World Maps

[JayRay]

See, I sort of disagree... But, like your idea about regions...

Think for instance of Skyrim. While you can fast travel to various towns dpending on quests, I do feel there's something lost in the overland journey. My map will plan to be a worldmap, in addition to regions, (TownA, forest, forest, route1, route 2, more forest, and then World Map). However, depending on routes taken, the world maps can open into regions that can still have treachorous, impassible terrain. Also, depending on where you go in World Maps, you could 'happen' upon encounter areas, or 'off-the-beaten path areas, that can expand your adventure, the side-quest, ya know? Half the locations in Skyrim, are locations tht you just HAPPEN to be walking in the world map and discover.

[Kain Nobel]

As a player, do you like world maps?

Somewhat, yes.

As a creator, do you enjoy making world maps?

Yes and no. I've been building my world map tiles from scratch and the process has been a daunting one; going between editing the tileset, then putting the map together, then doing more edits, etc. tends to wear on me. My map is in a constant "beta" phase because I find myself adding expansions to the current tile set, then I wind up reorganizing things and having to redo the map, not to mention occasionally spriting and programming in new vehicles. Quite a hot mess if you ask me, but it's worth it each time a milestone is reached and things come back together again.

What are your likes and dislikes about world maps?

I enjoy the fact that, after spending several hours in the confinements of civilization, you finally get the fuck out of dodge and see some nature, realizing that where you just came from is just a small piece of a more expansive world. When you start to notice different areas inaccessible due to natural boundaries such as mountains, rivers, oceans, etc you tend to forget that the world map is really some sort of meta dungeon that takes most of the adventure to fully unlock and take advantage of with all the vehicles (and possibly chocobos) you've acquired.

I dislike the fact that I can't call my cousin Roman to come send me a taxi to take me from the strip club in Liberty City to my crackhouse in Los Santos. Also, Wutai and Junon don't have Uber yet, what gives?! I checked Expedia.com to see if I could get a flight to Midgar, but apparently public airports don't exist yet outside of Junon.

Does a world map make the world bigger or smaller?

^What finalholylight said, above!

The purpose of the world map is two fold; give the initial illusion of a
vastly expansive world, while at the same time making travel semi-short
even if the implied distance is large.

Do you know of any other alternatives for a world map that are better ideas?

A travel menu with unlockable destinations sounds like a rather simple and effective alternative, you don't always have to build an entire world and put it up for display. Furthermore, instead of a menu, one could even have various travel hubs such as airports, trains and bus stations that take them to specific destinations, some optional, others storyline mandatory. I know VVulfy likes him some teleportation; throw the player in a transport chamber and have Scotty beam them to where they need to go and, when they're hungry later, maybe they can generate an algorithm to send down some space pizza.

Or...

Simply design your game as one large dungeon crawl with an untold amount of floors and bosses for the player to overcome. No globetrotting. No bullshit. Just one massive and dangerous complex coupled with a small town nearby. You can always return to your hotel and get shitfaced on cheep whiskey, restock on supplies, develop a gambling addiction, converse with strangers, visit the clinic, sleep, then return later for more raiding!

[JayRay]

Simply design your game as one large dungeon crawl with an untold amount of floors and bosses for the player to overcome. No globetrotting. No bullshit. Just one massive and dangerous complex coupled with a small town nearby. You can always return to your hotel and get shitfaced on cheep whiskey, restock on supplies, develop a gambling addiction, converse with strangers, visit the clinic, sleep, then return later for more raiding!

Hence... Diablo

[Ahzoh]

Simply design your game as one large dungeon crawl with an untold amount of floors and bosses for the player to overcome. No globetrotting. No bullshit. Just one massive and dangerous complex coupled with a small town nearby. You can always return to your hotel and get shitfaced on cheep whiskey, restock on supplies, develop a gambling addiction, converse with strangers, visit the clinic, sleep, then return later for more raiding!

I wish I could do that, but I don't think I can make a map that big, nor how I can reasonably scale an area the size of Libya.

[JayRay]

Difficult, but NOT impossible

On a normal map it would be estimated that a movement in any direction is approximately 5 feet. This means that on a normal 500x500 map, any given map is approximately 1/2 mile by 1/2 mile. However, Remember the old-school imagemap idea from HTML? If we took say a picture, a HUGE picture, and had that represent our 'world map, and mapped out square points, for inaccesibles, cities, points of reference and more, along with a longitude/lattitude system.

You can set up four variables, two for the player's current X and Y on the lattitude System, and two for the direction they're wanting to go (North, South, East West)
You can also set up Two Parallel Events. One for Directional Movement, and one to check obstacles


This should be set when moving from the map to the world map (to determine point of start for world map, as well as to help set up the super map's initial position.)

@worldtravX = 100
@worldtravY = 100

@pictureposX = @worldtravX - 3200
@pictureposY = @worldtravY - 3200

Show Picture at upper left being at @pictureposX, pictureposY


Now, if you say wanted to press Up, Down, Left or Right, you could set up conditionals like

If Up pressed,
@goingy = @worldtravY - 1
@goingdir = 8

If down pressed
@goingy = @worldtravY + 1
@goingdir = 2

If left pressed
@goingX = @worldtravX - 1
@goingdir = 4

If right pressed
@goingX = @worldtravX + 1
@goingdir = 6



Now, with the mapped out areas that we have decided can be walked on, we can create conditional branches for each one...

Conditional Branch
If @goingx => 140
If @goingx =< 145
If @goingy => 195
If @goingy =< 205
call Event "Move"
Branch End
And of course, you create more blocks for each area you would be able to traverse on your huge map.


Now, create another Common Event called "Move" with no trigger that can actually effect the change.

If @goingdir = 8
Move Picture down y+1
@worldtravy = @worldtravy-1
@goingdir = 0

If @goingdir = 6
@goingdir = 0
Move picture left x+1
@worldtravx = @worldtravx-1

If @goingdir = 4
@goingdir = 0
Move picture right X+1
@worldtravx = @worldtravx-1

If @goingdir = 2
@goingdir = 0
Move picture up y-1
@worldtravy = @worldtravy+1

Now then, no world map is complete without an ability to get back into a regular map right?
If @goingx => 140
If @goingx =< 145
If @goingy => 195
If @goingy =< 205
Transfer Player to Such and Such Map, x such, and y such...
Branch End



Now, if you really want to be special with it? Got a HHHHHUUUUUGGGGEEEEE map that you think would crack RPG Maker? Break it up into nine maps.

If @goingx => 3200
If @goingx =< 6399
If @goingy => 0
If @goingy =< 3199
picture 1 = "NWregion"
picture 2 = "NRegion"
picture 3 = "NERegion"
picture 4 = "WRegion"
picture 5 = "Center"
Picture 6 = "EastRegion"
Picture 7 = "SWRegion"
Picture 8 = "SRegion"
Picture 9 = "SE Region"

and if the going goes too far, or each picture is too far off the map, have it be removed, and added as new pictures on the other map, for literally thousands of 'MILES' of terrain...

This could be expanded in events to seperate for vehicles (walking, horseback, airship, even...)

[MetalRenard]

The flaw in your movement system is that pressing left or right automatically assumes you have moved. What happens if you're facing a wall though?
You need to check the player actually moved - is their new coordinate different from the old one?
I would take all the variables for position and test them - Old - New = 0 means no movement. Old - New = +/-1 means movement.
A simple step to add.

[JayRay]

yep, that's why only @goingX or @goingY changes, not @WorldTravX or @WorldTravY

If @goingX or @goingY is within the conditionals, THEN you call the common event, otherwise, you don't move because WorldTravX and WorldTravY don't change.

I might make a small demo to showcase this as an event system, hehe.

[Ahzoh]

I don't remember humans going 5 feet at a time... and I don't see this fixing the problem of map size limits...
I am intrigued to have it all like Diablo 2, only during battles you are teleported to a battle field like in Star Ocean...

[JayRay]

Well, give or take an inch or two...

Ask.com The length of an average walking stride is 62 inches. People frequently mistake stride for step length, or wrongly assume they are one in the same.

We to be honest, for yours? You could have vast tracts of land, only sparsely interupted.... But, anyway.