Edit town problem. placing lots

normiecray

I am new to using these forums, so excuse me if I am posting this wrong.

I am trying to edit the basic town on the sims 3. I saved the community lots and then bulldozed some. I then bulldozed the empty lot in the hope I could change the size to add a different sized community lot. It would not let me add anything but the lot sizes that were even smaller than the original size, they just show up red. None of them look bigger than the bit of smooth grass I wish to add them too? I even tried typing "moveobects on" and nothing.

Is there a reason for this or a way around it? thanks :-)

normiecray

What I mean is, placing the grids on lots. I can't place the grids

Nik24X7

While the lots appeared to be empty, they might have had invisible spawners on them which aren't removed when you delete a lot. Therefore, they are in the way when you attempt to place a new lot over them. Parks in particular often have them. It's best to turn on cheats, open the cheat window and type BUYDEBUG ON. Go into edit mode on the lot and you'll see white boxes that are the spawners. Delete them before deleting the lot.

normiecray

Thank you! I will try that out. That sounds like it makes much sense :-)

Nik24X7

You're welcome! By the way, also be careful when placing lots from your Lot Bin that have spawners on them. There's a known issue with spawners. They are placed even if you don't place the lot. Every time you rotate the lot before placement, another set of spawners is placed onto the lot. The more you rotate, the more you double-up the spawners. The Stones Throw Greenhouse is a perfect example of this happening. Go into Edit Mode on that lot and you'll see all the spawners all over the lot. This is true whether they are seed, gemstone, or fish spawners or any other kind of spawner.

Good luck!

kellycot1

While the issue could be invisible spawners, I personally find in EA worlds it is often the case of non-routing paint -- when building a world, you colour in the areas you don't want Sims to go with this paint, which can't be edited in game through the World Edit tool.

Unfortunately, the world makers seem a little spray-happy with the tool, often placing it right next to the lots they place down and in seemingly open fields. When you delete an EA lot and try to replace it, it's hard to fit it perfectly in the space between the non-routing paint and the road, meaning you'll have to go down a size.

Without using the Create-a-World tool yourself (which is very complicated for fixing already made worlds), I'm not sure that there is anything you can do.

Hopefully you manage to get it to work just by taking care of spawners, but if not, I'd recommend you just play around with lot sizes and, if you can, work with the lots that are already placed. It's very limiting, I know, but it could be your best bet.

Sorry I couldn't offer happier news or more help. Good luck and happy Simming!

simmerolivia

I just wanted to caution you against using World Editor to place lots. Thanks to amjoie and some other helpful simmers in this thread (http://forum.thesims3.com/jforum/posts/list/345/536956.page), I now know that it causes massive game corruption. Since you're new to the forums, I figured you probably haven't heard this before. There are a lot of great tips in that thread, too, about other very bad things you can do to your game.

IreneSwift

That does it. I don't think I have a single game currently that doesn't have at least one lot I've added in with the world editor. Most have several. I haven't had any problems with my games, but according to what someone said in a thread I linked to from the one simmerolivia gave the link for, little catches in sims' movements, which I see from time to time, are from broken routing caused by using the world editor. I've been thinking of doing a remake of Sunset Valley, since it's a pain to find any place to place new lots for all of the community lots from EPs I want in my games. I'd already begun the selection process, of households and houses I'd like to remove, and others from other worlds or the library I'd like to add, but after reading those discussions, I've decided to put my games on hold and get that project done.

So far today (my day off from housework, so I get the whole day today), I have gotten s3pe installed, SV imported into CAW and saved with a new name, saved the community and residential lots I'd previously edited in my games into the library, listed all the lots and households I am considering adding to my new world, then, using Edit In Game in CAW, bulldozed and replaced the lots I'd just saved to my library, and removed a couple of houses I don't like. The next step, before I start modifying the terrain and adding new roads, is to catalog and group my list of lots and households that I've saved with their homes, so I can decide how many new lots I need to place and where to put them. I feel a need for a break before I get into that, so here I am.

FryeGuy24

You and I must be in sync, IreneSwift! I'm doing pretty much the same thing today, except in Bridgeport. I planned to use the version of Bridgeport from MTS with the routing fixes the next time I moved my household. But then I figured, if I'm going to go through the trouble, then I might as well really customize the world the way I like, including adding new lots to get rid of the combo rabbitholes in a more elegant manner, new lots for a few other things too, and of course wiping the population.

CAW is a little daunting since it's new to me, but it also gives a huge sense of freedom - especially with making new lots. I'm actually surprised that it's been smooth sailing so far. I got Bridgeport all set up in CAW, and I tested exporting it to make sure it'll work, so the next step is actually sculpting some new land, adding/moving roads, and so on.

Back when I played in SV, I placed several lots using the world editor. I never had major problems, but there were always ugly seams and odd routing around the perimeters of the lots. Not enough flat terrain.

IreneSwift

I played around with CAW last summer, for a couple of weeks. I wanted to make a wilderness world, with no roads or buildings. I was using Sunset Valley lite, because I love the terrain in SV. I removed all the roads and sidewalks, and started with Stoney Falls. I spent over a week just working on the waterfall and the surrounding area, and decided I just don't have the time or patience to do the whole map. I didn't think it was possible to edit SV in CAW, until someone posted a link to Twinbrook Unite in another thread. Since I now knew it is possible to edit EA worlds in CAW, I looked in the CAW forum, bookmarked information, opened links I found there, and got all the information I needed. I had to google s3pe, because the link at MTS to find the download page gave me a page not found message. But I found it and downloaded it, but didn't install it at that time.

I had all that done already, before I read this thread, and I already knew how to use CAW from using it last summer. I have the help file saved to my desktop, and refer to it for help in whatever task I'm doing. I think it's going to be a lot easier editing the finished version of SV, though with all the layers, it's kind of hard to find what I'm looking for. The hardest part is probably going to be the decisions on what to include and where to put it. I have so many houses I like from other towns, the library, and ones I've made, there's no way I can include them all. And I have to make sure, as I delete households and add others, that I keep a good balance of careers and personalities. I've already decided to replace the Clavells with the Costas from Monte Vista, the Altos with the Stefani's from Monte Vista, Gobias Koffi with Laim O'Dourke from Hidden Springs, and probably the Alvi's with the Almeria's from Monte Vista.

TadOlson

I use the world editing mode in the game to place lot in Winfield and haven't had any issues or errors of any kind and Winfield is a custom world and starts out empty.I'm playing my town legacy challenge there and almost made it into spring.

IreneSwift

You made Winfield yourself, right? The problem kellycot1 mentioned above is that EA's developers were, as she put it, "too spray happy" with the non-routing paint. I'm sure you did not do that with your custom world(s). The problem that caused me to decide to remake SV in the first place, is the same thing FryeGuy24 mentioned, that there isn't enough flat terrain to place new lots, and very often the edges look terrible no matter what you do. I am no good at making terrain. I tried that before I tried SV lite, but the results of my attempts at making mountains and hills were absolutely horrible. And I don't want a flat world, or a small one, or one with few trees, like most of the custom ones I've downloaded. I'm a life-long lover of nature, and the terrain of SV is the most beautiful of all the worlds I have in my game, imo. So I think remaking SV is more likely to be something I'll be happy with than any other option.

AudreyFld

All of you - I am so jealous of your talents. After reading the issues about placing lots, I downloaded CAW and was immediately super overwhelmed. And I like to think I am not too bad with technology. That put me in my place! I guess it's off to find some YouTube tutorials. :shock:

Mariesalias

Keep in mind that the issues caused from placing lots with the World Editor start small and then ramp up the longer you play in your world. And once it becomes corrupt, there is no saving it. Had to learn this the hard way. Best to just never use the World Editor. Even removing trees or rocks through it can punch holes in the routing that sims get stuck in.

kellycot1

Oddly enough, I come back to this thread to find that several of you have been doing exactly as I have the past few days: editing the EA worlds in CAW! I even am using ellacharmed's routing fixes as a guide, while I add in my own bits and pieces and make some extra room.

It's been a bit of a mess trying to get it to load and save correctly in CAW, since I insist on keeping the Sims as is, but it seems to be all done. As tricky as it can be though, it certainly beats the frustration of placing lots with the World Editor, and obviously has the added benefit of fixing any routing issues (and not breaking more routing with lots from World Editor).

I know it's not for everyone, but if you want to customise an EA world, I highly recommend doing it yourself in CAW, instead of using the World Editor. Once you get the hang of it, it gives you much greater control AND you have the ability to rebuild routing data (never mind expand a few areas for my lots).

Since we're talking about it so much here, this is the link for editing premade worlds, in case anyone is interested in trying it out for themselves: http://www.modthesims.info/showthread.php?t=469942