Alolan_Apples
“Assorted” Collector
I am back for another entry to the game ideas chapter to this blog. Last time, I talked about the eight major issues that act like an annoyance (sea basses are annoying, but not something that needs to be fixed). This time, I will come up with an idea that makes the next version look like something that is more custom than ever before.
Back in the Gamecube version, every map is almost the same. While the ramp types, number of cliffs, islands in the mainland, and grass patterns make the towns more exotic, all towns are nearly the same. Acre A-3 is always the Train Station, Acre B-3 is where the human villagers live, Acre F-5 is where the dock to the island is located, Acres A-1, A-2, A-4, and A-5 always has Tom Nook's Store, the Post Office, the Dump, and the source of the river, in any order. The C, D, and E acres are always where the Museum, Police Station, and Wishing Well are with none of them being on the top level of elevation. Acres F-2, F-3, and F-4 has the mouth of the river. Acres F-1 to F-4 are where the Able Sisters are. And the B, C, D, and E acres are the possible acres for the big lake (where some of the events are held).
In Wild World, we got a little more customization because of the option where you can choose where your house is (but you still can't be precise). Buildings are random in location too, but the major landmarks can't be in the beach acres. Plus, you can lay path patterns. In City Folk, your towns are just as big as the Gamecube version's, as the random number generator for building locations is the same as Wild World's, but towns are still a bit regular. Finally, in New Leaf, we can place projects and houses anywhere. This is why towns in New Leaf are so different to each other (even if the towns are smaller than they are in Wild World). Plus, you get to choose what town maps you want. However, the game still designs the town maps for you.
What the next game needs is a little more diversity. The first step is to revert the town style to what City Folk had, but keep the second ocean boundary and Main Street ideas like New Leaf. So it would be like the Gamecube version with beaches in the F acres and 1 or 5 acres. It's also like the Gamecube version with Main Street like New Leaf had. But wait! That's not all. What else should be done to make towns more diverse? Aha! The map editor! When you make your town, you can make your town any way you like.
When I was trying to make the town of StarFall, I was frustrated by choosing a good layout. It took a while to look for a good map. When I found one where one side of the river was empty of animal houses or public landmarks, I found a layout I like (it even had cherries as town fruit and circle grass as the grass pattern). That became the town map I like, which later became the StarFall you know. But choosing a town map is still frustrating.
I have an idea that can end this frustration once and for all. The idea is to design your own town map. If you're too lazy to make one, the game will randomly generate town maps for you when you create your town. If you made at least one, one of the randomly generated town maps is the one you made. It is highly recommended that you design your town maps through the map editor section from the start menu. You can have only four custom town maps stored in the map editor. If you want to make a fifth one, you have to erase one of your other town maps. But if you made a maximum of four, all randomly generated town maps will be one of your town maps with buildings in random locations. Grass patterns, water and cliff boundary shapes, rock and tree locations, town fruit, original villagers, and locations of pre-built landmarks like the Re-Tail and Town Hall will still be randomized. But the river flow location, cliff locations, ramp locations, side beach location, and lake and pond locations are still biased because of how you design the maps.
When you design your own map, you will get a map that is 6 by 6 acres (8 by 8 if we included oceans). Each acre is 16x16 spaces. In the actual game, the acre system is abolished since it's only used to help design the maps. The first step is to decide what side should the side ocean be. Do you want it on the west side or the east side. Either way, the south side always gets an ocean with the dock. After you decide, you can begin making your town map. When you work on the cliff feature, you can make the plateau shapes any way you like. However, there are a few restrictions:
Other than that, the cliff design is a free build. You can even have all the cliff acres adjacent to the beach acres or the cliff acres adjacent to all the opposite boundary acres. As for the river design, you can draw a river from the cliff boundary acres in your town to a beach acre. The source acre and the waterfall acre (where the river boundary intersects a cliff acre) will both have waterfall lakes. Again, there are restrictions.
The last thing I can talk about when designing maps is the option where you can choose ramps and holding ponds. When building ramps, you have three choices to choose from, but you need exactly two ramps in your town. In addition, there can be no more than one ramp per side of the river. For holding ponds, you have three to choose from, but you can have no more than three holding ponds in town. Not only that, but your holding ponds can't be in the same acre as a cliff, river, or beach.
And on more thing. Please try having at least 10 empty acres (where the river and cliffs don't meet). There needs to be room for Town Hall, Plaza, and Re-Tail.
That's all I have for thie idea. If you like to, feel free to comment. I would like comments on ideas, but you don't have to comment if you don't want to.
Back in the Gamecube version, every map is almost the same. While the ramp types, number of cliffs, islands in the mainland, and grass patterns make the towns more exotic, all towns are nearly the same. Acre A-3 is always the Train Station, Acre B-3 is where the human villagers live, Acre F-5 is where the dock to the island is located, Acres A-1, A-2, A-4, and A-5 always has Tom Nook's Store, the Post Office, the Dump, and the source of the river, in any order. The C, D, and E acres are always where the Museum, Police Station, and Wishing Well are with none of them being on the top level of elevation. Acres F-2, F-3, and F-4 has the mouth of the river. Acres F-1 to F-4 are where the Able Sisters are. And the B, C, D, and E acres are the possible acres for the big lake (where some of the events are held).
In Wild World, we got a little more customization because of the option where you can choose where your house is (but you still can't be precise). Buildings are random in location too, but the major landmarks can't be in the beach acres. Plus, you can lay path patterns. In City Folk, your towns are just as big as the Gamecube version's, as the random number generator for building locations is the same as Wild World's, but towns are still a bit regular. Finally, in New Leaf, we can place projects and houses anywhere. This is why towns in New Leaf are so different to each other (even if the towns are smaller than they are in Wild World). Plus, you get to choose what town maps you want. However, the game still designs the town maps for you.
What the next game needs is a little more diversity. The first step is to revert the town style to what City Folk had, but keep the second ocean boundary and Main Street ideas like New Leaf. So it would be like the Gamecube version with beaches in the F acres and 1 or 5 acres. It's also like the Gamecube version with Main Street like New Leaf had. But wait! That's not all. What else should be done to make towns more diverse? Aha! The map editor! When you make your town, you can make your town any way you like.
When I was trying to make the town of StarFall, I was frustrated by choosing a good layout. It took a while to look for a good map. When I found one where one side of the river was empty of animal houses or public landmarks, I found a layout I like (it even had cherries as town fruit and circle grass as the grass pattern). That became the town map I like, which later became the StarFall you know. But choosing a town map is still frustrating.
I have an idea that can end this frustration once and for all. The idea is to design your own town map. If you're too lazy to make one, the game will randomly generate town maps for you when you create your town. If you made at least one, one of the randomly generated town maps is the one you made. It is highly recommended that you design your town maps through the map editor section from the start menu. You can have only four custom town maps stored in the map editor. If you want to make a fifth one, you have to erase one of your other town maps. But if you made a maximum of four, all randomly generated town maps will be one of your town maps with buildings in random locations. Grass patterns, water and cliff boundary shapes, rock and tree locations, town fruit, original villagers, and locations of pre-built landmarks like the Re-Tail and Town Hall will still be randomized. But the river flow location, cliff locations, ramp locations, side beach location, and lake and pond locations are still biased because of how you design the maps.
When you design your own map, you will get a map that is 6 by 6 acres (8 by 8 if we included oceans). Each acre is 16x16 spaces. In the actual game, the acre system is abolished since it's only used to help design the maps. The first step is to decide what side should the side ocean be. Do you want it on the west side or the east side. Either way, the south side always gets an ocean with the dock. After you decide, you can begin making your town map. When you work on the cliff feature, you can make the plateau shapes any way you like. However, there are a few restrictions:
- Depending on what side the beaches are, the cliff acres cannot be on the same acres as the beach acres. So, if the secondary beaches are on the east side, then the "5" acres is the easternmost acres you can have cliffs while the E acres are the southernmost acres you can have cliffs on.
- Acre A-3 must be completely on the upper level of elevation to have the train station if the beaches are on the east. If they are on the west, then A-4 must be second level.
- All the A acres from the train station to the cliff town boundary must be second level completely.
- The A and B acres must be completely on the second level if they are on the opposite side of the beaches.
- You cannot obscure land on the first level of elevation. For example, if the cliff acres are in the "2" acres closer to the north, you can't have the cliff acres in the "3" acres closer to the south.
- All land on one level of elevation must be connected to each other. There cannot be mesas or craters.
Other than that, the cliff design is a free build. You can even have all the cliff acres adjacent to the beach acres or the cliff acres adjacent to all the opposite boundary acres. As for the river design, you can draw a river from the cliff boundary acres in your town to a beach acre. The source acre and the waterfall acre (where the river boundary intersects a cliff acre) will both have waterfall lakes. Again, there are restrictions.
- The river source acre has to be on the opposite side of town as the side beach. Also, it must be on the second level of elevation.
- The river cannot cut across acres of the second elevation level if the river is on the first level of elevation.
- There can be only one acre where both the river and cliff meet. River cannot be parallel to a cliff on the same acre.
- There should be at least one acre where the big lake is part of the river.
- The river cannot flow through the A acres.
The last thing I can talk about when designing maps is the option where you can choose ramps and holding ponds. When building ramps, you have three choices to choose from, but you need exactly two ramps in your town. In addition, there can be no more than one ramp per side of the river. For holding ponds, you have three to choose from, but you can have no more than three holding ponds in town. Not only that, but your holding ponds can't be in the same acre as a cliff, river, or beach.
And on more thing. Please try having at least 10 empty acres (where the river and cliffs don't meet). There needs to be room for Town Hall, Plaza, and Re-Tail.
That's all I have for thie idea. If you like to, feel free to comment. I would like comments on ideas, but you don't have to comment if you don't want to.
