[WIP] Need guidance with cave/mine tileset

[startselect]

I took a look at the tiles and I think I changed them all, maybe they are still to similar?

Also made a slightly bigger cave and started on a door/opening

Not sure if it's reading bad because of using the same black as the background/top or if it's something else, but there is def more work to do with it.

[eishiya]

I don't get the "hey, isn't that my stuff?" feeling from it, so I think you're fine xP

Your variant tiles have very similar shapes to the "base" tiles, so they don't really look different. Try to vary them more by having the "intruding" colour take up much more or less space.

For the door, try having some larger rocks around it, or some lighter ones, so that it stands out?
Also, it looks very artificial because it's so square. Give it a rounder shape, and let the rocks break up the smooth silhouette.

[startselect]

I changed the second variant of all transition tiles to have much smaller "intrusion" into the other color, all the first ones already had pretty big intrusions so I didn't change them any.
Tried rounding out the door shape and lightening the stones around it, which I'm quite pleased with.
Also added a stair going up to try to show which opening leads down to the next "cave level" (natural caves def have stairs, mines too because minecarts love stairs ) and which leads up. This could really use some advice, sometimes when I look at it I read it as a stair going up instantly and sometimes it just reads as flat ground continuing further along floor.

[eishiya]

I see what you mean about the stairs leading up! I think the problem is due to several factors:
- the stairs get narrower as they go up, but we expect them to get wider because of perspective
- the vertical parts are larger than the horizontal parts, but with this perspective, it should probably be the reverse
- the edges of the steps aren't defined
While the middle "issue" can be fixed, the other two can't really be fixed without making a weaker image overall. Instead, I think you should consider alternative solutions, such as making the staircase wind instead of being just straight. That's a common method games with this projection use for staircases, probably precisely because it eliminates the ambiguity of front-on stairs by giving you the opportunity to show the sides of the steps.

Here's an edit to make the stairs curve:

I also had some fun and added some details to make the steps look a little more like they're part of the cave itself in the second edit :>

[MylHause]

This scheme helped me a lot with my design, so i expanded the other corners and it would be nice if we work in a kind of template, it works very well with Ruled Tiles in Unity. Great job




Now the update made from me
Built some corners and walls, check if this works well

[startselect]

That's great advice @eishiya!
I gave it a try myself, and to not be too "inspired" by your edits I wound the the stair the other direction
Also tried to do a winding of the stairs leading down, which I think went ok.

[startselect]

Started working on minecart tracks:


Feels to bright and at the same time to unsaturated. Will try to tweak the colors when the set is complete.
Also feels kinda floaty, maybe a shadow next to the boards could help.

[eishiya]

The perspectives don't really feel like they match. The rails are seen from directly above, while the ground and walls appear to be seen from a 45 degree angle or lower, perhaps as low as 30 degrees. The horizontal rails would appear narrower than the vertical ones at these angles, and we would see the vertical sides of rails in additional to the tops. Even if you keep the widths uniform, we should still see the sides.

The sleepers (boards underneath the rails) are meant to distribute their weight so that they don't get pushed into the ground. This is relevant for a few reasons:

• there should be sleepers all along the length of the track, including in the corners. At the very least, there should be some supports underneath those long stretches of rail. Ideally though, corners should not be so tight (what minecart could turn those?), and there may be ways to make gentler turns without too many tiles.
• unless the track is freshly laid, the sleepers should be partly or almost entirely buried in the dirt. If any mining has gone on, they'd at least be covered in dust the colour of the local dirt, and not stand out so much. This fact could help you hide the difficult corner sleepers ;D
• unless the sleepers were laid already broken, they're not likely to break in half in the middle of the track, as there's nothing there that would apply that kind of pressure. Consider converting that "snap" into a spot where the sleeper is buried instead - same efficacy for making the tracks look more interesting, but more natural, and fits with what I said above. A sleeper laid already broken also suggests that whoever built the track didn't care about it - sleepers do more than just distribute weight, they also keep the rails spaced evenly, and a broken sleeper can't do that.

Lastly, consider your worldbuilding. What you've made is a very "default" railway. It works and looks nice, but what does it say about the setting of this game? If your goal is to make something that almost any game can use, then this is great, since most players won't pay attention to something that's default. But, if your goal is to create a location for a specific game with a specific world, you should consider that world's history when designing this stuff. Some thoughts in case you're interested in the latter:
Spoiler

Metal rails are reliable and long-lasting but expensive, and require the technology to cast long, smooth rods of metal. Before that became available/affordable, many mines used wooden rails, with different kinds of wheels on them. Some of them weren't even rails, but flat wooden tracks that kept the cart on-track in some other way.

Even with metal rails, there are many possibilities, and the smooth shape common now wasn't always the norm. For example, some older metal rails were L-shaped and the carts had regular wheels, so it was the track that clamped onto the wheels rather than the other way around. You can read about older kinds of railways on Wikipedia.

In addition, some cultures had mining but not wheels (for example, the Incas), they likely had entirely different ways to transport materials out of the mine, such as using pack animals making frequent trips with smaller loads than a minecart.

[startselect]

Wow that's really eye-opening and inspiring! I started trying to make round timber rails as that looked amazing and seemed really appropriate.

Didn't get that far yet but I made 4 tiles of horizontal track. I'm having a hard time blending them to the ground though, they still feel pretty floaty.

[eishiya]

I think a big part of the problem is the outlines. Outlines look like shadows. If something's meant to be flush with the ground, it wouldn't be casting a visible shadow underneath itself. Removing the outlines around the sleepers helps a lot, it makes them look buried in the ground and almost flush with it. The rails can keep their outlines, since they're lying on top of the sleepers and are elevated slightly above the ground.

Here's a pair of edits.
The top edit removes the outlines from the sleepers, and makes the sleepers a little darker (fewer highlights), which makes them look a little dirtier and lower in the ground.
The bottom edit adds some piles of dirt around the rails (achieved simply by erasing parts of the rails, so the tiles can work on any terrain). Note the lack of outlines around these piles - the dirt is flush with the wood, so there's no separating shadow.


If you want to get very specific with the tiles, you could adjust the colour of the wood to be a little closer to the colour of the ground, to make it look like the dust has permeated or covered the wood.