ONCE you import the actual tileset graphics, there is more work you have to perform. And most of this goes towards tileset for any engine.
mentioned, you will notice that each tile within the visible window some graphics; these typically being
s. These indicate whether the player can walk across the tile or not. These are the basic Passage (or passability) flags. These need to be set, otherwise you would be able to walk through brick walls.
But that's just being very basic. Look at the RIGHT side of the Tileset Database screen, and you will see five buttons. They will read as follows: Passage, Passage (4 Dir), Priority, Bush Flag, Counter Flag, and Terrain Tag. Each has a different feature, and some more important than others. Here's a breakdown.
PASSAGE: This is the most basic of the passability flags. The
0 drawn on a tile means you can walk across it. The
X means you can't walk across it.
PASSAGE (4 Dir): Clicking this, the tiles suddenly have 4 arrows (or dots) on each side. This is a more detailed means to control character passability, determining if the player can only walk up and down across a tile, or left and right, or a combination. When the arrow is present, the player can move in that direction, and if it is a dot,.... nope. Switching the mode back to just PASSAGE will show the traditional
0 overtop the tile unless ALL the arrows are turned off.
PRIORITY: A fun little option and one that is used for graphics drawn upon the 2nd (or higher) levels other than the ground level. This determines if a tile is drawn OVER the player, especially useful for things like trees. All Priority settings beyond 0(zero) begin with a
*Star. The greater the priority, the higher up the character can be on a map while still being behind the tile. You will notice that trees in the default tilesets have priorities from
*2 to
*5, with
*5 being the topmost part of a tree.
BUSH FLAG: An entertaining flag, this one is used for tiles that may lightly conceal the player as if walking through thick foliage. Imagine that the player is walking through a swampy area. You may see him wading through while his feet are concealed under the mud. THIS is the Bush Flag at work. Tiles that have this flag, rendered by a couple of wavy lines, will let the characters walking across have this effect. You may notice in the Gralssland tileset (typos for the win) that some thick grass tiles have such a flag assigned.
COUNTER FLAG: This is not a flag typically seen within outdoor tilesets, but would be commonly found used upon indoor tilesets. Under normal circumstances, the player must be touching an event to trigger it, either by standing on top or by being next to it while it is 'solid'. The Counter flag, displayed by a thick Diamond
, allows the player to talk across the tile. Yep, this doesn't mean that an action is being countered. It means that you can make it so the store clerk has a counter which the player can talk across!
TERRAIN TAG: Underutilized by the RPGMaker XP engine itself, this allows you to 'TAG' a tile with a value from 0 to 7. The only thing RPGMaker XP uses it for by default is within the "Control Variables' command to assign an RMXP variable to the value OF the terrain tag. BLech. RPGMaker 2000 and 2003 used them to change the battle backgrounds to match the terrains you're standing on! Talk about forgetting why features were present!!! Yeah, we scripters can read these values and use them ourselves, be it for battleback changers, vehicle systems, 'damaging tile' options, and more. Just depends on the script used.
So yeah, there's more to using Tilesets for any engine. It just takes some patience and planning.
