Screenshot Thread

[exhydra]

I think it looks pretty good for just fiddling around. Though, the dark grass just doesn't seem to fit, in my opinion. It does look a little open, but as ideas start to flow in, you can easily cover the open sections with other things. I always Google Image search it up for D&D maps or aerial shots when I need inspiration for wilderness and these might help you out with tree and house placement.

http://paizo.com/image/product/catalog/IMPSQW/IMPSQW30011_500.jpeg
http://sites.google.com/site/mwgillette/smallcityA0.PNG
http://www.wizards.com/dnd/images/4e/20071031_dumm_full.jpg


The path you have at the moment looks pretty good. Maybe toss in some rocks here and there, a break in the path in places to make it look different instead of one constant path. The buildings need shadows to help blend them in to their surroundings, but that's a little further along. When I do my grass and put plants on them, I try and lower the opacity of the plants a little so they blend in, instead of standing out ... but that's just my preference. Here are some old examples of me experimenting with paths and such, if examples would help you out :

[Acolyte]

Those were very helpful. Thank you.

[Sashikinaroji]

I want to see an entire game mapped like this. Other than a paper mario clone...

[DarkMessiah]

You could do a sweet point and click adventure with a map like that

[exhydra]

I've been working on side-view maps for a while and would really like to create a game that used only those types of maps. The above was a map I was working on for my Yume Nikki fan game that I eventually lost steam on because I made the mistake of planning to create an 'epic' sized game (Old YouTube walk-through video of some earlier maps). I've been trying to conjure up a short-ish game that would have the graphics I wanted and still be something I wouldn't run out of gas on. Hopefully I'm on the right track now. Time will tell!

[pacdiggity]

Other than a paper mario clone...

MAKE A PAPER MARIO CLONE YEAH!!!

That's what you meant, right?

@Exhydra
That looks so cool. Awesome style.

[game_guy]

Replicating Pokemon's Secret Base. It has functionality but it won't be done for a few more days.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XIF7948UhNo

[pacdiggity]

That's pretty dang cool, g_g. Nice stuff.

[Adrien]

Wow this place is dead....

Hope this doesn't clash too badly

[spoiler]

[/spoiler]

update: No its not done and no its not a floating island

[exhydra]

So far the map looks quite nice and the path as well as the surroundings look pretty natural. Though I do like the map, I have a few points that I would like to bring up :



• I'm looking at the two types of grass and not really sure they go together well. They've been separated by the flowers and that helps keep them from clashing directly, but I think if you shifted their colors to resemble one another that it would look better. Or if you simply used one type of grass for the whole map, perhaps. It's not a huge issue, I don't think.

• As for the practice targets, I would suggest marking off one area to be used as a shooting range. Thinking realistically, firing across a path and having a chance for a stray arrow to pierce a tent or hit someone a fair distance away by accident would be a possibility for those targets near the path. The target on the upper right portion of the map near the walkway leaves no room for someone to really practice anything but point-blank shots. The targets on the far right and just above the middle of the map are in a perfect area for a shooting range, but long distance shots would be blocked by the dead tree.

http://guidesmedia.ign.com/guides/15972/images/Greek_Archery_Range.JPG
http://www.yacine.org/wp-content/uploads/2008/05/p100065411.jpg


• The arrows that are just laying on the ground somewhat bother me as well. Ammunition should be taken care of to make sure they don't warp, rot or get stepped on. They should be placed within a box or another container at best.

• The rope tied between the trees with the horse banners hanging from them don't have any shadows to tell the viewer that they are being suspended in air.

• The edges of the flower patches have been feathered, so at times they don't seem to have a distinct end point ... at least in my opinion. They just fade out un-naturally and at some spots with flowers cut in half while leading into the next texture. They might also look better if they were broken up by small patches of grass or open spots, too :

http://wwwdelivery.superstock.com/WI/223/1570/PreviewComp/SuperStock_1570R-101183.jpg
http://wwwdelivery.superstock.com/WI/223/4029/PreviewComp/SuperStock_4029R-376307.jpg


• How long have the stone pillars been there? Would they have moss growing on them? Would they look older, or are they well taken care of?

• The shadow of the practice dummy structure near the bottom of the map have their shadows going north-east while other shadows are either directly below the object or going straight east. The structures also seems to blend together in places as they overlap.



Overall, I think the map looks good. The possibility of the player caring about or noticing what I have listed would probably be small, but I thought that I would bring them up so that you would have some feedback. Keep up the good work!

[Sashikinaroji]

I agree with hydra... To fix some of the problems, all it would take would be to open up paint.net or a similar program and you could tweak the brightness, hue and saturation to get a more uniform look... This will also help, I think, with the training dummies, which seem to stand out due to their saturation...

The only other thing I would have to say is that, as a camper for going on seven years, I would never put my tent at the edge of a body of water like the one on the left... I mean, a single misstep and you would slip down the wet earth and into the water...

I would suggest either moving the tent over one square or adding another tile to the bottom left of the tent's opening.

[Adrien]

thanks for feed back I use photoshop for those who said something about paint.net.
This map took me two days just to complete. I am very happy with it, its cluttered and war like.
I am playing with the mixing of tiles.

Your feed back is appreciated

Finished map - moving it over to vx slowly as the water is being a pain

[spoiler][/spoiler]

--> the bridge was turned off in both of these maps
-> I also use the pattern brush instead of feathering as it makes it look more natural

[exhydra]

This version of the map is certainly better than the last version by far. Just about all of the objects have been nicely 'grounded' or hemmed in as well as blend into their surroundings. I still have issues with the archery targets and the arrows, but overall the map looks much nicer.

[modern algebra]

The map looks very pretty, but I think the two archery targets on the right hand side of the screen are placed illogically because there's a giant tree in front of them - are they practicing stabbing the arrows into the targets? The target at the top of the screen has a similar problem in that anyone shooting at it would have to shoot through a clothesline post.

I don't really like the drop off edges, but that is obviously a conscious artistic design choice so it's fine if you want to keep it.

Also, and this isn't so much a problem as a question, but are the soldiers in these camps trained or is it more of a revolutionary army? And are they at war or is it kind of set up more for a tournament or something? Because if it were a trained army at war, I'd expect it to be a little more orderly and disciplined - that site looks like it would be hard to defend if attacked. Anyway, that would just be my thoughts - I'm not some expert on medieval warfare or anything like that. It is a very pretty map though.

[Adrien]

@Exhydra the map looks better because of the nature. I wasnt finished with the other one when you wrote your 2 page essay . I am a stickler for detail

@Modern

Its a war that's the main story line, they have been camped there for months - a caravan is currently passing through hence the mess and soon to be loads of people. its one of the main trading routes. so its a military and caravan camp.

I finished this one yesterday - took me all day at 450 layers.

I warn you it will rape your screen

[spoiler]

[/spoiler]

[Sky_Of_Order]

Ye gods. I know this is XP, but with 5 tilesets I don't know how anyone using VX - including me - can even hope to rival this. It's simple, and it's pretty, but god is it limited. >_<

That said, Adrien, that floating island one, you said you were moving it over VX. What tileset would you use for that? I presume a custom-made one, but I'd definitely like to see it; the limited nature of VX's RTP is destroying me, to say the least...

[exhydra]

@Adrien. : Ah, what kind of military? An actual army or just a local militia? If it were an actual trained army, I would be expecting something along this line of camp site construction :

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_QZdwFM-UwK4/R_AcAExXoMI/AAAAAAAAAd4/w9_Yq7ypOmw/s320/Breen+Burney+Camp+Lassen+NF+ca.jpg
http://www.1910fire.com/Images/Army%20Camp.jpg

Unless, of course, this is directly on the front lines with actual fighting going on all the time.


@Sky_Of_Order : Have you tried BulletXT's SwapXT? That allows you to load a different array of tilesets for each map, if you want.

[Adrien]

@Sky_Of_Order -  I am using VX, Photoshop and a few scripts to take the picture, use parallaxes and pictures.

Its pure VX. Of course some tiles are from XP.

As for tiles I am using:

Celianna's
Inquisitors
Mac
and RTP - re colored.

@Exhydra

Don't expect much with my type of mapping. I set things up in interesting ways while maintaining some sense of realism. at 350 layers I was amazed at the amount of detail I was able to put into this. As for type of military, they are of the army of Sal, this is camp Save. (you learn about all this in the story).

Where are they located?: Just north of the south road and south of a small farming community under siege.

This looks like FFT, is it a SRPG or a TBS?: nope, SBS with FFT inspired maps.

[cozziekuns]

Helping bump this thread to page 100.

People have touched on most of the "errors" with your mapping. The biggest problem I find in your maps is the balance. In your newest published map, the left side is extremely cluttered with detail while the right feels too empty. 

[Sky_Of_Order]

@Sky_Of_Order : Have you tried BulletXT's SwapXT? That allows you to load a different array of tilesets for each map, if you want.

Never even new it existed. Have my game's babies, please, kind sir.

Anyway... Adrien... you use pictures to map? How?

[Adrien]

@cozziekuns Thanks for your input I dont seem them as errors just "opinions on how people would do things differently" and theres reason to clutter in specific parts its called Malica - explained in story

@Sky_Of_Order

Its a complicated process of using scripts to capture the base map, using imaging software to add detail, using more scripts to set one as the walking and the other as the over lay (things you would walk under) and then "blocking off" where the player cannot walk, and redoing the water to make it animated.

It takes me 12-16 hours to do a single map of that size. and 2-4 hours to do smaller maps.

Pub - its finished and populated with people now, older screen shot, but this is what you can expect most indoor mapping to look like - cut off.

[exhydra]

Parallax mapping, basically. Where you create an image and then use it in-game as your map. You can then utilize other pictures for shadows or things that need to hang above the head of the character. Here's an old example (Yume Nikki fan-game, at that) :


This is an image I created in a graphic editor. I imported it into my project and then set it as the parallax, then just made sure that the areas where I wanted the character to walk on was set with a blank transparent tile that was set to [ o ].


This is the end result, with buildings and fences that were made as extra pictures that I imported. They are set to be above the character. In this way, you can technically create a whole game without using a single tileset.


If you use Modern Algebra's Composite Characters / Visual Equipment and Fix Pictures to Map script paired with OriginalWij's Multiple Parallaxed Layers along with BulletXT's SwapXT with perhaps a Parallax Change In-Game script ... you should be able to make anything you want.

[Adrien]

whats composite characters and visual equpiment do?

[exhydra]

Basically, it allows you to have 'layers' on characters and NPCs, just like layers in Photoshop. With only one character sheet you could have quite a number of possibilities, because you can also change the hue of the different layers. Examples :


This is the character sheet. It has a 'base' character which I can add clothes and accessories onto in any way I choose.

Let's say I want to add the shirt and pants along with all three hair parts ...


Now I want to get rid of those layers and add on the rabbit suit ...


Now I want to wear the rabbit suit and have sunglasses on underneath of the rabbit suit and hair ...



Why? Because ultimate-cuteness is bunny and bear suits.

[Adrien]

My soul just cried LOL