Editing Help:Creating Maps (section)

=== The Secrets of Elements ===
Elements are groups of tiles that will appear very often in every dungeons. Its a bit like molecules while tiles are atoms.

Look at this level of Arwic Mines. The dimensions seems quite random and complicated, but in fact its anything but random, and not complicated at all.
[[File:Elements1.gif|center]]

Every rooms, corridors, stairs, etc can be divided in tiles. You can see the classic 3x3 tiles rooms.
[[File:Elements2.gif|center]]

The whole level can also be divided in group of tiles (elements).
[[File:Elements3.gif|center]]

Here is a colored image to understand that only few type of elements are enough for this dungeon. Some element have to be rotated but its the same element.
[[File:Elements4.gif|center]]

And we can see that only 8 elements are needed to draw this dungeon level.
[[File:Elements5.gif|center]]

The number 3 is a key digit in dungeon cartography. Its our gold number ! If you study the above images you will notice that every elements are included in a 3x3 grid. If an element is in a 3x3 tiles area, no other element will be allowed in this zone... This is very handy to check proportion.
[[File:Elements6.gif|center]]

There is more elements of course, the additional ones most often used are:
[[File:Elements7.gif|center]]