-[Soljah]- Guide to Mapping - Interior

[Soljah]

Hey everyone,

I've decided to make a mapping tutorial for each theme of mapping, this one is specific to the interior of a building. Whether you want to make a tavern, a Weapon or Armour shop, Magic, General, Or even just an Inn, You should learn a thing or two by reading through the tutorial.

**Note**: You should read my [Aspects of Mapping](http://www.touchofdeathforums.com/smf/index.php/topic,13225.0.html) tutorial first to understand the attributes, Layers, Light, and properties when creating the map in your mind.

**Step 1 - Opening the Map Editor**

First of all, you need to Open your Map Editor. You can do this by typing "**/mapeditor**", Or, by manually Pressing **F1**. Make sure your F-Lock is on also, Then click on the "**Edit Map**" button.

**Step 2 - Choosing your Style**

There can be many different styles of interior maps. You may not think it, but a different floorboard, a different Wall type, or even different furniture can make the difference when you are making the interior of a house.

First of all, you have to think of the outer walls of the house, What do they look like? Are they stone? Are they Metal? Bricks? Or the most common, Wood? Make sure you take this into account when you choose your floor tile and inner wall type.

For my map that will be shown below, the outer house is a taller then a usual house, so that brings me into thinking it should be a two-story house. Being a two story house, having it stone or metal wouldn't be wise, It looks too irregular and the practicality is nulled.

**Step 3 - Ground Layer**

We are using two different maps here, downstairs and upstairs. So we need to make sure they match in size and where they are situated. Remembering that the upstairs map is 'higher' then the downstairs map, so the floor starts where the bottom floors walls end. Got it?

Ok, so I've chosen my floor and my walls, making sure they match each other in styles. And here is my ground Bottom floor.


I've added a lighter part of the floor to hint to players that a shop attribute will be placed there. Now, notice how many tiles from the bottom I've placed the floor. My walls are two tiles high, therefore, my second floor should start a few tiles up from where the first floor is, being the same size also.

Now this is the ground layer of my Top floor.


Now moves on to the easier parts, of now placing main features in the room with the Mask Layer.

**Step 4 - Mask 1**

Mask 1 is the layer in which you should place objects that are not a focal point in your map, but give a basis to which you can add to, to make the focus turn. In saying this, things like carpets, bench's, rugs and tables could be used.

Here is the bottom floors Mask 1 layer, Notice that I used bench's that correspond to the theme of the entire building. And a rug that adds colour, but doesn't act as a lure to your eyes.


And the Mask 1 layer of our Upstairs could be made like this. Note the position where the stairs are, as they will be a main part of this map. The beds are only half done, as I am going to use a Fringed blanket, to add the feeling of being under the blankets if you were to walk over the bed.


You can add more touch to it, or if you have a bigger place, add more detail, but otherwise, onto Mask 2.

**Step 5 - Mask 2**

Mask 2 is, basically, the layer in which you add as much detail as possible, without creating less area for players to move, cramping the space, or hurting eyes with too many objects. For an Interior of a building, you add things such as chairs, ornaments on tables, paintings, bookcase's and the like, and even beds and small pot plants.

It is essential to add enough detail for it to be appealing for players, without cutting their walking space down. So try to stick to adding detail where players cannot walk, and where they would not usually walk.

My Mask 2 layer for the bottom floor is as follows, paying attention to the points I've raised about detail.


And also, remember that the bottom two tiles are going to be covered in a wall soon enough, so they don't need to be detailed at all… The stairs are also added, and will connect to the upstairs map later when we add a warp attribute tile.

Here is the upstairs map with Mask 2 added, remembering what I've said about the detail not being in the way of players walking space.


The pot plants can be added here without being fringed on top, due to them being out of the way and the top being blocked off.

Now onto the fringed layers, being Above, or in front of the players sprite.

**Step 6 - Fringe 1**

A fringe layer is important in your house, for things such as walls, bench-tops  (If unblocked) upper tile of cupboards, plants, etc.

For this map, basically all we needed to add was the walls in fringe layer. So here it is.


And the Upstairs map, all I added was the edges around the staircase, so that you appear to walk down the stairs, with a warp just between the pot and the plant to the bottom floor.


Simple enough? On to Fringe 2.

**Step 7 - Fringe 2**

This is one of the most un-used layers, apart from animations, so we aren't going to put a hell of a lot on this layer, Apart from a personal touch, with some custom Edits of my own to make the walls more fluent.


And for the upper floor, The final fringed layer will do the same, however it adds walls on this one because I missed them in fringe 1, oh well.


Now that is the actual Map completed, now to add Attributes and Properties.

**Step 8 - Attributes**

You need to make sure that if you were to have any NPC's, they are able to move freely, but be confined to a certain area. So they don't interrupt other players, or Spawn in an inconvenient place.

The bottom floor was made as follows.


And the top was made like this.


Note the Healing attribute in the bed's, this is so it acts as a place for rejuvenation, or sleeping if you will. The warping Tiles at the stairs should warp you to the same X and Y destination as to where the warp is on the opposite map. This acts so your sprite doesn't move anywhere on the screen, but the Map around it does. The warp out to the real world warps to the entrance of this building, and vice versa for the way in.

If you have read my [Aspects of Mapping](http://www.touchofdeathforums.com/smf/index.php/topic,13225.0.html) tutorial, then you should be reasonably fine when placing attributes. Now, onto the Map properties.

**Step 9 - Properties**

You will not need to connect these maps to any other maps via the map properties warping, because it wouldn't warp to a certain destination, only to the edge of a map. So place some NPC's in, that fit with the house design, I had put an Inn Keeper, Inn Keeper's Wife and an Injured Peasant within the two floors. I just named the house ' Inn', with my actual town name being disclosed for now.

**Step 10 - Saving your Map**

Click the **Save** button in the Map editor, making sure you don't RTE out , with losing your progress…

Now for my maps, I would give them a rating of 7.5/10, Above average - This will give all your maps at least a rating of 7 and above, in a matter of minutes a map that will bring attention is made.

Hope this helps everyone, It was only another Half hour out of my life making this, but I hope this can make many hours of enjoyable mapping in your lives with a finished product worth the time!

**Look forward to more mapping tutorials from me, -[Soljah]-**