Mapping Improvement Thread

Started by KRoP, October 25, 2008, 10:24:44 pm

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KRoP

It's pretty self-explanatory. You post up your maps, people critique whichever maps they like and if they so choose post their own. Remember to take criticism with a cool head, (i.e. no flaming) yer the one who wanted critique in the first place.
To the mods: If this is in the wrong section, please move it, or if one of these threads already exist, feel free to lock it. :)
I'll start this off:
Spoiler: ShowHide

Crappy version of Photoshop caused it to fad out around the edges, sorry. :P

Starrodkirby86

1. I don't think that horizontal walling for the cabin is intended to be used like that. It certainly isn't a noticeable bad side, but I think it's meant to be used to connect two rectangles of the cabin together to make a half T or a T shaped cabin.
2. Those clothes can be stolen real easily. :P In a realistic perspective.
3. Talk about not clearing the path from the trees. @_@ (One of those pathways has the stump and log, just a minor nitpick, but doesn't matter)


That's all I'm really pointing out. I would focus more but I'm on a StepMania crusade right now, so my apologies.

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KRoP

Thanks for the tips. :D  I'll make sure to go back and fix those problems.

Blizzard

Alright, just for the sake of it. xD

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Satoh

People who live in the woods have OH so much to worry about with people stealing their drying clothes... >.>

@KRoP It has a nice degree of natural randomness to it... I myself have trouble with random.... I think my best map was probably the ship I made... that one time....

@ Bliz thats good too
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Starrodkirby86

1. Very interesting map Blizzard. But because it's large and on RMXP, it tends to get boring. I hope you have something interesting plotted up for this.
2. I wonder what those statues are there for...and they're not some arbitrary furniture some nut decided to put. (This isn't implying you should remove those gargoyles though).
3. Actually, this is a good map to learn off of, especially when working on caves. Good work, Blizzard.

Just note that some things that are arbitrary or random aren't always the best things to add, so there should be some reason why it's there but not one that's too specific and not something TOTALLY random random. @_@ I'm confusing myself here. XD

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Satoh

Quote from: Starrodkirby86 on October 25, 2008, 10:49:35 pm
1. Very interesting map Blizzard. But because it's large and on RMXP, it tends to get boring. I hope you have something interesting plotted up for this.
2. I wonder what those statues are there for...and they're not some arbitrary furniture some nut decided to put. (This isn't implying you should remove those gargoyles though).
3. Actually, this is a good map to learn off of, especially when working on caves. Good work, Blizzard.

Just note that some things that are arbitrary or random aren't always the best things to add, so there should be some reason why it's there but not one that's too specific and not something TOTALLY random random. @_@ I'm confusing myself here. XD


I have always wondered who puts the random furnishings in supposedly desolate places....

I think I should make a satiRePG
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Blizzard

1. The map may be big, but you get through within seconds. That's because it is a multi-map. It has actually 4 different paths, one of them being a dead end. I avoid making maps too big in RMXP. They really tend to get boring. Instead I like to create many smaller maps. It's easier and gives you a feeling that it's actually big. The map itsef isn't so large either, it's just 50x40, it only looks rather big.
2. The gargoyles are a hint there is something wrong with the volcano. The truth is that at the bottom is a so-called Chaos Source. But I am not spoiling you anything more. You can approach them or similar pillars (which aren't in this map) and you get a comment by Jason.
3. Thanks. :) The creation of this map would have been great for an expert tutorial in mapping, but oh well.
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Quote from: winkioI do not speak to bricks, either as individuals or in wall form.

Quote from: Barney StinsonWhen I get sad, I stop being sad and be awesome instead. True story.

Satoh

To be honest, at first I wasn't even half interested in Lexima... but the more I read random bits about it the more interesting it seems...

I may even try to get involved with it at some point if you're not careful...

On topic though I had an idea for a series of exactly 100 maps in a tower, (though really some areas are not accessible easily and require you to backtrack to get to them... so its really like 387 rooms... unfortunately I'm not sure how to finish it... I mean... it IS 100 maps... and not all of them have to be uber detailed.... but they do have to stay interesting and not be repeated every five floors.... It was actually going to be a massive plot point in an RPG I was making.. where floor 53- 55 were inhabited but the other floors were filled with monsters and the like... (effectively trapping the citizens in the tower for eternity...
Requesting Rule #1: BE SPECIFIC!!

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Light a man afire and he'll be warm for the rest of his life... ¬ ¬;

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Blizzard

When I did my 20 volcano maps, it took me hours to finish them. Putting a general guide through those maps helped a lot. I originally planned 15, but it just grew out of proportions. It took me 2 or 3 days. I wasn't working on it every minute I was awake of course.

Careful, Lexima is very infective! D: Many people at this forum can confirm it. You should see the list of beta testers that have signed up. I think there are already more than 30.
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Quote from: winkioI do not speak to bricks, either as individuals or in wall form.

Quote from: Barney StinsonWhen I get sad, I stop being sad and be awesome instead. True story.

Satoh

I think I may sign up to test it, but not read anything about it beforehand... that way it will be like I'm an actual consumer.

I really want to make my tower map look good but I don't have the right stuff to put in it... I need to make the walls look dirty somehow...

Though I did start working on a futuristic game, for which I had to make an entirely new tileset... which is still unfinished...
Requesting Rule #1: BE SPECIFIC!!

Light a man a fire and he'll be warm for a night...
Light a man afire and he'll be warm for the rest of his life... ¬ ¬;

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Starrodkirby86

Quote from: Bugs Bunny on October 25, 2008, 11:25:25 pm
When I did my 20 volcano maps, it took me hours to finish them. Putting a general guide through those maps helped a lot. I originally planned 15, but it just grew out of proportions. It took me 2 or 3 days. I wasn't working on it every minute I was awake of course.

Careful, Lexima is very infective! D: Many people at this forum can confirm it. You should see the list of beta testers that have signed up. I think there are already more than 30.

Lexima isn't that infectious at all. Unfortunately, your long wait has really buzzed some of the excitement out of me, but I wasn't totally into it as I used to be with my RPG Maker games...But that was me in the 2000 generation, this is me in the XP generation.

I can see how a general guide helps. You need a basic infrastructure no matter what or else you'll be lost when development. Write something down for notes as diagrams maybe, or draw an image on Paint (Some of this is mentioned in Blizzard's tutorial for mappers). So yeah...A general plan ALWAYS helps no matter what.

@Satoh: All you need to do is make dirty graphics yourself. You being a good spriter I know you can do that. :P

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KRoP

Yay for on-topicness.
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Oh noes, a principal's office. :p
Yes it's a small map. BUT IT'S STILL A MAP. >8U

Satoh

Quote from: Starrodkirby86 on October 25, 2008, 11:33:26 pm
@Satoh: All you need to do is make dirty graphics yourself. You being a good spriter I know you can do that. :P


Ah, but making things tile correctly and making them look good is not always easy to do at the same time...

Here's some autotiles I made of some catwalk type things... one is for overlaying on top of a level so it is visible but not intrusive, the other os for being the main focus of the area, taking priority over the room below...
Spoiler: ShowHide
Spoiler: ShowHide


Here is part of a large room in some sort of lab (using the tileset I'm making) it looks kind of barren though... not sure what typ of lab-y things to put in it...
Spoiler: ShowHide

Requesting Rule #1: BE SPECIFIC!!

Light a man a fire and he'll be warm for a night...
Light a man afire and he'll be warm for the rest of his life... ¬ ¬;

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KRoP

Tables?  Beakers?  Generic things, but you need to at least put something in that room to break up the monotony.

Satoh

Yes, I know something.... but the question is what should be sitting around... I was thinking big rows of oversized computers and such... but when it comes down to it, anything I want to put in there I have to draw first... which means I have to decide how it will look and from what angle I'll be drawing it... it's almost like making a whole map in and of itself...

and the map may be small, but not all rooms are big, plus, it isn't an uninteresting shape, and it seems well furnished (have you ever seen a person of authority that didn't have some personal items strewn about?)

One thing that I don't care for though, is the color... it's very...white... you may want to splice some wood in that tileset for the offices, (all the staff offices at my college are wood interior... to make them seem more comfortable or something while the classrooms are plain white painted cinder block...)

Also the small room size gives perspective to the other rooms(granted I haven't seen them...)

However, be careful when mapping the outside of the building, that you don't neglect to put the odd shape of that office on it... (since its a window office, that means the back wall will not be smooth form the outside.)
Requesting Rule #1: BE SPECIFIC!!

Light a man a fire and he'll be warm for a night...
Light a man afire and he'll be warm for the rest of his life... ¬ ¬;

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Punn

Spoiler: ShowHide


I was going for this "Checkpoint"-like area where you need to pay to go through, it's supposed to look like it was recently abandon.

Blizzard

Quote from: Satoh on October 25, 2008, 11:46:09 pm
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Erm... Where are those shadows coming from? It's an interior map, isn't it?
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Quote from: winkioI do not speak to bricks, either as individuals or in wall form.

Quote from: Barney StinsonWhen I get sad, I stop being sad and be awesome instead. True story.

Punn

Maybe hes trying to show that there's some kind of catwalk up there or something. (Or he's just playing around with the map...)

DeathLock

@Mumerus: Lower the shadows opacity. And add a few of nature's things here and there to make it look more attractive.

@Satoh: Blizz is correct, use interior shadows in a defined light source (lamp, etc).