What are the general opinions on re-using certain maps?

[1Girl3Balls 0]

I'm not sure what people in the game development community think of re-using maps for other areas. For example, Pokemon re-uses the model for the Pokemon Center/Shop, usually with different NPC's, but the exact same map most of the time (some exceptions with larger shops). In RPG Maker, should I be re-using maps for inns/shops? Or should I try to make something different each time?

[Lord Vectra 414]

I personally dont care bc, at the end of the day, they arent supposed to be anything special which is why pokemon gets away with reusing inns and stuff.

[dinhbat3 57]

Generally speaking I would agree with Vectra.

I wouldn't mind reuse of certain "insignificant" maps.

 

However, I would note a couple of points:

 

1. This only makes sense if all towns and locations have the same atmosphere and general tone... If you had a Japanesey town it SHOULD look different than a Forrest Town which SHOULD look different than an urban town, etc, etc.

 

2. I personally notice and appreciate when these locales have their own feel, but again don't mind if they are reused, since these locations are generally for a purpose of resting/restocking and not really for story progression often.

 

3. You can really change an indoors map by simply restructuring a few walls and moving around details pretty easily.

 

That's my 2 cents.

~ Dinhbat3

[Chadzter01 183]

Reusing inn/shop maps are okay as long as you make the interior design a bit different from the others. 

For example, A shop from a forest village must have more flowers/plants decor inside while the shops

in the city have paintings, carpets, etc. You get the idea.

[Guyver 65]

I reuse the inns, most shops and a lot of general house interiors(I have home templates). They're not super special by any means, besides changing up a painting on the wall or something here, I don't feel they need to be remapped every single time. 

[Kayzee 4,032]

Well if you are you copying them to new maps you might as well spruce them up a bit, kind of a waste of space otherwise. Nothing wrong with using standard templates though. I guess you could also do some eventing/scripting magic to literally reuse maps as well if you wanted too.

 

Personally though? I can't help but wonder about the world design sensibilities that lead to map reuse. I mean, assuming your making something like a typical RPG, is there a real point to having a lot of little redundant towns to explore that all functionally offer the same thing? I would much rather design a game to have one rather big town/city that the game revolves around and work on making NPCs that have more personal connections rather then have a globe trotting adventure, or failing that do the exact opposite and abstract towns out so they are little more then glorified menus.

[lonequeso 1,921]

^^Dragon Age 2 did that.The entire game takes place in a large city and the outskirts. All the shops are in the market square (there is one hidden shop with super special items elsewhere) so finding/buying items is really convenient. It's doable for sure. However, generally RPG's involve globetrotting. Generally that means lots of towns and usually a few different nations or races. In games like that having various shops makes sense. If it's a more linear story line, the towns you go to later stock the better stuff. 

 

@1Girl- I'm assuming your game is more of the latter. Personally, I like creating unique shops/inns in my towns, but there's nothing wrong with using the same shop layout for each city. Like Killozapit said, you could always add/change a couple little things just for varieties sake, too. It would literally take a couple minutes to make a few minor changes, but even that isn't really necessary. Personally, I'd at least use a different NPC for each shop. It's kinda weird to see the exact same person at every shop. Of course, you could always have some fun with that like Nurse Joy and Officer Jenny from Pokemon. 

[FAGC 9]

I prefer well designed maps, it doesn't matter if they are only for a single porpouse. If you want to use the same maps, different decorations is what you need,  the npcs must not be the same, maybe the color of the walls, another type of plants, is it a shop? the counter should have a different design. by decorating them all the same, the game will just feel plane. I like to give my maps all different designs for this type of buildings.