To make the poles more realistic in size, you might
want to turn the map on a diagonal, and only two
corners the poles.  (The line connecting the other two
corners would be the equator.)  This would make moving
off the edge somewhat more complicated, and would
require rewriting the world generation routines, but I
think the real nightmare would be in trying to display
the results seamlessly.
 
> It might be necessary to replace the squares by
> circles, but maybe
> there are also other solutions.

Games which put an emphasis on realism generally use a
hexagonal grid.  
 
> My questions: does anybody else like this idea?
> Would this mean to
> change 90% or only 10% of the code? (I do know that
> 10% is still
> rather huge than small).
> 
> Regards Christoph

Do I like this idea?  Flying over the poles sounds
like fun to play and not too hard to implement. 
Making distances more realistic not only sounds like a
real bear but also might even have the cardinal sin of
being less fun to play.  (Bicylindrical worlds would
be a little weird, too.)

++JohnWheeler

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