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Rhodalle's Roadless Worlds - Suggestions and Opinions Wanted

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  • ClayworldClayworld Posts: 1,106 Member
    Rhodalle wrote: »

    > @Clayworld
    I have convinced myself that there will be an expansion for open worlds AND world creation for sims 4, heck, even an easier way to get custom plants and objects into the builder. As daft as this belief may be to have, I hold it, otherwise, I'll never make the switch. It stinks royally to be tempted by the fact that the sims themselves are so gorgeous and well animated in 4, imo. Bye bye uncanney valley! Still, I have sworn that I won't move on to 4 until they give us a new CAW. ;( What's the point of being God, if you can't be it in a world you made? That's what people love about that Minecraft game, and look at how successful it was despite blargh-awful box forms, lol. I get where EA thinks CAW was a dead end, when they can sell their own worlds, but they'd be missing a huge thing I can't assume they'd overlook: Gamers are creative too, and simmers especially, with god complexes who want immersion in their own fantasy world... Cute emotive pixel-people are not the only selling point.

    Well....I hope you're right, really I do. I just saw a side by side comparison of the Sims 1 to Sims 4 worlds. Even Sims 1 was more open than Sims 4.
    Rhodalle wrote: »
    Errh, sorry for the little rant... ;^^ Thank you so so much for offering to share your studio creations! I will have a look, and I'll PM you about anything I use, and seek your blessing for any tweaks I may make, if something were to end up in a future version of this, if that was what you were offering. :)

    Yes, absolutely tweak, fold, spindle and mutilate anything in my studio to fit your purposes. No problem if it isn't quite what you need either.
  • queueingqueueing Posts: 46 Member
    I hope you don't mind if I post this here-- I finally, FINALLY managed to get Windows running on my Mac, and then Sims. :) I'm so, so sorry this is so behind.

    My critique is reiterating what others have already said, but I'd like to add a few extra things. The routing on the beach areas (as mentioned, the henge is troublesome getting the sims to it) is very tricky and glitchy. I think because of the vast expanse of land, you could actually make more of that into coastal areas. Because it's a fantasy world it would make sense to have a natural (or manmade) harbor area. You could always look at pictures of ancient harbors in the Mediterranean, and coastal areas in rural Britain for inspiration. I know you're aware of the bridges-- I think there are other bridges, from the store worlds, and possibly from the EPs, that would work well. Check on Praaven since I think they might use a custom bridge that I think would work really well in this world.

    On that note, the sculpting and texture from the point of view of the coast is glitchy and unfinished. Like, say I have my sim standing in the general vicinity of the area where the henge is-- the land seems to cut off abruptly. I am definitely aware it's unfinished but I thought I'd mention it. I think you could work wonders with that area. Basically re: the coastal part, less might be more-- more accessible water areas, as rivers and the ocean were vital to societies flourishing (sorry, my historian is showing). If you want to do rocky/craggy areas, maybe take inspiration from Dragon Valley's coastal line which is both gorgeous and reminiscent of the white cliffs on the southern coast of England.

    The world of Praaven might offer some inspiration too, for the waterfront areas/river, but also the hilltop castle area. That part will be the centerpiece for the world and if I may, I suggest more lots placed along the sides of the walls. Again, you can take inspiration from Praaven, but also from medieval castle town layouts. You'll have the space for the keep which would be fortified, including a courtyard (on the lot, presumably), a central market area that would be accessible by a main thoroughfare, and then the surrounding districts/lots.

    Regarding the trees at the borders: I actually am not too picky about that. It does offer great views from the sims' point of view, but maybe, if it's possible to do so, create hills and mountains as the general distant terrain/barriers at the edge of the map. That way things will look more natural and polished. Also, the terrain paint and textures on the farmland areas seem unfinished and I thought it was worth a mention, but I hope I'm not being redundant because lol it's an unfinished world. Other than that, the farmland and pastures and such are beautiful and some of my favorite parts of the world.

    Last thing: The distant terrain you used has a modern city. It takes away from the medieval/fantasy effect. I'm not CAW-savvy so I apologize if there's not much you can do, but I thought I'd point that out.

    I hope none of this seems picky or out of line. I really really adore what you've worked so hard on making, and I hope anything I said hasn't come off harshly. Most of the things are cosmetic and the functional issues (routing, and the hilltop keep) are hopefully more manageable. I can't wait to see what you do with this world, it's absolutely wonderful and all your hard work really shines through! I loooove the different forested areas, the fantasy forest, the plains and farm fields and waterfalls.

    Best of luck with everything :)
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    visit my blog @ tencentsims.tumblr.com !
  • rkm282rkm282 Posts: 59 Member
    Very stunning worlds you've created! Love world 3 and 4 looks stunning from your screen shots. I would love to create a roadless world, but have no idea where to start and I'm in awe of those like yourself who can and do create such lovely roadless words ;o)
    Origin ID: rkm282
  • KarilynMonroe2KarilynMonroe2 Posts: 1,461 Member
    rkm282 wrote: »
    Very stunning worlds you've created! Love world 3 and 4 looks stunning from your screen shots. I would love to create a roadless world, but have no idea where to start and I'm in awe of those like yourself who can and do create such lovely roadless words ;o)
    I am working on a roadless world. What I did was start with the sunset valley lite file that comes with CAW and I just went through and deleted the roads, then painted them as dirt. I believe that the game remembers the routing from the roads, so sims will often walk (or run) according to where the sidewalks and roads were. Some things that will change in your game, besides no cars/bikes, witches cannot fly on brooms, the uni mascot will not arrive (but the welcome kit will be placed in your sims inventory) the social worker does not come to your house (so you cannot adopt a child or pet in this way), simport performers never arrive (but everyone gets stamps as if they did). Firefighters (I seem to recall in another road-less world that they arrived without the fire truck), there is no school bus so you will have to make your child sim go to school. Sim's run everywhere (if you select "go here" you can make them walk). What I am doing is putting train stations (the subway rabbit-hole) in all of the area's where I want my sims to travel to. The active household always uses it by default but I do not know about non-active sims.
  • rkm282rkm282 Posts: 59 Member
    KarilynMonroe2 thank you so much for your advise xxx. I will give that a try! I know Gaxili1 is in the process of creating a Lord of the Rings world at the moment, but that is my ultimate aim to create a Middle Earth world as close to the films as possible. A little ambitious for my current skills, but I shall get cracking on a Sunset Valley lite world to learn how it all works! Thank you again for your advice :D
    Origin ID: rkm282
  • victoriae350victoriae350 Posts: 342 Member
    Wow! This is amazing! I REALLY wanna download it now XD Have my sims live in the wilderness and "start a new civilization."
  • Gaxili1Gaxili1 Posts: 212 Member
    @Rhodalle I love your worlds more than anything! I thrive to create just something close to what you do :blush: This is breath taking.
  • Ken_Carson_SimKen_Carson_Sim Posts: 54 Member
    I really like all your worlds. The forest is amazing It could be an amazing jungle full of adventurers. You should share your worlds and we can create teams to finish them.
  • ausra27ausra27 Posts: 3 New Member
    edited May 2015
    Hi ! Your worlds are just amazing ! it would be so amazing with buildings ! I hope you'll find help with thoses.
    Post edited by ausra27 on
  • RhodalleRhodalle Posts: 52 Member
    edited June 2015
    @ Queueing: Thank you so much for all the valuable input! I really have to get on these fixes. At least list the issues on my site. So sorry everyone for being in a big hole for a long time, and sort of just throwing it at you all when it was not done, hehe. Hopefully these irritations have been things you could fix in EIG, CAW or just play around, and hopefully it didn't make it un-playable for too many people

    Harbor: Good idea. I think I was selfish in not adding it because the plot behind my personal motivation to make the world didn't involve any social interaction with other kingdoms, and in my mind, harbors are for trade, but they are also for fishing and local water-faring so.. it would be realistic to have. I'll add it if/when I get around to it. If someone else opens up my world in CAW, and wants to do that though, if it takes me too long, they are most welcome to.

    City on the DT: I totally saw that, and it dismays me there's not enough DT's provided.. been working on making some original ones finally though, so that's exciting. In the meantime, I guess I rationalized it by imagining it was a mysterious distant fairy city, lols.

    Painting/terrain: yeahh, as realistic as I can paint some things, I still was settling for a sort of stylized/unrealistic base in my mind. But there's some lacking consistency now. The farmland, also, was an area I didn't feel I knew how to go about painting.. in a medieval context. If there's images on the web that fit what you see in your mind, feel free to shoot them to my email: podcreature@gmail.com and I'd gladly have a look. If it can look better, I am all about that. I'll also check out Praaven and Dragon Valley coastlines. I intentionally made them sort of uninviting and cliff-like, with little isolated beaches, but now that you mention it, I agree that there's a lack of at least one stretch of open beach to just get that effect of a coastline.

    You weren't out of line at all! Being a student of the arts, I long ago learned that there's nothing offensive about helpful and honest feedback. :)
    Clayworld wrote: »
    Well....I hope you're right, really I do. I just saw a side by side comparison of the Sims 1 to Sims 4 worlds. Even Sims 1 was more open than Sims 4.
    *cries*...
    Clayworld wrote: »
    Yes, absolutely tweak, fold, spindle and mutilate anything in my studio to fit your purposes. No problem if it isn't quite what you need either.
    Thank you! :)
    Wow! This is amazing! I REALLY wanna download it now XD Have my sims live in the wilderness and "start a new civilization."

    Awesome! That's actually exactly the idea behind these worlds. I have a new plot for the Ulokea world that has more of the "from scratch" beginning I wanted. It finally feels like I can actually start playing soon.
    I really like all your worlds. The forest is amazing It could be an amazing jungle full of adventurers. You should share your worlds and we can create teams to finish them.

    Haha, ty, and yeah.. I've been slow to put the files on my site. I have more worlds than I will ever finish. I want to let other people to be able to play in them though. Someone was just emailing me about wanting to finish one of my worlds, so I think putting it up on my site will be the next thing I do. That and fixing the bigger problems with Ulokea.

    I am so sorry to all who had to wait weeks or more for me to reply to their emails. I changed to a new one and my site wasn't forwarding to it. It's fixed now.

    I have a Tumblr now! http://rhodalle.tumblr.com/ I'll be uploading screens of the new worlds I've been working on. :)

    Thanks to all for the kind feedback.
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  • rivergaterivergate Posts: 4 New Member
    Ulokea's soooo amazing (tho to medieval for me). I'm looking forward to the other worlds! Like victoriae350 said, sims living in the wilderness and starting a new civilization is so my thing! I also love to play scifi space explorer, having all my sims living on a 'spaceship' that lands or orbits a planet. These worlds would be perfect untouched lands for it! Bless you! These are perfect.
  • JoeJoe11JoeJoe11 Posts: 1,406 Member
    Wow!! This is the best terrain painting + sculpting I've ever seen.
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  • sharonxyzsharonxyz Posts: 811 Member
    Lovely Terrains! I wish sidewalks allowed brooms and bicycles, that would be nice and much more attractive then those base level cars they give everyone. The world Nilxis made and refers to on page one actually works beautifullly with a tiny bit of help from Nraas Master Controller, so that the two towns will assign careers to locals. But even without the mod, it works and is interesting to watch the people running with zebras and exotic horses :)
  • synthwitchsynthwitch Posts: 40 Member
    Wow, I still love this <3
  • lilwackyredlilwackyred Posts: 2 New Member
    Any progress?
  • anetherronanetherron Posts: 605 Member
    edited November 2015
    OMG! Just look at that texturing, and those mountains! Some of your screenshots look like actual photographs! I am so bookmarking this! You mentioned a Photoshop colouring technique, it is possible for you to post a link to any tutorials etc. you might have on that? Thank you.
  • anetherronanetherron Posts: 605 Member
    Nilxis wrote: »
    Your terrain is beyond amazing, one of the most beautiful I've ever seen :shock:
    World 3 and the walled city are my faves!

    I'm also interested in your observations of roadless worlds because I want to create a roadless world after I finish my current project. I actually created an African world with only sidewalks named Ziwa Bonde and more or less it worked well for me. The biggest problem was that I built two separate villages, each one with its rabbitholes, but some sims went to work to the other village instead of going to their own, so they spent the whole day to go from one village to the other. I guess that placing some LN subways could fix it but of course it would have been easier with only one village :mrgreen:
    I'm looking forward to your experiences!

    I've got to admit - I fell into this trap too - I created a city with a smaller town outside the walls - I had ant-trails of sims going to and fro! In the end it caused so much lag I had to make all the lots in the town 'no visitors allowed'. Which is a shame, but just one of those things to consider when going road-free.
  • RhodalleRhodalle Posts: 52 Member
    edited November 2015
    rivergate wrote: »
    Like victoriae350 said, sims living in the wilderness and starting a new civilization is so my thing! I also love to play scifi space explorer, having all my sims living on a 'spaceship' that lands or orbits a planet.

    I hear you! I am so itchy to finish and play a wilderness that goes with a more modern, survivalist, or off the grid theme. And the good news is, I am almost done with such an island. (Spaceship/alien planet sounds like such a cool idea as well!) Thanks for the kind words. :)

    On this new world, surprisingly, the initial sculpt and terrain painting took two or three days, because it was all generated by WM, but the hand-touching on the shoreline is slow going. (CAW crashed on me twice and I am terrible at saving!) After this though, all I need to do is add sidewalks, plants, rocks and empty lots. Maybe a touch of flavor. I hope that goes quickly.

    I'm going to use the mod plant autosoils for CAW like someone on MTS was suggesting.. so sims could forage in the woods for their food. Not sure if there will be any expansion-packs incorporated or other mods but I will definitely try to avoid it.

    Here's some teaser pics:
    newshorepaint_zpsk3yoowel.jpg
    Screen1_zpsgwv1lfuk.jpg
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    ...Anyone want to help me come up with a name?
    Any progress?

    On Ulokea, not really, I'm sorry to say. But you never know, someone might come along who builds on all the lots and wants to re-upload, that'd be fine by me! So far my focus is inspired to look forward, not back, as I improve my workflow with World Machine, Photoshop and CAW. I know sims 4 is on most people's minds but thankfully, there's still a fair demand for sims 3 worlds.
    anetherron wrote: »
    You mentioned a Photoshop colouring technique, it is possible for you to post a link to any tutorials etc. you might have on that? Thank you.

    Thanks Anetherron! I can definitely link you to the tuts that helped me. I was recently struck by an urge to make a YouTube tutorial series that shows my entire workflow but don't know when I will, and these are definitely useful:

    (helped me a ton with the Photoshop splat-maps) http://modthesims.info/t/443308
    (this one is new but looks good) http://forum.thesims3.com/jforum/posts/list/740271.page
    (this one is also new but covers WM in a more up-to-date way) http://forum.thesims3.com/jforum/posts/list/15/740271.page

    ...well so much for old tutorials I was using back in 2013, lol, truth is I couldn't find them and these look better.
    anetherron wrote: »
    I've got to admit - I fell into this trap too - I created a city with a smaller town outside the walls - I had ant-trails of sims going to and fro! In the end it caused so much lag I had to make all the lots in the town 'no visitors allowed'. Which is a shame, but just one of those things to consider when going road-free.

    Woahhh, that's some good advice! "Ant trails" LOL. To be candid... I haven't actually played Ulokea much but I intended be playing with subways/subway rabbithole rugs, so hopefully that will prevent the issue. In a non-fantasy world that doesn't allow "magic portals" or modern subways, though, it's nice to keep in mind if one doesn't want to "cheat." My new island is such a setting. Fortunately I happened to imagine it with the colony in a tiny cluster since the theme was to have a huge world and a handful of sims.
    Post edited by Rhodalle on
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  • anetherronanetherron Posts: 605 Member
    Rhodalle wrote: »
    Woahhh, that's some good advice! "Ant trails" LOL. To be candid... I haven't actually played Ulokea much but I intended be playing with subways/subway rabbithole rugs, so hopefully that will prevent the issue. In a non-fantasy world that doesn't allow "magic portals" or modern subways, though, it's nice to keep in mind if one doesn't want to "cheat." My new island is such a setting. Fortunately I happened to imagine it with the colony in a tiny cluster since the theme was to have a huge world and a handful of sims.

    Ooohhh... I'm getting even more excited for this world now. I love playing like that - huge open worlds to explore with all sorts of dangers for unwary simmies (bit of a sadist to my poor sims :P). I find sims 4's tiny closed-in lots so incredibly restrictive. I like to roam, preferably on horseback, with a sleeping bag and some apples in my backpack. Sleep on the ground, forage for food, and swear like a trooper every time the 🐸🐸🐸🐸 horse heads back for home! :D.

    Can't wait to see your world! And thank you so much for those tutorials. I've had a look through them and I'm seriously considering buying World Machine. I'm on the fence because I keep telling myself I'm retired from making worlds. 'Till the next idea strikes me! :P.

    One thing about the subways... I tried that, but unfortunately it doesn't prevent the problem, really. It's not an autonomous use item - only your controlled sims use it, NPC's still run around. Or used to - I don't know if it's been changed in recent patches. Please let us know if it makes a difference?
  • anetherronanetherron Posts: 605 Member
    edited November 2015
    Shoot - $100 for World Machine! Well, I guess that settles the question. Not really in the budget right now. I don't suppose you can stitch together the smaller terrains from the free version into a big one in GIMP, can you?
  • RhodalleRhodalle Posts: 52 Member
    edited November 2015
    anetherron wrote: »

    Ooohhh... I'm getting even more excited for this world now. I love playing like that - huge open worlds to explore with all sorts of dangers for unwary simmies (bit of a sadist to my poor sims :P). I find sims 4's tiny closed-in lots so incredibly restrictive. I like to roam, preferably on horseback, with a sleeping bag and some apples in my backpack. Sleep on the ground, forage for food, and swear like a trooper every time the 🐸🐸🐸🐸 horse heads back for home! :D.

    One thing about the subways... I tried that, but unfortunately it doesn't prevent the problem, really. It's not an autonomous use item - only your controlled sims use it, NPC's still run around. Or used to - I don't know if it's been changed in recent patches. Please let us know if it makes a difference?

    Hehe.. well I hope this world provides plenty of fuel for angst and drama! I keep thinking of shows like Lost, Walking Dead, and stories like Robinson Crusoe as I'm working on it. Not sure if I will get struck by any ideas for pre-existing lots with flavor, but I hope to. It's sort of another builder's world so you can take other lots and put them in there or build your own and make the setting around the plot in your head. I might add some abandoned structures so sims have something to work with as far as scrounging up some resources. Maybe a base with bunkers underneath.

    Ah, yeah. I guess I thought sims would autonomously use the subway or assumed it was patched, when I first built my roadless worlds, but then, recently when re-finding all my favorite mods I thought I came across one that would make townies use the subway. I just had to google it to be sure I was remembering right: http://www.modthesims.info/download.php?t=551392 - And then I checked and sure enough I already had it.

    already%20had_zpsrdffugnq.png
    See how bad my memory is, lol?

    I am becoming a quite fan of Lolalue's stuff as it persistently ends up being something my worlds need. Only downside of this mod is it conflicts with Nraas's "go here" script which I don't use but others might not want to go without.
    anetherron wrote: »
    Shoot - $100 for World Machine! Well, I guess that settles the question. Not really in the budget right now. I don't suppose you can stitch together the smaller terrains from the free version into a big one in GIMP, can you?

    I don't see why you wouldn't be able to. The only thing is, the edges might have seams where the erosion patterns don't totally match if they are separately generated, since there's an element of randomness in WM's seed for generating noise for texture.. so every time you build it forms a tiny bit differently. That's not too big of a deal though, if you want to use the band-aid (or GIMP equivalent) or feather edges and overlap you could stitch them pretty well, the only thing is, you'd have to do this for all splat maps too, so that's a lot of tedious work.

    For 100 bucks, WM is within reach of most people, but definitely one of those purchases that you have to budget in advance.
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  • ClayworldClayworld Posts: 1,106 Member
    edited November 2015
    So tell me more about World Manager. How do you take a world created in that program and put it in the Sims 3?

    I did find this archived discussion: http://forum.thesims3.com/jforum/posts/list/740271.page
  • RhodalleRhodalle Posts: 52 Member
    edited November 2015
    @ clayworld: Here's the main site for the procedural generator I'm using: http://www.world-machine.com/. There are a few programs you can try which I think Aminovas lists in that link you provide. It doesn't really matter what you use, it's just a way to create a 16 bit .png heightmap which you can import into Create-A-World the usual way. From there, getting it into the Sims 3 is the same as any other. :) No special workarounds needed.
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  • 17mars17mars Posts: 263 Member
    Is there a download for your Montana world? I see the terrain paints but would love to have a peek at it in game.
  • RhodalleRhodalle Posts: 52 Member
    edited November 2015
    17mars wrote: »
    Is there a download for your Montana world? I see the terrain paints but would love to have a peek at it in game.

    Nope, it was just an abandoned version that I decided to let CAW users play with rather than totally scrap the files I made so far. I will probably be coming back to this same idea in the not too distant future, especially since Lolalue has made tall pine trees and thistles that will go perfectly with it. So eventually I will have a builder's frontier world done that's game-ready. :) Thanks for asking!
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