Multiple model test went off without a hitch:
I'll likely be working on making a hex grid next.
I don't know if you've got anything planned for textures, but it might be worthwile to look into stochastic fractals for the textures (think perlin noise here, though you cvould also use Voronoi's for roads or something). They're harder to control then custom textures, but they make sure textures don't get repetetive, while still keeping the same overall feel. I think Toady also uses perlins for the maps.
I don't know a whole lot about using fractals at the moment, and as far as texture repetition goes it will be some time before i'm going to put too much time into it, but it something i'll be sure to be considering.
When you add new hexes of land to the island, will you change the shape of the hanging earth underneath it, or just leave it with all the gaps and spaces? Or do you plan to just avoid this with prerendered islands of different sizes?
I will most likely have just a handful of individual tile models, models for a tile that is connected on all sides, one side, 2 side, 3 sides, 2 opposite side, etc... To prerender all of the different tile combinations of entire islands would quickly become way more work than to just get all the different iterations of how one tile can look and rotate it as needed.
Hippie Jesus on a hanglider, this is some amazing work. Nice looking engine. So, how big will a "small" airland be? Will there be "wild" airlands? Will you simply build a "city" tile, or build sectors, like a area of homes, a tile of workshops and forges, a farm, a magical university, and so on? Or, will you build tiles consisting of "a home" and "a workshop"?
How will Airlands Link together? Will players decide what orientation to dock in? will there be ways of building walls along the edge to prevent docking there?
And of course, need a professional software tester?
Right now i'm looking at the smaller airlands to consist of around 10-15 tiles, a new player would start off with their tower plus 5-7 tiles. This will also be dependent on how the economic system works and how much area is needed to create the simplest of working systems.
The management of a city will be somewhat abstracted, where you have a tile that is a "city" tile, the focus will be on logistics and route planning. My intent for villages/cities is that they function as a population node, with other things like farms, forges, quarries, drill squares, mines being developed on tiles nearby. This is going to likely exist on the subtile grid.
Ultimately i'd like for players to be able to spin their airlands as they wish for docking, but for now it will be docking north side to south side/ ne to sw..etc.
Right now i'm thinking that walls will only be buildable on the face of a tile that is attached to another tile, so that there is at the very least a 1 tile buffer around the edge of an airland. This may change, but for now, it is too dangerous to try to build a wall on the edge of an airland as the ground under it may crumble and fall off.