Most effective way to use a cave tileset

For this tutorial i'm gonna use the icecave tileset. I will be using every tile in the tileset the way it should be used. Hopefully this will help you out.

We're gonna start with a fairly large map, 50X50 so i'll be able to use everything effectively.
Now the tile I drew over will be the link to the previous map. Always use this so when your character goes to it, they will teleport to another map.

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Now the first thing were going to do is to add the autotile used as the floor everywhere, Like so. Always use the first  layer for floor tiles. I also drew a square around it for easy reference

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Now were going to add the teleport spot.We will place it somewhere near the bottom of the map like so. I'd like to also point out that when using upper tiles like the teleport tile, use the middle layer for those. I also highlighted examples of these "upper tiles" for easy reference.

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Next were going to add some more upper tiles to the map like so. very basic stuff.

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Now your probably wondering why it looks kinda odd? Wekk that's because we didn't use the "corner tiles" were they're sppose to go. You must remember to use these when making cave maps. I'm going to input them like so and have highlighted them for reference. It's also safe to use the lower layer for these kind of tiles.

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Next were going to add some basic walls to the cave, every cave needs walls. Always use the lower layer for walls as well. I'm going to add them like so. Remember to also use your "corner tiles" effectively as well, and use the lower layer for them. Always make your caves uneven and somewhat odd, the more squiggely, the better.

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Now notice that the walls we are using have black tops. In RPG's, those black tops are considered the roof, your charcater should NEVER exceed that height. It's possible to create different levels in caves, but you must ALWAYS be aware of how many tiles a wall covers to make levels effectively, which I will go over now. Notice the walls we made, including the roof, it covers three tiles. That means that we can only make two levels on this map: a lower level and an upper level. We can exceed this limit by add more of the middle tiles between the upper tile and the lower tile. In this process...

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I added three more middle tiles between the upper and the lower tile, which means that now I can have up to five different levels in my map. Now back to our previous map.

Since this is the lower map, and our walls only covers three tiles, we can only have one more level, the upper level. I will now add the upper level by adding steps and the walls accordingly. Use the middle layer for the steps.

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Notice that on the upper level, the walls ONLY cover two tiles now. That's because your one level above the basic level where the walls covered three tiles. This is how you use the walls effectively. When you reach a higher level, your walls whould shrink by one tile, like so.

Now I will continue my map to return the player to the lower level. just like our previous step, but backwords.

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Part two coming soon

Now I am going to cover the "Pit of no return". First were going to extend our walls to give use some space for the "Pit of no return" like so

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Now in order to make the pits, we must add the long fading walls to the roof tiles like so. Then you MUST add edges around the pit to ensure that the player doens't fal into it, and it looks better.

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Now that I have covered these basics, i'm going to finish the layout of my map like so.

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Now we are going to add another cliff with steps to get the character to the upper level again.

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Now I want to explain something about the part i circled. If your wondering why I didn't use the whole length of the tile to make it, here's why. Looks at where it's placed. It's placed on the upper level, which means all of the walls on the upper level should be decreased in size by one tile. I see ALOT of people make this mistake over and over again. They make this certain wall three tiles in length and not two tiles in length. Remember, the player must NEVER exceed the height of the ceiling, and by making that wall three tiles in length, your extending the ceiling which should NEVER happen.

Which brings me to the next problem most mappers face. Look at the cliff I circled now

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I know alot of you are wondering, "wait a minute, how come that one is only two tiles in length if it's on the lower level, I thought it was suppose to be three tiles in length?" If your asking this, listen up please. This is a very common mistake I see in ALOT of maps. Look at the top of the cliff. Notice anything? It DOES NOT contain a ceiling. Which means that the player would be able to climb the top of that cliff and not hit his head on the ceiling. If I had mad that three tiles in length, then there's no way the player would be able to get up there because the ceiling would be in the way. Please, please mappers be aware of these common mistakes alot of you make. You can go so far by being aware of what your ACTUALLY making.

Part three coming soon

Now, basically everything I didn't use so far are known as "decoration tiles" they are used to, ofcours,e decorate your cave. All decoration tiles should be used as the middle or upper layer EXCEPT the remaining autotiles which are circled here.

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They should be used as the lower layer. I won't cover this much since you can pretty much place these anywhere that MAKES SENSE. like so.

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So there you have it. How to use the cave tilesets accordingly and effectively. In my next tutorial I will be explaining how to do some pretty complex mapping. See ya soon

VERY nice and very long, too. >_> XD If you want, I'll delete this post so you have space for tutorials.

very nice tute - I've never paid much attention to ceiling height in caves before now.

Couple of questions about your maps...

In the last cave-drawing pic, beside the bit you circled, the pit of no return starts at the bottom of 3 tiles on one side, but at the bottom of 2 tiles on the other side, and there isn't a change in level between.  I think that one section of wall between the pit and the step-up should be 3 tiles, not 2.

Similar for the other pit - it meets 3 tiles below ceiling on one side, but it looks like 5 tiles below ceiling on the other!

Can you do a small section on how to make your pits meet up properly with the walls?  I've found this bit hard on some of the maps I've made - there's usually a thin line somewhere separating them and it doesn't look good.

Whoa. You caught an error I made. See, that's why you must always check back and make sure you made the levels right. Good find Shaz

As for the pit on the far left, The part where it's three tiles doesn't have anything to do with the pit, it's on the lower level, so it must have three tiles. While on the right of the pit, it is apart of it, since it falls into the darkness, that's why it's like
that.

And as for your request, sure. I'll see what I can come up with.