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Saskan Harbour. Ready for download (includes link)
Johnnywr
Posts: 2,927 Member
Okay, I have decided that i`ve tested my world enough and it is now ready to play. Personally, I believe it has the feel of a world which is three quarters or maybe five sixths complete. The island has a look and a feel to it, but it is up to you to supply the island`s character and soul. After seven weeks I just couldn`t face anymore time in front of that CAW screen.
Some background history...
First settled in 1887 by wealthy timber merchant Samuel Drummond, this Pacific Northwest island town grew from humble beginnings in the 1890`s into a thriving safe harbour for the logging industry and then during the early years of the twentieth century into a sought after holiday retreat. Saskan Harbour remains to this day a place the local folk hold dear to their heart. "Come visit Saskan Harbour...home is where the heart is"
Some details...
There are a few lots with lot tearing but i`ve kept it down to a minimum and knew that if a lot had slight tearing which could be completely disguised by the placing of the lowest fence (the fee fie foh or whatever it`s called stripline fence) or even by the placing of floor tiles then they stayed, if lots showed obvious tearing I removed them. All roads are intact and have no tearing/clipping issues.
There are just under 60 residential lots with more than half that are empty for building or placing your own houses. All the rabbitholes are present and there is a gym/swimming pool, museum of art and a couple parks and bars which I created myself (all work perfectly). There are a few lakes and certain areas around the island`s coastline which are great for fishing (all tested and worked fine). There is an offshore island which has a log cabin but I do not recommend allowing sims to live there as the only problem I encountered pertained to sims not being able to visit town or have the paper delivered etc. I sorted this problem by making the lot a community lot with sub lot `No visitors allowed`. It`s now just a nice backdrop for sims fishing on the opposite shore.
There are two 60x60 residential lots, one 64x64 lot and a fair array of lot sizes (some familiar sized lots from Sunset Valley or Riverview, ie 20x30, 30x30, 40x40 etc).
I tried to avoid going overboard with tree placement as I didn`t want lag in my game. There are over 4700 trees. I started to get panicky when I realized I could place more for effect, but I`d end up with a couple thousand more so I compromised at under 5000. I also made sure that all types of insect, gem and fish spawners are placed throughout the island. All but one of the mountain`s summits are out of reach (just too dangerous), but if your sim is a keen hiker i`m sure he or she will find the route to the top of the single attainable summit. Playing Saskan Harbour will require World Adventures and i`m pretty sure you will also need Riverview installed. No non EA CC was used in making this world. File size: 76MB.
EDIT (March 3rd): I have tweaked a few very minor things and created a park, oceanside diner and added two houses. Nothing too drastic and most probably not instantly recognizable as being any different to the previous version of Saskan Harbour. So, a very minor update. If you are happy with the previous version then by all means stay with that version ("if it aint broken..."etc). As always, if there are lots you do not like and wish to remove or replace with your own feel free to do so. When you play a world it`s nice to think of it as your own to do whatever you so wish. If you experience any problems please don`t be shy in relaying them to me. This is my first completed world and every bit of information you may have will be greatly appreciated.
Okay then, here we go.
You can find Saskan Harbour here...
http://www.mediafire.com/?3ozghkohdzm
Saskan Harbour screenshots
Beachcliffs
The mountain lakes
The camping ground
Post edited by EA_Cade on
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Comments
I especially like the second picture with all the plants and the little log cabin in the background and the wide land surrounding it.
Excellent. I just love looking at each others' worlds. Everybody here is so talented!
Thanks everybody and to nudic2, I`m from Scotland so EVERYBODY has a Canadian relative, I know I have quite a few. One lives in Surrey, BC but most live on the other side of Canada in Ontario.
Yes, oh yes, I can greatly relate to those feelings! Many times I want to throw in the towel, then I think about how much time I have already spent working on my map. Of course time wasted certainly wouldn't be a new concept for me. LOL
When I first started the terrain paints, and I still do it to some extent just not as badly, I found myself holding my breath afraid of my hand wiggling the mouse.
Yes, I do indeed like those mountains. Mine, not so much. Then again, the ones I currently have going are a different kind of mountain and I'm having to work at them more than I would something else. They involve a lot of stone and a lot of dirt, and I have to figure out how on earth to make them look less stark than what they are at the moment.
Ah fiddles, I'll just post a picture. I hope this isn't too tactless posting a picture in your thread. I could link to it at PhotoBucket but this way I can explain it better.
Okay, on the left side is a rock texture from WA that Martine included in her pack. I tweaked the color to give it a greener hue. The rock on the right is the granite, again tweaked to make it look greener.
The dirt in the center area (which is going to get rocked as soon as I get all the details worked out) started out as the rocky dirt texture. Then I changed the color to give it some yellow instead of red, then spent who knows how much time working on the pattern to get the most obvious tiling removed. The blue at the bottom of the waterfall isn't water at all (because at this point the water is still a couple of jumps down the mountain), but another texture I made by taking a layer of blue color over the top of a sand texture and changing the opacity which gives a nice blue color using the texture of the sand.
If you do decide to play with textures just keep in mind that in C-A-W and in-game they will appear brighter and with more saturation than they do in your image editor. I'm all the time having to tone them down in order for them to look anywhere near right in-game.
Layering terrain can produce some very nice results but as you've found it takes a lot of practice. The textures have different alpha layers so you never know from one texture to the next what you're going to get, like are you going to try to cover some dirt with grass only to realize the grass is actually removing the dirt when you would prefer the dirt to be on top of the grass? I think the next world I do will start out with dirt as its first terrain instead of grass. Maybe then I will be able to have grass growing on the dirt instead of the other way around, or not, because I truly have yet to figure out whether the layer order has anything to do with anything or not.
EStyle, it's a UBB image tag, which looks like this (only for goodness sake, make sure to take out the asterisk or it won't work) [*img]http://www.urlofyourpicturegoeshere[*/img]
I think I'll quit rambling away in your world thread. I guess on the up-side, I'm keeping it on the front page!
(img)
At that point you go back to Imageshack (or Photobucket) and copy the screenshot`s created url, you then paste that url right after (img) and that`s you done. As BSI said watch for that asterisk.
You`ll know if it has worked by clicking on Preview (at the bottom of the page). That`s exactly what I did/do.
If that isn`t what you mean then you`ll probably have to start a separate thread and ask the same question as I haven`t got a clue.
Reg you are always more than welcome in this neck of the CAW forum woods. You`re awesome
Seriously, though, I should tell you, no one calls me Reg and lives to tell about it. LOL Regina was my grandmother's middle name and I always thought it was the second prettiest name in the world (first prettiest goes to her first name which is a very uncommon French name) so I would never let anyone shorten it. Never mind the name really doesn't suit me (as in I'm just a frumpy old housewife) it was just too good of a name to shorten. Now if I had an ordinary name I'm sure I could think of something better.