Map of Erfworld

[BLANDCorporatio]

Guys, guys.

A) it is possible to tile the Euclidean plane with: regular triangles; regular tetrangles (aka squares); regular hexagons; irregular (but ALL ALIKE) pentagons as shown here; a huge assortment of figures, all alike, including fish or bird shapes; as well as mixings of various shapes and in particular, a mix of hexagons and pentagons might tile a plane (but I'm not sure if they can also be regular while doing this).

B) it is possible to tile the Hyperbolic plane with: any regular pentagon you want, no matter how many angles; and so on.

C) hexagons are just cool. They allow a good six neighbours, all by passing through edges, without any of the awkward "corners are contacts too" business with squares. Which is why they're used for map tiling.

D) it would be interesting (I think) to have a TBS map tiled by a combination of various polygons. It would add a new level to terrain use.

[Ehbobo]

Using various polygons would just be too crazy. And after all, the sizes of those polygons would need to be different shapes.

What I think would work better than a hexagon is the octagon. I'm shocked that I've never found a game that uses it.

[kriss]

Using various polygons would just be too crazy. And after all, the sizes of those polygons would need to be different shapes.

What I think would work better than a hexagon is the octagon. I'm shocked that I've never found a game that uses it.

That's because Octagons are very hard to arrange together in a realistic 'square' shape for the map, as it has a strong tendancy to create circular shapes.

[pSycHOtic chICkeN]

Guys, guys.

A) it is possible to tile the Euclidean plane...

The reason to use pentagons and heptagons is that they allow surfaces that are not planes.

[effataigus]

Well done so far! I would suggest that, when you're fudging relative locations, it might be good (if arbitrary) to preserve the geographic orientation of the Western USA with respect to the cities' real world analogs... this isn't to say they're all figured out: http://www.erfworld.com/wiki/index.php/ ... peculation

Good luck!

[BLANDCorporatio]

Guys, guys.

A) it is possible to tile the Euclidean plane...

The reason to use pentagons and heptagons is that they allow surfaces that are not planes.

Heh, yes, but most maps in TBS-es are thought as being planes (and then some people decide to get weird- I mean, natural- and make them of doughnut topology).

Using various polygons would just be too crazy. And after all, the sizes of those polygons would need to be different shapes.

What I think would work better than a hexagon is the octagon. I'm shocked that I've never found a game that uses it.

Because it's impossible on a Euclidean plane, and you have not yet encountered TBS-es that are playable by Cthulhu.

You can tile the E-plane with a mix of octogons and squares however.

[pSycHOtic chICkeN]

Heh, yes, but most maps in TBS-es are thought as being planes (and then some people decide to get weird- I mean, natural- and make them of doughnut topology).

I was hoping for the inside surface of a beer mug. Foam makes a nice hex pattern and completely covers the surface. A beer mug with a hollow handle opens up a lot of dynamic options. The handle would be a good place to hide a kingdom like FAQ. The foolamancer would just have to convince scouts that the surface was like a glass which is a lot like a euclidean plane which is what the scouts would be expecting.

I think the options for the story are good. Using a beer mug or beer mug related topology in erfworld allows Rob to drink real Guiness at a bar and claim the evening as a business expense on taxes. That is a very good reason to jettison Euclid and his boring planes.

[Muzzafar]

I have to say I have had issues with this map the first time I saw it.

I went through the comic pages and text updates available at the moment and tried to write down all references to directions and distances I could find. (Doing this I assumed that text information has priority over graphic information – the text has been written by Rob, while images have been created by Jamie or Xin and are subject to artist’s interpretation.)

It looks like at least some parts of the map do not reconcile with some information found in the comic. Particularly, location of sides relative to each other.

1. Why would Unaroyal and Jetstone lie to the west of Gobwin Knob?

We know that Faq lies to the west of Gobwin Knob. ("Due west!", "And Charlie's intel had him flyin' west a turn ago." and, of course, "He was fascinated with the question of how they kept three cities hidden from their nearest neighbors: Transylvito to the south, Jitterati to the northwest, and Gobwin Knob to the east.") If Unaroyal lies to the west of Gobwin Knob, Stanley would fly over the heads of the Coalition column when he left Gobwin Knob for Faq. However, it appears that Stanley flew in the opposite direction (nobody in the column saw him, and, of course, when Jillian was pursuing Stanley she flew over Gobwin Knob on her way to Faq after him).

We also know that when Jillian flew from Faq to Spacerock she was going over territory held by Gobwin Knob. In addition to that, we know that Faq lies somewhere between west and north of Jetstone. (When Jillian is planning her route from Spacerock to Faq she intends to go northwest and hit Brookstone and Progrock – both held by Gobwin Knob – while flying in the direction of Faq.)

2. Why would Haggar lie to the southwest of Jetstone?

We know that Haggar lies to the east of Dhrystone. We also know that Haggar lies on the coast and that Haggar’s crest displays the sun rising over the city from the sea. (If we can assume that the sun rises in the east in Erfworld that means Haggar lies on the earstern coast.)

So based on information available at the moment, I would say the sides are probably located like this (at least, in terms of directions if not distances).

Your questions, comments and suggestions are welcome as always.

[Sir_Dr_D]

Well I haven't checked all the facts,Muzzafar but what you said makes sense to me. Another problem with the original map is that it places uniroyal too close to FAQ. And I think if it was that close it would have been mentioned as one of FAQ's neighbors.

[masterofmagic]

Maybe it has been brought up already but the whole scenario we see is called the "great western conflict". This implies a coast or some impassable mountains to the west (or just the "end of the map" ) and a lot more space to the east, doesn't it? Just something to keep in mind for later map updates.