THE SCREENSHOT TOPIC RETURNS

Well, just an update to the previous image (yes yes, I know I shouldn't do this, but I feel like this makes it look better).





Spent a pretty decent amount of time just looking at all of my various chipsets to throw tiles onto this one. A lot of junk removed that I didn't need, and...I have 16 available slots left. Out of all of the chipsets I have, I cannot figure out what to place in those slots. It's kinda funny in a way, when originally I didn't know what to put in rooms, and then I get the spaces filled out, remove stuff, and now don't know what to fill THOSE spots with lol. *Sigh* Also, there's no good horizontally placed beds, which is going to make some events look really awkward (like the one on this bed. The character is lying horizontally here...so you can imagine it looking weird a bit...).

I don't really have anything to say about the majority of the screenshots posted here, hence why I don't say anything. What's there for me to really give feedback on?

I did state in a previous post (before the previous) that I was only going to post those screenies and then not post anymore until the rest of the mansion was done and I was working on the library/basement.

Perhaps it would be best if you uploaded them to your game page and ticked the 'want feedback' button. They'll be sent to the screenshot feedback area, you can keep updating the same image when you've changed something instead of uploading a new one and all comments will be focussed on that map. Also, I highly recommend you only post one or two maps and focus on doing and redoing them instead.

To be frank, I think that it would be a great idea for you to try hone your mapping skills a bit more by creating a new project and just messing with maps. In fact, one thing that I recommend to all newbies who ask me (and yes, I know you're not a newb but when it comes to mapping, you're still in newbie territory) how to get better is to take a screenshot from a game that you like (I recommend Ara Fell which uses the same tiles but is at the least intermediary skill required) and remap it out in your 'testing' game. It should not only give you a better feel for the chips themselves, but also help you recognise good and bad design. Also, lots of practice.

Don't worry, we've all been through these stages - I wasn't born with good mapping sense, believe it or not. ;p It takes a lot of practice and a lot of playing games to understand the good and bad. That's also something I recommend - playing bad games. They will give you a much better feel of how annoying something is, especially if you play a good game right after. Go play a few bad games. Go play a good game. Experience maps and how they affect gameplay.

It can help you go from this:

to this:

The real problem is that even big castles aren't that huge in real life. If they are they probably have a town built inside of their walls. I've been in several castles before, and I'd say that a lot of people overestimate their size.

If you want to break it up, add more courtyard space. Some wooden buildings inside the walls of the big courtyard, for a blacksmith/general/whatever you want. If it's supposed to be a huge castle then make it elaborate, but give it a reason to be big.

@Liberty: Oh right...I forgot that even existed. I don't even recall getting much feedback the few times I DID use those too, but...eh. I still feel like working on the mapping while working on the game is the better idea, since not only does it give practice, but it gives progress towards the game being closer to being updated. I'mma stick to that myself. I recall actually DOING that to a degree too with some screenshots (or maps rather) with various FF rooms (I did that for my final dungeon of beta4, the halfway point). Course, since they're not exact replicas, they're not exactly well...exact but eh. I digress!

Can't say there's many issues I have with maps in any of the "bad" games I've played, per say, so much as other things though...hmmm...

I thought this was a cool environment to post here.

Not so much a place of despair - this is where the Nibelung dwarves live, underground. This is actually a place of faith - a tree grows in the underground. I'm trying to stick to the true depiction of Germanic pagan faith in which places of worship are near a natural phenomenon. The blood is due to the sacrifices to the Gods.

@Dreaded Hm, those maps look like they could use some details, buddy! They look to be sized well though - which is a pretty common mistake I see.

@Libby That map is hot, Libby~<3 I tend to forget you're the RTP Princess until, you know, you do better than the engine creators are doing with the RTP.

@Liberty - Fuck me that has to be some of the best RTP mapping I've seen for the VX/Ace style. I love the expanded surrounding farms, makes it more authentic to me for some reason. Though I shouldn't still be surprised by your RTP mapping skills by now consider your back catalogue of work but again you out do yourself.

Going through my old photobucket account and found this little gem from the Nigsek Remake...

@Tau: Oh man, I opened up NigSek a while ago and was wondering why that screen wasn't there. Now I remember - it was for the remake, right? Sadly never got done, iirc. :< I remember it really wowed the GW crowd, way back, and it still looks great by today's standards, too.

As for surrounding farms - it's something I started doing with my towns, since it makes no sense that there be about 15 houses in a town, total. Besides, larger towns need farmland and it just kinda made sense that the farms would be close to the outer wall, in case the farmers needed to run to safety. I rather like the effect, too. ;p

@Aegix: To be fair, there's been a lot of practice to get that good. It takes time, but I'm sure you can do it too, if you put your heart into it. ^.^

@Gourd: Thanks! ^.^ You know how it is; every day's a constant battle against auto-tiles, but perseverance (and a love of the graphics being used) will see ya through... eventually.




Those castles are incomparable. One is jutting towers and buildings, walls within walls, defences apon defences and decorative architecture (being as it was made for the wife of the man who commissioned it, he wanted it to be lovely for her. IIRC, it was something of a summer home, thus why it is like it is. It was also not meant for protecting against armies ravaging the lands - unlike other castles that were on more open lands set at critical points which could house a populace, animals and the locals. Yes, I've studied and been to castles too, bulma. ;p )

You are correct that there are bigger castles but that doesn't mean they make sense in a game prospective, or that they were barren expanses of wasted space like the screenshotted one is.

Keeping in mind that it's being created for a game, and that people do not want to spend forever walking back and forth across a screen of empty every time they go to that map, it needs a lot of work to make it look like it's not empty. It doesn't even work for abandonned because, well, wear and tear. Also, that cliff-face needs work.