#cawproject

[returntosunsetvalley]

World Building Update

After some next-level googling (clicking the first link), I found out that having two schools in a Sims 3 world will not set your computer on fire! This is great, it fits my plan of having two schools solely because I couldn't choose between the two buildings ^.^

Sims will either randomly attend one of the schools or whichever was placed first, I'm not sure. By selecting which school your child or teen Sim attends they should automatically travel there the next times class is in session. I haven't player tested how this functions yet though so all these claims could be absolutely hogwash.

Currently, neither school has a name. I've found a pattern of creating the neighbourhood in its visual entirety first has help keep consistency when creating the story of the lots too - after all, every neighbourhood is supposed to have different characteristics!

There is a city school labelled as the public school (top pics) and an elite school located with the home-world university community. Of course, Sims can attend the public or elite school equally but I thought it could be interesting for gameplay, to allow more nerdy Sims a story of more exclusive academic achievements. Most expensive school will always be boarding school...

Both are minimally decorated, like most of the city buildings. I don't want to make it over the top to hopefully avoid lag with the amount of buildings and events undoubtedly happening at any given time. When everything is completed, I hope it still looks uniform and pleasant on the eyes :D

[fagersims]

Been working on what I think of as the 'old part of town'; laying out the roads, adding trees, lots and decoration. And for a bit of variation some VIP  houses that've been a lot of fun.

As for a name I've been thinking something along the lines on 'Dronningslund'?

(I've also been working on ports, so expect pictures of houseboats soon!)

[returntosunsetvalley]

115 lots to build

[returntosunsetvalley]

Sims 3 CAW Sculpting

Everything is green for now but sculpting is happening!

[returntosunsetvalley]

I mentioned earlier that I want to build a somewhat Australian inspired world on the Sims. Location for most worlds, I think, is already ambiguous as to where they could be but my Aussie bones are still calling to make something with these specific styles in mind.

Does this world look like it could exist in Australia? No, it’s a Sims world. It looks like it can belong in a computer game where certain activities are coded as Woohoo and changing your outfit before going to school means you’'ll inevitably be late.

Anyway, I’m having so much fun trying to imitate Australian buildings in the world and sculpt its landscapes. It can actually be quite difficult to get houses to look distinctly Australian because we have so much open land that houses are sprawling and flat, and the Sims lots are small rectangles. Because of this, a lot of the suburban houses will be built following typical house plans that I’ve grown up seeing just… smaller. Less bedrooms, more garages!

Maybe some garages can double as bedrooms…

That’s all for now!

[returntosunsetvalley]

Building a World Maybe

With my rediscovery of The Sims 3, I also realised the desire to create a world from scratch. It was a goal years ago when I was 14, however, the ideas never panned out and I didn’t have enough interest or patience to learn how exactly to make this goal happen. I don’t remember if I started any worlds or if I just mucked about with the CAW tool then decided to quit.

Now? I have two more brain cells than before and a deep yearning to revisit this aspect of my childhood… so I started building a world with the Create-A-World tool! Damn, this has been exciting so far - except for the part where I deleted the first world. That sucked, but more on it in a second.

From the beginning, the idea I had was a world that included city life as well as rural life, similar to other creators who have made their own worlds. Originally, I named the island after myself and wanted to meme around with it, however, I think that might disrupt the playability of the game in the long run. Sometimes gameplay needs to be realistic, ya know?

I drew out the layout of the island on some grid paper and got to sculpting in CAW.

Then, doomsday came.

Origin updated my Sims 3 game. CAW became corrupt. I reinstalled the older version of TS3 and CAW. BUT- I only remembered to backup my save files in the game itself and forgot all about CAW.

*Sigh*

It wasn’t all bad, though, since I had taken screenshots to share with friends throughout the construction of the world and had references to copy when recreating it. I’ve taken this chance to make the towns better spaced apart, and turn the world into a completely secluded island instead of connecting it to a background. This was mostly because I couldn’t find a distant terrain to fit what I was aiming for - an ambiguously Australian appearance.

So far, I think creating the world’s going well as a beginner, and I’m enjoying learning as I go.