Map Editor Tech Demo 2.0

[The Final Rune]

To the new members who don't know me, I am Levi "The Final Rune" Williamson and I'm the resident expert in the use of the Map Editor. I even put out a FAQ/Guide for it. Doan has it hosted here if you haven't yet had a gander.

The problem is, I need some motivation to do something with RPGM2 other than play other peoples games. So, I decided that I'd like to make a new tech demo to show off more of what the map editor is capable of. But I'm fresh out of ideas. So I'm coming to all of you for advice, suggestions and demands as to what you'd like to see in the next installment (the ver. 1.3 release is included in the zip file found in the link above).

[yellow]NOTE[/yellow]: Many of you no doubt realize that a lot of what I have planned for each area will require scripting. This is true, but I intend to show that creating maps with the limits and requirements of the other editors in mind that you can pull off some truly awesome stuff.

I've already decided on some of the more obvious things I'll need to do. The list so far is as follows:

• Fire/Lava Dungeon

• Many of you already got a small taste of this from the previous release, but this time around I'd like to add more atmosphere to the feel of the level
  • Smoke VFX
  • Bubbling Lava VFX
  • Active geysers that spew smoke and lava
  • Flowing Lava VFX
  • Floating/Moving platforms of rock on the lava
  [/red]

[/li][li]Ice Dungeon[/b]

• I have no idea of how to pull this one off yet other than a few textures I'd like to try out
  • Slippery Ice
  • Icicle VFX
  • Falling Icicle VFX
  • Ice walls that can be melted or shattered
  [/blue]

[/li][li]Water Dungeon[/b]

• Again, I have no idea what to do for this one
  • Water levels that raise and lower
  • Giving the player the option to swim
  • Whirlpools that pull the player towards them and cause death
  [/teal]

[/li][li]Standard Cave Dungeon[/b]

• Your standard point A to point B cave with rooms and stuff along the way
• I have two different ideas on how to implement this already
  • A moving globe of light that surrounds the player
  • And a darkness all around the player
  • Falling/Move-able rocks and boulders
  • Ground that collapses under the player
  [/brown]

[/li][li]Small Town[/b]

• Like the fire dungeon, I want to expand on my previous attempts to make something that feels more whole and more real[/pink]

[/li][li]Big City[/b]

• Another bigger and better remake
• Thanks to some new scripting techniques and building editor designs, I expect some real leaps and bounds here
  • Multiple objects and moving people all about the city

[/li][li]Forest Maze[/b]

• There needs to be more to this one than the last example
• A real forest lives and breathes, these feelings are something I'm going to strive to create
  • Forest Animal SFX
  • Falling Leaves VFX
  [/green]

[/li][li]Mountain Path[/b]

• More detail and better representation of being 'IN' the mountains
  • Windy areas where the player gets pushed in a direction, possibly off a ledge
  • Appropriate World SFX
  • Fog VFX (instead of/along with) the fog weather effect
  [/beige]

[/li][li]Coastal Beach[/b]

• Everything it was, only more and better[/yellow]

[/li][li]Desert Dunes[/b]

• Sand anyone?
  • Blowing Sand VFX
  • Wind SFX
  • Heat Waves VFX
  [/orange]

[/li][li]Sewer Pipes[/b]

• Water and bricks and rats and stuff
  • Dripping Water
  • Metal Water Pipes VFX
  [/purple]

[/li][li]Modern Day City[/b]

• This will probably have a higher graphic requirement of the building editor than the map editor

[/li][/ul][/b]

Now, the fact that I've decided to do these doesn't mean much in of itself. I need ideas as to what you all would like to see done in these maps. Hit me up with all sorts of ideas and hopefully I can crank this out within a month or two.[/color]

[Neo Samurai]

How about a modern day city (not sure if this has been suggested before)?

[The Final Rune]

List updated!!!

[realitybites]

Nice, can't wait to see it TFR.

[KuroShinnen]

I'm thinking, for the ice dungeon, have a few slippery paths that when you touch them, you slide until you hit something. I did that in my game... even though that is more the job of the creator, it is still a suggestion. ;D

[Doan the Nado]

Well, I'm pretty sure that he is just making the visual aspects of the maps. While such a suggestion is certainly a possibility, it can only be accomplished through scripting and appropriate events, not with the map editor alone.

[Deleted]

Awesome!! I'm glad to see you've returned and want to get working on rpgm2 again. That last map editor guide and rpgm2 download were excellent and really helped me a lot. The first time I looked at what you'd made in rpgm2 I was amazed, and even after a few months of mapmaking when I thought I'd gotten way better, I went back and examined what you'd made in rpgm2 and it was still amazing. The first time I looked at what you'd made it was way better than mine, but the next time it was pretty close except that you'd done the same/better with like 1/4 the terrain/texture pointers than me (in other words, mine would look good 'cause I kept adding, but you'd know what you were doing from the start and make it look real good with it taking up much less memory/pointers). Also, that vfx gun was incredible.

Anyways, as for technical things to improve those maps, I have no clue. You're beyond me in this department. What I can comment on is:

Fire/Lava Dungeon - Yay! I plan to make one for The Solemn Truth.
Ice Dungeon - Same.
Standard Cave Dungeon - Same.
Small Town - Same.
Big City - Same.
Forest Maze - Same.
Coastal Beach - Same.

So, I like the choices you've made, and I expect them to help me a lot. I don't have any ideas others than these, which some would be a pain in the butt to do:

Smoke vfx and bubbling lava vfx (fire/lava dungeon)
Fog vfx (mountain path)
Strong wind vfx and world sounds (mountain path)
Vfx icicles (ice dungeon)
Random aminal sfx (forest, sfx may be somewhat tough to implement, doan's custom music uninterupted technique here doansdomain.proboards27.com/index.cgi?board=Help&action=display&thread=1101863989&page=1 would help, in other words you'd be making a script filled with Wait and SFX commands and running it as an action/doan's technique script)
Bunch of objects and moving people (Small Town and Big City)
Sand blowing vfx and strong wind sfx (Desert Dunes)
Water dripping vfx and world sounds (Sewer Pipes)

Either way, very cool.

[The Final Rune]

[white]List Updated!

Also, I added a few things that popped in my mind while adding the ones suggested. Plus, I will have mulitple amounts of scripting involved with this release. I figure just knowing how to make maps isn't enough. I want to teach people how to build stuff that not only interacts with the maps, but is dependent on them as well. I plan to blow eveyone away with this one.[/white]

[Doan the Nado]

Well I'm glad to hear that you plan to do some interesting scripting as well, and I suppose that this renders by previous remark no longer valid. One suggestion for the Water Dungeon (depending on exactly what you have in mind) would be to have water levels that raise and lower throughout and might kill you if you're underwater too long. You could also have whirlpools in some areas that suck you into other areas or death. Other ideas might be water-based puzzles/events similar to what is in LoZ:ALttP.

[The Final Rune]

[white]Added![/white]

[The Final Rune]

[white]Well, this is coming along a little slower than I had hoped. Maybe because my life has been so busy lately. Of course I'd appreciate any more suggestions. Every time I get asked for something new it gets my cogs a turnin' and wakes up the creative genius within me. He sleeps pretty heavily now-a-days.[/white]

[Neo Samurai]

He sleeps pretty heavily now-a-days.

Yeah. I know how that feels.

[thetruecoolness]

Well let me know when you get it done and I'll make some screenshots for you again. I enjoyed your previous one a lot, and look foward to this one. You are to map making what all these other people are to VFX (Reality, Daburke, Rodak). So keep up the amazing work.

[Neo Samurai]

Well, it seems that nothing has been requested for in a while, so here's one from me. How about a Japanese/Asian village (considering how I'll be using one in my own game)? I have some ideas of my own, but I think you'd blow me and everyone away with this (as well as your with your other maps).

Suggestions for Japanese/Asian village:
-A five-ring pagoda
-Katanas and other Japanese/Asian weapons mounted on walls and such.
-Japanese/Asian style homes
-Rice paddies
-A lake with lilypads (if you can pull that off)

Anyway, I know most people aren't really familiar with Japanese or Asian culture, so if it's too much, you don't have to do it (that's assuming you don't know much about Japanese/Asian culture).

But if you are and are up for it, then that would be great. I saw your last Tech Demo and was absolutely blown away by it. Now, I want to create maps like that.

[Doan the Nado]

Yes, I would love to see this Tech Demo. I didn't get a chance to walk through the last one, but now that my summer is winding down and I'm down to one job again, I'm starting to get that RPGM2 itch, and it would be great to get acquainted with the Map Editor TFR-style (part 2), since I'm sure your methods are much better than mine.

One idea I have is to perhaps limit yourself to a relatively small memory size for some map, to show possible ways of creating "economical yet interesting" maps for those who are tight on memory. A few maps like that would also serve well in a game engine file as the "default maps", so they would certainly be useful to me.

That is, of course, if you can pull yourself away from FFXI for a bit. I feel ya, man; I played Everquest every spare moment for most of my freshman year, and I ended up getting worse grades than I should have, living in mild filth, not making very many new friends, and ending up with nothing to show for it once I quit playing. Not that that will happen to you, but I just wanted to warn you...