Added an optional grid that is projected onto the terrain from above.  I think I might make the lines a bit thicker. 

So far, I've greatly improved the hex map generator, added trees, radial texture blending, and a time of day manager.  
 






After trying number of different procedural hex map generation methods I've settled on a rather unorthodox approach.   Commonly used techniques using Perlin noise failed to create convincing landmass shapes without becoming over complicated.  After a bit of agonizing, I realized that I needed more control over the map generation and noise generators based on landmass height didn't offer me that.  
 
With a bit of research, I decided that I would try to replicate landmasses using randomly generated polygons. I then wrote a function to do just that.  
 

Code:

GenerateRandomPolygon(randX, randY, radius, irregularity, spikeyness, verts);

The function allows you to specify polygon irregularity, radius, number of corners, and spikiness.   This function turned out to be the exact solution I was looking for, as it provides granular control over the shape of the landmass.  
 
 
 
The above function was then used to generate a random number of tectonic plates on the hex tile grid.  Then, hills are created at the locations (hexes) where tectonic plates overlap.   Mountain tiles are subsequently created from hill tiles that are surrounded by hills.   As you can see, this approach produces satisfying mountain ranges.
 
At this point each tile is assigned a wind direction that is determined by its latitude.   Then, default precipitation and temperature levels are set.   Mountains are cooler and water tiles are warmer.  Tiles in rain shadows are determined by examining nearby mountain tiles and their wind directions.    As you can see from the screens above,  this approach creates deserts on one side of the mountain and forests on the other.    
The maps are rather small at this point, but I do plan on making them much larger by adding biome regions (savana, tundra, taiga etc.).  Creating biome regions shouldn't be too hard now, considering I have all the data I need (temperature, precipitation, wind, etc).
 
 
There are still many more features I want to add like, rivers, roads, settlements, beaches, coast line water foam, and the list goes on.   I figure there is at least another month of solid coding to go.  Working on the hex map wouldn't be so difficult if Unity terrains were much more intuitive and fully documented.   The coordinate systems used by a terrain's trees, heightmaps, alphamaps, are all different and that makes it an obtuse beast to work with.  

Over the last two weeks I've been working hard on the procedural hex map.  So far, not bad for a programmer.  

The gradient certainly looks more professional. You might want to experiment with different gradient styles, angles, and transparency settings.

When it comes to options, I like the idea of including them, especially for Indie games. As an Indie developer, it's the kind of thing you can do that an AAA game developer might be told not to.

I like your minimalist UU design and I think it is best for us programmers .   I'd create a few gradients in gimp that fade to transparent and try a blue / cyan for the color.  For some reason everyone thinks those colors are Sci-Fi. 

There is something about this game that reminds me of Golden Axe   I can almost see Death Adder and his goons bursting out of that monastery door!

 
btw, I love the world map. 

Did you guys consider including a guard action?  The reason I'm asking is that it might help to prevent the, "now I'm behind you"  backstabbing I'm seeing going on in some of vids.  I know it's not easy thing to implement, but it was a fundamental action for all those old school gold box D&D games.

Otherwise, the game looks great.   


btw, polyhedral dice are cool

I know it's only a prototype, but I would try to make the camera lag behind the ship's movement.  In addition, I think that when the ship is moving the camera should move to the opposite side of the screen.  The idea is that you want as much screen space as possible in front of the ship and a limited amount behind it. Also, a bit of inertia on the ship would also make the game feel more like the classic asteroids game. 

I'll see if I can find a good example of what I'm talking about, but so far it looks like it's going to be a ton of fun.  Great work so far.

It seems like ages ago (yet less than a year) that the game looked like this.  A simple windows forms application.   Now all this purified game logic sits inside a class library (namespace XSYS).   



IMO, it's best to start on the core or your game first without the noise / confusion of an engine.  If you can't make your game logic work outside your game engine it probably won't work inside it either.

I love the look of that hex tile. My only suggestion would be to perhaps blend some of the tiles a little more. Though you likely already know that as it looks like some tiles blend but not all of them yet.

For the genre of game you plan on making I believe a procedural hex world would fit best, and it would require less memory than saving many large maps. Then you could allow the player to input their own seeds so they can share their world with their friends. Overall this is an incredible start! I can't wait to watch this game progress!

Thanks for your feedback.

You are very observant  

The hex grid is pure programmer art at this point and is shown with blending, fog of war, and water turned off.  Currently, after it stitches the terrain tiles together it applies a smoothing algorithm to the entire map, but I didn't like the look of it so I turned it off.  I'm now working on a smoothing mask that only applies smoothing to the edges of each hex tile.  In addition, I've created a hand painted greyscale mask that blends the textures together. 

This topic raises an interesting debate.  Apparently, there are Hex game enthusiasts who loath the idea of blended hex tiles.  In their view a hex tile should look like an actual hex tile.  The big question from them is "why make a hex tile game if it doesn't look like a hex grid?"

It's funny because my original design for the world map was a single hand crafted terrain world map with a simple hex grid overlay. Of course, I've since moved beyond that for the sake of replay-ability via procedural generation.  My only concern is how a procedural world might compromise a campaign story, if I chose to include one.   IMO, this game is more about sandbox style play than it is about epic fantasy stories and campaign worlds.

Sharing campaign worlds is a great idea. Of course, multi-player is out of scope.   

[Hex Crawling]

THE GAME:
 
Project XSYS is an untitled indie game that features world map HEX crawling, turn based combat, and multi-character party RPG adventuring.

Features thus far:

Hex Crawling

World map hex crawling is a unique feature. It's up to the player to ensure his/her party is well prepared and provisioned for each journey. Like many 4X games,time controls allow the player to speed up, slow down, and pause the passage of time. As time passes, various events will occur such as combat encounters, interaction scenarios, inter-party personality conflicts, discoveries, etc.    

The screenshot below is the most current view of the hex map. It is auto-generated by stitching smaller hand crafted Terrains together.  It has yet to be decided if the game will use procedural hex maps or not.
 





Tactical Turn Based Combat
The combat system was built to satisfy the itch of tactical turn based enthusiasts.  In addition, I've worked hard to ensure that the combat grid is truly 3D. This means that characters can climb, fly, crawl, and jump over and under obstacles.

The combat system is based on the concept that your character can try to do anything.  For example, if you want to fight with two weapons, trip, guard, parry, or disarm you don't need a special skill to try it. There are no talent trees just proficiency levels.



Character Party
The character creation system is extensive and is a multi-step process. Steps include selecting Class, Race, Ability Scores, Interaction Skills, Combat Skills, Exploration Skills, Spells, Appearance, Personality, Backgrounds, etc.  At the moment, the system allows you to create up to six characters.



Thus far, I've spent many long nights coding and refractoring the games numerous subsystems (true 3d grid pathfinding, sqlite database, event message system, animations, personality system, combat mechanics, inventory, character sheets, items, vendors, character creation, terrain based hex map, encounter system, survival mechanics, campaign events, etc).  The game has truly become a labor of love and I'm quite happy with the code thus far, but of course it's not perfect... yet.


Anyway,  I hope you enjoy watching my game take shape.  I really need all the feedback I can get as I have much to learn.