The do's and don'ts of map making.

[Meiscool-2]

Originally posted by GrooveMan.exe
Hopefully, this topic is recent enough for this to not count as necro-posting.

You covered Castle towns, but what about modern towns with Skyscrapers and stuff? Modern buildings are a bit more rigid in design, so how do you stop them from becoming stale in maps?

Add things to each building that makes it different. Billboards, FlowerBeds, etc. Even cracks in the foundation.

[aboutasoandthis]

Are you ever gonna do cherry blossoms and falling leaves? I've got a season based thing in my game and that would sound REALLY useful. I'm guessing you used moving pictures way back when? Do you still have it or know how to make it?

[Meiscool-2]

Sorry I haven't noticed this for awhile.

Falling Leafs:

Examples:



The first thing you should know, is when creating falling leafs, you will need at LEAST 3 pictures for them to run smoothly. However, depending on the flow you want, I recomend using around 10.
I've done two different types, one being many leafs at once, the other being just a few leafs. I'll say, many leafs doesn't look real great, but then again, I made it when I wasn't an expert coder.

1) How to do many leafs:

Example:



First off (when doing many leafs) make a LARGE picture file. 640X480 should be good enough. Now, I know that the normal picture only requires 320X240, because that's the size of the RPG Maker screen, but: You will be moving awhile these leafs move. If your picture is only 320X240, then when you move, you'll see blank spaces between each picture wait period.

This is an example of a 320X240 'many leafs' picture:



To make it 640X480: Copy it once, then set the pixels in paint to 640X480. Then paste it three times to fill in the spaces.

Now, to make them look like actual leafs, use the same colors as the trees on your map. Also, it's recommended that you make them in one of these three shapes:



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Now that your leafs are made, we can now work on the actual coding. I'm only going to use Six pictures here, but you can and probally should use more to prevent flaws. If at any time it ever looks like there are TO MANY leafs, then don't lessen the ammount of pictures you use. Instead, take out some of the leafs on the picture file itself using paint.

Depending on where you want the picture to start (upper left or upper right), is where you'll want the X and Y screen Cords. Also, note that all pictures SHOULD move with screen. Lastly, these pictures should sorta Waver.

Picture 1: Start it at -480/-640, and have it move to 480/640 over a period of whatever time you want.
Wait about .2
Picture 2: Start it at -480/-960 (or whatever highest number you can get.
Picture 3: Start it at -480/+640

Move them where ever you want, and if the time of movement is 1 second, then wait .5 and start the next set of pictures, 4 being the same as 1, 5 being the same as 2, and 3 being the same as 6.

Now, if you use more pictures, you can use a smaller picture size. Smaller pictures cause less lag and bugs. I recomend you use a lot of pictures.
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2) Few Leafs.

Example:

How to make it: I'm feeling lazy. I'll update later.

[Linkizcool]

That uses the same principle as my wheel CMS.

[Thunderstrike]

wow. simply wow!
great tut, I will use it a lot in my game

you've definately inspired me to detail my maps more

[DarkBell]

Nice tut I must say!!

I'll say I respect you!! You are cool after all

but can you help me with somehow Labatory

[ZeroX5]

Good job meiscool...is the tree a pic ? it looks not like a chipset o,o

[Danteskewl]

great tutorial, but is there anyway you send/tell me where to get the rabbits and butterflies and stuff you used to make the places look more natural?

 

[coreystranick]

Topic Kick

[Dragonium]

Well it is a tutorial, so I suppose if he has a question, he's allowed to ask in the tutorial thread.

[Serano65]

i really like but what about the insides of thing like castles, homes, shops, and dungens?

[Meiscool-2]

Originally posted by ZeroX5
Good job meiscool...is the tree a pic ? it looks not like a chipset o,o

It's part of the chipset, it just took up a large part of it.

Originally posted by Danteskewl
great tutorial, but is there anyway you send/tell me where to get the rabbits and butterflies and stuff you used to make the places look more natural?

 

Search the complete resources. There are bunnies and other animals in there.

Originally posted by Serano65
i really like but what about the insides of thing like castles, homes, shops, and dungens?

Maybe later. Till then, you should probally read Robotam's guide to caves and insides.

[Dele]

Really good tut MiC, I've learned alot from it and I'm using a few of these sections for my game. I find it funny that you mentioned the shift and cut thing. I found that years ago now I feel special for knowing it beforehand. ^^

Anyways a castle/dungeon tut would be great I always have troubles with those. However I can see how it would be much more difficult to explain due to most of them are created solely from the mappers' imagination. Chipsets have a huge impact too of course.

[Terradont]

A really good tutorial indeed. I've learnt quite a bit.

The only problem is that i'll need to remake most of my maps for my game, but i haven't gotten that far yet.

[Terradont]

Ah, look at that. I read the date wrong in my hurry. So sorry about that.