Creating a town
by Cosmic Gerbil
Adding a new town can be fun. Here’s how to do it.
First open the file t_bree in the lib/edit folder. The file is divided into two parts: the written information about Bree and the town map itself. Let’s look at the written info first.
# File: t_bree.txt
# Bree
These lines are comment lines, and they simply tell you the name of the file and town. Comment lines always have a # symbol in front of them.
############### Additional default terrain settings ###############
# Default for Quest 1 = entrance is quest entrance
F:z:8:3:0:0:0:0:0:4
# Default for Quest 18 = entrance is tree
F:y:96:3
# Default for Quest 18 = entrance is tree
F:x:96:3
############### Quest 4 - Thieves Hideout finished = house ###############
?:[EQU $QUEST4 2]
F:z:74:3:0:0:0:0:0:7
?:[EQU $QUEST4 5]
F:z:74:3:0:0:0:0:0:7
?:1
############### Quest 8 - Troll Glade ###############
?:[AND [EQU $QUEST8 1] [EQU $DAYTIME 0] ]
F:y:8:3:0:0:0:0:0:8
?:1
############### Quest 9 - Wights Grave ###############
?:[EQU $QUEST9 1]
F:x:8:3:0:0:0:0:0:9
?:1
All the above is information about the quests available in Bree. You can learn how to write quests in the Quests help file.
###### Additionnal buildings #######
# Castle: Plot Bree
F:B:75:3:0:0:0:0:0:1
# Mayor's house
F:b:74:3:0:0:0:0:0:10
# The Prancing Pony
F:a:74:3:0:0:0:0:0:58
# Soothsayer
F:c:74:3:0:0:0:0:0:12
# Music Store
F:d:74:3:0:0:0:0:0:64
# The Museum
F:e:74:3:0:0:0:0:0:57
# Map store
F:f:74:3:0:0:0:0:0:66
# The Library
F:g:74:3:0:0:0:0:0:13
These are extra shops and buildings you will find in Bree. The comment lines tell you what sort of building each one is. Let’s look at one example, the music store in detail.
# Music Store
F:d:74:3:0:0:0:0:0:64
The F indicates the start of the line, though I’m not sure what it means.
The lower case d is a symbol used on the actual map of Bree. I will explain about this further down.
The 74 is an index number found in the f_info (feature) file. 74 means a town building.
You don’t have to worry about the other numbers except for the 64. This is the number corresponding to the 64 in the ow_info (owner) file. This file is where the index of all the building owners are kept. If you open up ow_info and find number 64, you will see that Firiel the High Elf is the owner of the music store. This is important for when you wish to create your own shops and buildings.
Finally if you scroll down past the town map, you will see this writing:
############### Starting positions ###############
# Standard starting position for normal races
?:[AND [EQU $LEAVING_QUEST 0] [NOT [EQU $RACE Vampire] ] ]
P:33:131
# Standard starting position for vampires (at the dungeon entrance)
?:[AND [EQU $LEAVING_QUEST 0] [EQU $RACE Vampire] ]
P:31:150
You do not need to worry about this. It is simply providing information about the position of where a normal race character starts and where a vampire starts.
Now let’s look at the town map. You will see it is made up of various letters, numbers and symbols. These symbols represent the actual picture symbols you will see when you play a game of FuryBand. The index to these symbols can be found in the file t_pref. For example a letter T means tree, so all the “T”s on the map are represented as green squares in the game. W means deep water, and is represented by a blue ~. Both letters and symbols are used to represent town features.
You will also see numbers in the doors of houses on the map. The town system uses numbers to represent some of the shops. These are:
1 = General Store
2 = Armoury
3 = Weaponsmith
4 = Temple
5 = Alchemy shop
6 = Magic shop
7 = Black Market
8 = Your Home
9 = Pet Shop
Extra shops are represented in the game by different coloured plus signs. These are the letters in the doorways on the map. The doorway with a “d” is the music store. Any letters can be used, providing they are not already being used for quest entrance features or features in the t_pref file.
The only way to design a new town is to draw one manually. This is time consuming, but the results are worth it when you see your town properly in your module. To draw a town, you may want to make a copy of the t_bree file, and alter the map as you go along. Or you can open a new document and draw a town from scratch.
Once you have finished, save your file as t_mytown. Of course this is just an example name and you can call your new town anything you like. Now you have to add mytown to the rest of the files that deal with new towns.
Open the file t_info and you will see all the other towns are stored in here. Bree looks like this:
# Town Bree
?:[AND [EQU $TOWN 1] [EQU $TOWN_DESTROY1 1] ]
%:t_d_bree.txt
?:[AND [EQU $TOWN 1] [NOT [EQU $TOWN_DESTROY1 1] ] ]
%:t_bree.txt
?:1
The number 1’s after EQU $TOWN and EQU $TOWN_DESTROY mean that Bree is the first town, and is also represented by a map on the w_info (world map) file. There are 17 towns in FuryBand, so add in the following:
# Town MyTown
?:[AND [EQU $TOWN 18] [EQU $TOWN_DESTROY18 1] ]
%:t_d_mytown.txt
?:[AND [EQU $TOWN 18] [NOT [EQU $TOWN_DESTROY18 1] ] ]
%:t_mytown.txt
?:1
I’m not sure what the destroyed towns are for, but you do not need to worry about this. Simply make a copy of t_mytown and rename it t_d_mytown. Also if you like, you can redraw your map to make a destroyed town for t_d_mytown J
Next you have to increase the number of non random towns in the misc file. Open this file and you will see:
# Maximum number of non random towns(must be < 20)
M:t:17
Increase the 17 to 18, to accommodate your new town.
Now you have to make your town appear on the world map. Open the file wf_info (world map features). You will see Bree is in here and looks like this:
N:1:Bree
D:a small village
W:1:1:0:203:1:1
X:88:88:89:89:89:89:79:96:96:96:96:96:96:96:96:96:96:96
The first line tells you (of course) that the town’s name is Bree. The second line is the description line, and here it describes Bree as “a small village”.
In the third line, the second number 1 counts the town number (Bree is the first town), while the last 1 shows the symbol you must draw on the world map to make your town appear.
The last line consists of numbers that will display random floor features around your town area, and they correspond with the numbers in the f_info file. For Bree these are 88 (dirt), 89 (patch of grass), 79 (grass with Elanor flowers) and 96 (tree). The more of one number there is, the more frequent that feature will appear, so if all the numbers were 79, then the outside of the town would be surrounded by grass with Elanor flowers.
When drawing town maps, it is a good idea to draw paths that you can enter the town from and also do not have too many solid features, such as trees, or else when playing your module, your character may not be able to enter a town if trees are blocking his way.
Scroll to the bottom of wf_info and add in the following:
N:1:My Town
D:a town I have made
W:1:18:0:203:1:v
X:88:88:89:89:89:89:79:96:96:96:96:96:96:96:96:96:96:96
The 18 in the second line shows that My Town is the 18th town in the game. The v is the symbol you must draw in on the world map. I have used v in this example because most letters and symbols have already been used in wf_info.
Of course you can alter the description and also the features on the bottom line. As an example, if you change all the 96’s to 80’s, you will have no trees, instead there will be grass with Fumella flowers.
Finally you must put your town on the world map. Open up w_info and draw a v in a suitable spot. Remember to check what the other symbols mean in the wf_info text, you probably don’t want a town in the middle of the ocean, or stuck within a solid forest ;) You may want to place your new town close to Bree (the number 1 on the map), so that you can visit it early on in the game.
Now start up a game of FuryBand and you will be able to find and visit your new town.