how about this:
  'messed' up =>
should it have entrance at all? with current, entering only from 141 direction is tricky, its 2x2 object

or this:
  'messed' up =>

or maybe this...
  'messed' up =>

I like them . Now, mess them up a bit so they're not so perfect

Cheers,
Unislash

before i start making anything bigger, does it make any sense? i mean, bigger objects being cut-off by map edges, that doesnt look nice.
3x3x8 for example, would cover half of map view

i have no clue about map stuff, but what i can tell you is that your images is fantastic!!! keep up the nice work :] i really like the castle lookout whatchamacallits (not really sure what there called but i like them alot!!)

~missy

bigger images are also bad that until you see the root tile of the image, you see nothing. This means that you have problems when you are going from north-west to south-east. I discussed this in one thread not so long ago... (http://www.daimonin.com/big_floor_faces-t6706.0.html)

I am not so keen for a few reasons:

The first is as Grunt and Anchak point out.

The second is one of scale. 'Big' images like this very often simply can't be big enough, due to the first reason, so are out of scale with the player/mob and other non-item images in the game. Leading to a silly model village look to the maps.

The third is that these fancy prefab structures pretend to offer more than the server can deliver. For example, the turret could be expected to be accessible. But 'height' won't work in this way in a game with no Z axis -- as discussed in TPK's elevations thread. Clever map design can get round this in some ways, but still I feel it is generally not a good idea. Ultimately the player will realise that you are promising more than you can give, and once the illusion is broken it becomes uninteresting and actually has the opposite of the intended effect (ie, it repels players rather than attracts them). TES III and IV suffer from this IMO by trying to be too 'realistic' -- once you see the holes and flaws and rigidity in the system it is very difficult to see anything but holes and flaws and rigidity and enjoyment decreases.

The fourth is one of interest and flexibility for the mapmaker, which obviously directly filters through to the player in the maps produced. The analogy that comes to mind is when I were a lad, I played with lego, especially space lego. But at some point they moved from producing simple bricks of varying sizes and colours to producing damn great prefab 'things'. So building a spaceship became boring and generic -- find part 'front of spaceship', attach to part 'back of spaceship', done. All spaceships look the same.

well, i agree. but not with all. if such objects, like these towers, are intended to be decor only, enriching castle-like design of some maps, let them be there.  of course, im not talking about larger objects mentioned before, but rather in general about 'prefab' objects.
its the same situation like with trees. large ones, except decorating are nothing more except another obstacle when running to dt/gt/op/whatever. and if decorational value is high enough, no reason then to avoid them.

eventually, these towers could suit as exits. leading into tower maps like torchwood made. clearly, there is scale issue, but as we used Baldurs Gate eample before, they used IMO with great success small houses leading to next map with house inside part, that was much bigger than main map's house image.

we could use tents(present atm) in the same manner, lighthouses (possible to do), some 'prefab' huts, large buildings in town.
generally, these would be
1- space savers
2- valuable decorational addition

making several types of houses, 2x2 or 3x2, about 3 tiles high, is not much problem. wold be  nice to have court, mage guild, post office or bank made this way.

Yes. Well lets try it. If it works, we win. If it doesn't work, we either tweak it until it does or remove it.

I like that idea ... one of the things I don't like at the moment is the fact that none of our buildings have roofs ... would be good to have a roof that 'dissappears' only when you go inside the building.  LG's idea is another way to do this - when you go into the prefab building you are really teleported to another map ... now of course you can see inside the building.

(I didn't explain that very well ... but as Smacky says - lets try it and see what happens)

But also LGs towers, if used in that way, will be tardis-like (bigger on the inside than on the outside). Which may or may not be a problem, given our use of map 'nodes' anyway.

As I haven't been able to access for abt. one week, i just sum it up: GREAT STUFF, LG! Keep up the good work. I am really amazed

I won't add another post, just saw ur yellow tent - beautiful!

this would need grid 3x3:



of course, wind can be removed or toned down. or no animation at all.
Almost any color variations possible.

i updated topmost message with 141 fences as a start. is this what you had in mind?

Yes - fence looks great!  Possibly too tall, but other than that looks very nice.  I prefer the lighter shade ...

Yellow pavilions look wonderful - needs a pennant (flag) flying from its top!

Wow, nice or should I say to nice ?
Although I dunno much about these kind of things but still very nice to me ! Keep up the good work !