this post was submitted on 28 Aug 2023
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Why do modern strategy games hate the grid? (lemmy.world)
submitted 1 year ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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OK, I finally took the plunge on Baldur's Gate 3, and, coming from playing several hundreds of hours of Solasta recently, the first thing I noticed is the lack of a combat grid.

Going back a bit further, my son and I spent a ridiculous amount of time playing Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle. We were super pumped for the sequel, but when it finally came out, it kind of fell flat for both of us. Whether or not it's down to this, I don't know, but they also removed the grid.

That game, of course, was an XCom-like. XCom used a grid, but a more recent Firaxis game, Marvel's Midnight Suns, got rid of the grid as well.

To me, all these gridless iterations of classic strategy games just aren't as engaging. I guess they're going for a more immersive rpg type of feel? But to me it seems to sacrifice the strategy aspect, and ultimately, judging based on my hours played, that always ends up being too great a sacrifice. My play time on Marvel's Midnight Suns is less than 10% of Xcom 2, and the same is true for Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope.

I'm sure BG3 is a great game, and I'm sure I'll enjoy the campaign, but so far it's not giving me the 'feels'.

Do you miss grids? Or did they only slow you down?

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[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago (2 children)

@anakin78z Also the DnD Grid kinda break when you put it in an actual 3D world. It work by convention on a TTRPG but the work around to do it are just not really sensible when you step away from the table. Diagonal movement, sphere, angled line,... All of that kinda gets more messy to apply if you are representing a 3D world.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

Huh, I'm not sure I agree. It's fairly straightforward to represent any volume as a 3D grid, and depending on how the game system does the math, it's easy to count cells on any diagonal. I think the controls are a bit messy, but Solasta has a totally usable 3D grid for things like flying, and also shows how area effects like spheres or such affect surfaces on different levels.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

I've been playing Solasta the past few weeks, great game with a grid system that makes real good use of 3d and height :)