If you prefer a surface tiling system over a volumetric 3D-Matrix then a square is next to another 8 squares not 4.
You see, each hexagon is geometrically connected to a maximum of six other hexagons by virtue of neighbourhood and they form a set of 7 hexagons. When you divide any second order square similarly, you get a 3x3 matrix of 9 squares in which the middle square is in the middle of 8 not 4.
On the other hand, a 3D-Matrix could be either cubes of 3x3x3, hence 27 basic cubes with a central one neighbouring 26 other cubes or pentagonal dodecahedrons of 13 per set having a central one neighbouring another 12.
Your choice. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wave.gif" alt="" />
Of course any programmer would prefer squares and cubes while any religious writer of magic fantasy stories would prefer the 7 hexagons hinting at creating the universe in 7 days or the 13 pentagonal dodecahedrons hinting at the 12 disciples around Jesus, and the bad luck number 13 superstition and the 12 hours scheme.
Hexagonal surfaces and pentagonal dodecahedron crystals are much more naturally magical from a numerological point of view.
There is nothing special about 8 else than being the cube of 2, or 26 else than being twice 13. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/biggrin.gif" alt="" />
I also have a reservation concerning clicking on the ground because the left click is reserved for moving your avatar or selecting an item by a clever cursor. Similarly, the right click is usually reserved for attack and manipulating objects, which means that we have no choice but to use the right click and consider every tile in the game to be an object. So how can we click on a terrain tile under an object?
This means that we must use a combination of keys and clicks which is ok except that the interface begins to get complicated and reduces the pleasure of a user friendly interface.
Another issue is that manna regeneration and health regeneration had already been implemented using manna and health shrines in many games and the consensus seems to be using three colours namely, blue for manna, red for health or life and purple for a mix of both.
In all those games including Divine Divinity’s urns of manna and health in dungeons and in the hall of the seven races, those manna and health regeneration sources themselves regenerate after a while and they may be used again.
So the idea of attributing such qualities to land tiles is not really a new idea and it was taken further into a more decorative aspect.
Another attribute of magic assigned to tiles is teleportation, where certain tiles (in many games) are used as portals to transfer the player to another remote tile.
That is why I was more concerned about new attributes regarding casting spells that harness the powers of nature of the place as you might have imagined.
Kindest regards.
