Author Topic: YK's random map progress thread  (Read 70598 times)

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Offline YelseyKing

  • Newbie
  • *
  • Posts: 45
Re: YK's random map progress thread
« Reply #30 on: October 26, 2024, 07:10:47 pm »
Oh hey. I'm bumping a thread that I haven't posted in since... jeez, 2016? It's been *that* long?

Well... obviously I never got around to doing the various things I mentioned here, and for that, I apologize, but... I've decided to take on a new project. Dungeons & Dragons: Warriors of the Eternal Sun, for Genesis. A game I played a long time ago, as a kid, but never actually *finished*. It's kind of like... I dunno, "Ultima 6 meets Eye of the Beholder", I guess? A few large, sprawling overworld maps with turn-based battles, and first-person dungeons with action-based fighting. The overworld maps would be ripped directly, of course, whereas I'd map out the dungeons manually.

It's been ages since I played this game, so I'm definitely looking forward to this project. It's gonna be a bit of a hassle, since the Genesis emulator I'm using isn't *quite* as feature-friendly as the NES and SNES ones I've ripped maps with in the past, but it's very much doable.

Offline YelseyKing

  • Newbie
  • *
  • Posts: 45
Re: YK's random map progress thread
« Reply #31 on: October 27, 2024, 08:09:53 pm »
Got started on it properly last night. The dungeon maps are going smoothly, and won't be a problem, but the overworld maps may be an issue... I don't know if it's my antique image editor (Paint Shop Pro 5... yay for turn of the millennium software!) or just my aging PC in general, but I don't think I can do a *full* overworld (if an image's dimensions are too large, I get an "out of memory" error when I try to save). I've seen huge maps here before (e.g. FlyingArmor's massive 16k*16k Ultima 6 overworld maps), so I was wondering... I can rip smaller chunks of the map, and if I did, could someone else here with the means combine them into one large one? Thanks!

Offline Cyartog959

  • Jr. Member
  • **
  • Posts: 90
Re: YK's random map progress thread
« Reply #32 on: October 27, 2024, 09:37:09 pm »
Good to see you're back on the forums. Much has changed since you were last online here. That is to say, so many maps have been uploaded, and VGMaps grew greatly.

I presume your PC's hardware's not capable of seeing and/or making larger maps because of how your present configuration is. Others have done some upkeep on it time to time. But, there's still loads of games out there yet to be mapped, and lots more to come.

To be on the safe side, and to keep what you have without disposing your work, programs, and so on, in my safe and wise perspective, I think you might need an additional PC, should you save enough for it, that is, with stronger hardware, more memory, etc., if you want to take on doing larger/longer maps for your work, while keeping and preserving your PC, and backup everything you have in your separate, external drives.

There's also, of course, specific programs that help streamline such processes, such as Tiled, not that you've heard of it before. It's a very good map editing program, once you get the hang of it.

Nice to hear that you're back on your mapping progress, though! Hope you can still keep it up.

I feel that, to be honest, long-absent mappers that weren't here in long should be a bit more communicative now and then, just to keep getting acquainted. We should try to communicate a bit more often.

Offline YelseyKing

  • Newbie
  • *
  • Posts: 45
Re: YK's random map progress thread
« Reply #33 on: November 03, 2024, 06:32:03 pm »
Just popping back in to say that I am hard at work on this, and I should be able to get it done without any assistance. It's slow going, but I'm making steady progress. Mostly, it's the main overworld map that's taking forever to assemble, but it'll get there eventually.

Offline FlyingArmor

  • Full Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 225
Re: YK's random map progress thread
« Reply #34 on: November 04, 2024, 09:51:17 am »
Hey Yelseyking!  8)

I've decided to take on a new project. Dungeons & Dragons: Warriors of the Eternal Sun, for Genesis. A game I played a long time ago, as a kid, but never actually *finished*. It's kind of like... I dunno, "Ultima 6 meets Eye of the Beholder", I guess? A few large, sprawling overworld maps with turn-based battles, and first-person dungeons with action-based fighting. The overworld maps would be ripped directly, of course, whereas I'd map out the dungeons manually.

That game looks really cool! I especially like the military projection that's reminiscent of Ultima VI and VIII. When I first encountered it playing Ultima VI for the first time, I found it to be really strange, but it grew on me over time. It's also a really smart way of showing all sides of a building while still sticking to a tile grid system for graphics.

Got started on it properly last night. The dungeon maps are going smoothly, and won't be a problem, but the overworld maps may be an issue... I don't know if it's my antique image editor (Paint Shop Pro 5... yay for turn of the millennium software!) or just my aging PC in general, but I don't think I can do a *full* overworld (if an image's dimensions are too large, I get an "out of memory" error when I try to save). I've seen huge maps here before (e.g. FlyingArmor's massive 16k*16k Ultima 6 overworld maps), so I was wondering... I can rip smaller chunks of the map, and if I did, could someone else here with the means combine them into one large one? Thanks!

When I worked on the Ultima VI overworld map you spoke of, I had to break it up into four quadrants when building it up, because my PC was otherwise severely underpowered for such a gigantic image. When bringing them all together, I think I had to export them as separate image files because having the current quadrant plus the gigantic target file open at the same time would've been impossible. I even had to ask someone else to optimize the PNG because my machine didn't want to coƶperate with such an onerous task, haha.

I wouldn't mind helping you stitch the chunks together into a single image. The PC I have now is far and away much better equipped than the previous one (having 16x more RAM certainly helps), so whenever you're ready, you can send them to zanazac( at )protonmail.com and I'll put them together for ya! :D

Offline YelseyKing

  • Newbie
  • *
  • Posts: 45
Re: YK's random map progress thread
« Reply #35 on: November 04, 2024, 01:26:32 pm »
I wouldn't mind helping you stitch the chunks together into a single image. The PC I have now is far and away much better equipped than the previous one (having 16x more RAM certainly helps), so whenever you're ready, you can send them to zanazac( at )protonmail.com and I'll put them together for ya! :D

Heh, thanks for the offer, but as it turns out, the overall map size is quite a bit smaller than I thought. I've narrowed the dimensions down to 6144x6144, which, while not exactly *tiny*, is still a good bit smaller than, say, that Ultima 6 map. I'm pretty sure my PC can handle it. But if not, I'll keep you in mind. :D

I actually finished one of the other two overworld maps (the swamp), which was much smaller and more easily done, and I suspect the third one (the jungle) won't be a huge deal, either. I'd say I'm probably about 70% finished with the main overworld, and most of the work after that will be in the dungeons, of which I've still only explored a few so far.

And yeah, it's a neat game. It's not the *greatest*, but it's honestly aged surprisingly well. My childhood memories of it were that it was a lot jankier than it ended up actually *being*. I'm enjoying it, at any rate, and look forward to showing off my work when it's done, and hopefully increasing awareness of this unsung little gem.

Offline FlyingArmor

  • Full Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 225
Re: YK's random map progress thread
« Reply #36 on: November 05, 2024, 06:55:12 pm »
Okay, no worries! That's good to hear it didn't turn out to be nearly as massive as you first thought.

Looking forward to see how they all turn out! :D

Offline YelseyKing

  • Newbie
  • *
  • Posts: 45
Re: YK's random map progress thread
« Reply #37 on: November 08, 2024, 02:49:27 am »
Making some very good progress. I've mapped out most of the main world, all of the swamp, and am working on the jungle... and I made a discovery that makes my job a lot easier. Seems the overworld maps are made up of 192x192 chunks, and that quite a few of these, especially in the swamp and jungle, are just infinitely repeating beyond a certain point. Also helped me to determine the main overworld's proper alignment. I might have this done in another week. Maybe two. Depending on how fast I work. :P

I've also taken period breaks from the overworld maps to do dungeon maps. I have most of the small side caves (there's one I've yet to find; might be in the one region I can't yet reach, for all I know), but some of the later ones are gigantic, so those will be a good time, heh.

Offline YelseyKing

  • Newbie
  • *
  • Posts: 45
Re: YK's random map progress thread
« Reply #38 on: November 12, 2024, 02:23:26 am »
Another quick update. I've finished all the overworld mapping! The jungle was confusing and boring. So many trees. So little *else*. :P

All I have left are a few dungeon, so I should have this project wrapped up and submitted by the end of the week, barring anything weird happening.

Offline YelseyKing

  • Newbie
  • *
  • Posts: 45
Re: YK's random map progress thread
« Reply #39 on: November 15, 2024, 02:24:02 am »
Finished and submitted.

Let me tell you... that final dungeon was a gigantic pain to map out... and you'll all see *why* when it appears on the site. Good gourds. :P

Anyway. This was a fun project overall. Gave me a chance to revisit a game I liked from my childhood, and hopefully give this forgotten gem some much needed exposure!

Offline Cyartog959

  • Jr. Member
  • **
  • Posts: 90
Re: YK's random map progress thread
« Reply #40 on: November 16, 2024, 02:31:42 am »
Dropped by to say I'm astounded you tackled such a forgotten Dungeons and Dragons game as Warriors of the Eternal Sun, and you were quite the explorer in mapping out each and every single area there and withstood every dangerous trap and defeated all those ferocious monsters down below the dungeons, not to mention discovering so much treasure, too.

I also saw the map and understood why that last Dungeon, Schattenalfen Elven Realms, was a pain to map through because of how complex that is, but, that effort's worth it, anyway. That'll really help out those that had trouble getting through it with newfound confidence.

*sigh* Nothing like a good ol'-fashioned Tactical RPG adventure to get you going.

Brief question, but, thought of doing "Order of the Griffon" next? It's one of TurboGrafx's games not yet mapped. If you're doing a different game, fine. Thought it'd be a good recommendation.