Anybody else playing with The Sims 3 "create a world" tools

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[City Builder]

Just curious if anybody else around here has been playing with the Create a World tool that was recently released for The Sims 3.

What it is is a tool that lets us work in a 3d environment to build our own worlds for the sims to go romping around in.

Anybody else playing with this?  Do you have any worlds to share as of yet? Mediashare.com would be a great place to host your world files until or if EA ever fixes the world exchange.




The above image was the start of one of my worlds.  In case you're wondering, yes the mountains are supposed to have that cartoony type of look to them.  This is however a very old image and I haven't taken any new shots recently and the world has greatly changed.

Originally this was supposed to be a micro type of world where the majority of the lots were really tiny, like 16x16 with maybe one 64x64 and one 40x40 thrown in for those that need to have huge houses in their game.  However, then I found out that there is really not that large of a population that likes to play micro sims so I wiped most of the lots out and recreated them in more large(ish) standard sizes to accomodate those people that like larger homes.

Overall, I like the way it came out and now Im off working on my new world


It will likely also have those cartoony mountains as that's just my style, but its' a large map, 2048x2048 so it will be a long time before it's finished.  As that's a huge amount of space to fill in with stuff.

[crowebird]

had no idea this even existed... for that matter have not had sims 3 installed for a little while... but this just might get me back into it for awhile, thanks for pointing it out.

[City Builder]

No problemo.  I was quite surprised myself when they did release it (oh and they're still calling it in beta stages) as people have been complaining since the release of TS3 for this since the developers promised this would come.  It only took them like 7 months or so.

So far for me it's been pretty solid and I've not had it crash except when I do something stupid that I know will make Windows 7 crash.  Maybe you know something about this.... Open up a window that is an open file dialog.  Like when you want to add an image to a post on this site,  so you press browse, and then find a text file, and right click it and choose to open, does your windows 7 get all weird too?  For me everything gets really slow and then eventually I get a message box that pops up telling me that windows is not responding properly and quit or cancel.  The only thing to bring the computer back to it's normal way of running is to power off with the power button on the computer.

Anyway, the CAW is pretty solid, and it's only the EIG (Edit in Game) function that can be super laggy.  If you are going to mess around with the CAW, I have only one tip for you...

Leave placing houses and other buildings for the end.  In other words don't use the EIG function until you are done with the landscape, for the more buildings that are on your map, the slower the CAW will seem to get.  So by leaving placement of all the buildings to when the landscape is all done, then you won't have to spend too much time in CAW editing anymore.

It is what got me to reinstall TS3 on my computer, and it is what got me to buy the World Adventures expansion pack.  Why?  Because there is no doubt that the majority of people will design their worlds with expansion pack content which then if a person trys to load a map with WA content on it, the game has been reported to go all wonky.

From what I have read, you do NOT need the expansion pack installed to use the CAW.

[crowebird]

Never had the slow down you mentioned... but never tried to open file via browser and right click open.  I'll give it a try later (in class, lol)

Yea I have been debating getting the expansion, which might get me back into - for a little while, it looks intersting, but I am more into the building than really playing the sim.

But there is an ingame and out of game editor?  Pretty cool, I hated not being able to move lots or place my own lots, kind of a turn off to the game.  But I will definatley give this a try when I get time.

But while on the topic, how much better is the expansion?  Are the new items worth the $30 (or 35) price tag, and how is gameplay?

[City Builder]

Yup, the editor of the landscape is stand alone and separate from the game, you do all your terraforming, and landscaping here.  You place your lots (which you can draw out with a special tool) pretty much anywhere you like (though they work best to be up against a road if you like your sims to have a car), you place trees, bushes roads etc in the stand alone tool.

Then you click the EIG button and a version of the game opens up that has both the build mode and the buy mode but not the live mode, so in this special mode you would place houses on empty lots, and build your houses etc.

You only need to place those buildings that you want to appear on the map when others download it.   Personally I try to squeeze in as many of the career rabbit holes and maybe just a couple houses that either I created or other more talented builders created as just basic staple houses to get the player started.

The two maps that come with the game have "lite" versions that come with the editor in case you want to work on those maps to rework them.

You know, I play the Sims just like you do, it's to build buildings more than play the sims game, so I've not even ventured into China, France or Egypt, in fact since getting the expansion I've not even played the game for more time that I use to test my maps out.

Im not a big fan of adventure gaming and the way that I figure it is that The Sims 3 adds adventure gaming but it's got to be a watered down adventure gaming so it really holds no interest for me.  Primarily I got the expansion so that I could play worlds that others create and so that I'd have all the items that ship with it, which personally I think is on the "lite" side.  Heck, we still don't have a diving board or Hot Tub in the game.

But one fine member over at (can't remember the site name) created half walls that work fantastic, just like as if they were included with the game, so that's a big bonus and now I can build the kitchens the way that I have been wanting to build them since TS3 came out.

[Khalan]

Thanks for the half walls info CB, here's the link if anyone else is interested:
http://www.modthesims.info/download.php?t=380720

I'll be adding this to my game straight away.

[City Builder]

yup, that be the site, thanks for following up on that.  I never would have thought that I would miss the half walls as much as I did with TS3 until they were not there.  Some people suggested using outdoor fencing to make half walls and I told them "im sorry but i really just don't have that kind of imagination to go and put a fence inside my kitchen".

[City Builder]

I think maybe I'll use this thread to keep track of my current world creation.

Here is stage 2 of my current world "Walnut Creek" (there is no creek, there used to be one, the creek was removed but the name stuck)

In this image I don't know if anybody else will notice it but I do, what I've done is tried to tone down the grass, I use a dirt texture with 100 size, and 6 Opacity, and 0 falloff and apply it as if using a spray can, that you quickly press down on the nozzle to dispense some, this starts to take the edge off the green grass texture that is the base texture for the neighborhoods base texture.



It looks blotchy from this extreme altitude but when you are down at normal playing levels it just tones down the green grass a bit so that it's not so shocking.

I added in some closer views to show what I mean about the blotchyness going away when at a more normal playing view.  The top left image is the one that shows off the road leading up to about 8 lots of primer residential real estate in the snowy area on top of a mountain.  It was a great expense to put these lots up there as a large section of the top of the moutain had to be removed using dynamite and dozers to remove all the debris and dirt.  I suspect this dirt was used to fill in Walnut creek at some point in time since it was just a spit of a creek and diverted to go to the neighbors of this neighborhood.

[City Builder]

Spent some more time working on texturing the mountains this morning as well as painting nosim walk zones to keep the sims off the top of mountains where they would likely get stuck due to the steepness of most mountainous terrain.

[crowebird]

forgot to mention that I reinstalled and tried the editor... it is ok, but I have not spent too much time in it, but I see its potential... but your cities look good cb!