So, I have a -few- game development questions. While I was very experienced with RM2k3, and XP -is- very similar, it also allows for sleeker style and whatnot, so I was wondering, what do others generally have their world map sizes at? And, is it common to make a second world map if a current tileset doesn't have the tiles you want if you go to a completely different part of the world you're in?

Also, I'm not an animator or pixel artist, total developer right here, so I don't generally use my own custom sprites. So many of the sprites I've found though are often posted by people who aren't the original artist or the artist is unknown. Should I just say in my credits, 'thank you to the unknown artist' of these and credit the people who i do know and others I've requested from? (Actually, lately I've been thinking its a good idea to give people who actually create art for your game [example, requests for logos, sprites, tilesets etc] not just credits, but partial status as a creator for the game in development.) What is the general standard for crediting other people, especially the unknown?

-Generally map sizes are under 100X100 to reduce lag

-You can put all the tiles you want on one tileset, I don't know the max size but it is very hard to not be able to put a lot of things you want on one tileset (although I do think that if the tileset is quite big it can cause lag)

-I'd say try your best to find the creator of the material you use. It's just common courtesy. If you can't find who did it sometime posting the resource and asking others may help you find the original author. If not...well, then you move deeper into a grey area...at how many resources can you use without giving credit? It also depends on what the original creator wanted. SOME don't care or want credit, some have specifics for using it other than JUST credit. IMO at that point if you have several resources and can't find who made them...it's best not to use them, better safe than sorry and all that.

I think map size really depends on how much you have going on there.
You can probably afford to make larger world maps if you don't have too many events running at the same time, like clouds and stuff.

Would it be a good idea to make a second world map if you intend your world to be very large, and your character goes to a certain area that looks vastly different from where he came? I've just been thinking about it recently because i dont want to use an overly large tileset and map and cause someone who has a slower computer lag. No one wants to describe their game as "ONLY GOOD/FAST COMPUTERS CAN PLAY! NYAH NYAH!" Not everyone spent a thousand dollars to get a computer just for gaming, you know?

Well, the max a map can have is 500 X500 but unless you are planning on not having many events then yea expect some lag. (SOME not a lot but everything adds up)

As for tilesets, I don't know what you have planned in mind but to give you an example of large maps, some have combined all the tilesets that comes with the XP RTP onto one and it runs fine.