Topic: Map organization/markers/names? Help? [Resolved]

[Zephadus]

Hey guys, sorry I couldn't think of a clearer title for this post, but I just don't know what to do with these maps.
I've literally had most of the game ripped for months already, but I'm struggling with how to organize them, name them, and mark them (if necessary).

You see, I'm currently ripping The Legend of Getsu FÅ«ma (Getsu FÅ«ma Den) for NES, and the problems I'm having are as follows:

• The stages can be accessed in several different orders
• None of the stages have names
• I have no idea what to name each stage

This makes it very hard for me to mark the overworld map, as you can see below:

It's up to the player where they want to go next, so the northern-most stage could be stage 2,
and the one below that stage 3, and the one below that stage 4, and so on, but then again,
the top stage might not be visited until much later, so for all we know, it could be stage 8!

Anyway, as you can see, that sticks me with all three of the aforementioned problems.
What order do I put the stages in? What do I name the stages? How do I mark the world map?
If anyone can help me come up with a solution, that would be wonderful.

[TerraEsperZ]

This is a problem I've run into a couple of times and I'm always scratching my head for weeks if not months wondering what to do so I understand your feeling.

I now tend to treat things like stage names and order on a scale going from "As much authentic information as possible" to "As descriptive and helpful as possible". I try to find as much official information as I can from the game itself, the instruction manual and, in some cases, the best available translation from the game's original language (usually japanese) if it includes information missing from the localization.

If no real names exist, then I try to come up with names that are as descriptive as possible, like "mushroom forest" or "demonic castle". It helps to read existing FAQs and walkthroughs of the game for ideas because sometimes stages are difficult to describe accurately, which is definitely the case for The Legend of Getsu FÅ«ma. If all else fails, you can resort to using generic terms and numbers like "Dungeon 3" or even "Stage 7". At that point, what's important is simply having names on your overworld maps that will point people toward the appropriate separate file. In your case where there's no real order, you can still come up with an approximate order based on which stages are or would be encountered before or after one another. I feel the numbers on your example work well enough as is.

I hope I'm not being to vague!

[Zephadus]

Thanks very much for the reply!
That makes a whole lot of sense I guess.
As long as the stages are marked with an identifier on the world map,
and the stage maps are named accordingly, I guess that's all that really matters!
Thanks again.