In search for new idea's regarding maps

All little things help.
Maybe I go for the full 16 types. In that case, bogs could be a tad different than swamps. Unless, they really are the same thing.

Now, where can I place bogs? I got beaches (water+dessert) and swamps (water+grasslands)

Bogs could be by themselves. Or created by combining other terrain types.

That is a good one indeed. I already was thinking of boiling water. But it didn't occurred to me that I could do hot springs. They will do nicely in combination with lava lakes and sea shores or rivers.

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Another suggestion from elsewhere. Taiga.
While I have clean ice by combining water and snow terrain. Taiga is a bit different. Since there is actually ground involved. I could put the movement score at a maximum of 3, yet vision could be 2, just like snow.

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I have 9 picks now.
But a bit more, and I can analyse which ones to pick for (semi-)completion.

Something hit me.

By the looks of it. I am creeping again. Time to shoot this old yeller.
And start from scratch.

Sure I can add more and more terrain. But no one wants to recognise 8 or more terrain types. 7 was already some sort of a maximum for the ridges. And telling the codes should not be done so.

I need to do something super basic. Yet trying to get as much as possible things.

Instead of C/W/D/G/T/R/S and what more to add. I want to do something simple, with numbers.
And then, I could do a yes/no situation.

Terrain is often soft cover in the current game.

Any structure or unit added, is hard cover or fodder.
But sometimes, eg. wooden wall, is used to hide stuff behind it.
You often need a lot of something, to keep things hidden. Like a tank.

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Any hows.
I talked about how this has turned into creep.
I need to figure something out. That will simplify the mechanics. Instead of complicating them.

This is how it currently works:
All players know how normal units work.
Special units have bonuses by ignoring terrain types; for movement AND for projectile types.
A terrain has 1 or 2 letters.
T+W for example, is water with tree's.
Players know that normal unit can move 2 out of 6 points here. And projectiles have 5 out of 6 points.
If an unit can move in water and land. It would be 5 out of 6 points for that region.

Stuff like that. Has to be simplified.
Since players don't like to add and subtract a lot.

I was thinking. It is the properties of a region.
Not the terrain code.
That would make things simpler, if supplied to players.
In that case, it doesn't matter what else I think of for terrain. I simply pick something that fits the numbers that I want.

To get things working. I need to get the right properties.

-The main surface would be 6 points divided among liquids or solid grounds. We have [L]iquid.
-[S]olid
-[T]emperature (very cold/cold/normal/hot/very hot). I think, this could influence a lot on unit movement. But also justify for example, ICE. Terrain. Which is currently a combination of water and snow.
-[H]ard [o]bjects, like hills, rocks, maybe tree's. The more points, the less room for any unit.
-[S]oft [o]bjects, like plants, piles of snow, maybe tree's again, but these would be in between.

Units now can have the property of not ignoring a terrain type. But rather ignoring a terrain property. And there are only 5. Not 7, 8, 10 or 16.

First problem, a tank would be needing solid ground for movement. But any Ho or So would be reducing movement again. I can imagine a nice 3/3 region for water and solid ground. And then having 3 points for objects. In that case, movement would be 0, yet vision 3.
Originally, terrain types supplied points, not subtracted them.

A second problem, would be ridges. But in a sense. I could scrap them and have hexagons being the ridge instead. I tried this before. But it makes maps so much bigger. About twice as big.

I could use any texture with this plan???
Or am I over complicating things???

Another approach would be, lessening terrain types or properties. But the main wish remains. Having points for movement. And points for vision. But also, having units that only can go on water. Or units that can fire better in the woods (splash damage to hit hiding units)

Talked with the number 1 play tester yesterday evening.

The conclusion is that every player ever, would simply recognise altitude of terrain.
And that having special weapons lobbing over or go through, are easy enough to understand.
Especially if the map is truly designed to be 3D.

For the terrain types. It is odd to look at every region. And having to look at the codes, then looking the effects up in a table. Also, knowing each unit speciality regarding movement and projectile effects. Would be waaay to much work for new players. These things are introduced 1 by 1 to players. But to get things going. I need to lessen the strain by a lot.

Instead of letter codes. Numbers would be better. But we are left by the problem of ridges. While ridges make maps small for playing. They need to be understandable, by simply looking at the "colour".

Fog, will not be an answer for ridges.
City like structures will. Therefore the 8th terrain type will be Cit[Y].
Perhaps, it is time to stop immediately, with adding more.

If I truly would add more, then I need to discard ridges. And turn to numbers instead.

I will first test the minimum addition. If it doesn't suit the situations. Then it all will be discarded.

Regarding movement. The urban addition works great. (Yes, I am calling it [U]rban).

In the past, I had urban environments, composed of "rocks" and "hard ground". But then with its own texture. Back then it had 3 Movement and 3 Vision. But I am happy with the new addition. And thus having it get a movement of 6 instead.

Balance? More like design issue's

However, regarding projectiles. I find that it lacks easy to use numbers. Now that I am adding urban, I might as well use that opportunity to make things easier for myself too. I will use vision of 1 instead than opposed to the intended 0. I know that it doesn't have the full vision block now. But giving it 1 is already effectively stopping players from trying to shoot through (Vision total of 1 or 2). It also allows for interesting melee battle's.

Maybe in the future, I might add another region, that truly has 3 Movement and 0 Vision. It would not influence the design issue's any further, since the default is set on 16 total, instead of 15. And even air units could have trouble here. Yes, Fog could be the next one to add. But it would be weird, only applying this to the pure terrain types. You will see for example a Harbour in my list. But these places are perfect for fog.

Is it logical that in urban environments. Units have some vision? I think it should. Since you can consider structures with roads, to have the same effect as tree's on vision.

Results
With Urban. I need to look at the combinations. And what they can represent. Let me know, if you can find yourself with these settings.

Urban with...;

-Urban: Big City. Movement 6. Vision 2.
Often having a lot of hexagons adjacent to each other.

-Concrete/hard ground: Suburb. Movement 6, Vision 4.
Less structures, but good pavement. Explain the statistics for this hexagon.

-Grass: Villages. Movement 5, Vision 4.
While these share the same vision radius as suburbs. It is that villages have a disoriented road configuration and thus reduce movement by 1.

-Dessert: Dessert Villages. Movement 4, Vision 4.
Same story as the normal Villages, I guess. But then, the roads are really bad.

-Water: Harbour. Movement 3, Vision 4.
Ships happen to have exactly the same movement here.
Allowing ships and ground units to cross each other in a perfectly 1 on 1 ratio.

-Snow: Big City in winter. Or a mountain city. Movement 5, Vision 3.
The winter is hard on most regions. Vision and movement are always reduced by the cold. However, an open snow plain offers more vision yet less movement.

-Tree's: Urban Park. Movement 4, Vision 2.
Not much to say about this. Let's just say that the combination of structures and tree's. Allow for more confusion when trying to spot a target.

-Rocks: Caves(?). A denser form of an ancient mountain city? Movement 3, Vision 1.
So many corners and turns. That vision is reduced to an absolute minimum. This place is perfect for melee units though.

Texture?
I think, that I need to make an overlay texture with grey(?) blocks. That fit the hexagons. But it would not represent the caves. So with the last one, I think I stick with ancient mountain cities.
Ridges are "random" in shape. But when the texture is added, the random shape has to be ignored. Thus the urban texture has to be added as an entire layer on its own.

If any one still wonders:
Vision is a d6 accuracy roll on any weapon.
Movement is allowing a number of units in that region. They keep their effective speed. But you need more action points to get more unit through.
Effectively, movement of 4 and 5 cost the same amount of AP than movement of 3, for a full squad.

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Some of you have given great suggestions that steered me in this direction.
Thank you.