• There is NO official Otland's Discord server and NO official Otland's server list. The Otland's Staff does not manage any Discord server or server list. Moderators or administrator of any Discord server or server lists have NO connection to the Otland's Staff. Do not get scammed!

Salvus Mapping | Newbie

I don't know what to say, quite satisfied anyway.
Without you who have helped me and given me tips, I would never have done so well.
Thank you guys!

0ecPzSx.png



0ogcXzN.png
you're learning so fast! This looks good :D
 
dsfdsfsdfdsfsdfds.png

I'm already giving up.
I find it very difficult to build a city.

Is there anyone who can give me some tips on how to build it?
I want the darkness that you may see (or not) xD
"Make it less squary" i know ^^

maybe give me tips on what grounds, walls and how to build it a little better than it looks right now xD
 
I find citys the most difficult to map, i mean its not hard to map a city.. but its hard to map a well planned, nice looking city.
I find mapping citys most time consuming and even tho i've been mapping for i dont know how many years i've only mapped like 2-3 citys that i personaly think is good.

I dont have any mapeditor installed right now to actually show you anything..
but have a look at a city i released to the community some time ago, now i know its not the theme you are looking for but the same "rules" applies.

take a good look at it, and try to "copy" parts that you like and try mix it all together, or delete it if you think its shiiiiieeeet haha ;)
nah but seriously, i use to start at one part of the town and then kind of try to plan how the rest is going to look while mapping.
focusing on one building at a time is key for me, sure it takes long time but i feel that way most buildings are unique and good looking.

i know it sounds really stupid and silly, but imagine "walking" in the town real life style.. what would you expect around that corner and so on..
i often do this ^ if its mapping a city, cave, nature or harbour, can be anything, putting a 3D look in your head for a 2D game makes it easier to kind of decorate and add details that are relevant i think..
 
Thank you @Andréew, but i think i will take a break from that city and try to learn me more before i build the city.

Another image made just for fun. (Like @Andréew said imagine "walking" in the town real life.
I actually took a walk with my dog and went through something like this xD
Maybe not this roof but all can't make like real life xD

xD.png
 
Cities are hard to map because you have to take into account how fast players can travel on the server. If people will spend more time at slower speeds (low exp server) cities should be pretty compact with just a few tiles separating buildings. No one wants to spend 30 minutes walking through a city.

Another thing to think about is having some type of ground filler, such as, lava, water, mountains, ect. Which the city should be built around that way it looks more natural. People are naturally lazy which means they only do what is necessary and try not to do more. Here is an example of that.

show.png

You can see where the path to the building is, only what was needed to be removed from the mountain, was removed. That gives it a more realistic feel. An example of when ignoring the realistic side works is fibula on real tibia. The whole town is build above the ground, everything was man built so it is a little more square and it doesn't hurt the eye to look at. Though, if you go into the depot, in fibula you see that it was build through the terrain and it goes back to the realistic feel of the land.

The red square I added just an idea of things you could do to make a map more unique. In this case the mountain is separating there.

I am not the best mapper for sure but pay attention to the boarders of the mountain. You want to try to limit the square feeling as much as possible but not too much or it wont look real either. It takes time to master.

Another very useful tip when creating cities is to draw out a design first on paper. Think about what shops, npcs, underground tunnels, houses, and generally how big the city needs to be.

If you are filling big areas of the city with grass or something like that. It means your city is too big or not designed in a way that is realistic to what is inside the town/city.

The most important thing is you will never build a good town in 30 minutes. Ever. I can tell from your map above you are trying to work too fast. If you ever build a house with one drag of the mouse it will never look good. It takes time. The pay off for patience is 10 fold.

Last thing ALWAYS... and I mean always build the wall around your city AFTER everything inside is created. That way you can build the wall correctly and you don't have to fill in a bunch of area with useless or random stuff.
 
Last edited:
@Andréew

Have a finished city soon, but it's not a dark city.
Did not manage to make it to a dark city.

Begins to be something nice, comes with some ingame pic soon.

@Itutorial

As usual, you come up with completely sick tips. Thank you as a fan and thank you to everyone else who has helped me with the mapping until today.
Noticed that i should start building in the middle of town first instead of building around town, that was my first mistake I made when I started mapping the town.
I also like what you do with the mountains, try to do something similar.
Thanks again buddy!
 
1YvLyNV.png


Just wanted to share something, because I disappear for 1 week on vacation.
But the town will be fine, want to see tips & tricks that you usually give me, you are the best.
Will read and write a little here on otland from the mobile
I know it’s alot autoborder bec i want to make the basic on the city than the details.
See you next week! 😍
 
Last edited:
1YvLyNV.png


Just wanted to share something, because I disappear for 1 week on vacation.
But the town will be fine, want to see tips & tricks that you usually give me, you are the best.
Will read and write a little here on otland from the mobile
I know it’s alot autoborder bec i want to make the basic on the city than the details.
See you next week! 😍

You're not the only mapper that struggles with cities so don't worry :D.

I personally when mapping cities prefer to start with roughly mapping the "main entrance". Then rather than thinking about what will be in the city I prefer to map and start bringing ideas together about what the outside of the city will look like. Whether it's an island or a bigger continent, whether it's full of forests/mountains etc. Then let that determine the shape of your city's outer walls shape as well as the style of the interior. Anyways that's just my way of going about it.

Also, I've noticed this from many mappers that they tend to build their city on something? If you get what I mean. So except from just throwing down some grass tiles on floor 7 they build the city's foundation (e.g. mountain) on floor 7 and then begin to add the floor etc. on floor 8. This gives more realism to your map and also allows you to play around a lot and really make it look good! An example I've learnt from is this: 1.png
All credits go to GhostX for mapping this small yet brilliant piece. This also allows you to play around with the interior of your city, you could have lower/higher levels which in my opinion definitely brings that extra detail into it which makes it look effective.

Good luck anyway! You've definitely improved, especially the dragon hunt area, it's nice!
 
Back
Top