Question about flora and fauna in game

[norenegonc]

I tried googling this but there are so many choices it is mind boggling. So I thought I might try asking you guys I was wondering what kind of flora and fauna (like tree, shrub and flower names) you might expect to see in these three settings - an ancient forest, a city setting, and a tall mountain range. Thanks

[samoht04]

I'm not really sure how you're going to put Fauna into a Sims world? As for Flora, in an ancient forest you'd probably expect big trees like oaks etc. Or big grand trees in a dense sort of arrangement. A City depends on where the location is: like Miami is palms according to CSI, Lol. But places like London would be the larger trees that you'd find in gardens or flowers in planters etc. A tall mountain range would be sparse with coniferous trees etc.

[norenegonc]

I'm not really sure how you're going to put Fauna into a Sims world? As for Flora, in an ancient forest you'd probably expect big trees like oaks etc. Or big grand trees in a dense sort of arrangement. A City depends on where the location is: like Miami is palms according to CSI, Lol. But places like London would be the larger trees that you'd find in gardens or flowers in planters etc. A tall mountain range would be sparse with coniferous trees etc.

Thanks for answering! By big grand trees what else would there be besides oaks, and sorry I should clarify, I was indeed thinking more like London or Paris lol. And I guess I meant spawners by fauna hah, sorry I don't know if the term actually covers that, I should just say spawners.

[saltpastillen]

Good question! Since I had the game open I decided to go through the plants quickly and give list.

Ancient forest: Big is better
(with a spooky feel)

• Oak trees, the bigger the better
• Oak moss tree, for an older feel
• Scorched and charred trees, small trees that look dead (all old forrests have them)
• Glauer Tree (large dead tree)
• Banyan tree (like the mossy oak it's great for atmosphere)
• Red Dawn trees (If you prefer pine trees of a mix, since they are huge)
• Fir/Spruce, there are several variations and some of them are rather large
• A lot of the WA trees are large such as the Chinese Elm (for an old forest large trees would be best)
• The Treee shrub and the Buckthorn tree are good for a dense forest when a lot of the trees have their crowns so far of the ground
• Boxwood, fern and brambles are my top pick for shrubs
• Heather and ranch weeds for flowers
• or why not throw in some dasies, pansies and lavender
• don't forget the dandelion
• all sorts of bugs and butterflies should be at home in the forest

Mountain range: Here I would opt for smaller versions of the trees the higher up you go. Remember most high mountains have a line where the trees stop, over that line only small shrubs grow.

• Fir, spruce and juniper trees
• the Small Western Cypress gives a shaped by the wind feel
• bamboo grows wild in mountainous regions
• boxwood, huckleberry bush and buckthorn bush
• Chinese lantern plant and some classical dasies for some colour
• and ranch weeds
• birds seems great on a mountain

City: Anything that looks like it's been shaped by man, and everything with a profusion of flowers will fit in a more urban environment.

• Palm trees
• Cypress trees
• Cherry tree
• Plum tree
• Bougainvillea
• There are many smaller/shorter trees that could be a great fit
• planters with flowers
• roses the semi, vivid and rosey have a more man-made shape
• all small flowers

Hope this helps some.

[norenegonc]

Good question! Since I had the game open I decided to go through the plants quickly and give list.

Ancient forest: Big is better
(with a spooky feel)

• Oak trees, the bigger the better
• Oak moss tree, for an older feel
• Scorched and charred trees, small trees that look dead (all old forrests have them)
• Glauer Tree (large dead tree)
• Banyan tree (like the mossy oak it's great for atmosphere)
• Red Dawn trees (If you prefer pine trees of a mix, since they are huge)
• Fir/Spruce, there are several variations and some of them are rather large
• A lot of the WA trees are large such as the Chinese Elm (for an old forest large trees would be best)
• The Treee shrub and the Buckthorn tree are good for a dense forest when a lot of the trees have their crowns so far of the ground
• Boxwood, fern and brambles are my top pick for shrubs
• Heather and ranch weeds for flowers
• or why not throw in some dasies, pansies and lavender
• don't forget the dandelion
• all sorts of bugs and butterflies should be at home in the forest

Mountain range: Here I would opt for smaller versions of the trees the higher up you go. Remember most high mountains have a line where the trees stop, over that line only small shrubs grow.

• Fir, spruce and juniper trees
• the Small Western Cypress gives a shaped by the wind feel
• bamboo grows wild in mountainous regions
• boxwood, huckleberry bush and buckthorn bush
• Chinese lantern plant and some classical dasies for some colour
• and ranch weeds
• birds seems great on a mountain

City: Anything that looks like it's been shaped by man, and everything with a profusion of flowers will fit in a more urban environment.

• Palm trees
• Cypress trees
• Cherry tree
• Plum tree
• Bougainvillea
• There are many smaller/shorter trees that could be a great fit
• planters with flowers
• roses the semi, vivid and rosey have a more man-made shape
• all small flowers

Hope this helps some.

This is awesome! Thank you so much

[Dellena]

A word of caution, EA has recommended that you limit the number of unique plants to about 3-4 in your world.  The reason is for game performance.  the game has to render each unique item.  You can have lots and lots of the same tree (and EA creates them in varying sizes) but if you tried putting half a dozen different types you might run into performance issues.  They have the same recommendation for any lot that you build.  I love lots of different plants on my lots but I do see a performance hit when I have too many different species.

[norenegonc]

A word of caution, EA has recommended that you limit the number of unique plants to about 3-4 in your world.  The reason is for game performance.  the game has to render each unique item.  You can have lots and lots of the same tree (and EA creates them in varying sizes) but if you tried putting half a dozen different types you might run into performance issues.  They have the same recommendation for any lot that you build.  I love lots of different plants on my lots but I do see a performance hit when I have too many different species.

This is interesting, I did not know what. So does that mean only 3-4 different types in the entire world or in a certain section. And by plants do mean trees and flowers. So only 3-4 kinds of trees and flowers does not seem like much hah. Lastly does that also mean that lots should use those same 3-4 kind of plants.

I would think that it would be more of an issue of how many like 5 different trees but only 10 total would be less laggy than 10,000 of the same kind of tree, but I really do not know what causes lag hah.

And while we are on the subject, would you happen to know any other things EA suggests. I know one of them is something like only use 5-6 terrain paints. Not certain if that one is true though because sunset valley uses 11.... so... who knows hah..

[Andy_555224]

5-6 is for best preformance. I think EA recommends that so you have the best experience or something like that.

[norenegonc]

5-6 is for best preformance. I think EA recommends that so you have the best experience or something like that.

Ah thanks for clarifying Andy Nice to hear from you again hah. I have been working hard on finishing the infrastructure of the world, which would be good to know which lots actually need building before asking if you were interested in building any of the lots hah. Although I guess the sims could be created, based on the backstory. Were you able to look through the story and if so what did you think lol And I guess we should move this discussion back to the CAW forums hah, didn't mean to go off topic, back to flora, anyone know how to delete all of one kind of tree, I think I used 5 different kinds based on the above info for the forest.

[Dellena]

It has something to do with the rendering.  The game only really renders one Black Gum Tree, for instance, and just repeats it.  The same for each bush and flower.  So the more unique foliage you use, the more unique things it has to render.  Use the EA worlds as your guide.  For instance, looking at Monte Vista, I'm seeming basically 5 unique trees/bushes used in the world.  Not counting individual lots but the EA built lots tend to stick with the 'no more than 5 unique' rule.  If you have a great computer setup, you could probably get away with more.  But they are setting these up for the basic computer requirements of the game.