Mapping an RTP Castle Town (2K3)

Well, here's the (Long awaited?) tutorial for how to make a good looking Castle town in RpgMaker 2003. As with all maps, you can make it as big or as small as you like. I personally need the country's largest city to be a respectable size, so I'm going with a 50x50 piece of grass.

Spoiler for Grassy field:

Next up comes the walls. These bad boys actually cause a little bit of trouble; you have to be sure that it's not a total box otherwise it looks tacky, but it's pretty difficult to make fancy shapes out of 'em. I decided to add a little entryway for mine, with turrets on either side of the entrance (I didn't use a gate or moat, I don't like having to teleport to the same map, and the moat I tried making looked silly. It's up to you, though). I also changed the back of the castle to the pink nothingness tile and used a parallax background, to make it look like it's at the top of a mountain or something like that.

Spoiler for Walls:

Now it's time to lay down some housing. House mapping is just about universal with the RTP, so if you checked out my other tutorials, you should have no problem making something that looks nice. Scatter a couple of them (remember to make them asymmetrical!) around the map, as such.

Spoiler for Houses:

All right! Almost done! Here's where you've gotta add in those ever-so-important pathways. Again, don't make them straight. Even though this is a castle, the same rule stands.

Spoiler for:

Don't always use dirt for paths. All these circled tiles are fine for walkways:

Alright, now that that's done, detail's gotta come in. Keep in mind that this is a castle, not a forest. Trees are fine on the outside, but they should only be placed sparingly on the inside.

Spoiler for Finished product:

There you have it: A castle fit for a king. Of course, mine has no palace, but oh well. If you want to do something like that, add some sort of heavily guarded path, then do your interior however you want. I may or may not make a tutorial for that, I'll see.

 

Fantastic job.

Hey that's amazing

Just a side comment, buildings shouldn't have to be scattered in towns. They're man-made and therefore constructed to make man's job easier and are generally all the same, or at the least something like townhouses.

True (See: Suburbs). I guess it's just a matter of preference.

you rule.

All your mapping tutorials have really helped me make better maps, I look back at how I had my first town mapped and I cant help but laugh at myself thinking that I was actually happy the way it looked.

Ahaha I was gonna say "that circle of dirt is pretty awkward" but nice job filling it up. The only thing I find weird is that a town of regular houses has a stone wall.

Just in my head, I process that there'd either be, like, a castle-castle or, like, a wooden fence if the town is just dirt (like the roads) and stuff. Idk. It's just a personal preference thing. But good job, still.

i have one hell of a question.... its been eating at me ever since i been reading the map tuts. is it possible to over do it with the village/forest/castle maps. in the one tut of inside you said people would put more in it. it looked like if you do ny more your poor character wouldnt be able to move.... so for the past day an a half i been a only mapping an its racking my brain. should i put more of this in or less of this or is there to many of this, or does it look random enough.  help....... an if i spell anything wrong sorry. my grammer is brutal.... i can speak the english language but when it comes to writeing it im a grammer murderer

Try posting pictures of some of your maps, so we can take a good look at 'em.

To answer your original question, yes, you can overdo scenery & decorations. I didn't necessarily mean put useless pots, bookcases, and such to fill up space; rugs and other things you can walk on/don't obstruct your character work perfectly fine and are actually recommended.

If we make big maps we tend to not to add many detail. It is not that good to focus on the whole map. It is better you focus on specific about 20x15 tile big areas first and fill them up one after another.

That might be how you prefer to do things but remember that everyone is different and everyone prefers doing things differently. I, being a visual person, need to construct framework etc. I couldn't systematically complete a map bit by bit like you can. I feel creating a map is a lot like artwork, building it up in layers until complete - much like how Sirius just showed us.

Oh and nice tut. Breaks down the construction of a town very nicely. Thumbs up