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Map Name: Untitled.
Map Game: Fire Red version (sorry, haters. I needed the second overworld map)
Comments: This is the hometown of everyone's favorite ubiquitous Pokémon Trainer for my hack-in-planning. I hope that I will impress an expert tile designer enough at some point to be able to replace these tiles with something more appealing.
Mapshot:
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Oh, and uh... while I'm here,
would someone kindly tell me how to save my map correctly so I can actually open it in the future?
Cheers.
-Lyzák
Since I've seen you around this thread a lot, and helping out the... beginners a lot, figured I'd give you a decent rate and some advice.
First thing, those blue houses. The one to the right has no windows. I see this all the time and truly, it is one of my bigger pet peeves. All "residential" houses should have windows. It also only has a one tile clearance for the player to walk in. You should generally avoid one tile paths. Move the house up a tile. Also, those blue houses are more meant to be used on routes that you don't wanna blow a second tileset on for a more unique house. You can use the red houses to make the same sized house to keep your motif consistent. Just put the roof and first floor from the red house, and you have a better looking town.
The pathing. Now I know that you used the default Pallet Town paths. Lemme tell you this, it's a pain to map with, and I can see that it caused you some difficulty. Might I suggest using another pathing type? There's a similar one in tileset zero that's much easier to map with. Either that, or you could block edit to make the Pallet Town pathing tiles like the ones in tileset 0 so they're easier to work with.
Now for how the paths are actually set up. You should have a pathway leading from the stairs to the route exit. In fact, try to have a path connect to all the stairs and hit all the houses in the town. The path below the player's house should also connect to the path below it.
You beach is quite boring to tell you the truth. There are a few things you can do about that. Bring the mountains in around it a bit so it's a smaller area width-wise is an option. You could have the water erode it a little more also. Beaches really suck to try to make interesting to be honest. You may be able to put a little green in there with clever use of the "sand" path tiles to create a grass patch for a few flowers or a tree jutting out from the ridge.
I notice you have quite a bit of empty space. I'm ignoring the ledge area because you said some sort of orchestra event is happening there. Some things to fill that space:
Trees: I know you said that this was a mountainous area, and I get that. But unless this town has an insanely high elevation, trees would grow there. And since the ocean's right there, I'd say your town's at sea level :P. There are plenty of places that you could put trees to fill up some space. Between the player's house and the lab, in the fenced in garden behind the right house, to the bottom-left of the leftmost house. Blocking off that one tile clearance in that mountain in the middle. Even the corners of the orchestra area. Experiment with tree placement and be careful with the tree shadows when you do. A little greenery goes a long way.
Sporadic Flowers: There are plenty of ways to do flowers wrong. Generally, two flowers diagonal to each other is the most appealing and "safe looking" placement for beginners to use. You could dot flowers elsewhere if you're feeling adventurous, but it's easy to go over the top and cheapen the effect. It takes some practice, just like with "space filling" tree placement, but you'll eventually strike a balance.
Expand the mountains: You could of course expand the mountains to more snugly surround the town and fill the space that way. That fence along the ridge near the beach could be eliminated by moving the ridge up a tile. That space under the leftmost house could be snugly filled by the mountains.
Other Misc. Things I Noticed:
You don't seem to have a sign for the actual town and it's slogan. "Starter Town: Where the player gets their Pokemon!"
The garden area behind the rightmost house doesn't have the most appealing flower placement. Try a default tree back there and then the diagonal placement I suggested earlier around it. Experimenting is key!
Do you really need that big an area for your orchestra? Either way, it is a bit empty. You'd think there'd be maybe raised area for the orchestra to stand on, some greenery behind them to give more aesthetic oomph to their performance. Places for the people to sit and enjoy. I truly don't understand the ridge there, unless they're playing behind that? Either way, making that more interesting-looking will make that event you've planned better.
Your rock placement may be too much. I'm not exactly sure. I'd touch them last if you think they need a change after experimenting a bit.
Random bush is random :P.
I am proud of you for using the right mountain tiles, except for on the beach. The only time you should use the darker mountain ledge is when it's sitting on another mountain. For grass, sand, and everything else, use the lighter ridge. That's the only tile error I can see, but I tend to count windowless houses as tile errors :P.
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Well that's that. I loved the concept, the orchestra sounds interesting, and I think that you're well above where people generally start off with mapping ability. Try out some of my suggestions, experiment and take some risks, and see if you like what comes out! Now go forth and map! :P