For spaceships: Three dimention hex grid?

[The_Beast]

Started a topic on TMP, but not everyone here visits there,,,

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Has anyone [any game] used the 'Tumbling Block' grid to make a three dimensional grid for gaming?

While not perfect, the switching the color of the lines attached to alternating vertices, you can make offset hexagons that can be used as offset layers.

Not perfect, as no regular solid matches the filled spaces, it does look like the closest packing of spheres you can get.
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Thanks!

Doug

[Damas]

I'm planning on using a hex grid for my 1:1000 Star Wars but not in 3D.  Could you expand on your description as I can't picture what you're describing at all.

[YPU]

I agree, this sounds awfully interesting but I really can't get my head around what your describing.

[The_Beast]

Take me a bit of time to work up some visuals/links.

However, if you think of a hex grid as a plane of spheres, then you lay another layer of spheres on top of them, they will 'roll' in between every other empty space between.

The center of each sphere is equidistant from twelve other sphere centers. I've played with this for some time, can't get it to make sense enough to generate rules, but just can't shake the image.

Doug

Edit: For an image of the spheres in planes, try this Wiki of 'sphere packing'.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sphere_packing

Scroll down to the image of the HCD lattice.

[YPU]

I get what your going for, and I can see the appeal, but honestly its so hard to visualize this during game that I would consider a simple dice indicating height level, or even better sliding sticks, to be more playable.

[Damas]

Wot he said.

But I do get the idea of the stacked spheres now though.

[The_Beast]

I get what your going for, and I can see the appeal, but honestly its so hard to visualize this during game that I would consider a simple dice indicating height level, or even better sliding sticks, to be more playable.

Trust me, this is definitely hard to visualize, and I'm assuming using die to track level.



As the color of a hex flip-flops between levels, I just realized the 1, 3, 5, sides of the 'altitude' die could be red, 2, 4, 6, sides black, to help that visualization issue.

Rules to say which are 'contiguous' sides allows control of facing.

Anyway, I've probably explained this about as well as I'm going to.

Doug