PBBG Maps / World?

[benjaminj88]

So I'm in the process of developing a PBBG (persistant browser based game. I was making an attempt at figuring out the display for the area the user's character will be in when I came to a few situations and as those situations arose a few other questions came to mind. So now heres what I am dealing with.

I want to display some sort of map most likely birdseye view looking down. None the less I want to display a tile just about equivalent to the space size of a character. This tile will be part of a many to make a block tile. The block tile will display the ground or area that the character will be on for instance a road or grass. Each small tile containing characters, items, etc. Now the user will have the options to find items add them to their inventory, drop em on a spot and retrieve them later if someone else hasn't. Along with possibly changing the tile from say simple ground to a building or safe area for them to take shelter or store their items.

So I was thinkin what about when a player is going to dig a tunnel, How should I determine what level they are on. Do I add an additional cordinate such as having an x, a y, and a 'z' to determine how far they are down? Example if a character enters a building which has a second floor, if they go upstairs they will be one z1 rather then z0
After thinkin of this I thought "Well, to add to some realisim should I make it so that when climbing a mountain or hill, the character uses more effort climbing, tiring them faster. Then the question arose well how exactly do you determin which level is the top soil (Top before going sub level.

Does anyone have any ideas on how I should go about this process? I am trying to work primarily in html, php, mysql, some ajax, but I am definately open to suggestions to use other items which may be safer, work better, or load faster. Well let me know thanks in advanced

[Asperon]

well if you are traveling up or down then yes, use z ground level would be 0, underground would be in the -z direction and going up would be in the +z direction. As for a second floor of a building, if you say, enter a staircase tile, and that moves you to the second floor, the second floor could just be its own map.