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Town Modding, what the tutorials don’t say

By Shezrie (Town Modder)

This article is not a ‘how to’ guide, but rather it is simply some things to be aware of when building a town mod. These are basic tips that are not in any modding tutorial, but may help the aspiring town modder avoid various common pitfalls when building a town.

Contents

Location, Location, Location!

It is all about the Layout!

FPS, the Town Modder’s nemesis!

How to combat Interior Fatigue.

AI?

The quickest way to loose interest in building your town.

Town Modding Easy!?

Location, Location, Location!

Location is a key element in building a town. Some things to consider when choosing a location:

* Would a town fit quite naturally in there? Without the need for really extensive    alteration of the terrain. The less alteration to the terrain needed, the better.

* Are there surrounding caves, forts, ayleid ruins that your town would impose     on?

* Are there good views that you can take advantage of?

* Is there another town mod in this location?

Search carefully for the right location, as the right location can really make a town special.

It is all about the Layout!

The layout is the most important feature of your town. It is the difference between an atmospheric, exciting town that will give users something to really explore, or yet another generic cluster of houses calling themselves a town. Look for inspiration for your layout, it is everywhere. In your own home town, in pictures on the web. Experiment with different layouts to find the right one for your town.

* Be original, don’t copy someone else’s layouts or location.

* Think outside the box. Use your imagination and experiment with new and       original ideas.

* The layout can take quite a while to do, for my Pell’s Gate mod I have played      around with over 30 different layouts to find one that I was happy with.

Levels can make for an interesting layout....adding character and realism.

Or maybe a town where levels are it’s main feature.

FPS, the Town Modder’s nemesis!

Every piece of clutter, plant, building, NPC, AI package, light and script affects FPS. When you are building a town this needs to be at the forefront of your mind throughout the entire process. It is no use making a work of art if no one can use and actually enjoy it.

The best advice regarding clutter is:

The least amount of clutter for maximum visual effect.

Clutter needs to be creatively placed. Bare corners and nooks stand out the most, fill these in for a cluttered look. When cluttering streets and alleys, stand at one end and look down the street. This is the first impression the user will get, this is the most important viewpoint. Note bare spaces and put down a small grouping of clutter. A few pieces of clutter periodically down the street comes together when you take in the whole scene.

A few barrels and crates can have just as much visual impact as a stack of many. One thing that I often find in town mods is stacks and stacks of items, where half of the stacked items are not even visible and have no impact on what the player sees, but they do impact FPS.

The below shots are examples of minimum clutter for maximum visual effect.

* Hidden clutter. Just because you cannot see it does not mean that your computer and your users computers are not loading it. A good practice to get into is to check under your entire town for odd stones, plants etc. Especially under your buildings. Remove all grass and landscape textures under your buildings as well because it all affects FPS.

The below shots illustrates some of these hidden FPS eaters. Your users cannot see through walls so this clutter is just wasted.

Nice and clear, no hidden FPS killers.

How to combat Interior Fatigue.

The number one reason town mods are not completed? Interior fatigue. Interiors can be very boring and doing even ten of them can be a real chore. Hehe, try forty three of them! As is the case with my latest town. The endless placement of clutter can end in Interior Fatigue and your town never reaching completion. Many people copy/paste interiors, however these still need to altered enough to appear different from the last interior. I attempted to copy/paste interiors but found I was spending as much time redecorating as I would spend creating an interior from scratch. But you need to find what suits you best.

The way I have found to deal with Interior Fatigue, is to add story and character to each interior. This keeps my enthusiasm up and ends in interesting, unique interiors, rather then general generic interiors that everyone complains about.

While you are creating and decorating each interior, design it for the character you will create for that house. Are they rich? Poor? What is their role and background? What is their character? Neat? untidy? bachelor? married? What are their interests? Do they have a unique story to tell that is reflected in their dwelling?

For instance, one of the characters in one of my towns had a chance meeting with a vampire and escaped unscathed, however his house reflects his terror that he now lives with on a daily basis. While he tells his tale in a book, his house reflects the true depth of his fear.

For another interior I have a lady interested in gardening, her house reflects her passion and her neatness. She is very house proud.

And on it goes.....from very in depth backgrounds and stories to just showing the general character of the NPC living there, creating your interiors to suit the characters you will put in them, creates not only more interesting interiors but also makes the process of interior building much more fun.

AI?

It can be very tempting to create remarkably in depth NPC’s with dozens of AI packages accounting for every minute of their day. But, consider this...

How many players follow every single NPC around for every minute of every day?

You may be adding many intricate AI packages to your NPCs for nothing and in fact are just adding more FPS eaters.

Keep it simple. Unless your NPC is integral to a quest you shouldn’t really need more then about six AI packages to bring your NPC to life. Sleep, house wander, maybe off to the pub to drink or eat, perhaps down to sit on a park bench or wander around the town for a some hours, before heading home for some more default house wandering before going to sleep.

Players don’t usually visit NPC houses very often at all, if ever, after the first look through. If your NPC is in it’s house carrying out complex eating, sleeping, reading, painting, weapon training schedules, who is going to know. When the player does enter that NPC’s home, they generally don’t sit around for 24 game hours to observe the NPC...nope, the player is in and out.

Keep the AI simple. Less can go wrong and less time is spent testing and fixing your generic NPCs.

The quickest way to loose interest in building      your town.

* The number one way to loose enthusiasm and interest in your town is to release a half finished project to the public. Releasing a half finished village is nothing short of town modding suicide. The public has now seen your creation so completing those interiors or quests or NPCs becomes nothing but a chore with no excitement of releasing a brand new mod to look forward to. Releasing betas and alphas and so on is really not a good idea either. Take an amble through the town projects on TesNexus, see how many incomplete towns there are? See how few complete towns there are? Why are those incomplete ones not complete? Because the modder released far too soon and lost all enthusiasm to complete the mod.

* Revealing too much too soon. Never, ever, ever, ever (adds one more ‘ever’ for emphasis), reveal the town layout before final release. One overview shot and everyone knows everything about your project. Be mysterious....take shots that tantalize but don’t reveal too much. As I said above, your layout is the most important aspect of your town, it is what sets it apart and makes it unique. It should be your most closely guarded secret until you release the complete mod.

Big town yes? This shot shows that there is a lot there, but there is no way anyone could get a real idea of the layout of this town. Don’t take night shots, they just frustrate people and a quick trip to Photoshop reveals what you were trying to hide anyway.

Town Modding Easy!?

I have heard disparaging comments about towns being easy to make, about them not being a valuable addition or even necessary or town modding being nothing more then ‘placing houses’. Wrong. Fact is that new towns and settlements actually add the most visual and atmospheric content to the game. Town modders themselves are actually rare and much needed. I could count on one hand the number of town modders and on two fingers the number who have released more then one complete town. Easy to make? Not at all. Making a unique and interactive town takes immense amounts of time, creativity, passion and thought.

Good luck and happy town modding!

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