Bleake Islands - A Bleak Place Indeed!

When Thisis Bleake discovered these islands many years ago, they were a bleak place indeed in the far northern reaches of Simplanet. There's always some snow on the ground, even in the summertime. It took a long time and much effort to carve a roadway and erect structures. Most original inhabitants were either banished here or on the run and hiding out. Livings were made by fishing, smuggling, and mining. Times were hard. One day, miners excavating on the tallest mountain found something very strange. Soon thereafter, black-suited "specialists" arrived and the area was cordoned off. No one really knew what was going on up there but it turned out to be a boon for the islands. A state-of-the art hospital and research facility was built, housing was needed, and the local economy got a boost. Bleake islanders never did tell the outsiders, though, about some of the strange items found and things that were happening there.

Bleake Islands requires all expansion packs up to and including Into the Future (World Adventures, Ambitions, Late Night, Generations, Pets, Showtime, Supernatural, Seasons, University Life, Island Paradise, and Into the Future). It may work without some expansion packs but could look different. Pets, Late Night, Island Paradise, and Into the Future are absolutely required for rabbitholes, bars, apartments, and the islands' run down "sci-fi" theme. Bleake Islands is NOT populated.

An original grayscale map of southwest Missouri / southeast Kansas - converted into "islands" - was used to construct the world. Sims can boat around the main island and between islands. The moon rises over the beach.

Bleake Islands is set as a town so will spawn raccoon, pets, and horses. (I just pretend the horses are moose!) Players who have a "no horse spawning" mod can just remove the water trough/feeder at the beach. Since there is no designated "fishing spot" on Bleake Islands, the unicorn does not spawn. However, there are lots of places to fish!

There are two versions of Bleake Islands - one with the "Dry Dock Diner" lot featuring the Hogan's Deep Sea Diner Rabbithole; the other with a Resort Rabbithole lot (the "Hidden Cove Motel/Resort") replacing the Dry Dock Diner lot. This is so players who do not have the Hogan's Deep Sea Diner Rabbithole will not have to rebuild a deck lot. (Deck lots don't seem to work to replace a lot when saved to the bin.) The world with the "Dry Dock Diner" lot is called "Bleake Islands". The world with the "Hidden Cove Motel/Resort" lot is called "Bleake Islands - Resort". Otherwise, the worlds are exactly the same. Although you can download both worlds into the Sims 3, only one world can be installed in the game at a time.

There is NO CC on Bleake Islands. (Checked with CUSTARD.)


Built with patch 1.67.

Map Size: Bleake Islands is a Medium world (1024 x 1024) with a small land mass.

Layering: There are 6 layers - Lots, Objects, Spawners, Effects, Trees & Plants, Houseboats & Ports. The Global layer was "cleaned" twice so it contains a minimum number of items.

Textures: 8 in-game textures were used total. Therefore, there are no more than 8 textures per "chunk" anywhere on Bleake Islands.

Routing Info: Sims cannot route up or down steep sides of mountains with the exception of paths/sidewalks which take them to specific lots. The camera can go anywhere on Bleake Islands. There are no "hidden" spots.

Spawn Points: Fishing, gem, Vampire's Eyes, metal, large bird, butterfly, rodent, base game seeds (around greenhouse), crystal plants, sea life, sea sludge, sewer trilobite, shark, seashell and bottle, dig site - wasteland, Pill Bug, Honeypot Ant, and nanite spawners are placed in logical places. Although there is no designated "Fishing Spot" on Bleake Islands, there are a number of places to fish.

Effects: Waterfalls, flying geese, river rapids, and fog emitter effects are placed on Bleake Islands.

Lots: Bleake Island has a total of 45 lots - 25 community, 3 dive, 13 residential (4 residential lots are houseboats), and 4 houseboat ports. There are three empty 10x10 lots for which alternate lots are available (see Comments). All lots are original and built by SimmyRN.





Known issues:

• Public Sounds Stereo speakers on community lots default to classical music and must be reset by the player. (This is an EA issue and not a problem with the world.)

• The Gnubb set must be placed in-game in order for the "rigging" to work correctly. Shore Lunch Beach is marked with terrain paint so it's easy to tell where the set is supposed to go. (This is an EA issue and not a problem with the world.)

• Boats traveling around the islands "jump" as they cross the edges of dive lots. (This is an issue with all custom dive lots and not a problem with the world.)

• Swimmers sometimes momentarily swim above the water at the edges of dive lots.

• Caves on dive lots sometimes "boot" divers to the shore. If this occurs, it is recommended to wait until the tentacles are visible at the cave before entering, not point the in game viewer directly at the cave as the sim enters, and/or to "reset" or delete/undo the cave. See link "Sim Resets When Exploring An Underwater Cave" for more information. (This is an issue with all dive lots and not a problem with the world.)

• Swimmers rarely get "stuck" on a dive lot and must be reset using the "resetsim sim name" cheat. (It is unknown why this happens and I know of no other way to fix the issue.)

Thanks:
Making high resolution world maps tutorial.
How to create a world using real-world height data tutorial.
Creating Dive Lots.
Guide to Houseboats in game & in CAW.
simsample's tutorial Cleaning the Global Layer.
MTS modders for CAW Resources.
MTS members for test playing and feedback for Bleake Islands.
HugeLunatic for "cleaning up" and submitting my Creator Feedback thread for upload so that I didn't have to "re-do" everything!