Mapping Improvement Thread 4

[Xhukari]

I quite like what you have done, my only real complaint is the grass; it is quite bare for the most part, with the occasional tuft. You should introduce some differing kinds of tufts; some darker, some lighter and with different densities, this should help make the grass look more natural (they do this in the actual games too).

 

[regi]

I'm a bit stuck with this. I have a chain of maybe 20 maps between two places and on the face of it they're all the same kind of map, which I think might be making it monotonous, but I'm not sure. Can anyone think of a way to spruce up maps such as this one without every map ending up a random clusterfuck, or is it fine (or nearly fine) as it is?

Where exactly is the path the player walks across? It's a little hard to tell. I would lessen the number of trees and add some more shrubbery if possible. A grass variation tile would also do wonders without making it overly crowded/clustered.

As for having 20 maps being the same, try going for a subtle transition. For example, if the player is walking from desert to plains, have the first few maps be more rocky, then a bunch of tiles that transition from rocky to grass, and the last few maps are all grass. This would help lessen monotony and make the player feel like he's actually going somewhere.

 

[LaDestitute]

I quite like what you have done, my only real complaint is the grass; it is quite bare for the most part, with the occasional tuft. You should introduce some differing kinds of tufts; some darker, some lighter and with different densities, this should help make the grass look more natural (they do this in the actual games too).

The tuff color...far as I know, since this a rom hack, the GBA handles the greenery palette (palette 0) and grass sprites globally. If I were to change either, it would change globally on ALL MAPS that use grass tiles.

 

[Xhukari]

I meant like what FRLG did; http://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/ ... 1_FRLG.png if you look at the grass, you'd see that there are variants on the tufts, some are darker, others are lighter, different densities and combinations...

 

[rey meustrus]

Oh, I get it, he means the normal grass and not the tall grass. There are more details on the short grass in his FRLG picture and they aren't just the one lighter color.

May I also suggest making the tall grass somewhat less boxy? The strong square outline to the grass make it look quite a bit more tiled than the tall grass in FRLG.

 

[LaDestitute]

Well, another remap of Route 1. This will probably be the final remap of Route 1, purely because I wanted it to be accurate to the region's map. Aside from minor edits/fixes, that is. Charge Town (hero/heroine's hometown) is to the east, the Wildlife Reserve is to the south (where you get your starter Pokemon and can find a variety of Pokemon early, provided you have the right 'tools' to find them), and Amythist Town (first badge) to the north.

The Wildlife Reserve. The Wildlife Reserve is to the south of Route 1, and where you get your starter Pokemon. You also have access to a plethora of Pokemon, from rock smash rocks, surfing, fishing, tall grass, and sand pit swirls (akin to B/W's dust clouds).

Which palette looks better, the one on top (old palette/current), or the one on the bottom (new/unused)?

 

[Xhukari]

I'm gonna be awkward here sorry, but I'm gonna say a combination... I prefer mostly all of the bottom, but the sand is just a tad too bright for me.

 

[Ellie]

I prefer the bottom I think. It looks much more natural.

 

[coyotecraft]

Seconded. The bottom.

 

[Spoo]

How bad is the repetition in these tree clumps? I'm trying to keep the tileset size to a minimum and only use a few clumps, but I'd also rather not look like I copypasted the same trees over and over. I'm already planning to change up the four big trees in the middle.

 

[Juan J. Sánchez]

I don't like the two identical big trees right in the middle of the screen, but other than that it's fine. The grass, on the other hand, is a bit too simple. It could benefit from things like flowers, rock, more patches of tall grass, etc.

 

[coyotecraft]

Spooky, maybe you should try mirroring some of the trees in clumps so they don't look exactly identical.

 

[Jumping Jack Flash]

Perosnally I would change the grass out entirely, the RTP grass isn't very good for planes and large grassy areas (ironic when it's called grasslands). The trees are good though except a couple of tile errors I noticed.

 

[rey meustrus]

If you're precombining the trees in the tileset, make sure to playtest. I'd expect priorities to get screwed up as a player walking next to those trees couldn't go between trees.

 

[LaDestitute]

Amythist Town, the first gym town. The Amythist Gym is run by a man named Antwon, who specializes in Bug type Pokemon.

 

[Glitchfinder]

The inconsistencies on the roofs of those blue houses is bugging the hell out of me. Also, typing Pokémon correctly is really easy for me. Having been a longtime Pokémon fan and having been known to lurk in forums based around the series, I have long since memorized that Alt+130 provides you with é in many Windows applications, especially web browsers.

Anyway, I'm just tossing this screen out here. It's completely untouched in terms of the after effects I was planning to apply ingame, but meh, I don't really have time right now.

And yes, those interior doors do work. You can open them by walking at them or by triggering them with a button. They swing partially shut if you aren't actually in their tile. You can interrupt the swing animation to reopen them to go through. You can close them while either standing inside their tile (and looking up or down), or while directly adjacent to them.

 

[Xhukari]

I will second Glitch's comment to the roofs, plus it has left me wondering; what happened to the universally preferred second tileset version? Oh and Glitch. I can one-up you there... AltGr + e = é... Jus sayin' (AltGr is on the rightside of the spacebar).

 

[Spoo]

If you're precombining the trees in the tileset, make sure to playtest. I'd expect priorities to get screwed up as a player walking next to those trees couldn't go between trees.

Yeah, I went through playtesting about twenty times before I finally got priorities more or less right; I probably still missed several errors, though.

 

[Glitchfinder]

I will second Glitch's comment to the roofs, plus it has left me wondering; what happened to the universally preferred second tileset version? Oh and Glitch. I can one-up you there... AltGr + e = é... Jus sayin' (AltGr is on the rightside of the spacebar).

Unfortunately, that doesn't work with a lot of keyboard settings, my own included. Is nobody going to say anything about my map?

 

[Jason]

Okay Glitch, I'm just going to say it...

I don't like your house.

I hate when people make houses with these silly shaped rooms with their outer walls looking weird as fuck, I mean, look at the perimeter of all the rooms combined, and imagine that's how it looks from the outside... it'd look dumb. I haven't been in a single house like that, the rooms are a lot more uniform in appearance.

Just putting it out there, since it's a huge pet peeve of mine when playing RM* games...