So very cool and weird seeing Elderhollow looking so different
I'm not sure I would want to play the game with this version of Elderhollow, though I'd probably want to install it and explore a little just for the fun of it
For my tastes, the areas feel too clean and pefect. A small amount of cracks, dirt and clutter would really make the area look more "lived in".
They also feel a little empty - the room immediately to the northeast of the room you start out in, for example, has no furniture or clutter. The same with the room to the south of the horse statue, etc. this was fine when they were just hollowed out shells, but as full buildings, they feel like they need some furniture and clutter.
It also feels a bit "cheaty". The library, for example, having all the books.
The description is still the same "the town has clearly suffered a catastrophic event...". I think this can be scripted in the map to be different, perhaps to refer to the mystery of the ghost town. Or scatter blood splatters and weapon fragments as clutter?
All these are minor nitpicks, and none of this is to detract from the work you've done, which is bigger and more wide-ranging than almost anyone else has done
Adding at least one "survivor" NPC to the town to explain what turned it into a ghost town would make it feel a lot more alive, but would mean doing a LOT of work:
- editing an embedded .tre file resource in the exe files.
- writing a script to patch the .tre file in other people's exe files.
- pick a .tre file that you can abbreviate a lot, by shortening the dialog, and optimising to reuse exchanges.
- create an NPC with the same entity ID.
- create scripts that set a quest when you enter/exit Elderhollow.
- put tests for that quest into the conversation that provide one NPC's text for the entity inside Elderhollow, and the original one's text for the other one.
- ensure that the resulting .tre file is the exact same byte length as the old one.