Some random tips: Um... copy/pasted.
Never underestimate the power of elevation. It can help align map copied buildings. It adds much needed strategy to single unit RPGs. And it looks nice, and adds realism.
Keep the town in perspective when creating it. Is it supposed to be a rich town? Then add Imperial Age buildings. It is going to be a newly renovated area? Then add regular roads. Keep in mind that most Medieval towns were crowded. Not only is it realistic to fill your towns with buildings (not too much...), but it is visually pleasing too.
If you are making a town, be creative. Straight Road with a few buildings will not give you a 5 for Map Design. Instead, put some broken road in, add a bunch of trees, flowers, and dirt, and use the map copy feature to good use to create new and interesting buildings. If it's a poorer town, don't even consider roads. Put more dead trees in, and put Dark/Feudal Age buildings rather than Castle/Imperial Age buildings.
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Anyway, the main ideas to making a town are terrain mixing and map copy.
Terrain: When making a town, a good idea to follow is to never have any grass 1 in it at all. There might be small patches, but in most cases I replace it all with some sort of dirt. The Road (the neat, nearly white road) is also normally a bad choice to use. In richer parts of town, maybe, or some other places, but usually a mixture of Road, Broken and Road, Fungus is better. GAIA objects should be used frequently. The Flowers 1-4 as well as Paths 1-4 can make an otherwise boring landscape better. Don't be afraid to add trees, but go sparingly on them. Don't forget to add some elevation changes.
Buildings: Map Copy, Map Copy, Map Copy. IMO, any decent sized town needs several map copied buildings to look good. There are hundreds of different combinations you can do, and Map Copying allows you to use Docks in your town, because you can use other buildings to hide the water. Remember that Houses are your friend. Map Copied or not, they can add filler to open areas, and go well with nearly every other building. If you want, you can use buildings from a couple of different players to add different colors to your town. And whatever you do, don't always put your buildings in neat little rows.Activity: Go ahead, use that change name function. Using names other then the standard Market, Town Center, etc. keeps the player interested and makes him more eager to go around clicking things. There should be units moving everywhere, and if you want, add idle chatter.
Here are some sample screenshots. They aren't the best... the first two are from a scenario where I could only make the town so big yet still playable, and the last was made a year or so ago, when I was just starting out in the map editor.
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[PLAIN, (403.92 KB)]Hope this helps!
zyxomma100-
Age of Kings Heaven forumer
Proudly thwarting Dark_Aro's evil plans since 2002
"There is nothing more sad than watching a teutonic knight chasing a petard."