My Map

[Meteor Rain 0]

After having all basic things ready of my game, all skills set and all items I finally began mapping.

 

I am not a very good mapper, but I tried.

 

 

 

This is the basic town where the player starts. I didn't make it a large map.

 

What do you think?

Edited August 4, 2011 by Meteor Rain

[Mr.Fiasco 1]

Wayyy to plain. And some barrels and farmstuff could help it

[Dragon324 16]

After having all basic things ready of my game, all skills set and all items I finally began mapping.

 

I am not a very good mapper, but I tried.

 

 

 

This is the basic town where the player starts. I didn't make it a large map.

 

What do you think?

First off I dont want you to seem like this is rude I know what you are about to see is kinda horrifying, but all I want to do is help you.

Key: Blue: There is not enough cover objects and you left spots empty that need to be filled. This means adding more trees, water, tall grass, flowers, houses, ect.

Red: You have used it incorrectly or the way it is shaped and or size is wrong.

Yellow: It is to small for the size map you have. Please make this stuff bigger/wider

Purple: Stuff is shaped to evenly and /or you have to many of the same type on map.

The Map: More info. below

 

The cliff on the lower left, the top has no clear edges this makes it look wrong because it blends with the rest of the map.

Your water shapes are so small, enlarge them make lakes, ponds not random splats of water.

You need a lot more object on your map than that, it took me a while to get used to this but for what you have everything is just to bland.

You made cliffs but on top did not add anything on them, there should be something up there :B):

I know this is a lot and if you need help I'm willing to help you, if you want send me a PM with that map unencrypted and I can show you what I would do.

Another option is if you have team viewer we can hop on and I can show you.

Either way best of luck to you. :alright:

[Meteor Rain 0]

First off I dont want you to seem like this is rude I know what you are about to see is kinda horrifying, but all I want to do is help you.

Key: Blue: There is not enough cover objects and you left spots empty that need to be filled. This means adding more trees, water, tall grass, flowers, houses, ect.

Red: You have used it incorrectly or the way it is shaped and or size is wrong.

Yellow: It is to small for the size map you have. Please make this stuff bigger/wider

Purple: Stuff is shaped to evenly and /or you have to many of the same type on map.

The Map: More info. below

 

The cliff on the lower left, the top has no clear edges this makes it look wrong because it blends with the rest of the map.

Your water shapes are so small, enlarge them make lakes, ponds not random splats of water.

You need a lot more object on your map than that, it took me a while to get used to this but for what you have everything is just to bland.

You made cliffs but on top did not add anything on them, there should be something up there :B):

I know this is a lot and if you need help I'm willing to help you, if you want send me a PM with that map unencrypted and I can show you what I would do.

Another option is if you have team viewer we can hop on and I can show you.

Either way best of luck to you. :alright:

Thanks a lot for help dragon.

 

 

What about this?

 

 

Edit: I didn't see the tree blocking way to the house at cliff lol. I'll remove that one.

Edited August 5, 2011 by Meteor Rain

[Dragon324 16]

This was nicer, it's definitely a lot better than your last one. It's just a little hard to see such a zoomed out image :D

Key: Blue Spaces are empty needs some stuff there

Yellow: Tall grass is a little small mostly my opinion but I would make them bigger

Red: The path is to straight and extends in one direction for a while. Add some variation to paths. Also I like paths that are 2 spaces wide better than the 1 space wide you are currently using.

Purple: Variation needed. What I mean by this is make some houses wider than others, make others taller, not every house is built exactly the same unless that is what ur going for, in a strict neighborhood or something.

Black: Just a mistake, you either missed it or you need to bring it down more.

 

 

Maybe add a little pond somewhere, or have some kind of body of water close to that village, people wont just go making villages in the middle of no where unless there is food and water.

For your flowers and plants I like to add them on top of the tall grass like so

Hope this helps you.

[Meteor Rain 0]

This was nicer, it's definitely a lot better than your last one. It's just a little hard to see such a zoomed out image :D

Key: Blue Spaces are empty needs some stuff there

Yellow: Tall grass is a little small mostly my opinion but I would make them bigger

Red: The path is to straight and extends in one direction for a while. Add some variation to paths. Also I like paths that are 2 spaces wide better than the 1 space wide you are currently using.

Purple: Variation needed. What I mean by this is make some houses wider than others, make others taller, not every house is built exactly the same unless that is what ur going for, in a strict neighborhood or something.

Black: Just a mistake, you either missed it or you need to bring it down more.

 

 

Maybe add a little pond somewhere, or have some kind of body of water close to that village, people wont just go making villages in the middle of no where unless there is food and water.

For your flowers and plants I like to add them on top of the tall grass like so

Hope this helps you.

Thank you very much dragon!

 

This is the final result, I think it is good enough:

 

 

 

 

I can also show you the very first map I made for this game a long time ago. But I have to warn you, it is possible it will make your eyes bleed.

 

 

 

[zane203 8]

to each their own, but here's what I do for my maps:

 

-I always enclose the edges so the player wont run into "invisible walls" but instead, VISIBLE ones xD.

-I always mark the places of transitions to the next area with a "signature", like for some its an event with an transparent arrow. Some its dips on the edge of their visible wall.

-Think randomly for nature, and think constructive for manmade things.

:such as if its a walkway from where grass was withered away, dont let it be SO SO straight, and if its a paved road, it should have a bit more shape to it. (unless you're going for a ruin area, then grass could have grown over most of the road)

 

anyways with yours i'd make the fence shaped a bit more "useful" and add more nature objects.

[FranklinX 37]

Your second map looks better. Add more flowers, objects, and people.

[Meteor Rain 0]

I made a mine, consist of 3 parts. I don't think I've done it good:

 

 

Mine Part 1:

Mine Part 2:

Mine Part 3:

Edited August 9, 2011 by Meteor Rain

[Heretic86 25]

Caves are kind of hard to do if you've never done them before. Here is one I am trying...

 

 

 

Personally, I think the default cave walls suck since they are all convex (go out), and no concave (go in), and only get sharp concave corners. The only thing I could think of to do at least to make the walls more interesting is to use all the convex tiles to create what appeared as really deep cracks in the walls that players couldnt explore because the cracks were too small to fit through. The pics Im posting allow the player to see that there are definitely cracks, and makes the map feel very very confusing, although it is actually excessively simple. And I know a lot of people will say the "light area" is too small, and it is small, but there are no points in the map where you cant see both edges of where you are allowed to go. So it feels really dark like you cant see anything, and confusing, because of all the "cracks", but really its easier than it looks. The excessive black around the edges is due to the "light area" thing. Its basically just a picture that stays in a static position, and if the player walks close to the edge, they walk out of the light, so it doesnt feel like the player is carrying a crappy light.

 

The only other thing that I would suggest is to really figure out your layers. One single tree does NOT need to have every part of that tree on the same layer. Thus, you can "Stack" trees in front of each other. Your foremost tree will be layer 3, and put the BOTTOM of another tree behind it on Layer 2, but for the TOP of that 2nd tree, put that on Layer 3, and put yet another tree behind that. The thing I think your maps lacked the most was the Layer Stacking. A tree or other larger objects partially obscuring a house or other objects, and seriously just Stack the shit out of everything! Expect a few problems to occur however. Such as if you put a tree next to a fence, you might find that your character can "walk thru" the fence due to the shadow from the fence. It is logical that "shadows" cover other objects, but when that is done in a game enviornment, it causes side effects. Two solutions are either to not do it, or to use "invisible unpassable events". I've edited my databases to make one invisible tile Unpassable, and only use that tile when the passing bug occurs. Those events, make sure to uncheck the "Move Animation" but dont go crazy with events or your map will lag. Try to use them sparingly. Also, since I've tried the whole go crazy with Stacking Layers thing, I've run into a few instances where I found it necessary to use an event as a 4th layer, just for the graphic. Like trying to make a very dense forest. But, at most, I'll use 10 events for graphics on an entire large map. One other thing that I learned from experience is that if you are stacking trees in an area that you are NOT going to see the ground at all, you can use Layer 1 for Tree Graphics. Its only when you need to see two different elements, such as a partial corner of a house that you have to "stack", but dont just use one stack, use double stack and triple stack, and even the rare quadruple stack which will require Events as graphics.

 

If you really want to learn how to make a good looking map, try making a Forest that you do NOT expect to be playable. Just make a forest and make it as dense as possible by putting each tree on multiple layers. This is just for practice, but try making a forest as dense as possible, and post a screenshot of your forest so we can see how successful you were.

[Chief 30]

That has got to be one of the best caves i have ever seen. You made it look really natural. Something you never really see in caves with RPG maker.

[Heretic86 25]

I am honestly blown away by your compliment!

 

The Style isnt that hard to do, just fake cracks in the walls with the current default tilesets. The tiles will have to be stacked a little bit, for example, the top of a wall slightly lower on the screen should obscure the bottom of the wall that is slightly higher on the screen. Just use layers 2 and 3 to pull that off. Now, the style itself isnt that hard, only problem is it does require more effort and more work to do.

 

The Light Effect is totally optional, and very easy. Its just a black picture with a round spot in the middle that was selected, feathered by about 25px, then deleted, so that part becomes transparent (photoshop). If you use a light like that, set up your map so the player is never less than ten tiles from the edge. That way the light doesnt stop "following" the player.

 

However, I think the most important thing that can be said in this thread is to Learn the Value of Stacking Layers!

 

---

 

Edit: THIS is what I mean by Layers! (Map isnt mine)

 

 

Edited October 18, 2011 by Heretic86

[Kiriashi 117]

I wonder who did that map... :whistle:

[Heretic86 25]

Found it on a different forum. It doesnt necessarily mean that it was original...

 

http://rmrk.net/index.php/topic,34550.0.html

[Kiriashi 117]

Mark did the tilesets. I did the map.

 

The I wonder thing was sarcasm. xD

[Heretic86 25]

What is this strange "Sarcasm" thing that you speak of? This word bewilders me!

 

/sarcasm

 

But absolute kudos, your map looks absolutely incredible!

Edited October 19, 2011 by Heretic86

[Chief 30]

Yeah, Kiri is by far the best mapper I've met, and probably one of the best in the RM community.

[Kiriashi 117]

Don't get my ego too high now. Lol.

[Heretic86 25]

I havent played the map but one of the things that I can tell just from the static screenshot was the map itself isnt static. There is some wildlife, a couple of birds mainly is what sticks out. Its that level of polish that seems to be lacking. I'll have to try incorporating more wildlife, and try to make it look natural, like it actually belongs there.