City Map (LARGE)

[RyokuHasu]

So I redid the capital city of my game and this is what I came up with, Please rate and comment.

And for the record this was all mapped by me in the span of 1 week.

>! 

In case it doesn't load on this page:
http://www.freemmorpgmaker.com/files/imagehost/pics/18f39f2fda076024796b2fb44b1b2fac.png

[nilly70]

holy cow thats huge :) it looks great to !!!!!!!!!

[nilly70]

it would look neat with a pond or something to ;)

[Fuu]

Your map sucks bro.

[RyokuHasu]

@Fuu:

> Your map sucks bro.

any reason behind that?

[Fuu]

Yes there is.

[RyokuHasu]

Gona share it so you don't look like a hating troll? >.<

[Fuu]

@Ryoku:

> Gona share it so you don't look like a hating troll?

I might. Too repetitive, Too bland, too perfect, and too blank.

[SeeingBlue]

I think what he is trying to say is it doesn't look natural. I know it's a court yard, but maybe a little to typical? What do I know about mapping though? haha

What are the dimensions?

[Richy420Rich]

Size does matter when mapping, you'd have to make them not so big, but then again not too small. A big map with not enough detail leaves alot of open useless space really.. A smaller map with alot of detail would crowd the map. Need a balance of the two, to make it just right.

[RyokuHasu]

@Fuu:

> I might. Too repetitive, Too bland, too perfect, and too blank.

Its the capital with the highest standards of living, of course its "too perfect" in some areas. It's a man made city, not a forest or field.

Repetitive, have you seen housing dev? there is a reason every house on a block sometimes look like the one next to them.

but I don't see what you mean with the other ones, I don't see what you mean by too bland or blank, that's just the edge of the map that goes for a bit and cuts off. =P But i did have a bit of a plan for more detail to the buildings.

@Richy:

> Size does matter when mapping, you'd have to make them not so big, but then again not too small. A big map with not enough detail leaves alot of open useless space really.. A smaller map with alot of detail would crowd the map. Need a balance of the two, to make it just right.

I see what you mean, and I can add a bit more detail to the buildings, as a matter a fact I think I left out some final details i was planing on, that might make all the difference. 

* * *

All and all though, looking at in In-Game this looks a lot better when you just see parts of it at a time XD

[SeeingBlue]

Btw where is the back of the castle?

[RyokuHasu]

@SeeingBlue:

> Btw where is the back of the castle?

the reason why there are "cut off" chunks is that I only built it to the limit of what you can see.

In-game it just looks like a mother ducking huge castle!

[Fuu]

@Ryoku:

> -cut dat shit son-

I'm not talking about the housing. I'm talking about the field on the side that looks like you used a 128x128 tile of bushes 9 times, and the roses. The trees that border the city are too perfectly placed, and there's not enough decoration around pretty much everywhere (blankness). There's nothing that makes it special, its just a plain old city that you see in every single other game. (blandness)

[RyokuHasu]

I know it's perfectly placed trees on the boarders and stuff, that's a common thing people do to stop deserts from spreading into cities, those where planted as the last defense against the desert if it ever reached that far. Perfectly placed trees like that are normal for my kind of story.

as for blandness, ya I was going to add a bit more detail, I said this.

[Fuu]

@Ryoku:

> Perfectly placed trees like that are normal for my kind of story.

That makes no sense at all unless your story is about magically placing trees perfectly.

[RyokuHasu]

no, my story is about a growing desert swallowing an entire world. trees and bushes planted in that kind of pattern slow down desert growth, people do it in north Africa and the south west US for a reason.

As you leave the city area you start to see degraded life of the world, and it gets worse the further you are from the city, in fact some other towns will have the same set up but with sand on the other side of the trees/shrubs and less grass in general.

though the desert never reached there they set it up for when it would have reached the last civilization or humanity.

that tree placement is based on the story =P

[Murdoc]

@Fuu:

> I'm not talking about the housing. I'm talking about the field on the side that looks like you used a 128x128 tile of bushes 9 times, and the roses. The trees that border the city are too perfectly placed, and there's not enough decoration around pretty much everywhere (blankness). There's nothing that makes it special, its just a plain old city that you see in **every single other game. (blandness)**

You must think the maps in "every single other game" also suck. And, I've actually seen worse maps in popular orpg's.

@Ryoku.. It could use more detail and character, but overall its not a bad city map.

[Robin]

The building tiles are used poorly. No one lives in such fat houses with such little exterior decoration. Your bush walls look stupid no matter how you use them. Looks like you just spazzed out all over the map with grass and clutter.

This isn't how you handle a large map. Regardless of your reasoning people simply don't live like this. You can't make a 'perfect' town because they don't exist and even if they _did_ exist, your tileset is too limiting to pull it off in an aesthetically pleasing way.

This doesn't look perfect or well kept, it looks tiled and lazy.

Here's how you handle a big city with that tileset;


Needs to be tight, packed and have an actual structure.

You can't start making large maps by just going crazy from the get go. It needs to be made up of dozens of smaller 'maps' which link together. Make one area at a time, don't just make an outline then try and fill it with shit.

[RyokuHasu]

ok, thank you Robin, you are the most helpful in showing that.

=P I'll see what I can do with it.

[Socuine]

I agree with Robin.

The map needs to be random and shouldn't be following a pattern, unless it's a royal castle.

[ZoSo]

Aw that screenshot takes me back :').
But yeah, it looks akward.

[Fuu]

@Matlock:

> You must think the maps in "every single other game" also suck. And, I've actually seen worse maps in popular orpg's.
>
> @Ryoku.. It could use more detail and character, but overall its not a bad city map.

Do not. I wasn't talking about the map being bad when I was talking about "every single other game". I was talking about what was in the map.

[Murdoc]

@Fuu:

> Do not. I wasn't talking about the map being bad when I was talking about "every single other game". I was talking about what was in the map.

That doesn't even make sense. You were talking about the city map. I think that's obvious. Regardless, the map is mediocre, but I was pointing out how you said the city map was like "every single other game (blandness)" as you put it. Its not really helpful criticism, because youre practically saying the cities in every other orpg suck too. What does help is pointing out how it sucks, why its "bland" etc. I just get tired of hearing people spew off criticism (which is so easily done), without giving any _sound_ advice whatsoever, or not being able to take criticism themselves, although they have no problem dishing it out.

On topic: The map that Robin showed you Ryoku _is_ much better… you just need to practice your mapping skills, by focusing on being more random and creating character instead of admittedly boring maps like this one. Try not to follow the examples of many other free mmorpg's which basically do the same thing by placing buildings, foliage etc in boring, patternistic ways.

[Fuu]

@Matlock:

> I just get tired of hearing people spew off criticism (which is so easily done), without giving any _sound_ advice whatsoever, or not being able to take criticism themselves, although they have no problem dishing it out.

I take criticism just fine, thank you very much. And if he wants to be a good mapper, he should be able to find whats bland about it on his own. Putting a looping set of bushes and a little square with houses in it does not make a good map, it makes a **bland** map. A good (can't think of a antonym for bland) map would have specific features that makes it different from others. What I'm saying is that this is exactly what everyone who says "first large map i maed lawL" tries to pass off.