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Streaming Shadows. Now on the exchange!
christinebremner
Posts: 3,513 Member
Hi everyone! This was my first attempt at building a world and it's taken around 5 months so far but has been a lot of fun! 
I have been testing it myself for the last two months to make sure it worked with rabbit holes and ironed out any issues that occurred whilst making it. I feel it's now ready for it's first round of testing! I finally got the courage to put it here as I was having lots of confidence issues so pretty much lurked, and saw how awesome everyone's worlds are here, it helped keep me going and with the support of friends saying you can't give up! I am glad I kept going with it, as it is now a playable world. I hope whoever tests it enjoys it!
UPDATE This is a new version of Streaming Shadows in every way, the basic shape is there but to whoever was using it before will see the huge differences now. I will post that the treasure chests will NOT set on land, I tried 3 times setting them, even replacing them but they just don't want to work. All the others, like the water ones all work fine so am a little confused as to why they wont take to setting. Anyway will update on that if I can fix it but if I can't not sure what to do there. I also tested the hidden islands and they unlock, which is good! Have fun and hope you don't run into too many problems.
I also want to put this link in too if you want to check what has been put in.
http://forum.thesims3.com/jforum/posts/list/375/734822.page I hope this helps a little and if I have missed anything (which I probably have) let me know.
Streaming Shadows
New streaming Shadows after losing the old one. Better layout with many more lots.
World info:
Number of lots: 173
World size 1024x1024 (medium)
2 Hidden Islands
2 Resorts
3 Ports
3 Diving Lots
Store content used:
Tiny Prodigies early learning center
Riverview (For City Hall) Free world from this site.
Grims Ghastly Manor
Alfresco Street Market
Casino items for Casino
The Boardwalk
Casino Compilation
Surfs up set
Golden Ticket Toy Shop
Prism Art Studio
May 2012 Compilation
And also need Riverview now, The City Hall is being used from it. This is a free world, and can be downloaded from the site.
EXCHANGE DOWNLOAD!
[urlhttp://www.thesims3.com/assetDetail.html?assetId=8407273[/url]
Beta Testing
The whole purpose of beta testing is to find any flaws in the world, and make it as playable as possible. Building a World is a long process, and after spending so much time staring at the same thing, world builders can overlook some issues while dealing with others.
As a Beta tester you will download the beta version of the World and start playing it like a normal world, only in a more critical manner. This is how I will play test this new world as well.
Throw a bunch of sims into the world. It helps if you have a bunch of pre-made sims in your bin.
Make sure you have a bunch of school age sims to test the school routing.
Get a sim a job at each of the rabbit-holes to make sure routing is good. No one is getting stuck or anything like that.
Take your sim to all the community lots and have them interact with everything they can.
What will beta testers be looking for?
Road Tears
Lot tears
Floating Trees and Bushes
Accessibility to Lots
Terrain Abnormalities
Sim Routing
Report Back
When you find an issue, post it in this thread, and check to see what other people have found so you don't double post stuff. If it's a large world, the builder may divide up the testing into categories so everyone isn't testing the same thing. make sure you read the world builders instructions before downloading and testing.
Remember there will be things that can be fixed and other things that cannot. If you take an ultra critical look at the three EA worlds, you'll find little issues here and there also.
Using 'Overwatch', Twallan has now devised a way to find and eliminate all routing issues simply by play testing and waiting for the notifications to pop up.
Below is a step by step on how to use this new feature:
Click on your town's City Hall rabbithole and an option that saysNraas should show
After clicking on the Nraas option, a bubble that says 'Overwatch' will appear, click on it.
Now you should have a menu list of options. Choose 'Settings'
Once in Settings, look for two options titled 'Stuck Check' and 'Stuck Check Auto-Reset' respectively.
Turn 'Stuck Check' to TRUE and 'Stuck Check Auto Reset' toFALSE
Having successfully set up these options, start a play session just as normal and if there are sims that experience any routing issues, notifications will pop up along with the portrait of the sim in question. Now just click on the sim and the game will zoom over to wherever they are in the world and you will be able to see what exactly the problem is and resolve it so that the routing issue no longer occurs
I should note that while 'StuckCheck' is running, performance may be hampered so pay no attention to the extra lag. It will go away when StuckCheck is disabled.
In short: Be Sure to turn this stuff off before ending your play-session. Unless you like lag!
LINK TO NRASS: Twallans Overwatch http://nraas.wikispaces.com/Overwatch+Phase+Eleven
What EP's and SP's will you need? All of them. There is a lot of Late Night, Supernatural, Island Paradise, Into the future, Pets and Showtime.
*I will also put in a note about the diving spots. They have exact same glitch as the Island Paradise spots, But with turning the enabledlotlocking true on will unlock those spots and you can re arrange the caves like you would in IP. Or you can with testingCheatsEnabled on while you are under water, you can go into build/buy mode while you're under water and shift+ctrl right click the caves and select `reset` Sorry about that its a glitch that can't be avoided...it's EA after all.
What else to look for with Overwatch.
Most of the time sims are just sims and love to stomp or whatever for no reason and this I have learnt from testing my game myself for the last two months. The most things to look for is world issues as with the instructions the main stuff is a must to note and let me know so it can be fixed. Other issues can be lots made by me, so check for routing issues with lots.
There are exceptions to this rule though, so if Overwatch is telling you that there are Stationary Sims by all means click on their picture and it will zoom in on their location. *this is best achieved by being on ground level so the camera is better focused.* Most are either working, or just hanging around their houses, these are not an issue and not a world problem.
There is also unroutable sims as well, check these guys out carefully and see where the location is, what they are doing, and why they are not able to go to the destination. Some just stomp for the hell of it, others have issues so please note any of these down in a list and post it here or send it to me via email which is in my about me.
Horses have been an issue with the watering holes, they insist that they want to drink from the ocean and ofc they can't because it's salt water!lol Those things are really more of a sim dummy spitting more than anything, but if they seem to be stomping over routing, please let me know.
Also pets will get stuck as well, make sure its not a puppy or kitten as the owner takes them out and leaves them behind. These are not a world issue but sims being well...sims..
Okay any questions, anything just post here, or email me. I am happy to answer and help with anything, and any new ideas are welcome!!
Please enjoy!!
And I want to say a big thank you to anyone who helps with my first stage of testing! I truly appreciate it, and I hope you enjoy!! *hugs*
Here is a link to my thread in CC which contains many pictures and will in time put them here. Please feel free to try it out, and any input post here or email me!
Thank you again in advance for helping!
p.s. Any in game pics would be great, would love to see them!
I have been testing it myself for the last two months to make sure it worked with rabbit holes and ironed out any issues that occurred whilst making it. I feel it's now ready for it's first round of testing! I finally got the courage to put it here as I was having lots of confidence issues so pretty much lurked, and saw how awesome everyone's worlds are here, it helped keep me going and with the support of friends saying you can't give up! I am glad I kept going with it, as it is now a playable world. I hope whoever tests it enjoys it! UPDATE This is a new version of Streaming Shadows in every way, the basic shape is there but to whoever was using it before will see the huge differences now.
I will post that the treasure chests will NOT set on land, I tried 3 times setting them, even replacing them but they just don't want to work. All the others, like the water ones all work fine so am a little confused as to why they wont take to setting. Anyway will update on that if I can fix it but if I can't not sure what to do there. I also tested the hidden islands and they unlock, which is good! Have fun and hope you don't run into too many problems. I also want to put this link in too if you want to check what has been put in.
http://forum.thesims3.com/jforum/posts/list/375/734822.page I hope this helps a little and if I have missed anything (which I probably have) let me know.
Streaming Shadows
New streaming Shadows after losing the old one. Better layout with many more lots.
World info:
Number of lots: 173
World size 1024x1024 (medium)
2 Hidden Islands
2 Resorts
3 Ports
3 Diving Lots
Store content used:
Tiny Prodigies early learning center
Riverview (For City Hall) Free world from this site.
Grims Ghastly Manor
Alfresco Street Market
Casino items for Casino
The Boardwalk
Casino Compilation
Surfs up set
Golden Ticket Toy Shop
Prism Art Studio
May 2012 Compilation
And also need Riverview now, The City Hall is being used from it. This is a free world, and can be downloaded from the site.
EXCHANGE DOWNLOAD!
[urlhttp://www.thesims3.com/assetDetail.html?assetId=8407273[/url]
Beta Testing
The whole purpose of beta testing is to find any flaws in the world, and make it as playable as possible. Building a World is a long process, and after spending so much time staring at the same thing, world builders can overlook some issues while dealing with others.
As a Beta tester you will download the beta version of the World and start playing it like a normal world, only in a more critical manner. This is how I will play test this new world as well.
Throw a bunch of sims into the world. It helps if you have a bunch of pre-made sims in your bin.
Make sure you have a bunch of school age sims to test the school routing.
Get a sim a job at each of the rabbit-holes to make sure routing is good. No one is getting stuck or anything like that.
Take your sim to all the community lots and have them interact with everything they can.
What will beta testers be looking for?
Road Tears
Lot tears
Floating Trees and Bushes
Accessibility to Lots
Terrain Abnormalities
Sim Routing
Report Back
When you find an issue, post it in this thread, and check to see what other people have found so you don't double post stuff. If it's a large world, the builder may divide up the testing into categories so everyone isn't testing the same thing. make sure you read the world builders instructions before downloading and testing.
Remember there will be things that can be fixed and other things that cannot. If you take an ultra critical look at the three EA worlds, you'll find little issues here and there also.
Using 'Overwatch', Twallan has now devised a way to find and eliminate all routing issues simply by play testing and waiting for the notifications to pop up.
Below is a step by step on how to use this new feature:
Click on your town's City Hall rabbithole and an option that saysNraas should show
After clicking on the Nraas option, a bubble that says 'Overwatch' will appear, click on it.
Now you should have a menu list of options. Choose 'Settings'
Once in Settings, look for two options titled 'Stuck Check' and 'Stuck Check Auto-Reset' respectively.
Turn 'Stuck Check' to TRUE and 'Stuck Check Auto Reset' toFALSE
Having successfully set up these options, start a play session just as normal and if there are sims that experience any routing issues, notifications will pop up along with the portrait of the sim in question. Now just click on the sim and the game will zoom over to wherever they are in the world and you will be able to see what exactly the problem is and resolve it so that the routing issue no longer occurs
I should note that while 'StuckCheck' is running, performance may be hampered so pay no attention to the extra lag. It will go away when StuckCheck is disabled.
In short: Be Sure to turn this stuff off before ending your play-session. Unless you like lag!
LINK TO NRASS: Twallans Overwatch http://nraas.wikispaces.com/Overwatch+Phase+Eleven
What EP's and SP's will you need? All of them. There is a lot of Late Night, Supernatural, Island Paradise, Into the future, Pets and Showtime.
*I will also put in a note about the diving spots. They have exact same glitch as the Island Paradise spots, But with turning the enabledlotlocking true on will unlock those spots and you can re arrange the caves like you would in IP. Or you can with testingCheatsEnabled on while you are under water, you can go into build/buy mode while you're under water and shift+ctrl right click the caves and select `reset` Sorry about that its a glitch that can't be avoided...it's EA after all.
What else to look for with Overwatch.
Most of the time sims are just sims and love to stomp or whatever for no reason and this I have learnt from testing my game myself for the last two months. The most things to look for is world issues as with the instructions the main stuff is a must to note and let me know so it can be fixed. Other issues can be lots made by me, so check for routing issues with lots.
There are exceptions to this rule though, so if Overwatch is telling you that there are Stationary Sims by all means click on their picture and it will zoom in on their location. *this is best achieved by being on ground level so the camera is better focused.* Most are either working, or just hanging around their houses, these are not an issue and not a world problem.
There is also unroutable sims as well, check these guys out carefully and see where the location is, what they are doing, and why they are not able to go to the destination. Some just stomp for the hell of it, others have issues so please note any of these down in a list and post it here or send it to me via email which is in my about me.
Horses have been an issue with the watering holes, they insist that they want to drink from the ocean and ofc they can't because it's salt water!lol Those things are really more of a sim dummy spitting more than anything, but if they seem to be stomping over routing, please let me know.
Also pets will get stuck as well, make sure its not a puppy or kitten as the owner takes them out and leaves them behind. These are not a world issue but sims being well...sims..
Okay any questions, anything just post here, or email me. I am happy to answer and help with anything, and any new ideas are welcome!!
Please enjoy!!
And I want to say a big thank you to anyone who helps with my first stage of testing! I truly appreciate it, and I hope you enjoy!! *hugs*
Here is a link to my thread in CC which contains many pictures and will in time put them here. Please feel free to try it out, and any input post here or email me!
Thank you again in advance for helping!
p.s. Any in game pics would be great, would love to see them!
Post edited by christinebremner on
0
Comments
Will be putting some more up later.
~YJ~
Hi YJ and thank you so much!!
Hi Smidgieroo3! Nice to meet you and thank you so much for you lovely words!
Fault listing
Okay this part is for any issues that may arise. I have found one world issue so far, I have no clue how it happened but on the festival park lot there is a rogue willow tree and rush bush. I have a feeling it was from the last lot of trees I put in so when i get into CAW I will fix that. So if you see that one it doesn't affect anything just a pain to look at.
One part I would like to mention is at the 4th diving spot there is a glitch when sailboarding it throws them into the air. way up into the air so have decided to get rid of that one. It doesn't do it anywhere else so am guessing its that.
Alitoni has also bought up that the City Hall multi-rabbit holes are glitching with the PI career. I am going to change it around to single, like I had it before. If anyone else experiences this glitch, I am aware of it and will be fixing in the next CAW session.
That's it for now!
I have downloaded it and will give it a test drive for you. Would you rather I ran it without mods except for the listed NRaas mods, or does it matter?
I've never tested anyone's world before so other than routing issues and tearing, I'm not sure what else I am looking for; however, I will do my best to run it through the proverbial wringer for you and see if anything (I would consider) wonky happens.
Hi Ali!
I have found a world issue this time around, and its the diving spot which isn't filled, when they windsurf over it it throws them into the air back into the water but doesn't do it anywhere else. The diving spots will need the same thing to be done as in IP, enablelotlocking true. Just lifting and placing the caves down again should fix the problem. An EA glitch which is annoying. I decided that 3 diving spots is enough and will be deleting that lot in CAW as well.
I also found two lots which have lifted slightly from the world layer, the lots can be used and no routing issues found, but I am going to fix that in my next session of CAW, an easy fix.
Thanks again sweetie, there is a heap of information at the beginning of the thread and anything else you want to ask I am very happy to help!
You can use story progression but would like to keep it as mod free as possible for now. Just want to make sure it will be okay without them.
Another thing you will notice is when the sim time comes to 3am. The game will sort of freeze, but its just overwatch giving a run down on everything.
But that's a whole other rant for another time.
Ahhh okay, I have been in CAW for so long I haven't played IP in a while.
Also, I have a question - regarding these "basic" houses you have placed: Is it ok to bulldoze some of them and place some of my own houses? I have some that I've got set up in a way that I can put them down, put a family in it and know they have everything they need without me having to edit. And no worries, I'm not going to remove your rabbitholes, or other pertinent buildings, so as not to mess with the general geography of the world.
And one thing I noticed right away is that you have the combined school/stadium rabbithole. There is a known issue with this rabbithole that messes with the after-school activities. If you've played much in Moonlit Falls or Appaloosa Plains you would have run into this problem. So you might want to remove it and place the individual buildings instead. Just a suggestion.
Hi sweetie and yes ofc you can!
Ahhh okay, well I have never experienced that problem before and it hasn't happened YET in this world, but if you or anyone else experience issues I will defo replace it...The ITF one looks pretty groovy.
No worries hun, thanks again for helping testing!
I did have separate rabbit holes for the school and stadium then changed it to this one.(was trying to save space.:) )
Yes let me know and any in game pics I would love to see!
I hope it works for you, I am so curious!
Hi Tiger! Thank you sweetie and if you want to try it out go ahead!
Awww that's great hun, I hope you have a great time in Streaming shadows!
I did a little looking into it to make sure it wasn't something on my end and it seems that it has to do with the combo police station/city hall/military rabbithole. You can read more about it here http://forum.thesims3.com/jforum/posts/list/525174.page#11471109. It seems this is a game related issue and can be easily solved by simply putting in the individual rabbithole buildings.
I don't have my teens in after school activities so I haven't run into that issue yet; however, I just married my Sim off and I think they are currently in the process of starting their family so it won't be long until I have some younger ones doing those. I'll let you know if there are any problems with the combo school rabbithole when I get to test it.
Here are just a few random screenshots, and please forgive the crappiness as I'm not running with the HQ mod. I don't generally use the HQ mod when I am doing regular play. So what you see is just my regular graphics. I had more but in a fit of frustration I inadvertently deleted them all. I'll have more for you as the play progresses.
ETA: Oh, and don't tell Greencats, but ...
Ruh Roh!
And I call this one Ruh Roh Part II!
I am glad you are having lots of fun with it!
You're world is looking so Beautiful~ love the city and the builds. Good luck! :thumbup:
Hi Reachsims! Aww thank you I appreciate it so much, I hope it goes well too.
Ohh your world sounds great!!
Best of luck to you, and hope your first round of testing goes great!