I'm using arrays for my map data for my RPG too and am going to have to switch to banks for simple speed issues. It means creating a few custom functions, depending on how complex the data is of course. For instance, if you're using a 10000,10000 map (thats friggin huge man! are u sure u need all that space? :)), you'd have to create a minimum 2 meg bank to store tile data alone, assuming you're using a 256-tile set. And if you're using sprites on-top of that, then you'll also need to know whether or not a location is "walkable" or not, seeing as a castle sprite won't be made up of individual tiles - and so forth and so on.. so add another meg onto that bank for "walkable?" data.
THEN if it IS a sprite rather than a tile being drawn there, you've got to know what sprite to draw (and what tile to draw underneath it, in most cases). Not to mention knowing if you'll take damage in a certain area, and how much damage to take, or if such-and-such is a secret-passage (ie, a walkable wall tile), etc.
Perhaps, use map files for different areas so you're working with a much more manageable amount of memory, or read map data directly from the file? 'Dem hard drives are fast these-days. :)
+BlackD
THEN if it IS a sprite rather than a tile being drawn there, you've got to know what sprite to draw (and what tile to draw underneath it, in most cases). Not to mention knowing if you'll take damage in a certain area, and how much damage to take, or if such-and-such is a secret-passage (ie, a walkable wall tile), etc.
Perhaps, use map files for different areas so you're working with a much more manageable amount of memory, or read map data directly from the file? 'Dem hard drives are fast these-days. :)
+BlackD