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W.I.P Forum / AMP01: My Favorite Things
« on: March 14, 2016, 01:38:51 AM »
Edit: Gonna reserve this post as a sort of progress report on AMP01, screenshots will be in the third post as always, but my insight and rants will stay here.
Yeah, I think the map might be a bit too brightly colored, but I really did wanna make a flashy map haha. Anyways, today's progress pic is a simple extension of yesterday's section, with Needle textures to provide a darker contrast to the super bright Astro textures introduced so far. I really don't like having tilesets that clash with each other, so I used a tileset that wasn't too dark but still fit the general palette I was going for.
Okay, that last statement was B.S. but it helps justify using my favorite tileset in the entire game. HSH comes close because the palette is so delicious, but it's not as... I guess, applicable to as many settings as the Needle textures are.
In case you're wondering what's with the daily small updates, let's just say I'm fighting to beat my own version of "The Avatar Project". By the way, I've decided to post the rejected layouts on the 3rd post too since I figured they could be of more use to other mappers. The layouts aren't that amazing, but they could serve as a nice template for other mappers to bounce ideas off of. Gonna post more updates when I get the chance.
March 14 update:
Have you ever had those nights where you're thinking out loud to yourself about certain things and end up with a desperate craving to scream "I still matter in this world" before suddenly being hit with a depressing realization that makes you consider-
Well I have those episodes from time to time, but to help me cope, I'm gonna start trying to teach the community my tricks to mapping in the hopes that I show how mapping can be simple, fun, and rewarding. Today's lesson will be on the thought process on map size/shape. When you first map, it's obvious that you have an idealized vision of what you want your map to look like. More often than not, however, you see maps that feel much larger or smaller than they need to be. This is why it's important to take note of the size of your rooms/corridors/paths so that the player doesn't get lost or feel hopelessly seperated from the action. The general rule of thumb I follow is to use more than 4,000,000 square units of space but less than 16,000,000 square units. Basically, make a map between 2000x2000 and 4000x4000. Of course, you shouldn't try to fit your maps in a square. In fact, I completely discourage that. Make your map shaped like a massive triangle, or like a big circle, or a bunch of large overlapping rectangles. What I've noticed a lot in maps these days is that we tend to fit all our ideas in a big rectangle, and rarely try to break away from that shape because then it feels harder to connect rooms together. This is why I'm a big fan of Shade Guy's MMWTHSH map, because it breaks away from a rectangular mold to produce a layout that is fun and unique to move around.
For my map, I took a few queues from MM3NEE and MMWTHSH to produce a layout that doesn't feel as rectangular as usual, with emphasis on moving between two corners of the map. Of course, my ideas still fit in a 2816x2624 rectangle though, so I guess I'm not great at following my own rules. I promise it will feel refreshing though.
Final exams are finishing up tomorrow, so I likely won't make any posts until Wednesday at the earliest.
March 16 update:
This update isn't as massive as the others in terms of progress, but I do have some neat screenshots to show you. If anyone remembers the mall map Galaxy Sisbro (I still miss you fam) made years ago, and also remember the changes I made to it, then you'll probably remember the unique teleporters I made for them. They worked similar to the teleporters in Rozark's past/future map, but I would argue my teleporters felt more seamless than his.
In any case, I'm gonna start using those kinds of teleporters more often now because they offer less chances of telefrags and let the player keep moving after teleporting. For these new teleporters to work, however, the teleportation lines must parallel to each other. Otherwise, you gotta check some flags to ensure the player keeps their direction, and that causes the player to stop moving for a small second which practically negates the purpose for making these teleporters in the first place. I'll upload a map to the third post that shows the teleporter in action so you can see it and copy it (which I assume Rozark did when you notice the updated version of his past/future map 
I'm stuck on the kind of layout I wanna produce, but hopefully by Friday I can get everything figured out. Then I can move on to item/weapon placement, and finally move on to the next map.
March 17 Update:
Finished up the layout for a room and finally got something super cool coded. Trust me, when you see it in action, it will be pretty trippy. It's gonna be for the southeast corner of the map, and it's gonna be about as pretty and bright as the northwest corner of the map.
The layout should be finished by late Friday or early Saturday. Then comes the items and whatnot.
Yeah, I think the map might be a bit too brightly colored, but I really did wanna make a flashy map haha. Anyways, today's progress pic is a simple extension of yesterday's section, with Needle textures to provide a darker contrast to the super bright Astro textures introduced so far. I really don't like having tilesets that clash with each other, so I used a tileset that wasn't too dark but still fit the general palette I was going for.
Okay, that last statement was B.S. but it helps justify using my favorite tileset in the entire game. HSH comes close because the palette is so delicious, but it's not as... I guess, applicable to as many settings as the Needle textures are.
(click to show/hide)
March 14 update:
Have you ever had those nights where you're thinking out loud to yourself about certain things and end up with a desperate craving to scream "I still matter in this world" before suddenly being hit with a depressing realization that makes you consider-
Well I have those episodes from time to time, but to help me cope, I'm gonna start trying to teach the community my tricks to mapping in the hopes that I show how mapping can be simple, fun, and rewarding. Today's lesson will be on the thought process on map size/shape. When you first map, it's obvious that you have an idealized vision of what you want your map to look like. More often than not, however, you see maps that feel much larger or smaller than they need to be. This is why it's important to take note of the size of your rooms/corridors/paths so that the player doesn't get lost or feel hopelessly seperated from the action. The general rule of thumb I follow is to use more than 4,000,000 square units of space but less than 16,000,000 square units. Basically, make a map between 2000x2000 and 4000x4000. Of course, you shouldn't try to fit your maps in a square. In fact, I completely discourage that. Make your map shaped like a massive triangle, or like a big circle, or a bunch of large overlapping rectangles. What I've noticed a lot in maps these days is that we tend to fit all our ideas in a big rectangle, and rarely try to break away from that shape because then it feels harder to connect rooms together. This is why I'm a big fan of Shade Guy's MMWTHSH map, because it breaks away from a rectangular mold to produce a layout that is fun and unique to move around.
(click to show/hide)
(click to show/hide)
March 16 update:
This update isn't as massive as the others in terms of progress, but I do have some neat screenshots to show you. If anyone remembers the mall map Galaxy Sisbro (I still miss you fam) made years ago, and also remember the changes I made to it, then you'll probably remember the unique teleporters I made for them. They worked similar to the teleporters in Rozark's past/future map, but I would argue my teleporters felt more seamless than his.
In any case, I'm gonna start using those kinds of teleporters more often now because they offer less chances of telefrags and let the player keep moving after teleporting. For these new teleporters to work, however, the teleportation lines must parallel to each other. Otherwise, you gotta check some flags to ensure the player keeps their direction, and that causes the player to stop moving for a small second which practically negates the purpose for making these teleporters in the first place. I'll upload a map to the third post that shows the teleporter in action so you can see it and copy it (which I assume Rozark did when you notice the updated version of his past/future map (click to show/hide)
(click to show/hide)
March 17 Update:
Finished up the layout for a room and finally got something super cool coded. Trust me, when you see it in action, it will be pretty trippy. It's gonna be for the southeast corner of the map, and it's gonna be about as pretty and bright as the northwest corner of the map.
(click to show/hide)
