The Diary of World-Builder - Cypress Lakes

[Chuckles_82]

10/11/2012

Not much seemed to get done today, but I sure spent a lot of hours in photoshop on my Theatre mini-map. Re-texturing all those teeny tiny bits is hard work! Nearly done though. I'll hopefully get that finished tomorrow, then I can't wait to get started on that school! Fingers crossed the mini-map for that is MUCH easier!

[Gogowars329]

Wow Chuckles! All of the re colours look great! I can't wait to be able to play the world.

[Chuckles_82]

10/11/2012
I had a lovely family day out in the national park today, so really only got a small amount done, but I'm getting very efficient with photoshop. I finished off the mini-map for the Theater, and did all the LODs for the school/stadium. Here it is (notice also my Aussie flag ):



I would have used the one from Moonlight Falls, but I already had chosen lot sizes when Supernatural came out, and it was a lot bigger. I settled for colouring it like the Hospital. I may use the red roof tiles on the city hall. Like so:



I'm my own worst enemy. Those two are going to be just as much hard work to edit as the Theater... Also I only just noticed today that there are two doors on the sides. I don't know if they are used, but they look funny floating up that high. I may have to place the whole thing on a foundation and add some stairs.

I hope that fits well with the rest of my buildings.

[cassims]

Love the Aussie and Aboriginal flags! Is there any way you can upload them to the swap shop or anything? I would really love them in my game.

[Chuckles_82]

I can upload the Aussie flag, but the Aboriginal flag is part of the building. You can only have one default replacement at a time, so if you want both, you'd have to have the building and the flag. I could make another one for the flag pole if you like though. I won't be releasing my rabbit-hole recolours until after I release my world.

[samoht04]

It all looks great! One question though, will we have to download all the recolour mods to have you world like you have it?

[Chuckles_82]

No, the recolours will be included in the world file, not in a mod format. Right before I export the world, I will open it in S3PE, import the resources (_IMG files) that have the recolours, and save. That way they will only be recolours, and not mods. If however, you want to use the recolours in other worlds, I will be uploading them as mods separately.

[samoht04]

No, the recolours will be included in the world file, not in a mod format. Right before I export the world, I will open it in S3PE, import the resources (_IMG files) that have the recolours, and save. That way they will only be recolours, and not mods. If however, you want to use the recolours in other worlds, I will be uploading them as mods separately.

Oh cool!

[Chuckles_82]

11/11/2012

It's been really encouraging to see people liking the progress of my world. Sometimes, I really like something, and I know it's good. Other times, I'm just not sure, and it's good to have a second or third opinion.

Today CAW was mean to me I had a couple of my textures turn to brown yuck (see updated link in resources for fixing this), and nearly all of my lots have developed tears - likely due to some additional terrain painting.

I updated a few of my terrain paints. First, I resized some of them in photoshop to help reduce the file size. Then I replaced the shale with a dark rock texture, and replaced the little bit of white I had with a lighter rock texture. I added more lighter rock paint over a lot of the mountains. I also added some moss. I wasn't entirely happy with my terrain paint, so I decided to start adding trees and a few rocks to help me to determine what and where I needed to fix. I'm not done with that part by a long shot, but here is a small section that I'm happy with:



Later I might get in to some more building. I've been thinking about starting work on 'The Strip' - a series of small bars and clubs.

[saltpastillen]

I really like the rock effect! Sometimes a very steep hill/mountain looks weird but adding those rocks to make the surface uneven makes it feel more realistic. You should be happy with that section! And I think how you added terrain paint is also good.

[Chuckles_82]

12/11/2012

I started work last night on the Fusion Lounge. I had a lovely build, but I decided to scrap it because it just didn't go. Finding a good balance between my current theme and an Asian theme was very difficult. In the end, this is what I have come up with:

The White Lotus Lounge

[Chuckles_82]

I've been doing more research again today. Specifically, I'm reading a thread about a very popular world on the official forum (link in resource list). I was considering starting a thread for my world there - but I think I'll hold off until it's finished. While it looks like a good idea to get more publicity for my world, there is all sorts of rubbish in between the good bits. Lots of lovely comments of course, but as the official forums go, lots of arguing, impatience and rudeness. I think I'd rather skip all of that!

[Chuckles_82]

I was getting really antsy to play my world by this evening, and I thought, well, the bare bones are there. I could fire it up and do some early play-testing. So, I placed the last few spawners I needed, carefully painted some route painting, rebuilt routing data, and exported. Success! I installed it, success! I opened the game, FAIL. It doesn't show up in the drop down list of worlds Apparently the latest patch broke it. I'm really bummed because I so much wanted to play it. I guess tomorrow it will be back to the drawing board to work on some more terrain paint, decorations and lots. Either that or I'll have to play one of my store worlds that I practically never play in anymore (just for a break).

[fortheloveofcake]

I just came across this today, and I must say it is coming along beautifully. I hope the patch didn't cause permanent damage!

[Seabody]

07/11/2012

I've been doing a lot of reading today, and found another reason for possible problems with population control. I don't know if EA factored it in, but when too many sims try to enter a rabbit-hole - i.e., school, they have a little route-fail tanty. So maybe the population controls limits the number of children for that reason (as well as many others I'm sure). At any rate, I had planned on having lots of children in my world to help it not to die out, but this might prove problematic. I think from what I've read, things in Bridgeport operate on a different time-table to other worlds, so I'm hoping to tune the school to stagger the start time for teenagers and children as part of the world file in the same way that Bridgeport does. Hopefully I can do that without it being a mod.

I've added some links to my resource list on the first page for some interesting and exciting new information I found today.

I think you need to unlock "Super CAW" then flag it as a City to unlock those special times. Not Mod the World File itself.