THE SCREENSHOT TOPIC RETURNS

Wendel finally has some skills to use!

Up for some 2 player co-op action. :)

author=Xenomic
(which means there's gonna be just as many forest screenshots as caves because I focus on one thing at a time whenever I do stuff...^^; ).

Please don't do this. I mean, feel free to work on them one stratum at a time like that, but please don't post more than a couple of them here. No one minds helping you, but this isn't the Xenomic topic.

Aside from not looking much like a forest, this area doesn't have much of a path. Actually it has no path at all. It's way too big for the player to have to be given total freedom of movement, which forces them comb the entire map north to south back and forth. Some freedom of movement in an outdoor area is good, but you don't want nearly this much. You need to sort of direct them, and I think preferably with both actual impassable barriers and visual cues of some sort that lead their eye along certain paths.

The "really densely packed tree trunks and canopy of tree branches overhead" method of making forests is popular since it effectively gives you wall and ceiling tiles, allowing them to be designed more or less like indoor/cave areas. However if you don't want to do it that way, consider something like this:

I used a one-tile-high cliff to create an edge to the path, and put sporadic trees on the path but very dense trees beyond the path in the unwalkable area. If I were to make this into a full area, I would put a lot more bushes, shrubs, tall grass, and a few boulders up in the impassable area, to give it an overgrown feel, while possibly adding some dirt sections and a small amount of smaller plants and tall grass to the walkable path. This method lets you use the regular tree tiles you're using now, and lets you place them randomly and semi-realistically instead of all right in a row or in a checkerboard pattern, without requiring you to drive yourself crazy trying to make sure there's no path in between the trees. I recommend using a combination of this method and everything you're using now as barriers, though, not just this method by itself. But this method is especially good for blocking off the edge of the map - I can see that right now the walkable area goes right up to the edge of the map almost everywhere, which is a major readability problem for the player - there's no "rule" telling them which parts are exits that teleport to another map, so they have to check everywhere.

Man, even zoomed out to 1/8 size like that I can see you're using the mack & blue forest tileset, and I know it totally has the canopy thing. It's too late to use it on this map without just starting over with a new map, but "I don't have those tiles" is a terrible excuse. If you somehow have a version that doesn't, go download the basic mack chipsets again.

And in general, if you don't have the tiles for something you want to put in your map, go download the tiles for it! You can edit those chipsets, man. You've got the touch. You've got the powaaaaaah. Between google image search and spriters-resource, I've never not been able to find a tile I wanted in a style that fit my game, as long as I was okay with using rips (which I'm pretty sure you are).

So I have a similar problem, I have a 55x55 map that scrolls both side and top/bottom. The point is that it's a desolate swamp that you're supposed to get lost in, and not find your way in (unless you have an item). I thought about breaking it down into a bunch of little maps, but they're still going to look the same as the main map; because they all have to seem endless and it can't be memorable too much because you're supposed to feel lost. Does anyone have any ideas on how to make a desolate place desolate and not boring?

Couple screenshots for ya'll, and then I'm going back to working on the story. Other maps can be revamped later, I wanna get the story moving for pete's sake! >_<

Old map:


New map:


Still 100x100, but this map is this way for a reason, as you loop from the bottom to around, so from this map to this:


Old Map:



New Map:



And then the bottom exit leads to where the player has to go. This was done just to extend the short story segment some so that player can use the temporary characters they have here a bit longer. Originally, the first old map did NOT link up to the second old map, so that's a different adjustment and all. I think they turned out a LOT better and more foresty. But again, gonna stop revamping maps and going back to that boring old cave that's gonna remain boring because it's a boring old cave and all that. Yes, that cave that I showed like a million times? That's not gonna be redone. It's staying as it is. Bad idea? Probably, but I'm not revamping 31 maps (I still have to revamp 38 maps that need it) so yeah! Fun times, fun time...at least now I have the mapping skills to do this crap so future places don't end up like...THIS. >_>

The old maps were downright terrible and this was one of the bigger ones I wanted to renovate (but jesus was it annoying...especially thinking of how to handle the paths). I know it STILL doesn't look like a forest (and probably never will because I'm terrible at mapping and don't know what to do with it), but it'll do for now I think.

Again, yes I realize the two maps are still kinda big (100x100 for the first map and 80x50 for second) but there was no reason to shrink them once I had the maps loop around really I think. The final map for this area that I need to renovate is gonna be shrunk down from its 100x100 map (yeah, I'm noticing a trend of 100x100 for some reason in the later parts of the beta...), though making what I want to do there is gonna be a thing, since I still want the player to play with the temporary party in this area, and at the point of the final area, you don't get to use the last 2 that join for very long at all. Yes, I'm extending the areas a bit just so the player can use these characters, is that so bad!? ;___;


I did go ahead and type up a list of what still needs renovated too. Quite...a bit actually. ^^;

Hm... while I think the tent 'walls' look really awesome most tents (if they're to be lived in) would be set up on packed dirt, not grassy tiles (less bugs and insects, easier to keep clean) and even if set up on grass it'd have some sort of rugs (or something tarp-like) on the ground. I'm assuming this is a pretty big tent since a normal one would be about three to five beds in size. Also, if it had been lived in a long time the grass would have definitely been worn down to plain dirt tiles.

I do like the small amenities and details, though. But yeah.

Thanks for the advice Liberty, Kyrsty, I updated the screenie with a few more things; made it slightly darker to show the light from the fire, carpets, dinner table, treasure chest, removed the grass, and also shrunk down the size of the tent by one tile. How's it look now? :3 (I didn't fully remove the actual green grass, as I had to have it match the outside, just the bush-like grass, but I did put in a lot more dirt, and stuff.)

A nitpick, Sana. There wouldn't be a fire inside a tent unless it was open at the top like a teepee. Or if you wanted to smoke everyone out, and potentially burn the tent down.