Structure

Current thoughts are that square grids are boring but easier to work with. Current thoughts are that there are two basic map structures that exist simultaneously:

1. A regular grid (Cartesian or triangular) for: elevation, slopes, 3D surfaces, pathfinding, etc.
2. An irregular mesh (polygon) for: territory management, resources, settlements, etc. On the other hand, it may be a pain to have to deal with two map structures that don't align.

Appearance

• Areas within a player's LOS are normal: Can see everything without distortion
• Unexplored areas are normal: Can see nothing
• Explored areas outside LOS:
  • A player's current age/techs control the art style, detail, and accuracy of the areas. The general trend is that advancing ages/techs improves detail and accuracy. Art style transitions from hand-drawn to photo-realistic.
  • Early maps:
    • Early maps lack most detail and appear hand-drawn. Mostly retains settlements, rivers, mountains, landmarks, and a few monsters. Makes heavy use of symbols and icons rather than birds-eye perspective.
    • Features can disappear over time without re-exploration or trade routes. Features can appear distorted or out of place too?
    • e.g. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geography_(Ptolemy)
  • Intermediate maps:
    • More detailed, more accurate, and features appear with the correct birds-eye perspective, but art style is still hand drawn.
    • e.g. older maps from https://www.swisstopo.admin.ch/en/maps-data-online/maps-geodata-online/journey-through-time.html ?
  • Modern maps:
    • Photo-realistic (game graphics) snapshot of the last time area was within LOS. Does not include units. Does not fade and no accuracy issues. Satellite tech means it is always up to date (except units).

Exploration

• Map exploration happens tile-by-tile -- no explorer units!!

  • Players pay money to send out exploration expeditions:
    • Players can manually select tiles individually to explore (or re-explore). Tiles must be adjacent or within existing explored territory?
    • Players can automate exploration with user-defined paths or feature following (e.g. coastlines, rivers, mountain ranges, etc.). The expedition will continue until the feature ends or the players cancel it.

• Ideas for spatial and temporal inaccuracy for Early and Intermediate Maps:

  • Spatial: Early or mid-game exploration come with spatial inaccuracies at the time of exploration. Tile positions and shape are distorted so the overall exploration path appear warped. Not sure exactly how to implement, but could be some sort of a distortion matrix that sits between the game map (which never has distortions) and what the player/ai gets to see.
  • Temporal: During the early or mid-game, features on explored territory can disappear over time. All map features and basic info about foreign settlements (i.e. that there is a settlement) show up at first. More important information takes longer to disappear, like larger settlements or landmarks.
  • Repeat exploration improves spatial accuracy: Corrects positioning and refreshes features.
  • Trade routes help to improve map accuracy along the around the routes. For tiles along an active trade route, features do not disappear and spatial position gradually improves.

Features

(resources, settlements, etc.)