Game & Map Screenshots 6

[Kes]

I now understand better what you were getting at in another thread.

First off, shadows.  The cliff island on the right has none, whereas the mainland cliff has.  However, as you are parallaxing, you might consider creating a rounded edge at the beginning of the shadow which would help take away Ace's boxy look.

Second, even in the editor it is possible to have a less solid group of trees to the left.  Taking out one or two of the internal ones would make it look a bit more natural.

Think about the consistency of your terrain.  So, for example, it is unlikely that you would have a clump of bright green healthy looking ordinary grass as close to salt water as the clump at the base of the palm tree.  Something more brackish looking perhaps - there are a couple of semi-dead brown ones on tile B which might fit the terrain better.

You've put in a couple of nice variations on the shape of the water edge, for example that diagonal line, and I like the semi-submerged stepping stones.  As the water in that area is, therefore, obviously very shallow, you might like to think about putting odd bits of sand emerging from the water, something to break up that large expanse of blue.

 

[mlogan]

Nathan, overall I really like your map. I do agree with ksjp about the square shadows. Also I would see about adding some bits and pieces on the shore. There are tiles available that have seashells and the like. I think maybe Lunarea has some? Maybe a downed log for driftwood or something. I really do like the this little scene though.

 

[Nanaki_Fan]

Here is an updated version of my Port Town map:

EDIT: Updated the picture. It had a layer issue.

Spoiler

 

[EternalShadow]

No pic?


EDIT: Just took time to load. Good so far. BE sure to use the unused space to justify why houses aren't close together.

 

[Nanaki_Fan]

No pic?

Its in the spoiler as its a bit big.

EDIT: The empty spaces are slowly being filled up by more Houses/buildings

 

[Simon D. Aelsi]

@Nanaki, looking better!  Now, this may be a personal gripe, but using that kind of soil as sidewalk...? I... don't think that's such a good idea.

Also, something about the 3 story house on the upper left seems a bit... off. I can't quite put my finger on it, though...

@NathanW Simple, yet effective!  What KSJP (I've misspelled your name so many times. So sorry!) said about the shadows is true, but I'd like to add a couple things.   Unless you purposely intend to have sand close to your cliffs like that, is there a way to get rid of it? I personally don't have any gripes with your green grass (I mean it's a video game, not EVERYTHING has to make sense.) but if it's close to palm trees, even I have to admit what he said about more brackish grass does make sense.  Palm trees are hardy things! They're not even true trees! (But that's another thread.)

I like the natural bridge you made. Very creative! I don't think I've ever seen anything like that before. I'd like to see more of that from you if you make more parallax maps.  Shaping the coastline like that to make it less boxy was a wise move. This may be a personal gripe, but the angle looks too.... neat. Like I said, that's just MY opinion though.

@LiteraryGoth  Well.  That's something I don't think I've ever seen before. Is that a battle engine?




Alrighty.  Check this out!

I'd like to eventually try that awesome lighting system to add some more sexiness to this (and other) maps.

Here's what the whole thing looks like in the editor.

Spoiler

Feedback welcome! Or do you have questions? (Like why is X the way it is?)

 

[Nanaki_Fan]

@Nanaki, looking better!  Now, this may be a personal gripe, but using that kind of soil as sidewalk...? I... don't think that's such a good idea.

Also, something about the 3 story house on the upper left seems a bit... off. I can't quite put my finger on it, though...

Hey Iron Croc! Thanks for the feed back. That is not soil it's a black mark overlay that sits on the stone tiles, this can even be used and found in the editor. I am using it as a sort of "pollution" footstep. A busy town will tread dirt around and dirt will collect at sides of buildings etc... Its just to add more depth.

As to your screen shot: It looks good! Only thing I would say is the ground looks flat at the waters edge. There is a tile you can use to have the dirt edges look under water. I recommend using it.

 

[Candacis]

@nanaki_fan:

The layout of the town looks good so far, although I would place 1-3 houses next to each other. That every house has space around them, is unsual for a town. One thing that looks weird to me is the little cliff/wall part that seperates the houses from the docks. I don't know, it is just one straight line, looks a bit too clean and it makes it hard to see if there is any height differences. I would maybe make more openings or have a part of the town on the same height level than the docks. And make the archway openings maybe one tile higher.

The next thing is, that all houses don't have shadows which makes seem look a bit flat. I would suggest around 5-7 shadow pen tiles, maybe even more, just play around with it a bit. I'm also not so sure about that dirt.  Maybe it is too dark, it looks a bit dominant. If you would alter that autotile and make it more transparent, it could look better.

I'm curious what else you are gonna put into this town. The beginning looks promising.

 

[Nanaki_Fan]

@Candacis - Thanks for the Feed back. I have increased the amount of housing/buildings on the map and have also starting work on the dock area. One such thing I have done is placed a watch tower and side storage which does help to show the dimensions

Here is the current look of the town:

Spoiler

 

[NathanW]

Thank you guys for the criticism. It was very eye opening.

For one, the green grass next to the palm tree was a pretty bad idea, I can see that now, but it was put there before I put down the 'brown' stuff on the shore, so yeah... whoops. I'll fix that. The reason I did such a heavy clump of trees was to have a semi-natural solid bunching of trees to cut off that edge of the wooded area so people would know to go north, but I guess that could use some remixing as well.

Now, about the rounded shadows... I... don't know how to make rounded shadows I literally just picked up photoshop the day before I made the parallax map above, so I don't know how to do a lot of it. Only thanks to Celianna's Parallax Mapping Guide did I even know how to merge the 200-some layers I had into three layers <.< So if anyone knows how to round off a rectangle, could you let me know? (And yes, that island is missing a shadows! another whoopsie. But I added those in with the editor, which is nifty.) As far as littering the beach goes... I never thought about seashells or driftwood. I actually picked up a tileset that had a few pieces of ruined, darker scrap wood that might be useful... I'll use them next time, and get some seashells.

Again, thank you all for the criticism, I'll have an update on the map later today or tomorrow, I hope!

 

[Kes]

@Nanaki_Fan

I've finally worked out what was bothering me about your map.  It's the fact that the sea laps up against the town wall with not a scrap of land between them.  Even in modern ports, the 'town' part itself will be back from the edge of the sea.  Think storms, high waves etc.  That was even more the case in the past (and your game looks like it is not set in the modern era) when building techniques were not so sophisticated.  Yes, obviously the jetty/pier part will, of necessity, be right at the water's edge, but not the town wall.  

The simplest solution would be to turn the sea along the right edge of the map into land.

 

[Celianna]

@ksjp17: actually, it was very favourable for kings to build their castles on islands, or near water, as they couldn't be ambushed easily. Like Mont Saint-Michel.

 

[Nanaki_Fan]

@ksjp17: actually, it was very favourable for kings to build their castles on islands, or near water, as they couldn't be ambushed easily. Like Mont Saint-Michel.

Indeed, it was a common practice. When conditions we not favorable moats were built which effectively acted the same way for a defensive measure.

Though I might at a small bit of land, perhaps beach to break up the water a bit.

 

[Sharm]

They were also usually built on bedrock if that was the case, so that they didn't end up washed out to sea.  It's probably also where castles got the reputation of being dank places.

I think the buildings themselves are far enough away from the edge that it makes sense.  One thing that's been bothering me is the height of the outside wall.  You've got two levels within the wall and the wall doesn't dip down where the lower level starts so the outside edge by the water should have one more tile to make the height match.

 

[Kes]

@ksjp17: actually, it was very favourable for kings to build their castles on islands, or near water, as they couldn't be ambushed easily. Like Mont Saint-Michel.

Indeed, it was a common practice. When conditions we not favorable moats were built which effectively acted the same way for a defensive measure.

Though I might at a small bit of land, perhaps beach to break up the water a bit.

Ah true, I'd forgotten about the islands, I was so busy thinking about mainland ports.

 

[RocketKnight]

Hi, does anyone have a suggestion for puzzle games?​

 ​

 

[mlogan]

Uhh, that kind of thing is best asked in a separate topic. I know there was one recently posted and I'm sure there are others. I'd search the forums for "puzzle".

 

[literarygoth]

@Iron Croc: nope, it's a dream image from one of Dacian's dreams. Mock Mode 7 style, but it's not animated.

~ I quite like this garden. Is the water supposed to be very shallow? Otherwise, there should be a tile to show depth in the water. If it's supposed to look shallow, it looks great!

@Nanaki

~ It's starting to come together quite nicely. The overall squareness of the whole map causes me to eyetwitch a bit, but viewing in-game it's likely that you won't see it all together like this. Fluff it out with a bit more clutter and it'll look pretty stellar.

@NathanW

~ I'm also a parallax mapper. You can use PS's tools to blend your shadows by using the smudge tool, or warp the shape of the shadow to fit the space you need. PS is a powerful tool in the hands of a parallax mapper. Don't be afraid to try the different tools and play around with settings.

@RocketKnight

~ I really like that art style, it's cute and effective. Your second map is a bit top-right heavy, and lots of negative space in the left and middle areas.

These are a bit old and slightly outdated, but the town of Mori hasn't changed much. The only things that will be different in game is NPC's, and less fish/food items randomly around town due to a food shortage.

Spoiler

Spoiler

Spoiler

 

[Simon D. Aelsi]

@Nanaki Fan & literarygoth

Thank you for the feedback! To formally explain why the rather deep water is such that you can't see in: Not all water is clear enough to see in, in many RPGs,  so I wanted to mimic the old-school feel. Also, I wanted to keep this as RTP as possible.
In this case, the structure is very very old, and since the garden is INSIDE, you can't see in that well. 

Again thanks for taking the time to look through!
 

 

[Candacis]

@nanaki fan:
 
Regarding the water, it could also look a bit harsh, because of what water tile you chose. It is very saturated and draws the eye. Here is an example I did with a different water tile + I did make 2 other more transparent versions of that water for the wall, both used in the editor, so it isn't parallax water. With help of this tutorial: http://forums.rpgmakerweb.com/index.php?/topic/4794-better-looking-water-tiles/
Something like this can help and make those port edges a bit softer.
You could also break it up a bit with wooden dock parts or having a small part of water ending in a form of beach, maybe on the right.
 

Spoiler

 

edit: Just realised that I never uploaded those wateredits I did for this port town. If someone would be interested in this, I can upload it for use in ace editor.

@literarygoth:

I love your maps, very nice layout, especially the beach part. I'm not so sure, however, about those leaf trees. They don't fit with the rest and look very bright.