map lengths?

Hey there RPG gods!

This is a very very simple question.

Anyway, I want to ask is...what's a good size to make maps kind of big and epic, like the heroes are really on a journey ((without being TOO harsh or overbearing)) It's just, it seems like a lot of games nowadays ((and in the past too)) feel like the journey is much too short, with a lot of cut scenes. But I kinda want to give the player the feeling like they're actually going somewhere.

I guess about, the same distance as the travel points in Final Fantasy-12 might feel okay....dunno how to translate that. But anyway ideas would be welcome. =)

I don't think it's the size of the map that's important - you could have a small map where the player has to follow a long, winding path, or a large map where the player can go straight from one side to the other.  What determines whether it feels like a journey is what they get to see and do on the way.

Don't try and make your maps too big - better to create many smaller ones and join them using teleport events.

Well, this should be in Discussion, I think, so I will move it.

In any case, shaz is correct. I think there are two things to consider.

You don't want the trip to be boring. Just walking forever is not fun, and so it is not a bad idea to sacrifice the reality of a situation in order to make it fun. However, one way to make journeys be long and still keep the player interested are through sidequests, events, and also just put in several towns. If you've ever played Betrayal at Krondor, you will notice that while the main quests always involve a lot of walking (a big world), they make the walk more interesting by having smaller towns and small quests in between the major events of the story. Most of the towns in the game serve no major purpose in the actual story.

Also, you can use whatever size maps you want, but keep in mind that big maps with a lot of events can lag a bit. I suggest you get an anti-lag script if you choose to have one large map. The benefit of small maps is that it makes it seem less boring, like you are getting somewhere. The negative is that you leave too quickly and it can be annoying to have to go through a lot of little areas when there is nothing special to do. If you use small maps, make sure there is something that they can do there that takes at least a little time to do.

Anyway, those are just my thoughts.

Agreed with the above two posts. In addition, it is important to give the player a visual sense of progression in the travel, especially for larger maps. This can be accomplished via methods such as slowly transitioned terrain structures, plants, infrastructure, etc. To check if you've done a good job of this, follow two steps:

1. Compare the beginning of the map and the end of the map.
2. Scroll from the beginning of the map to the end of the map.

If there is no sudden shift of terrain that would seem awkward, and that the beginning and the end do not look very similar in terrain structure, then you've done a good job in that aspect.

Of course, there are exceptions rooted to the very background of the maps, etc.

My two cents worth:
I find a good way to have huge maps is to have a drain point (unless the entire point of the quest is to get to far-away-no-one's-ever-been-there-and-probably-no-one-ever-will-again-land)
I like when there's a big map, but there's a set area (an equivelant to home, or main town or something) that you can return to at almost, if not any time during the game.  So even though something may seem far off with little in the way, you can jump between the goal and said drain town, which should be possibly updateable.
This isn't anything different in concept than having small unimportant towns/sidequests of course, this is simply just a variance of that, although both can be applied.

I like adding a "Quick Jump" feature (Although I'm sure a lot of people do things like that) Just put in an extra choice to teleport you straight to the other end/back to town/whatever you need. That way you can make maps pretty epic, but not make people waste hours going back and forth through the same old thing.