What is my village missing?

Hello. I am a beginner Terrainer and am making an ORPG map, but want to do it on my own.

My problem is this, I have made a village, Mistvale, and it doesn't look finished to me. It looks to simple (remember, more NPCs will be added later, this questioning is only about the terrain).

(The image for the village is at the bottom of this page)

Could you please tell me any ideas to make it more vibrant and exciting.

Thank you.

EDITED: Version 2 is now up.

EDITED: Version 3 is now up.

A simple step would be to save the shadow map. It'll add shadows to your buildings. Go to "File--Calculate shadows and save map".

ur village miss these stuffs:
Grass/flowers, stones, trees, light(torch or lattern), fence and decoration objects.

things to remember: grass and flowers can grow in groups near stone, tat make it look nicer. Mushrooms also grow near stones and trees. big stones near river and cliffs, small ones randomly other places where there are no road.
Fence should be for saftey so put them somewhere u want people not to go.
Like fence around a private property.

I have now put the newer version of the village up, this time, taking your suggestions into account and I also removed the stream and put a forest into it (as in the ORPG, the stream would lead into a forest, this way it just looks nicer in my opinion)

better now but u still need small rocks and few more fence...

Ok, version 3 is uploaded. I have added a few more flowers and rocks, plus I made a entrance fence so the people coming into the town don't run into the buildings. Also, I've added ambient rain and if you were playing, you would here sound.

I am quite happy with it at the moment. If it still needs something, please let me know though.

its alot more beautiful now, but u should add some shrubs to represen grass around buildings and rocks ect. also the terrain tile is important.
Where there are shadow or many people walking, there wont be much grass.
So the training ground may have less grass, and under the trees.
This is just an observation of real life terrain

below is a screenshot of a city/village i made for a discontinued map.

Ah, very good point there... I didn't realize that.


I will change that but I wont upload it, as its a small difference and so little change.

Thanks for everything.

I am assuming that black area in back is the edge of the map... You should still add some trees and such back there otherwise it seems as if it just cut off into nothing. Eww, ugly. Other than that it's looking fairly nice, maybe a tiny bit more grass and a few more trees. Where there is one there are normally 3-4, and it will help fill empty spaces.

For starters, tile variation. And you use two tiles that don't particularly go together. Try putting some dirt/roughdirt/grassydirt along the road.

You are using cliffs... don't. Use a gradual slope into the water.

Your village is too close to the water and looks unnatural. Put a small strip of sloped land leading down to the water with trees on it and maybe a road leading to a pier.

Your village doesn't look like a village, it looks like a bunch of buildings. Make it look like an architect planned the village, have the houses in a neater fashion (90 degree square angles)

how to they get to the archery range?
shouldnt there be a way through?

It is missing cliffs. it is bad that its all flat.

im not the best terrainer in the world but to me this town looks good only thing I would say fix is it looks crowded and needs more things that stand out.

Cliffs are bad. Make really steep hills instead!
~Craka_J

Third one is starting to look nice, but still could use more. Tile variation is better, but I don't like how the town has only one tile of road in it, maybe add dirt around the edges of the road. Add shrubs, shrubs are pretty much useful in every terrain, just tint it for the right color.