Flexible and Powerful Tile Map Editor

[Archeia]

Description of the Feature:
I do not expect the current RPG Maker MV to have this. But if a new RM is ever in the works or if anyone wants a reason for an "RPG Maker Pro" please allow me to humor you the possibilities. This is a feature I always wanted RPG Maker to have.

• Unlimited Tileset Tabs and Layers. If there has to be a limit, then 25.
• Rotate Tiles (by 90 degrees)
• Flip Tiles to save tile space
• Subdivision Mapping
• Any Tile size and grid.
• Animated Map Previews
• The ability to set properties to individual tiles or certain groups of tiles. For example, if I want to make spike puzzles, instead of making them by event, why can't I just program the property to the spike tiles themselves or attach a "Base" event to it?
• A strong API documentation to manipulate tiles.
• Easy Map Resizing.
• Flexible Autotiling System (Instead of just VX/VXA Format, how about RMXP as well or the common autotile format seen in indie games?)
• Quarter/Half Tile Movement toggable. So you might be at 32x32 tiles, but you can walk at 16x16 or something.
• Collision mapping should have its own layer where you "paint" with a block tile which tiles are not walkable. It will help a lot than just guesstimating if your maps work properly or if a flower at B layer is killing the collision from a tile on A layer.
• Flexible Cut/Copy/Paste than what...RM has.

Video Reference:

Why is this feature good?
This feature is great because of the following:

• Powerful level design.
• Make your own personal Random Dungeon Generator.
• Power users will be less frustrated to work with the scene_map.
• Pixel Movement is now easier to implement.

Possible issues with this feature?

• Collision
• Does this mean all movement will now be half tile only because of subdivision mapping?
• Map plugins might have a hard time keeping up with all the possibilities. Like maybe multiple tile sizes or flexible autotile format can affect the plugin creation and cause frustration.

 

[Sarlecc]

The ability to set properties to individual tiles or certain groups of tiles. For example, if I want to make spike puzzles, instead of making them by event, why can't I just program the property to the spike tiles themselves or attach a "Base" event to it?

I've actually been wanting to make a plugin for this for awhile now XD. Just never got around to doing it yet. I was thinking it might work on the lines of JSON. Where you can attach properties to tile ids. Then when ever you use said tile it acts like a premade event.

 

[Sharm]

Yes! Why aren't flipped tiles a thing? Why do we have to run the game to see the animated tiles? Why do I have to fight the engine so hard if I want to use tiles from non-rm sources?

 

[ashikai]

Yes please. QAQ
Then I could make a proper isometric map without parallaxing or using TileD. Plus being able to flip tiles would save disk space. Extra thumbs up for the collision on its own layer too; it would make things like secret passages and whatnot much easier to work with.

 

[BubbleMatrix82]

Any/all things that add to the editors function will be a yes from me.

 

[KirkMarkarian]

Agreed, this would be ideal!

 

[Sal-O-Mac]

All of this. But especially painted in collisions, More tile set tabs, actual layers, and for god's sake let's bring back the old 3x3 auto-tiles! Talk about fixing something that was never broken.

 

[Rukiri]

All of this. But especially painted in collisions, More tile set tabs, actual layers, and for god's sake let's bring back the old 3x3 auto-tiles! Talk about fixing something that was never broken.

Painted collisions? You mean something like Unity's Colliders? or Godot's Collider shapes? That would be something far more useful, even the old snes games used half tile collisions or line collision. MV still uses something like if solid "stop moving!"

MV should at least be using some collider based collisions, it won't happen with MV but it does give a reason for MV Pro? Also I love setting up collision shapes for every individual sprite, MV is still using a basic hit box... Which is fine for most RPGs but once you start making real-time map based battle systems simple box collisions are well... not so good anymore due to not every sprite is equally proportioned or the same size and simply changing the size of the box is not always good, I prefer distinct individual shapes.

I've actually been wanting to make a plugin for this for awhile now XD. Just never got around to doing it yet. I was thinking it might work on the lines of JSON. Where you can attach properties to tile ids. Then when ever you use said tile it acts like a premade event.

You can do this with a plugin but it's not in editor and your still checking an external application.

 

[Sarlecc]

You can do this with a plugin but it's not in editor and your still checking an external application.

Having a GUI for it would be a lot more user friendly then doing it how I was thinking of doing it (which is why I like the idea of this one being in the editor).

Essentially how I was thinking of doing it before @Archeia pitched the idea was:
You open a JSON file and write in something like:

[ {"world": {1: ["touch", {"controlSwitch": [1, 1, true] } ] } } ]

This would set switch 1 to true upon touching tile 1 in the world tile set. Which is horribly complex (this is one of the biggest contributors of why I haven't made a plugin for this).

The other method that I could have done was write my own GUI that creates a JSON file and try and have it as user friendly as possible. But once again you would have to open another application in order for this to work.

 

[DragonVine]

This would be wonderful. It'd make mapping a lot easier and reduce the need for parallax mapping. The only thing I can think of adding would be allowing people to walk behind parts of autotiles easily, as that is currently missing, meaning that it can only be done with parallax mapping or moving parts of the autotile to the B layer (excluding the possibility of doing it with a plugin).

 

[Rukiri]

Having a GUI for it would be a lot more user friendly then doing it how I was thinking of doing it (which is why I like the idea of this one being in the editor).

Essentially how I was thinking of doing it before @Archeia pitched the idea was:
You open a JSON file and write in something like:

[ {"world": {1: ["touch", {"controlSwitch": [1, 1, true] } ] } } ]

This would set switch 1 to true upon touching tile 1 in the world tile set. Which is horribly complex (this is one of the biggest contributors of why I haven't made a plugin for this).

The other method that I could have done was write my own GUI that creates a JSON file and try and have it as user friendly as possible. But once again you would have to open another application in order for this to work.

Your still not accounting for half tile, semi tile collisions, your still doing "can I walk here? yes - move no - stop!"

 

[Sarlecc]

I was merely demonstrating an example of what (the nightmare) users would have had to go through in order to setup a simple tile event, if I had made this a plugin several months ago. Back then I had not thought about semi tile collisions (which would be cool by the way).

 

[LMichelle]

Everything, except for painted collisions. Or maybe an option between the two, that you can set it to have a default but are able to paint collision over it. I always actually really liked to not have to do collision by hand, but just to set it once and bam, it runs (more or less).

 

[Lithalean]

• Ditch the crayola icons up top and go monochromatic icons on the sides.
• Make the side bar customizable. (remove buttons not in use)
• Make the editor interface customizable. (remove elements not in use)
• Editor Plugins/Extensions. (3rd Party tool integration into the editor itself)

The Question is not "would you like". The Question is "would you pay more for", and in my case the answer is a yes!
The Javascript Engine, and the RPG Database are glorious, and by far should be the focus! Users should be encouraged to pick up a book, learn an image editor, and some basic javascript. Gimp is free, and so are public libraries. How about lets talk about SVG support?
If we are going to talk about removing the training wheels from the bicycle, how about acknowledging that the tilesets are in fact the training wheels!​

 

[nio kasgami]

@Lithalean as I like your idea the problem is if we remove the tileset...it's would make the old ressources incompatibles no?

 

[LMichelle]

Lithalean, I would absolutely NOT buy that - then I could use Unity or whatever other game engine too. Isn't one of RPG Maker's many charms that it is easy to use? Your idea would make it so people have to learn another program too, which would probably leave many to then, also use a much more powerful engine than RPG Maker... It's nicely thought up, but I think not so recommendable for RPG Maker.

Also, am I the only one who actually likes the icons? They're a lot more creative than just another bland black and white one...

 

[ashikai]

I'm not sure I'd want a new GUI so much as I'd like things like more layers, grid sizes, and that kind of thing.

 

[WesdrasLink]

This is a feature that i want in years.
With this, we can make more complex maps easier.

 

[Faherya]

Completely agree. It would be a better maper mode even than RPG Maker XP (In my opinion, it is still the best RPG Makers on that issue). And about Lithalean's suggestions, I do not think it would be best. One of the hallmarks of RPG Maker - as said by LMichelle - is ease of use. If a DLC was developed in the SAKAN style, it is another story, but I think it would still not reach 100 percent of the program users. The more professionalize the engine itself, without any additional costs except the price itself. That was one of the reasons why SAKAN is not widely used here. I'm not saying they should have the trouble to program and distribute for free, of course. Work is work. (Alas, this has nothing to do with the discussion.)

 

[Lithalean]

@nio kasgami

Spoiler

• if we remove the tileset

  I'm not saying remove the tilesets from the editor, but give the user the ability to hide it.

• would make the old ressources incompatibles no?

  Everything that will work in MV Standard will work in MV Pro. What I want is the same openness (plugins) that the games are given, to also be given to the editor itself.

@LMichelle

Spoiler

• I always actually really liked to not have to do collision by hand, but just to set it once and bam, it runs (more or less).

  For starters, "more/less" wouldn't be acceptable for targets of a Pro version. "Pro's" want as much by hand as possible! Control over convenience anyday.

• Isn't one of RPG Maker's many charms that it is easy to use?.

  The normal version of MV, yes. MV Pro does not need to be simple enough for a child.

• would make it so people have to learn another program too?.

  Yea... thats kinda the idea! Basic image editor knowledge (gimp, affinity photo, photoshop, etc) should be a high priority of anyone.

• use a much more powerful engine than RPG Maker.

  Ok, so you brought up unity, and thats C#. Then we have GameMaker Studio 2 (I am on the Mac Beta), but that uses GML (GameMakerLanguage). On both of those engines, I'd have to buy the web package, and would still be lacking the RPG Database. What about Phaser? It's a free javascript engine, and it's deployment can be web based (cross platform). Again, I'd have to build the a RPG Database from the ground up.

As far as 2D RPGs go, I see no reason why an RPG Maker MV Pro couldn't dominate all engines. Everyone's editor and workflow won't look the same, and thats the point! Giving the user the choice. To me the Javascript Engine, and RPG Database are the superstars