Map Showcase and Review Thread

Alright-y, here goes:
The map looks nice, though I think most of the grass patches are a bit too large, Like the one under the caves. The area directly below that feels cramped, with all those trees standing there.

Speaking of trees, the little ones you used directly next to the hills look really bad to me, I don't think it wouldn't be that bad to leave a few patches empty on those.

The sea needs some work as well, it's too empty. I think you should use more than one type of rock for the borders, the rock "circles" on the right side look weird to me as well.

Anyways, I think it'd be better if you posted the individual maps, rather than the regional one... makes it much easier to comment on.


Moving on, it seems like it has been raining on the usually sunny savanna.

Comments are much appreciated! =)

EDIT: Oops, looks like I missed one tree, please ignore the mistake. XD

elarmasecreta said:

Moving on, it seems like it has been raining on the usually sunny savanna.

Comments are much appreciated! =)

EDIT: Oops, looks like I missed one tree, please ignore the mistake. XD

Click to expand...

The layout looks good, but those flat-topped trees look really odd alongside the other two.

What Yami said, the fifference of palette/shading make it awkward, if you can either remove them or adjust the whole map to them it would be cool. (Gen 3's graphic are not my favorite, personally, and I believe many think the same as me. ^^)
As of Armaniac, Imo, your mapping is very good, tough you can still adjust many things following what elarmasecreta suggested. Especially, the ocean and trees, trees look pixelized and zigzag-ish. (I know they're from BW, but they probably not looking very good in a 2D map?)

The ameliorated version of Route 1A

Is there anything else to change?

Uh, first, your grass is over the dirt path, with is really unnatural. Second, you have like no flowers there, all it is are some dirt pathes and grath. Try addimg more cobbinations of flowers, and also some logs, or some more water, even try making it a more rocky setting, since you said the route is near a cave. You can also try adding some flowers between the trees.

Well, here is the starting town in my hack. (I bet you recognize what city it is, originally)
Anyway, I know I have to fix many things I just don't care about graphics as long as I can have something that looks slightly better than 3G games graphics...

Uh, I don't know if you are suppose to show your hack maps, but I think this map looks good, well organized, and I also love the tiles, especially the tree tile! The only bad side is that you are basically copying Viridian City. These tiles look 4th gen, don't you think?

Here's some more maps


Dustard Town


Route 1


Route 2

Dradier234 said:

Uh, I don't know if you are suppose to show your hack maps, but I think this map looks good, well organized, and I also love the tiles, especially the tree tile! The only bad side is that you are basically copying Viridian City. These tiles look 4th gen, don't you think?

Click to expand...

Eh? I don't know what you're talking about exactly, I thought the maps here are from people's hacks >.< ?!
Anyway, my hack's story happens in Kanto, so, yeah, I am only remaking the original maps using anything that looks good to me from HGSS, DP, Platinium and BW/B2W2 and that I can easily "convert" into my own palettes since I am really newbie at this. Thank you for the comment! :]

@polemoner2005, I don't think there is anything reall y to do to improve these maps, they're pretty well done minus a little mistake in a tree in the 3rd map. (the biggest map)
One remark tough, you're wasting a lot of space and memory by using big maps that are mostly filled with trees.

@Pokemoner: I have a few problems with route two. First of, you can cross the map from right to left by without taking a single turn (not very exiting gameplay-wise, wouldn't you say?) The short-cut provided by the ledge is also not that effective, I mean, you'd have to walk through roughly the same amounts of grass.

@Kurapika: If you're interested in rom-hacking, visit the emulation forums, this section is for game developers. Anyway, I'm not really fan of your tiles, the road one particularly hurts my eyes. the two different houses you used also clash. I don't like the way you used the small trees and bushes.

Other than that, the map is decent, though the town seems blocky and artificial to me...

@pokemoner2500

Though I don't have a reputation of being an incredible mapper or anything, I'll point a few things out that as a player, I find dull.

Dustard Town is quite blocky and boring. Everything is squared-out, even house/edifice positions, and there are not many flowers, changes in grass, or rounding-out of trees. It's just a long stretch of same-same-same and not creative. There's also a tile error on the lower part of the path where it's missing a curved part.

As for your routes, they're trees, trees and more trees! Route 1 is squared/blocky like the Dustard. The shrub pots seem out-of-place, too. The path doesn't seem "untamed" enough either, since it's perfectly aligned wherever there is path. Maybe make some diagonal cuts so it looks like it's slowly being eaten away at by grass? Also, I think having top parts of trees hovering over grass looks more realistic. Grass just doesn't stop growing because there's shade!

Both Route 1 and Route 2 have some tree tile errors (sudden cut-off on the sides) and there seems to be a tile with a black speck that shouldn't be there.

For all maps, I suggest adding something other than trees. They're very dull :( Maybe some cliffs? Rocks? Hills? Give the map depth by changing terrain height. Some water wouldn't hurt either; where there's trees, there's probably water anyway, since it's essential to life :)

@pokemoner2000: I agree with Yusshin, lots of content like rocks, tree edges, flowers, cliffs, something more exciting should be added to your math. Dustard Town does look boring, I can see only one yard thing and some houses and gyms. Also, all your maps are really square, I mean, on some maps, players don't mind if its square, but the maps still need a sort of wildness and nature in them!

I have Coppermine to show. Not sure if I've completed it yet, but I'm satisfied (generally) with how it looks atm. I actually think it's my favourite town, apart Lainie Farms (if that counts as a "town").



Noting that it's very rural and fits with the region theme of having bountiful nature (meaning, the wild grass is supposed to be there).

The northern cave will eventually lead to Shelburne in the North-West. The cave behind the "lab" building is where Professor Oak's sister-in-law studies minerals and ores.

Yusshin said:

I have Coppermine to show. Not sure if I've completed it yet, but I'm satisfied (generally) with how it looks atm. I actually think it's my favourite town, apart Lainie Farms (if that counts as a "town").

Spoiler:

the image was here

Noting that it's very rural and fits with the region theme of having bountiful nature (meaning, the wild grass is supposed to be there).

The northern cave will eventually lead to Shelburne in the North-West. The cave behind the "lab" building is where Professor Oak's sister-in-law studies minerals and ores.

Click to expand...

Yes, compared to other maps this town looks fun, especially the beautiful placement of flowers. These are one of the few maps that look good even in FR graphics. However, I don't think I find the descent of the behinds of the cave tiles really soothing. I think this can be called a village instead of a town, due to highly natural land and only a few buildings. I look forward to see this map in new tiles!

My first from-scratch map and the second town in my game (I designed it first because I realised that it didn't have a Trainer School, which will be the main story at the beginning of Pokémon Topaz). Well, here's Kasyko Town:

(This was meant to resemble Aspertia City, but the shadows don't work on Paint so I kept it simple with the FR\LG style)

To the left will be the Kasyko Factories, above will be the Mahogany Ranch, and to the right is Route 17 (the first 16 Routes are in the Sentou Region). At the bottom there will be a small Surfable pond and you'll be able to find a TM there.

EDIT: Sorry about the white line on the map; that will be fixed when it comes to actually mapping in the game.

Rayziken 2 said:

My first from-scratch map and the second town in my game (I designed it first because I realised that it didn't have a Trainer School, which will be the main story at the beginning of Pokémon Topaz). Well, here's Kasyko Town:

(This was meant to resemble Aspertia City, but the shadows don't work on Paint so I kept it simple with the FR\LG style)

To the left will be the Kasyko Factories, above will be the Mahogany Ranch, and to the right is Route 17 (the first 16 Routes are in the Sentou Region). At the bottom there will be a small Surfable pond and you'll be able to find a TM there.

EDIT: Sorry about the white line on the map; that will be fixed when it comes to actually mapping in the game.

Click to expand...

I really like the feel the town has. Some stuff I don't like though is the tree placement, it feels too cubic. The tree shadows are wrong, the red boxes are too close together. (It's ok for them to be like that but perhaps try a different shape, something a bit more like the blue ones) Town looks a bit plain aswell.

oxysoft said:

I really like the feel the town has. Some stuff I don't like though is the tree placement, it feels too cubic. The tree shadows are wrong, the red boxes are too close together. (It's ok for them to be like that but perhaps try a different shape, something a bit more like the blue ones) Town looks a bit plain aswell.

Click to expand...

Thanks; I'll be sure to edit the tree placement when it gets around to making the map, as well as the positions of the red boxes too. Oh, and the shadows was an error on my part; I tried editing it, but it was incredibly hard so I left it there. I'll definitely change it when I get started on actually making the game.

This map looks good, a little plain, but I like how you use different flowers and accessories
to customize that town, not just like a blank blob of some trees and houses.

Rayziken 2 said:

My first from-scratch map and the second town in my game (I designed it first because I realised that it didn't have a Trainer School, which will be the main story at the beginning of Pokémon Topaz). Well, here's Kasyko Town:

the image was here (This was meant to resemble Aspertia City, but the shadows don't work on Paint so I kept it simple with the FR\LG style)

To the left will be the Kasyko Factories, above will be the Mahogany Ranch, and to the right is Route 17 (the first 16 Routes are in the Sentou Region). At the bottom there will be a small Surfable pond and you'll be able to find a TM there.

EDIT: Sorry about the white line on the map; that will be fixed when it comes to actually mapping in the game.

Click to expand...

This is a part of a town, yes?

I can't imagine what you wouldn't do for a better set of tiles. It seems that this kind of mapping style doesn't really fit "in", if you see what I mean. The problem might be that you're not spreading the trees naturally, as they play an important role in sheltering and beautifying the town. I can suggest you expand them in the free spaces available.

Also, the flowers should be placed here and there, along with the occasional rock.

Good luck in your game, though!

★Hoenn★ said:

This is a part of a town, yes?

I can't imagine what you wouldn't do for a better set of tiles. It seems that this kind of mapping style doesn't really fit "in", if you see what I mean. The problem might be that you're not spreading the trees naturally, as they play an important role in sheltering and beautifying the town. I can suggest you expand them in the free spaces available.

Also, the flowers should be placed here and there, along with the occasional rock.

Good luck in your game, though!

Click to expand...

Thanks.

I was thinking about adding more flowers, but I didn't know where to put them. I'll definitely add more soon, though, and more trees. The reason there aren't any at the back is because of the Mahogany Ranch, which will be a huge ranch that lets you capture lots of Pokémon. If it was small it wouldn't look right, so it's going to be a big map. I'll add more to the left, though.