How much do you try and plan for achieving that balance of unique and repeated tiles? Do you just sketch whatever you're picturing and then worry about it later? Or do you sketch it out thinking "this section will have some repeats" and specifically plan for it
it's kinda a 50/50 balance when it comes to my tile work. As I definitely want to make it as detailed as possible. But while I do so I try to basically make some of the tiles "future proof" so that way once I begin to look over and old areas that could be repeated. I can then simply just take those tiles and replace any unnecessary unique ones. Bringing down the total unique tiles and allow for more unique graphics to be drawn. And even occasionally I'll just happen to have some empty space and realized a specific set of tiles just work really well unintentionally.