HOW TO CREATE AWESOME MALLS!
Hi and thanks for looking.
I have been on many Fun servers - all have pros and cons but one con I see too often is a bad mall.
I myself am a big fan of Fun servers - that's why I have decided, as my first tut, on the topic of how to make a good mall.
1. Only make one or two malls. Some servers have a mall in each capital city - i don't think this is practical. Make one mall for Horde and Alliance or make one for each faction.
2. Do not - I repeat, DO NOT just put all of your vendors in a line. It just looks weird and it makes it hard to give directions. Eg, 'Where is the Key Vendor?' - 'Two-thirds down the line' is a very vague answer. Instead, put your vendors in groups, for example, with all the Enchanting vendors together with the Enchanting Trainer.
3. Put everything your players need in the mall. Class trainers are a MUST, profession trainers and a guild master are useful too. I have been on a server where, to train class skills, professions and to make a guild one must run all the way to Orgrimmar... with the mall in the Southern Barrens.
4. If you are making a Horde mall and a separate Alliance mall, make them inaccessible without a portal. So many servers have problems with people getting into the other faction's mall, with players getting very annoyed.
5. I, personally do not use Fun server repacks such as Project Silvermoon and others - making your own server from scratch is hard work, but it is fun. What is the point of going on servers if they are all the same?
6. When I make a mall I change all of the NPC's display I.D.'s using the command .mod displayid then your preffered DisplayID. Usually I just guess a random number for the DisplayID from 1 - 23000; if I like the one I have guessed, I keep it, and if not, I just guess something else. Again, this helps with directions. Eg. 'Where is the Enchanting Reagent Vendor?' Instead of saying 'Next to the big tree,' as it is with most malls, say 'The Tauren with the big helmet.' Doing this makes the mall more appealing to go to and less dizzying to newer players.
Thanks for reading. I hope this will make some PS malls better.