Designing towns.
| Author | Topic: Designing towns. |
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Apprentice
Member # 6651
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written Saturday, January 7 2006 22:27
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Hi. I am new here. Over the past few months I have been tinkering with the editor and have ultimately learned scripting to a decent level. I have a nice plot on my mind, short but (hopefully) interesting. But when I began designing I encountered a peculiar problem. (Peculiar cause noone mentioned it before). The towns I designed looked boring. I mean, they had characters, dialog, special encounters but nothing visual. Just cave floor and buildings. Any ideas regarding how to make the towns interesting? - Hoping have made myself clear! Oops! This ought to have been in BOA Editor forum. [ Saturday, January 07, 2006 22:35: Message edited by: The tangent ] -------------------- * Reality killed my imagination.* Posts: 6 | Registered: Saturday, January 7 2006 08:00 |
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Off With Their Heads
Member # 4045
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written Saturday, January 7 2006 22:38
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A few things come to mind: * Make sure that you're not just making completely square towns sorted into neat quadrants or whatever. A little asymmetry goes a long way. * Make the cave floor itself more interesting. You can have trees, mushroom fields, rivers, lamp-posts, statues, height variety (a hill in the middle of town), or any number of other things. * Design towns with a purpose. If you have an idea of the products coming out of a town (metalworking in Fort Draco, for instance), you can design buildings with that in mind, and they will look different. Also, bear in mind that towns always look really boring and formulaic if you've been working on the same ones for several hours at a time. Part of the boredom comes from familiarity. -------------------- Arancaytar: Every time you ask people to compare TM and Kel, you endanger the poor, fluffy kittens. Smoo: Get ready to face the walls! Ephesos: In conclusion, yarr. Kelandon's Pink and Pretty Page!!: the authorized location for all things by me The Archive of all released BoE scenarios ever Posts: 7968 | Registered: Saturday, February 28 2004 08:00 |
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Apprentice
Member # 6651
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written Saturday, January 7 2006 22:49
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Thanx for the advice. I'll keep it in mind while designing towns. And also that last part about the familiarity. -------------------- * Reality killed my imagination.* Posts: 6 | Registered: Saturday, January 7 2006 08:00 |
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Agent
Member # 5814
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written Sunday, January 8 2006 08:24
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Also, each building doesn't have to be the a square or rectangle. For example, buildings in the town of Sweetgrove have a circular (or octogonal, depending on your imagination) shape. There are enough ways to design buildings to keep you from reusing ideas (at least in a short scenario). -------------------- quote: Posts: 1115 | Registered: Sunday, May 15 2005 07:00 |
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Master
Member # 5977
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written Sunday, January 8 2006 09:10
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Besides trees and plans and such, try placing lantarnposts, fences and statues. Parks are also nice. Make a river throiugh the city. You know that, for a sfar as I have seen, Bahssikava and my own scenario are actually the only scenario's with a real river running right through town, making bridges necessary? wait, didn't sweetgrove on VoDT also have some kind of river? also, monuments are nice, with trees and plants around them. Anyway, try to be cretive with the things you have, is mostly what I mean. -------------------- Play and rate my scenarios: Where the rivers meet View my upcoming scenario: The Nephil Search: Escape. Give us your drek! Posts: 3029 | Registered: Saturday, June 18 2005 07:00 |
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Councilor
Member # 6600
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written Sunday, January 8 2006 10:47
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The only problems with rivers is that they can eat up a lot of space in a town. Depending on the town size and the number of buildings and such needed to be in a town, there may not be room for more than a pond. On the other hand, some towns need more help than a simple river can give them. Plus, if every town had a river, it would be just as bad as no town having a river. As long as each town is different and dynamic, I don't think it will be boring. I think developers intent on making a good scenario are more critical of their creations than the players are. Edit: Dikiyoba just doesn't want to see Warrior's Grove. But no one's used it for a long time, have they? [ Sunday, January 08, 2006 10:48: Message edited by: Dikiyoba ] Posts: 4346 | Registered: Friday, December 23 2005 08:00 |
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Law Bringer
Member # 4153
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written Sunday, January 8 2006 10:48
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And as a finishing touch, the "Frill Up Terrain" option under the Town menu should make things look a bit more interesting. One thing that I've found to be helpful, particularly when trying to put some trees or stalagmites into a town, is to use the spray-can tool to spray one type of tree/stalagmite throughout the town. Then, use the Change Terrain button repeatedly to diversify the trees/stalagmites. The trick is getting the right percentages, so you end up with roughly even numbers of trees of each type. -------------------- Gamble with Gaea, and she eats your dice. I hate undead. I really, really, really, really hate undead. With a passion. Posts: 4130 | Registered: Friday, March 26 2004 08:00 |
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The Establishment
Member # 6
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written Sunday, January 8 2006 11:13
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A caveat on the last comment is that if you have a lot of trees for a part or forest, be careful not to make too many tall tries as it obstructs the view. I usually place all of one type of small tree, make half the other type, and then take 10-20% of what's left and make them big trees randomly. The same consideration should go for adjusting height. Be careful so you do not block the player's view too much. Otherwise, this thread has lots of good ideas. What I try to do is make at least one thing unique for each town, be it a kind of building, a river, a hill, etc. -------------------- Your flower power is no match for my glower power! Posts: 3726 | Registered: Tuesday, September 18 2001 07:00 |
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Law Bringer
Member # 4153
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written Sunday, January 8 2006 11:30
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Ah, I had forgotten that caveat, since I've stopped using large trees as of late. They just tend to get in the way... particularly in the outdoors. -------------------- Gamble with Gaea, and she eats your dice. I hate undead. I really, really, really, really hate undead. With a passion. Posts: 4130 | Registered: Friday, March 26 2004 08:00 |
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Apprentice
Member # 6651
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written Wednesday, January 11 2006 01:26
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All of the above are excellent ideas. I will try and implement them. But I have no idea how to make circular / orthogonal buildings. Do you have to use custom graphics for that? Frill up terrain doesn't seem to be of much help. As far as I can see it just changes some floors and doesn't put any terrain. Or am I wrong? Anyway, I just finished designing a town. It's entirely indoors and I am not too disappointed with it. Got stairs leading to the second floor too! I hope I can finish this scenario. -------------------- * Reality killed my imagination.* Posts: 6 | Registered: Saturday, January 7 2006 08:00 |
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Infiltrator
Member # 5576
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written Wednesday, January 11 2006 06:53
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Buildings with more complicated shapes are usually made by placing the existing walls differently. For instance, roughly diagonal walls can be created by placing corner walls in a diagonal line: Frill up terrain helps a LOT. It mostly does just affect the floor, but when you're playing the game, variation in the floor makes it look much better. There have been a couple of scenarios where the author has not used it in a few towns, and on reaching those towns I usually find that they look oddly blank without variation in the floors. EDIT: added diagram [ Wednesday, January 11, 2006 06:57: Message edited by: Niemand ] -------------------- Überraschung des Dosenöffners! "On guard, you musty sofa!" Posts: 627 | Registered: Monday, March 7 2005 08:00 |
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Master
Member # 5977
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written Wednesday, January 11 2006 08:35
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quote:That's not what I meant. It is like Stareye said: one or two towns have a river, the others something else. I have five friendly towns, of which one a river, one an enormous temple, one a pond, one an out of the ordinary layout. -------------------- Play and rate my scenarios: Where the rivers meet View my upcoming scenario: The Nephil Search: Escape. Give us your drek! Posts: 3029 | Registered: Saturday, June 18 2005 07:00 |
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Agent
Member # 5814
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written Wednesday, January 11 2006 16:07
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This is sort of a character/semi-plot suggestion more than a town design suggestion, but only barely. Anyways, not all people in town are inn keepers and fletchers. Some are physicians (not healers). Some are retired; some are barbers; some are actors; some are furniture makers; some are rug salesmen. The list goes on and on. Not all characters have to sell something; however, it's still a good idea if they at least have something relevant to say to the party. EDIT: Just thought of something else. The commerce centers of most modern cities are grouped closely. Usually, they're all trying to get as much visibility as possible. Place shops close together and near a high-trafficed area; major intersections and the centers of town, for example, should probably hold a decent number of shops. [ Wednesday, January 11, 2006 16:10: Message edited by: Knotty ] -------------------- quote: Posts: 1115 | Registered: Sunday, May 15 2005 07:00 |