I dug up an old project and I've been applying some of my fresh knowledge to it, but I've come to a point where I can't decide what to do.

The way I set it up was that every time the game is started, the computer creates a new, art-based map. It's really something you'd have to see to believe. The concept of the game is naval combat near small land masses (islands).

So, I've come to the point where I'm coding the movement of the ships. My problem is that I'm not using tiles, and the map is never the same...

My first thought was to create a sort of magnet effect on the land masses, so that when a ship was ordered to move through one, the effect would actually rotate it and push it away so that it would be forced to go around.

Then I got around to searching the forum and found tons of tile-based info. So, I figured maybe what I could do would be to set up a grid and search each "tile" to see if it is occupied by the land MC. Then, use A* to pathfind for the ship.

So, what do you guys think? Do I have other options that I haven't come across, yet? Should I just dive in and try coding something?!