Maps/Areas (Discussion Thread)

[SirusD]

Maybe because I'm good at what I do! 

[Zakyrus]

Once again, very nice. The openness is something that I can't do well - I'm more doing the closed-tight space like the default CT style. (Something I haven't been able to deviate from as of yet)

Glad to have ya aboard SiriusD, and great work.
Very clean and pretty.

Why don't your maps look like that Zakyrus? 

Heh. I can make a map look like that, but it takes me forever. 
Coincidently, that looks very close to the Enhansa I expanded once (but of course totally lost motivation to finish).


Oh yeah, SirusD, just make sure you backup alot. Maps have a funny way of dissapearing sometimes (I have no clue why -- I'm pretty sure it's a save bug in the TF editor)

[Glennleo]

Only kidding Z, you know I love ya. In a totally none gay way.... 

SiriusD, any chance you could teach me a few simple map making techniques, if you need help or anything.
I'd also like to take a crack at creating maps sometime. If I ever find the time.

[Zakyrus]

Only kidding Z, you know I love ya. In a totally none gay way.... 

SiriusD, any chance you could teach me a few simple map making techniques, if you need help or anything.
I'd also like to take a crack at creating maps sometime. If I ever find the time.

My heterosexual love for you is mutual. 
Any maps you'd like to try are totally welcome. For now, we're just taking areas that have free map-space and expanding them more. (I haven't really gone too much into adding totally new maps yet as I'm not sure how much space TF can do without it corrupting) I'd say expanding existing maps is alot easier - so we'll stick to that for now. I do have a few brand new maps that are not inserted yet (nor complete) such as Cleft of Dimensions(Magus Castle Ruins), Valley of Giants (in pre-historic), and a few others.


Oh yeah, since Zeal is a good tileset to start with (because it's so simple) we might as well finish those areas.

Here's the areas I'd like to do with the Zeal expansion:

Kajar (expand the map and increase the size of Kajar Magic Lab and Kajar Study)
I would say make it a 40x40 map, make the Magic Lab twice as wide and the Study twice as "tall".
The remainder of space could be used for more secret rooms.

Zeal Palace Main Area could be 10 units "taller"

A re-write of Zeal Palace Grand Library is in order. (I can send you the map of what I have later)
Do this however you like, with a few exceptions:

Instead of entering the hallway (that splits into Schala's Room and Zeal Palace Study) it goes straight to the Library. The Study is acccessable in the Library as well as Schala's Room. (though Schala's Room is on the "upper" area)
This map is tricky because I want to utilize the full extend of multiple "floors" like Zeal Palace Main Area does (where you can walk beneath some parts like the walkways)

[Zakyrus]

Oh yeah, if you don't have... here is the TF Manual

http://ce.herograw.org/CL/Manual.zip

[Glennleo]

I definitely want to get my hands dirty with all this stuff, but this weekend is just horrible. I'm behind in my classes and yea, let's just leave it at that lol.

Once I get the hang of my course work this semester I will delve into the world of Temporal Flux. It's great programming, editing practice, which I'm sure I'll need in my future in some shape or form.

[Zakyrus]

Once I get the hang of my course work this semester I will delve into the world of Temporal Flux. It's great programming, editing practice, which I'm sure I'll need in my future in some shape or form.

Take your time. I may seem transient some times, but I assure you I am working on it. Progress may seem slow, but I Kyronea and I have made the decision not to make any public releases until the cut-scenes are pefected. I do hope to upload another test for you guys to try soon, I just want to get back upto Magus's Castle again.

Also, monsters will be slightly tweaked and about 80 new treasure chests (I'm not kidding) upto and through Magus's Castle. Bosses will be slightly harder (just a little bit) and will require more strategy than sheer brute force! Yay! I am doing this for many regular enemies as well. Epic battles will be just that!

Back on topic, lol.
I am going to say that all maps are public (within the CT+ project) exept the new areas. In fact, I am not sure of many of the new areas (I still am not fully sure how much space we have availaible) But I will say the Cleft of Dimensions quest is for sure as well as Sunken Zeal Palace. Valley of Giants may be changed to an "upgraded" Hunting Range style place, with rarer items of course!

Razorwind Peak may be cut as it was just an idea, but I'll instead add the storyline events to the Mystic Mountain Sidequest. Makes sense, and we don't have to code an new area that has no real relation to the CT world) But Mystic Mountains is VERY important (and EXPANDED!) I still have to redo some of the tiling, but I added alot of waterfalls/shadows like I did with the Truce Canyon area. (I like lots of scenery!)  Quest will be level 60 (Ayala's Sidequest)

Searing Chasm will still exist as I wanted a bonus treasure dungeon and wanted to have an area that you had to wait 20 minutes before you can reenter. (So you can't rack up stuff uber-fast) Especially when there Rubies and stuff that appear in there. However, it will probably be accessable from the World map. Level 70 area.

Searing Chasm will also be accessable from Death Peak 2300 A.F.
S.C. will be about the size of Heckran Caves (but will flowing Lava of course!) and filled with some level 80 mobs

If you enter it in Death Peak (both are pretty much close to where Lavos Landed!) that's why you can get to it from D.P.... anyways, I'm rabling, it will be full of Level 99 Lavos Spawn! Of course this version of the dungeon will ONLY be accessable on NewGame+ and will have some pretty uber items that drop randomly after battle!

I have the basics of Searing Chasm Layed out, I just need to be able to make a brand new palette that looks good with flowing lava! I'll post some screenshots once I finish this areas (won't be for a while since I'm still working on getting the DEMO to a testable stage)


Anyways, like I said. Any map you you find, you can expand (just don't use blank areas - I have uses for those)
Most areas that I need are Zeal Areas and 12,000 BG areas.

SirusD, after you get some of the Zeal Areas done, would you like to help me expand Alghetty? Cave areas are pretty easy (it's what I moved up to from Zeal Palace tiles).

[SirusD]

Yeah, I stumbled across the save bug once already Zak.  I had finished Enhasa then went back the next day to work on it again and boom...  Was back to the normal Enhasa.  That was a fun experience...

[SirusD]

As far as "new maps" go, there are at least 16 maps not used.  They're even named <empty map> or <empty data> so I'm pretty sure it's safe to assume that we don't have to worry much about those.  In addition to these, there area multiple duplicate maps that I can't for the life of me understand their purpose.  Some of them are labelled as (wrong map) which makes me think that they are not being used.  In that case, we could easily turn those rooms into whatever we want.

That gives us a lot of possibilities to work with.  We can add extra rooms to cities, make additional dungeons, etc.  I figure that dungeons take between 3 and 5 maps each, depending on how big we really want them to be.  Of course, if you're talking about something on the scale of the Black Omen or the Ocean Palace then you're talking about a lot more.

[SirusD]

So, my next project is fixing the mess that was made of the Cursed Woods.  I hate designing forests, so it may look a little messier than Enhasa did.  Forests aren't nearly as cut and dry.  You've got to do a lot with solidity to get things to work right.  On top of that, the tree line isn't very conducive to having long, sweeping seas of leaves to divide up areas.  And finally, the actual trunks of the trees is maddening to line up right....

Did I mention I hate forests?

I'll probably be done Monday since I have it off

[SirusD]

Okay, here's what I've gotten done with Cursed Woods. 



A few main things to note:

*The entrance has been shifted slightly to the right to make the area feel large.  Ironically, I built an area that accommodated the features near the original entrance almost exactly.

*Frog's Hide out is now more hidden.  I'd actually like to put a bush in the path that you have to push A to clear.  Maybe make it part of a new plot requirement (like you actually have to talk to the guy that tells you about the Frogs in the woods?)

*There's a hidden treasure chest!

*There's a large field that's open for now for whatever we can use.  I'm going to finish the beautification of it first, though.

Thoughts?  Ideas?  I happen to think it looks pretty damn good myself   For a forest at least...  I still hate them.

[Glennleo]

I really like it! Especially the hidden treasure chest, too bad it won't be hidden for me when I play lol.

I like the idea of having an open area that we can do anything we want in, but it looks kind of blah. I think all it needs really is some accent grass like around Frog's new entrance, and maybe a rock or two. It just seems too simple, but eh maybe simple is good.

EDIT: Ooops you said you were going to beautify it. My mistake.

[SirusD]

Who ever said that chest was going to stay there?    Chrono Trigger never had much in the way of hidden items like Final Fantasy VI did.  In particular, the Esper Factory had tons of stuff like that.  The only place they really did that was in Ozzie's Fort.  I think I may change that up a leedle bit.  At least give us the option of having something different.

I'm going to add a grassy field up in that area.  Just give it some personal touch.  I was reading through the added cutscenes about there being lots of mist in the cursed woods and they had to go back.  I think it was an added story event.  Anyway, I don't know exactly how to pull that trick off.  Granted, I'm sure it can be done with Layer 3 stuff, but events aren't my specialty.  I just make the maps, you guys go off and tinker with them!

[SirusD]

Tada!!

[Glennleo]

Bravissimo!

Excellent work.