Maps lack depth.

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EJlol
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Maps lack depth.

Post by EJlol »

Not sure where to post this, but reid asked me to post it on the forums:
[21:23] <Reid> I can't say you are wrong
[21:23] <Reid> although, post what you said on the forum, it's stupid to say it but apparently tmw forget about it on most of their map
[21:23] <Reid> evol does sometimes too

Image

Many cave maps on tmw look like that. there is no way to figure out the height of the cave. Another example, this time I didn't use a real game example, but you get the idea:

Image

Like i said, it lacks depth. In my opinion every indoor (whether it is a cave, sewer, or a house) map should have at least 1 black tile every x tiles, so that a player always can figure out how high (or low) the ceiling is. This can be done by adding a little bit of wall sections, pillars, etc. For future tilesets it might be a good idea to add some extra tiles that are able to give the map depth. Think pillars, but also variations for the north-south wall tiles (so that it is not a straight line anymore), etc.
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Reid
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Re: Maps lack depth.

Post by Reid »

There is a research of depth in most modern games (2D and 3D), as we are going to fix up some maps it would be interesting to add that concept in practice too.
When you look at most of our cities (and even Artis), maps are pretty flat and lack this depth feeling.

For indoor maps on Artis we used some square-shapped walls and archways that help to recognize the current height and depth of the map.
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For outdoor maps the problem is not much to know the depth of field, but it is to actually give more elevation to some parts (ie: a bad example would be the woodland/Hurnscald area, as the map is just using the same z level, a better example would be Nivalis as the city is featured on two different heights).
"Time is an illusion. Lunchtime doubly so."
-- Ford Prefect
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EJlol
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Re: Maps lack depth.

Post by EJlol »

Some golden sun examples (that game is really one of the most beautiful 2d rpg):

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cave map (big): http://www.vgmaps.com/Atlas/GBA/GoldenSun-GomaCave.png

Notice that wherever you are, you always can see the ceiling, even though they only have a small GBA screen. One difference to keep in mind though, is that since golden sun is a single player game with random encounters, the paths can be smaller since the player actually doesn't need to run around. As a MMORPG with monsters on map, we will need more space to move around, fight, etc. However, our default game window is also bigger than the GBA screen.

village map (big): http://media-minecraftforum.cursecdn.co ... 557173.png

Here you can see how they made good use of cliffs. You can go over/under bridges, walk stairs, etc. Also notice while they do have north/south stairs, they prefer west/east stairs since they give more depth. Same goes for bridges (Im not even sure whether north/south bridges actually even exists in golden sun universe).
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