I have been kicking around an idea for a while now and have been unable to figure out how to actually do it. The idea is to created a 2D tile based mapping program (this will be used for map creation for table top RPGs but could also be used in video games). However, here is the catch. I want to make it so I can zoom in and out on the map and have the tiles scale accordingly. The user should be able to select tiles from a toolbox and design a map for something like a dungeon or town. Then be able to zoom out and see what that town looks like from higher up with more of the world map in view. This like the satellite images on Google Earth. I figured vector art would be the best option for this since it would keep the size of the file down and would allow for the scaling without messing up the image. However, I can't find any info on working on stuff like this. I have done tile based games before using regular raster images, I have just never worked with vector images in code before. If you could point to other threads, articles, or tutorials about how to do this it would be appreciated.

I can't point to a particular source, but the idea you're trying to illustrate is a basic concept behind Flash games. There's one in particular that comes to mind: http://www.dofus.com/ From what I recall their character sprites are vector-based, so you could zoom in and out without any loss of quality. So I suppose it all comes down to your graphics engine supporting vector graphics. If it doesn't you'd have to create one yourself.

http://www.tonypa.pri.ee/tbw/tut00.html

Here is an example of a tile map editor that has a zoom in/out function

Juddmans 2d Map editor

Thanks for the links, however after some review of them they seem to be about flash games with the exception of the link by bobjob. While this info might be useful at a later date if I get around to learning flash, my current project which this will become part of is being written in Java. So hopefully that last link will be able to help me out a bit.