World map/kingdoms/regions
Posted: 07 Mar 2005, 01:14
Perusing the wiki, I just noticed the map Kyokai placed on the World Development page (http://themanaworld.sourceforge.net/wik ... evelopment). I really think that laying things out that way is a bad idea. Two reasons, both based around realism; first, it's too simple. Not in that it's undetailed, which is to be expected for a basic overview of a world map, but in that it's far too neatly laid out. Abstract, geometrical patterns work in some parts of these sorts of games (for example, the magic system), but for a world map they just convey an artificiality that doesn't read well. The second issue is transport. Laying out a round, flat map with a definite center and opposing magical centers at opposite ends means that a player will eventually reach a point where the legendary land of Nar (the blackness outside a game map) shows it's presence, either explicitly or implicitly (say, an impassable wall containing the whole world). Having to travel from one end to the other suddenly becomes a much more difficult and time-consuming proposition.
The world map, in my opinion, should be laid out realistically; landforms conform to some sort of natural law in that they seem to have been formed by natural proceses, so things are grouped around resource centers, major roadway corridors, and landforms that don't conform to any particular abstract pattern. Also, the map should be laid out as a square, with no "ends." What I mean by this is that, should a player come to the edge of the map as it is displayed, and keep going, they appear at the opposite edge. Rather than walking around on a flat plane, the players are on a sphere. The old SNES RPGs accomplished this quite nicely, although the effect could only be noted when using overmap travel (the Epoch in Chrono Trigger, Flammie in SoM).
The world map, in my opinion, should be laid out realistically; landforms conform to some sort of natural law in that they seem to have been formed by natural proceses, so things are grouped around resource centers, major roadway corridors, and landforms that don't conform to any particular abstract pattern. Also, the map should be laid out as a square, with no "ends." What I mean by this is that, should a player come to the edge of the map as it is displayed, and keep going, they appear at the opposite edge. Rather than walking around on a flat plane, the players are on a sphere. The old SNES RPGs accomplished this quite nicely, although the effect could only be noted when using overmap travel (the Epoch in Chrono Trigger, Flammie in SoM).