An Illustrated Address to Fans of The Hex System

Lattice:

I love how every lattice naysayer cites a lack of strategy and linearity when there is no strategy in the hex because there is no reason to take one outpost over another barring actually terrain restraints and the lattice also has multiple connections per base just like the hex.

As I have been saying for a while the lattice actually adds strategy because now you actually have to think about where the lattice will take you and use intel to figure out what your going to run into on said lattice link so you can deal with it when choosing which link to pursue. In the hex system that never really mattered as you could always just go around. Now you have to actually engage the enemy instead of playing ring around the rosy with bases.

As for people saying they like smaller fights; you are acting like the lattice is a road between two bases bordered by two massive impassible walls and there is only one road linking all the bases. There isn't, the larger/most bases still have multiple lattice links per base. You can still find small fights, just go down a separate link from the zerg.

I really like the way people view the two as the only options. It's mindblowingly stupid.

"IT CAN ONLY BE LATTICE OR HEX AND <insert system here> IS BETTER"

No no... they're both poor solutions, both have huge problems, and neither of them deal with the issues they're supposed to. Hex does not provide some sort of strategic gameplay. Lattice doesn't give better battle flow, it doesn't prevent ghost capping, it causes people to brainlessly follow a track regardless of whether it's the best option available and results in mindless meatgrinders that have no end, while three people walk up a parallel lane capping everything with no resistance.

Neither of them work. Something new has to be tried.

If its Hex how come Argentina cant attack South Africa?

Gotta love the small scale fights outsides of the main battles in the lattice.

Until eventually the long-awaited backup arrives to help securing the enemy spawnroom

As opposed to non-existent small scale fights in the hex system.

People can complain about Lattice all they want, but ultimately, its what will be better for the game in the long run. No sense in whining about it ghostcappers, your days are numbered.

No.. risk is hex, you can attack anything your adjacent to...
Lattice you can only fallow the predefined links..

i'm sorry this is so far above your heads..

Brasil and North Africa are NOT adjacent, yet they are connected.

No. Risk is more like Lattice. You know why ? OCEANS

Oceans introduce ARBITRARY connections/disconnections, just like the Indar map features.

Do the devs need to introduce some rivers/lakes so that you the disconnections will be justified by something tangible ?

The devs said it's because of some network stuff about some power lines... That's a good enough explanation to me.

One is from Call Of Duty: Finest Hour, one hell of a mission that was

Do you see mongolia?
From there you can attack 5 places that connect to it.
That is hex..

Lattice gives you 2 choices, go forward or go back the way you came.
If risk was lattice they would only let you attack china from mongolia, or go go back the way you came...

Yes, because it is stupid that I cannot attack the base next to where I am.

Indar is nothing more than a series of rush maps now, just fallow the yellow dotted line to the next map..

sigh... oh please. It's not strategy to be given options A or B.. and you don't need intel to figure out who you will run into at A or B being it's going to be: 1. Everyone who was just at the last base, again.. 2. The zerg coming from base C.. Something you can *cough* gather intel on *cough* in all of 2 seconds with a mouse swipe..

to be fair, as I have said before the bulk of the problem with both systems is the players. Yes you "can" go where you want with the Lattice but people don't so you end up with these vast safe zones that are just dead space in the world.. Where at least in the hex it was people all over. Errrr but then in the hex it was too many "people all over" and you would get 50+ at some outpost that did not mater at all when they should of been fighting for the tech plant or whatever. .

IMO hex issues could of been solved with making it take 4+ people to start a cap.. Lattice issues could be solved with giving people a reason to move around the map or more/better connects..It's a little dull to keep logging in and seeing that I get to more or less fight at the same 3-5 bases I have fought at EVERY SINGLE night for the last month..

the bottom line is that the bulk of the problem is still just the players..
I mean look at how UT2k4 had tiny maps, a MIND NUMBING simple "lattice" like set up for a game mode call Onslaught where you needed to capture certain areas to link up to the enemy base so you could attack it.. Simple, simple, simple, like needing 3 links level of simple and people STILL did not defend the right place, attack the right place etc etc.
This was about 10 years ago and it's not like people have gotten any better about it..

personally i preferred the adjacency influence system that was in beta for a while to hex or lattice, you still had a front line and people couldn't just cap completely in a straight line into enemy territory as you needed 2 adjacent territories to cap the next so you still had people congregating in large fights in bases where people needed to cap to expand territory.

Lattice is better and the reason is simple.

For every single player except 2 ore 3 people organizing a platoon the only strategy is go to the given way point. When i get that that point I want lots of stuff to kill which the lattice give me.

Actually risk is more like lattice. Note: you can't attack from Eastern Canada to Great Britain. You can't attack from Alaska to Japan, You can't attack from Eastern US to Venezuela. The list goes on if you look close. LOOK CHOKEPOINTS!, yea.. that there tells me it isn't hex.

HEX:




There is some strategy to checkers, but the strategy is pretty much flat across the board. Nothing much changes from point to point.

But the difference between hex and checkers, is you are required to attack if you have an attack move. If you were not required to attack, you could simply move your pieces around each other and never end the game.


Wait, that's what hex plays like...... So I guess there's more strategy in a game of checkers.

Because Earth is not a square continent.

+1 for Dr. Strangelove reference

I just don't like how lattice can force huge zergs through small choke points.

I'm not against lattice.... Just open up the maps to support it.

The south east corner of Indar is actually like that.

I salute you sir! Great example!

P.S. Epicness squared