New Forest Town, For whatever the next game I make Options

[LostSamurai]

So, the boredom of my lack of current project led me to create this town today. I'm not really sure what I'm going to do with it yet, but I figured that whenever I feel like working on a new game I'm going to just make some generic maps, or new songs for now. Mapping is my biggest pet peeve in the program, it takes me forever to make a single one, so I figure that when I do decide to start making a game again, I'll at least have some groundwork finished.

This was made using the Forest Town chipset from the RTP, and it was done in about 90 minutes. What do you think? It's really the first town I've ever made with this chipset. There's no backstory to the place whatsoever yet.

This post has been edited by LostSamurai: May 18 2012, 08:09 PM

Attached File(s)

 New_Forest_Town.png ( 1.56MB ) Number of downloads: 139

 

[supercow]

rather than town i think its more like a village
in an out of place like that dont make the grass too smooth (looks like too well tended) , unless its a more sophisticated houses that has a servant that tend the grass everyday
the tree group looks....out of place , maybe theres a way to fix it but i dunno at the moment
maybe make like elevated places/stairs ? so its not all flat ground
a village like that would probably better if theres a river? , cuz population tend to pop near water source
well if its made from original rtp i think its quite good

[LostSamurai]

Technically, every "town" i make is a village. I never make more than like 8 houses to a development.

Unfortunately I don't think there's a way to fix the grass or elevation issues that you mentioned with the RTP. While it is an annoying limitation, it's one that I am okay with. I don't particularly have any desire to move away from the RTP, I'm a big fan of it.

There is actually a water source below the bottom left house. It got cut off though when I made the screenshots.

And I'm not sure what you mean by the tree group, are you referring to the ones by the center house?

This post has been edited by LostSamurai: May 19 2012, 07:29 AM

[Saul95]

Each village, which is thought to be fantasy or medieval, must be structured with the policy. Put identical houses here and the map is not only unsightly but it breaks strongly the feeling of immersion. Defensive walls, an area devoted entirely to the crop, the main square with leading merchants, the part that rich and poor, there is a place of worship, are all things that should be ever present, in more or less more or less compared to their needs. Obviously I'm not saying to follow a course of urban architecture, but sometimes simple is always good reading.

However, the map is lacking in detail, among other things, some houses were poorly constructed.
Furthermore autotile you used to make the leaves of trees, makes evil.

My advice for when you create a map is to imagine yourself in that place, so before you build a map, make sure you know what vai to represent. I take as an example of the village in the forest, before you make it more or less aware of which structures usually have homes, of which materials are made, and also informed about the flora and fauna that are environmental.

[LostSamurai]

I'm honestly not really sure what you're talking about when you say "policy" or "what vai to represent." Could you elaborate more?

There really is no backstory to this town yet as it was not created with any game or story in mind, but I wouldn't consider it really a "town" or "village" or anything really but "some houses that a few people built in a forest." The middle building is going to be a shop, but the rest are going to just be houses that people decided to build in the forest for reasons I'm not sure yet. I tend to focus on the old-fashioned mentality of the world revolving around the player, and so towns exist solely because the main character needs them for some reason. It's not the best mentality, but I am very lazy.

I also don't really understand what you are saying in:

Furthermore autotile you used to make the leaves of trees, makes evil.

All I can say to that is I am limited by the RTP, which I choose to stay with.

Thank you both for your feedback.

This post has been edited by LostSamurai: May 19 2012, 11:22 AM

[Saul95]

Sorry but I can not write well in English.
For "policy" mean by logic.

In my opinion, the first thing to know of any maps, you understand what needs to create and equip themselves with examples from which to learn the logic, before you throw random graphics.

As to the sentence that you did not understand:

Furthermore autotile you used to make the leaves of trees, makes evil

I meant that autotile that you used to simulate the leaves of trees not on that impression.
To me, you'd better have the trees in this way:

I hope you understood what I meant

[LostSamurai]

I understand now. Thank you for clarifying

For the logic part, I try as much as I can to follow some sort of plan or logic, but I'm not sure if I'll ever really be able to get as in-depth with the map creating as you mentioned before. I consider mapping one of my weak points, it's more of a chore to me than a fun part of the game creation. I focus mainly on story and music, but I create the maps myself anyway because it's part of the game and I like the fact that I created them myself.

I like the tree arrangement that you posted, I will give it a try and see if I can pull it off. Thanks

[rewells]

I honestly think the VX RTP tiles just aren't made to make good forests. Trees should be bigger than houses, like the ones above. As to the general mapping, it looks ok, but the tree placement could be a little more random. Even though it's a village, the people who live there would probably want a few trees incorporated into the town's design. Also maybe add some butterflys and other critters to liven it up a little? I think forests are difficult to map. Towns in the middle of forests are always fun in games though! Thanks for posting.

I understand now. Thank you for clarifying

For the logic part, I try as much as I can to follow some sort of plan or logic, but I'm not sure if I'll ever really be able to get as in-depth with the map creating as you mentioned before. I consider mapping one of my weak points, it's more of a chore to me than a fun part of the game creation. I focus mainly on story and music, but I create the maps myself anyway because it's part of the game and I like the fact that I created them myself.

I like the tree arrangement that you posted, I will give it a try and see if I can pull it off. Thanks

[Cleril]

My two cents involves making multiple roads. Having to loop around to get from house to house is going to get real tedious, real fast. And also shove some blank areas in there, if only at the end of the map for a little bit of variety for the eye to look at.

My first suggestion is the only mandatory one, mind you.

[Jonnie19]

I would also suggest making the map smaller too...and then follow Cleril's suggestion, which on first reading might sound contradictory however let me explain:

There are many things that you can do to create a sense of a medium sized village/town without having a large map, perhaps create different area's of the town/village, for example you could use the Center of your current map as your first map, this also means that you can add more details also such as mention by Rewells above. Then perhaps you could create another map for each of the paths leading to different area's, this could either be a small path, which could be made more interesting with battles or some other kind of events, and add moving animals to the events, perhaps chuck in a few NPC's to make the village path seem more alive. This could lead into an opening with a house on it, with the addition of perhaps a stream or some form of water, as you need to consider how such dense a forest would grow without alot of water-fall. Also where would the villagers get their water supply from if you are in a dense forest like the one you mention...

As you can see I have barely mentioned mapping, I have focused more on Eventing and in some respects character development. Now this is a great way to make maps especially town and village maps more exciting without worrying to much on "mapping". Keep asking questions to yourself once you've made the map...
Does this map seem to have dividable sections?
Could each section of the map have more details if I zoomed in, as such?
How does this town/village live, what is the food source what is their water sources.
Another example here was the food source? How would the villagers gain their food? From a Merchant, well you'll need a cart somewhere in your maps, perhaps tie this in with a Shop event, offering food. Or even better create a Market, which then could lead to more questions such as how does the food get to the small village, well that could be a direct dirt road track to a nearby city/town, which would then mean you could create a dirt track, or perhaps sign posts for travellers...this could also spark an event where someone is traveling down the road.... etc etc etc

tldr: Put your writing head on, then think of basic necessities, and also consider making multiple smaller maps, to help create a bigger village atmosphere... and offering up more chance to do the things you love best, eventing developing characters, writing stories etc etc.

[samer95]

very nice, I hink it's creative but my only complaint is that it would take forever to get from one house to another