HILLS

Next we need to focus on the area highlighted below.

This section is created by selecting the four corners of the hill that was made earlier (8 by 8 each). It is very simple to do this section is it is just copying and pasting four squares and pasting each into the top left tile.

The next stage will be the most obscure section, but unfortunately it is absolutely necessary. The screenshots I’ve made should be more helpful than my explanations here. Select the third square and change it to a colour that will be identifiable (Anything other than the grass tile colour) as for this stage it you will have to plonk this auto-tile onto a chipset and import it into RM2K(3). Of course, decrease the colour depth before importing it otherwise it won’t work. This is done to easily see how the last tile should be made.

You should have something like this. You’ll easily be able to spot the blue in game on your map.

After importing the tileset into RPG Maker and getting ready to make a map (20 by 15 tiles for ease) with it, simply draw a cross shape with the auto-arranging tile so that you get a blue square in the middle and then screenshot this in 1/2 magnified view* 2.

* 2 – This is done in ½-magnified view as if it is viewed at the maximum in RM2K, it will be double the size in your graphics program due to RPG Maker’s resolution.

You should have something like this in RPG Maker

Now go back to your graphics program and paste your screenshot into it as a new image. Select the area of the map you’ve made and then crop it using the “Crop Selection” tool.

You should now have something like this if you have the grid on.

Now we can clearly see what we need to make in order to make the hill work. The next step is to paste the middle section of the hill graphic into the blue tile.

We’re almost onto the final step now, but first we have to make the final tile actually join with the others To do this, instead of using brightening and darkening, we can merely use copying and pasting of darker and lighter areas in order to make it fit. The next step is to use a different colour to line up where the shades of the hill would meet, as shown below. In the image below, the blue represents the mounds of the hill and the red is where the normal levelled grass would be.

To fill in these areas, fill the red areas with what they would be on the normal level grass areas (The darker shade of flat grass).

Now, for the blue areas that are left, it should be fairly obvious. The top left corner of the tile should have the lightest slope, the bottom right should have the darkest slop. For this part, you merely copy some of the darker areas of the hills in the cross shape and fit them nicely over the blue area, like so:

You should end up with something like this. I merely copied small sections of brighter and darker (Although the brighter colours may not show up so well for this particular style) grass pixels together to make a curved that matched the blue curves from the previous image. The final two curves are slightly harder as they are a mixture from dark to light, but if you could manage the previous step without difficulty, then you don’t need to worry about much.

For the top right curve, as it turns into a vertical line, it would become darker, as this part would be covered mostly in shadow, whereas for the horizontal slope it would be brighter. Therefore where these two lines meet is where there should be a change from darkness to brightness. For the bottom left corner, the vertical slope would be brighter and the horizontal would be darker.

This should be what you end up with. As you can see, it joins up all of the different directions on the hill. Now we just copy the tile we have been working on and paste it into the vacant blue square to finish off the auto-tile, like so:

This hill should now hopefully work; I see no reasons why it won’t.

Add your hill auto-tile to the chipset you are using and give it a whirl. Remember, don’t have hills taking up huge spaces on your maps, you won’t be able to add things like dirt or long grass auto-tiles onto it (Unless you do some more chipset work).

Isn’t it wonderful? No hard work involved.

And that is how it’s done. Of course, it probably took a while the first time round whilst you were learning, but it is far quicker when you don’t have to keep looking back and forth. It shouldn’t take much more than 10-15 minutes once you know what you are doing.

Here is another version earlier (Many years earlier) that would be used on a chipset with greater contrast:

 

TRENCHES

I won’t be going into as much detail or a step-by-step instruction process for trenches, as they are more or less the same process. If you go through the hill tutorial again and decrease the brightness whenever it says to increase it and vice versa then you will end up with something like this:

 

It is brighter/darker on the opposite edges and darker in the middle.

 

Enjoy ©

The Inquisitor