MAKE YOUR OWN TOWN IN 3DS MAX!
TO USE THIS YOU WILL NEED 3DS MAX 5, 6, OR 7

Included is the town file in 3ds max format. This is a finished town with sky, tree canopy, trees and the houses missing from the original sample file in the minimod kit; this is basically the finished version of the sample file from the minimod kit. The 3 missing houses I replaced with some of the simple houses from Japanese Town. It also includes Pikko the Fisherman for those wanting this merchant. Basically you could export this town file as town.scn and play it as is perfectly and the result would look mostly (except for replaced houses) like the original.

As such, you could easily change the merchants, add more, rearrange the houses or whatever very simple changes you want and export your custom town. You could also use the buildings as a template for making your own town, to which I say good luck.:wink:
I will try to answer any and all questions about town creation posted here. If there is demand for it (you have to tell me) I will make a detailed tutorial.



To Export Your Custom Town:
You need to get the minimod kit released by Travis Baldtree the creator of the game. It is in the Mod Archive. In it are the exporters for the screwdriver format that all in-game files are in. Then you will need a copy of 3ds max 5,6,or7, as they are only ones he gave exporters for. Open the town_template.max file, then go to file -- export. A dialogue will pop up and from the dropdown in the lower right corner select Screwdriver Scene (*.scn). Then name your file town.scn and save whereever you want or navigate to your town folder and overwrite town.scn or navigate to a mod folder you're making and save as town.scn. That's it. If however, you make changes to the layout of the town you will need to alter the town collision file also included in the zip. The collision file is all geometric shapes with no texture that represent the parts of the map that you should collide with. If you make a custom building the easiest way to create a simple collision model is to go into create--lines and then create a spline that outlines the shape of the house. Then use the modifier edit-mesh and the line will become a plane. Then select the poly within the mesh and select the extrude option in the task pane and extrude it up into a full mesh representation of the object. Then export as town.col.

To Make Merchants/Questgivers:
You will see throughout the town green crosshair helpers. These are used to make fire's, glows, smoke, sounds, merchants and questgivers, in game. To make a merchant you must either clone an existing merchant and then alter it's properties or make a new crosshair helper and name it merchant# for a merchant, or questgiver# for a questgiver, calling the helper merchant or questgiver will make that point a merchant or questgiver in game. Then you must rightclick on the helper and go to properties. In the properties dialogue go to the User Defined tab. There you will see (if you copied a merchant) for merchants two tags NAME= and TYPE= the name is any of the names listed in the human section at the end of the monsters.dat. Obviously to make a new merchant you will also have to add another person to the monsters.dat. The easiest way to do this is copy a human already there and then alter it. Give it a new name and then under the model info change it to the model of a monster in the game. Then go to the greeting message and change that appropriately as well (if you want this to be modman added then you would create a mod with a monsters folder and then create your own monsters.dat with only the human to be added). The TYPE= will tell the game how to build the inventory of that person. The types are: gambler, weaponsarmor, magic, healer, traveling, goods, breakweapons, breakgems, fish or minstrel. Whatever type you make it will be what the new merchant will sell. Gambler will create another Zim-type character, magic will create another Jin-type character, etc.
Questgivers are much simpler. You name the helper questgiver# and then in the properties-user defined you simply put the name after a NAME= tag. Then of course as with the merchant you must create the new questgiver in the monsters.dat using the above listed steps. Then export your new town as town.scn and your set to go.
It should also be noted that the masterquestgiver helper cannot be changed in any way or it will not function. Also you can add glows, smokes, fires, sound, etc. anywhere in town by creating a helper and calling it either glow#, particle#, or sound# and then changing it's properties in the user defined tab. The sounds must be a sound in the sound folder and the glows and particles are listed in their respective *.dat files.

To Make Splash Screens:
When you first enter the game, the screen on which your character and pet is displayed and you can select your options is called a splash screen. You can create custom splash screens using 4 point helpers. In the center of town next to the fountain and center tree you will see 4 helpers named: player, pet, camera and target. To get the effect of these go ahead and export the town as splash.scn and see how it works. You can reposition the camera and target to view your character from any angle (just keep in mind that a sharp upward angle will show gray space since the sky won't be tall enough. There is a way to make the camera move but I haven't figured it out yet. The easiest way to see your result and frame your scene is to use the viewer included in the mini mod kit. You can position your camera and target then export as splash.scn and view the scene in the viewer. If it gives you the expected view then you can try it out in game in order to better position your pet and character (view doesn't show them).
Once you have your scene set then you should save a copy of the town called say town_splash1.max for example. Then, delete everything in the town that is not part of that scene. In the tree wall, sky, and ground patches you are using you should go to the poly level and delete the poly's that you are not using. You also want to delete all the point helpers you are not using, though if there are smoke and glows in the scene you may want to leave them. Then test in game to see if you deleted too much or could delete more. In the end your exported splash.scn should be around 1Mb.

# sign represents a number that is not already in use. Easy way to see this is to use the select by name tool then scroll down to merchants or questgivers and see what numbers are being used and create the next one higher. or more simply just clone an existing one and 3dsmax will select a number not in use for you.