Jeff

> The game takes place somewhere in the North American Stone Age when the nomads first arrived. duck yeah, that's one of the coolest time periods. Will there be mammoths? Dire wolves? Giant sloths, maybe? Sabertooth cats, even? I can't wait for this. I loved haven and hearth, and it seems like this will be similar but with an even better setting.

> Really? I don't even.. You know what? I'll just face palm for you. Yes, it's certainly feasible for a person to fumble through their pack while being attacked; I'd limit this to people who accept that they're going to die anyway. The thing is, if combat is a state that's judged by whether or not there are enemies aggro'd and nearby then you can be in combat but safely behind a rock or whatever so you can drink that potion. Of course, if you get hit in the face with a broadsword there's about zero chance you'll be able to finish drinking that potion. Maybe you could have it so whenever you get hit you stop drinking your potion.

> the whole artistic feel takes away from all of that. Do you mean the graphics or the story? If you mean graphics, then I'd like to point out that my favorite graphics are from Final Fantasy tactics. Call it nostalgia, but I honestly think the game is beautiful. Best of luck on this game, I loved tactics and hope this can give some of its feel to the MMORPG scene.

I mostly listen to World's End blowup doll or Kashiwa Daisuke. They're contemporary classical, and have some great syncopation. Sometimes I might listen to Toro Y Moi, James Blake, Mount kimbie, or similar bass music/garage/future/whateverthefuckitis.

> Helmsglade That's probably one of the most generic, cliche fantasy names I've ever heard. That said, I think it could work with Elandor because it's trying to be a bit nostalgiac. Just be careful, and try not to make anything more cliche than that.

> Nah mate that's my cousin who liked my name enough to use it  Ahaha, a legacy. I like it.

Alright, I think I've finished polishing up these tiles. I'm still debating whether or not I should redo the dirt, so opinions on that are great. 

> I love a good map.  > > This is very nice, but I still think the snow has too much contrast still, and I wonder if that snowy area would be mountainous? > > Obviously there's no scale, so it's a bit hard to gauge distance, but I don't think you'd ever have lush, green vegetation only a bit south of a snow-covered region. > > Although.. Thinking about it… I suppose, if the area is large enough, you could be looking at say Russia in the Northern section then Asia in the Southern area.. > > TL;DR - Needs a scale.  It's not large, and there is no lush vegetation. The climate is congruous to europe, in the south(the peninsulas on either side) there is desert, in the big valley just east of the western peninsula there is some wooded areas and prairies, and in the north there is pine forest/snow. Does it really look that lush? As for the mountains in the snow, if you look in the northwest there are some. In the north east there are some smaller ones, as well. If you zoom in you can see them. Mountains are probably the feature I've struggled most with, in the tutorial I used the poster just said 'use a low opacity brush to make mountains' and when I did it they looked pretty shitty. I ended up using a 'splatter' type of brush at ~3 opacity and building it up, but it still didn't look as tall as his. I might have another go at it if you guys think it looks shitty.

> Never try to save money on decent equipment! > > It might sound silly, but if you can try calling in a few favors or borrow some money you know you can slowly pay back.. Do it. Trust me, you'll want a decent sized tablet if you're going to use it often. the same goes for everything in life. Clothes, knives, cooking utensils…. splerging for the durability is always worth it. /offtopic A tablet sounds really useful, especially if you're into graphics. I might get one if there's crazy black friday sales or something.

> I don't want to be a jerkface but, what are you actually going to apport to your game? C: Are you going to host it ? He's paying people. People will do stuff for a shit project if they're getting paid. Of course, I'm not saying this project is shitty and sorry if it sounds like that.

> If you truly are aiming for "retro", I would suggest studying retro game colour palettes. As it stands, the line-art and zoom says retro, but the colours say modern. Well, I'm not looking for NES era retro by any means. My main inspirations are [Final fantasy tactics](http://www.moogle.net/wp-content/uploads/2008/01/final-fantasy-tactics-the-war-of-the-lions-20070708081504429-000.jpg) and [dungeon dashers](http://www.dungeondashers.com/). They have full, modern palettes and antialiasing/modern pixel art techniques, and then they resize it. I love that style, and hope to replicate it. Basically, I don't care about the retro factor. I just want it to look good.

 Made it kind of dark, changed the trees' foliage a bit, added shrubs….. the main thing that needs work now is the tree trunks. I also might try and fix up the grass>dirt transition a bit more. The dirt palette also might be edited slightly. Thoughts?

> i want it :/ make me a map like that!!! i need a new desktop background  haha, thanks. You could make this your desktop background if you want, but I really don't think it looks _that_ good. Also it's a .jpg so the quality isn't great. > Yeah a bit. Looks nice. > I like it! It looks and feels like a map.  thanks

> The top picture has too much contrast. The snow burns my eyes. better now?

Hello eclipse, I've spent basically all my free time today making a world map for a game I'm working on. I'm pretty happy with how it looks right now, but I still need to add towns and labels and shit. Without further ado, here it is:  Click on it and view closer for better results. Ignore the bevel in the top left area, I'll fix it momentarily. Old: >!  >! 

> What concerns me is the fact that someone explicitly told you to switch to Java while implying that it was a superior language. Erroneous at best, I say. Anywho. And yeah, you're absolutely right in wanting to learn from a cohesive set of tutorials or even a professional authored book on the topic, especially when first starting out. For C#, I recommend the e-book Visual C# 2010 Step by Step; it's also sold in paperback with an accompanying CD that includes the samples and e-book. > > Thanks for posting! When he said java was better, it was a personal preference issue and he told me so. He didn't actually have a problem with me using C# or anything, it was just that I would be working with him more and he liked java so he told me to use it.

I'm not 100% sure if I'm an intermediate programmer, a couple more experienced people who I've shown my code(mostly game related) to lately told me that it looked alright or they only pointed out one or two errors, but I'll post anyways. I started out with MSDN and some random tutorials to guide me through C# and XNA, but after a while I met John(rose) who told me to go learn java or duck myself. I learnt some java using tutorials and other basic stuff, and then John basically just tutored me. Since I was already relatively proficient in C#, learning the basics of java wasn't hard. Now I'm playing around with it and mostly just googling things I don't know how to do and then asking someone(john, westin, support forum) why my code doesn't work/how I should do something. Honestly I think I would've preferred to learn from a good series of tutorials, but I heard that thenewboston was bad and I couldn't find any other tutorials, so I had to improvise.

> I'm going to bump this, Murdoc and myself have been working on the site on and off but it really isn't our niche. If you are interested you can PM me with a small portfolio showing off what you are capable of, i would say to PM Murdoc but I'm not certain about how fast he will be able to check/respond to it. > > Regards, > > General General Pony Hit aaron up.

> I hope people take shading(shadows and lights) into consideration in their vote ._. Are you talking about .png overlays? If so, I strongly disagree. While it's a nice touch, It honestly doesn't add much to the map. Often it looks ugly, also. It's much more important to have a good map structure and have a good looking map than having a little shadow under the trees and having the lamps light up.

> Quest For The Crown is still the best browser RPG out there. oh lord.

> The rules aren't very accomodating for all tile-sets. Mine for example is reminisent and inspired from titles like Dragon Quest where the inside-view of houses are always shown. Hopefully it applies nonetheless, else I guess I'm out for this contest, which would be a shame. > > Small portion of a giant scrolling map, and downsized. Currently using modified version of Eclipse Origins, for the purpose of mocking up maps, although hopefully when I'm finished designing the game and working on the graphics, I'll be able to find a team or at minimum, a programmer. By the positive comments this map is getting, I'm assuming that by village you really mean any form of settlement?

> Exactly. > > If your going to do that, you might as well use the tiles like everyone else here does. Why limit yourself for things like fringe, for something thats not anymore legal. Screenshots or tiles, both are illegal. Are you every going to get sued? no. will you get a letter to shut down ur progress? no. (unless u get like 10k users which wont happen) >world of hyrule

> Giving a link is pretty useless without any information on the project. Site is pretty bad too, especially how it's half aligned to the left. Also, it's in turkish.

> Ah ok. What are you guys actually working on this time? Do you have any actual screenshots to show? Also, I'm working on this: [http://www.touchofdeathforums.com/community/index.php?/topic/130151-retro-pixel-art-take-2/#entry861767](http://www.touchofdeathforums.com/community/index.php?/topic/130151-retro-pixel-art-take-2/#entry861767) Granted I'm not an actual pixel artist, but I feel like these are good enough to be used in an indie game. These aren't for Asran, our pixel artist actually just made some [dope graphics](http://i.imgur.com/yvqWI.png) for asran. > WOAH, WOAH, WOAH. > > Socuine, if you're serious. Send me a message on MSN or email me. > > [[email protected]]([email protected]) Just to make sure it's clear, this does not mean you have the job. It means that you will be considered.

 Redid grass and edited trees, now it's less retro but I think it still works. Thoughts?