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Acorn Meadows Update 2/3/2022- Simplicity also did an Acorn Meadows World Overview!

Damienf519Damienf519 Posts: 6,988 Member
edited February 20 in Nominated Threads
Although its smaller than my previous one, as far as the number of lots go, I sacrificed quantity for quality in my opinion. I think this in fact my first world that includes less than one hundred lots, but I worked really hard on each of them! Much of the map is camera non routable, so I could create my own custom distant terrain without having to relay on CC or use what EA created and work around that. For that reason, there is not as much space to work with as there is in Raycaster. Like all of my worlds it does not use any CC. Acorn Meadows is either a rather large town or a very small city. Its located in a cold region of the sim world, but it is a great summer destination. In fact its great for any time of year. Want Winter Holiday themed world? Want a spooky Halloween themed world? Want a romantic Valentines day themed world? Just change the season and many ( but not all ) of the lots will change with it, and not just the trees

Acorn Meadows South of the River
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Acorn Meadows North of the River ( I updated this screenshot to include the two additional lots I added with the second beta )
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Acorn Meadows has mansions by the beach that include horse stalls. One will include a household in the upcoming saved game file, the other one will be empty for you to populate with your own sims.
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There are lots of beautiful places in Acorn Meadows to go for a jog! Or perhaps you would like a nice romantic walk on the beach or in a huge park, right behind your house?
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Here is the festival lot for Acorn Meadows, known as Party Park Festivals! Normally what makes the festival lots special is how the objects on them change with the seasons as new festivals come along as the seasons change. In Acorn Meadows many, but not all of the other venues include a seasonal lot marker in addition to the festival grounds!
screenshot_original.jpg
Acorn Meadows is an extremely happy go lucky, family oriented town, and the people in charge of the parks and many of the local businesses love nothing more than to decorate for the Holidays! Here's just one example of how the world changes depending on the time of year. Let's take a look at Theater Park, the performance park near the Simple Bed and Breakfast ( Resort ). This is what Theater Park looks like in the day during the Summer
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In the fall the Proprietor decorates for Spooky Day. Checkout the Spooky Ghost! :wink:
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The Same lot in the winter. Notice the Snowflake day lights?
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And finally, last but not least, here is what Theater Park looks like in the Spring Time
screenshot_original.jpg

Update 5/18/2021 and Update 5/29/2021 and Update 6/28/2021 and Update 7/24/2021 and Update 7/26/2021

I changed the name of the world from Pine Meadows to Acorn Meadows, because I recently noticed that someone else had already created a sims 3 world called Alpine Meadows and I didn't want people to confused that world with this one. The names were just too similar

The final version of Acorn Meadows is here! Here is a link to the exchange
https://www.thesims3.com/assetDetail.html?assetId=9473834

And here the backup link to download the world via Media Fire
https://www.mediafire.com/file/ktloj7x9i99ipkk/Acorn_Meadow.zip/file

Here is the saved game file that includes all the official houses and the graveyard and museum ghosts. Hope you enjoy it. Remember to take the "Acorn Meadows Story" saved game file and put it with your saved games, after installing the map, otherwise it will not work.
https://www.mediafire.com/file/lvcmtxk0b6rdqqp/Acornn_Meadows_Save.zip/file

Acorn Meadows Uses all expansion packs, but does not include content from any stuff packs. It is CC free, and does not use any premium content, however, it does require the following free store objects.

1. Happy St. Patrick's Day, 2. Halloween Treats, 3. The Sims Strike Back, 4. Happy Halloween : Gory Goodies, 5. More Holiday Presents, 6. Happy Holiday Presents, 7. Honeycomb Bookshelf, 8. In the Dawn of Sims, 9. Gifts for the Holidays, 10. Modern HDTV by Webbsta Industries, 11. Happy Valentines Day 2014, 12. No Tricks, Just Treats, 13. Eye of the Bolder, 10 14. Explorer's Loot, 15. More Halloween Treats, 16. Harvest Bounty

The world does not include most of the late night or showtime venues, however it does include a couple bars, and the performance park I mentioned earlier. I thought that the venues from things like World Adventures and University Life fit the theme of the town better. Pine Meadows is about family and the holidays, not about clubbing or performing on stage. All rabbit hole careers and professions are included however. There are only a few empty lots, but there should be enough for you to add a couple of your own houses, or one or two venues that I did not include. There are also a couple of ports if you desire to live on a houseboat. However, I did not include houseboats and this is not a world that I would recommend for them, since the ocean area is so small and much of it, that is not covered with camera non routable terrain is blocked off by two bridges that connects a tiny Island to the mainland and is the only way to get to those two mansions and the legacy challenge lot on the other side of town that doesn't involve travel across water. You might think you can travel around it, but you can't because the edge of that little inlet is covered in camera non routable paint to help hide the ocean on the edges of the map, since the world is not supposed to be an island. That said, there is a single dive lot.

I hope to hear back from you guys soon. I can't wait to hear what you guys have to say about my latest world, good or bad. Find any bugs or issues, or anything that you think needs improvement, or anything you really love for that matter, please let me know.

Scroll down for more updates
Post edited by EA_Solaire on

Comments

  • Damienf519Damienf519 Posts: 6,988 Member
    Oh I forgot to mention this earlier, but none of the residential lots include a seasonal lot marker, even through I thought about doing that. I did not want to make things ridiculously hard on people and make it so that they would place something and it would disappear when the seasons change and freak out, not realizing that there was a seasonal lot marker on their home lot.
  • Damienf519Damienf519 Posts: 6,988 Member
    edited May 2021
    Update 5/18/2021

    I changed the name from Pine Meadows to Acorn Meadows to avoid confusion with another world called Alpine Meadows that someone else had created early. The new beta for the world is available now. You can download it here or at the top of the thread

    This version of the map is no longer available

    Don't forget that you will need all the expansion packs, plus the additional free store objects.

    1. Happy St. Patrick's Day, 2. Halloween Treats, 3. The Sims Strike Back, 4. Happy Halloween : Gory Goodies, 5. More Holiday Presents, 6. Happy Holiday Presents, 7. Honeycomb Bookshelf, 8. In the Dawn of Sims, 9. Gifts for the Holidays, 10. Modern HDTV by Webbsta Industries, 11. Happy Valentines Day 2014, 12. No Tricks, Just Treats, 13. Eye of the Bolder, 10 14. Explorer's Loot, 15. More Halloween Treats, 16. Harvest Bounty

    I added to additional lots to this version, which you will see screenshots of, in the next update, along with a link to the first saved game file.
    Post edited by Damienf519 on
  • Damienf519Damienf519 Posts: 6,988 Member
    edited June 2021
    Update 5/29/2021

    Here's a link to the third Beta for those of you who would like to try it out and help me Play Test It! The second Beta and first Beta, back when the world was still called "Pine Meadows" is no longer available.
    This file is no longer available. Download the latest version instead.

    Here's the saved game file to go along with it. I intended to release one for the second beta, but by the time I had finished creating all of the households, I had noticed a few things wrong with the map. Don't forget to move the "Acorn Meadows Beta B" saved game file from the zipped folder to your "saves"
    This file is no longer available. Download the latest version instead.

    Now here are a couple of screenshots of the new lots that I added with the previous update.
    screenshot_original.jpg
    screenshot_original.jpg

    I really hope more than just three people download the files this time. I really need a lot more help play testing this map. In addition to everything else, now that I finally have a saved game file, please let me know what you think of my sims as well.
    Post edited by Damienf519 on
  • Damienf519Damienf519 Posts: 6,988 Member
    Update 6/9/2021

    I'm in desperate need of more play testers and I haven't heard back from any of the people who downloaded the world or Acorn Meadows, so I don't know if they found anything wrong that I did not. I managed to find something wrong with the wedding chapel / nectary and the potion shop. Both buildings had segments of their roofs missing and out of place, I was able to fix that for the next version of the map, however, I might have found out about it sooner and been able to fix the problem with both lots sooner, if someone had told me about it earlier.

    In the meantime, I could use some more play testers, and I would really like to hear back from the few people who are helping out. Even if it's just something that you really like or some constructive criticism, I would really like hear back from you guys. Your feedback, no matter what it is, is going to be useful.
  • VincentTVincentT Posts: 90 Member
    Hi there, I downloaded your world and had a look at it. Of course I couldn't test everything, but I will try to have another run. Here are some thoughts and comments.

    I got a missing object warning when I loaded your save. Seems I don't have all free store sets installed, but as they are mostly decorative items it shouldn't matter too much. Also just for information, I do play with NRAAS mods and used NRAAS Debug Enabler to quickly populate the world (it adds some more families in a very short time). So my experience might differ from a vanilla gameplay.

    Overall the town seems very playable. I like that you included lots for the ITF careers and so far my sims had plenty to do. The lots I visited so far were all very routing-friendly though personally I find it a bit too much unused space on some. But that is personal preference.

    Do you know that you can use NRAAS Master Controller to set relationships for your savegame? That way the different households are interconnected by friendship or family ties which makes gameplay and exploring even more fun. Same is true for careers, you can assign different career levels to the sims so that not everybody in the savegame starts with level 1.
    Players do not need to have that mod installed.

    All biographies I looked at had typing errors, maybe someone can proofread them for you?

    Larue Household
    - not sure what happened to the parking space? It seems to be there but it's invisible. Did you sink it into the ground? It cannot be grabbed with the hand tool, but you can place cars on it
    - mismatched and missing wallcoverings at the roof parts (roof level, top floor)
    - larger kids room could use some more lamps
    - Kitchen: I didn't see a waste bin, that should be added
    - Mollie is wearing a hat as her everyday outfit, which means that she wears it inside all the time, too

    Golden Household:
    - the front door doesn't seem to be set so sims choose the easy way - entering the barn. Setting the door to the house as entrance door would probably help.
    - mismatched and missing wallcoverings at the roof parts (roof level)
    - there is a looooot of unused space in that house
    - the master bedroom could use some more lamps

    Festival Grounds
    - you could add a sandbox so that toddlers have something to do, too

    AM Nectary and Wedding Chapel
    - you could paint the outside walls in the basements
    - the disadvantage of the nectar tasting shelves is that they advertise very strongly, so sims go there and serve a tray over and over again, filling all possible slots with trays and continuing with the floor. I don't have a picture but my sims spend only a few hours there and the floor was covered with trays. You could add more tables and/or counters to have them at least clutter those and not the floor.

    The Gardener Family Park
    I got some stuck sims at night between the lake and the horse show activity. Mostly when they were on their way home. They were able to go home just fine though when I zoomed in. I leveld the edge of the pond a bit more, maybe there was a tiny patch a bit too steep in their first routing attempt. I'll report if that solved the problem. I haven't looked at this lot in more detail yet, so nothing else to report.

    No obvious problems:
    - Slap into a gym
    - Crestview School
    - The Witch's Garden. I moved the spawners into the garden though, as the rocks etc. spawned partially inside the shop

    And that's it for now!
  • Damienf519Damienf519 Posts: 6,988 Member
    @VincentT

    Glad you could help out. I would have responded sooner but I had to leave soon after you posted your reply.

    Sorry to hear you got a missing object warning. Could it be that I missed some of the store objects that I used, or I forgot to list some of them.

    I know about NRAAS mods and most of their features, and while they might prove useful to me, if I was going to use them, I would be pre populating the map file instead of going the save game file route. I am not someone who trusts mods, so I won't do that, but thanks for the suggestion regardless. However, if you play with a lot of the households I included in the saved game file, you will notice that most of the sims start their careers, somewhere after the starting position. I was able to do that via cheat codes, so while the NRAAS mods might be useful, I'm able to do many of the things that you can do with them installed, without them in my game.

    I'm already working on fixing the spelling errors in the biographies, and yes, my mom is helping me proof read them.

    I'll get to work on fixing the issues with the Larue and Golden Households.

    I like your suggestion about adding a sandbox to the festival grounds. I'll see if I can find a place to put one that makes sense.

    I'll see about adding more tables and chairs to the nectary. I've never come across the problem where they just leave nectary bottles lying on the ground. I will also see what I can do with the Gardener Family Park.

    I also was completely unaware of the issue with the spawners on the "Witch's Garden" lot. I'll move them to make sure that they don't spawn anything inside the store.

    Once again, thanks for your help and I'm sorry I wasn't able to get back to you sooner.
  • VincentTVincentT Posts: 90 Member
    No problem, I don't expect you to sit at the computer 24/7. Just a quick one for now:

    Those unfinished walls in the roof levels are not really important. For me it's breaking the immersion though when I go up or down a level and see those unfinished walls. That's why I mention them. If you want to avoid additional costs for the house, there are a floor and a wall for 0 Simoleons.

    Why are all the bathrooms so tiny? You allow for so much routing friendly space in the residentials, but the bathrooms are tiny and as soon as a second sim enters there is trouble with routing. Also bathing a dog needs a bit more space, or potty training toddlers. Maybe something to consider for future builds.

    Gardener Family Horse Track
    - the racing parcour doesn't work well. You'll have to add posts along a course similar to what you did with the jumping parcour. For that reason, jumping and racing shouldn't share the same trail. As it is now, the horse goes in circles around the one racing post.
    While of course you can mix the different jumping obstacles for gameplay I'd prefer to have two courses actually - one for beginner level, with the cavalettis and low difficulty obstacles. And one for training advanced jumping skills. There are also different options: the cavalettis allow to "practise" while the more advanced obstacles allow to do the parcour.

    Outlaw household:
    - missing wallcoverings at the roof parts (roof and stair level, around the chimney, basement)
    - there is an unused room in the basement which looks "forgotten". You could make it smaller or use the hidden room markers
    - Jason Whatley wears a hat for all outfits. Looks weird :P Also an outdoor jacket for everyday, but as outdoor outfit he wears a cardigan... Hat issue with Martin, too.

    No obvious problems:
    - Peaceful Pond
  • Damienf519Damienf519 Posts: 6,988 Member
    edited June 2021
    @VincentT
    Those unfinished walls in the roof levels are not really important. For me it's breaking the immersion though when I go up or down a level and see those unfinished walls. That's why I mention them. If you want to avoid additional costs for the house, there are a floor and a wall for 0 Simoleons.

    They are to me because they look really bad. It also makes it look like the world creator was lazy and didn't work very hard to make sure that things looked good, especially when you have chunks of ceiling randomly appearing outside of the building, just floating in the air for some strange reason. I also wouldn't be painting the ceilings in the first place if I didn't care about stuff like that.
    Why are all the bathrooms so tiny? You allow for so much routing friendly space in the residentials, but the bathrooms are tiny and as soon as a second sim enters there is trouble with routing. Also bathing a dog needs a bit more space, or potty training toddlers. Maybe something to consider for future builds.

    Because I've always made them that small, no ever complained to me about it, and I've never had a problem with them being that small. I've always considered massive bathrooms to be a waste of space, in fact one of my pet peeves are residential builds where one of the bathrooms is bigger than one of the bedrooms. I'm like why? There's rarely going to be more than one sim at a time in there. I've also never come across routing issues because of it before.

    I'm not going to be able to change the Gardener Family Horse Track much, and there really isn't much room for me to add another horse ranch lot unfortunately.

    I'm not noticing any missing or mismatched roof chunks on the Rhinestone Cowboy ( Outlaws ) lot. That unused room area in the basement isn't a room at all. Its an area where there would be nothing but rock in real life, and I didn't want their wine cellar ( nectar cellar ) to be directly below the bathroom, which is why I did that. Plus it's not a good idea to use hidden room markers on a residential lot, unless its suppose to be an apartment, or town house or a row house. If its supposed to be a single family home, that's not a good idea, because it will mean that now you will have to use a cheat code to edit anything outside of the house.

    Also I deliberately left that area by the chimney blank, because you're not supposed to see it, and you wouldn't normally unless the walls are down, but I guess I could give it the same ceiling texture as the garage, for when the walls are down.

    I don't think that Jason Whatley and Martin wearing hats all the time is all that odd. They see themselves as cowboys after all. Besides, they don't wear them when they're sleeping or going for a swim.

    One more thing, could you please refer to the houses by their lot name, rather than the name of a household that lives there? Sometimes I have trouble remember which household I placed at which house, and I can't see the sims that live there in Edit in Game while in Create a World.

    I'm sorry I couldn't find a place to put a sandbox on the festival grounds that made sense to me. I was however, able to add some extra tables to the nectary and put a trash bin the Larue household, so thanks for pointing those things out.

    I am really thankfully for all of your help.


  • VincentTVincentT Posts: 90 Member
    edited June 2021
    I'm sure there is something in between "massive, bigger than bedroom" bathrooms and 8-tile bathrooms. You have so much empty space on the lots, it's not as if it would take away anything.

    I can't post pictures here (yet) but I put some on my tumblr in a private post so that you can see what I mean.
    https://norntesties.tumblr.com/private/653871709925130240/tumblr_o8OscD6AbdkoTEDH9

    Festival grounds: some unfinished walls (see pictures in tumblr post).

    Rhinestone Cowboy (Outlaws):
    Both Criminals did their job fine. One got an opportunity that involved bringing some papers to the city hall. He vanished and I had to reset him. I heard that sometimes the combo rabbitholes can cause this. But I guess there is not much you can do about that unless you feel like adding separate rabbitholes to your town.

    There is no reason to not paint any wall, especially if that is so important to you. You don't know if players play walls up or down, so they will be noticeable eventually. If you don't want to use room markers, you could also add wallpaper in a neutral colour, like a dark grey or something. And/or use the 0 simoleon wall and floor to avoid extra costs.

    Gardener Family Horse Track:
    Of course it's up to you if you want to make any changes on this lot. Nothing I found so far has been gamebreaking. Just giving hints for an even better play experience.
    The cavaletti is not even part of the parcour, so the horse will run around it. There is a picture in the private tumblr post which will hopefully explain better what I mean. You could move the cavaletti to the middle of the lot, even add a second one there.
    I would also remove that one racing post - it looks really silly if the horse is going in circles around it. That way you also had more room to align the jumping obstacles better for a smoother parcour.
    Post edited by VincentT on
  • VincentTVincentT Posts: 90 Member
    edited June 2021
    Here are some more findings :)

    Generally, if you put spawners on seasonal lots, they won't only spawn in the season you wish them to. Also swings shouldn't be used on lots with seasonal markers, this leads to the "swing bug" where sims swing in plain air. It's an EA bug and sadly removing the swings again doesn't help, they will still do it. So it's an advice for future builds.

    Strawberry Lemonade (45, Aurora Road, Villegas Household)
    - missing wallpapers, nothing else to report. The toddler was grown up when I switched to the household so I had to add a bed for the kid

    Black Box Comics (56 Snowflake Street)
    - missing wallpapers, nothing else to report
    - in a nerd shop I'd love to see some arcade and/or video games and computers

    Western Pastries & Zee Books (50 Snowflake Street)
    - missing wallpapers, nothing else to report

    Theatre Park (54 Snowflake Street)
    - the usual missing wallpapers at the upper levels and in the "columns"
    - there is a single column, is there a particular reason for that?
    c70def8c4543d2d00a375a60f6123cbbe7d3be7d.jpg
    - you could also add a sand pit for toddlers, though it's not exactly a family park (especially not with red toadstool growing there :D )

    A park for All Seasons (72 Evergreen Path)
    - work fine overall, only the plants looked a bit weird as if they were "stuck" in a different season? I saw they were meant for autumn so they should have been there as it was that season. They couldn't be interacted with
    2343a657af29b03116f885e550f1e432f6cbfca5.jpg

    Seasonal Sports Bar
    - in a family-friendly bar I'd expect to see more stuff for families (i.e. kids) and in a Sports Bar more sports related decorations
    - the usual missing wallpapers at the upper level

    Flower Power Dojo (55 Pumpkin Patch Road)
    - the usual missing wallpapers at the upper level

    Grayland Snow (67 Evergreen Path) - Bookworm household
    - the missing wallpapers at the roof level
    - no trash can in the kitchen, sims have to go outside to dispose of their trash
    - sims don't start routing from the lot, they run to a spot a bit away and only then get into a taxi. Same on their way home, they would always get off quite away from the lot. Not sure why, maybe double check the routing?
    6e316e874a950613be815b77bab634808d498a06.jpg
    b00072413800c09710a97b2a36f63c4b763db103.jpg

    Acorn Meadows Public Library (70 Evergreen Path)
    - missing wallpapers at the roof level
    - there are no seating opportunities so that sims sit on the chairs and block the domino tables
    5bc65f814e5a368b70df9c18d487a202e57ac7dc.jpg

    The Blue Bar (74 Aurora Road)
    - what can I say, missing wallpapers on the upper level
    - this is a weird mix between Local Watering hole and I don't know what. Then I found that it's a Rebel Hangout. For this I would hope for more rebel stuff to do, e.g. a speaker podium, a dumpster, more places to actually hang out, i.e. sofas and such, also a bigger art area, not just one easel
    - there is still a reference to Pine Meadows in the description


    My camera acted a bit weird at the river. When zoomed out it got stuck rather far apart from that port lot. Did you apply non-Camera paint there? My test sim could visit the port and then I was able to zoom in on the sim. So on Sims level I was able to move the camera to the lot, but not when a bit zoomed out. I hope that makes some sense :) This is how far I was able to go when zoomed out a bit:
    d88426d60cca316c2f5a3062b2ff390d6f324d88.jpg

    The bridge between Movie Theatre/Hospital is good on one side but the other it shows some noticeable step where it connects to the road again. All other bridges have those steps on both sides.
    c6b3dfc069e85a902087bd10757a80de7b6efecd.jpg
    6f1145dde15dc87cfa5b5613785bafe1d1a5691d.jpg
    d4abfb32794cea3904252b86490d8853ff40ab40.jpg

  • Damienf519Damienf519 Posts: 6,988 Member
    edited June 2021
    @VincentT
    Thanks for all of your help. I had no idea about that bug with the swings on seasonal lots. I've placed swings on seasonal lots before and never ran into that problem. Sorry I won't be able to respond to everything that you posted here individually, but I will do my best to fix the problems that you have found, including the one with the bridges, that I have been having some trouble with. I will say this in response to your Tumbl post however, yes my werewolves are suppose to look like that. I usually give them unnatural looking skin and hair colors to make them look less human. Sims 3 werewolves look too much like Neanderthals with pointed ears to me.
  • VincentTVincentT Posts: 90 Member
    This is what the swing bug looks like:
    63557dcd6839360a533cd60c56b02f5b862594eb.jpg

    It happens randomly, so it may or may not happen. Or rarely or frequently.
  • Damienf519Damienf519 Posts: 6,988 Member
    Update 6/22/2021

    Just finished spell checking the households, so there shouldn't be any spelling errors in the next version of the saved game save file that will go with the next version of the map. The fourth beta should be coming fairly soon. I'm sorry it's taking longer than it used to, but I'm working again, so I have less time to do this now.

    @VincentT I forgot to mention this, but my test sims have been able to visit both ports, but you said you couldn't visit the one near the light house? How odd. I will make sure to do some more play testing to make sure that I can still visit that lot.
  • VincentTVincentT Posts: 90 Member
    @Damienf519 I said that the camera acted weird and that the sim could visit it just fine :)
  • Damienf519Damienf519 Posts: 6,988 Member
    VincentT wrote: »
    @Damienf519 I said that the camera acted weird and that the sim could visit it just fine :)

    Sorry I was confused, but I will still look into it. Thanks.
  • VincentTVincentT Posts: 90 Member
    edited June 2021
    Some more findings @Damienf519:
    83 Squarel Street - Pine Meadows Trash Dump
    - top level missing wallpaper, also basement outer wall
    - maybe move the entrance door to the front of the building? It looks a bit silly if they run around it.
    - I don't see the advantage of the seasonal lot marker here. With so many spawners there will be plenty of objects spawning, so the look will vary all the time.
    - is it intentional to have no dining table? Sims will eat on the toilet :) But that could be a desired effect of course


    48 Bunny Rabbit Avenue - Palace of Meow
    - lot tear
    d46816be750a3dcfdae1b5e00125acd53e97dc94.jpg
    - missing wallpapers
    - you could add some toy boxes indoors so that pets have something to play
    - you could also add some debug lights on second floor so that it's not that dark in comparison.
    45bd8e5da8e33535396abc645843012cebe3fd73.jpg


    25 Pinecone Ave (Spa, Movie theatre etc)
    - you only need to put either hidden room marker OR skip level marker
    - why didn't you connect it to the road? Sims will get off somewhere and then run to the back of the lot if they come from across the bridge. You could place an invisibile sidewalk and set the front of the lot to improve routing
    4b57d959456e64b618bf719cd3b26f9fedc70e42.jpg
    Same for the other lots that are not connected to roads.


    63 Bunny Rabbit Ave - Acorn Meadows Performing Arts
    - looks very unfinished with neither room markers nor wallpapers inside
    - why did you put the RH so that the entrances face the back of the lot? It's better to make routes as short as possible, so you could turn them around so that the way from staircase to entry is much shorter
    5c4bf3ae1aa81ae8061ae3e82c9fbfe52c4fed1b.jpg


    63 Bunny Rabbit Ave - The Flamingo (Trojen Household)
    - there is a wall from a roof which you could remove and then you wouldn't have missing wallpapers on this lot :)
    b05a33ef998343a89d87a73b504304533e0e9b41.jpg
    - No waste bin in the kitchen
    - one side of the double bed not accessible due to the desk
    b28cf814f5a1ed7b029c0715e9f91887d0cedeca.jpg


    32 Pinecrone Ave - PM Salon and Malevolent Tattoo
    - you only need to put either hidden room marker OR skip level marker
    - and I think it's supposed to be Pinecone Ave, not Pinecrone? Check the other lots along that street, too, I noticed that typo on several lots.


    22 Pinecrone Ave - Pine Meadows Oddity Museum
    - missing wallpapers top floor (or skip level marker)
    - the lion statues are large objects, so they show on every level every time you load your save. It can be rectified but it might be a bit tedious having to enter build/buy mode before you play the lot. You could put them on ground level and move the stuff from ground level upstairs.
    - Pine Meadows reference in lot name


    20 Summer Path - Mountain Lake Campground
    - a full stereo looks really weird in a supposedly off-grid, remote fishing spot/camping ground
    4a300c06cc62f1900b6e905a916bda999c9a4f92.jpg
    Now this is a lot where a seasonal marker would make sense. The large bonfire is not useable during winter (if snow too high), and stereo and juice barrel look weird in winter, too. Same as sleeping bags on the ground. There is a mod at MTS that unlocks the permanent tents that can be found in vacation worlds (so no third party content, just making EA content available in the catalogue): https://modthesims.info/showthread.php?p=3390100#post3390100 which would be a better choice.
  • Damienf519Damienf519 Posts: 6,988 Member
    @VincentT

    Thanks. I'll definitely fix that lot tear. I'll see what I can do about half the bed being unaccusable. I'm not going to do much to fix the issue with the appearance of the basement in Acorn Meadows Performing Arts. You're really not supposed to see that. You're really supposed to just ignore what's down there. I only have lights down there so sims won't get a "scared mood let" when they visit either of those rabbit holes. I also need to to change the street addresses to Pinecone, Pinecrone is a mistake. I'll probably just get rid of the lion statues, that would be simpler.

    The stereo could just be powered by batteries and I didn't say there was no electricity on that lot. There clearly is, just look at the lights. The reason some of my lots are off the road like that, is for three reasons. One aesthetics, I like the way it looks, two, its very hard to match them up with the road perfectly when they're at an angle, and three, it increases the distance between lots and thus helps with framerate.

    Thanks for your help by the way. I'll definitely get to work making some changes.
  • Damienf519Damienf519 Posts: 6,988 Member
    @VincentT,

    Oh I forgot to mention this, the point of the seasonal lot marker on the Junkyard is that junk from the previous season is supposed to be arriving there. That's why you see the Halloween / Spooky Day stuff in the Christmas / Snowflake Day season there for example. That's the point of it. The place in the Junkyard basement is actually supposed to be kind of disgusting, so I don't think I will put tables down there, but thanks for the suggestion.
  • VincentTVincentT Posts: 90 Member
    @Damienf519 Maybe to clarify: I mention stuff I think might break the immersion of players. You don't know how others play, there is as much variety as there are players. Hence my thoughts might be totally irrelevant for many players and it's totally up to you to listen or to ignore. There is no need to defend anything you do, I'm just giving a different perspective here.

    I wouldn't have commented on the Acorn Meadows Performing Arts if I hadn't wondered why my sim, who lives just across the street, takes so long to get to his workplace. I was afraid he might have been stuck. Then I realized that first he had to walk to the back of the huge lot, go down some stairs, and then walk all the way back again. There is nothing like "you're supposed to" in gameplay. Some players will notice, some won't care about it. Sometimes sims don't go home immediately after work but decide to idle or read a book, so players might check on them. That's why I mentioned it. Of course you don't have to do anything about it.

    About the stereo: it's not about electricity, it's about a full audio system, surely costly, that is obviously not portable standing outside on the (wet) ground in rain, snow, hail. That's just not plausible. I'd expect a smaller boom box on a table, something that people bring with them and take home again. Same with the bot building station at the Bookworms household. I don't find it plausible that a surely costly, high-tech appliance like that is put in the garden to endure rain, hail, snow and have birds poop on it. I didn't mention that because as a player I'll just move it inside. Most players redecorate the home lots they are playing anyway. It's different with community lots though.

    Also about lots not being connected to roads: I didn't suggest to move them, I suggested to use sidewalks (invisible ones preferably) and setting the front of the lot to improve routing to and from those lots.

    Overall the world runs smooth, even when it snows. No stuck sims yet except for the occasional stuck horse, but that's buggy EA horse routing.
  • Damienf519Damienf519 Posts: 6,988 Member
    edited July 2021
    Update 6/28/2021

    The Fourth Beta is here, hopefully there will be nothing seriously wrong with this one that will require further playtesting and the next one will be the final version.

    Acorn Meadows Beta D
    this version of the map is no longer available, download the latest version

    Don't forget to move the "Acorn Meadows Beta D" save file, to your "saves" folder after installing the map.
    No longer available, download the latest version
    Post edited by Damienf519 on
  • Damienf519Damienf519 Posts: 6,988 Member
    Update 7/17/2021

    Final version to be released on the 24th, saved game that includes the graveyard ghosts to come soon after that. Please let me know if you find anything wrong with the map before than so that I can fix it.
  • Damienf519Damienf519 Posts: 6,988 Member
    Update 7/24/2021

    Download the final version of the map via the exchange
    https://www.thesims3.com/assetDetail.html?assetId=9473834

    Or download it via Media Fire
    https://www.mediafire.com/file/2d62f8ja0j5agd1/Acorn_Meadows_Beta_D.zip/file

    The saved game file should be coming soon.
  • Damienf519Damienf519 Posts: 6,988 Member
    Update 7/26/2021

    Here is the saved game file that includes all the official houses and the graveyard and museum ghosts. Hope you enjoy it. Remember to take the "Acorn Meadows Story" saved game file and put it with your saved games, after installing the map, otherwise it will not work.
    https://www.mediafire.com/file/lvcmtxk0b6rdqqp/Acornn_Meadows_Save.zip/file
  • Damienf519Damienf519 Posts: 6,988 Member
    Update 8/18/2021

    CJplays did a world overview of Acorn Meadows after I suggested it to him. Check it out!
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bCBV44DZ0pU
  • Damienf519Damienf519 Posts: 6,988 Member
    Update 2/3/2022

    Simplicity also just did a world overview for Acorn Meadows after I suggested it to here. Check it out.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZGAtgcx1bWo

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