Mages Guild Revamped & Mapping Tips

[p]On a whim, I decided yesterday to spruce up the old Mages Guild colony to help not just beautify it, but also space it out better. Whenever I'd walk through the design from 2013-2020, there would be these awkwardly empty areas that would simply scream "fill me!"[/p][p][/p][p]So why not, right? Now extra goodies can be found by leaping across gaps, wading through water and walking underneath roofs.[/p][p][/p][p]I've also utilized one of my favorite tricks to bring the map to life, which I'll be sharing with you below so that you too can make your locales shine![/p][p][/p][p]Question: how many "layers" do you see here? Three, right? That's what RPG Makers 2000 & 2003 typically have, while some of the more recent RPG Makers allow you to put two graphics of the upper tile set on each tile. That's cute - really it is. What if I told you you could have as many layers as you wanted? Well, it's true! Events can be stacked to create significantly more detailed maps than what was intended. [/p][p][/p][p]Now I want you to look a little to the left of the exact center of that screenshot. You see those half-tile tall walls? You see how the tables and stools are right up next to them? That's your typical event work, but if you look above it, you'll see something special. On the tile set, that same wall is only being used once, though in two different ways - this is above the hero where the wall is typically below the hero. Again, typical event stuff, but here's where things really get wild. What's that thing below the wall? A pillar that's also sharing a tile with a diagonal upper layer tile above animated water. That right there is like making quasi-3D in the DOOM engine, in that it shouldn't be possible... right? There's only three layers, right? RIGHT?! [/p][p][/p][p]WRONG![/p][p][/p][p]I'm gonna blow the lid off this. There's a command in the program called "Set Event Location", and it is absolutely going to be your best friend as this is the key to unlocking unlimited layers! By keeping track of the event number and the layer settings (the larger the event number, the higher priority it has on the event stack; i.e. if event #1023 and event #1038 are both set to display "above hero" and transferred to the same tile, #1038 will appear above #1023), you can stack graphics one on top of the other like LEGO while still using the same tile (or in this analogy, stud). In the above example, you've got numerous examples of one event on top of another, but if you look closely at the stalagmite in the river, you'll see three events in a stack, as the tile below the glass pane is another half-tile wall being used as a ceiling, and below that is a semi-transparent rock base meant to look like it's visible through the water.[/p][p][/p][p]Now if you go back up to the top of the update and look closely, you'll see this triple event work done again. Yes, the pillars on top of the glass ceiling supported by other pillars! This trick really takes the kid gloves off and lets your imagination run wild. You start to consider that the possibility behind each tile is actually twice as much as before, and you begin functioning on the half-tile level - creating 3D geometry out of your completely 2D game; taking simple details you've accumulated and combining them without putting pressure on your limited tile sets! RPG Maker is suddenly twice as large as before, and it's all thanks to the Set Event Location command![/p][p][/p][p]Need to show how all a character's belongings are shoved into one side of the room because they're painting the ceiling? Save the space with Set Event Location![/p][p]The easiest way to get this to work is to move all of your events you plan on transferring to one of the far corners of the map and then setting one event as a "Parallel Process" through which all Set Event Locations are referenced. This will prevent your game from lagging by having dozens (if not hundreds) of parallel processes running at the same time.[/p][p][/p][p]Enjoy four layers of decoration on two rows worth of tiles! Happy developing![/p][p][/p]