I moved them a bit further back. There were 3 in total, and the one closest to land is near the harbor. You should definitely notice it if you follow a sim down to the end of the pier thingy and turn around to look at the city
The rest of the swamp is just ground fog. That should still be there.

Is anyone else testing this? How's it working on everyone's computers?
I've built a couple of things but I'm planning an update on Monday with the lots and pictures of them
(meanwhile I'm playing it myself hehe)

Since I just found out I have a uni thing on Monday, I'll post a pic spam now!
Sadly, once uni starts again I will have near zero free time to work on this
But then again, maybe it will be better to *really* concentrate on single lots, because as you will see, some have been a bit rushed and no-one profits from that.
I have also found out that Sookie's house and Bill's House, both made by KrazyAngelKat81, fit nicely in their allotted spaces, so you can just go ahead and download his/hers!
For Merlotte's bar and Sam's trailer, I made my own versions that fit on the lots.

And now, for the pics:
[spoiler]
Merlotte's (fully furnished and functional at this point):


Sam's trailer (only the exterior has been done atm):


random fairy arboretum:


Fire station (not too happy about this one, but a town needs a fire station! I just nicked all textures etc from the Veronaville one tbh)



Hospital:


A starter in Saltport:



Lighthouse (hangout):



constructive criticism please

(oh, and for those who are testing - would you rather I upload just the houses or an updated world file?)

PS: I added overview shots from CAW to the first post. Could not fit the whole world into the frame, so I split it in two

I love the hospital! Where is that roof from! 0.0

The mansard windows + roof pieces are from MATY => http://www.moreawesomethanyou.com/s...ic,18244.0.html

The new Twinbrook looks amazing :lovestruc

I just LOVE what you've done with Twinbrook! It is my favorite EA town and I wanted to change by creating a world I know very badly when I stumbled upon what you did with the original. And ... this is beautiful, I would have as much talent as you. I wanted to download your file but I can't. It requires password. I entered the password to my 4shared account, but it still says the password is invalid. how to please?

Hey pirlouit, would you try again? 4shared changed something about the hosting site or something, but it should work now.
What a coincidence to get a reply today when I was just musing about working on this world some more over the summer... (if I get my thesis done, hehe!)
I have not abandoned this world, quite the contrary in fact: this past school year I've been playing it inside and out with all my families, building houses and all that.
But today I was thinking of maybe working on the world file some more (this would mean yet another massive move for all my 100 or so sims, sigh). I'm not so sure about the high rises any longer and would like to go for the New Orleans-y feel more radically.
Then there's the CC-issue (right now, it uses way too much for modthesims standards), and I would also like to see what the next EP brings, so maybe I could incorporate that. So we'll see, but for now the bèta (and CC!) should be downloadable once more :-)

I tried again and this time was able to download your world. Thank you very much and I'm sorry for my English very bad. Thank you much.

This looks great! I can't wait to see the finished product. Keep up the good work! I've always loved this world to begin with and I love what your doing with it.

Sooo... I was floating through New Orleans using Google Maps, and came across this mall (?) that's next to Jackson Square, and thought that building looked just so like something in the Sims, I got a bit carried away and built ... something... It's not as huge as IRL, since I split it over two lots that ought to sort of flow over into each other. The one that's pictured is a small mall with a gym, and a coffee shop downstairs. The other one facing the lake will be the base camp (but can easily be set to just a lounge/hotel type lot if you're not using Traveller to visit the world). So what I'm asking is: is it too much? I mean, I know it looks a bit silly, but I guess all those Island Paradise shots rubbed off on me

PS: It's called the Kanye West center because it's late and I for some reason thought that was hilarious but if anyone has any ideas for a name they are much welcome

Wow ! What a project ! I'm quite excited because I too have always loved Twinbrook atmosphere but the huge waste of space really dragged everything down. Your version is exactly the way I envisioned things if I were to make the changes myself. So really, thank you ! ^^

Now for the technical part :

• I created a new clean game (without CC or Store content - except for Riverview) and installed the world via the launcher. It worked. But unfortunately, I noticed that some .sims3packs automatically installed themselves at the same time (some irrelevant objects by Angela @ TSR, some by awesims, some by LunaSimsLulamai, some by Sandy @ ATS and a pattern by Suza @ SimplyStyling). I tried to uninstall those objects but couldn't because as the launcher told me : "they were linked to the world".
  
  You really should consider getting rid of those pesky little things or to separate them from the world if you still want to use them. That way players who don't want custom content installed forcefully into their game (or those that only use .packages like me) would still be able to enjoy your world.

• I hope I won't offend you but after seeing this I opened your world in CAW to take a look around (and try to get rid of the linked sims3packs). I've noticed some weird road connections here and there and I took pictures of them to show you what I'm talking about. But as there are 20ish images and I don't want to clog your thread I think it would be best to send you a PM. What do you think ?

Regarding this, the good news I can give you is that the version I am currently working on is completely CC free! So hopefully that will solve that problem entirely :-)

The new version also won't have any city/high rises (I'm changing Saltport to be a small fishing village) and the large island has been removed in favor of adding to the original town center, and making that more inspired by New Orleans



Of course you don't offend me! It's a feedback thread isn't it? It just makes me happy anyone wants to check out what I've built!
Are you talking about the dirt road crossroads? Because those are sucky by default and there isn't much I can do about that apart from trying to camouflage it with terrain paint
I also changed the cobblestone road texture to something more neutral.
If that's not what you're talking about then I'd love to see pictures to know what you mean! But maybe you can make a selection?

Oh you're making quite a bit of changes ! I'm really excited to see what it'll look like (even if I think I'm going to keep the beta version too... I liked the city !)
Yeah for going CC free though. It'll be much easier for players to install and play with your world without having to worry about CC.

As for the pictures I told you about they are mostly screen captures of roads ending without intersections (is it the right word ?), lots connected to roads without intersections and some sidewalks that aren't connected to one another. I also took a picture of two of the bridges that I think don't go well with the areas they link. And that's it really. I don't even know if it's relevant.

^^ oh, I see...

I'm not sure those will all still be relevant (since I changed so much since that version). I played the world through september-may and have not found the roads ending without intersections to be a problem unless there are lots right up to the end (like on the far end of the island - sims would walk too far to get in their car), but otherwise, like where the Fangtasia nightclub goes and the road ends in a little loop, it shouldn't be a problem.

There were some issues with sidewalks though, but they have all been addressed since then.

I'm curious which bridges you mean

I'd upload what I have now but since I mostly just bulldozed the city it doesn't look very presentable Can't wait for Island Paradise to come out - is it weird that I feel like it's a bit of a chore that I'll "have to" play it a bit just to figure out what my world building options are? :p

PS: I hope I'll be able to sway you on the city, once you see the new "down town" area, you will no longer feel like you need the high rises (from what I heard they all have routing problems, that's why I removed them)

It's true that with all the changes that you've said you made what I noticed in the first beta might not be relevant at all. But anyway here it goes!

• Under the second spoiler are the pictures of lots connected to roads without intersections. I don't know if it's a problem or not so I went and took a look at one of the EA lots :
  
  
  
  There is an intersection. But EA has been known to do strange things sometimes, so really...
  
  Anyway here they are :
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

• Under this one there are roads that don't end with an intersection :
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

• Under this last one there are 2 other little things :
  
  
  
  
  

And that's it (I didn't think the other screen caps were important after what you revealed ) As for the bridges, I was talking about the 2 wood bridges that leads to the "rich" area : they seem a bit too run down to me.

I totally understand where you're coming from with the "buying-a-new-expansion-just-to-see-what-new-building-and-CAW-features-are-available" I do the same thing too!

I can't wait and see what you've done with the former highrise area. I may even be convinced !

Wow, thanks for all the time + effort you put into that! It's strange - the first 4 pictures you posted (with "no intersection") I'm pretty sure I didn't change anything about those, since those are EA houses. I may have to check my standard Twinbrook, but I am pretty sure that's the way it was. In any case, I have families in houses #2 and #4 that I often play, and none of them have had any problems with school bus or cars, so I don't think it's important...

Ah, the wooden bridge - yes I am a bit in love with that I believe I changed that from the original one because I found that too "industrial" looking. I'm not sure which one would be better though. I got all excited about the covered bridge in Moonlight falls but then when I saw it up close it was a bit "meh" :/ Maybe one of the Riverview "pseudo-bridges"?

The second- to last picture with the dirt road: that dirt road bit is supposed to be just decorative, because it doesn't go anywhere. Since the intersections are so hideous, I thought I would do it this way. But maybe I can just paint it on or something.
I'll fix the road in the last one so that it changes textures at the intersection instead of at the fence, would that be better?

Thanks again for all the feedback!

What was I saying about EA and their strange way of doing things?... Anyway, if there isn't any routing problem with those houses that's great. ^^

I like the wooden bridges too but it was the area they were linked to that bothered me. As for a replacement for them, I don't really know which one would fit better than the others so really I think you should just go with the one that you love most.

I'm not really fond of the look of the intersections between dirt roads and tarmac roads either so really it's up to you. If the road doesn't lead anywhere and sims won't try to drive on it then you could leave it like that. And for the last picture yes I'd prefer it this way but that's only my opinion.

I'm so excited 'True Blood' is starting again! It will get me even more riled up to play in beautiful Twinbrook

Here are some random houses and street view

View of the lake behind "Jackson Square"


St. Louis Cathedral de-CC-ified:



Museum of modern art:


Library:


Fancy house, also no CC:


Are the pendants too much?


This was based on this building

It's a movie theatre downstairs, with a bar upstairs and a patio garden thing. The "movie theatre" uses the huge TV from showtime, but I guess if someone has the movie theatre from the store, they can change it for that

And two more overview shots of the area in the pictures:

Did some more work on "Bourbon Street"
You could live in any of the houses, though the green one is extremely tiny and the front door is kind of blocked by the flag


This building was based on the old cotton exchange building, and will be an exclusive lounge. The buildings adjacent to it will be inaccessible, and just for decoration.


Kind of like Pirate Alley?


I tell you, it's been really challenging to rebuild all this without any CC! I promise I will stick to it though. But later on, I'll definitely update most of these using the fabulous Southern Charm Set by Lisen801, so maybe I'll release a minimal CC version as well?

Sooo, after carefully testing some stuff from the new EP, I'm a bit on the fence about all the ideas I had for the swamp.
Originally I was going to dig out more water and put about half of the houses on stilts (I'm still going to do that), but I was also thinking of making some houses only reachable by boat + making sure there would be room for boaters, which would mean taking a whole bunch of trees and maybe roads back out.
But now that I've witnessed the horrible bugginess that is Isla Paradiso, I'm no longer sure that would be a good idea. For one thing, that boat taxi would look completely moronic in the samp, and since we can't fish from row boats anyway, I don't really see the point of being able to boat around the samp.
Routing is going really well in my world so far, and I don't want to mess it up.

What do you guys think?

edit: some people just assured me that you can, in fact, fish from a boat. This only adds to my dilemma though! What should I do?

Ok: NEW PLAN!

I'm just so frustrated at EA that they neglected to treat the big lake in Twinbrook as water, that I'm going to just raise the sea level to the level of the lake and delete the water plane. I've been messing around in photoshop to see whether it can be done within reason, and I think it can. (using photoshop to raise all the surrounding land accordingly) I've been looking at maps of New Orleans, and they don't have 2 different water levels either, so there

This means it's going to take forever to finish this world though, but at least I get to have my surf on :p

So you'll have to raise the entire swamp area to the level of the lake? I admire your bravery, good luck!

I already did, see?
It's actually not that much trouble: once you import the height map you edited with photoshop, all the objects, lots, trees etc jump into place according to the new height.
The swamp is fine, the fishing village I was working on needs more work to adjust to the new height. Also, I might take out the dams, because they seem pretty pointless now:



I apologize for the fogginess of this picture, but apparently the cloudiness slider does nothing for this world...

Can't wait for this. Congrats on your progress!

I built some boats today. Tons of fun!
This is what houseboats look like where I live: