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The Shire: There's an update, 29 August, 2011
BSIRegina
Posts: 5,110 Member
Because of time limitations all updates will be posted in a thread at Custom Sims 3. You can find that thread here.
To start:
- Requirements: World Adventures & Ambitions (please see added note below). (Also Supernatural, once we hit build phase.)
- Large Map
- Land-locked World
- Number of Lots: To be determined
- Rabbitholes: What I can work into the Shire with Jynx's rabbit hole rugs will be included, otherwise no (ie: no school, no stadium, no military; will definitely include a City Hall type building, inns as diners, etc.)
- Release a build template? Most likely in case anyone wants the world but without the Hobbity touch.
- Release World Save Files? Quite probably in case people would prefer to flatten the ground where lots are located, or to move the lot positions, etc.
- Textures: Many custom and customized textures are being used.
**NOTE about expansion packs: Originally I had planned on building the Shire to be base game compatible. Over the past several months I have barely had time to open C-A-W, much less work on my world projects. I have come to the decision that I am only going to be able to complete one version of this world and since it won't be as perfect as I can possibly make it without expansion pack objects I've decided to use objects from both World Adventures and Ambitions. I apologize to anyone who has been waiting on this for base game only.
My "main" world project started as a small seed as soon as I heard C-A-W would be released to the public. Once a date was announced I went to work gathering reference pictures of English countryside, downs, chalk cliffs, and just about everything else I could think of that belonged in The Shire.
Long before I read "The Hobbit" and long before I saw "Lord of the Rings" did I know of the Hobbits in the Shire. I can't remember when I heard about them--maybe I saw a cartoon as a child or maybe someone who had read the book told me about them. At any rate, it's always been the type of place I have felt myself drawn to. Naturally, I blame that on my British ancestry. There isn't any part of Great Britain that wasn't home to one of my ancestors, the The Shire was definitely designed after the beautiful English countryside.
I've edited to get rid of the original pictures but am including an updated overview:
To start:
- Requirements: World Adventures & Ambitions (please see added note below). (Also Supernatural, once we hit build phase.)
- Large Map
- Land-locked World
- Number of Lots: To be determined
- Rabbitholes: What I can work into the Shire with Jynx's rabbit hole rugs will be included, otherwise no (ie: no school, no stadium, no military; will definitely include a City Hall type building, inns as diners, etc.)
- Release a build template? Most likely in case anyone wants the world but without the Hobbity touch.
- Release World Save Files? Quite probably in case people would prefer to flatten the ground where lots are located, or to move the lot positions, etc.
- Textures: Many custom and customized textures are being used.
**NOTE about expansion packs: Originally I had planned on building the Shire to be base game compatible. Over the past several months I have barely had time to open C-A-W, much less work on my world projects. I have come to the decision that I am only going to be able to complete one version of this world and since it won't be as perfect as I can possibly make it without expansion pack objects I've decided to use objects from both World Adventures and Ambitions. I apologize to anyone who has been waiting on this for base game only.
My "main" world project started as a small seed as soon as I heard C-A-W would be released to the public. Once a date was announced I went to work gathering reference pictures of English countryside, downs, chalk cliffs, and just about everything else I could think of that belonged in The Shire.
Long before I read "The Hobbit" and long before I saw "Lord of the Rings" did I know of the Hobbits in the Shire. I can't remember when I heard about them--maybe I saw a cartoon as a child or maybe someone who had read the book told me about them. At any rate, it's always been the type of place I have felt myself drawn to. Naturally, I blame that on my British ancestry. There isn't any part of Great Britain that wasn't home to one of my ancestors, the The Shire was definitely designed after the beautiful English countryside.
I've edited to get rid of the original pictures but am including an updated overview:
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Comments
How did you build that bridge without WA? It looks like it would work, but I have no idea how you did it!
Make land cutting across the water. It works best if it's on the straight of the grid. Since this is an old-style village type of setting, I put together a wood texture for the wooden bridge and created a custom road. Just pull the custom road across the "bridge" and connect it to the main roads.
I decided since they were wooden bridges they could have some sway in the center so I took the gentle valley tool and set it much larger than the bridge, then ran a valley across the center of the bridge. After that use a combination of the gentle flatten and gentle smooth to give the bridge the right slope.
The center top of the road should be as close to the water as possible (no high bridges, unfortunately).
After the bridge was all shaped I used my waterfall base texture to paint the side of the land under the bridge. The sides of the bridge are made with the rail fencing.
I uploaded that waterfall base texture to my website last week with some of my other textures. The link is in my signature.
That map of yours looks great so far. Maybe you could post some more pictures when you're finished with some of the buildings.
Looks great so far and I have to agree with the whole countryside thing. City life ain't for me.
Damien, when I get that far I will. That will be a while, though. I still have a ton of terrain painting and a few other things to do first.
I could just imagine my Sims living on a chalky-white cliff xD
And the waterfalls, oh oh oh the waterfalls
I'm really getting into country Worlds with farms and such these days so I'm very excited for this!
Are you serious? I've seen some absolutely great worlds here--not a ton of them, but some that are really outstanding. This leaves me a lot to live up to with the rest of the world, but then again I knew from the outset that I have much to live up to with this world if I want it to be good.
The waterfall has one more short level that can't be seen in the image. I had the choice of either zooming in on the waterfall or getting some of the mountains.
That is good to know! I am still not 100% sure if I will stick with the current color of the road or darken it up a bit. I did spend a good part of my life in an area with a lot of dirt roads but trying to recreate realistic dirt roads in C-A-W is a bit of a trick. Dirt roads don't have sidewalks, for one thing.
Having someone comment who has seen the real thing, even from a distance, is very reassuring. I can save pictures and use them for reference until the cows come home, but in the end I can never reproduce something exactly as I see it. There is always going to be a bit of whimsy or creativity that goes into it that the real thing doesn't have. I feel like that with the chalk cliffs. I know it will help when they have some foliage added, but of course it won't be very visible without being fairly close to them.
There will be housing near the cliffs. It may mean that the ocean behind the hills there will be slightly visible from in-game. The way the original map laid I couldn't scrunch it any more and have enough room to build properly. I checked my camera routing in-game the other day and have been able to fix most of the issues with it.
As I said, I love the country. I don't much care for the country represented in "Country Life" magazines and such, but instead what it's really like. Those magazines just glamorize everything.
Thanks to everyone again for the comments. There are days it seems I will never get this finished, especially on days like yesterday where nearly the only thing I did was to go into Wireframe View and spend hours smoothing out the bottom of the water ways. That work will never be visible but it might help overall performance so I feel that it's an important step.
So, take as long as your world needs Regina, I know it will do you proud. Just to add, I know you say it`s not a bridge but your `bridge` is perfect for rural towns and looks perfectly rustic. Awesome
I absolutely love that picture. The cliffs on the left remind me of an anime or some form of Japanese video game, mostly due to the texture work. Great job
The river reminds me of some of the places where I live. All I would need are cows next to it and couple of copperheads on a rock and it would be home.
The country road could be anywhere around here. I can almost smell the pigs in the pig barns (seriously stinky, turkeys are worse!)But hey, we know which way the wind is blowing by the smell...or lack there of lol.
I love it! It looks to me like your hard work has paid off.
I'm not so sure about that but I thank you very much for the compliment!
I'm sorry!
Hm. That's interesting. There are some screenshots of video games that I use for reference for designing this. It works well to use real pictures, but TS3 is a video game and as such it also helps to pull reference from other video games. There are some absolutely beautiful ones out there.
Don't apologize for critiquing from that angle. I have no formal education beyond high school but geology is something that fascinates me. I love looking at rock formations and upheavals and so on. One of my daughters studies geology as a hobby and if I try putting something in there that doesn't make sense she gives me a good chewing. It's good to hear from someone studying that subject that it's looking realistic.
I'll go for the cows but not the snakes!
Not yet. There is still so much to do! There are massive hills (two bounding boxes wide in most places) around the entire map that I haven't even begun on and right now am not even sure where I'm headed with those. Then there's a pretty good-sized lake to the north under the waterfall and a bunch of riverbank that still needs finished, and those are just for starters.
I can't wait to see buildings and houses either! If I can pull off what I have planned it will be the best part of the entire map. IF, even though it only has two letters is a VERY big word!
The Sims Creators' Consortium
Can't wait to see more pictures as you keep on working.
***** VISIT MY GALLERY *****
I'll be glad when I have some more screenshots to post too. Mainly I've been busy on tweaking and texturing water ways and tonight doing some work on the surrounding hills.