Hello denizens of gamedev.net. I come in peace. I am here to mingle with my fellow recreational software creators and perhaps to learn some things about life.
Right now I am working on a 2D isometric game along the lines of factorio.
Have you noticed that in games like factorio, age of empires, and basically every 2d isometric game that buildings are placed in a grid of tiles wheras units can move freely between the tiles?
Is there a good reason for that being the standard? Are there any games where buildings or even terrain is not bound to a grid structure? What would be the advantages of the grid?
One advantage I can think is that it would be easier perhaps to randomly generate terrain on a grid rather than freely.
Also, can someone please direct me to someone good resources on how to generate procedural maps and also how to save those maps to files.
Thank you.