Game & Map Screenshots 6

[VideoWizard]

I posted a new screenshot with the changes. Now I have 38 other maps to adjust.  Also, ignore the phantom stuck in the wall on the lower left. I've since moved it down. Like before, touch one, and you're going into battle.

Spoiler

 

[Schlangan]

@VideoWizard


There are some little things in your map that bother me;


- The cliffs have shadow, but the stairs do not, because of that, the stairs look more like a dug part of ground than stairs. It's a bit confusing.


- The flowers near the cliff and the bugged ghost seem to not be affected by the shadows, it's a bit strange.


- You made the effort to show borders for the top parts cliffs, but not for the bottom parts, which creates a straight-cut impression.


- Finally the entrance of the cave is too rectangular, it's not a natural shape.

 

[mlogan]

VideoWizard - I made a few simple edits with some suggestions. I'm not sure what you've changed already, but these are the things I noticed.



1. My preference on how to do stairs, take it or leave it, lol. I feel like setting them back on the bottom gives a better feel of depth to them.I would think stairs would be carved into the mountain like this, therefore would not stick out but be set back into it. Again, my preference, do what you like.

2. This cliff bothered me. The top of it felt as if it should be jutting out past the one next to it, yet the bottom made it feel as if it were further back. A couple of adjustments I made.

3. These lush green plants/trees do not make sense in the sand. If not in Celianna's set, I would seek out some dry/brown plants to put here.

4. The clumping of these plants looks strange and unnatural. Try spreading them out. Same for all the other clumps of plants.

5. Use the same color stone border.

 

[Candacis]

@VideoWizard: It is starting to look better!

Some things you could still do: Since you use Celianna's A4 cliffs, try using not the first cliff in the bottom row, but the second one. The second one has a bit of grass at the bottom and it will look better on a grass ground. Some of those cliffs are still missing a shadow, use the pen tool to put down shadows manually. Then, some cliff parts don't look like you used the right part of it. A cliff has three parts: a left ending, a middle and a right ending. Especially in the middle portion of your map I see a lot of middle cliff parts where a right ending part would have been better.

 

[Kes]

@VideoWizard

If you look left of the vine that grows i[ from the middle to the top tier, you will see that you have 2 indents at the top, but at the bottom there is only one.  You need to take the second one back a tile as well.

I echo the comments others have made already.  They don't need repeating.

 

[huubz]

New try at the city map. Not really happy with the graveyard area, especially the right empty space next to the wall. Also market area needs some work and shadows are still WIP (not really experienced with them yet, so still trying to get them right).

Otherwise I'm liking it a lot more than the previous version, even though I was told that the square floor tiles don't fit and they fit more in a bathroom or something, but I like em!

Big picture in spoilers.

Spoiler

 

[Candacis]

@huubz:

Wow, a big improvement, huubz. It feels more like a city know and all the details are very nice. Love the layout!

Four little things: You have a door floating around on top of the barn. Second, I don't think the use of this door fits the city. It looks too bright in contrast to the walls. Maybe use a different door or darken this one? Third, your right citywall has no shadow, making it look a bit weird. You could also put some shadows right next to bottom and top gate entrance and to the left tower.

And then, you could put a low gradient shadow under the docks and also on the poles. Right now it looks more like the poles are just south of the docks instead of under them. You could experiment with a gradient shadow also for the gates at the harbor. In addition to the shadow you already have, put a small gradient shadow at the top. It is always more darker there.

 

[KanaX]

@huubz It is a very nice map. Detailed, consistent and vivid. The big problem here, are obviously the shadows. While it's nice to cast shadows according to a light source that is consistent, there are some issues with them.

Spoiler

Here you see that the shadow covers the roof of the house to the right, which doesn't make sense, since both houses are the same size.

Spoiler

Here's the same issue with the trees to the right. You might argue that the trees are lower than the house, but as you can see, the shadow only reaches to the same level the trees' roots are, so the higher foliage shouldn't be under the it.

Spoiler

Here's something different. There's some difference in the height between the base of the house and the ground below, yet the shadow remains absolutely even. If you are willing to make it a bit more realistic, you should try to give an offset to the shadow on every different height level. That issue can be found all over the map, but this one was the most noticeable occurrence.

Another nice idea would be to remove the default shadows given with the resources from Celiannas' pack (like the trees) and replace them with your own. As they are right now, they come in contrast with the rest of the shadows.

I would also suggest (not really important if you don't like it) to give a slight blur to the shadows.

As for the presentation, I would suggest you post the image of the map to it's real size, so we can see more of the little details.

 

[Candacis]

Kanax, just click on the image and then on the magnifiying glass and after that right click on the image and ehm, the first option (I don't know what it says in english), but you know, show picture. Then you should be able to see the original.

 

[huubz]

@Candacis

I agree, the doors don't really fit to the houses and it's something I'm gonna take a look at when finishing the map I haven't made the overlay image yet, because I really want to to be completely happy with everything in the map so I don't have to do it again, so the doors at the moment stick through the shadows and stuff.

@KanaX

Like I said, the shadows are still very much WIP, because it's something I haven't really done before and to be honest I haven't really decided how I'd like do them because like you said, I'd also need to do the shadows for the trees and.. really for everything. I will probably end up doing them, if I can get them to look decent

Thanks for the comments!

 

[AceOfAces_Mod]

@huubz really nice map.



This was made before the last map that I showed here. I did a few more edits.

 

[Kes]

@AceofAces_Mod

I don't want to go into much detail if there are edits which don't show up here as I could be wasting my time, but one thing stands out very much for me.  You have a lower wall, the bright yellow one.  Why are you running it alongside the much taller city wall?  It serves no purpose, as the people in e.g. the house at the back, would just use the city wall behind them and only have the lower wall along the sides.  The same over on the right side.  Also, I find that wall colour a bit on the bright side.

 

[Nanaki_Fan]

So I went back and reworked an old map.

Here is the old one:



Here is the new one:



What do you think?

EDIT: There is a lot more clutter such as barrels and a steel bar door in the top right, creatures ect.... but they are set as events. This is just the parallax map.

 

[Kes]

@Nanaki Fan

Much more interesting.  However, you could have done that in the editor with ease and then you wouldn't have to use events to place barrels.  If you're going to parallax, you may as well put the barrels there as well, unless they have items in them or something else which justifies them being events. 

 

[mlogan]

@huubz - Beautiful map! I don't have anything to add over what's already been said. What tiles are these?

@Nanaki - Big improvement! I would love to see it with events as it does look a bit empty now.

@Nanaki Fan

Much more interesting.  However, you could have done that in the editor with ease and then you wouldn't have to use events to place barrels.  If you're going to parallax, you may as well put the barrels there as well, unless they have items in them or something else which justifies them being events. 

And even then, you can put an event over the space, with no graphic on it. Curious why you parralaxed it?

 

[Nanaki_Fan]

@Nanaki Fan

Much more interesting.  However, you could have done that in the editor with ease and then you wouldn't have to use events to place barrels.  If you're going to parallax, you may as well put the barrels there as well, unless they have items in them or something else which justifies them being events. 

The map was made in the editor with ease and then converted to Parallax.

My barrels are destroyable and drop loot so they need to be events.

As for the map itself there are several areas where the map has hidden passage ways - that is the reason for this map being a parallax.

@Nanaki - Big improvement! I would love to see it with events as it does look a bit empty now.

And even then, you can put an event over the space, with no graphic on it. Curious why you parralaxed it?

Same reason as above my barrels (and urns) are destroyable.

Nice to see the map is an improvement, it shall be added to my Demo shortly.

 

[Kes]

@Nanaki Fan

For your secret passages, just take your A tab tile and put it on a B-E tilesheet and set it to star.  Use it above a passable ground tile.  Put a blank event set to 'Same as characters' along the edge so that the player can't wander all over the ceiling.  Very fast, and helps keep the file size down by avoiding unnecessary parallaxes.

What I actually use is NeonBlack's terrain tags script which enables me to set even autotiles to star, so that my players can walk behind walls and cliffs.  I can also use it for passages etc.  It might be something worth looking into if you plan doing a lot of secret paths.  Makes life incredibly easy in comparison to other methods.

 

[huubz]

@mlogan

It's a mix of bunch different tiles.

- Celianna

- Pandamaru

- Candacis

- Mack

- Ayene

- Aindra

- Lunarea

The chain fence, church windows and the triangle thingy at the top of the towers are something I made by combining mostly Celiannas tiles together.

Hit me with a pm if there's some specific material you want to know about

 

[heimond]

Just a concept art.

 

[Kes]

@Box

It is, therefore, difficult to comment on it as a map.  As concept art it's interesting, but I'm not sure that anyone can have a clear idea of it as a map at this stage.