How can I actually get a full sized map out of this program? It goes along fine as I add tilesets and create the map, but when I ask it to save, save as or export, export as, it just gives me a tiny file of maybe 1 or 2 kb.
So how can I get a real map out of this program?
What do you mean by “a real map”? When you save, you get a file that has all your map data, which you can load into a game or whatever. This file is small because it doesn’t contain any image data, it just references the tiles. The image data is stored in your tileset images.
If you want an image file, there’s the “Export as Image” option, which basically outputs a big screenshot of your entire map.
Well… that kind of answered my question… but when I look at mods, their map files are always much, much larger (even when dealing with the same exact space, i.e. a patio) and they also do not contain their tilesets, just reference them.
I don’t know what kinds of mods you’re talking about, different games/engines have different formats for them. It’s possible they have more layers, and/or more objects. It’s possible they’re distributed in a different format that’s less space-efficient. Objects in particular can make a big difference in the file size, as Tiled does not compress them but they may have many properties with long names and values.