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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Staffan" data-source="post: 9750074" data-attributes="member: 907">The main advantage of hexagons is that they minimize the difference between step-by-step measurement and straight-line measurement.[ATTACH=full]416539[/ATTACH]If the distance from one hex center to a neighboring hex center is 1, then the blue line has a length of 2. But the red only has a length of SQRT(3), so the step-by-step measurement is ~15% too large. This is the worst-case scenario for hexes.With a square grid, it instead looks something like this:[ATTACH=full]416540[/ATTACH]The length of the blue line is 4. The actual length of the red line is 2*SQRT(2) = 2.83. If you need to move orthogonally (only in cardinal directions), the distance is about 40% too long. If you allow diagonal movement, it is about 30% too short. Those are both significantly larger than the worst-case error of 15% for hexes. Of course, you could use 3e rules and have diagonal movement count as 1.5 (alternating between 1 and 2), which would have the red line with a length of 3 which is only 6% too long, but then you need to keep track of the alternating distance.Of course, the main disadvantage of hexes is mainly that on indoors maps, most things are actually rectangular. Rooms tend to be, as is most furniture. So instead of fudging movement distances, you fudge the stuff on the map. Which one you prefer is a matter of taste. On large-scale outdoor maps, you usually don't have the artificiality of rectangular rooms to bother with, which makes hexes the better choice.</blockquote>

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