anyway here's my map in the attachments, Im not planning to use it in a hack I just want to see how good a mapper I am and know what I can improve on.
Map Name: Route AB
Map game: None :0
Review: While this seems like a nice map, I think that there are a few issues that are preventing it from reaching its full potential.
First up, your mountainous area has a large number of tiles errors, moctly stemming from how you have constructed the mountains. look at the 'centre bump' on the lower part of the mountain - If you look carefully you can see that by stacking one layer on top of another the ridge of the lower layer is removed. I'd advise you to go over this mountainous region and redo the blocks that have been incorrectly placed. In addition, make sure that your border is correct, as I fear that if you look to the right of the mountains in-game is will be messed up (provided you are using the 4x4 tress as your border).
I'm slightly confused as to your tall grass placement - Don't you have two tiles that have tall grass and the large treetops? By having those two tiles it would make your tall grass patches look much better (as they'd be complete) and it would prevent a player from taking a shortcut by walking in the tree line and skipping the bulk of the tall grass.
The small trees jutting out in random places aren't really appealling as they block the player's path through the route. Finally, the large open area just below the opening to the mountainous area doesn't seem to have any reason to exist :/
Suggestions: Clean up the tile errors around your mountain while ensuring that your border is correct in-game. If you don't have the tall grass tiles I mentioned earlier, make them and place them in the appropriate areas of your map. Do something with the opening to the mountainous area.
Its a decent map, but I believe it could be better with those alterations :D
comments: overall, decent-good map. all i have to say is that things seem to0 perfectly aligned, look up neti's natural tutorial, but thats about it. maybe a bit more decorations too(flowers, small trees).
I'd have to disagree on the assumption that having trees 'perfectly alligned' is a feature that mappers should steer away from. I think that the trees look wonderful the way they are and simply make the map easier to work with.
Map name: Route 2(first half)
Map Game: Pokemon Peridot(temp.)Firered base
Mapshot: see attachment
Comments: well first id like to comment on the tiles, i just learned the tree and grass were kyledove's but the small tree was made by me to match them and i made this map before i could change them so, sry. but this is the first half of route 2 (havent finish part 2). pretty much you enter from the right, either go up or down, and end up at the building that takes you to the first gym. going further left into the mountains would be blocked by police OWs until you finish all events at the first badge.
Review: Dear God, you have a lot of empty space on the left-hand side of the map, don't you :P
Your map has the two movement permission extremes - A large open area (up to 12+ blocks wide in some cases) and numerous 'one-tile paths' of the wooded area. The large and empty can be disorienting for a player (as they can only see so far) and to be quite honest, is quite boring. Even if you were to have trainers, NPCs and the like, it wouldn't prevent the surrounding landscape from feeling like a chore to cross :D
The wooded area is claustrophobic compared to the first half of the route - Transitioning from an extreme really doesn't make your map to good. I know that you like to keep your map 'natural', but that shouldn't prevent you from giving the player a greater freedom of mobility in some areas. There are numerous times where the player will have to pass through a single tile in order to progress, which is indicative of a lack of mobility.
The tile with the generic rock over the regular rocky ground is being used in correctly in some areas. On the lower mountain it is being used instead of a mountain 'ridge' (the centre-top of your classic 3x3 mountain configuration in A-Map) when it should be used in the centre of the mountain. Did you forget to put in flowers throughout the map, or were the none on your base? Put some in to bring some colour to the map :P
Suggestions: Ensure that your map has a general width throughout which is not too wide or narrow, as it will give the player a sense of direction while ensuring that they still have a degree of freedom in terms of their movement (4-6 tiles widths should be where your are aiming). Liven up the left-hand side of the map - Where are the large trees? The small trees? The flowers? Use anything you can thing of to remove the overwhelming sense of emptiness. Make sure that player isn't restricted in terms of movement in some of your built-up areas.