Take as much time as you need, we need to do all of our buildings and sims so there is no major rush it would be great however if you could get something up that quickly

Can't wait to see the previews Kiwi i know its going to be a great world (i also have your Niua Simoa and its awesome )

Here are some screenshots:

Here's an ultra rough prototype. It'll take a LOT of work to get a gentle rise in the city that also allows us to have a coherent city centre, but I'll keep working at it. The grey lines are rough ideas where major roads *might* go. The red lines a just for continuation. The flat bit is going to be lifted up into hills, don't worry about that for now. Feedback?

I'm going to put a lot more work into the shape of the mountains, and I'll try to get some nice little bays in somewhere as well. You're only really seeing three quarters of the coast on this pic, I wanted to give us a LOT of room to play with the land, and also have a large buffer of non camera routable land on three sides.

EDIT: Also, how's this for the physical style of the hills? It's a *bit* cartoonish, but I like that, and it should take on a certain vibrant realism with painting and neighbourhood deco and flora.

Wow wiki, that is brilliant, rough prototype or not it looks really good, i can definitely see the potential of how this is going to turn out, at the moment it is hard to give much feedback as it is not developed enough, at the moment i love it and i think the next update we should be able to give better feedback, right now the shape and planned roads looks perfect

Your prototype looks already great. I really love the multi-leveling you did. As for the roads, it seems perfect.

I would have seen it just a tad bit different. The roads at the highest level (back) seems really dense and the sea-level roads are the contrary. I would have imagined that the higher you get the more sporadic/less dense the building get because of the terrain structure but that looks good like that too

Can't wait for next update !

Those red lines flow further back into the mountains and do get very dense. There may be room for a tiny 'village' around the coast from the town, at this rate. Or just some nice scenary. I'm having more trouble with the paint and trees profile. Just another prototype, not the real deal. Please rip into it. And if you can find better textures, that's cool too. I be putting cobblestones where the town and such will sit, probably, and obvious that's not the road texture we'll use in the end.

EDIT: Also, what the most appropriate set of flora, do you think?

Hey,

Looks amazing I maybe would have used a darker kind of herb. This one remind me too much like some lawn grass. Do you use Martine's textures?

For the flora, I'll see if I can look further into it to answer more precisely.

Darker Martine grass. Threw some cobblestones down. Imagine the roads are brown.

Good?

EDIT: This is roughly the land we have to work with, btw, and it gives a good idea of the size of that prototype you're seeing there.

Perfect I can't wait to see the port area when it's going to be finished!

Edit: are you planning on having a waterfall somewhere?

Looks like good amount of land to me, in terms of flora i am not entirely sure yet, we have all taken to using pine trees i think, but i am not sure really how fitting that is :/

I did some search and here is the flora you'll find in Mediterranean's landscape :

You have trees such as the olive, orange, lemon, palm, and citron; as well as fig, date, pomegranate, almond trees, sugarcane and cotton. The vegetation consists of dense growths of chestnut, cypress, and oak that occupy the lower slopes, and at higher elevations, there are extensive stands of pine and fir. So pine is good

Ok so we need to avoid using palm trees, lana you should send a pm to all the builders in the group about not using palm trees as i think a lot of lots are using them currently and so they need changing

Done Kiwi-tea, as soon as you'll know exactly what cobblestone you're going to use for the town areas, could you tell/show me so that we could make our floor used for the sidewalks match with it?

Edit: I've divided the list of the already done buildings into categories. It should make things easier for you, I hope.

Wow, Kiwi, that's pretty amazing for a prototype! That port is already stunning. I haven't seen anything like it before.

Lana, thanks for looking up what kind of trees we can use. That's very helpful!

Small update with a few pics. The roads are all unconfirmed and they need a lot of smoothing, but something is rising up out of the clay.

Oooh it looks so good wiki!! i love the layout of it, you really captured what we are going for very well ^.^

It's awesome. I really dig the port area. It's going to look great!

I've just one question about the 64x64. Is it going to stay that way or are you planning to divide it?

At the moment the 64x64 lot is just an example. Getting the same lot sizes that you guys want is going to be EXTREMELY difficult without causing popping lots. Really, we should have waited until the world was made before starting to build, but I didn't really think about that. Worst comes to the worst, we'll just have to put some existing lots onto larger spaces and adapt them. Not too big a deal, right?

We'll manage to make it fit, and in the worst case scenario we'll rebuild. The most important is to have a functioning map.

I probably already told you that but what would be great is that whenever you know some size lots for sure, tell us ASAP so that we could build without having to make changes.

How is it going kiwi, have you been able to make any progress of it since saturday?

Sort of. I'm going CRAZY with this. I can't get any of the roads to stop disappearing under the ground because of the amount of hills involved. This is taking lots of tweaking and retweaking, and everytime I fix a bit I break three other bits. :/

Ugh, that sounds rather hellish indeed! I hope you succeed with it though, you have made such a good start If needs be then we will have to minimise the amount of hills, also i meant to mention this earlier, but we need to make sure that we do not include too many trees in the NH because we don't want to slow the game down too much

I have got maybe half of the roads to stop disappearing into the ground... :/ But it'll become an issue again once I start adding lots. The roads are a bit buckled in places, but I think that's reasonably authentic for such a town.

You already did such great start, and I realize how much of a real headache it must be. I'm sorry it's so hard on you. It could be indeed realistic to have roads like you said. These roads aren't usually new but rather old used ones.

Yeh i like that, using not quite perfect roads and pulling it off as 'authentic' sounds good to me!

This is how things are looking in the more complete areas.

I love the shaping you did with the mountains and the work you did with the trees and the winding road. Can't wait to see all of it

Wow this looks SOOO amazing, just what i had imagined, i couldn't be more pleased with it!! well done!!!

Man, words cannot describe how awesome the World looks! I love the path that connects the mainland to the mini-island. It looks great with the rocks surrounding it.

Here's what I've managed with the main town centre area so far. The layout isn't great, I know. We'll have to draw the buildings together perfectly to compensate and make it look like one cohesive area here. There are problems, but these lots and roads work. I have to sort others out, and recheck the roads because lots tend to break them. *sigh*.



1 - 25x12
2 - 18x16
3 - 20x30
4 - 25x12
5 - 20x30
6 - 25x12
7 - 30x40
8 - 20x30
9 - 30x30
10 - 30x20
11 - 16x18
12 - 25x20
13 - 20x30
14 - 40x40
15 - 18x16
16 - 20x30
17 - 20x30
18 - 20x30
19 - 40x30
20 - 25x12
21 - 16x18
22 - 25x12
23 - 16x18
24 - 30x20

Improved town centre layout. Can we do a 64x64 plaza?

Hey,

looks really nice I've started to answer you in the buildings thread. I guess we could manage to do a 64x64 if necessary. Is cutting the 40x40 in 2 20x20 manageable without causing issues? I just think that smaller buildings would fit better to give the impression of an old town center.

I'll tell you more when I'll finish brainstorming on what could be used on what etc .

40x40 keeps making other lots pop, and it sinks the road on one side. I keep smoothing and flattening, but it seems to make matters worse. I agree about the smaller buildings, but we could make a nice set of public buildings around the plaza on the 64x64 lot to sustain that sense if necessary. I've worked in as many small buildings as I can in latest town centre update.

I see, don't worry about it then, we'll manage with it as it is now and having a set of public buildings around the plaza would help making everything fit our theme indeed

This map shows almost all the camera routable terrain in the world. I accidentally cut off the gypsy camp, though, which would be at the top of the pic. Pink indicates areas where there are working, non-glitchy (so far) lots. Red is flat areas where I can fit lots. Currently there at 63 lots on the pink bits. We could easily push the number of lots in this world up to 130. However, I recommend leaving most of the largest red area so people can use it when Ambitions comes out. All that I'm putting in that area so far is the nectary and disused buildings (including criminal rabbithole). Sound good?

Sound great

Keeping some areas for Ambition is a good idea. We'll have to also put the windmill somewhere unless you already planned to put it on the far eastern pink area or else. We're also going to need a tiny spot for Lilith burial location the best would be to have it in some lost zone far from the center.

Wow it looks really epic! i think i am in love! ^.^ ok in terms of those reds bits, i think we should not build on the bottom right corner red patch, that is a nice large area which can be entirely for new buildings, we can put one or two there but for the most part we should have empty ones there for people the bottom left little island we should have some nice beachy lots on, the red patche just above it on the hill (to the right) should have one lot on it i think that the top right hand corner, that red patch, we could have an OLD CASTLE!!! :o how epic would that be, it is totally perfect, it would of have had an old castle, i can build a run down looking one as a community lot!

Right. I need some sleep. I'm going to upload an unfinished exported version somewhere for the builders asap (after I sleep). Just not sure where I can upload such a big file? Once I've done that, I'll be busy for the next week. I have an essay due, so (unless I'm procrastinating in the WORST possible way) you shouldn't see me about. But this should, at least, be an excellent basis for getting the port and centre of town done.

Yay a castle What about having the nectary in the bottom left area, on the long spot behind the trees? And yeah, maybe some beach lots would be great.

Ok sounds great kiwi, just tell us which bits of the map are finalised so we know where and what we can or can't build on

Sorry, I have no idea on how to upload such a thing.

DD, I think he said that we would be able to build the town center and the port area.

Oh ok, neat, in terms of uploading the file, i think you would be able to upload it to something like http://www.modyourpanties.com but put it in a zip or rar file first i do not know how long it stays up on modyourpanties for but hopefully long enough for us all to download it

Sorry for using filefactory, but it's a huge upload. I felt it'd be rude to put it on modyourpanties at this point. http://www.filefactory.com/file/b0c...alyPortTown_zip

That should get you a simpack of the unfinished world. Use it to build, but also to provide constructive crit of the world's progress (including pics where possible). Thanks guys.

Maybe the Lilith burial should be underground too?

Hey, i have taken some pics of the NH because it looks so kick ass right now!

OMG i am so loving the NH Kiwi its Awesome

And I Agree with the castle it would be awesome...

Also Unlikely I agree maybe Lilith's Burial should be underground it could be like they where trying to hide it?

I'm working on the plaza and adapting my old buildings right now. And, yeah it does looks awesome, right?

For Lilith burial I don't know. There's no reason that she had some structure specifically built to retain her ashes since there's not some kind of cult around her There's not a lot to hide. They burnt her on a stake far from the city on the woods, that had burned so there's only remains of a big fire, that's not really hinting someone that doesn't know about it as evidence of a murder that they would have to hide. The ghost is a big hint but that's something else.

I just thought of something. We have a huge mountains area but no mine. Wouldn't it be nice to have some old mines somewhere with underground tunnels that players could actually explore and that would be the favorite spawning location for gems, minerals etc?

Oooh that is actually quite a good idea! we should have maybe 2 of them?

Okay, I'll work in an area for mines once I'm free. Actually, place the castle/manor on the ledge above the plains. Place the nectary on one of the roads below (inland, away from the salt water). And then have some mines below the large flat area behind the town. That could be cool?

I don't really get which ledge for the castle sorry. But as far as the mines location and having the nectary away from the sea, that sounds good to me

ETA: We also will need a little creek (40x30) for the swordfish bar&grill. I couldn't find a place to put it.

Maybe around to the right where the stream runs through, that could be a good place for it?

That's the area I had planned for it. Nearer to the sea, seeing as swordfish are saltwater animals.

Kiwi, have you had a chance to develop at all this week, i know you've been busy, if not will you be able to make any changes this weekend?

Kiwi-tea, is it possible to make a 40x20 in the left spot of the port area, the square one? That could be a nice fit for the stadium. I originally made it in the preexisting 40x20 just besides it but since Charming really needed a 40x20 I gave him that spot. I now have a 40x20 stadium that I need to fit somewhere else.

I'll be able to work on this in three day's time. I've done a very little tweaking while I procrastinate. I'll look into adding any lots you request. Just make a list of sizes you'd like, and where you'd be keen to have them. I'll do my best to get them down if they don't hurt nearby roads.

All right, I'll do that. Thanks

Hey guys, i'm going on holiday tomorrow for a week and a half so i won't be around for some time I will be able to get internet though and i'll try and check up as often as i can

DD

I'll be gone too but only from Friday to Thursday. Do as you can and above all, have fun

hi guys! I was wondering if i could have a copy of the .world file of this? just want to tinker around for my own personal use...i love it!

For the moment it's still just a work in progress. There's a lot of work yet to do on the mountains, etc. I'll look at how big the .world file currently is, and if the others are okay with the idea, then I'll send you a link.

Are you planning on joining the group to help and make content for the world or did you just want to play the world file?

I'd like to just play with the world file.. Im horrible at creating worlds, mostly laying roads and i tired to find a world i like but every one i've downloaded I always wished I could tweak...
But I think your world is gorgeous as it is and I was wondering if i could have the world copy before you add anymore to it... it's just for my personal use and I have no intention on shareing it with anyone else..
if you like I could post screen shots of what I did with it..
I wouldn't be opposed to joining the group either...I just feel like I have very specific taste and not sure if i would create something everyone would like (Im very contemporary, simplistic, natural)

As long as everyone, especially the world creator, kiwi-tea, agrees with this and it's a personal use, I'm not against it.

We're going with a really precise theme, a Mediterranean coast town. The contemporary part would not be quite good for it but natural and simplistic could work so if you'd like to give it a try and join us, it would be a pleasure. We still need some run-down Italian houses, town houses and community lots (list on the first post of the thread).

Sounds Great! Thank you.

You're welcome

Just a tiny detail but when I talked about the list of the lots I meant the list at the beginning (1st post) of the building thread. Sorry. If you have any other question, feel free to ask.

Kiwi, I'm just wondering how is going on the map tweaking? Any luck with the mines? You found room for the stadium and the swordfish?

Sorry for the lack of updates. I've been into CAW and added the rest of the mountains, but I need to add more lots. I'll get onto that soon.

Hey kiwi,

I've updated the first post with a map and the location of all the lots and some relevant infos. I hope it's gonna help you. I still miss some of it but I'll update it as soon as I got it.

If you need anything else or if I forgot something, let me know

It's not time to panic yet, but the latest patch *appears* to have corrupted many CAW files. I installed CAW on another computer without the latest patch and checked my files. It looks like all the world maps for this project are corrupted, and their back ups. I'm not sure exactly how this will affect our project yet: But yes, it is very, very bad news.

EA may have set back a lot more than just our project. I'll keep you all updated.

OMG, that's not good at all!
I'm so sorry to hear this! Is there nothing left from this world that you can work with, or are you still trying to figure that out?
And what about the other projects you're working on? Hopefully they are still ok!

Wow, I wonder what EA has to say about this.

I don't know yet exactly what is beyond saving. Won't know until CAW is back in action with a new patch.

Hopefully it will restore the corrupt files with a new patch, if they ever bother to release one that is, however we do have a copy of the world as we all downloaded it for lot building, so all is not lost if you cannot fix the files :/ Also i know you're working on another project at the moment so i really hope this gets fixed and you don't loose all your work

That would suck, really bad but as DD said, at least we have a map that could be downloaded, and we have nearly all the lots on here, or on each persons individual computers! Ugh. i think our June 20th date is shot. :'(

Might i suggest july 20th? (:

Frankly, I don't think we can make any predictions about the date until EA fixes CAW.

(PS. DD, heard your recent interview with Flab yesterday, lol)

Lol kiwi! Yeh excuse how retarded i sound haha

ha, i saw that, still have not listened to it though!

I've just had a go on CAW and if kiwi can't continue, I can plonk some lots in, and make bits of terrain unroutable etc :D

Sounds great, i think that would be just fine, Does anyone have a problem with this?

Oh, I have no problem at all with this.... but don't we need the .world file from kiwi?
btw, i counted the houses and sims in Twinbrook. I thought it might be a good reference point for us. There are about 40 resedential lots and something like 60 sims.

yeah we do. and DD's gonna get it from kiwi at some point :D
and what are the numbers for ours?

yea, Kiwi is sending it to DD, then Craig can get it.

What is the reference point for?

well we dont want to have so many lots/ sims that the game is like EURGH and wont do anything. my pc's not a brilliant one and so far its working fine with the world. but it doesnt have all the lots yet, and not all the sims have been made! so we need to make sure we can stick to a number that we know is safe :D

oh, i never thought about that, i just got a new computer, so i didn't think anyone would have a problem....thats sounds quiet shallow...lol, but okay.(:

Hahaha, Tyu, that's so funny! But I really get what you're saying, because sometimes I have my game running in the background all day. I don't have the patience to turn it on and off, everytime I want to make changes. For me it's working fine, but other people might get problems if we put like 100 lots in there, with 1000 sims.

indeed, like me for example. I'm but a poor english boy with just one house and one pc, which is mine!! haha when i go to uni, my parents dont have one xD good times

Wow Craig! Serious! I can imagine not having more then 1 home, but only 1 computer? thats insane!

Poor Craig! If it's any consolation, I'm not rich either. The only reason I have an expensive pc is because I always save up for stuff after I've bought it, lol! :D

Good work rose! (: learning to manage money! whoo! (:

Well, I've got a really great life insurance, just in case!

isn't that if you die? . . .im confused.

hahah, yes... incase I die the stuff can still be paid for, lol!
I'm only joking though ... I guess this is typical Dutch humor. Hopefully I didn't offend anyone.

no, i wasn't offended, just confused. lol. (:

Haha, Tyu you do sound quite posh! but I get what you're saying. I have quite a good computer now (after much saving ) so I often forget that others aren't as fortunate or might not be able to afford all the EPs/SPs but as I said in a previous post somewhere, I only learned to switch a computer on about 6 or 7 years ago: that's because until then I couldn't afford a computer AT ALL.

I'd used an ex boyfriends computer (which he obviously turned on and off for me!) to get hooked on TS1 though so was determined to buy my first computer so I could play it again. I was in the RAF so I volunteered to be sent to Afghanistan for 2 months because you get a bit of a bonus for going away plus there's no shops to spend your money in so I basically came back to the UK with 2 months pay sat in my bank account. I marched straight out and bought a computer then straight to the shop to buy sims and was delighted to discover they'd moved on from TS1 to TS2 in the time I'd been without a computer ...and the rest is history!


Rose, how many of those sims are families? What's our current house to household ratio, do you know? I didn't realise there might be scope to make more families and houses, I thought we were close to the end.

Pahahaha rose that made me laugh so hard! I'm not rich either, but for some reason we see to just have laptops floating around in our house, in fact we even managed to permanently loose one, it was under the sofa one day, then gone the next o.O lol

Maggie, back when I was in high school we had computer lessons on those huge dinosaur computers. It was just a black screen with letters and I couldn't figure out why that box was so important that we had to take lessons in it. It wasn't until the pretty pictures came with it, that I actually learned how to turn it on and off. And then the sims came, so now they have to drag me away, lol.

Conner, I think nowadays it's not a surprise when people have more than one computer. But it wasn't so long ago that owning more than one tv was a sign of craziness in my country, lol! And all of the sudden people that aren't even rich loose laptops under their sofa's, lol, DD. :P

Anyway, If I counted right, we have 38 residentail lots on the map and a total of 41 sims at the moment. I estimated about 60 sims in Twinbrook, but some of them might not have been home when I counted. I'll see what's going on in Sunset Valley too.

Haha we only have one tv, my parents think that TV will ROT MY MIND!!! Lol nah i'm kidding, we're not that big into TV in our family, but i'm not allowed one in my room because they think it is unsocial

Ok, Sunset Valley has 60 residential lots. 25 are occupied, 17 are empty houses and 18 are blank lots. There are a total of 67 sims.
Twinbrook doesn't have that many blank lots and empty houses. I think they might have done that on purpose, to make it more of a player neighbourhood. They know that builders can just buldoze the lots they don't like and build better ones, or add empty ones with the world editor. And I think that's waht we're aiming for too... a player neighbourhood.

So what do you guys think if we have 2 empty starters, 2 empty middle income and 2 empty high income lots?
I'm not sure about blank lots. Should we have them at all, and if so, how many?