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General Discussion => General Graal Discussion => Topic started by: PoJo on September 09, 2016, 04:12:46 PM

Title: Judge my leveling and tell me to give up
Post by: PoJo on September 09, 2016, 04:12:46 PM
This is kinda old, but I never got any critique on it in the past and I'd like to know how I could improve.



here we go (http://imgur.com/a/cd25g)
Title: Re: Judge my leveling and tell me to give up
Post by: maximus_asinus on September 09, 2016, 07:31:22 PM
This is an example of a level that is technically very well done, but isn't visually appealing due to the limitations of the default tileset.

If I were a talented GFX artist, I would create mossy and/or cracked tiles for the castle walls to give the level more texture, and tiles to better transition between the damaged/eroded parts of the walls and floor.

Personal preference would have me change the caves. I don't like the tiles, and I feel like a better looking cave can be made with outside cliffs, and a seteffect.

With that being said, I found a few levels that might inspire you in terms of cave design, and maybe castle design. Just grabbed a few screenshots from the forum, not all of them are from me.

http://i.imgur.com/7ZWePSr.png (http://i.imgur.com/7ZWePSr.png)
http://i.imgur.com/zcBaEv3.png (http://i.imgur.com/zcBaEv3.png)
http://i.imgur.com/3WsTyGj.png (http://i.imgur.com/3WsTyGj.png)
http://i.imgur.com/tkvZHCF.png (http://i.imgur.com/tkvZHCF.png)
http://i.imgur.com/wlXKcQv.gif (http://i.imgur.com/wlXKcQv.gif)
Title: Re: Judge my leveling and tell me to give up
Post by: PoJo on September 09, 2016, 09:40:24 PM
Quote
mossy and/or cracked tiles for the castle walls to give the level more texture, and tiles to better transition between the damaged/eroded parts of the walls and floor

something I considered, maybe

Quote
I feel like a better looking cave can be made with outside cliffs, and a seteffect.

I've always hated the cave tiles, but I hadn't thought of that. Might play with the idea, the screenshots help. If I go that route, I'll still have to make some rock graphics, because I want the vague appearance of collapsed/caved in.

as for the castle stuff, the problem with that is that I really love the dumb castle tiles I'm using, and if anything I'd want to make more options for that.
Title: Re: Judge my leveling and tell me to give up
Post by: Skyzer on September 10, 2016, 12:54:23 AM
That leveling style is very old.
Title: Re: Judge my leveling and tell me to give up
Post by: PoJo on September 10, 2016, 03:43:29 PM
 :(
Title: Re: Judge my leveling and tell me to give up
Post by: Racil on September 11, 2016, 05:29:51 AM
Could adapt some of the graal castle exterior tiles for this, or use some of the diagonal tiles added for this in the GtA tileset.
There are some tiles for useing the outside cliffs inside on classic too. I think the script is "addtiledef2 classic_tileset_cave_01.png,levelname or levelnamestart,0,416;"
Title: Re: Judge my leveling and tell me to give up
Post by: Skyzer on September 11, 2016, 06:28:58 PM
I only dislike the floor tiling. There's a lot of dissonance, but we have tiles now that can make and break patterns without having so much noise.
Title: Re: Judge my leveling and tell me to give up
Post by: Ranger on September 13, 2016, 04:40:00 PM
The level itself is pretty good, however, I'm not sure if those UN/Zod style walls are acceptable.
Title: Re: Judge my leveling and tell me to give up
Post by: PoJo on September 13, 2016, 08:10:04 PM
What do you mean re: UN/Zod, the ugly cave?
Title: Re: Judge my leveling and tell me to give up
Post by: maximus_asinus on September 13, 2016, 08:27:43 PM
My first thoughts were of Graal2001 when I first looked at the levels. To me I'd say heavy influence of early Classic combined with the Graal2001 flair. BUT I think a lot of LATs just fall into those categories while experimenting with tiles, I doubt it was intentional.
Title: Re: Judge my leveling and tell me to give up
Post by: Ranger on September 13, 2016, 10:50:26 PM
I'm talking about how the walls are just a straight tile instead of having a 4x4 tile block like the default tileset has.  Were you intending these levels for Classic?  I guess that's a more important question.
Title: Re: Judge my leveling and tell me to give up
Post by: PoJo on September 14, 2016, 10:10:43 AM
This is all from the default tileset, I don't really follow.

Pics1 doesn't have many options for those castle walls by default.

It wasn't really "for" anything, so much as myself.

My first thoughts were of Graal2001 when I first looked at the levels. To me I'd say heavy influence of early Classic combined with the Graal2001 flair. BUT I think a lot of LATs just fall into those categories while experimenting with tiles, I doubt it was intentional.


Probably unintentional, but the same thing. I don't want to say "influenced by old Delteria" when their quality stuff was so much better than what I can do, but that's likely what I (unintentionally) want to emulate/invoke.
Title: Re: Judge my leveling and tell me to give up
Post by: Ranger on September 14, 2016, 08:46:30 PM
Well if it's not going up on Classic then it looks fine :)
Title: Re: Judge my leveling and tell me to give up
Post by: PoJo on September 15, 2016, 07:59:01 AM
I just don't understand what you mean, isn't Classic the server filler with jarring straight lines and inconsistent quality

What exactly are you talking about regarding the walls
Title: Re: Judge my leveling and tell me to give up
Post by: Ranger on September 15, 2016, 12:04:43 PM
I'm talking about how they are just one tile that goes straight up and down for the left and right sides.  That's not "Classic" style, but more of a UN or Zodiac style that developed and gained popularity on those servers in the early 2000's.
Title: Re: Judge my leveling and tell me to give up
Post by: PoJo on September 15, 2016, 04:12:18 PM
Those castle tiles only work that way, and that's the right perspective anyway. The alternative has always looked dumb.
Title: Re: Judge my leveling and tell me to give up
Post by: Skyzer on September 15, 2016, 07:24:54 PM
Nothing wrong with the walls.
Title: Re: Judge my leveling and tell me to give up
Post by: PoJo on September 15, 2016, 07:31:32 PM
I only dislike the floor tiling. There's a lot of dissonance, but we have tiles now that can make and break patterns without having so much noise.

define noisy/dissonance, do you mean the patterns on the "carpet", or the entirety of the floor?
Title: Re: Judge my leveling and tell me to give up
Post by: Skyzer on September 15, 2016, 09:03:37 PM
Pretty much all of the flooring.
Title: Re: Judge my leveling and tell me to give up
Post by: PoJo on September 15, 2016, 11:01:05 PM
Pretty much all of the flooring.

I thought it was alright :(