Just Got back into Graal..Few Levels

[JimDubbs]

well i just decided to get back into graal, grabbed the level editor and seen if i could still make levels they're my first levels in about 3 years so bare with me here!

[Cloven]

You have a good deal of tile errors, as well as some perspective issues. You also need a great deal of work where landscape construction and detailing is concerned (think of how things naturally look, such as the fact that cliffs don't conform to straight lines and there's no sense of cohesion to your grass-area detailing).

They're not terrible levels persay, there are just many areas where there's a warranted need for improvement before they'd be worthy of placing on a server.

[Kittah]

I like them as a start and they're not at all bad given an asbence from Graal. As has been said however, there are many problems with them and they can be severely fixed to be far better.

My suggestions:

1. Go with one type of path detailing. The black-edged and green-edged tiles look pretty bad when people try to mix and match, as they're blatantly obviously not meant to go together. I prefer the green-edged myself as I think they look better, but whichever way you go I think you'll be better off using just one or the other. Otherwise however, the layout of the dirt (path?) areas is wonderful, beautifully chaotic.

2. Structure your grass detail. You've used a good selection of tiles for detailing but there's no structure there, just a random spray of detail and grass across the level. Grass clumps in real life, so show that in your level. Add some solid clumps of grass tiles together with a spray of the other stuff (flowers etc.) for variety. Again, I think it'll look far better and fill the space better than a random spraying.

3. Fix your cliffs. Don't be lazy, cliffs don't have to be like mine or Wan's to look good. Mix up the shape a bit and add a few little kinks here and there. It's not too hard to add a few bits sticking out a tile or three. It'll add far more variety and look a good few times better.

4. Fix your tile errors. Nothing specific here, but just take your time making levels and give yourself a minute or two to review each corner of the levels you make to check for errors. Fix them up, show some care and you'll find the levels looking far better.


In summary it's a great start but it is rough around the edges. Think a stone sculpture that had been roughed in and currently looked like an aborted foetus where with a bit of attention and refining could look like Alexander the Great (depending on your tastes ). Hope this helps and you should make more - you've got a good base to work from!

[JimDubbs]

thanks the the replies, ill try to fix them up abit and il repost...could you maybe post an example of how to properly detail a good level?

[JimDubbs]

ive started reworking them..how is this for detailwise?

[Kittah]

Now I'm liking it more - add a few more clumps in and the detail will be perfect to my tastes

As for an example, I've attached something I was working on a month or two ago for fun. As you see the style is fairly basic with more emphasis on being clean and simple rather than over detailed, but it gives an example of the detail I was meaning. Do remember though that this is only my preference, and I probably clash horribly with a lot of people here

[maximus_asinus]

Yeah, Kittah's attachment shows the proper way to construct sand paths. In Graal, the sand path is usually used to show wear, where person(s) have taken a particular route, and over time the grass has started to die, leaving only dirt. In your levels, it would have to mean the person(s) have walked around a large area rather than a small path, which doesn't make that much sense.

[Crono]

I'll talk about this one...http://forums.graalonline.com/forums...7&d=1174275308

Your detail is quite bland, try to bunch up some different things (just don't go overboard.)

Narrow down your roads a bit, also I'm not really a fan of mixing together the two different grass-dirt tiles...

The top left house kind of has a cool roof, but the overall building needs something...can't really help out there I suck with buildings myself.

Interesting fences, theres a green hole in a tree.

[DarkIceX]

Alright. First off, I'll say that the levels aren't terrible considering it's been 3 years since you've open the editor, or Graal for that matter.

But, I'd also like to mention that I agree with Kittah and Crono and everything they've said.

You have a lot of tile errors and the detailing needs work. Try to make the detailing look more realistic. I really suck at explaining how detailing should go, but I'll try my best... Try and make more small clumps of grass and stuff instead of just single pieces of grass spread out over every few tiles.

Also, your cliffs are way too straight, it's so unnatural it scares me, no offense. Mix and match them, make the jagged, make them curve, make them high, make the low, just don't have straight cliffs ;-;

Since some tile errors are hard to see I attached 3 screenshots of your levels with the tile errors outlined. Everything in red on these screenshots are either tiles missing or tile errors. Also, I outlined two parts of the house in blue on the first level and I'll explain why.

It just doesn't make sense to me that you go into the house in front, walk up the stairs and come out on the roof, then you simply step off the room and you are magically back on the level ground that you were on when entering from the front. Try arranging some tiles to look like stairs or something, I dunno, it's your level.

Anyways, It's long but it should help you o_O

[JimDubbs]

thanks for the tips guys, if you could check out the new SS i posted thatd be cool too...id like to know if thats good for detailing.. know also tho that there are still some tileerrors there, i havent fixed any of them yet

[DARKVILLIN]

Originally Posted by JimDubbs

well i just decided to get back into graal, grabbed the level editor and seen if i could still make levels they're my first levels in about 3 years so bare with me here!

you can easily tell when you copy and paste dirt paths X_x

[xXziroXx]

Originally Posted by DarkIceX

Alright. First off, I'll say that the levels aren't terrible considering it's been 3 years since you've open the editor, or Graal for that matter.

But, I'd also like to mention that I agree with Kittah and Crono and everything they've said.

You have a lot of tile errors and the detailing needs work. Try to make the detailing look more realistic. I really suck at explaining how detailing should go, but I'll try my best... Try and make more small clumps of grass and stuff instead of just single pieces of grass spread out over every few tiles.

Also, your cliffs are way too straight, it's so unnatural it scares me, no offense. Mix and match them, make the jagged, make them curve, make them high, make the low, just don't have straight cliffs ;-;

Since some tile errors are hard to see I attached 3 screenshots of your levels with the tile errors outlined. Everything in red on these screenshots are either tiles missing or tile errors. Also, I outlined two parts of the house in blue on the first level and I'll explain why.

It just doesn't make sense to me that you go into the house in front, walk up the stairs and come out on the roof, then you simply step off the room and you are magically back on the level ground that you were on when entering from the front. Try arranging some tiles to look like stairs or something, I dunno, it's your level.

Anyways, It's long but it should help you o_O

OHMYGODITSRELIC!