   city-building design
  Hi,I''ve started to write a city building game, which I can start simple and make more complex as I learn.  I''m new at this and I''d basically like to start a thread to get ideas from anyone who''s had any experience with this, before I get bogged down in code.I''m writing the engine first, and my initial thoughs are to have a diagonal (orthogonal?) viewpoint.  Lay down the landscape first as a tiled surface, and then load the buildings etc. as transparent textures.My first problem is how to label the rows, columns and tiles.  It seems more natural to label them as they would appear in real life (i.e. running diagonally up the screen) and write methods to convert row, columns and sector coordinates to x, y co-ordinates.  However, then I thought about how to find the bounds of my viewport, and this method makes that more complicated.  The alternative is to have a grid where I place the bottom-left corner of the buildings in the center of the diamonds.  This means that I will have to miss out every other row and column.  I know this seems trivial, but I''m scratching my head about what to do.Sorry, I''m rambling on a bit now, but if anyone has any ideas, I''d appreciate it.  Also any general comments would be great too.Cheers,Steve 
  Head on over to the Isometric Land forum. This is exactly the sort of thing that gets discussed there. 