Help Thread: Map Rating/Review Thread

Kevin · Aug 6, 2010

Rated Map:

Steveice10 said:
Map Name: Underwater City (new)

Map Game: Emerald

Comments: I've completely redone it from scratch and want to know what you think. And the grass has no pokemon data, it's just for decoration.

Mapshot:

Spoiler:

Rating: 2/10
Reason: Underwater towns? Sounds weird. =\ And use block editor to changethe grass under the buildings if you keep up with underwater cities. Also, add more to these mountains. Flat mountains are weird. And tall grass in a city in general is weird.
Suggestions: Remove grass under the buildings. But--an underwater city isn't real cool... Especially the way you map it. The buildings are too bright and make it not look underwater. I suggest making a general above-water city.
P.S. Why rate everything 10/10? Not good feedback.

Map Name: Greenwood Town
Map Game: FireRed
Map Hack: Pokemon Destiny: Legend of Death
Credits: Wesley FG and Kyledove for tiles~ I forgot who the house's tiles owner is VM me if you know...
Comments: I think it's a decent town. I like it, and the sidewalk's shape is pretty good I'm guessing.
Mapshot:

Spoiler:

DuoRyan · Aug 6, 2010

Destiny Demon said:
Rated Map:

Rating: 2/10
Reason: Underwater towns? Sounds weird. =\ And use block editor to changethe grass under the buildings if you keep up with underwater cities. Also, add more to these mountains. Flat mountains are weird. And tall grass in a city in general is weird.
Suggestions: Remove grass under the buildings. But--an underwater city isn't real cool... Especially the way you map it. The buildings are too bright and make it not look underwater. I suggest making a general above-water city.
P.S. Why rate everything 10/10? Not good feedback.

Map Name: Greenwood Town
Map Game: FireRed
Map Hack: Pokemon Destiny: Legend of Death
Credits: Wesley FG and Kyledove for tiles~ I forgot who the house's tiles owner is VM me if you know...
Comments: I think it's a decent town. I like it, and the sidewalk's shape is pretty good I'm guessing.
Mapshot:

Spoiler:

Well I have to say the tree placement is to straight and the mountain placement is very straight as well.
Try to give a constructed shape like curvy and unsquared and try to make the mountain more well mountainous.
Overall I give you a 5\10
just fix up the placement of tree and mountain and give it more shape.

colcolstyles · Aug 6, 2010

Destiny Demon said:
Map Name: Greenwood Town
Map Game: FireRed
Map Hack: Pokemon Destiny: Legend of Death
Credits: Wesley FG and Kyledove for tiles~ I forgot who the house's tiles owner is VM me if you know...
Comments: I think it's a decent town. I like it, and the sidewalk's shape is pretty good I'm guessing.
Mapshot:

Spoiler:

The main thing that irks me about this map (and your previous one) is the lack of features that typically dot most maps. In other words, you don't use any flowers, bushes, rocks, that type of stuff. Furthermore, similar to your other map, this map has nothing special about it. A good map will usually have some unique characteristic that I can remember it by or some cool concept that hasn't been tried yet. But this map doesn't have anything like that or anything that separates it from any other map. It seems like you're aiming for the Nintendo style but this map is overly simple and plain. You should try to spice things up a little, first by adding some of the aforementioned shrubbery. Second, you should try to vary your use of the grass tile. It doesn't look good when you only use one of the four or five that are available to you. Third, the paths are just too straight and uniform in width for my tastes (though this isn't so much of a problem if you're going for the Nintendo feel). There are a number of other, smaller issues (e.g., the tile errors with the trees at the top of the map, the way you used the cave opening, the inconsistency in tile style) but those are the main things. In general, it wouldn't hurt to think a little more "outside-the-box" when mapping. After all, mapping requires a great deal of creativity and without it, all your maps will end up looking the same.

Oh and, as a side note, always save your maps/pixel art in .png format. JPEGs always look bad.

Luck · Aug 6, 2010

I'm bored.
No rating from me, they seem too objective. I'm not going to say one map is better than another just because it has a higher rating. I certainly hope no one has a problem with that.

Scytha said:
Map Name: Serenity Village

Map Game: Fire Red

Comments: I changed some palettes, and got rid of the green grass. (although not entirely). The water is part of a lake, and It's not a water route. And to be honest, I don't really like those flowers much......

Mapshot:

Spoiler:

It's not really that good. The map is dominated by sand paths and the rest of the map suffers because of it. It's also filled with many tile errors, especially tree shading errors. The fence just seems unnecessary and the 2 solitary bushes make no sense. The flowers are in one spot, and it can't really be helped when the sand paths are in the rest of the map. The one tile paths are just annoying, I'd suggest to not have them at all in towns, especially when they're right in front of sign posts. The palettes aren't really the best as you changed the grass and tree palettes. The sand paths and houses don't fit in as much with those palettes, but I guess it's acceptable.

Make the sand paths smaller, add more flowers, fix the tile errors, make the map more open at the one tile wide paths, and it's not necessary, but you should make the palettes work with the sand paths more.

ase said:
Map Name: Unnamed
Map Game: Fire red
Credits: Disturbed
Comments: Just a practice map.
Map shot:

Spoiler:

Oh my, this certainly is a square map. I can't really say anything about this that wasn't already said in the first sentence. This is a town and not a city, so putting the houses in such an ersatz is a no-no, especially to this degree. Spread the flowers out more, make that cave at least seem like it has a purpose, and please fix the borders. Make the trees continue off of the map, the border tiles should fix it.

Just don't make it feel completely artificial and give it some shape.

Chaos190 said:
Map Name: MT. Pallet
Rom Base: Ruby
Credits: Reck and Banjora
Comments: Well I posted another map that wasn't rated so, I already updated it, so might as well post the better version of the map. Please give my map a rating and hit with your best shot because I will improve it.

It's um…small. The houses don't really fit that much with the tiles. The one tile wide stairs are irritating and so is the one tile path to the lower house. I'm pretty sure the tiles of the small trees against the mountains are tile errors. And the mountain follows itself too much.

Change the houses, fix the tile errors, and please don't make one tile wide paths.

Resultz said:
Name: Northwest Route 1
Game: Hyacinth
COmments: You enter at the bottom. Top left route leads to a bypass of the next town. Top right and center leads to the next town. In the middle is a forest dungeon.
Here's your spoiler...

Spoiler:

Both halves of the map are certainly missing something that makes them really nice looking. The bottom half doesn't really have flowers that are spread out over it. The mountain just looks like it's there for the lulz and the lake is similar, although it should have lake tiles. The house looks just as pointless as the mountain. The top half is just missing something that makes it look more diverse. It's somewhat of a big fault, to me at least.

SephirothX said:
Map: Destiny Cave (working title)
Hack: Iolite (not enough progress to post on PC yet...)
ROM Base: Ruby (U) [AVXE]
Comments: It's an ice maze. I LOOOOOOVE making ice mazes. This one is the most difficult I've done so far. (Ignore Groudon, he's a placeholder for a different Pokémon. ^^)

Spoiler:

And a screenie, 'cuz the full map doesn't show the fog, or how little of the maze you can actually see on-screen in the game. ^^

It certainly is hard to navigate. When making an ice puzzle you have to remember that you need to give the players a small spot for a break. The mountain border also looks terribly linear for something like an ice cave.

Fix the mountain shape and put some small floor patches so the player can have a break. It looks irritating otherwise.

Destiny Demon said:
Map Name: Route 301
Map Game: FireRed
Comments: This map I made for fun. Credits to Kyledove and Alucus for tiles ~
Mapshot:

Spoiler:

It's extremely empty. The sand paths are pretty big and I don't know how much people actually like when that happens. I have a lot of trouble rating maps that don't have much happening in them, so this is the most I can do for this map.

Add some flowers to make the map more vivid, after slightly thinning the sand paths of course.

Destiny Demon said:

Map Name: Greenwood Town
Map Game: FireRed
Map Hack: Pokemon Destiny: Legend of Death
Credits: Wesley FG and Kyledove for tiles~ I forgot who the house's tiles owner is VM me if you know...
Comments: I think it's a decent town. I like it, and the sidewalk's shape is pretty good I'm guessing.
Mapshot:

Spoiler:

Click to expand...

Ugh, fat sand paths again. The gym and house feel too out of place and it lacks flowers. The mountains are incredibly organized, and I don't know why, but I have a problem with "one tile wide" mountains, they just don't fit in any maps PERSONALLY. The sand paths don't go up to the houses despite being so big, and those one tile wide paths yet again. I know it shouldn't be much of a problem, but it's just a pet peeve.

Fix the paths, add something to make the map more vivid, and use more fitting tiles please.

If I didn't rate your maps, I most likely have a reason to.

Kevin · Aug 6, 2010

Reviewed Map:

Resultz said:
Name: Northwest Route 1
Game: Hyacinth
COmments: You enter at the bottom. Top left route leads to a bypass of the next town. Top right and center leads to the next town. In the middle is a forest dungeon.
Here's your spoiler...

Spoiler:

Review: This isn't that bad... It reminds me a whole lot like that route west of Petalburg though. I dunno why. And that house in the middle of nowhere seems out of the blue. You flower placement isn't that bad though. But what I don't like--the fact that the big trees isn't part of that forest, and the small trees are the forest. You should switch it. =P And that mountain is really random.
Suggestions: Switch the big trees with small trees and vise versa. Also, Add more stuff to the route. The empty space could have more tall grass/flowers. Replace that mountain also with trees.

Map Name: Rosaceus Town
Map Game: FireRed
Comments: I thought of what you guys said, so here, a new map. I hope it is better. I actually tried on this map. =P
Mapshot:

Spoiler:

pkmntrainerpaul · Aug 7, 2010

Destiny Demon said:
Reviewed Map:

Review: This isn't that bad... It reminds me a whole lot like that route west of Petalburg though. I dunno why. And that house in the middle of nowhere seems out of the blue. You flower placement isn't that bad though. But what I don't like--the fact that the big trees isn't part of that forest, and the small trees are the forest. You should switch it. =P And that mountain is really random.
Suggestions: Switch the big trees with small trees and vise versa. Also, Add more stuff to the route. The empty space could have more tall grass/flowers. Replace that mountain also with trees.

Map Name: Rosaceus Town
Map Game: FireRed
Comments: I thought of what you guys said, so here, a new map. I hope it is better. I actually tried on this map. =P
Mapshot:

Spoiler:

Rating: 8/10
Reason: This map is really nice, but I think you've used too much flowers around the water. Also, try making a flower path more diagonally, not in squares like the flowers next to the gym.

Map Name: Silver Valley
Map Game: Pokemon Supreme Command (Fire Red)
Comments: The starting town of my hack.
This town lies in Mt. Silver.
Credits to Manipulation for the Rom Base
Mapshot:

Spoiler:

Scytha · Aug 7, 2010

Spoiler:

I like the tiles and the concept, but the houses are bugging me. They shoud be closer to the mountains behind them.

I've edited my map:

Spoiler:

Drithlan · Aug 7, 2010

Reviewed Map:

Cynder The Bloody Angel said:
My map
Map Name: Portea City
Map Game: Dawn Star -Ruby Hack-
Comments: the 2nd gym city if my hack

Review: The Concept is a good one. As well are the tiles. But the trees are too uniform for my tastes, and I'm not dogging the scrunched up houses. Also Shouldn't the Gym have a Sign Letting you know which building it is?
Rating: I give this map 7/10
Suggestions: Spread out the trees a little. Maybe make the map its self bigger. And bulk up them houses.

My Map:
Map Game: FR
Comments: All these maps were Created with Default Tiles Except for like 8 I edited to look better.

Map Name: Forest Sanctuary

Spoiler:

Map Name: Sanctuary Entrance

Spoiler:

Map Name: Starter Island Route 1

Spoiler:

Map Name: Starter Island Town

Spoiler:

Map Name: Starter Island Ferry Service

Spoiler:

pkmntrainerpaul · Aug 7, 2010

Drithlan said:
Reviewed Map:

Map Name: Starter Island Ferry Service

Spoiler:

Comments:
This is your exit off Starter Island. You talk to the man on the Dock and away you go.
Mapshot:

It's a really nice map, but I wonder how you're doing the border block with this map.
I really like the shape of the path, altough it's a bit wide.
Also, the idea of a Ferry Service is great!

9/10, Great map!

I'm reposting my earlier posted map, since I updated it:
Map Name: Silver Valley
Map Game: Pokemon Supreme Command (Fire Red)
Comments: The starting town of my hack.
This town lies in Mt. Silver.
Credits to Manipulation for the Rom Base
Mapshot:

Spoiler:

Drithlan · Aug 7, 2010

pkmntrainerpaul said:
It's a really nice map, but I wonder how you're doing the border block with this map.
I really like the shape of the path, altough it's a bit wide.
Also, the idea of a Ferry Service is great!

9/10, Great map!
[/SPOILER]

This is what I use as the border:

I have the edges of the walkable/surfable areas near the water just far enough so you can't see the border.

As for the path I plan on slimming it down.

Super Ultra Mega Charizard · Aug 7, 2010

HackDeoxys said:
Rated map:

Rating: 6/10
You have the right idea with this map, but there are a few things that bug me. I can't imagine why the grass would be there, even though you said it's there for a reason. And a gym without a door? Please! Who builds a bulding without a door? And last, there's a mini fence that prevents you from reading the gym sign. Bad idea.
__________________________________________
Now for my map:

Map Name: Moon Village
Map Game: Pokemon ShadowStone (Fire Red)
Comments: The starting town of my hack
Credits to WAH for the tiles.
Warning, big map.

Spoiler:

Please be honest but not harsh.[/QUOTE
Rating: 1/10
Comments: It's full of tile errors! and a ledge at the front of the stairs!?
Also, there shouldn't be that many flowers!
And the palettes are horrible!
Suggestions: Fix the palettes, fix the tile errors...fix the MAP!

Kevin · Aug 7, 2010

Reviewed Map:

HackDeoxys said:
Now for my map:

Map Name: Moon Village
Map Game: Pokemon ShadowStone (Fire Red)
Comments: The starting town of my hack
Credits to WAH for the tiles.
Warning, big map.

Spoiler:

Please be honest but not harsh.

Review: I don't want to rate this one.): For several reasons. It would be harsh, which you don't want. Anyways, the palettes are horrific, but it's the mapping that needs to be rated, no? Alright, first off, those houses can't be combined to make the width more wider. It just doesn't work like that. Or people will say; Tile Error. And that flower paradise seems out of place, no? And random small trees...): The palettes make those trees look weird. It's a real eye-sore. Change the palettes. And the mountains, the way you map it makes it look fake, because to make it look more real you need to make one mountain, and another on the top. You made it so that there's a mountain is floating, because the left side of that mountain where that ultra wide house is making it look bad.): I actually see more, but this review is already long. So I'll move to the suggestions.
Suggestions: Make it look more real, by adding making a bottom holding to that mountain which is partly floating in the air.): Fix the palettes. Don't make the houses bigger by making it wider, which makes tile errors. Find some other houses. Oh... That bridge....Is not needed. Fix it to stairs. Remove a whole lot of flowers in that mini-paradise.

Resultz · Aug 7, 2010

@HackDeoxys.

Review: while i like the tiles, and to an extent the pallettes, theres many tile errors, such as your house rearrangement. it doesnt work like that.
Your mountains are also very strange. You need to make a complete 'loop' for each level, either having the two ends join up with each other or go off the map, otherwise it makes the mountains float, which is a no-no.

Also putting too many flowers like that near each other kinda makes eyes bleed.

Rating: 3/10 - you need to concentrate on fixing the tile errors. Without those errors i'd give 6/10

-------------------------------

Mine:
Griteloupe(grit loop) town:
Pokemon Hyacinth

Comments: this is supposed to be bland and quite boring, as its the pass through town at the beginning of the game.the bottom connects to my other map(the big one with the forest in the middle)

Spoiler:

colcolstyles · Aug 7, 2010

HackDeoxys said:
Map Name: Moon Village
Map Game: Pokemon ShadowStone (Fire Red)
Comments: The starting town of my hack
Credits to WAH for the tiles.
Warning, big map.

Spoiler:

Please be honest but not harsh.

Since you asked for someone to point out your tile errors and I was just sitting around refreshing my User CP anyway, I decided to circle all the tile errors that I could find.

Spoiler:

icychill66 · Aug 8, 2010

Resultz said:
@HackDeoxys.

Mine:
Griteloupe(grit loop) town:
Pokemon Hyacinth

Comments: this is supposed to be bland and quite boring, as its the pass through town at the beginning of the game.the bottom connects to my other map(the big one with the forest in the middle)

Spoiler:

Rating: 5/10

Reason: To me, this map is very average. I understand that it's supposed to be a beginning-of-the-game map, but it can use some tweaking. The reason I think it's very average is because of the house placement, path design, and tree layout.

Suggestions: First of several things, the house placement seems a little weird. Notice how everything is in a somewhat vertical line? Perhaps, switching the Pokecenter with the house with no doors and moving the bottom-right house to the upper-left side of the middle path would yield a better spread of the buildings. By the way, I disagree with Altariaking about the house having no door. Nearly every city in Pokemon games has houses with no doors, and I feel it fits just fine in this map. Secondly, I believe that the use of long rows of small trees is messy. Try not to combine the two types of trees so much. On the right side entrance, those two strings of small trees shouldn't be there, in my opinion. Just slide the regular trees over 1 tile. To finish off, the paths running through the town are also messy. Paths tend to look best when they are a uniform width. Also, they look better when they don't make many turns. Try making all the paths 3 tiles wide and see if that cleans it up a bit.

altariaking · Aug 8, 2010

HackDeoxys said:

Rated map:

Rating: 6/10
You have the right idea with this map, but there are a few things that bug me. I can't imagine why the grass would be there, even though you said it's there for a reason. And a gym without a door? Please! Who builds a bulding without a door? And last, there's a mini fence that prevents you from reading the gym sign. Bad idea.
__________________________________________
Now for my map:

Map Name: Moon Village
Map Game: Pokemon ShadowStone (Fire Red)
Comments: The starting town of my hack
Credits to WAH for the tiles.
Warning, big map.

Spoiler:

Please be honest but not harsh.

Click to expand...

Rating: 2/10

Reason: There are tile errors, literally, everywhere. and those flowers shouldn't be together like that, also there's gonna be border errors.

Suggestions:Try and fix the tile errors, border errors, and get rid of those flowers

Map Name: Route D
Map Game: DarkGrey (Ruby)
Credits: First post of my hack (Currently undergoing acceptance)
Comments: Third route in my hack
Map:

Spoiler:

Alice · Aug 8, 2010

Resultz said:
okay, path design and tree layout i see your point.
those strings of small trees arent very visually appealing..

the house layout is intentional however. if you lived in the UK youd understand, as most small towns and villages in the UK are Linear, (based around one road)
that will stay like that, but ill post an improved version with different tree and path layouts sometime.

There are plenty of small towns that are just on one street in the US too. Especially in my area. Regardless of that though, you shouldn't base your map on real life. You should base it on what looks good. (Unless it has some special importance in your hack I guess, but still... very rarely would I sacrifice good mapping for functionality. Edit: I'm not talking about playability when I say functionality.)

(I kind of considered this an addition to his review, but delete I guess since you deleted his.)

Mr.Silver · Aug 8, 2010

altariaking said:
Rating: 2/10

Reason: There are tile errors, literally, everywhere. and those flowers shouldn't be together like that, also there's gonna be border errors.

Suggestions:Try and fix the tile errors, border errors, and get rid of those flowers

Map Name: Route D
Map Game: DarkGrey (Ruby)
Credits: First post of my hack (Currently undergoing acceptance)
Comments: Third route in my hack
Map:

Spoiler:

Rating: 7/10
Not really a fan of the tree sprites, and it seems a little square, but i like the overall shape, If anything, you should make the grass a little more random and MABYE break up the mounds, they dont have to all be connected.Im also not a fan of 1 tile paths (makes me feel like im being directed in a certain direction). But ill give you bonus points for the tiles.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Map name: Abanonded lab
Game: Firered
Comments:This is for pokemon evanesce, it started out as concept arts on peices of paper and eventually it became this.
Credits: Myself for tile insertion and making the destroyed equipment.Nintendo for tiles.

Spoiler:

DrFuji · Aug 9, 2010

altariaking said:
Map Name: Route D
Map Game: DarkGrey (Ruby)
Credits: First post of my hack (Currently undergoing acceptance)
Comments: Third route in my hack
Map:

Spoiler:

Review: While you've got some nice tiles, the way in which you've used them isn't the greatest. There are numerous one-tile paths in your map (Especially on the right hand side) which really detract from the rest of the map, and is in complete contradiction to the lovely open spaces you have at the top.

I also notice that you might not be able to use your tall grass tiles on the top edges of mountains, which results in an easy path for the player to take and avoid the wild Pokemon. This should be resolved so the player has to do some work at the top of the map :P

Suggestions: Widen up the paths the player is forced to take - You have 4 and 2 trees width left over on each side of the map so use it and open it up! To stop the player from avoiding your grass, use some trees, feces, rocks (whatever) to block their access to the open space.

Mr.Silver said:
Map name: Abanonded lab
Game: Firered
Comments:This is for pokemon evanesce, it started out as concept arts on peices of paper and eventually it became this.
Credits: Myself for tile insertion and making the destroyed equipment.Nintendo for tiles.

Spoiler:

Spoiler:

Review: ~~Superstar Saga?~~ I think you have carried out this idea well and your destroyed equipment tiles look very nice and fit in well with the map. I can only really see two reasons to criticise this map, and that is the use of your alternating floor tiles and the door in the first map.

Whilst the random use floor tiles give the maps a dark, eerie and dilapidated feeling, your 'splotches' of white tiles really contrast with the dark ones and don't really blend in as they are squares that jump out at you. Creating a more jagged and random outline for some of the lighter tiles will really improve the essence of the maps. The wall tiles around your door in the first map are different to the other wall tiles used :P

Suggestions: Have a play around with creating jagged outlines/shapes for the lighter tiles and fix the door's wall. I'm very sorry that I seemed to be focusing on the tiles, but I can't really fault the maps - They are what they are and I don't see anything wrong with them :)

Drithlan · Aug 9, 2010

Resultz said:
@HackDeoxys.

Review: while i like the tiles, and to an extent the pallettes, theres many tile errors, such as your house rearrangement. it doesnt work like that.
Your mountains are also very strange. You need to make a complete 'loop' for each level, either having the two ends join up with each other or go off the map, otherwise it makes the mountains float, which is a no-no.

Also putting too many flowers like that near each other kinda makes eyes bleed.

Rating: 3/10 - you need to concentrate on fixing the tile errors. Without those errors i'd give 6/10

-------------------------------

Mine:
Griteloupe(grit loop) town:
Pokemon Hyacinth

Comments: this is supposed to be bland and quite boring, as its the pass through town at the beginning of the game.the bottom connects to my other map(the big one with the forest in the middle)

Spoiler:

Review: I love the multi paths you have going through this map. That along with the pallet Makes me want to play LoZ for some reason.. My only two problems with this map are the layout of the 3 buildings on the right. and the layout of the trees. They are too uniform. Uniformed trees are only good in specific situations, in my opinion.

Rating: I give this map a 7/10.

Suggestions: Randomize the tree layout and adjust the 3 buildings on the right wall and this would be an 89 or 9

My Maps:
Map Game: FR
Comments: These maps were mainly made with Default Tiles. I plan on re doing the tiles as soon as I learn how to.

Map Name: Route 2 (To the mainland!)

Spoiler:

Map Name: Unnamed (Second Town / First Gym)

Spoiler:

If there's any problem with this post please PM me to correct it before deciding to delete. Thanks.

Help Thread: Map Rating/Review Thread

kevin del rey

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kevin del rey

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mass effect freak

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kevin del rey

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Yours truly

Needs NO VMs...

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[I]Heiki Hecchara‌‌[/I]

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