Topic: Peardian's map projects in progress and planned

[Peardian]

I'd rather take advantage of the tools when they are available than work in spite of them.

If you want to tackle the game, you're more than welcome to. Meanwhile, I'll stick to Stafy. Before Starfy #5 on the DS, the rest of the world only knew him as Stafy.


Edit: Here's a preview. However, don't expect any finished maps from the game just yet. Unlike Wario Land 4, this game is quite unpredictable, so I'm going to play it all the way through first so that I know what to take into account. Plus, I don't want my first experience of the game to be a mapping one!

[img width= height=]http://img709.imageshack.us/img709/5195/level0.png[/img]

[Trop]

Yeah you never wanna map on the first run.  Always a disaster.  Looks like a cute little platformer.  Now that I think about it all your maps are of cute games.  It'll be interesting to see how you handle some of the more nitty gritty things fount In OoT.

[JonLeung]

Before Starfy #5 on the DS, the rest of the world only knew him as Stafy.

But his official name is now Starfy, GameFAQs lists the games with Starfy, and isn't the lack of the "r" a Japanese pronounciation quote, suggesting that they probably meant Starfy all along?  Plus, some people anglicize the original name as "Stafy" or "Stafi", so sticking with the now-worldwide name seems like a less convoluted bet.

Is there going to be a problem if I put up the world map you submitted with the "Starfy" name?  

[Peardian]

Personally, I'd go with Densetsu no Stafy, as that's what the game's credits say. (Surprisngly, they are in English.) Stafy is the official romanization. After all, you have "RockMan EXE 4.5" listed. You want to be consistant, don't you?


Just finished 2-7 of YI, by the way.


Edit:
[img width= height=]http://img820.imageshack.us/img820/7868/densetsunostafy04.png[/img]


Edit: It turns out 2-8 will end up being my first real challenge in Yoshi's Island. EggVine does a terrible job at viewing the data for sewer rooms. Since the level put all the sewer parts in the same room as the regular castley parts, things get really messy. I have the object layout of the castle rooms and the sprite positions of the sewer rooms, often with them overlapping. This will certainly be an intriguing test of my YI mapping abilities.

[Peardian]

Guess what? Ocarina of Time work has begun. I've already ripped the main room of Kokiri Forest and the houses. This game is certainly different from Paper Mario. All the characters are so detailed. I'm going to stop after I get the little training area and Deku Tree area, since that will be enough to work on for a while. I go back to campus tomorrow morning, so I'll be resuming Yoshi and Stafy, too.

Edit: Finished ripping the rest of Kokiri Forest. Now I'll have two weeks to sort through the messy collection of materials and polygons and actually figure out how in the world I am going to map this game.

[Trop]

So are you going to do a top down view or from high up and at an angle?  Or is this one of the things you've yet to figure out?

[Peardian]

I've decided that I'm going to use 2-3 views concurrently. One view is strict top-down, the second is a SMRPG-esque pseudoisometric view, and possibly a third "appropriately angled perspective view" where applicable. The problem is deciding which one should be dominant. I'm leaning towards top-down, though the game's minimaps make this a tad redundant. Houses will be unique cases.

[Trop]

Excellent, that sounds great.  If you do top down dominant you'd have an easy meter for consistency between maps.  Of course if you do more appropriate perspectives you might be able to get closer to the unique in game feel of each area.  I could definitely see a lot of this game mapped out in isometric, with room interiors done the way you did SMRPG.  But then for some of the more square rooms, like the forest or spirit temple main rooms, it seems like top down would be the only way to avoid cutting something out.  On the bright side of this problem since you're the first you get to set the precedent.  Heh, you've been setting a lot of 3D mapping precedents. 

[Peardian]

Every time I think about it, I change my mind again. I guess I'll figure it out when the models are prepared.


Anyway, I finished another beautiful castle in Yoshi's Island. The next level is going to be a crazy challenge. Because of how EggVine views the level's data, essentially the only physical guide I have is the sprite data. And the level itself is almost entirely open air and fast moving platforms, so... this will certainly be a challenge. I feel like I'm in the Yoshi mood right now, so I'll probably finish this map before tackling Kokiri Forest.


Poor Stafy is falling by the mental wayside before getting past the first room! Don't worry, Stafy, I won't forget you!

[Trop]

I hate space levels like that.  You're more or less forced to make sprite step ladders.  Say Peardian, how would you rate the difficulty on mapping the 2 N64 zelda's.  I tried the first room in MM and wow, bugs everywhere.  But I don't have a lot of 3D mapping experience to compare it to.

[Peardian]

With all the various things that can go wrong and the complexity of the game, these are both games only to be tackled by people with heavy experience in C4D. MM is slightly easier than OoT because of the lack of JPEGs, but it makes up for it with its own quirks. If you think the intro of MM is bad, just try the main clearing of Kokiri Forest, or any house. That's why I'm going to see to these games personally.


Edit: And just like that, I've finished World 2. That level went a lot quicker than I thought!

Edit: Gentlemen?

Edit: Looks like Ocarina of Time will progress slower than I originally thought. Metroid: Other M came out today, and you can bet that's how I'll be spending my weekends at home.

[Peardian]

And so I've finished World 3-1 of YI. Progress on anything else is very slow due to my crazy class workload. Kokiri Forest is a very daunting task for being the first map in the whole game. I'm slowly but surely setting up the cameras and collecting the numerous assets required to make the map. You can see a little preview of the main area in the new Forum Spotlight image I made. I hope to have it done by the weekend. But up until then, I have numerous projects to take care of. You won't have to worry about Other M distracting me, I 100%'d it in just 11 hours.


And I apologize to Starfy for not touching his game once since that last screenshot.

[Trop]

Yeah Metroid M was a huge disappointment.  I was more then halfway through the game wondering "when is the game going to start" before I realized it already had.

Looking at that Kokiri I'd say the materials aren't going where they're supposed to be.  I'm having the same problem in CV64 right now.  It's backwards and upside down.

[Rew]

Already starting YI World 3? Awesome! You're over one-third of the way through the game now. I can't wait to see the rest.

And I'm intrigued to see how the OoT maps turn out. Where's this "Forum Spotlight" place where you posted a preview? (Yes, I'm a noob. =P)

Speaking of noobishness, I just happened to click on your profile today and just learned that you're female--all this time I thought you were male! Whoooooooops, sorry about that, haha.

[Peardian]

Good news! I finally finished the first Ocarina of Time map, Kokiri Forest! Because both views of the rooms were indispensible, I've created two versions of it, plus submitted the in-game mini-map and world map. If you assume 3 maps per level and 40 levels, this means you can expect a grand total of 120 Maps from this project. Not sure when I'll begin the next area.

As you may have noticed, I also finished 3-2 of YI. Yay!


Also, expect something special from me soon, if not tomorrow. What will it be? Here's a hint~
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