In my previous post I mentioned the little jagged lines appearing around some lots. If my research is correct, those are tiny little holes or tears in the world. They can be caused by almost anything, it seems, and there's a variety of ways to fix them (maybe). I'll try some more of the lower risk fixes, but so far there's been no change in their appearance from the methods I've used. They aren't large, they don't cause any routing issues, and they're only visible at certain distances during certain times of the day, so I'm not really worried about them. Still, it's something I'll keep an eye out for the next time I create a world.
The experimentation and building continue at a steady pace in the little canyon. Egypt's heat shimmer effect .ini was added to the build for extra desert oomph. It seems the distance value is how many sim-meters away the effect begins from the camera. Below is a shot taken showing the value set to 10 (highlighter on the roof should help point out how close that is). The world was one massive blur effect.
This must be what it looks like from inside a fishbowlI'm not entirely sure how big a tiny world is, but I suspect it's somewhere around 200x200 (+/- 50). Accounting for the mountain border and not wanting shimmer to get in the way of navigating or game play, 125 appears to be a good distance for this world.
Subtle shimmer effect at 125 distance (Image taken from one corner of the valley looking towards the other)After much colour ramp tweaking I'm pretty happy with my water colour. It's a nice muddy version of the terrain paints. Once the colour ramp back and forth was finished the hot springs building could commence! The main purpose of them is to explain why the town hasn't dehydrated en masse, to act as a plausible place for wildlife and butterfly spawners, and to give the town a swimming hole. Using constrainfloorelevation false the swimming pool walls were blended into the surrounding pond. The swimming pool water reflects at a different angle than the pond, which isn't perfect, but at the right viewing angle it blends in (obviously the screenshot below isn't at that angle).
Muddy hot springsI'm going to have to double check my sea .ini setting and dig around the internet to figure out why the water luminesces at night. It doesn't happen with just this colour; it's done this with every colour ramp tweak made. The effect is kinda nifty and I'm not worried about making it stop, but I am quite curious why it's happening. Another thing I'll have to look into is the spawner situation. When the park is placed into a fresh version of the world the spawners are doubling themselves. The copies of the spawners are in the same location as the originals, just a small bit above them, hovering off the ground. The park doesn't get flooded in lizards and butterflies when the game clock runs, thankfully. Still, it's another oddity of the building system I want to learn more about.
The water glows at night!Speaking of learning, the first residential lot was a lesson in apartment building from scratch. It's a cramped row of shanty cottages all smushed together. Every cabin except for one acts as an NPC apartment. One of my goals with this town is to create space for homeless NPCs to live. When this lot is placed in the world and a test sim is added to the playable shack, the apartments fill up within the day. Every service from babysitter to repairman to mailman to maid has lived there in one game or another.
The fencing around the front doors is a necessity, unfortunately - to designate a door as an NPC door it has to be within a room, whether it's walled or fenced. I've also discovered that even though NPC spaces are blacked out when editing the lot, they can still be seen through windows. Finding appropriate curtains to block the view into the empty rooms is another item on the to-do list.
Crowded NPC cabin apartmentsIn order for a sim to live comfortably in their ridiculously tiny cottage the public areas hold the washroom facilities and there's a (relatively) large outdoor space. I put a fire pit down in it, added a selection of chairs, then moved it. For no reason at all the chairs show up in one part of the yard but not the other. Another thing to fiddle with and fix, but it does make for a silly screengrab!
Despite appearances, this NPC isn't a magicianAll of the building I'm doing is done in a version of the world installed in game, rather than through CAW's edit in game mode. Right now I'm trying to do the majority build of each lot, then moving on before I fall into the time consuming fiddly little details part. It's working out quite well, with six lots now mostly done (cottage row, hot springs, criminal dive bar, criminal headquarters, town center, and saloon).
The town center has four underground rabbitholes on four different sub-levels (school, town hall, police department, and hospital) as well as a mausoleum. As a happy surprise in map view the four rabbithole icons appear, which makes it very easy to click on and interact with them. Unfortunately rabbitholes can't go in a residential lot and sims can't live on a commercial lot, otherwise the doctor would have the hospital in his basement and the sherriff would have a jail in the backyard. If main street winds up with lots to spare I might separate one of the rabbitholes out of there, but it's not looking likely.
Rustler's Den - criminal headquartersThe saloon is one of the most complete builds so far (and one of my faves). It's surprising how big a 20x20 building can feel, even set three squares back from the sidewalk. The bistro from Sunset Valley hides in the basement, so sims who've struck it rich can treat themselves to an excellent meal.
The SaloonI toyed with the idea of putting a showtime stage or late night style band stage into the venue. The showtime stage ate up half of the floor space, and since sims don't like to step on it unless they're performing it wasn't worth it. The band stage would've worked if only there was a different drum kit, but it looks horribly out of place in this setting. In the end a slightly battered piano took the place of honour and might end up working its way into the backstory of the world.
Saloon main floorAs part of the mining town atmosphere there will be a couple of residential lots without bathing facilities (every home will have an outhouse, I promise!). To solve the stinky sim problem the saloon and criminal bar have bathtubs for anyone's use. They also have beds, though the ones in the saloon are much higher quality.
Saloon bedroomHopefully next time I'll have my festival lot to a shareable state (it's pretty straightforward to build, except when it isn't
). As always, thanks for reading and don't be shy if you have any questions or comments!
