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BannedStory 4 Revived

BannedStory 4 Guide

Building Scenes with Maple Maps

A character looks best standing somewhere familiar: the Henesys hills, a Lith Harbor dock, or a dungeon from your old training days. BannedStory 4 can load complete maps from the game, with every background, tile, object, and NPC as a separate editable layer. This guide covers finding a map, loading it, arranging characters inside it, and getting a clean shot out of a scene that is much bigger than your screen.

Two ways to use map art

  • Window > Maple Maps (or press 5) loads a whole, assembled map in one go. This is the quickest way to get a recognizable location.
  • The Map section of the Thumbnail Gallery holds the individual pieces: Map Back, Map Object, Map Tile, Map Effect, Map Helper, Reactor, and World Map Images, plus Map Places, which groups pieces by street and map name. Use these to build your own backdrop or add one extra tree to a loaded map.

The gallery's Map section needs the Maps and Reactors startup category. If it is missing, add it with File > Add new Category (Ctrl + B). Window > Maple Maps works either way.

Loading a map step by step

  1. Open Window > Maple Maps. The first time, it shows "Loading map locations..." while it fetches the list.
  2. Check the Version dropdown. Maple Maps currently covers the complete GMS v83 map set.
  3. Type into Search ("Map name, location, or ID") or browse: pick a region under Continents, then a map under Maps. Every word you type has to match, so "henesys park" narrows faster than "henesys" alone.
  4. Read the Details panel. It shows the map's name and ID, its location, and how many editable layers it contains. Selecting a map only updates Details; nothing is added yet.
  5. Decide on Auto animate map layers. Leave it off for a still scene, or tick it to start every animated background and object moving as soon as the map loads.
  6. Press Load Map. The button reads "Loading Map..." and a progress bar shows the map definition and then its art loading.

When it finishes, the map appears as one collapsed group in the Layer Panel, named after the map with its ID in brackets, such as "Henesys (100000000)". The editor selects the group and zooms out so the whole map fits on screen. For very wide maps this can go down to 10%, below the zoom slider's usual 20% minimum.

Good to know: Loading a map adds it to your scene; it does not replace what is already there. Loading is not recorded as its own Undo step, so don't use Ctrl + Z to get rid of a map: it would also undo whatever you did just before loading. Select its group in the Layer Panel and press Remove Layer instead, which deletes the group and everything in it (and that step can be undone).

What is inside a loaded map

Expand the group with its arrow to see the parts. Every background, object, tile, NPC, monster, reactor, and portal is its own layer, labelled by type and number, such as "Background #3", "Tile L2 #14", or "NPC #1", followed by its source art path, or the ID for NPCs, monsters, and reactors. Each keeps the position, flip, and transparency it has in the game, and backgrounds keep their tiling. A big town such as Henesys has more than a thousand of them.

Because each part is a normal layer, you can change a map to fit your story: hide an NPC that is in the way, delete a portal, move a sign, or put a Color Transform on the background layers to turn day into dusk. The group row has its own eye button to hide the whole map and a lock button that makes its layers unclickable on the canvas, which helps a lot once characters are standing on top of it.

The map's own background color and music are not applied. If the area around the map looks wrong, change Background Color in Canvas Properties.

Putting characters in front of (or behind) the map

The Layer Panel is a stack: the top row is drawn in front, the bottom row at the back. A loaded map goes to the top of the list, so a character you made before loading the map ends up hidden behind it.

  1. Select the character's row and press Move Layer Up until it sits above the map group, or drag the row there.
  2. To tuck a character behind a tree or a pillar, expand the map group and drag the character's row inside it, just below the object it should stand behind.
  3. Lock the map group with its lock button so clicks on the canvas pick the character instead of a tile.
  4. Fine-tune the position with the arrow keys: one pixel per press, or ten with Shift held.

Common mistake: Right after loading, the map group is still selected, so the next gallery item you click is placed inside the map group, at its top. That is usually fine, but if you want the character separate, click empty canvas first or select another layer outside the group.

If you pick a single map piece from the gallery while a map layer is selected, the click swaps that layer's art instead of adding a new piece. Select a non-map layer, or nothing, before adding extra decorations.

Moving around a big scene

  • Canvas Zoom in Canvas Properties (shown when nothing is selected) goes from 20% to 420% and snaps to 100, 200, 300, and 400%.
  • Scrollbars appear when the scene is larger than the view, and the mouse wheel scrolls. Zooming is done with the slider, not the wheel.
  • A small minimap appears in the bottom-right corner of the canvas whenever the scene overflows. Click or drag in it to jump around; layers show as blue boxes and the visible area as an outline.
  • Each layer row (not group rows) in the Layer Panel has a Focus Layer button that selects the layer and centers the view on it. It is the fastest way to find a small NPC on a huge map.
  • Search layers at the top of the Layer Panel filters long lists by name.

Framing the shot for export

A loaded map is usually much bigger than the image you want. File > Save PNG Image > Whole Scene does not capture the zoomed-out view you see after loading. It captures an area the size of your canvas, at 100%, starting from the scene's origin (X 0, Y 0), and trims transparent edges. To choose which part of the map ends up in the picture:

  1. Set Canvas Zoom to 100% so what you see is at export size.
  2. Select the map group in the Layer Panel and nudge it with Shift + arrow keys (or unlock it and drag it on the canvas), so the part of the map you want sits at the top-left of the scene. Selecting the group moves all of its layers together.
  3. Move your characters into the same area, keeping them clear of the top and left edges. A character's X and Y mark a point near its feet, so its head and hair reach above that point.
  4. Save a quick test with Whole Scene and look at the result. If the framing is off, nudge the map group and try again.
  5. For a bigger capture area, enlarge the browser window or use View > Full Screen (Ctrl + F). Hiding the Properties panel (press 3) also gives the canvas extra room.

Moving the map instead of the camera is also how you get several different shots from one scene, which is useful for comics and videos. Export details are in Exporting Your Work.

Troubleshooting maps

"Map locations could not be loaded."
The map list did not download. Check your connection, close the window, and open it again.
"No maps match your search."
Every word must match. Remove a word, check the spelling, or search by map ID. Press Escape or the × button to clear the box.
The editor feels slow after loading a map.
Big maps hold hundreds of layers. Leave Auto animate map layers off unless you need the motion, hide the map group while you work on characters, and save your project before loading another large map.
My character disappeared after loading.
It is behind the map. Move its row above the map group in the Layer Panel.

New to the editor? The User Guide walks through a first character step by step. Browse all BannedStory 4 guides for other topics.