Complete, elaborate overworld in need of dungeons

[DrPhil]

I have completed a very thorough overworld using a heavily modified 210test tileset.

If anyone who is good at making dungeons would like to contribute, or if you just want to check out the overworld design, please reply here and I'll post the quest somewhere.:D

[DrPhil]

Here's a link to where you can download it.

I tried to cover all the basic areas: Village, forest, mountain, desert, snow, lake, etc., but there are a few more original areas as well. I'm proud in particular of the cancer-themed area off of the southern area of the map. Every tile in that area was custom crafted my me. It may need a little work still, but hey, at least it's original.

Anyway, here's the link:

http://www.box.net/shared/d9t4o99l4a

As I said, it's definetely a work-in-progress, but if anyone could help me with the dungeons, I would be eternally grateful.

:banghead:Because I hate making dungeons.

[Joe123]

Wow, this is really impressive. If there's a way to save it and upload the overworld up here that would be good though. And some of the missaligning screens where you have trees running into mountains and stuff look a little off

[DrPhil]

Thank you for the positive feedback! It's good to know that my hours upon hours of boredom have not been a total waste! hahaha Nothing like ZQuest for a boring day with nothing to do.

Anyway, I've cobbed together a photo version for anyone who doesn't really feel like downloading the whole dang thing. Keep in mind that this ins't a perfect version here, it's just strung together from screenshots, hence the black lines every now and again. Sometimes things didn't align right, either...

Here's the link:

http://www.box.net/shared/jrokg6eff9


As for getting it uploaded here, doesn't it have to be a finished quest to go into the quest db?

Btw, what did you think of the cancer area? (The weird place south of the rest of the world)

[Joe123]

Oh no sorry, I meant to put a picture of the overworld in this thread. Which is what you've done, so yeah :p. Is the cancer bit that little bit of lava in the middle at the bottom?

[DrPhil]

Oh no sorry, I meant to put a picture of the overworld in this thread. Which is what you've done, so yeah :p. Is the cancer bit that little bit of lava in the middle at the bottom?

Yeah, but it's actually a lot bigger than that, if you'll play it in zelda classic, then use the raft on that little purple dock you can sail south to the island. The pathway going further south goes to a larger area with that tileset, meant to be used as a kind of final dungeon. The area is something like 3x3, but it's all very cool to look at.

[DarkFlameWolf]

Not bad for a freshman effort, but you can do so much more with that tileset. There is a lot of blank space and a lot of seemingly 'disconnected' places in the overworld. As if its individual separate pieces rather than one cohesive overworld. Good start, but requires a lot more refining. I'd personally scrap and start over from scratch but still keep the basic outline of where every section is. But try to interconnect them in a more logical fashion.

[DrPhil]

Not bad for a freshman effort, but you can do so much more with that tileset. There is a lot of blank space and a lot of seemingly 'disconnected' places in the overworld. As if its individual separate pieces rather than one cohesive overworld. Good start, but requires a lot more refining. I'd personally scrap and start over from scratch but still keep the basic outline of where every section is. But try to interconnect them in a more logical fashion.
Could you give me a few examples? Which areas do you think are best, which do you think are worst? btw, thanks again for the input.

[DarkFlameWolf]

Honestly? None. I'm not trying to be harsh, its just how I see it. Lots of empty-ness and lots of disjointed areas. I know you are using newfirst, the closest tileset I have used that comes close to what you are using is the Gameboy tileset. So I suggest taking a gander at Ganon's Claim that I made and just view the types of things I utilized in making a simple tileset look appealing.

.....reading back through this post, if it appears I'm talking down to you, I'm not, just relaying what I feel would help you the best.

[Zelda_Warrior]

Making a good overworld with modified newfirst is very hard. For beginners it's easy to make good overworlds with the pure tileset, but that is far overused. Classic is easy to make good overworlds with if you have a modified version of it, otherwise there's not enough tiles in it to make a decent one. Basically for new people, try to stay away from the newfirst tilesets and the gameboy tilesets. Of course you can use custom tilesets, but i'm talking about the main tilesets that people use that are seen more often.

You can try to change tilesets and rip the custom tiles you made, and once you get more experienced at making overworlds, you can switch to newfirst and make a remake of it or something if you like the way newfirst looks.

The main problem is the emptyness. The only real way to get better at making overworlds is to make them. Through experience you gain ideas and develop your own overworld style, whether it's unique or not. I see you have a problem with things touching. Like, the overworld looks like a kind of overworld were trees cant touch houses, mountains and hills can't touch water, etc.

Although that's usually for people who don't like things touching, some people who don't mind, do it subconsciously. Let things touch and it will open a new world. You will be able to fit much more in one screen. To tell you the truth, a simple 11X16 screen is NOT enough room to make elaborate overworlds and dungeons (Especially dungeons if you have two-tile long walls on the sides, unless it's free-form style.) So, to make up for small screens you will need to compact everything together moreso than you would think you need.

Personally I think that is your only true problem. Yes, your overworld is very expansive and looks good from far away, but to tell you the truth, it isn't that great up close. I expected good things looking at the picture, but then once I loaded up the quest, I wasn't impressed. I understand you're new though.

Almost EVERYBODY starts out making bad overworlds. Heck, my first overworld was a barren land with armoses in the original ZC graphics. Then, I made my first quest. It had grass,trees, and ruins and buildings, but it just wasn't good. But now, I consider myself fairly decent at making overworlds. Although i'm not as good as the bigger questmaker's names out there, through experience i've gotten better. I think you need that too. Experience, and also start to build things closer together.

I tried giving you advice that most people don't give. I check these forums day by day and see sooo many overworlds like yours. They always ask for advice, and everybody says the same thing: it's too bland. However, they don't tell HOW to make it better. And if they do, they always say the same thing: put more in it. Well, i'm trying to take a different approach. DFW left a better comment than most I see in this section for people asking help; you are lucky. If you took the time to read this comment then I hope it helps you a lot in the future.

[Zelda_Warrior]

Making a good overworld with modified newfirst is very hard. For beginners it's easy to make good overworlds with the pure tileset, but that is far overused. Classic is easy to make good overworlds with if you have a modified version of it, otherwise there's not enough tiles in it to make a decent one. Basically for new people, try to stay away from the newfirst tilesets and the gameboy tilesets. Of course you can use custom tilesets, but i'm talking about the main tilesets that people use that are seen more often.

You can try to change tilesets and rip the custom tiles you made, and once you get more experienced at making overworlds, you can switch to newfirst and make a remake of it or something if you like the way newfirst looks.

The main problem is the emptyness. The only real way to get better at making overworlds is to make them. Through experience you gain ideas and develop your own overworld style, whether it's unique or not. I see you have a problem with things touching. Like, the overworld looks like a kind of overworld were trees cant touch houses, mountains and hills can't touch water, etc.

Although that's usually for people who don't like things touching, some people who don't mind, do it subconsciously. Let things touch and it will open a new world. You will be able to fit much more in one screen. To tell you the truth, a simple 11X16 screen is NOT enough room to make elaborate overworlds and dungeons (Especially dungeons if you have two-tile long walls on the sides, unless it's free-form style.) So, to make up for small screens you will need to compact everything together moreso than you would think you need.

Personally I think that is your only true problem. Yes, your overworld is very expansive and looks good from far away, but to tell you the truth, it isn't that great up close. I expected good things looking at the picture, but then once I loaded up the quest, I wasn't impressed. I understand you're new though.

Almost EVERYBODY starts out making bad overworlds. Heck, my first overworld was a barren land with armoses in the original ZC graphics. Then, I made my first quest. It had grass,trees, and ruins and buildings, but it just wasn't good. But now, I consider myself fairly decent at making overworlds. Although i'm not as good as the bigger questmaker's names out there, through experience i've gotten better. I think you need that too. Experience, and also start to build things closer together.

I tried giving you advice that most people don't give. I check these forums day by day and see sooo many overworlds like yours. They always ask for advice, and everybody says the same thing: it's too bland. However, they don't tell HOW to make it better. And if they do, they always say the same thing: put more in it. Well, i'm trying to take a different approach. DFW left a better comment than most I see in this section for people asking help; you are lucky. If you took the time to read this comment then I hope it helps you a lot in the future.


EDIT: Woah! I posted twice on accident. Sorry about that... I only clicked the button once... Weird.

[bigjoe]

Even with all of its flaws, it would still be a shame to throw this overworld away. Will no one help him design the dungeons?

[Zelda_Warrior]

Nobody said scrap it... It's bad to throw away work with no use. He can save it somewhere and something. Once he gets dungeons made he can then take it out again and add the dungeons, and then modify the overworld. This is all advice, its his overworld so he can do whatever he wants with it. I'd help him design dungeons but he didn't leave much information... Just that somebody is needed to make them.

[DarkFlameWolf]

well, I said personally scrap it. That's what I've done before. I can count 3 times in the past where I've literally scrapped an entire quest because I simply wasn't happy with what I was doing. And thankfully it ended up for the better-ment of the quest. Fragments of Power is one such quest I can label off hand. The overworld at first was too linear, too narrow and too confining with no real direction with how I wanted it to expand from your starting point. So I simply just scrapped it totally and it turned out better than the original design I had in mind.