Sorry guys, I've been so busy working on maps lately that I've neglected to reply to your posts here.
Simion32 and Kingizor have both helped a tremendous amount with various aspects of the mapping process, and I'm about ready to share the latest developments (after I work out a few kinks), so hopefully this imminent update will make up for my belated responses.
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Blaziken257, you're right that DKL mapping is a bit of a lower priority than the DKC trilogy, but we'll get them done soon enough. Boss maps will be easy to add, and honestly, the main reason they haven't been added yet is because I figured they (the DKC ones, especially) would be so uninteresting. Obviously, it was just a matter of time — and I'd say the time is upon us.
Furthermore, I mostly agree with you about the boss stage notation, but now that Tropical Freeze has introduced the -A and -B stages, it looks like -Boss would be the best option for clarity and consistency. I may be a touch crazy, but I would like to eventually make a solid effort to map Retro's DKC games, too… so I ought to keep these things in mind.
As for bonus maps, that's great that you've managed to provide them for the DKL games; I'll check out your contribution when I get a chance. I assume that by "maps" you mean terrain extractions, rather than complete maps with objects, etc? If you did/do manage to extract sprites and their location coordinates, I'd be happy to work on putting them together — once I'm all done with the SNES DKCs, of course. I haven't yet devised a system for conveniently and logically displaying each level's bonus rooms, but I have some ideas, and will be working on them very soon.
Unused maps are an interesting idea, too, and they fit in well with the spirit of the site, so I'd say it's safe to expect them to be included. Besides, generally they're less complete (no objects, etc.), so they ought to be a cinch do set up. in response to your curiosity about DKC2/3; I know the former has that empty Web Woods duplicate, but that can likely be simulated pretty easily via the actual Web Woods map, so it hardly seems worth including (but I'm sure I'll do so anyway!).
I appreciate the suggestions and contributions; sorry for the huge delay.
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Phyreburnz, my most humble apologies for leaving you hanging; you are certainly able to save each and every individual element displayed on the maps, but it's not always a straight-forward matter. The lava bubbles are individual animated GIFs, and they can either be saved by disabling all of the layers that sit on top of the terrain layer (the sprite, foreground and overlay layers), then doing the typical right-click, save image routine. I'm sure you know as well as anyone how to handle the GIF file from here on, but I'm happy to provide a sprite sheet or a layered PSD of the bubbles if you'd like?
As for the level creation query, I'm not 100% sure, but I would certainly think it'd be fine (and preferable) to leave the numbers in place during the design process, and match up the animations afterwards; it should be a relatively simple process — perhaps even automatic or automatable, depending on the way you plan to build/use the level.
I'm curious about the blurriness you mention regarding screenshotting, though; I don't think I've ever encountered such an issue — mine always come out crystal clear. Perhaps you could let me know what method you use for taking/using screenshots, and if I can give you any pointers to improve the quality of the result, I'd be happy to.
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Dixie Diddy; no, these maps are just for reference, not to actually play. Perhaps one day…
Autoplay is a setting for the music player; if the box is ticked, the music will automatically start playing next time you load a map (DKC maps only at this stage, of course — but DKC2 and 3 will soon have music, too
).