The Evil Guide to Mapping
Contents- Introduction
- NUMA
- Objects and their uses
- Tile uses
- Races
- Mine-jumpers
- DDAs
- Action
- Miscellanious
- Puzzle
- Other tips
Introduction
Before we get started, you'll need to download the game, which you probably already have, but I'll provide a link.This guide is an in-depth walkthrough of the features of Ned. I claim all credit for this, if you wish to provide a link to this, feel free, but don't claim it as your own, as it is my work.
NUMA
NUMA is the place to head for inspiration and advice from your fellow map-makers, it is also a place to submit your maps for other people to enjoy. NUMA has many features but it is still in work and things need fixing.Objects and their uses
Lets get to work on objects. Try to find a place for the ninja that isn't too daunting, or ugly, placing him so that you have to hold left or hit jump as soon as you touch the ground is not reccomended, imagine you were the player, you'd want the ninja in a place where you can think and plan your move. Edit the tileset to fit.Placing the door and the switch can be a difficult task, you can save it for last if you like, but an easy way too place the exit is at the far end of the map from the ninja, or near where the ninja is. It's a nice look to place it in a dead-end that is well-guarded. The switch, normally, is placed far away from the exit, or straight on top. Very rarely will you find it near or next to the door. Again, it looks nice in a dead-end guarded by doors and enemies.
Now before you place gold, think. Do you want it to be on the path, or in hard to reach places, or again in a dead-end. Or in a wide open area. Now the next thing is very important in my opinion, for consistency and aesthetics. come up with a pattern and stick to it. The reason is, when you play a map, consistent gold is easy on the eyes and gives better gameplay, it also improves the theme.
When placing enemies, stop for a second. Do you want a laser to limit an area? Do you want mines placed in the middle of the map so you have to follow them round? Do you want chainguns to dominate an area of the map? A single well placed enemy can mean the difference between a good map and a... not so good map. Again, consistency is important, a rocket in a tunnel can be fatal, but provide a fun challenge, a rocket in an open space with bounceblocks and gold is great fun to play about with. Place enemies wherever you think they make it fun, remember, enemies should be placed for just the right amount of difficulty, or for fun, spamming enemies (like 2 rockets when only 1 is needed) just upsets the gameplay, and makes a less fun map overall.
Thwumps are very good enemies, with 3 solid edges, and, with the right timing, can shoot you up higher than you can jump, this is a very good method to use in puzzles. I reccomend that you use thwumps in most of your maps, this is because they will work in just about any, with the right placement. I would not place them in the middle of the map in open space. Simply because it looks horrendous and doesn't play very well. Thwumps look cool situated against walls, in columns about 1-5 tile spaces wide. Thwumps can be very useful in races, for running along them to make it more exciting.
Lasers can be used for lots of things, they can be used as standard enemies, or as a timing challenge, manipulating lasers can be difficult but the player feels good when it is done right, so maybe you should make it that they have to get a laser to fire in a certain place, so as not to block your path. Lasers look cool just about anywhere, so place them as you will, just make sure it's fun and challenging. Also, try experimenting limiting off an area with a laser, this can often be difficult, as it takes a greater level of skill to do than placing a laser normally.
Chainguns are either the best enemy in the world, or the worst. A badly placed chaingun can make an excellent map terrible, simply because when used badly they kill you almost always. Mostly newcomers won't be using chainguns, simply because they require mastery to use. A chaingun can work wonderfully in a tunnel, and wonderfully in open space. They are the gods of enemies, and should be treated like such.
Rockets are also great for tunnels and open space. In an open space, a rocket and bounceblock combination is one of the most fun things you can do in a map. In a linear map, they can test your timing skills to the limit. Rockets often require a great deal of patience to place right, so if you want to make a quick map, I wouldn't reccomend them.
Gausses are the most versatile enemy, because they can be placed almost anywhere and still look and play well, they aren't amazing in open spaces, but still a good reserve for a rocket. In tunnels you can place a gauss and it will give you a fabulous timing challenge, requiring precision and skill, use this to your advantage.
Floorguards can be used to limit areas, provide difficult jumps and sometimes give a puzzly element to a map. They can be placed on ceilings and walls if you are using Nreality, but I won't be talking about Nreality in this guide. When placing a floorguard remember, no more than 3 floorguards is needed on a single floor, you can do if you like, to create longer jumps, but mines will work for that to. Now if you are placing 2 on the same floor, one on each side. you can create an extremely puzzly element by forcing the player to make them bunch up together, have a look through some autosurfer maps for good examples of this.
Zap drones come in two forms, seeker and normal, normal will follow a route and seeker will zoom towards you at a fast speed. Now often times you will find two tunnels on either side, and an open space in the middle of the map. Now in these tunnels will be seekers, these seekers shoot to the other tunnel, or to you, when you get in their site. This provides a great challenge even for skillful players, so you can be certain that people will be enjoying the map. You can also trigger seeker drones by placing them in a tunnel with doors, then when you hit the switch (often times this will let you into a new area) they zoom out and make the map very interesting. Normal ones can be used in a prisoner map, in which case you will have to walk in between them all the way through the map, with exciting challenges in between. Smaller gaps will make a harder map. They can also follow a path that provides a fun, yet easy challenge.
Mines. Very easy to go overboard with, but when placed minimalistically then can make a map very fun. They can also make a map look nice. It's possible to jump one grid space between them too, see meta_ing's "jumping up a mine laced shaft" on how to do this. I don't reccomend you do it in your map though. Mines are my trademark weapon, my so-called random mine-jumper maps are normally well recieved, this is because I focus on aesthetically pleasing curves. Curves look nice but I wouldn't reccomend them because they often take up a lot of space. Mines can limit an area of the map and make you take a longer route.
Tile uses
A map usually involves a nice looking tileset that is easy to manouvere on. Whilst you don't actually need to have one to create a good map, tilesets will attract the attention of players, and often-time lead to you getting praise.Creating an awful tileset is very easy to do, and you can often screw gameplay and aesthetics with a bad tileset. Tilesets need moulding into a good-looking, good-playing masterpiece. Here is a tileset that is not what you should do:
Whilst the gameplay in areas is fine and dandy, it is ugly and unsteady, it would also be very difficult to mould a map out of it.
Creating an E-tile tileset is fine, like Meta_Ing's E Tile Theory and can often make a good map. If you really want to make one, go ahead and try it, but don't feel crushed if you get scathing comments.
Now thinking up tile patterns is very difficult, but it's a good way to theme your map. Tile patterns can consist of anything, a 6 tile above a 5 tile, or two 4s next to eachother. Again, as always, experimentation is the key, and if you find something that looks nice, try and keep the map similar. This doesn't mean copy and pasting it randomly around the entire map, as this will look awful and messy. It means experimenting with similar patterns until you have a good looking map.
Remember to mould your tileset to gameplay, and sometimes it's neccasserry to sacrifice aesthetics for gameplay, so don't be scared to go over and re-do it. Apart from that there isn't much I can help you with on tilesets, as it is something you should learn how to make yourself.
Races
Races were much loved by the community, but they are slowly dieing away, due to a flood of noobish races. There are a spare few good race-makers; _destiny^-, Riobe, yungerkid and da_man894 to name a few. I like to consider myself a race-maker, and here is my humble collection of tips: - (*)Flow over tileset, flow is the most important thing about races, if a race doesn't have much flow, well, it's not a race
(*)Keep a similar gold pattern, if you want it to look nice, keep it similar
(*)Close calls are important, to make it exciting and kill you if you screw up
(*)Drones for timing, drone timing can be really annoying, but people appreciate well done drones
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Continued later.
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If you want to add anything to this guide, post a reply and it'll be added, with credit.
