Do you customise worlds before playing?

Onverser · July 2022

For me whenever I start a new save or world, the first thing I do before I start playing is always to put my own townies into the world, place useful lots like clubs, junkyards, occult lots, etc in, replace bars in community lots with the functional Late Night bars, makeover some townies, etc. So I was wondering, do others do the same? Or do you just play?

ThisSentenceIsALie · July 2022

I just play the game as is, or only make very minor changes

I usually just begin playing, and then as I go I might add some more lots after my taste.

Onverser · July 2022

I regularly customise worlds before playing

I like having the "iconic townies" in my world, but I don't use Sunset Valley much so I usually miss them, so I've got a whole collection I place in every world. The Landgraabs, the Goths, the Calientes, the Brokes, the Capp family, Agnes Crumplebottom, etc all go in, even if it's a bit weird having the Goths on a tropical island

I also have my own custom townies, I like to recreate sims from other games so I've made some MySims characters like Poppy, Violet, Travis, Summer, etc who go into every save, I'm not very good at giving sims unique looks/personalities so if it's a character from another game they already have that.

Also always place the supernatural alchemy? lot, my sims lore for it is that it just magically appears, so it's always in the most bizarre places like on an island on its own, or at the end of the swamp with nothing around it. Not sure what it's called but I also always place the penthouse exclusive lounge lot as I like that lot a lot. + I've found placing subways is a good way of getting around, especially in Isla Paradiso.

Astro · July 2022

I just play the game as is, or only make very minor changes

I've only ever successfully completed one build in my entire 10 years of playing this game...

This sleazy/trashy bar, which I also created 'exotic dancers' for. So in every world I play in I always bulldoze any other bar/club (because EA ones aren't as good as mine, lol) and place mine along with the dancers.

The 'exotic dancers' aka strippers, lmao. A must for every town.

But as far as placing other lots/moving in new sims, not really. I like most EA worlds as they are.

texansky · July 2022

I sometimes customise worlds, but not always

I sometimes customize worlds, but not always

It depends on which world I am playing in. I like to play Glenvale County by @Rflong7

It comes with the basics for community lots, so I will add the community lots/venues I want to my game. It also comes with just one house, so I need to add houses to the game. Because the world comes unpopulated, Story Progression will need to add Sims to the game, and they will need housing.

Every time I play a new game in Glenvale County, the world is different. I place community lots/venues in random locations, and will either place residential lots or use prebuilt starter homes that I have created so Sims can afford to move in.

Edited to add my vote to the top as it removed it when I changed my post.

Turjan · July 2022

I sometimes customise worlds, but not always

I took the second option. I didn't count stuff like not letting the game place the expansion lots and placing those I actually want to have myself, which is more or less always happening. Other than that, I have everything from very minor changes to sweeping edits.

For example, my short Riverview game from a few days ago involved just placing the consignment store, a junkyard, and The Grind. I edited the bar in the center to a real one, and of course the lots I was playing on. Now that I think of it, I also placed cribs, upped the number of beds in many houses. Hmm, okay, that was more than I initially remembered.

In one of my long-going games in SV, I had to edit the whole town after I deleted the whole existing population and used Porter to get the whole population in its advanced stage from a prior version of SV that became unplayable in. Most houses were edited, lots of venues placed, stuff like replacing the science center with a combined bot shop, cafeteria and the old rabbithole, etc.

The upper end of the spectrum is a "town" that started on an empty map without a single building, not even rabbitholes. Although that was probably less work than editing an existing state of SV to the state I needed it in.

Which means it depends.

mw1525 · July 2022

I regularly customise worlds before playing

When it comes to EA worlds, I basically redesign and rebuild the entire town to fit my vision of how I think the world should look, feel and work. I leave the original map layout as it is changing only the locations of the businesses and housing. Because I prefer to play in mostly rabbithole-less worlds, I custom build all of the homes and business in the towns to suit my population.

I only do this once and make a Master File of the world to use as back-up should things go wrong. I start with a new game, immediately go into edit town and begin making the changes I want such as demolishing house, removing Sims adding homes or community lots. This is done over time and not as an all-in-one go.

In the meantime, while I am working on my Master File, I play my game in what I call temporary saves. In these saves I work with each household who is to become a permanent resident in the new town when it is finished. This is where I help my Sims skill up and develop. Once they are ready, they are saved to the library where they await their turn to be added to the finalized town.

GraceyManor · July 2022

I regularly customise worlds before playing

Yeah I do, all the time.

Simmingal · July 2022

Not in sims 3 I would never get to actually play the game

building one house is bad enough

StephSteb · July 2022

I regularly customise worlds before playing

When it's an expansion world or store world, I just play. I like the premades, etc. and usually only have to place a few lots for those.

If it's a custom world, I absolutely customize it! I play in custom worlds the most.

MamaSimTee · July 2022

I just play the game as is, or only make very minor changes

I edit minor changes. I don't like all the venues from Showtime, so I delete most of them then add store content and usually an apartment building on a lot (learned that trick from @CravenLestat).

MantleJackal · July 2022

I just play the game as is, or only make very minor changes

I like to leave my worlds as vanilla as possible. Sometimes I might add a lot or two depending on how my game is progressing, but as far as completing customizing a world, that is way above my paygrade.

wendyyi1 · July 2022

I regularly customise worlds before playing

I always add or edit community lots. I also edit all the houses and add content from stuff packs and the Store.
I don't add my own townies unless it's an unpopulated cc world

PalmArrow · July 2022

I sometimes customise worlds, but not always

I voted for "I sometimes customize worlds", but really, I customize them at least 80% of the time. Sometimes it's only a matter of adding lot types that the original world doesn't have, but sometimes I want a world slightly different to what we have available, and I try to create it by editing the town (I have CAW but I never managed to understand the instructions, so making my own world is not an option).

For example, I like the look of Bridgeport but I don't like that there never seems to be any life in the streets. For the save I'm currently playing, I used an empty version of the custom world Laguna Coast and added Bridgeport skyscrapers to it, but I also made a main street with most of the rabbit holes, and I made these lots Visitors Allowed and added places to sit, sources of food, fun objects and lots of decor. My plan worked: townies love to hang around in these lots, and it gives me the feel I wanted: a colourful, crowded and messy city.

Also, a few years ago I played a nectar-making household in a version of Riverview I made over to resemble Champs Les Sims. I placed copied versions of Champs les Sims buildings in empty lots, built some new homes, but with most of the existing homes I just changed the roof, the wall covering and the type of fence. It did give the town a completely different feel.

I'm very slow in applying this types of changes to a world, but I enjoy it very much.

I usually play without customizing when I'm playing a world with a very distinct feel (like Starlight Shores, Moonlight Falls, Monte Vista or Roaring Heights) for the first time. I like to explore these worlds for the first time through the eyes of my sims, and go into Edit Town later if I think there is something missing.

blaq797 · July 2022

I regularly customise worlds before playing

Recently, I've not been playing Sims 3 as much, but that's mainly due to performance issues on an older HDD system vs a SSD system. Seriously, Sims 3 is THE BEST in terms of content and variety; the problem is though, that the core of the engine was never properly designed to handle so much possible content. Perhaps this is subjective, but I think most would agree at this point that something in the S3 core engine just gets bogged down when you add in all the store content plus the various mods and such. And that's BEFORE you add in your custom colored clothes, eyes, patterns, etc....

Anyway, I used to massively edit worlds, and I still do to a degree. If I was going to do one of those "one father, many many children" games. I would add an additional school on top of some of ep lots as well as putting in additional smaller lots in places. In Riverviews case, I mostly moved any residential from that central island to the mainland either side of the river, and I would usually move/delete the "haunted" lot that overlooks the central island from the south.

Barnacle Bay is another favorite of mine to edit majorly. Most of the time, I have a sim plop down next to the park there after sticking a 35 x 25 lot in that space. Sometimes, I would shuffle families and lots around, other times not.

Most of the worlds I would create a "master" template save to edit as needed, then go from there.

Nikkei_Simmer · July 2022

I sometimes customise worlds, but not always

I’ve never really bothered with customizing EA worlds. I generally play them as is. I may put a few more lots down if needed but I don’t want to mess with the current layout of the Sims 3 EA worlds. I tend to treat them as fragile because they are. You tweak the wrong thing. routing becomes gimped, and then you got problems.

Now a blessing that EA gave us was CAW for those who really want to delve in and create our own customized worlds.

Now I want to make a “Vancouver, BC” world, more detailed than the current Sneakfeline world I currently use. And I’m going to try to make it as close to the actual city (since I live near that city. I may actually try to rip assets from FSX and mesh buildings to go with that world. Iconic BC Place and Roger’s Arena - try to turn that into rabbitholes. The Telus Science Centre, Skytrain?!! Sure wish there was something akin to a non-ITF Monorail system available in Sims 3.

I will try to do every major arterial route through Vancouver: Cambie Street, Burrard Street, Broadway, Hastings, Alma Street. 41st Avenue. Main Street. Just the major arterial routes. Kingsway is going to be a pain cutting through at a diagonal and then connecting to Main Street which then punches straight through to Chinatown and Gastown. The edge of the world will be Boundary Road (the eastern edge of East Vancouver. I may touch North and West Vancouver a bit but I’ve never really spent much time on the North Shore so I’m not as familiar.

This would also have to be a homeworld university with UBC. So I have to make UBC too as well as the buildings to go along with it.

Vancouver West End is really gonna be tricky because I’m not going to want to include YVR since it’s actually Richmond, BC.

This is a heckuva world to tackle and probably not for the faint of heart. But then again…I was always stupid and never really knew when I bit off more than I could conceivably chew.

Evalen · July 2022

I regularly customise worlds before playing

sorry

Evalen · July 2022

I regularly customise worlds before playing

I do change a lot of community building in custom worlds as I have special ones I like. I also have special sims I add to my towns. I also replace houses. With EA worlds I do not do much to them. I do add my favorite sims. I would only add or remove from EA worlds if I was Renewing it. But I mostly leave them as they are. I play them as is.

puzzlezaddict · July 2022

I just play the game as is, or only make very minor changes

I never change anything when I first start a save, then I gradually add what my sims need as I go along. For example, I'm playing in Dragon Valley right now, and I've added a few items to McCafferty's Pub: a buffet table, a couple of stereos, a Sim Gnubb set and a fire pit outside, and a bunch of nectar racks, some that offer tasting and others that allow purchases. Now most of my sims' parties happen there if they don't want to host at home.

There's a mod to add the Late Night professional bar interactions to regular bars so I didn't need to redesign the whole layout:

https://modthesims.info/d/527902/update-31-jul-2016-the-professional-juice-bar-mod.html

I also edited the gym after installing the Skylight Studio store venue. Now the room with glass walls has ballet barres and the dance floor, so it's a proper dance studio. And the bathrooms have a couple of the public shower stations, which allows sims to shower without getting embarrassed when someone walks in on them. It took a few tries to get the layout correct, but everything is usable.

For worlds where the game adds EP venues automatically, I use this mod (Sims Asylum, free registration required) to prevent their placement so I can add what I want when I want it. In some worlds and saves, I just don't have a need for certain lot types.

https://simsasylum.com/tfm/index.php?/topic/497-no-auto-placement-of-community-lots-in-ea-worlds-requires-at-least-one-of-these-eps-ambitions-showtime-supernatural-or-seasons/

pinkrobin · July 2022

I regularly customise worlds before playing

I often have to edit the lots that come with Ambitions, either because they're placed so randomly (for example the junkyard being located among the most expensive houses which makes no sense) or because they're placed on lots that are too small so the entrance can't face the street. I usually add extra lots as well such as bars or cafés depending on what I think is missing.

Mikezumi · July 2022

I regularly customise worlds before playing

I don't much care for building or the surroundings of my sims but I do very much care about having good genetic stock in my towns. I usually remove most, if not all, of the residents and replace them with sims of my own. The residents that I do keep are tweaked to my taste. There are a couple of lots from EPs/store sets that I add for my sims to visit but I don't feel the need to customize them except when I can see potential pathing issues or to occasionally add a bar for a mixologist to tend.

bekkasan · July 2022

I customize the world as I play and usually by the time that story is done there are major changes in many of the builds in that world.

Nomiko13 · July 2022

I regularly customise worlds before playing

I always customize beforehand. I just add a bunch of store lots to the world. I also get rid of venues/lots I don't care for.

Sprottenham · July 2022

Not necessarily before playing, though sometimes I can do that, but usually while playing. I don't know, I haven't started enough new worlds to say if I do one thing or the other. :P But I think yeah, I will always end up customizing the world one way or another, of course. I want to make it my own.

viola-illyria · July 2022

I regularly customise worlds before playing

I'll add EP lots designed for the world I'm currently. I'm terrible at building so I generally download them from the exchange or use store lots. My biggest bane of exchange lots are people who use Sweet Treats in their build and people who don't give their lots an in-game or description. Especially if it had one on the exchange saying what it was and where it should go.

I'll also fix up traits, appearances and relationships of premade sims. The Goths get their terrible Tim Burton style clothing replaced with something more suitable for Sunset Valley's Addams Family, and have their traits switched to being closer to their TS1/TS2 personalities (including getting Cat Lover as a trait each). The Bachelors become the decadents, occultists and mystics they should be. And Thornton Wolff gets the Can't Stand Art trait because that bugs me so much.

SamelaRita · August 2022

I regularly customise worlds before playing

If I'm writing a story, (which I usually am) I'll always customise the world to some extent or another - sometimes I strip them completely (and save the stripped version) and sometimes I'll just put several of my own builds in there. Or builds other people have made for me or for someone else.

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Do you customise worlds before playing?

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