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[Arx]

The server hath taken pity upon the plebeian. PRE-EDIT: It's gone down again. It was not up for very long. But I now have an account, and a world.

Can tilesets be animated?

[Retropunch]

Well, that's the thing: there IS no real graphical style, aside from the player sprite.  Everything else is imported by the world builder.  I suppose there can be one or several 'default' tilesets for people who don't want to have to make or find a new tileset (there already is one, but it is very basic - the 'blocks' tileset).  But one of the main ideas is to make everything in-game as generic as possible, leaving the style up to the user.
Of course, there is the question of the player sprite itself.  As the only real constant, its style will strongly influence the style of all worlds.  I tried to keep it as generic as possible.
One reason I'm going with a JRPG style is because there is already an abundance of resources online for sprites, tilesets, etc. to go with it. Other suggestions are welcome, of course.

I do understand that (and I like it in some ways), but I have to agree with InsanityIncarnate that I feel a more coherent set (or one large one, whichever is easier) would give a much more coherent style to the game. At the moment it feels a little disjointed graphically, and I'm sure it'll become more so with more players adding more tilesets. Again, I understand it's kinda supposed to be disjointed/patchwork, but I feel less like I'm walking through different worlds and more like I'm just stumbling into random tilesets. I'm sure you could team up with a tileset designer on the forums here and create tons of resources for people to design exciting worlds.

Again, sorry if that sounds overly critical, I really love the idea and the game so far, I just feel strongly that it'd be better with a coherent tileset.

[Arx]

I like the custom tilesets, myself. I suppose it's because I feel that if there's a specific tileset then it will feel more like a world with user created rooms than a universe with user created worlds, plus 1/3 of the fun in this for me is seeing the creativity of other users and their tilesets, 1/3 is making my own tileset (and thus the mood of my world), and only 1/3 is actually walking around. In the end, though, it's IndigoFenix's call.

Also, IF, I think you may need to file a complaint or whatever. The server spends more time down than up for me.

[Retropunch]

I like the custom tilesets, myself. I suppose it's because I feel that if there's a specific tileset then it will feel more like a world with user created rooms than a universe with user created worlds, plus 1/3 of the fun in this for me is seeing the creativity of other users and their tilesets, 1/3 is making my own tileset (and thus the mood of my world), and only 1/3 is actually walking around. In the end, though, it's IndigoFenix's call.

Definitely his call, and I do get what you're saying but I just think that it feels to disjointed at the moment. I guess it would need a rather large tileset to allow for creativity, and possibly incorporate some different styles, but at the moment it just feels as though I'm stumbling into tilesets of different quality and complete weirdness rather than different coherent worlds.

Again, I see the pluses and minuses of both sides, I'd just prefer coherent tilesets whilst it's getting up and running.

[IndigoFenix]

Custom tilesets (as well as sprites, music, etc.) will remain, that much is certain.  The ability to customize your world (and the mood you're trying to convey with it) as much as possible is basically the whole point of the game.  The only question is how detailed the 'official' tilesets will be.  To be fair, not having a lot of ready-made options is probably one of the biggest barriers to entry.  Right now, if you want a world that doesn't look like it's made out of Legos (which can, admittedly, make some decent-looking areas if you're creative with them), you have to either draw a tileset and upload it to an image hosting site, or go browsing the Internet for a freely available 32x32 tileset image that matches what you're trying to make.  If there were a couple of basic tilesets available in-game (grassland, cave, desert, city, you know, the usual suspects) it would be a lot easier for less dedicated players to get started - and what's needed now, in the game's early phases, is large amounts of content.

I'll see what I can do about that server issue.  I'm not sure if it's the same for everyone (in which case there is no solution but to a more reliable host) or if there's some client-side problems going on, which may be partially the fault of the code.

[Retropunch]

A fair point, I think a heap of coherent, ready made content would stop everything being so radically different and detached. I can just imagine 40 cave worlds, all with different sprites muddying up the story people are trying to tell/atmosphere they're trying to create.

[Orange Wizard]

A list of user-created tilesets on the main page, that Indigo decides are noteworthy, would mean (a) he can spend more time on the game and less on graphical assets and (b) a large majority of "undedicated" players would use them, mostly alleviating the completely disjointed feel.

That, and I think large multi-user projects will probably use the same tileset throughout anyway.

[Shook]

Floaty Metal World says hi. :v

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Only now do i realize that the bridges don't fit the players feet, but eh, can't be bothered to change that now. Also beware the deadly red lights of blocking your falls.

[IndigoFenix]

Nice.
All right, I'm making a gate...
People can now access Floaty Metal World from the intro area.
By the way, to make an actual exit, you will need to make a sprite with a 'change rooms' function.  Gates only work as entrances.

[Retropunch]

You might want to have a look at some of the tilesets here: http://www.teamanti.com/rmxp/
(click tilesets on the left)

It's got a ton of tilesets which are free for commercial use, and you could string some of those together into a big 'official' tileset. I guess you could have official tileset gates or something, just to know that everything will work properly and look alright.

[Shook]

Nice.
All right, I'm making a gate...
People can now access Floaty Metal World from the intro area.
By the way, to make an actual exit, you will need to make a sprite with a 'change rooms' function.  Gates only work as entrances.

Eggcellent. Also, gonna fix that as soon as the server gets back up again.

[Arx]

ArxWorld (gate name "Vaults of Imperia") is a go! The server is behaving unusually well today.


No exit as yet. Also, the entire world is a reference to an ancient computer game. I will be incredibly surprised if anyone gets it.

[IndigoFenix]

I don't recognize it, but it certainly looks good!  I'll link to it as soon as I have computer access.

[Arx]

Significant revisions later, if you've ever played the game you'll probably recognize this almost immediately. The game in question is really obscure, though, and isometric, so I don't expect anyone to get it. It's still a load of fun rebuilding it in this system.

[IndigoFenix]

I'm rebuilding the central/hub/tutorial area to use the 'blocks' tileset, which is a step above the plain blue tiles that were there previously.  It's not exactly high-def, but it is enough to make a unique-looking world with if you're creative.