Shak's maps

[Shak404]

Hello there..

Earlier I saw there was Tileset offered to mess with so I couldnt resist.. I had to try.

Now i've done my very first map ever in Tiled, using only the PRO tileset. Let me know what you think and what I should Improve. ^^

 

 

Small things I could improve (but I just don't know how with the current tileset..) is the water egde with seems to change the sand color and the stairs on the rights would need a 'enclosed' botom half to look better..

 

Next one I'll do will probably be a nice fun Route. Like Route 210 in gen 5.

[Fliflo]

It's not perfect but it isn't that bad :Smile:

You have room to improve.

The major thing that you need to work on are the edges

For the sand color you should use directly the "wet" one instead of the "dry"

[Shak404]

I was not expecting it to be perfect. after all it's my very first try and it's all just for fun. =p

I was trying to create some kind of effect with some tiles but it does look kinda weird since they are not made for that. But if you could be more specific about various edges errors that would be great. ^^ ( ofc i'm aware of the stairs to the right of the picture are very weird looking, just like the 'platform' which the town sits on, but was wondering about the rest )

 

About the sand tho. I don't have a dry or wet one. I only have one kind of sand... so I don't really understand what you mean by that?

The only other tile I have ( still from the PRO tileset ) that ressemble sand is the road texture.

( left is what I call the 'road' tile, and to the right is the only sand tile I have )

And that's what I used for that first map I did earlier but the sand color doesnt fit with the sand color of the water edge tiles. and the Road tiles are even wrost looking when right next to the water edge tiles. Am I missing something?

 

[Lylezz]

So the thing is, my first impression of your map was extremely good, but after zooming in and looking at it for a couple more seconds I noticed that it's lacking a lot from a technical standpoint.

 

First of all, what seemed the most apparent to me is that you are having trouble using layers the right way. Pretty much all of the border-tiles you used have a transparent background, which basically requires you to place a layer of ground beneath them. I'm actually curious whether you didn't see that or just don't know how to fix it.

 

Another thing I've noticed is that there's a couple of tiles you seemingly don't understand where to use them on. The grey rocks for example have this white-blueish stroke because they are supposed to be used on water, so that it looks like they're pushing the water aside. Also, the pool you used for the house with the blue roof on the bottom of the map has gras around it, so unless you remove that with Photoshop or something, it shouldn't be placed on ground that is not gras. You also cut the pool off on the upper-right side. To be fair, all that stuff isn't really that easy to realize so you shouldn't be shaming yourself because of these mistakes.

 

The last thing, which seems to be your biggest problem as I see it, is that a lot of stuff on your map just looks extremely unpleasant from an aesthetical point of view. You can't just have this raised flooring for the town part of the map and not close it on the sides. Cutting of stairs doesn't look too good either, especially when the tile you use to cut it off doesn't even make any sense in that place. The same goes for the beach, where the sand just randomly transitions into another color.

 

I took some time to mark the places that I found to be lacking. Take a look at it and maybe you'll be able to find some mistakes you didn't see before. The red rectangles are showing the layer-problem, the blue ones are showing false usage of tiles and the green ones are the aesthetically weird parts of the map. There's some I forgot to flag, but it shouldn't be too big of a deal. If you wish for me to elaborate on any of that, feel free to tell me.

 

 

 

Oh yea, and also if you'd upload the .tmx file, I'd love to do some corrections to show you what it would have taken to fix all these problems.

[Shak404]

-In red- About the 'mountain' layer, I figured that out a bit too late but yeah I was messing around and learning so I actually didnt saw that. I started a new map and got that error out of the way already. ^^

 

-In blue- That's what I was talking about in my previous post, I clearly see the color problem, I just don't see any tile (from the ones provided by the forum) that can fix it?

Only sand tile I have is the one I used on all the beach and only water edge I have are those ones too. and the color don't match?

P.S. I knew about the water rocks, I just wanted to switch it up a bit, but i'll keep myself from doing that in the future.

 

-In green- That's part mistakes, part me not understanding how to achieve certain things and part me trying to be original. =p

For example:

-The small rocks and the little bench that I turned 90degree, that's not right? I guess the shawdow is off when I do that?

-The pool was really just for esthetics (again, just trying to switch things up since there's so little 'town' tile to work with)

-About the 'raised town' and the cutted off stairs, That's really just me, again, trying to achieve some sort of look but can't find the right tiles to close it off properly. :/

-The small tree that has a shadow problem I just didnt know how to fix it. from what I understand, Tiles that can be walk under ( like the top of this tree) need to be on the top layer, so how can I make the shadow go over it? Can actually create a layer on top of the 'top layer.?

- And finally, one thing I really don't understand is how to make the transitions from the 'mountain heights' like here, the lower green rectangle:

Is that even possible to make? Because once Again, I just can't seem to find the tile for it.

 

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I'll edit it later today and post a revised version here. hopefully will less errors this time =p

[Fliflo]

216689 The small tree that has a shadow problem I just didnt know how to fix it. from what I understand, Tiles that can be walk under ( like the top of this tree) need to be on the top layer, so how can I make the shadow go over it? Can actually create a layer on top of the 'top layer.?

In theory you can create as many layers as you want but you should limit yourself to only using four because It maxes your file a lot clearer and it's the right way to do it.

216689 The small rocks and the little bench that I turned 90degree, that's not right? I guess the shawdow is off when I do that?

Generally you should avoid turning tiles because it messes up a lot

216689 And finally, one thing I really don't understand is how to make the transitions from the 'mountain heights' like here, the lower green rectangle:

 

Is that even possible to make? Because once Again, I just can't seem to find the tile for it.

With the PRO basic tileset there is no way to make this right so you should avoid doing those kind of structures.

When doing mountains, you should try to keep it "closed" (I know it's not very clear but I can't find a better word)

[Shak404]

it's clear enough and that's what I tough too. As a '''artist''' I just like to create things so I try everything I can to make it stand out. Obviously that's not always the right choice to make. =p

[Lylezz]

Is that even possible to make? Because once Again, I just can't seem to find the tile for it.

 

Here again, this is not a problem related to tiles, but to layers.

Basically you a two layers for each part of the mountain that laps over another one. Then you can just have the lower one lead into the upper one.

 

This is how it looks when done correctly:

[Shak404]

Alrighty.

And what about the other end on that same image. any way to make it 'fade'?

Should I have simply use stairs to close it off?

[Lylezz]

Well, with this tileset there's basically no options other than not cutting parts like these off at all or adding stairs.

You might wanna find some other tilesets in case you want to keep mapping like that. Some do offer tiles for special cases like yours.