[VX] Map like Maia: Town / Village EXT

This tutorial is incomplete, but I need to post it due to the length of time it is taking to write it.

Just a quick heads up, the images for this tutorial are about 200 KB each.
If you have dial up, you will be waiting. Turn back now!

MAP LIKE MAIA: TOWN / VILLAGE EXT

TERMS USED

Spoiler for:

Work Area - This is the "map" that you are currently viewing to edit.

Tile - Simply stated this is an icon designed to look like something within a fixed height and width.

Tile Pallet - This is the pallet on your left hand side that you select the tile that you want to use in the work area. On the tile pallet there are small tabs at the bottom marked A B C D E.

Paint - Once you have selected a tile from the tile pallet, you can paint in the work area. Whatever you paint will look like the tile that you have selected.

STARTING OUT

Spoiler for:

SIMPLE

Go into map properties by right mouse licking the green icon next to the map name. Edit the name, and for this excessively large tutorial, I made the map 150w x 100h. Plan this out ahead of time. The map should be bigger than you need, because you can always trim off when you are done. If you are just starting out, do 50w x 50h

I have noticed far too many people have cut off maps instead of enlarging the map. Enlarging the map when you are halfway through is possible, it DOES NOT reset the map or do anything harmful.

Use the flood / fill tool to automatically fill the screen.



THERE IS A DIFFERENCE IN LAND TILES

You will notice that inside of towns you are supposed to use the grass / land to the right of the mountains on the tile pallet. The grass / land to the left of the mountain is used for an "overworld." You will see below what happens. There is dirt trim for the grass / land to the left of the mountain on the tile pallet.



MAKE A PATH

First select the dirt land tile beneath of the grass. Again, make sure to select the tile to the right of the mountain on the tile pallet.

Why dirt? - Not all towns are rich or fancy enough to have brick paths or roadways; especially in midieval times. I am using dirt for this tutorial, but not all of it as you will see. You can use whatever you would like :-)

Three Tiles Wide - Use this method to make a nice wide path, like a roadway. This is just an easy step to make a wide road. First start by painting the dirt three tiles in a row. Then right mouse lick and drag the cursor to capture those three dirt tiles. Now you will have a paint brush that will always paint three dirt tiles. Use that like you see below.



X - MARKS THE SPOT

Paint your path or roadway, have it merge in an X. Why an X? Because unless this is a city everything met in a cross road. It is also much easier for the player to NOT GET LOST! Remember, X marks the spot.



THE SOURCE OF LIFE

Chicago, New York, Paris, Miami, Los Angeles, St. Louis, Seatle and 90% of major cities on the globe all have something in common and that is water. Why would there be a town or a village if there was not water? If there is no water, then there needs to be a well to get water. If there is no water, nor a well, then the townspeople need to complain about how far they need to walk to get water.

Use the first water tile and paint a line. For my town I am going to have it near an ocean. You can do whatever you want or make the water anywhere.



BEACH HEAD

Men love head, so do women, and that is of course a beach head. If you have a river, then a beach is not important, but if you have an ocean or a lake, then it is a must, for logical purposes. Waves crash against nature, and prevent common grass from forming.

Use the sand tile to the right of its mountain and paint a line.



FLOOD / FILL

Use the flood fill to fill in your ocean, lake or river, then use it to fill in the beach. You can paint it with the normal painter, but you do want to finish before next month correct?



DEEP WATER

Next paint a line of deep water... assuming that you need, want or have deep water. The deep water is the darker tile of blue as you see below.



RIVER MAKER

Here is another method for you that have a River Runs Through It. Use the same method as the wide path, draw a line of sand, maybe 10 wide. Then right mouse lick and select the line of 10 wide. Use your wide painter to paint the basin for the river. You can do this with a beach, or if you do not want a beach, you can use water.

Make sure to have your river cross paths! Seriously! Life goes out from water. Plus it looks so much better when playing the game to cross a river or two.



STAY WITHIN THE LINES

The last step had you paint a 10 wide river basin. Now paint a 6 wide river that runs through it. Doing it this way saves time and skill. The other method is painting a river, then painting two beaches and flood / filling them both. Whatever works for you.



Here is the zoom in.

GETTING AROUND

Spoiler for:

MOVED TO TIERS

In reality there are hills, slopes and other fun interesting contours of land. It seems like RPGs have cliffs and that is about it. So use the hedge tile to make some contours. This is only a suggestion, but it looks far better once things are complete. While you cannot cross over hedges, there are easy ways to make them crossable.



Next thing to do is start correcting any little mishaps that you had. The tier should only be one tile high.



With all of the tiers, this is what it looks like from a distance.



A BRIDGE TOO FAR

Next thing to do is put some bridges over those rivers! It makes things more fun for the player, and it restricts one section of town from the other. What bridge you chose should depend on the wealth of the town, these log bridges mean that the town is not too rich.

Take notice that I have the bridge extended across the sand as well. Lots of places do this. Most people do not want to walk across sand just as much as they do not want to walk across water. This is why there are boardwalks in the world.

This is also the time that you will manipulate the path the match with the bridges as I did. When you go in a diagonal X, straight bridges do not work without manipulating the paths.



DIAGONAL PATHS

There are no diagonal bridges, so when you REALLY need a diagonal, just make a mini island. Most places have streams running by with lumps of land that come out. Start by fattening the river or stream, then put a sand base in the center.



Then detail it with bridges, rocks, trees, grass and a path. I chose to put rocks as the thing diverting the water to split.



X IT OFF THE LIST

The X is starting to look different and less painted on is it not?



WALLS WITHOUT WALLS

Trees are marvelous ways to restrict the player. Use the painter to draw some trees that will not only block the player off, but hide some secrets inside.



Once you are done painting your lines, flood / fill the trees. Do not worry about capping or basing your trees at the moment, that is one of the last steps. Why waste time doing something that you might manipulate and need to do again?

MINOR DETAILS

Spoiler for:

STEP UP

It just seems logical to have stairs between tiers. It also looks good to have them. It gives the player a sense of multi tiered.



CARVE OUT A CLUMP

Having a clump of trees is well dull. Something has to be inside them, and making an extra path gives the player an extra something fun to do. Hopefully fun. You can make a path, a trail or just leave it grassy so the player can just follow the lack of trees.



CLUMP CARVER

Like I just said... one carved clump deserves another carved clump. Keep carving out more clumps!

Also make sure to add some grass around the path for houses if that is what you are going to do with them. Having houses isolated from the rest of the town will make them feel more unique if not make them a private cult.



STREAMS OF THOUGHT

Adding a stream just makes things interesting, you can even name all of these streams and rivers. It will give the townspeople something to talk about. Have the stream end in a tranquil pond that people can visit to reflect upon their day or they can go down there to make out.



MAINSTREAM

Places that are more traveled will either look much better or much worse. In this case, much better, this is where the townspeople made brick roads at the center of town, the most traveled places.



DISTRICTS

When dealing with larger scale towns, there must be districts. Areas with a lot of homes, bland homes. Homes that look alike. These are the cheapies that are there just to fit more of a population into town. Midieval times had no skyscrapers, so they had to fit homes close together to raise the population.

Build your homes out of materials that will be very available and reflect on the economy or society they are built for. Such as native americans lived in anything but Victorian Mansions or castles. That was not their way. In this tutorial / demonstration, wood is very available, so there will be a lot of log cabins.

Also keep in mind that RPG Maker VX has a reccomendation that houses be tiny in the external areas of towns. The interiors can be big, but the houses should be small. If your houses are realisticly sized on the outside, players will have to run around them and quite honestly players do not like that. Make sure to keep track of the number of floors that these homes will have.



FREEDOM OF CREATIVITY

Remember what I said about small houses? Here is a larger, more realistic scale house. Put a bunch of these suckers side by side and the player has to run around them, adding more time onto the game and losing the player's interest.



SIZE MATTERS

There are certain times where you want a building so that it cannot be missed. Such as churches and inns. Make the special buildings stand out with different building materials, such as churches were designed to be safe havens to weather a storm or anything else that might threaten a city so they were usually constructed of all stone. Just like a castle.



IMPORTANCE IS FIRST

The important things in town should be on the outskirts. In reality the important things would be strategically placed, but in RPGs, the player wants to get in and get out. So do not stick the inn on the interior of town through a maze of streets.

In this case, here is the church and the capitol. Two distinctive buildings, both near the south entrance of town.

COOKIE CUTTING

Spoiler for:

COOKIE CUTTER

It is important to right lick and drag over an entire house to "copy" it. Then you can click to paint / paste it everywhere. Notice that there are spare trees here and there. While that is my imperfection, it adds detail to the map itself by having randomocity.



PATH FINDER

Naturally you add paths to what will be the doors of each house. Do not always make it clear cut, because the player should be forced to weave... well stay awake and compitent in the town.



COOKIE MONSTER LOVE BIG COOKIES

Copy the large buildings too. Even though they are copied and pasted right now, later on you will change them durring the "detailing" process.



It is important not to have a clump of large buildings that look alike. In other words, there should be large buildings that draw players to different sides of the map.



DIFFERENT MATERIALS MEAN DIFFERENT BUILDINGS

Train your player that different materials mean different buildings. Do you have an idea what the new building is? It will be an armory for the town. Nice and protected a concrete stone building. The churches have blue roofs and stone walls. The green roof means city hall. Keep that in mind, because even though they may look totally different than the rest of your town, they will look and feel special while being familiar places.



PROGRESSING

Take a look at how this town is progressing. Look at all of the districts, where the large buildings are and where the special buildings are. The large and special buildings are on the outer rim of the town, because they should be the quickest to access. Player comes in, goes to what they want, then gets out. There are special things to draw the player in, like the building on the small island. There are places that feel special like within the grove of trees, along the beaches and next to rivers, and there are places that of course feel bland and disconcerning.



TIME TO MOW THE LAWN

Did you notice that the grass texture was used? There were really no lawn mowers, just sickles to cut grass, so I could imagine that it was a real chore to cut back then. Not all places had their grass cut. Now it is your turn, pick the "cleanest" parts of the town and cut the grass.

THE DEVIL IS IN THE DETAILS (of buildings)

Spoiler for:

START BIG

Begin with the biggest buildings and detail them. The biggest building that I can think of is the church, but first every church needs a graveyard, just because that is how it was done in midieval times. People were burried right outside the church. Depending on how much space you have given yourself, there should be trees and headstones.

The reason why you start with the graveyard is because it is a priority compared to the landscape of the church itself.

Take note at the fact some graves are far apart, and the grave grid is not clear cut. There are graves next to one another, and spaced apart. There is a path to a statue, and there is an extra head stone all on its lonesome. The trees in the graveyard are dead and leafless to give the most frightening appeal. There are fresh graves marked with dirt or sand.

Something else I should point out at this time is the fact that this graveyard is a little maze as it is. People might not notice that all of my maps are tiny mazes, just to keep the mind of a player awake.



THE CHURCH

Now for the church itself, lots of stain glass windows, a cross ontop, statues, beautiful flowers in front. Most churches were a joy to be around, because the house of god sure shined upon the!

To fill space with any area, make a man made pond. Instead of the typical coast / shallow water tile, use the man made tile. Then make a small waterfall down a level to add beauty.

Like the graveyard, there are winding paths to everywhere. This will give the player a reason to go all over the place and explore. You can put townspeople at the end of the winding trail or put an item that shines upon the ground.



FOUNTAINS, WATERFALLS, SHADOWS, NESTS

Now for the events. There is a waterfall, so make the waterfall move. Water flows over, and water splashes, those are two events. What is supplying the water for the water fall? Make a fountain.

Then add the shadows to the building along with a few birds nest events, just to add a little detail. Make sure the events of the birds nests are set to be above the player's head.

As for the shadows, there are two types of shadows. Shadows that you cannot walk through and shadows that you can. The non walk through shadows can be found on tile pallet B as the higher shadow. The other set of shadows are the ones that you can walk over.



RELIGION

Religion was HUGE, and it still is HUGE. Back in midieval times, it was an US against you mentality if you did not believe. Make sure your townspeople talk about religion, not to an extent that will annoy the player, unless that it part of your story. It is just something to flesh out an otherwise dull "welcome to this town" world.

CHURCH FINISHED





TOWN HALL

The second building is usually town hall, if you have one. It seems like RPGs totally forget that cities have meeting places other than churches and main squares. Actually most forget about the main square. Town halls were the places where events were held mostly.

This is really up to you, but just to demonstrate what it could look like, I decided to make this a place of beauty. I cut a small path through the side hedges and added trees. This is really just for the player's amusement to have another path that is not marked as a path.

There are plenty of planters, which sometimes look ugly; depending on what you put in them. Make sure the building has a chimney assuming that it is a place cold enough to need a chimney.

Also make sure to mark it with a sign, but if you remember to make the building distinct and different from the rest, players will know that it is the town hall.



CORRUPTION

Now add the events, like here I added glowing orbs, smoke for the chimney and of course a door.

Notice the red flowers and how they compliment the yellow window flowers. Meanwhile, there are bold yellow flowers everhwhere else. This gives a feeling of color instead of a felling of yellow.

The bland, big path was narrowed with yellow flowers around it and a set of statues. This is just a beautifying thing, because a town hall is usually a good place for any town to spend its money in beautifying. The path was made narrow, because it is a little used path. Plus it will make people think that it is different when they are used to paths that are 3 tiles wide.



POLITICS

Is your town owned by a kingdom? Is it on its own? Is there a mayor, a town council or a selected leader? Are politics, happy, corrupt or somewhere in between? These are all topics that townspeople should talk about. That mayor, I hate him because of... he made me dig out my roses! I love that mayor because of a new ordinance to help the poor.

Sure most RPGs do not concern themselves with these things. Why should they? It makes things seem real, even if it is trivial. It provides a background story for your town.

TOWN HALL FINISHED



GETTING INTO INNS

The Inn is usually the largest or one of the largest buildings in any town, just because it has an abundance of rooms. In midieval times, Inns were nothing more than a room or two that up to twenty people had to share. However, in RPGs and modern times, we like a room with a bed or two, not twenty something.

In all RPGs, Inns are on the outer rim of the town, because they are the most sought place by players. Most RPG Inns have Pubs or bars along with them, but in this case, no. There is a Pub in another building though.

Inns should have heat, beauty and money put into them. Maybe reality is that inns are poor places, some run down if not rustic. This Inn has a bit of money, because travelers want to be on the beach. There is a privacy wall in the front, and notice how it is not a typical grass picket fence. This is because I wanted a secure wall even if it looks different. It is actually appealing because it uses a different tile than the picket fence. There are trees covering the walls so they do not look so bold and ugly.

Across the street take note that there are flowers planted in boxes. This is a beautifying thing. Perhaps a woman took her own time to plant them to beautify the dirty road. This also makes the western entrance of town seem special because of those flowers.



SEE THE SIGNS

Because this building is directly at the entrance of town, there are signs. Either telling people welcome to town, or giving people directions to shops.

You will also notice that the beach is not littered with dead branches. This is because there is an Inn here and it is part of the beach beautification. Again, if they would make the place beautiful, they would clear the beach of anything dead and ugly.



A WARM PLACE TO STAY

Travelers should visit Inns. People that say I am from a far off land, let me tell you about it. This is a seed that will get planted in a player's mind. Sort of like I am from Russia, let me tell you about it. One day you might go to Russia, but if not, at least I had a jolly tale to tell. They should tell their tales at the Inn.

Also Inns should have names, memorable names like the Chicken's Nest, the Rooster's Roost, Grand View Inn, and my favorite, Big Dick's Halfway Inn (I kid you not that place really exists, look it up). This will give your town more flavor!

EXPANSION OF TOWNSHIP (buildings)

Spoiler for:

EXPANSION

My games have guilds, your games do not have to. Guilds are a frill of an expansive universe, it is like a frat house or a sorority that band people together. You may be from different parts of a kingdom or a country, but you visit a guild chapter and feel the brotherhood or sisterhood. Typical guilds are Mages, Fighters, Thieves and so on.

Shown here is how I widen the building to make it look different from the Inn. It is just a very simple step and in this case, we are making a Mage Guild house.



MAGES GUILD

You do not need a Mages Guild, but you can make a school house or a library instead! A place for the wise to go and the ignorant to learn.

Ah the guild of mages, a beautiful, wise, mystical place and that should be reflected from the outside too. As a guild house, it is wider and larger than the other houses, but it is not always a needed place. Your town's mages could gather in a creepy circle in the forest and chant things.

Instead of a fence, the mages have sheltered themselves with hedges. Hedges are pretty fences. The picket fence next to the guild is more of a town limits fence than a Mages Guild Fence. Meanwhile, behind the guild in the sand there are dead trees and branches littering the beach.

The grey tiles are there to be used as statue tiles for later on. Cement bases that will affect how the tall grass looks. In other words, the tall grass will go around the statue with a cement base instead of under it. As for the plant that appears to be growing out of the building, that is supposed to be there, just to be different and add some flavor.

Take note that this doorway is rounded! This is just to use a rounded door later on with the event process.



SIGNS, STATUES, SMOKE AND DOORS

The statues were added, because this is next to the mages guild, and they are artistic like that. As for the door, sure it is blue and does not match, but I did it to give this building a different flavor. Well really, it was to demonstrate round topped doors. As for the statues near the town road, that is to make the east entrance of town seem different from the west entrance with its flowers.



LIBRARIES AND SCHOOLS

Even if you do not have a Mages Guild, does your town have a library or a school? Schools were very rare in midieval times, let alone school houses. However, for the sake of RPGs, go for it. Make libraries, make schools. There has to be a wise person in the town somewhere, and this is where that person will hang out. Like a big sign that says... smart people in here!

This will also give your town a sense of society and community. Community to teach and educate, and society to differentiate between the lower class and the educated upperclass. Perhaps the upperclass should talk down upon the uneducated. Maybe the lower class should mock the educated. Either way, it gives your townspeople something to talk about!

COMPLETED MAGES GUILD



FIGHTERS GUILD

You do not need a Fighters Guild, perhaps make an outpost, a guard house, or a barracks to protect the town.

The Fighters Guild is a band of warriors that come together to discuss tactics, adventures and laugh at their enemies. Usually fighting means money, so the guild house for the fighters is well constructed and grand with giant windows and a path of stone. This place looks like a compound, because it should be.

To make the place secure, put a wall around it, not a fence, but a wall. Same thing with the Inn, fighters, outposts, barracks need their security and privacy. There are also stone archways to make this place seem different from the others and the fact that there are pillars makes it seem stronger!

Notice how there are paths that go around the house? Perhaps someone dropped an item around there, or maybe a warrior wants to talk in secret at midnight. Anything is a possibility.



BREAKDOWN

There are several concrete slabs around the area, with broken bits around them. That is because this is a rough area, and it should not be pretty with statues. It should be rough, gritty and harsh. Each statue is broken.

The grass is torn up near the back of the building and there are trees blocking the east of town so the player cannot leave that way. It makes for a beautiful and rough path to a place full of fighters.



OUTPOSTS AND BARRACKS

A town should have some sense of security, and all RPGs do have guards roaming, but where do the guards sleep? They should sleep somewhere, and if you do not have a Guild of Fighters, then there should be an outpost to protect the town. That could be a topic of conversation amonst the townspeople. How safe do they feel? How safe do they want to feel? Are there threats to the town that the safe townspeople scoff at?

Other than the townspeople talk about their safety, it is important for a warrior class of people to have a place to go to learn. Perhaps to taunt the intelligent at their lauck of brawn, discuss adventures and maybe even accompany you on your journeys.

COMPLETED FIGHTERS GUILD



TIGHTEN THAT WORK, MAKE IT SNUG

Basically, there was a giant empty space south of the Fighters Guild. When there is a giant empty space, block it off and make it so the player cannot even go there. Empty spaces looks cheap and puts a negative impression on the player. If your buildings are too loose from one another, the player sees that as negative too. There should be something connecting places, and if it is too big of an area to connect, then cut it off. Make a wall, a bunch of chairs or something like that.



PLACES TO HIDE

Remember what I said about carving? Do it! Do it! Carve out another clump of trees, make a path. Then put water for a quiet place for townspeople to meet, make out or hide out.

Take a look at the missing trees, this was purposely done, just to look different and catch the eye instead of being a big endless clump of trees. It also makes things look more realistic, becaus there are fallen trees that would give that empty space.



UPS AND DOWNS OF TREES

This cove is done, so you need to cap and base off the trees. Once this is done, that is it, you need to leave at this point and be happy that the player has a little place to escape. It gives the area a special feeling too.



OH YEAH... KEEP GOING

One clump carving deserves another! Keep going! Here is where I made a beach that the player can find something. Lots of players play to explore, to find quirky little things like talking turtles, suicidal bathing beauties, or treasure in general. On this secluded beach, anything can be found! It is your imagination!

Make sure that there are different layers and looks so that way it is not bland and dull. Plenty of colors dazzle the eyes and give the area flavor instead of bland yuckiness.



RESTAURANT / PUBS

Right next to the Inn is the Pub and Restaurant. A bigger building, that was copied from the Inn, so gently make it different from the Inn. Different yet similar. Post some restaurant and pub signs for the player. Make it different, give it flavor, like here I have flowered ivy climbing the walls to give it flair!

There is a privacy wall, with trees covering them to hide the blatant wallism. It was also beautified with flowers, because restaurants tend to make their place beautiful. And also take note that there are two paths to the back and side for the player to find things or talk to someone.



ORBS

Now it is orb time, just to look different it is purple to set it apart from the green of the town hall. Purple also looks well with red flowers, because green with the red flowers would look very christmasy. Think of color schemes, they give certain feelings that you are either going for or going for.



THIEVES GUILD

A pub is a place for seedy things to go down. Thieving, brawling, roughians, grapplers, hooking, dancers. To top it off, here should be your rumor mill, people get drunk and they talk. They talk about anything and everything. This is a great place to go for information and not just a good meal.

Patrons should talk about the effects of drinks and talk about the food when they are not gossiping. That gives the place an intelligent purpose for the player to visit other than to take in a show.

COMPLETED RESTAURANT / PUB



THE WELL

This is an important place for your townspeople to just mill around, give information and do nothing all day. While a town with a river should not have a well, I have included one just to demonstrate this. The well is either a simple place or a beautiful place, because everyone needs water unless there is some water baron.

THE ARMORY

The armory is the only cemented building in town. At first it looks semetrical, but I have purposely made the doors and windows off kilter so it stands out as something special, unique and flavorful. Otherwise it would be an ugly stone building. The windows are also different, because it is a cement building, so there are no window frames.



DOLLING UP WITH DETAILS

The ugly stone building gets a nice round blue door, so it does not look like a cement block on the map. This will make the player interested. A sign was put in front of the building to guide the player, this way to that, that way to this. The fountain was also based off with a statue and a walk that curves around it.

On the hills and slopes, there are now plants and ivy. This gives it a different look than oh... hedge. Speaking of hedges, those were added around the houses for privacy of the owners. Anyone watch HGTV? Hedges are better looking than blatant fences.



COMPLETED WELL AREA



STEP BACK AND TAKE A LOOK

See how the town is progressing? All of the larger areas are getting filled and being fleshed out before the smaller areas. If you start with the smaller areas you will get burnt out faster than me writing this tutorial. Plus people really do not care about the small parts, just the parts they visit or are supposed to visit.

Great tutorial maia. I've always wondered how you could so consistently make such great maps. I'm happy to learn.

Oh my, I can learn a few things from this.
Looking forward for it to be finished. Good job so far, maia.

If anyone likes this, plus my rep :-)

I am done, and this is quite monsterous. I go into a lot of detail that is beyond map making.

*** EDIT ***

Ha! I love the fact that my rep shot up 5 points and shot down 4 points.

Guess what? I exceeded a maxium of 4000 characters!!! So I need to post part 2 here.

TIGHT AREAS (of towns)

Spoiler for:

FROM BIG BUILDINGS TO TIGHT AREAS

All of the large buildings are done, and once yours are done, you should go to whatever cut out / dug out areas you have. These are your tightest areas, tight areas mean easiest to complete. Wide open areas are more difficult... remember that with anything in life. Tight = good, wide = no good.



BUST A CAP IN IT

So from here the first and really only tight area is the grove of trees where the crazy people live. First start off by capping and basing trees to make them look real and not tiles. Then make the door openings and windows to each of the houses. You do not do house to house to house, you do door to door to door, or window to window to window. This is a big time saver, I can only hope this was known before I said it.



EVENTFUL

With these houses, because they are cookie cutter, start by making the doors, the smoke and all of the house events. This is just a quicker way of doing things. Also take note at the fact that you cannot double up a window and a tree top on the same space, so what you do is make the tree top an event! That way you can get both things in there, but come to think of it, the tree would block the smaller windows anyway.



CUSTOM MADE CRAZINESS

As you know from this tutorial, I love to make coves, paths that lead to special places. Houses are no different. Look at how the path of the south house wraps around into the field. Fence off some areas! Make a home's area its property! Put someone in the field! Talk to a scarecrow or burn it down!

The north house is like this too. There is a fence restricting players, you can make a farmer stand blocking the path, but he goes to sleep at night so you can go in and steal his crops! Use your imagination! Also do not be one dimensional with fences and paths. See how stones were used for paths and how big rocks, barrels and firewood are used? Having multiple tiles like this creates interest instead of boredom for the player.



DECORATE THE GATE

This is why you start doing the coves, groves and tighter areas first, because of gates. Having narrow areas like this help restrict the player. The player needs to be restricted for the purposes of challenges. Have something blocking the way; such as a nun with a broom. In this case, I put two statues for beautification with a fence that goes into the trees.

SPRUCE PATH

Notice how at amusement parks and theme parks they have flowers and beautiful things everywhere? That is because people get bored easily. Players get bored easily playing old school RPGs, so you need to spruce it up. Flowers by a path, bushes by a path, a combination of the two as you will see below.



A FLAIR FOR DECORATION

Add crops to your fields. Add different flowers to areas to make it look special and different. Put statues people should walk between. In midieval times there were a lot of statues, sculptures and artists. Plus there was an abundance of rocks. Take note that a statue cannot be on a tree tile, one cancels the other out, so you will have to add an event as the top half of the statue.

Always remember the fencing off technique like the south house show below. The player has to stay awake to get into the property to pull up the turnips.



COMPLETED GROVE

I'LL GET TO IT LATER....

Spoiler for:

FARMS FARMS EVERYWHERE

Back in the days of midieval times there were farms everywhere. Did villagers just eat on deer alone? No they grew their food. Those that did not grow food either had to buy it or work for it. Those that did none were either carnivorous or they starved to death.

Excellent explanation on how to make the grove and each of the houses look distinctive.

Thanks. My rep goes up 10 points from this post. Hopefully everyone finds it more useful than enormous.

I'm for the most part using the same mapping techniques as yours. 
Keep up the good work, maia.

This is the best VX map tut i've seen on the internet! =D

Rep+

 

It is also the longest tutorial with the most file space for images. This page is perhaps 5 MB in photos.

That is just mad! 

Keep it up 

~Stay Cool~

 

NICE
Learned alot from it !!

What did you learn from it? I am not even done with it, but it turned into quite a novel.

I learned how to maker a map and stuff like that,,
i used to make small maps but not anymore,
and about details !
you rock !

VX is notoriously hard to map in, I'm glad some good tutorials are here to help

I always headache when every time I design my world map, but after I had read your post, I found it is very useful! 

Wow my rep shot up 8 points :-)

I think that I need to do a world map tutorial.

I think VX is notoriously easy to map in. XP is far more difficult and tedious to map.

You should post some maps of before and afters.
 - Before you read this post and after you read this post :-)

I find it much easier to work with XP's layer system, personally.

I find it easier to make maps in VX, but far harder to make them look good and especially to make them diverse. This tutorial has certainly helped me a lot in regard to finding ways to distinguish between maps and especially within the same map.

AH! I went to refresh my minds with this awesome tut but the pictures are gone?

 

I was thrown off of my server.

Ah fair enough. Supid server! GRRR! =]  ALl that hard work!

Ahah well its still a good tut without the pics but makes it kinda akward 

 

Never even finished the tutorial. One person PMed me their maps based on my tutorial and I was pretty astounded considering the person never ever mapped before (supposedly). My REP did shoot up quite a lot, and I am assuming this post did it.

I consider mapping one of the hardest thing for people to learn and be used to, especially with VX's blocky setup. Being a good Mapper in VX is an accomplishment and if you helped someone in doing so, that is also an accomplishment. This topic is very helpful. And, not that rep matters around here, I'm glad your rep shot up.

Sorry to resurrect this topic, but I suck at mapping and really would like to read this tutorial..but, sadly, the images are not working.  If you feel like being an extremely awesome or kind person, would it be hard to get them to work again? If you don't want to then that's fine, don't worry about it.