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Topic: Map design (Read 1784 times)
Bluhman
Global Moderator
Royal
Posts: 4,976
Map design
«
on:
June 25, 2005, 08:51:38 PM »
So some ambitious games have good stories (or ok), charming characters, ba/very bad/good spelling, but lack something extra; some of the maps of these games are downright horrendous in layout. They do horrendous things, and make the Runtime Package (RTP) an infamous thing due to the fact that most new people use this package, not knowing what represents what and just slapping random squares of terrain on the maps. That's not the way to go, so I made this short guide on how to make many types of maps. This shall be an expanding document, where outside contributors can donate their mapping knowledge. Anyway, I'll get this started:
Basic things
The meaning of symbols:
In a chipset, an O on a chip means that that chip is passable
An X on a chip means that that chip is impassible, thus is likley used for walls and other obstacles
A Star on a chip means that that chip is not passable, or impassable, but relies on the underlying chip for its passability. If this is applied to a lower chip, then the chip is automatically passable.
A Square on a chip, and being the worst neglected of all the chip types, represents a cieling chip. This chip is passable when walked from above, and sort of acts like an impassable star chip. This chip is meant to be placed at the top of walls.
Basic map design:
WHEN MAKING OLD TYPE WORLDS (like a mideval age world) ONLY SELDOMLY USE THE SQUARE AND CIRCLE TOOLS
This is, by far, the most neglected rule of map design. People often use the square tool to build things like forests and cliffs. If perfectly square patches of foilage begin to grow voluntarily in your backyard, then you've just won some kind of record, but things like that just don't happen in nature with out help of mankind, so if the place you're designing is overrun with technology and landscape sculpturing due to man, then usage of the square and circle tool is perfectly fine, but try and use the pen tool more often, it really makes places look more livley.
In certain places, there might be a rare occasion you might need to make it so that certain chips don't make autocaps. In order to prevent it, hold down the shift key. Please note that overuse of the shift key can result in some funky looking maps.
World Maps
What to do:
For a change, you might want to make the world wider than tall. Why you might ask? See, if you look at an atlas, you'll clearly see that the world is also layed out wider than tall. Also, it makes more sense that a rectangle can evenly wrap around a sphere, called a planet, which I'm presuming where your story is taking place.
Alright, this might be completley useless, but ever since I had started playing Civilization III, I've been putting polar Icecaps on my world for realisms sake. Who knows? It could even be a major plot element
Making the islands and continents is like this, first, layout the shape of the land
with the pen tool
(You don't wan't square islands, do you?) Then fill it with grass. Then, outline this island with light water, not dark water, that's ocean, while light water is coasts and rivers. Fill that with it's matching water type. Then proceed to outline the different sections of the island with different terrain types; mountains, swamps, forests, then, strategetically place the towns in places where you would think the people living in those towns were thinking (like if they were in need of food, have them nearby a river or plains, or, if they need protection from enemies, on top of some mountains.) And there you have a continent.
Once again, Feel free to post a mapping method for different locations (Towns, Caves, Towers, Rooms, ETC)
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maxine
Average scripter
Zealot
Posts: 736
¨Dude i am 16 with 2 balls and hair
(No subject)
«
Reply #1 on:
June 25, 2005, 10:14:59 PM »
nice one m8.
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