I've changed my stance on the subject of authenticity somewhat. Whenever possible, I prefer not to alter the foreground, that is the stage itself.
Add to it if needed, no problem, like trying to fill in portions of the map left empty by the game's developpers.
Remove garbage or elements linked to programming that don't really make sense on a map, certainly (for example, I personally wouldn't have included the two Bowser rooms in the last level of
Super Mario Bros. 3; I've also corrected a tree sprite on one of my
Oracle Of Seasons map).
What I have absolutely no problem with is for example, altering the background for convenience sake (and Revned, leaving the apostrophe out on that expression is apparently accepted, so no bitching please
). God knows some games have backgrounds that won't tile at all, and I've had to do some creative editing for
Sonic Advance, including removing some colors in one map because there was no way to make good-looking continuous tiles with them.
And while I was mapping
Castlevania: Circle Of The Moon, I did an experiment where I tried to fill lots of empty space in order to make each "room" fit the 256 x 256 pixels template (some being as small as 240 x 160, I had to improvise) so it would look better, and I thus had to move a number of door by 8 or 16 pixels at times (and honestly, I still feel guilty about it
)
As for Wileee, the discussion was about his
Library map for
Symphony Of The Night, where he changed a small part of both foreground and background to fill an empty space in a stairway. I remember being quite vocally and perhaps unjustly *against* back then...
Okay, enough thread hijacking from me
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"With the first link, the chain is forged. The first speech censored, the first thought forbidden, the first freedom denied, chains us all irrevocably." [...] The first time any man's freedom is trodden on, we're all damaged. - Captain Jean-Luc Picard
B*tch, meet reality. Reality, meet b*tch. - Me
