Looking for some tutorials/tips on field maps (and not world maps)

[wariolandgoldpiramid 5]

I have plenty of experience with using rpg maker, but I'm not very skilled at mapping.

One thing I'm trying to learn right now is how to make field maps that will connect the locations in my game. And I'm not interested in using the world maps, where everything is tiny and it looks like your character is bigger than an entire village.

 

So I'd rather use simple field maps that connect towns/dungeons.

I'm looking for tips on how to design those kind of maps, how to make good transitions between locations, what tilesets to use, etc.

[Rezanta 373]

A tip I can pass down to ya is to use a large grid paper. That way you can design the map by hand, place your towns and dungeons where they need to be, and then draw how you want the routes to be placed. The cons of this method is that you need to have the right size of the grid, but in the long run this method can be useful, excluding tedious repetition from making every map this way. Another route to try is by drawing the maps digitally, by hand, so you can style however you'd like to do so. However, this method tends to be more time consuming, and can have many small errors you may not notice at first. In addition, you'll need to event all of the boundaries and, of course, the town, dungeon, etc. entries.

Edited March 27, 2017 by Rezanta

[lonequeso 1,921]

I essentially did what Rezanta said but w/out grid paper. my world map is broken up into sections you can do the same with field maps. You can make maps pretty big (500 x 500) so you can probably make one giant field map that would allow the player to reach each and every location, If not, or if you want to break up the maps into smaller chunks, make sure you make the maps the same size or you'll have a giant headache when transferring the player. Personally, I like breaking large maps like that up into sections. Mostly because I suck at planning ahead, and it helps my manage my maps.

 

It would be a good idea to at least draw out a world map on paper. You can grid it out like Rezanta suggested or just make sort of a draft that marks where different terrains are (mountains, rivers, etc) and where the towns and dungeons are. Once you know the lay of the land, creating the maps is fairly simple. it's no different than making a traditional world map. Everything is just bigger. One tricky thing may be where to transfer the player from the field map to a city. It's a matter if you want to restrict the player to only entering the city from a road or from any adjacent spot on the fill map. The latter will take longer to set up, but will feel more fluid. 

 

Will the player do anything like travel in a boat across an ocean or fly in an airship? It'd be hard to make that work. I'm not sure how exactly you'd work that. You may want to go with a traditional world map for it. 

 

Transferring the player from map to map can be tricky, too. If you restrict the player to only able to leave a map room a few select points, it's easy to set up, but restrictive to the player. If the player can exit a map from just about anywhere, creating transfer events gets kinda hairy. For the latter, I figured out a way to do it with Region ID's   Hime has a script that connects maps, too, but it's a bit limited.