195 replies to this topic

[Fire Blazer]

Yeah terrain wise there's not a lot of avoid/def bonuses and such so it's kinda bland with respect to that but if it were used in a hack strategic placement of flying units, archers, knights, and pirates could definitely spice up the map and make it a lot more interesting, what with the two sections being divided by a river but having the chokepoint bridge as a connecting point. In other words, it's got potential, and I like that.

[Snow]

Huge map (Click Here To Hide/Show Text)

V1:


V2:


Original:

Tilespam at it's finest. This started out as a map for a contest on TEB, and then I decided to try and remake the Valorous Roland map. The first one has more tilespam (in theory) so I tried to use one of the other tiles that the volcano tileset had, but the pallets a little weird..... anyway as usual any tips or critique, although in this case I would prefer if you didn't say tilespam, are welcome.

EDIT: Tried changing the tileset, got this as a result:

Huge map (Click Here To Hide/Show Text)

[Snow]

When one is bored AKA sick one has no choice but to make boring battle pallets.

Yeah.... I've been pretty bored today.... made these a while ago, thought I'd post them.

[GhastStation]

is it supposed to be like bronze weapons? that's pretty neat. I wish fe animations had different in-game animations for every type of weapon, but that seems like a lot of trouble. But I like the warriors recolor the most

[Fire Blazer]

Haha the fire map looks awesome, I'd totally use that in a hack/hope you are if you aren't already XD

The bronze palettes or whatever are also kinda cool though the faces being similarly colored is a little weird haha

@Ghast yeah the game doesn't have enough support for that, like it'd take more palette space/the game hardware just isn't good enough for it I don't think XD stinks but oh well, they did it in later games (unique-looking weapons were in FE10 and FE13 I think)

[Snow]

@Ghast: Thanks , I didn't really plan on them being anything but I got tired of the standard silver XD. I also got tired of the archers arrow thing being leather all the time so I made a silver one that I haven't posted here. And I also wish FE had different animations for different weapons, but I think that you couldn't manage that for a single class, say general, if you used every single other animation XD.

@Blazer: Thanks . I'd never made a map with that tileset so I decided to try. The pallets are me being sick/bored, but I had never even seen that little white pixel until I tried to color a sword red and it changed colors, so I don't really see it as weird.

[Fire Blazer]

Hm? I'm not sure you got what I meant XD I just meant that it was cool the weapons were recolored but I was a little surprised to see the skin tones also different/matching haha

[AbsolutelyTotalSilence]

Hector, Eliwood and Lyndis had their own custom animations for their personal weapons, but that's about it for the GBA games iirc. It wasn't just 10 and 13 that had unique weapons for everyone though, FE9 had the same feature that FE10 did there. Golden myrmidon/swordmaster blade looks pretty epic. (impractical irl to carry a weapon that heavy, but who cares)

[Snow]

Contest maps from TEB (Click Here To Hide/Show Text)

What it says XD.

[Fire Blazer]

The first one seems to use an interesting tileset, or at least one I haven't seen too much of before. What's that... water... area supposed to be? Just curious.

Second one looks cool and I like how there's a couple paths that look like they're really close to connecting. I bet a unit that could move over just one tile of water could reach over to the other side without it taking a bajillion turns and that'd make a cool terrain element.

The next one is simple but cool and depending on the direction the allies are trying to go in I could see some strategic unit placement making it a fun map

As for the last one, it's pretty simple and would fit for an early map but I think there's little to say about it in general, haha

And at this point your maps are pretty solid so I can't really offer much critique XD

[Cero]

First map is my favorite out of the four. But I have horrible taste and suck at artistic critique so I can't help you anymore than that.

[Snow]

Thanks Blazer, well we were supposed to design a castle with a courtyard, so I decided to add a pool, also helps split the yard in two areas. I also accept straight up praise.

Cero lol, "It's good", "It's bad" or "I think this looks weird" helps. XD

[Snow]

So I was bored today, and I have literally nothing important to do, so I thought I'd make a tutorial explaination of how I make mountains since that's what most people have trouble with (or so I've heard).

Step Zero: Look at the Tiles http://gyazo.com/e39...f9c757441c52051
Look at the mountain tiles for a while and see if you can figure out what they good for, I'll show what I use alot of them for but I won't show them all.

Step One: Make a Map http://gyazo.com/71c...2636ae8b7d2eeb1
So first step, you need a map.
That is the one I'll be using, isn't it beautiful, all spammy grass and nothing in sight?

Step Two: Decide where the Mountains are going http://gyazo.com/fbc...4ca37ef8ed2a20e
Ok so on to mountains. I start by outlining where the mountains will be, this can frequently change, and it probably will change alot depending on whether your mountain shows the top or not.
For this you'll want to use the:

Ground shadow tiles: http://gyazo.com/5f4...6345da4d7f77cb1
Ground mountain tiles: http://gyazo.com/b6a...ed6e29cac3cb00d
"Starter" Tiles: http://gyazo.com/5b5...55227e996500da1
*These don't show all of the tiles you could use, the mountain tiles are very scattered, but they are the ones you'll probably use the most.

Shadows go on the right and Mountains on the left as a general rule. Starters normally go somewhere in the middle.

Step Three: Start Placing some Peaks http://gyazo.com/98b...27d058a4d0d5702 and http://gyazo.com/117...7685c82616404bf
Now I normally put down the peaks that will be around. Now if you're anything like me you'll probably re-make these a couple of times until you feel satisfied, I changed it and ended up with the second link that's up there.
Now this is one of the harder parts of making mountains, first I'll show which tiles you normally use for this, they don't really have a name, so bare with me:

Monutain Range tiles (Only top Row) or something like that, use them to countine the moutnains: http://gyazo.com/dff...db0243f9e235cd1
Peaks, don't really know how else to phrase this : http://gyazo.com/d5f...8f10acd17ad4c21
Shifting Tiles (Bottom right corner), VERY important tile, lets you move your mountains one tile right: http://gyazo.com/506...7a5513f50a5ca20
Shifting Tiles 2, lets you move mountains to the left: http://gyazo.com/b08...6e490a73cc15a37
Shifting Tiles 3 (Only Bottom Row), lets you connect with shifting tiles 2 and some of the peaks: http://gyazo.com/dff...db0243f9e235cd1

Now, the "normal" way to make simple mountains is, Starting tile -> Range Tile -> Peak. On our practice map we have that here: http://gyazo.com/7d1...e3bba0c53087a69
After a Peak you can use a shifting tile to move left or right, so it becomes, Starting tile -> Range Tile -> Peak -> Shifting Tile -> Range Tile -> Peak. On our practice map you can see it here: http://gyazo.com/283...c5edf768d975932
*Something to keep in mind is that there are different types of peaks, I'll talk more about this later but if you look at the mountain tiles above you should be able to see them.

Step Four: Shading http://gyazo.com/e89...5bcc8224e4e450a
Now that I have my mountain range built, I fill in the blank spaces. The tiles you use for this are:

Shadow Tiles: http://gyazo.com/ecd...63956d47ab68a2a
Mountain Tiles: http://gyazo.com/29f...59cb1eb324331e5

The general rule, givin that alot of tiles break this rules, is that tiles that are right of Range or Peak tiles get shadow tiles and the ones on the left get mountain tiles. For the purposes of this tutorial I only used one of each, but you should get the idea. Now the blank space in the middle is on the left of on mountain line, and the right of another, so for this we use transition tiles.

Step Four: Transition http://gyazo.com/afe...9d2fd3e463c2f48

Transition Tiles: http://gyazo.com/027...3f8c43bce78a4b9 and http://gyazo.com/618...57f734fc7d52bfe

Transition tiles help you change from shadow tiles to mountain tiles. Now where you put them depends on you, notice how I placed them a tile away from the other peaks, instead of right next to them? This (supposedly) gives the impression that the peaks on the left are higher, but I could've placed them closer.
Now we just fill in the rest of the blank tiles and we should be good: http://gyazo.com/be7...1f9c8de8edf05d3

Step Five: Extra stuff you should always check anyways
Ok so our mountains look pretty decent now but there's still some stuff we could do to make it look better. For example here: http://gyazo.com/0a7...a939545a07de012
See how the peak has some shadow in it, even though there isn't any on the other side? Now remember when I said there are different kinds of peaks?

Other Peaks: http://gyazo.com/8d2...4b409f916921389
Other Peaks 2: http://gyazo.com/edf...cbf3777ef6155ac
*Other Peaks 2 has the original peaks BTW.

Now you can see that some peaks have no shadow, some have shadow on the right, some have shadow on the left, some have shadow all around. Now in the situation I showed above, we don't want it to have shadow at all, same thing for the peak here: http://gyazo.com/a41...0a4a53b0ca291b2
So we replace them with one of the peaks that doesn't have shadow and we get this (Notice how the transition tiles changed a bit): http://gyazo.com/b18...9f0a1864e4141b9

Now if you were paying attention you also noticed that some of the tiles also have a... lets say a second peak. This helps for transition and some other stuff. See here: http://gyazo.com/052...dba39b4a5c8f332
The peak tile has a little groove in the upper left corner of the tile, this helps with connecting a path to the left with the "Shifting Tiles 3", you can also use it in combination with the "Shifting Tiles 2" to do something like this: http://gyazo.com/0cc...02791ec59bef8c4
See how the mountain moves to the left and then starts going up again? It then connects with a "Peak Tiles", though I could've also used a "Shifting Tile 3".

Ok this is the last thing I'll say, I've never really seen the point but I'll show it anyway, did you notice (it's ok if you didn't) that some of the peaks and range tiles have... I guess you could call them shades? How some of them are darker than others? Well you can normally get away with just using the darker tiles, but if you want, you can use them to make it seem like parts of the mountain are less jagged I guess. It also helps to make the mountain looks less spammy.
Something like this: http://gyazo.com/844...6a976d2ab63d3bd
Notice that you also have to use some of the mountain tiles to make the transition between jagged and smooth.

Step Six: Do the Rest of the map
Exactly what it says on the tin. Also make sure to de-spam the grass and shadows: http://gyazo.com/f80...abb90631fa44bfc


Hope this is of help to someone, and if it is tell me so I can post it somewhere in the tutorial section.

[Snow]

I haven't posted a map in a while.

[Snow]

x (Click Here To Hide/Show Text)

I was bored. Also double post. For some reason the image keeps getting reduced in size... The rooms that are empty are supposed to be the dungeons BTW.

[Fire Blazer]

Looks great, a little scared about anyone trying to escape their prison through that cracked wall though--they'd have to jump down a floor, wouldn't they?

Is it just me or did you forget shading near the staircase below the water area at the top-right? (to the right of the pillar, I'm not sure)

The tileset looks a little unique btw, I don't remember waterfalls looking like that or water having shading... XP

[Snow]

QUOTE

The tileset looks a little unique btw, I don't remember waterfalls looking like that or water having shading... XP

It's the FE8 castle tileset, and I'm pretty sure the waterfalls are in the game I just can't find a map with them XD

QUOTE

Is it just me or did you forget shading near the staircase below the water area at the top-right? (to the right of the pillar, I'm not sure)

....Damnit I did

[Snow]

So I took up spriting for a bit:

 

There are some other ones but I couldn't find them... Also I don't remember if I was working with 16 colors when I made these so that might be wrong XD

 

The first guy is Noa, he's a Kings/Lords bastard son and an all around decent guy. class is sniper jeigan, he normally gets hurt in the foot before the first chapter to explain why he has such crappy speed.

The second guy was me trying to make custom hair. yes his eyes turned out really derpy.

The third guy was me trying to make a sprite using 3 different dudes.

 

[Oblivion Knight]

Someone appearing so young is definately new for a jeigan-esque character but hey your call. Also odd for a son of such a high stature to be be a mere Sniper as well. Like you'd expect someone from such high standing to be trained in riding a horse, so even being ranger over just a sniper would make sense, you know? Not sure why I'm really debating your own character design, but it's just something that came to my mind when I read your description. 

 

Despite being like 2 years since I sprited, its still odd that I can still remember what some of these pieces are from. lol

[Snow]

Sorry forgot to mention that he doesn't know that he's a royal bastard... I might as well write this about my OCs now so I don't have to do it again.
 

Here's the backstory right now (since this changes almost every week, also it's very bare bones):

So you've got this typical fantasy/medieval world/country where everyone can use magic. There an unnamed that believes that all magic comes from the soul, and that's why everyone has at least some small ability when it comes to magic. Since most people can't do more than make something float magic isn't really a part of every day life but it's said that the more powerful your soul the more powerful your soul is the more powerful your magic is.  At some point the church and the mages in it "rebel" and try to establish a theocracy.

 

Enter Veran, a normal kid who has little to almost no magic ability. He lives in a small village with his friend Noa the orphan. When the mages rebel that village is attacked. Most people manage to flee the village, including Noa, but Veran and his family's home is attacked by the mages. The Army of this world/country  later uses this destroyed village as a base of operations, and finds Veran completely unharmed from the magical attacks of the mages. Eventually they figure out that Veran is essentially anti-magic and they start to train him as a battle commander and special soldier.

 

Eventually Noa and Veran are reunited and they continue they're now personal war against the mages. During this war Veran develops the ability to create an antimagic field, and he begins to grow famous as "The Souless Swordsman". He is also given command of a unit called "Spellbanes", with Noa as his second command. After the war ends both Veran and Noa meet the king and given Noa's red eyes, something only the royal family is supposed to have, the king figures out that he's a royal bastard. He tells Veran to keep his son safe but doesn't claim him because Noa is older than his legit son Nev and could cause succession problems.

Eventually Nev joins the military and is placed in the Spellbane unit, without him or Noa knowing that they are brothers.

 

Essentially:

Veran: Young War vet and commander, hated by religious people.
Noa: Second in command, unknown royal bastard.

Nev: Royal Prince, Mage, is scared of Veran because of the Souless thing.

 

 

Aaaaand that's the backstory (for now) of my (hypothetical) hack characters.