What are tiles purpose?

[Prosper]

I know hexagons are for the pathing map.
However, the diamond is used for the tile shape to help creating perspective.

So i tried pentagons for a tile shape. But I feel I am not using them how I should.


http://img81.imageshack.us/my.php?image=prototypecitydj3.png


Also the letters work this way.

The smaller the farther away someone views that critter. B is our hero and he is standing ontop a building looking at the whole city.

 

[Wild_qwerty]

You dont need to build in a vanishing point in an iso metric game.

The effect of getting smaller the further it is away is called a perspective drawing, and the point at which is disapears is the vanishing point. It looks more realistic yes, but it is a completely different drawing technic to isometric.

Isometric is normally drawn at 30 degree angles for the horizontal plane and 90 degree angles for the vertical. Perspective does not use a constant angle for the horizontal plane but rather all horizontal planes intersect at the vanishing point.

bla bla bla... whats this mean?

well in a sprite based game all the sprites are constant and can not be redrawn as they move about the screen. So if you want to make a game with a vanishing point then you would need to use 3d graphics where the engien can re drawn the angles on the object by ratio of where the object is.

There are a few different technics people have used to create the illusion of depth in a 2d image.
eg:
- isomettric
- 1 point perpective
- 2 point perpective
- oblique, cavlier
- oblique, cabnet

I'm going back a few years to my old graphics and design clases (technical drawing) here so I'm a little rusty on the details.