Ellacharmed poll: do you use the resources of her fixed worlds?

puzzlezaddict

Ellacharmed posted a poll asking if she should continue providing the resources for her fixed worlds. If you use her work or have used it in the past, please take a look and vote.

https://ellacharmed.wordpress.com/2020/08/23/resources-vs-worlds/

(Side note: I couldn't vote in Firefox but had no trouble in Chrome.)

By the way, I don't actually know what the resources are for, so if anyone wants to enlighten me, it would be appreciated.

igazor

Could be mistaken, but I believe that the resource files are for those who wish to apply them or a subset themselves on their own edits of the stock .world files through CAW. That may be an oversimplification, but I don't think any users of her redone worlds who are not also engaged in the various phases of world design would require them.

monjr8302

I'm too afraid to try it out! But if you do, let me know how it was for you!!

Naus

I used her fixed .world files. I don't know if they make much of a difference in terms of performance, but she also fixed annoying oversights like streets that don't connect properly, which I know will annoy me if I see them while playing.

igazor

Ella's fixed worlds are great. But it should be noted that they aren't really intended to be applied when the player has a game already ongoing in such a world as then unexpected and sometimes unwanted things like flaws that the rest of us wouldn't see can form. They are really meant to be used before one starts a new game.

Naus

I read somewhere than since Seasons the game ignores any changes made to the .world file for existing save games. So if I install the fixed .world files, nothing will change in my existing save files, the changes won't take effect, but it won't break anything.

igazor

Naus wrote: »

I read somewhere than since Seasons the game ignores any changes made to the .world file for existing save games. So if I install the fixed .world files, nothing will change in my existing save files, the changes won't take effect, but it won't break anything.

We've proven that to not be true at NRaas some time ago, much to the surprise of our developer as it so happened who was still working out the kinks in what is now the current version of GoHere that is very much related to world lot routing. But that's fine and of course players may do what they like with their game. Other players should know that it's still not a best practice (by our standards if that's worth anything) to do that and sometimes, not always, flaws will revel themselves when the underlying .world file is changed mid-stream. It may depend on the world, to be fair this was more than a couple of years ago and I forget the details now.

Turjan

Naus wrote: »

I read somewhere than since Seasons the game ignores any changes made to the .world file for existing save games. So if I install the fixed .world files, nothing will change in my existing save files, the changes won't take effect, but it won't break anything.

That isn't exactly a blessing. While the terrain and the routing information in the world file change, the position of lots, roads etc. in the save file won't, and you get some unpleasant mess. The effects range from just aesthetic problems to routing failures.

Just for example, this is how Sunset Valley looks if you use ellacharmed's fixed world file with an old save that was started with the vanilla world file:

This is just one spot, but there are many like this one on the map. As ellacharmed's world file very slightly adjusts the intersection where the Bunch and Langerak families live, the houses there would trap their inhabitants, because routing out of the lots fails.

The solution is to just keep both world files in the game and rename them as required by the savegame you want to play.

That said, I recommend using those fixed files if possible.

Turjan

puzzlezaddict wrote: »

(Side note: I couldn't vote in Firefox but had no trouble in Chrome.)

The pop-up may not work in Firefox, but there's a second vote option that works further down on the page.

puzzlezaddict

Thanks @igazor , I wondered if that was the case but had no idea whether I was way off base. And since I have zero world-building skills, I'd probably never go near those files.

@Turjan Wow, that looks bad, and thanks for the vivid demonstration of why people should never switch .world files midstream, so to speak.

Turjan wrote: »

The pop-up may not work in Firefox, but there's a second vote option that works further down on the page.

The second option further down the page didn't work either, but maybe the Mac version of Firefox doesn't like it.