Realistic Towns, What makes a town believable? Options

[MEands]

So I was going to just request a town, but from what I've checked, there are no places for requesting specific maps, only for people to join teams.
So I might as well learn, what exactly makes a town map look believable.

Stuff like this


Like, I guess I could take stuff from this picture, but do you guys have any specific details that would help in making a good looking town?

This post has been edited by MEands: Apr 11 2012, 04:00 PM

[Dark Gaia]

There's a huge difference between the size of a town and the amount of activity it has.

A "large" city would simply be a city that covers a wide area, has a huge map and takes ages to walk through, but doesn't really have much to explore. Imagine a typical RPG town: you've got your NPCs, your inn, your shops etc, except it's a lot bigger. Basically, it's technically larger in that it is a big area, but there isn't really much more to do than in a normal town.

Meanwhile, a town with a lot of activity may seem huge in scope, but may not neccesarily be a large area in terms of size. These places seem larger and deeper simply because there's lots of activity; tons of NPCs to talk to, sidequests to fulfil, items to find, problems to solve, lots of places to go and explore (each with something for the player), as well as atmosphere and general feel.
If you're aiming to create a town that seems large and realistic, you're better off creating the activity filled place I described above. You don't need to make a huge map, just make sure that there's a lot for the player to see and do, and not just a few shops and an NPC.

Imagine it this way:
You enter a huge map with 30+ buildings that takes an hour to cross. However, the only enterable ones are the shops and the inn.
Or...
You enter a smaller town with less than 20 buildings, but each one is enterable and has something inside for you to do.

Which one would seem to have more depth and realism to you?