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New World: Alexview

AlexRoz9AlexRoz9 Posts: 309 New Member
=Picture coming eventually=

World Info:
- NAME: Alexview - by AlexRoz9
- Latest build: 0.1A0 ALPHA BUILD
- Tech: World Adventures, High-End Loft, and Ambitions expansion/stuff packs required, as well as Riverview, promotional cars, and free store content * File size: ? MB * 99+? R-lots * ? C-lots
- Theme:
After Alexville there's Alexview. (Story coming soon.)
- Release date: When it's done, (see below.)
- Beta testing dates: At present, NONE, but I'm hoping to have public ALPHA BUILDS ready by mid-July at the latest. Once available, a link to the newest public alpha build will always be available in this section (world info) of the thread. I will also be including a "lite" version of the finished world once it "goes gold." (Or would that be "blue" in World Index terms?)

F.A.Q.
Q. Is there more to the story, is there a story?
A. Yes, a lot more, but too much of it will give away Alexville's story as well. I will add the story eventually, but I don't want to spoil it for anyone just yet. Furthermore, I'm considering adding a severe Sci-Fi undertone to Alexview's story, which would have the potential to radically change it. As it stands, Alexview exists as the result of Alexville becoming overpopulated, another town being of a failed design/poor location, and a third town being a meld of new and old architecture and culture. Everything in Alexview is intended to be new; many lots are going to be blank, and a good deal of lots with houses will likely be vacant. I intend to ensure that at least some of those vacant houses can be purchased--furnished--with the $16,000 simoleons that players start with. However, as of the past week or so, I've really had the desire to add a Sci-Fi twist to the story. If I go the Sci-Fi route, we'll see at least one sim as a child, a young adult, an old man, and as his "evil" twin, (also a young adult.) The only other thing I'm going to say about the Sci-Fi aspect of the story is that it'll add a time travel element to Alexview, and that will allow certain characters from my other towns to show up in Alexview, either as the same age that they are in the other towns, or as younger or older sims. Yes, the other three towns, including Alexville will still "exist," but at the same time, in the story of Alexview, they "won't," at least not the way that they did before. Again, I'm still playing around with this idea, but there's a good chance that I might run with it.

Q. Is this part of your "four worlds" project?
A. Yes, this is "world four" of the "four worlds" project; I'm working on worlds two and three after one and four, because one and four are the least alike. World one (Alexville) has a rich backstory to it and is going to be densely populated, while world four (Alexview) is going to be sparsely populated, and will either have a Sci-Fi backstory tied to three other worlds attached to it, or the rather simple backstory I initially had planned for it, also tied to three other worlds attached to it.

Q. Where are the other two worlds?
A. Planned, but on-hold until world one is done; they're named and stories are written for them, but that's about it. I may "delay" Alexview as more EP/SPs are announced so that I can work content from them into it, and continually refine the world to mesh well with the first three--even with the Sci-Fi story.

Q. Why all the EP/SP content?
A. I don't think people should be penalized for purchasing the EP/SPs, and I want to do at least one "premium" world. Granted, early builds will be "base game only," followed by "base game + WA," and so on until the world is ready. Furthermore, I don't want to paint myself into a corner with how I'm going to handle all of my worlds; I've already announced one world that will only require the base game, so it's not like I'm going to neglect people who don't have EPs/SPs installed.

Q. Why no custom or store content?
A. Simply put, I refuse to use non-EA sanctioned custom content, because it seems to be problematic for many, and I don't want it breaking my game, or your game for that matter. I do use some free store content, but that's because it's free. I refuse to use pay store content though because it's extremely restrictive. With an EP/SP there's a good chance that many/most simmers will buy the EP/SP, and the additional content will be readily accessible to them. Store content caters to a more niche group of people than EPs/SPs, and as I noted above, makes the world restrictive to people who aren't part of a particular niche. Furthermore, in ten years or so, I'd like people to be able to open up my worlds and use them just as I can open up content from TS1 today roughly ten years after I first enjoyed it. I don't think that would be possible with pay store content, especially if EA closes the TS3 store.

Q. What will the town look like?
A. Alexview will seem extremely compact and "planned" in some areas; the "downtown" area will be one of those areas. Other parts of the town may be more open, but they will also be "planned." Also, expect large lots; I don't think any residential lots will be smaller than 30x30 if I can help it.

Q. Why a public Alpha build?
A. Simply put, I'll have more eyes looking for problems. The more people look at my worlds, the sooner bugs can be found and removed, and the sooner the world can progress from Alpha to Beta stages, and then to Final Beta/Release Candidate, and finally full release status. What's more, I expect this world to be in alpha and beta stages for some time, in part because as soon as the "base game" content seems to be working, the world will move into "beta" stages adding WA content, once that's working, content from HELS will be added, and then Ambitions content and so on if applicable at the time of the world's release. Obviously, Ambitions content can't be added until CAW is patched to fix the corrupt memory problem that the patch for Ambitions causes. :)

Q. Are the stages of development color-coded?
A. Yes, the color-coding is as follows:
Alpha Build
Beta Build
Final Beta Edition/Release Candidate
Full Release

Q. Why is the exchange picture of your world a solid red, blue, or green *.png file?
A. See the color code from the previous question; world pictures use a slightly modified system: red is used for Alpha Builds, Blue is for Beta Builds, and Green is used for Release Candidates. The "Full Release" will have a "real" world picture attached to it, taken from the final release candidate/final beta build. Ideally, this will be the only change between the two, realistically there might be one routing problem that I have to fix as well or some other small issue. In the event that you download multiple versions of my world, the color-coding can help you distinguish between Alpha/Beta/Final Beta candidates. In addition, all non-final builds only carry the build number in their description. For example, if I released the current Alpha build and the next Alpha build, and you had 0.1A0, and the build at the top of this thread was 0.1A1, you'd know to update your build. :) Final releases will not carry the build number.

Q. Will you provide "delta" updates to your worlds?
A. In most cases, no; a finished world should work from day one. However, if there is a glaring error, a "delta update" will be issued. Likewise, I may offer "stable beta builds" of worlds with EPs/SPs for those who don't have future EPs/SPs. The "stable betas" won't have an actual world picture (see above) or a world description, but people without EPs/SPs will at least have some version of the world, although it may admittedly seem unfinished.

Q. I have a question that you haven't answered, will you add it to this FAQ?
A. If enough people ask it, yes; if not I'll likely reply to it personally.

Q. What's with the "When it's done" release date; why aren't you more definitive?
A. The "when it's done" release date is so I don't get anyone's hopes up until I'm sure that the world will actually be released. I could take a shot in the dark and say something like "December 2010," as a release date, only to have my Windows machine crash or die on me entirely with world development 95% complete, forcing me to start from scratch and adding six or more months to the release date. Likewise, a glitch could cause me to have to rework a major part of the world, or some other issue could delay the world's release. If final beta/release candidate builds aren't having any problems, I'll likely pick an actual release date, for example 10/10/10, and barring any reports of problems with the final beta, the final build will be released on that date. Simply put, I don't want to overpromise anything.

I will provide further announcements and information as it becomes available. Unfortunately, until EA puts out a patch that allows me to use CAW and TS3 ( as well as CAW's EIG mode) together again, there's only so much that I can do. As a Mac user with a Mac Pro RAID card, I essentially had to shell out $500 dollars for the cheapest PC I could find at Best Buy running Windows 7 for the sole purpose of using Create-A-World, so trust me, I'm eager to have a fully functioning CAW as soon as possible. I'm hoping to "shoot" a "promo video" for my worlds eventually as well, so there will be more information once these worlds have more substance to them.

Also, I am especially looking for Mac-users to test my worlds; I will obviously need PC users to test them as well, but I intend to use these worlds on my Mac, and as a Mac user, I want to create worlds that other Mac users can use as well.

Furthermore, a little bit of information about how my worlds are designed: I'm using a stock eMachines computer from Best Buy with Windows 7, a 2.7GHz Pentium Processor, and 4GB RAM to run Create-A-World itself. Sims themselves, as well as some buildings, will be created and/or altered/edited using my Mac Pro. The final world will be assembled in CAW on the aforementioned eMachines PC. It, as well as a "Lite" version will be saved and backed-up as ZIP files, which will be distributed to any WIN/MAC user who wants them.

Finally, I will update this thread whenever I have something noteworthy to post. The number of residential/commercial lots will be added accordingly, as will the final file-size when the world is done. My worlds will be added to the world index once they meet the criteria for it, but not before, so please bookmark this page to keep track of my world's progress, especially if you want to be an Alpha tester; don't worry--I'll make sure that everyone knows what I want them to focus on when testing, as well as when I believe it's worthwhile to begin public Alpha tests. Thanks for looking at the thread. :)

Update #01-07092010: I can now confirm a minimum of 60 residential lots within this world, unfortunately, development will be slow-going until EA actually fixes CAW.

Update #02-07212010: The number of proposed residential lots has been increased to 99. I'd like to thank EA for fixing Create-A-World once again. Alexview is still in development, but I may finish Alexville first and develop the other two worlds in the "four worlds" project, first, because they each have characters that are going to tie into Alexview, and given Alexview's potential Sci-Fi/Time Travel plot-twist, I may want to bring in certain characters, but with a slightly different take.

Comments

  • AlexRoz9AlexRoz9 Posts: 309 New Member
    edited July 2010
    Reserved for known bugs, issues and/or workarounds
  • AlexRoz9AlexRoz9 Posts: 309 New Member
    edited July 2010
    Reserved for future use. (If needed)
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