Is Mapping Really Teachable?

ID:152224
 
Sep 3 2007, 8:15 pm
"is mapping really teachable? Dont think so." - quote from a recent blog post.

So my question was, of all you folks out there who consider yourselves mappers (and hopefully other people consider you good at it), what kind of tricks do you use to make your maps better than any average map out there? I know that I use a few tricks that I draw from to make my maps better, some of which are:

- Avoid straight lines as much as possible, especially in "natural" settings such as forests and caves.

- As far as terrain goes, use multiple drawings of the same objects when said object is used repeatedly, such as trees or grass. This greatly helps to eliminate the "tiled" feel.

- Never place the same object in rows. For example, some trees, where '.' is grass and 'T' is a tree: 
   ..T..           .T...
   ..T..           ...T.
   ..T..           T....


What not to do / what to do

But I'd really like to hear if anyone else has some tricks that come to mind which help them to make better maps. I'd like to know if there are enough tricks being used that we could compile them to a little article and post it somewhere as a guide to help people make better maps.
Sep 3 2007, 11:50 pm
I don't think it's a teachable trade (because really, on BYOND, what is there to teach? It's incredibly straight-forward.) but that's not to say their aren't a few tricks to it. Most of the work lies in icons, though.

Of course you aren't going to put trees in a straight line. I make sure my grass isn't too detailed so I can Turn() their icons a multiple of 90 degrees, effectively helping with the "tiled" feeling. Y'know, all the grass that is not a border to dirt or something.
Sep 4 2007, 12:51 am
I think how you space out the towns/objects really makes a difference. You dont want to put the towns so far away that they never find them, but at the same time you dont want to make them 2 feet apart. But the most important feature is really how you make use of all the objects you have. You can really tell if the designer knew what he was doing by how he choose to place the objects, and were on the map. And Symetry... Everything has to feel right and equal.
Sep 4 2007, 7:58 am
In response to CaptFalcon33035
CaptFalcon33035 wrote:
Of course you aren't going to put trees in a straight line.

What about natural barriers? You can't have too much water unless its a island and so on with cliffs and that. One of the better options is trees.
Sep 4 2007, 8:54 am
In response to RedlineM203
RedlineM203 wrote:
CaptFalcon33035 wrote:
Of course you aren't going to put trees in a straight line.

What about natural barriers? You can't have too much water unless its a island and so on with cliffs and that. One of the better options is trees.

Bad: 
............
TTTTTTTTTTTT
............


Good: 
TTT.T.TTT...
T.TT.TT.TTTT
...TTT....TT
Sep 4 2007, 9:22 am
In response to Foomer
On that same note, you can also vary the blocking terrain within the "trees". For example, the elevation might rise significantly, fallen logs may criss-cross beneath the canopies, vines and creepers may wind around (more evidence that no one passes that way), etc.

But jagged, rocky elevations, boulders, rock facings, etc. make pretty substantial obstacles, too.
Sep 4 2007, 9:58 am
There are a few techniques I use to design maps that work, which usually doesn't ever get seen since I never ever do anything, -ever-. I'm probably the least proactive developer in history, in all honesty, but that doesn't bother me a bit. :D

Anyways, here's a few:

1. Buildings should not be a simple rectangle. It creates dull paths through town that can be broken up into more interesting combinations. An example of how this might work can be seen here:

The northeastern building protrudes on the eastern side, creating a more interesting effect. By comparison, imagine if that protrusion wasn't there; if it was sunken in and flush with the other wall so that the two doors were on the same x-coordinate. Boring!

2. Use elevation as an obstacle. The simplest natural barrier in a 2D world can be seen when you simply can't make such a large jump in the 3rd dimension. For example:

By providing a view of the horizon, while still maintaining that you cannot pass into it, it is a more interesting perspective than it would be were the horizon covered in trees, or if you were randomly surrounded by boxes, or if for some reason there were these tiny rocks that magically couldn't be stepped over, and prevented you from crossing.

3. Use unseen, repeating shapes. This one's a bit tricky to see, but from the way I look at it, if you can make a world so that it has some bounding shape from a large view, but then at the actual user's perspective this shape is unnoticeable, you can come up with a beautiful setup. An example of this is the recurring circular pattern you can see when looking at the world map from Golden Sun:


That's all for now. Stay tuned! :P
Hiead
Sep 4 2007, 11:15 am
Mapping is and is not really teachable, and after all it does depend one the mappers style as well, but yea some things are pretty simple such as don't make the grid look like a grid, try and make it look good, and make it sort of wow the player I guess. Other then that its really a matter of game play to help present your game.
Sep 4 2007, 11:23 pm
In response to Foomer
Foomer wrote:
RedlineM203 wrote:
CaptFalcon33035 wrote:
Of course you aren't going to put trees in a straight line.

What about natural barriers? You can't have too much water unless its a island and so on with cliffs and that. One of the better options is trees.

Bad:
............

TTTTTTTTTTTT............

Good:
TTT.T.TTT...

T.TT.TT.TTTT...TTT....TT


FAIL: SOME TREES PRETTY MUCH IN A LINE!

:P

Eh, I dunno what to say from there.
Sep 5 2007, 1:44 am
If you ask me, mapping is like any other form of art.
In art you don't particularly teach people how to draw a picture, you teach them things such as human proportions, lighting and shading, correct use of colours and so on. And then it is up to the person to practice what you have taught them so they can then draw good looking pictures.

It is the same with making a map. You don't teach them how to make a map, you teach them what they should and shouldn't do when making a map. And then they practice what they have learned until they can make a good looking map.

There are a lot of things that could be said, actually too much things. But one piece of very good advice if to think about things realistically.
An example would be grass. Most people seem more bothered about getting rid of the tiled look when it comes to grass, but ignore anything else about it. But tell me, where and how does grass grow?
Well, grass will grow more or less anywhere with dirt and a supply of water, which is most places on the planet. So that isn't too important.
But, how does grass grow? In a place with humans it doesn't grow very well at all, because long grass looks messy and gets in the way, so they cut it or there is people walking over it, preventing it from growing very long. But in nature there is no one around to cut the grass or trample on it, so chances are it is long and wild.
Human interaction in a forest for example can effect the grass however. A commonly walked path is very unlikely to have a lot of tall grass because people have been regularly walking over it, chances are they have even killed some of the grass because of this, leaving a dirt trail. (A decent rule to follow when using different types of terrain is simple, try not to use the same sort of terrain for more than 3 tles in a row to make it look more random)

I could go on and on, but you get the idea. Think about things before you do them, and look at how they occur in real life and try to incorporate those things into the map you're making, and you'll end up with a decent looking map after practise (and possibly even an amazing looking map).