Author Topic: FlyingArmor's Map Projects Present and Future  (Read 310645 times)

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Offline JonLeung

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Re: FlyingArmor's Map Projects Present and Future
« Reply #150 on: September 12, 2019, 08:09:47 am »

So, any chance of completion of the Final Fantasy VII overworld before March 2020?  :P

Offline FlyingArmor

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Re: FlyingArmor's Map Projects Present and Future
« Reply #151 on: September 14, 2019, 04:55:40 pm »
After my trip to Japan in October I'll definitely have the time to finally devote to working on the world map. Plus now that there's a concrete release date for FF7 Remake, that's help spur me on. :D

Offline JonLeung

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Re: FlyingArmor's Map Projects Present and Future
« Reply #152 on: September 14, 2019, 07:53:01 pm »
I'm considering going to Japan next year!  My co-worker's been twice recently and he says it's easy to get around in Tokyo without needing to know English.  (EDIT: I meant "...needing to know Japanese, as most people in Tokyo know enough English.")  Let me know how your trip goes!
« Last Edit: September 16, 2019, 01:18:47 pm by JonLeung »

Offline FlyingArmor

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Re: FlyingArmor's Map Projects Present and Future
« Reply #153 on: September 14, 2019, 08:22:06 pm »
My co-worker's been twice recently and he says it's easy to get around in Tokyo without needing to know English.

I think you mean " without needing to know Japanese"? ;)

My friends and I have been planning this trip since the beginning of this year, so I'm certainly looking forward to visiting and exploring that beautiful country. It's always been a dream of mine to go there ever since I became fixated on the Japanese language (through video games and manga), so I'm really excited to finally see that dream come true!

I've got a notebook of all the books and other stuff I'd like to get while I'm there, the bulk of it being books related to video games that are out-of-print for the most part. Although I have some things I'm set on finding, I'll probably find a lot of things I never knew existed and just can't resist, haha! :D But we'll see how it goes.

And of course, I'll be sure to write up a trip report or something to that effect afterwards.
« Last Edit: September 14, 2019, 08:24:13 pm by FlyingArmor »

Offline JonLeung

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Re: FlyingArmor's Map Projects Present and Future
« Reply #154 on: September 16, 2019, 01:28:38 pm »
I found this YouTube channel called "Abroad In Japan", which I've watched a few episodes of to learn some things about the sights and culture.  Here's a good video about what NOT to do there:


Today on reddit (which in the past few months I've used lots, whereas I rarely ever did before) I found this interesting thread: My Completely-Excessive Japan Travel Megamap, or more directly, here, a behemoth Japan map that redditor CorbeauNoir01483 made when planning a Japan trip and decided to share, because it now has way more information than one traveler probably needs.

On the gaming side of things, I heard Nintendo Tokyo (the Tokyo equivalent of Nintendo New York, formerly Nintendo World Store) is opening (or opened?) in Q3 2019, and Super Nintendo World is supposed to open at Universal Studios Tokyo next spring or at least before the Olympics.

I guess we're straying off topic, but I look forward to anything you share about your trip!

Offline FlyingArmor

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Re: FlyingArmor's Map Projects Present and Future
« Reply #155 on: October 01, 2019, 03:43:16 pm »
Mapping for Shinseiki Odysselya is finally done (or rather it was two weeks ago)! Some maps had dragged on this project for more time than I would have liked, but at least it's now complete.

As for what to do next, I'll focus on finishing up a few of the mapping projects that I started but haven't completely finished up yet, such as Ultima IV: Quest of the Avatar and Final Fantasy VII, before starting anything new.

Offline FlyingArmor

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Re: FlyingArmor's Map Projects Present and Future
« Reply #156 on: January 10, 2020, 12:27:04 pm »
One game I didn't think I'd be finishing up is Lufia & The Fortress of Doom. I was going through the game capturing the enemy sprites for a sprite sheet I'm making and I noticed there were several areas I didn't bother mapping when I was working on this game ten years ago.

They were mostly shrine type areas like the four shrines that warp you to Doom Island and other areas where no chests or hidden items exist. From a gameplay perspective, I didn't think mapping those areas out would've been all that helpful to players looking for hidden items and such, so I suppose I skipped them for that reason. Well, many years later, and I'm much more likely to map out any area that's seen in-game, even if it's just for short cutscene. :D

Offline JonLeung

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Re: FlyingArmor's Map Projects Present and Future
« Reply #157 on: March 25, 2020, 10:36:30 pm »

FlyingArmor, you might want to take a look.  Actually, everyone should, this is seriously cool.  I like many of Andy Dick's Atlas Vids, where he takes playthroughs (often speedruns from people such as Lord Tom), but I LOVE this one in particular.  Maybe it's the small sprites against a large and detailed, yet very full map (no blank areas), that when watching on a big TV, it's just so impressive.

Great job for making this map, FlyingArmor!

Offline FlyingArmor

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Re: FlyingArmor's Map Projects Present and Future
« Reply #158 on: March 27, 2020, 11:21:53 am »
Wow, very cool! Thanks for bringing this to my attention, Jon. I never thought anything like this would be done with my maps, so it's really nice to see this! One thing I didn't know before watching the video was that the boss fights take place in separate areas from the main dungeon, so I suppose I'll have to amend my map with those. :)

Offline JonLeung

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Re: FlyingArmor's Map Projects Present and Future
« Reply #159 on: March 27, 2020, 04:12:44 pm »
If you're going to add the boss rooms onto the same image, might I suggest putting them to the left of the main dungeon?  Because if you're going to extend the image leftward anyway, then you could line up the entry ladder.

It does seem kind of funny that this family lives so close to the entry of a massive dungeon teeming with monsters...

Offline FlyingArmor

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Re: FlyingArmor's Map Projects Present and Future
« Reply #160 on: May 12, 2020, 08:25:36 pm »
Not too long ago, I finished up Phantasy Star II. It is no wonder this game needs maps for anyone to make any sense out of its labyrinthine dungeons, as was provided in the instruction manual when it first came out back in 1989. I hope my maps can help those struggling with navigating this game to get through it without ripping their hair out. ;D

And speaking of games from the 1980's, I have recently sent in the map of Dungeon of Despise from Ultima IV: Quest of the Avatar for the PC. I had submitted my maps for the townes, villages, and castles back in January 2019, but had struggled with laying out the dungeons in an aesthetically pleasing way since then. After much trial and error, I finally came across a style that I liked for the dungeon levels as well as a way of depicting where the pressure plates in the various rooms are and what happens when you stand on them. So all in all, I'm happy with what I came up with and will now apply this to the rest of the dungeons in the game. Mapping the Abyss is gonna be quite the ordeal though, but I'm up for the challenge!

Offline TerraEsperZ

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Re: FlyingArmor's Map Projects Present and Future
« Reply #161 on: May 12, 2020, 09:31:01 pm »
I like the way you depicted the pressure plate effects, as it's immediately obvious what they do.

As for the dungeon levels, I'm a bit torn between depicting the layout logically (8 x 8 tiles with wrap-around) and physically (as they would appear if mapped traditionally). This way is more consistent with every level being the same size and uses space better, but the layouts are bit harder to grasp just by looking at them. It's a matter of preference I guess and faced with a similar choice, I'd probably be partially unhappy with both depictions and just give up on the project wholesale.

Kudos for sticking with it, which I imagine must not be easy considering how old and outdated that game is nowadays!
Current project:
Mega Man: Powered Up (PSP)

Offline FlyingArmor

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Re: FlyingArmor's Map Projects Present and Future
« Reply #162 on: May 13, 2020, 12:32:36 am »
Thanks Terra! I'm glad that you find the pressure plate portion easy to understand. I just noticed a mistake with room 12 where the step markers are in the wrong instances of the room, so I'll be sure that's fixed for my next update.

I totally understand your frustration with how to depict the dungeon levels, as I had had them as well. I was at first wanting to show them in the more traditional way rather than in the squares I eventually put them into, but after examining some of the levels from this dungeon as well as others, I opted for the square layout partly for saving space as you mentioned, but also so it would be easier to see where the ladders connect between levels without the need for alphabetic markers. Another consideration was for the Up and Down spells, as it would be easier to see where you will end up between levels. Also, there are levels that wrap around from all sides anyway, and if mapped out traditionally would end up with maps that go on forever in all directions, so confining those ones to squares is a necessity (the fifth level of Dungeon Wrong being one such).

But I do understand they're a bit more difficult to read. When I was going through this dungeon to verify where things were as well as the pressure plate stuff, I was looking at my map and having to double and triple check that I was going in the right direction a few times. Luckily with Ultima III, the dungeons don't wrap around on themselves, so they'd be easier to make maps for as well as read, though each level is four times as big (16 x 16 tile grid as opposed to 8 x 8 in Ultima IV).

It's not too hard to stick with something you love, so while the user interface is rather clunky and would be considered very unintuitive nowadays (reading the manual is certainly mandatory for a game like this!), I do love it for its world-building and the art style the PC version exhibits. And I suppose a hindsight reason would be because it is not nearly as brutal as a lot of CRPGs were in the 1980's, such as Wizardry or Pool of Radiance, to name only two examples. After seeing a number of videos highlighting retro RPGs from that era through Matt Barton's channel on Youtube, it gives me an extraordinarily great appreciation for not having to pool and split gold constantly, memorize then rememorize spells after they've been used via camping, or roll then reroll your stats over and over again to make sure your character has a relatively decent balance for their character class, then rinse and repeat five more times. So comparing it with those games, Ultima IV isn't that bad. Plus having a save editor really helps! :D

Offline FlyingArmor

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Re: FlyingArmor's Map Projects Present and Future
« Reply #163 on: July 23, 2020, 07:47:22 pm »
I just submitted two maps for The Addams Family: Pugsley's Scavenger Hunt for the SNES. I had actually mapped them five years ago, but didn't think to submit them until I had a few more of the levels done. Since then, I hadn't made any more progress, but since seeing this game on Jon's Requests list, I thought I may be as well submit what I've got.

Also, I've begun making a bit more progress with mapping Ultima VI: The False Prophet for the PC. Because there are so many more items you can actually pick up in this version, I thought the legends would get a bit unwieldy with the sheer number of items that can be acquired (like chairs, wall mounts, silverware, inkwells, and other such furnishings), but after mapping Cove and Skara Brae, it doesn't look to be too bad so far, though I wonder how bad it'll get with the bigger towns like Britain, haha. :D I haven't submitted anything yet, but will likely do so in the next few days once I have a few more maps put together.

Offline JonLeung

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Re: FlyingArmor's Map Projects Present and Future
« Reply #164 on: July 24, 2020, 07:58:36 am »
For The Addams Family: Pugsley's Scavenger Hunt, it will be interesting to see how you do Stage 4: Dragons Fire, especially the background/foreground.  This is the one that takes place in the attic but is seen through Granny's crystal ball...

Ultima VI: The False Prophet does have a bazillion objects, doesn't it?  As a game I just happened to find on our first PC (my dad got it used), it was one of the aspects of the game that just blew me away.  With so many objects that can be picked up, used, and interacted with, it really opened my eyes as to how big games could be.  Now open-world games are kind of a bit TOO commonplace, but back in 1990 or whatever, this was a revelation to me.
« Last Edit: July 24, 2020, 12:44:44 pm by JonLeung »