Help Thread: Map Rating/Review Thread

[Le pug]

I uploaded your picture if you don't mind

Spoiler:

Your map is too empty oyou should try to add more tiles to help you. Also the paths seem to straight? I would make them look more natural...Another thing is to try using other types of houses, It looks weird, But other than that your pretty good at mapping just remember to make your maps more natural :)

---

Here is my map, I like to go by the rule of "Make a map you would want to play" And I ended up with this :P

Spoiler:

My review:

Spoiler:

I like the tiles, tile placement, and colors. Not much more to say. This map is flawless. Love the overworld sprites too everything so good i love it. wow. Good job. 10/10

Alright for my review, I just need a review on it and what I should change if anything.
I'm not looking for a review on this part but this the exterior of the building:
The big building is the one

Spoiler:

Alright so these are the levels. You have to run around in the dark. Flash usable, but not yet obtained so it'll be fun. I'll be throwing in a new type of fakemon too (sorry fakehaters) but it'll add to the map trust me and I'll also be throwing in a couple of scare tactics... shadows running past you or stuff jumping out at you.. it'll be a good time. I haven't laid down any of the events yet just making the basic layout let me know what I should do to improve if need be.

First Level:

Spoiler:

Second Level: (yes those are holes you can fall in, and let me tell you something when you don't have flash you only have three tiles in diameter ... so moving too fast, you're gonna fall. one of the many things i try to implement ... a way around speed players > : D )

Spoiler:

Spoiler:

 

[Maglor]

Alright so these are the levels. You have to run around in the dark. Flash usable, but not yet obtained so it'll be fun. I'll be throwing in a new type of fakemon too (sorry fakehaters) but it'll add to the map trust me and I'll also be throwing in a couple of scare tactics... shadows running past you or stuff jumping out at you.. it'll be a good time. I haven't laid down any of the events yet just making the basic layout let me know what I should do to improve if need be.

First Level:

Spoiler:

Second Level: (yes those are holes you can fall in, and let me tell you something when you don't have flash you only have three tiles in diameter ... so moving too fast, you're gonna fall. one of the many things i try to implement ... a way around speed players > : D )

Spoiler:

Spoiler:

First of all, your guide is VERY helpful. Although I haven't succeeded yet due to revising for my exams, the pallete method you have explained pretty much solves everything I've been struggling with. And the expansion of tiles available... I didn't even know that existed. Love it.

Now, to your map review. I really want to test this out when done. As I am still a niblet in mapping, my rating would not be professional, but hey, any feedback is... some kind of feedback.

I really like the concept, and the tiles used fit perfectly. I'm a big fan of the uhm, darker side of pokemon. Mystery, shadows running around as mentioned. I wish to try this map out when it is finished. 9/10. It even eliminated my hate for fakemon and general dungeons with encounters that slow you down.

Now here's my map. This is pre-usingyourepicguidefortileinsertion, so it might come off as a bit boring. However, posting this is pretty much for me to understand what people want in a map, so I'll give it a go. It is nothing but a redesign of the second town. Scripts and such have remained pretty much the same except text as it must fit the plot.

Spoiler:

 

[~Justified~]

First of all, your guide is VERY helpful. Although I haven't succeeded yet due to revising for my exams, the pallete method you have explained pretty much solves everything I've been struggling with. And the expansion of tiles available... I didn't even know that existed. Love it.

Now, to your map review. I really want to test this out when done. As I am still a niblet in mapping, my rating would not be professional, but hey, any feedback is... some kind of feedback.

I really like the concept, and the tiles used fit perfectly. I'm a big fan of the uhm, darker side of pokemon. Mystery, shadows running around as mentioned. I wish to try this map out when it is finished. 9/10. It even eliminated my hate for fakemon and general dungeons with encounters that slow you down.

Now here's my map. This is pre-usingyourepicguidefortileinsertion, so it might come off as a bit boring. However, posting this is pretty much for me to understand what people want in a map, so I'll give it a go. It is nothing but a redesign of the second town. Scripts and such have remained pretty much the same except text as it must fit the plot.

Spoiler:

4/10
I like your concept, but I'm going to be honest with you, your map feels somewhat empty. It's missing some things, and has some tile errors. Rather than making the water strictly rectangular, I'd suggest making it more like a real-life body of water, with a less-square shape. The building in the top right corner is not something I would suggest using, as it is rather dull. It also looks to familiar to viridian city, you didn't change much in it. You should add more foliage, and spread it out too. There is also a problem with the building in the bottom right corner of your map, you used the wrong roof and it's missing the sides and a door. I would recommend adding more detail to your map, and instead of just changing tilesets and adding a bridge w/water, make it yours, use your imagination to create a city of your own, it resembles Viridian City way too much.

I have two maps here for review:

Map #01
Map Name: Seaside Village
Original Map: Pallet Town
Notes: I was trying for a small village next to the sea, there's two houses, a forest entrance, and a berry shop with some crates and flowers. Let me know what you think!:)

Spoiler:

Map #02
Map Name: Route 41 - North
Original Map: Route 21 (FireRed)
Notes: It's supposed to be small, but I was trying for a small secluded area as the transition from City-to-Route. Let me know what you think of this one too!:)

Spoiler:

 

[Flugmerkur]

4/10
I like your concept, but I'm going to be honest with you, your map feels somewhat empty. It's missing some things, and has some tile errors. Rather than making the water strictly rectangular, I'd suggest making it more like a real-life body of water, with a less-square shape. The building in the top right corner is not something I would suggest using, as it is rather dull. It also looks to familiar to viridian city, you didn't change much in it. You should add more foliage, and spread it out too. There is also a problem with the building in the bottom right corner of your map, you used the wrong roof and it's missing the sides and a door. I would recommend adding more detail to your map, and instead of just changing tilesets and adding a bridge w/water, make it yours, use your imagination to create a city of your own, it resembles Viridian City way too much.

I have two maps here for review:

Map #01
Map Name: Seaside Village
Original Map: Pallet Town
Notes: I was trying for a small village next to the sea, there's two houses, a forest entrance, and a berry shop with some crates and flowers. Let me know what you think!:)

Spoiler:

Map #02
Map Name: Route 41 - North
Original Map: Route 21 (FireRed)
Notes: It's supposed to be small, but I was trying for a small secluded area as the transition from City-to-Route. Let me know what you think of this one too!:)

Spoiler:

Nothing showed up for me...

 

[~Justified~]

Nothing showed up for me...

Not sure why, it's working just fine for me...Did u open the spoilers?

 

[Flugmerkur]

Not sure why, it's working just fine for me...Did u open the spoilers?

Yes I did. They expand, but nothing is displayed.

 

[Le pug]

4/10
I like your concept, but I'm going to be honest with you, your map feels somewhat empty. It's missing some things, and has some tile errors. Rather than making the water strictly rectangular, I'd suggest making it more like a real-life body of water, with a less-square shape. The building in the top right corner is not something I would suggest using, as it is rather dull. It also looks to familiar to viridian city, you didn't change much in it. You should add more foliage, and spread it out too. There is also a problem with the building in the bottom right corner of your map, you used the wrong roof and it's missing the sides and a door. I would recommend adding more detail to your map, and instead of just changing tilesets and adding a bridge w/water, make it yours, use your imagination to create a city of your own, it resembles Viridian City way too much.

I have two maps here for review:

Map #01
Map Name: Seaside Village
Original Map: Pallet Town
Notes: I was trying for a small village next to the sea, there's two houses, a forest entrance, and a berry shop with some crates and flowers. Let me know what you think!:)

Spoiler:

Map #02
Map Name: Route 41 - North
Original Map: Route 21 (FireRed)
Notes: It's supposed to be small, but I was trying for a small secluded area as the transition from City-to-Route. Let me know what you think of this one too!:)

Spoiler:

Yes I did. They expand, but nothing is displayed.

Check out the above quote from the post.. I fixed the links for you or you can visit them in their respective order here:
First pic: https://i.imgur.com/XwFzg4y.png
Second pic: https://i.imgur.com/R2nAwzI.png

Next time you're running into a problem like this, probably best to VM or PM the author of the post or even a mod in order to keep the quick "idk what happened" chats out of the actual page.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ my review:

Spoiler:

With that said, for map #1 I feel that the little rock ledge is out of place and doesn't belong there. Almost like you're just trying to hide free space which I can understand but for this map in particular I'm feeling like it's a flat map and shouldn't have it. 7/10

For map #2 I love the way of the layout, however the right side trees are too linear for my tastes. the upper yellow path looks like a phallus judging by the random placement of the wood logs, wouldn't there be another one of that tile just under the small tree in the top left? and directly across from it on the top right side? Also why does the bottom path only have a wooden log barrier on the left side? just under the top right and left wooden log area the walkway is about 1 tile in height ... a bit off from the rest of your map, maybe extend it a tile? 7/10

 

[~Justified~]

Check out the above quote from the post.. I fixed the links for you or you can visit them in their respective order here:
First pic: https://i.imgur.com/XwFzg4y.png
Second pic: https://i.imgur.com/R2nAwzI.png

Next time you're running into a problem like this, probably best to VM or PM the author of the post or even a mod in order to keep the quick "idk what happened" chats out of the actual page.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ my review:

Spoiler:

With that said, for map #1 I feel that the little rock ledge is out of place and doesn't belong there. Almost like you're just trying to hide free space which I can understand but for this map in particular I'm feeling like it's a flat map and shouldn't have it. 7/10

For map #2 I love the way of the layout, however the right side trees are too linear for my tastes. the upper yellow path looks like a phallus judging by the random placement of the wood logs, wouldn't there be another one of that tile just under the small tree in the top left? and directly across from it on the top right side? Also why does the bottom path only have a wooden log barrier on the left side? just under the top right and left wooden log area the walkway is about 1 tile in height ... a bit off from the rest of your map, maybe extend it a tile? 7/10

Thanks for helping him with that, the images were working fine for me so I wasn't sure what was wrong. Thanks for the reviews too, I'll edit them a little bit more fixing some of those things:)

 

[Maglor]

4/10
I like your concept, but I'm going to be honest with you, your map feels somewhat empty. It's missing some things, and has some tile errors. Rather than making the water strictly rectangular, I'd suggest making it more like a real-life body of water, with a less-square shape. The building in the top right corner is not something I would suggest using, as it is rather dull. It also looks to familiar to viridian city, you didn't change much in it. You should add more foliage, and spread it out too. There is also a problem with the building in the bottom right corner of your map, you used the wrong roof and it's missing the sides and a door. I would recommend adding more detail to your map, and instead of just changing tilesets and adding a bridge w/water, make it yours, use your imagination to create a city of your own, it resembles Viridian City way too much.

Honesty and tips'n tricks is what I am looking for good sir. Cheers for review. :)
Just learned how to insert new tiles thanks to LePug, so expect more creative maps from me in the future. :8:

 

[~Justified~]

Honesty and tips'n tricks is what I am looking for good sir. Cheers for review. :)
Just learned how to insert new tiles thanks to LePug, so expect more creative maps from me in the future. :8:

Ok, I hope I wasn't too harsh...I tried to be constructive. & Don't worry I'm still learning how to map too lol, you learn some nice tricks along the way as you learn more. Here are some tips for you when creating maps in the future:
-Fill the map with blank tile before starting to make your map
This will allow you to not feel restricted by the map's original layout.

-Most of the time you want to change the dimensions of the map before you make it
This adds to creating the feeling of a new map.

-Linear is bad!
Planting trees, houses, pathways, and bodies of water in linear columns or rectangular shapes is never good, it makes it feel boring and unrealistic (because trees don't grow in straight lines). Try to give it a natural flow that looks like something you would see in the real world.

-Change Tilesets, and most importantly...Be Creative!
Changing tilesets is almost always a must, whether your adding your own or changing to another in-game tileset. It adds to the feeling of it being your own map. Also, free your mind. Let the ideas come to you and make them as they come, you can revise the maps later.

I've also included a link to an advance map tutorial on this forum, it's very helpful especially when you're beginning to learn and it helps me a lot when I'm struggling to make a map:
In-Depth Advanced Map Tutorial

Good luck, I look forward to future creations from you!:)

 

[Zed™]

4/10
I like your concept, but I'm going to be honest with you, your map feels somewhat empty. It's missing some things, and has some tile errors. Rather than making the water strictly rectangular, I'd suggest making it more like a real-life body of water, with a less-square shape. The building in the top right corner is not something I would suggest using, as it is rather dull. It also looks to familiar to viridian city, you didn't change much in it. You should add more foliage, and spread it out too. There is also a problem with the building in the bottom right corner of your map, you used the wrong roof and it's missing the sides and a door. I would recommend adding more detail to your map, and instead of just changing tilesets and adding a bridge w/water, make it yours, use your imagination to create a city of your own, it resembles Viridian City way too much.

I have two maps here for review:

Map #01
Map Name: Seaside Village
Original Map: Pallet Town
Notes: I was trying for a small village next to the sea, there's two houses, a forest entrance, and a berry shop with some crates and flowers. Let me know what you think!:)

Spoiler:

Map #02
Map Name: Route 41 - North
Original Map: Route 21 (FireRed)
Notes: It's supposed to be small, but I was trying for a small secluded area as the transition from City-to-Route. Let me know what you think of this one too!:)

Spoiler:

This is my review:

Spoiler:

Map #1: I like the layout proposed by you and I think building's palette matches very well with the others, but It looks like more a lake village than a seaside village: I should change some tileset and should add on the map some palms and a beach. Furthermore, as Le pug said, you should extend you map down to a tile block in order to match the trees each other; same thing on the west of the map, or more precisely I should move the trees placed on the lower left on the right in order to put another column of trees near the left edge.
Finally, there are some tree shadows to review: for example, the shadows between the two tree column on the right of the forest entrance are right(if you give an accurate viewing surely you'll notice the differences and if you search on a-map you'll find different types of shadows), but there are some wrong shadows across the map. 7,5/10.

Map #2
So do I think that the rock edge is useless on this map and I should add more trees across the grass, spreading them a bit everywhere. 7/10.

I hope my tips will help you, and good luck with mapping! :)

p.s.: Sorry but forgive my bad english, because I'm Italian. :3c



Now, I have a map to expose:

Map #01
Map Name: Green route
Original Map: Route 1 (fire red)
Notes: \

Spoiler:

(image no longer exists)

I hope you enjoy it! :)

 

[Spherical Ice]

(image no longer exists)

It's evident that this map is going for the "natural" style of mapping. While aesthetically it's quite nice, I can see this being utter hell to traverse through as a player. It's littered with one-block-wide paths, sporadic tall grass placement and an overall confusing sense of direction when only viewable on a 240x160 screen. The paths, while helping to give direction, make the map seem far more cluttered and claustrophobic than it already is, which furthers the feeling of being closed in and the potential confusion for navigation. With that in mind, I think you should reconsider the layout of this map by including wider spaces and a more structured general shape, even if you do plan to stick with the seemingly random nature of the "natural" mapping style. That said, I am a fan of the art style you have going on, and, echoing what I said at the beginning of this post, from an aesthetical viewpoint this map does look really great -- just hell to play through.

 

[Zed™]

It's evident that this map is going for the "natural" style of mapping. While aesthetically it's quite nice, I can see this being utter hell to traverse through as a player. It's littered with one-block-wide paths, sporadic tall grass placement and an overall confusing sense of direction when only viewable on a 240x160 screen. The paths, while helping to give direction, make the map seem far more cluttered and claustrophobic than it already is, which furthers the feeling of being closed in and the potential confusion for navigation. With that in mind, I think you should reconsider the layout of this map by including wider spaces and a more structured general shape, even if you do plan to stick with the seemingly random nature of the "natural" mapping style. That said, I am a fan of the art style you have going on, and, echoing what I said at the beginning of this post, from an aesthetical viewpoint this map does look really great -- just hell to play through.

Thanks! I'm glad you like it and I think you're right when you say it's an hell to play through. Maybe this type of path should be more appropriate for a woods/forest: certainly not for the first route of an hack.

Instead, what do you think about my palettes?


Thanks again! :)

 

[Spherical Ice]

Thanks! I'm glad you like it and I think you're right when you say it's an hell to play through. Maybe this type of path should be more appropriate for a woods/forest: certainly not for the first route of an hack.

Instead, what do you think about my palettes?


Thanks again! :)

The palettes are fine and easy on the eyes, so good job there. Also, I dont think this would suffice as a forest map either because of its linearity (despite its difficulty to navigate). Forests in Pokémon tend to be far larger and have things like diverging paths and hidden alcoves, etc. Nothing you couldn't add in, though, if you were to expand the map.

 

[Zed™]

The palettes are fine and easy on the eyes, so good job there. Also, I dont think this would suffice as a forest map either because of its linearity (despite its difficulty to navigate). Forests in Pokémon tend to be far larger and have things like diverging paths and hidden alcoves, etc. Nothing you couldn't add in, though, if you were to expand the map.

Thanks for all advices! ;)

 

[Danny0317]

This is my review:

Spoiler:

Map #1: I like the layout proposed by you and I think building's palette matches very well with the others, but It looks like more a lake village than a seaside village: I should change some tileset and should add on the map some palms and a beach. Furthermore, as Le pug said, you should extend you map down to a tile block in order to match the trees each other; same thing on the west of the map, or more precisely I should move the trees placed on the lower left on the right in order to put another column of trees near the left edge.
Finally, there are some tree shadows to review: for example, the shadows between the two tree column on the right of the forest entrance are right(if you give an accurate viewing surely you'll notice the differences and if you search on a-map you'll find different types of shadows), but there are some wrong shadows across the map. 7,5/10.

Map #2
So do I think that the rock edge is useless on this map and I should add more trees across the grass, spreading them a bit everywhere. 7/10.

I hope my tips will help you, and good luck with mapping! :)

p.s.: Sorry but forgive my bad english, because I'm Italian. :3c



Now, I have a map to expose:

Map #01
Map Name: Green route
Original Map: Route 1 (fire red)
Notes: \

Spoiler:

(image no longer exists)

I hope you enjoy it! :)

Well damn, that map looks awesome, and I love the tiles. I wouldn't think it would be too hard to navigate through, and I really like the mix of the three different trees, as opposed to the two in fire red. Overall it's a good map, and I really like it. Also would you mind telling me (in V/PM) where you got those tiles? They looks awesome. I give it a 10/10 :)

Now here's my map :)

Spoiler:

It's route 1 for my hack because the one I had before was.. pretty bad, lol. To the person who rates this, please give a number 1-10 when you rate, haha.

 

[Alexander Nicholi]

Now here's my map :)

Spoiler:

It's route 1 for my hack because the one I had before was.. pretty bad, lol. To the person who rates this, please give a number 1-10 when you rate, haha.

Rating: 8 out of 10
Comments: I really like the flow and simplicity of this map. IMO it's perfect for a beginning route (a lot better than what I have come up with), but I also have a little bias towards maps that use Nintendo tiles. Very good work :)

This is the Canary Plateau, which is a connector map between a planned plains map to the east, and opening from a chasm called Damascus Cave. Obviously it's not very big or incredibly detailed, as it's a linker map that only holds a script event. It was made in Emerald version using a hybrid of tiles from Ruby, FireRed, and Emerald together as an overworld tileset.

Spoiler:

 

[CosmicBlazer]

Rating: 8 out of 10
Comments: I really like the flow and simplicity of this map. IMO it's perfect for a beginning route (a lot better than what I have come up with), but I also have a little bias towards maps that use Nintendo tiles. Very good work :)

This is the Canary Plateau, which is a connector map between a planned plains map to the east, and opening from a chasm called Damascus Cave. Obviously it's not very big or incredibly detailed, as it's a linker map that only holds a script event. It was made in Emerald version using a hybrid of tiles from Ruby, FireRed, and Emerald together as an overworld tileset.

Spoiler:

Rating: 8 out of 10. It is simple. Not over the top. Looks nice in my opinion for a script event that will probably happen when you reach the top of the stairs.

Name: Cosmic Town
Game: Firered (Using Projectunamed rombase)
This is the starting map for my hack. Be as critical as you want. I think it looks nice, but I think I added to many flowers in some places or in wrong places.

 

[E.C.]

Rating: 8 out of 10. It is simple. Not over the top. Looks nice in my opinion for a script event that will probably happen when you reach the top of the stairs.

Name: Cosmic Town
Game: Firered (Using Projectunamed rombase)
This is the starting map for my hack. Be as critical as you want. I think it looks nice, but I think I added to many flowers in some places or in wrong places.

Personally I think the map should have a few changes. Everything in this map seems so randomly placed. I would suggest connecting the dirt tile and make a path leading to each house because most towns usually have some sort of pavement or small path that the player can walk through and not bump all over random trees and objects. also adding more trees is a good idea so you can fill in the map more. Just make sure to keep enough space for the player to walk around freely because having too much stuff in your map restricts your players movements.Overall I think it's an alright map, It's a good start.

Map name: unamed
Map game: Firered (ProjectUnamed ROM base v2)
Comments: So I took Shinx's advice and made the paths a lot wider for the player to freely roam the map. The player enters the map from the lake to the right and follows the path up to the two roads in the top of the map (The two roads above lead to different places, they don't connect to each other). I tried combining both natural and gamefreak styles by keeping a straightforward route across the map while giving it a natural feel with the trees and mountains.
(note the petal leaves and small rocks in the grass can be walked/surfed through and the underwater cave entrances don't take you anywhere, they are only for decoration)
Map:

Spoiler:

 

[Mana1]

@E.C.

I like the shape of your map, the water's edge and the mountains have a bit of variety to them and aren't just long, straight sides. The trees have also been done well - they are 'natural' but there are no pockets to get stuck in and they're not too overdone.

One thing I don't necessarily like is the amount of decoration. On the land, there is a huge abundance of red decor (apples, flowersx2) and it looks a bit like your map is polkadot. The tiles themselves are nice, but I think you should perhaps use them more sparingly as the bright colour stands out too much.

Your lake also feels overdecorated - there is a lot going on under the water and the lilypads/rocks on top. Since it's not interact-able or important I think some editing down could be done.

Good map, tweaks needed - 8/10.