Great Sunset Valley

Sunset Valley expanded and modified to be able to fit many more lots for however you want to add to your favourite Sims 3 world.

But why?
Plainly speaking, I’ve wanted something like this myself since before this game generation was over. I love the lore in Sunset Valley, my favourite sims families are there, notably the main Goth household and the other worlds, even toughs I love a lot, never reached the same point for me as Sunset Valley. I’ve wanted something, where I can import other families, features and houses to my favourite world, such as horses, supernatural population and even just the many farm lots from Riverview. I can do that now and I want to share that with other simmers.

Why not call it Sunset Valley 2025?
I was considering doing that and it’s what it’s called as the world file, but since I (tried/maybe) to keep this this base game, it didn’t really feel right. I also wanted to it be up to the player what to do with the world and what pack features to add, so that also knocked that idea out. Then I called it Sunset Grand Valley, but that felt like it broke the name up.
So end the end I landed on Grand Sunset Valley, both because Sunset Valley is great and now it’s also bigger!

But how?
The short answer is spite; the long answer is the free and official Create a World (CAW) program that released with the Sims 3 back in 2009. I never could figure out the program back then nor did I have the patience to learn, but in 2024 I returned to the program and found it way more intuitive than I remembered and started playing around with a Sunset Valley file.
Now, a year and a half after I started the project and my file was ruined from getting a new pc, I restarted from scratch and created this in about three weeks as I was stuck home sick with an infection.
If you yourself want to get into CAW, I recommend this instruction for if you want to create with an existing world, like I did with Sunset Valley: Edit Premade Worlds
I didn’t learn from any tutorials or anything, but there are plenty on Youtube.

What has been done?
The big question, what has been done and why? Down under the numbers, there is a picture with an overview of the world, marked with points of interest, where I have adjusted, edited or otherwise added stuff. All these will be discussed more in depth below, but first the general gist of the work I’ve done.
Firstly, I’ve added A LOT of new lots and areas for these lots. Essentially, I have more than doubled Sunset Valley.
There are several new sub-neighbourhoods, the Overlooks (as it’s called) has been expanded, I’ve created an area that I lovingly refer to as ‘The farms’ in the layer files and have made some adjustments to the military base area. I wanted space to add more stuff, more families, more expansion pack features or just whatever I felt like that given day.

The numbers:
20x20: 10
20x25: 4
20x30: 14
20x40: 1
30x30: 8
30x40: 3
30x50: 1
40x40: 4 + 1 40x41 (Can’t be bothered to fix it)
45x60: 1
50x64: 2
60x60: 2
64x64: 17
The total: 67(!!!) new lots!
Great Sunset Valley total: 131



Points of interest:

• 1. The Farms:
  This is a completely new area to the world and is essentially set up as a would be farm area with space for households with horses and farmland and public lots, such as an equestrian centre.
  The area was created by flattening the hills and making a simple road system, where it’s possible to go around the entire way. There’s also a brand-new beach lot (unedited) and space for a small fishing lot a bit away from everything.
  
• 2. Summer Hill Court
  The ‘rich people’ area has been expanded and now has space for even more mansions!
  Besides the added lots a new path has been made from the top and down to the beach lot, which in order to make the pathing, was deleted and replaced with a new one, that also actually goes into the water.
  
• 3. Phoenix Point
  Another brand-new area, but this time in space that could be clearly seen and partly travelled to in the original world. This was one of the last areas I added, because I realised when testing, that there’s a lot of lots, especially in Moonlight Falls, that are 40x40. Still, I think the added space creates space for a smaller high society neighbourhood that, like the Wolff manor, is a bit secluded from the rest of town.
  
• 4. Downtown
  Not much was changed here, but I did add two new lots by the beach, expanded Wright Way (the small road with lots over the cliffs, to add to more lots), added two lots in downtown, a singular lot next to the Bachelor household and added a new big lot on the other side of the road from the science centre. Yes, the cliff and hill go a bit further into town, but I figured if any, it would only be the town criminals complaining, and I don’t think they even care.
  Lastly, I gave the town a new beach lot that actually goes fully down into the ocean.
  Please note that the new beach lot is the only lot to have been edited as an attempt to recreate the original beach.
  
• 5. Goth manor and graveyards
  What’s better than one sims graveyard? Two graveyards! With me embracing my chaotic gamer style, I thought it fitting that the new, expanded Sunset Valley got an extra lot for a potential increase in graves. For this to happen I moved the road around, so that it now directly passes the original graveyard and so that poor Mortimer won’t have to run down half the hill just to get to the school bus.
  I also expanded the existing path between the graveyard and the science centre to go up to Sims Stonge Henge, since I think it’s a great area, that I never really knew about as a kid, and I wanted it to get it’s glory. It’s also a great spot for collectibles. Lastly, I also added a new path to the Overlook area that also goes up to the half-hidden fishing spot.
  
• 6. Overlook
  This area both now has a clearer road structure, not some wet noodle looking road with an added lot and a new sub-neighbourhood below. It feels more thought out and logistical now. There’s also new pathing that leads to the fishing spot and the Goth’s house and area.
  
• 7. The Military base
  This is actually the area I started experimenting with CAW with, because I found it weird that the military base itself wasn’t connected with the road surrounding the runway or launch pad, which it is now.
  The military area also now has three small lots and a big lot connected to it, ready for whatever purpose you want. I personally am putting a junkyard and fire station up here. Where there are rockets, there are fires.
  Underneath the military area is also a new sub neighbourhood carved into the hills with space for alot of smaller houses.
  
• 8. Redwood Parkway
  Ah, the end of the city area, now expanded with a road up to the fishing lot and an additional street with three lots overlooking the road, other lots and sea. There’s also a small lot for a potential cabin up by the fishing lot.
  By the sports stadium I added two new lots by there, with the thought of having pubs or something like that there. I also added pathing around the stadium lot to make it feel more built in.

Spawners
New spawners has been added to the farm area, but only ones I was certain would be either base game or work with base game only.
These are a mix of bugs, insects and rocks, plus seawater fish by the new beach area.
Otherwise no new spawners added, but some from the original Sunset Valley have been move slightly, but remained close to their original point.


Installation guide:

• 1. First download the zip-folder
• 2. Extract the file from the folder
• 3. Put the file into your sims 3 downloads folder.
  On a windows device you will find this folder in C:\users\[PC username]\Documents/Electronic Arts\The Sims 3\Downloads
• 4. Open your Sims 3 Launcher and click the Downloads tab
• 5. Find the file and click install
• 6. Profit

Known issues:

• The Landgraabs’s home lot is clipping with the terrain. I could not move the lot without that happening and though I tried to fix it with the terrain tools my self, it was not happening. Know that I did my best and covered up the worst with some greenery.
• Some lots are clipping into the road. This is a thing even with vanilla lots and knowing how the official lots are even in the sims 4, I am damn proud of what I pulled off. I did my best, but if anything is VERY much clipping, as with anything, please let me know.
• If you find or experience any other issues, please let me know, but know that this is a passion project and I might not go fix it.

Can I use this in my viewer based content?
Yes, of course!
I only ask, that you give me proper credit by linking to this page. No "Thanks to the creator" or "I found this on X-site".
Proper credit is all I ask for.