Mapping Improvement Thread 4

[StrawberrySmiles]

*Ahem*

So um, I made my 1st dungeon map - an ice cave using the RTP. Yikes! It was Star's will, I swear!

I KNOW it sucks, so please tell me what to fix! :D

Thankies. ^^

 

[Spoo]

Your walls are too straight; you almost never want to put three like tiles in a line, unless the cavern is clearly man made.

You could also use some detail on the front of the ridge thing. Crystals, flora, whatever, really. Some ground detail in the broader spaces would work wonders, too.

 

[StrawberrySmiles]

Is this any better? I still see some straight walls, so I'm going to fix them now. :D

 

[Spoo]

That one stretch of path at the entrance really kills me, but besides that, it looks a lot better.

 

[StrawberrySmiles]

Thanks for the help. I got rid of the path - well Star did anyway (it was killing him, too).

Here's what it looks like now (in-game, 'cause I'm too lazy to paste the map together).

 

[ShadowMainZERO]

Here's a question: Is it even possible to move around? Or is everything other than the straight path from the entrance to the hole leading deeper just for show?

 

[RavenTDA]

If you want to work on it more... The plants are in a splatter. A lot of people do this mistake but plants look MUCH better when grouped together with same or similar plants. Putting one of each in a group all over the place in an even spread isn't really what's going to happen in nature. Plants grow with the same types together in a bundle that kinda spreads out a bit. When it's so evenly distributed like that it doesn't look right. I find that the little grass puffs (not sure if they are in this tile set...they come in bunches, singles, doubles and so on) really help for bushes or plants that cover one square and help make it less squared and more natural. Other than that... the second level looks weird because it's all the same height. If you can't walk on it, why not vary the height so it looks more natural? Also the cave doorway looks a little weird because it's so close to the curve.

 

[rey meustrus]

OK, the thing about plants is a bit strange, particularly with the more lush green ones that shouldn't be in an ice cave at all.

Actually, what I want to tell you is that your map is pretty OK. These changes were indeed improvements, but I don't think any normal gamer could tell the difference if the before and after weren't side by side. I recommend that you think about these lessons on an abstract level and move on to other maps. Honestly, your starting map was 50x better than a lot of people's first maps.

Also, there's an awful lot of detail in the area behind the doorway where the player can't go...don't get rid of it, but try not to put so much effort into inaccessible areas in the future.

 

[StrawberrySmiles]

Ah, you can't move around and there really isn't any point to. Just start from the bottom and go into deeper into the cave. So I'm pretty sure it's for show. XD

Should I keep the plants or get rid of them? Now I'm confused. XD

But I won't spend ages on the map, I'll move on (if I spend ages, then the actual game won't get done).

My fiance said if I varied the height on the second level, I'd have to make the out walls of this cave/entrance even taller or something. o.o Did you mean make some areas taller?

Also, it's covered in ice, shouldn't there be a way to make prettier or shiny or something? ^^

 

[rey meustrus]

You should probably limit your plants to the bluish ones and remove the lusher green ones. I'd be tempted to dispense with everything except the bluish bush and possibly the mushrooms, but you should try to avoid overusing any particular tile so it'd be better to either get more variety that fit the frozen environment or have a barren, plantless environment.

As for varying the height of your cliffs, I've got a couple of examples for you:
[1] Really tall cliffs; pretty good from the front but I didn't do a very good job on the sides.
[2] Short cliffs; good all around, in my unbiased opinion .
The key here is that the ledges don't ever last the full length of the cliff except for intentional plateaus. In your case, the only intentional plateau should be the "ceiling" tile and all the rest should either be straight up or with a variety of short ledges like this.

Of course, I did those maps because I like drawing those complicated cliff patterns. The second one was purely for the fun of it. If you don't think it's fun it might not be worth it.

If you want to make things shiny, there are a couple ways to do that. First is by a screen tone that enhances the contrast. Second is by placing parallel process events around the map that wait a little while, then play a small sparkle animation, and repeat (it will do that automatically unless you use switches to prevent it); make sure the wait times are offset among these events. You could also use an icy textured "fog" to add sparkly detail if you like the way it looks.

 

[Ellie]

Is this any better? I still see some straight walls, so I'm going to fix them now. :D

The top only really serves for pointless screen-scrolling and potential lag here, as the player will never reach those spots (only 7 tiles above their head). The top of the map is completely inaccessible. Granted, it looks nice viewing it as a whole though.

 

[StrawberrySmiles]

I haven't encountered lag and I'm on a netbook. D=

I'll cut it down if people complain, though. Hehe.

By the way, thanks Rey.

 

[Ellie]

It's more from a technical point of view. Since the player can't ever see those parts, having it there serves no real purpose and therefore even though the potental for lag is very small, it is still a negative aspect. But I'm just nitpicking at this stage.

 

[StrawberrySmiles]

I'll see if affects anyone, and then cut it down - I'm gonna waste anytime doing so if I don't have too, when I could be making other maps. ^^

EDIT:

I cut it down anyway, because well it was unneeded. XD It was relatively easy, actually. o.o

 

[Tuna]

If you want to put a name on it, the concept Wyatt is discussing here is an extension of "clipping". There's no point in rendering images that the player will never actually see. Granted, I would think RMXP already implements clipping and it doesn't actually render outside of the 16x12(?) viewing area until the player reaches the edge of the screen, but you could further enhance this clipping by not having the unviewable data even processed to begin with.

 

[StrawberrySmiles]

I said I already cut it, didn't you read that part Tuna Fish? :P

C'mon, let's drop it already.

 

[Tuna]

I just wanted an excuse to talk about rendering. :sad:

 

[Juan J. Sánchez]

I think it looks nice, Strawberry.

 

[Ellie]

Yeah considering it's your first dungeon map I'm very impressed. You seem to have missed pretty much most of the pitfalls in cave mapping, mainly that not everything is on the same flat level and such.

Spoiler: RE: Tuna

If you want to put a name on it, the concept Wyatt is discussing here is an extension of "clipping". There's no point in rendering images that the player will never actually see. Granted, I would think RMXP already implements clipping and it doesn't actually render outside of the 16x12(?) viewing area until the player reaches the edge of the screen, but you could further enhance this clipping by not having the unviewable data even processed to begin with.

I'm not sure RMXP does clip. Well, it will scroll nonetheless, which is unnecessary; but besides that events at least are still drawn when off screen. This is the purpose of Zeriab's anti-lag script and why it works so well; it removes any non-parallel-process events which aren't in the viewable area.

 

[StrawberrySmiles]

I've changed the map a little bit and tried cutting the top as much as possible. ;_;