Animal Villager House Styles

[Tydos]

I have become obsessed with this townie house issue...

What determines the townie house styles?

I have read posts on other forums that people have posted pictures of their neighbor houses and they all say that it is the games region that is the determining factor.

This does not satisfy me because clearly in the pictures I have seen, and my own WIFI experience, I have seen a range of house styles in both the NA and PAL regions.

I'm wondering if maybe some of you who are much smarter about the "guts" of the game would have the answer?

It appears that each town has 2 general house styles... and it seems to me that no matter who moves in or out the general styles stay the same? Have I just not been patient enough?

It doesn't seem to be related to gate style or grass style. I thought maybe native fruit? Anyway... if I wanted to have a particular house style.. if I restarted my game until I found that style... could I expect it to stay the same? Or will they eventually change to something else?

I'm sorry if anyone feels this is a retarded issue... but like I said... I'm obsessed with this question? I'm dying to know!

Any answers/help would be much appreciated!

[Omni]

I think it's actually a pretty interesting question, and would like to know, myself. I hope someone can find out for us! lol.

[DsPet]

> What determines the townie house styles?
The main (only?) decision factor is the NPC character type (what I call the "Prototype" in NPC_Tool).

Each character has two different possible house styles (I haven't figured out where that is stored, but it may be added to a future NPC_Tool). Use NPC_Tool to change all your NPC neighbors to the same Prototype, then run the town and you will only see two house styles.

The two styles are appropriate for the species of the character. For example, bird species will have rounded roofs that look more nest-like. Cat species will have boxy houses.
If someone has some spare time, a photo guide of all the possible housing styles may let you draw other conclusions...

I don't know if there are other factors involved (game version, town gate type etc). The season changes some things (eg: snow on the roof).

[Tydos]

Hm, I'll have to go try this now! I did use the NPC_Tool to exchange a few of my neighbors... but I still have the same two types of houses in my town... some stone and some this nasty wood slat stuff...

Well, I know that there were a couple neighbors that I had, and a friend of mine had... and she has these cool looking kind of brown cabin like houses??? Ok I'm just going to go try and see what I get. I'll post back

Thanks for the info!

***Ok, I tried the suggestion, and I do see how changing the type of animal does change their house shape... but my town still only has two types of "building material" for lack of a better description. I don't mean to be a jerk.... this is just driving me crazy. I tried to post a picture, but I am too retarded to get it to work : )

Anyway... I guess what I'm wanting to change is what the house is made of... man I'm a freak! I do appreciate your help though DS Pet

[XAlucarDX454]

im pretty sure it is region specific cuz ive seen really weird houses in japanese towns and i think the same kind in euro towns too... the reason you saw a spread of houses is prob because if a jap neighbor moved to a usa town maybe the house goes too... idk im prob all wrong lol

[DsPet]

> ...weird houses in japanese towns and i think the same kind in euro towns too...
Have you seen both in the same town at the same time ?

If you know how to dump ISOs and extract archives, there are some interesting files on the game disc in the "Str/Brres" folder

fieldEurEngStrBrresS.arc
fieldEurEngStrBrresW.arc
fieldEurFraStrBrresS.arc
fieldEurFraStrBrresW.arc
fieldEurGerStrBrresS.arc
fieldEurGerStrBrresW.arc
fieldEurItaStrBrresS.arc
fieldEurItaStrBrresW.arc
fieldEurSpaStrBrresS.arc
fieldEurSpaStrBrresW.arc
fieldJpnJpnStrBrresS.arc
fieldJpnJpnStrBrresW.arc
fieldKorKorStrBrresS.arc
fieldKorKorStrBrresW.arc
fieldUsaEngStrBrresS.arc
fieldUsaEngStrBrresW.arc
fieldUsaFraStrBrresS.arc
fieldUsaFraStrBrresW.arc
fieldUsaSpaStrBrresS.arc
fieldUsaSpaStrBrresW.arc

These appear to contain the graphics for the buildings and other things seen on the world map (ie. when outside a house). Different versions of the game as well as language, and season ("S" for summer, "W" for winter)
The NPC house texture data is stored in there as well. The exact logic is not understood, but it should be possible to patch these for custom looks (IN YOUR TOWN ONLY - it won't work over WiFi). Possible but a lot of work for little gain IMHO.

Sample of house textures (not including roofs)
http://aibohack.com/wii/house_tex.bmp