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BAD POINTS OF ONE BIG 'INSIDE' MAP FOR TOWNS
Posts
Eike
2708
Eike
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CloseSo, looking over my game, I realise that in most towns, the majority of interiors have been on one or two, like 100x100 inside maps. But it's occured to me that ingame, it is in fact kind of annoying to enter a small house and only see half of it - and have this 15x15 house scroll as you're walking around it... I'd much rather see the entire small house on the screen. At first I thought that doing it all on one big map would probably save on filesize, but thinking about it, it really shouldn't be that much and I'm putting a couple of MP3s in anyway, so.
I guess what I'm asking before I redo all of the houses is if anybody minds this big-mappery? I'm sure I've seen this done in other games, does it annoy anyone else as much as it's starting to annoy me?
I guess what I'm asking before I redo all of the houses is if anybody minds this big-mappery? I'm sure I've seen this done in other games, does it annoy anyone else as much as it's starting to annoy me?
Except in the odd case, I use a separate map for every floor of a house. Each small map only adds about 3kb, so I wouldn't worry about size.
I have 859 maps in my game, however.
I have 859 maps in my game, however.
There's nothing wrong with it as long as the player doesn't notice what's going on (like noticing the insides of another house or hitting the map edge and everything stops scrolling in certain houses/areas of houses)
Its not like a lot of space in most RM2k games comes from maps, I wouldn't make any changes based on the file size of the map.
Its not like a lot of space in most RM2k games comes from maps, I wouldn't make any changes based on the file size of the map.
Blind
2262
I think the filesize issue is so amazingly negligible that it really can't be reasonably considered, for one. Making the "rooms" separate adds more to organization and it's considerably less clunky than having a single maps for all interiors. In certain cases it could work, as with the cave-houses of Ara Fell or something, but I think in general its a bad idea.
Neophyte
155
It doesn't matter in a case like this one, do whatever you want.
I will say that having a larger map and placing every house or room in it has some benefits. It's mostly good for dungeon design or just good organization in general. A good example would be if you had tons of events with code related to specific gameplay functions. It's much easier to make one or two large maps in a dungeon and placing your smaller areas inside of it. This way you won't have to go through the tedious copy and paste (and sometimes edit) job for every map in your game.
I will say that having a larger map and placing every house or room in it has some benefits. It's mostly good for dungeon design or just good organization in general. A good example would be if you had tons of events with code related to specific gameplay functions. It's much easier to make one or two large maps in a dungeon and placing your smaller areas inside of it. This way you won't have to go through the tedious copy and paste (and sometimes edit) job for every map in your game.
Personally, I think having the map scroll even for house interiors is a boon. It gives you control of the camera, so you can better control what is revealed to the player in cutscenes.
If you are using VX, use different small maps for everything, even, as annoying as it is, the same contiguous outdoor area like a city. If you don't, you will find that you are suddenly unable to work on your project. : (
Storm
0
I think it's all a matter of personal preferences, really. I particularly hate when I enter a 3x3 house and get teleported to a 10x15 ambient, with two floors! lol
Yes, I'm looking at you, pokemon.
Yes, I'm looking at you, pokemon.
Eike
2708
Yeah. I guess that the 'big map' thing is more viable than I thought. I'll give it some more thought, though I am liking the look of the sample maps I did on their own... I guess it's personal preference more than anything, but yeah. All good points.
I'll try and avoid 3x3 houses or anything like that, though, heh. By 'small house' I did mean usually fitting snugly into a 20x15 map. Anyway, the ones that don't quite fit force me to tighten up my mapping, which can never be a bad thing. ::)
I'll try and avoid 3x3 houses or anything like that, though, heh. By 'small house' I did mean usually fitting snugly into a 20x15 map. Anyway, the ones that don't quite fit force me to tighten up my mapping, which can never be a bad thing. ::)
I think it actually depends on the mood you are going for. When the borders of the map are apparent to the player (the screen doesn't pan), it feels more like he is in the framework of a building and that "outside" is close at hand. But when it's padded out with a sea of black ceiling tile and the screen pans everywhere the player walks, it feels more like the inside of the building has enveloped him, possibly more cozy, more claustrophobic, etc.
3rd year Mapping Theory. Good course.
3rd year Mapping Theory. Good course.
Yeah. I once was a proponent of the panning rooms, but it has many drawbacks:
- making such maps is irritating, because you have to count the number of "black wall" tiles so that the hero sprite is always in the center, which often means shifting, experimenting with map dimensions etc., which leads to more time spent on each map
- maps feel more like... well, maps, than real places (this one is hard to explain)
- cutscenes feel more natural and "movie-like"; one of the things I learned from playing The Way
- making such maps is irritating, because you have to count the number of "black wall" tiles so that the hero sprite is always in the center, which often means shifting, experimenting with map dimensions etc., which leads to more time spent on each map
- maps feel more like... well, maps, than real places (this one is hard to explain)
- cutscenes feel more natural and "movie-like"; one of the things I learned from playing The Way
It is slightly more work in setting it up, but one large map is much more organized and accessable. The last thing you want is 1000 maps in your game with half of them being tiny 15x20 maps. You also don't want huge layered map trees with maps nested in maps nested in maps. It is poor organization. All the Super Nintendo RPGs placed their town interiors on one map, and in the most extreme cases every interior for one type of tileset in the game is placed on a single map (Caves in Zelda games did this for example). Just be sure to lay out houses in a logical order so you will easily be able to recognize first and second floors.
Besides, you don't want 15x20 maps because any map not created in a multiple of 16 is visually repulsive and not professional.
And don't forget: You can lock off the camera with the lock pan state option under the pan screen event!
Besides, you don't want 15x20 maps because any map not created in a multiple of 16 is visually repulsive and not professional.
And don't forget: You can lock off the camera with the lock pan state option under the pan screen event!
I actually find that I'm more organised with single maps instead of one large one. I used to do it using one big one (and would if there were map amount restraints) but stopped after having cutscenes that appeared when you entered the map. I also got really annoyed when I tried to move the maps around to make better use of the areas.
It didn't really work for me, but kudos to you if it does.
It didn't really work for me, but kudos to you if it does.
In RMVX/XP, this kind of mapping is more or less required, as Enterbrain lowered the map maximum from 9999 to...999. Unless you use a disc changer-style script, if you want to make a sufficiently long RPG with a lot of areas, you're going to have to do it this way.
AznChipmunk
4613
I like the advantages of it, the only reason I don't use it is because it's inconvenient for events that take place in specific rooms. Also, it's more convenient to split up maps when using lighting effects, I guess. Some maps ingame are linked in this manner, though.
author=Atavus Dei link=topic=3223.msg64704#msg64704 date=1236126324
In RMVX/XP, this kind of mapping is more or less required, as Enterbrain lowered the map maximum from 9999 to...999. Unless you use a disc changer-style script, if you want to make a sufficiently long RPG with a lot of areas, you're going to have to do it this way.
To be fair, not very many games have broken 999 maps.
Not that this isn't silly, however.
author=Karsuman link=topic=3223.msg64974#msg64974 date=1236240404author=Atavus Dei link=topic=3223.msg64704#msg64704 date=1236126324
In RMVX/XP, this kind of mapping is more or less required, as Enterbrain lowered the map maximum from 9999 to...999. Unless you use a disc changer-style script, if you want to make a sufficiently long RPG with a lot of areas, you're going to have to do it this way.
To be fair, not very many games have broken 999 maps.
Not that this isn't silly, however.
Right. I think LoD had... 1200 maps? And it took five years + a ridiculous amount of effort.
THE MATH: Let's say your game has 12 towns, 18 dungeons, 7 random locations and 40 cutscene/intro/ending/etc maps. You also have a test map, an event storage map and 10 empty maps that sort out all the other maps somehow. Each town has 6 maps: the town, the armory, the blacksmith, the magic shop, the inn, the item shop. Each dungeon has 5 maps: three main maps, the entrance, and the boss chamber.
12(6) + 18(5) + 7 + 40 + 1 + 1 + 10 = 221 maps.
Thus, for the purpose of single-map interiors due to running out of maps... hahahahaha.
Yeah and didn't Everlong have a shitton? Or was that another game?
Another thing I prefer about one map-one house is that it's more convenient if you have a lot of events - even if they're only layering/lighting/timing events.
Though I guess the same can kind of be said for one map-all house maps.
I must say, though, that if I had something like a tower or forest/dungeon I'd keep one map for each floor, even with other floors going up and down - it adds 'realise' to be able to 'see' the other parts of the floor. Or something.
Another thing I prefer about one map-one house is that it's more convenient if you have a lot of events - even if they're only layering/lighting/timing events.
Though I guess the same can kind of be said for one map-all house maps.
I must say, though, that if I had something like a tower or forest/dungeon I'd keep one map for each floor, even with other floors going up and down - it adds 'realise' to be able to 'see' the other parts of the floor. Or something.
