How big would you say a main continent should be (in maps).

[Alster]

Just a need to know thing I guess. So far I've got my main continent (well, not the 'main' one, but a pretty substantial one) and I just need to know if it's big enough.

[cheatking]

Well I've desigd the newie area for my game and thats 100 mpas.

Havent maid a continant yet though.

[Alster]

@Sean:

> link=topic=39148.msg379912#msg379912 date=1235229840]
> Well I've desigd the newie area for my game and thats 100 mpas.
>
> Havent maid a continant yet though.

Please tell me that's not at the default map size…

[cheatking]

maps are 30x30

[Alster]

Great… Now I get the feeling I need to redesign the world map plan...

[azkanan]

MyWorld world will be about… well, at least 500 maps, and that's not including locations x].

[DrNova]

depends completely on two things

Being able to accomodate your ideal playerbase (realistic ideals, even though we all want uber success)

And a basic question.  Do you have enough for your game to work? (I.E. places for all level ranges, quests, any place that becomes important via storyline)

Other then that, well, you ARE the developer,it up to you.  The option to always add more though makes sure this never really becomes a big issue

[AdrianC]

I would have at least 1000 maps before releasing a demo.

[Fruitpunch]

are you guys using EE 2.7

1000 maps is insane, but maybe its my poor mapping skills.

[ddunit]

For a continent, I'd say around 100-500 maps, depending on how big you want it..

[AdrianC]

I had over 100 maps in my last game. Its not that big…

[Hippoman789]

depends. i mapped mine out andd its about 300 without inside.

total release is about 800.

[ddunit]

Well, it depends if it's scrolling maps though…

[Anna Comnena]

There are many factors in this. One, is obviously the size of each map. But also it is determining how much of your gameworld is going to be playable space or not. And then a third, with some graphics sets, is scale.

About scale, I've noticed a few games with Inquisitor's tiles are going this route, and it's an interesting way to craft a gameworld. There are several benefits to this, as you can depict a large region on a single map, and add a expansive strategic feel to your game. The main downsides of it, is the worlds are bland and not very interactive (because of scale, you can't really have NPCs roaming around on it). This can be alleviated by interesting scripts or by having enough points of interest for the player to visit.

About map size, well obviously if your maps size is twice as big as normal, you need fewer maps. But there are problems with this as well; mapping very large maps can be much more time consuming then doing the same amount of tiles in normal sized maps (syncronizing map borders is especially time consuming on large maps). Also for interiors and areas you don't need the space, you wind up wasting a lot of the large map.

Partitioning your gameworld into playable and unreachable space is a efficient way of depicting a large diverse world with minimal amount of maps. Basically this is the concept of taking blocks of maps as a local region and using a geographic or structural border along the edges of this region. The main drawback with this method is you need to "expand" often to open a new region, as your explorable area is relatively low.

Anyway, how big a continent in the amount of maps? With normal maps (20x15 tiles, one game screen), I would say for a final release game, nothing short of 1000 maps for an outside continent would be required. Alpha release, 100-200 or so, and a beta, 400-700.