In my opinion a majority of towns created in the AoM Editor is quite unrealistic. Most (note: not all) designers begin their town by placing down some major buildings, like markets, stables, some housing blocks, a palace and maybe some farms. However, they don’t have any idea of how to fill up the remaining gaps between those major areas. Those empty places are what makes towns unrealistic. Yes, of course you could put tons of rocks at the sides of roads – a trick which I think I’ve seen first used a lot in Guardian’s KotM scenario – but that’s not very realistic either, is it? In the following guide I’ll explain step by step and illustrated by screenshots how to create a very crowded, cosey, realistic Greek town center.
[This message has been edited by Archaeopterix (edited 06-08-2004 @ 10:21 AM).]
I want the streets in my town to look like many people have walked on it. Therefore I use EgyptianRoadA: it looks civilised, yet also very walked over. I created a flat map, entirely covered with that terrain:
Now, just place down as many houses as you can, each one rotated a bit at random by use of the mousewheel. After that, select the move tool and move the houses closer to eachother one by one. They should all be partly overlapping, like this:
I know, it looks totally random and rubbish, but be patient.
As we carry on with the action above, many housing blocks arise from dust, automatically forming streets and alleys between them. Use your imagination!
There are only very few towns to be found without any elevation, so therefore we add some! To achieve a nice effect, select rectangle brush size one, and raise the elevation below the centers of housing blocks. After you’ve raised a lot (don’t be affraid to over-do it!), smoothen it again. This will look like the houses are actully built on eachother! In the picture below you’ll see what parts I’ve heightened or lowered – the longer the arrow, the larger the height.
You will see that – as a result of the elevation – most houses are like ‘hovering’ above the lower grounds, forming ugly shadows. Don’t mind those. Only if they are really huge, use the smoothen or the sample elevation tool to avoid them.
What is a town without a smith? Without a market? Without some fences or trees? Nothing. And therefore we add some larger buildings, trees and fences. I used the following objects: two
All that same terrain looks boring, doesn’t it? Why not add some grassy terrain, or maybe a cliff where the hill is very steep? I used the following terrains (in addition to EgyptianRoadA of course):
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To make the town look crowded, you need more than tons of villagers. Below is a list of all things from the objects list I placed to achieve a crowded and realistic effect:
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After adding civilian units like Villagers, Donkey Caravans, Old Men and Prisoners, our town is flourishing like an ancient town should be! To have units moving around, add some farms to one side of the town, and a granary on the other side. Then, just assign some villagers to the farms and have a laugh at them walking through the whole town carrying food!
Now get your arse to the editor and try it yourself!
Have fun and good luck.
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