This guide is created by Roefl, I do not care if you use it on any kind of other forums, please do not claim it to be yours.
Also, if you you do not think there is an "advanced" way of mapping, please leave this thread.
These maps are quickly made to show what I mean, they're not actuall in-game maps.
1.0 EoMap.
1.1 Creating a map.
1.2 How to start mapping my map.
1.3 Fixing you base design.
1.4 Patching up your "crap".
2.0 Roofs and top tiles.
2.1 Optical ilussion.
2.2 Special tiles.
2.3 Always save the maps like
Introduction.
It's been awhile since I've made a guide like this one and I'd like to teach everyone
how to make an Endless Online map how the pro's do it.
Everyone knows how to create a map, throw some tiles in there and it is functioning well.
I've been working with Eomap for quite a bit and I know people like to join servers that
have a well mapped game also the average player count increases with high notch pixels.
What I'm going to show you all in this guide is what people do wrong when creating a map.
In what order the should make a map, and also how to make it more appealing to look at.
Also thinking about the box, you need to have a creative mind to make very good maps.
Ofcourse this guide will help you to improve anyway, I'm sure of that.
1.0 EoMap.
If you don't have this yet I suggest you look on the forums for the download.
And if you are really lazy you can just click on the word here. - Credits to the respectfull creators offcourse.
After you got the Eomap ready for use and you opened it you basicly have a black window.
And another tile Palette, this tile palette has different tabs and all for different purposes.
Ground: Where you walk on with your character, like Grass/sand but also water and lava.
Object: Trees,stones,tables etc pretty easy.
Overlay: Things that overlap your ground tiles or other things, I will not go into this much.
Down wall: This is a part of the wall, it should follow the path down to the right.
Right wall: This is a part of the wall, it should follow the path up to the right.
Roof: Pretty self explaining to me.
Top: Same as ground tiles but then in the air, your character will not stay under it fully, use roof.
Shadow: Basicly nothing for me to explain to you.
Special: Walls,spikes,warps etc, I will come to this later.
Npcs: non-playable characters, monsters etc.
Tip: Pressing control makes scrolling through the palette easier. (faster).
1.1 Creating a map.
After you managed to open the Eomapper you simply should go to "file" and create a new map.
Fill in the map name and then you come to see the height and width of the map.
You can fill in anything here, but personally I prefer around 25-50 maps.
The reason why is that you can easily connect maps together with warps rather then making the whole
map in the same style.
If you want a 30x30 map, make it 35x35 so you always have enough room, you can fill up the edges with the special tile edge.
1.2 How to start mapping my map.
To fill your whole map with one tile you have to right click a tile in the palette.
I do not suggest this method because then your map will be very plain and not original, I will show you what I mean later on. (advanced part).
Before you make something, you need to have it planned out in ur head, you don't map simply map by thinking "let's make a map".
You have to know what you want to make, and put a lot of efford in it, the map won't be done in 10 minutes.
As you can see below I made the base of the map, but this is very wrong.
Most people don't realize the rivers aren't supposed to be all straight, or is it me?
On a lot servers you see straight rivers like someone took a spade and digged it.
So what you wanna do is make it more curved, take a look under that picture.
Now you have the base of you map we can go take the next step. (Do this will all ur maps).
1.3 Fixing you base design.
Obviously after the base design we have to add the "details" to that one, if you have a river add the banks/sides.
If you look at the picture below I changed it slightly but the base design is still in there.
I mean, it looks better like this then a straight river right?
See after you did that you can add the main thing you wanted, as example I want a cave in a waterfall.
I see a lot of people fail making it, or making it so extremely ugly, but it's all thinking outside the box people.
Even if you think you can't combine things then you are wrong.
Ok lets take a quick look at this waterfall/cave-rockish thing I made here, looks bad uh.
This step is basicly making your things you want into it, houses, caves, entrances etc it doesn't matter if it looks crap.
1.4 Patching up your "crap".
After you made your map, the base, and all the things you want in it we should patch all the crap (mistakes, things that look crap).
If you look at my rock thing, there is some ugly part of rock there kinda weird into the water.
You don't want that there, and also the entrance to the cave is a bit square, you should patch it with trees or any other objects.
This way you make your map more appealing and it has it's functions, also it's more original if you make different things.
A lot of people forget about the uniqueness because they stop making it when it looks ugly, they forget they can patch it like I do.
Ofcourse this example isn't perfect it self, but at the more advanced part I show you everything step by step.
I think I basicly showed all the basic things to make a reasonable map, to make it even better, please read the advanced mapping part too.
Anyway have fun mapping.
The "more" advanced techniques and tricks.
2.0 Roofs and top tiles
Now the more advanced part for people that already know how to make their own maps.
This part I will be explaining how to make the maps more appealing and unique.
Also talk about things people actually never think about, which comes back to thinking outside of the box.
Uh, well I don't really have to say anything much in this introduction so let's go on with the difference between roofs and tops.
Top tiles are basicly ground tiles that float into the air, when you walk under them your characters head will glitch.
You have to place these tiles somewhere where the character can't walk, otherwise you have a glitchy map ^^.
If you do want to have some tiles above your characters head please use Roof tiles, there aren't much roof tiles but you can patch them in ur Gfx file.
I only reccomend this if you have a downloadable client ofcourse, otherwise other people won't be able to see your roof tiles correctly.
So only top tiles when you can't walk there, a good example is the waterfall/rock part I did in the basic part, I did it there.
With roof tiles you can also make you own flat houses, I've done this before, just think outside the box.
The picture below shows you can make a simple house or entrance by using roof tiles.
Also, overlay tiles tiles can be used to change the environment but I suggest not really using it like that, rather make it by warp to next map.
This example is a bit extreme going from healthy grass to a hard desert, but looks decent if you add some trees on one side to cover most.
2.1 Optical ilussion
Everyone knows Endless online is just plain 2D and people don't try new things.
I've been doing some maps where I create some sort of an illusion to the eye.
If you first look at it it's weird for sure, but then you'll start to notice it.
Here you have an example of what I mean:
The water isn't simply falling as in Downwall/rightwall I made it look like it has another side.
This is easy done by instead placing the waterfall next to it, you place it one square above it. (like diagonal).
If you do not like this way of mapping then don't.
Also if you haven't noticed it yet I have another thing to mention, I call it height.
In the map you can clearly see I use walls to make height in the map, I think personally it looks very good and unique.
Well after this guide I can't say it will be very unique anymore but still worth doing in my opinion.
2.2 Special tiles.
Warps are tiles where you stand on and will be warped to another tile or map.
You should use these tiles carefully, you don't want to change from desert to ice.
To perfect your way of mapping you need to have things planned, what goes where and from there on you place the maps.
Technically you should have a map (of all the maps) in ur head, where you have which.
It's also very good to make maps come back to other maps, if you don't understand what I mean you can see it on the picture above.
I made the chest come out of the waterfall, but nowhere near a cave entrance, so you can only reach that spot by walking through a cave thats
a lot maps ahead of you, this makes your maps way funner to walk through.
Talking about walking through maps, you don't want your character walk through walls.
You have to add "Special tiles" these tiles are either Walls/jumps edges etc.
Things you can't see on ur map but they are there, you always have to do this as last.
To keep the maps fun you should also make some harder maps to get through like this one.
Special tiles are:
Wall: Prevents character from moving through
Chair: Direction character will sit on. (or can sit on)
Chest: Chest, not a womans chest you pervs.
Board: Townboard.
Npc wall: Prevents Npcs from moving to far.
Fake: Fakewall on the map in game.
Arena: Arena tiles..
Spikes: I never use them.
Warp: Warps you to any given spot.
Edge tiles, I always use them when I the height technique what I showed you all before.
This way on the in-game map you can't see there are walls, it also makes the map not square, I hate square maps.
Also you can't walk through them, this tile can be used for a lot of things.
As I said on the basic part of the guide, when you want a 30x30 map, make a 35x35 one and add edge tiles to it.
If you are ever short on tiles remove on like of the edge tiles to be sure you have enough room.
2.3 Always save the maps like xxxxx.emf <-------- SRSLY (x's are the number of your map, map ID).
Right now I came to the end of the guide, I will update this whenever someone has questions or I forgot something.
But right now I think I explained the basic parts and some techniques.
Basic & advanced Mapping tutorial/guide.
