Customization in TS3

*ahem*

PLEASE pardon me while I geek out here. Jay started to laugh at me when I told him how awesome this was. "You only get this way for nerdy things," he told me. I know! I'm a nerd!

It has taken a very long time to get used to TS3. And now that I have, I'm convinced more and more of its awesomeness, and less and less convinced that they set out to mess shit up.

For instance- it is as simple as pressing down the "alt" button to move stuff around off grid including at angles other than 45 degrees. This includes sims when used with the move objects cheat.

Not only can you color pretty much everything, but you can freakin' color pretty much everything. I rather enjoy giving sims who are of age a little gray without having to go outside of the game. Or giving my elders a little color or different shades of gray or letting them completely color their hair.

Now with the release of Create a World, we can build our own worlds from the ground up, including terrain paints and the sounds and road textures (and multiple road textures in the same world too). The sounds that are included are amazing and include the sound of low water, knee deep water, broken glass, concrete, different dirt and sands, grass and dry grass, and more. I am huge on sounds like footsteps for some reason.

But that isn't all. It is SO much easier now to actually mess with the INI files and make yourself a world with custom water color at different times of the day, change the size of the sun and the moon, and when it rises. A tutorial is here. And you can mess with the INI files while the game is running to see the effects.

Compare:




We have the normal water shipped with the game. It's like a murky blue. Then there is the water color that I made for Ruin.













For Ruin, I wanted the water to have a different tinge to it. It's almost purple at its base color. It almost look iridescent to me.


The color of the water can be changed for every state and for different times of the day. And best of all, you can do this while the game is running. As soon as I save, the color of the water changes.

I can change it for the world alone once I'm done, but I find that there is a plus side to swapping out the INI files. If I wanted, I could keep the sea looking like a separate color from the lakes in town. Changing the INI files changes both.

But I haven't really decided yet.



Okay, so random playing with it here is my finding. GAH! It is so awesome!


So I was playing around last night, just testing the color capabilities. Right now I'm just playing with the water.


As the sun began to set, I wanted the water to move into a slightly more redish tint. It was close to 6pm, and in Sims 2, that means sun set to me. With the lighting mod, I loved that redish glow everything got, so that's probably what I'm thinking about when I wanted this tint.

This was the moment that I found out that the sea color is a blending of the two values that sit at different times.






Wait, does that make sense? Here's what I mean.


Ok, in my Sky_ClearSea ini text, this is what I have. At 1600 (4:00), the sea is more lavender in color. At 1800 (6:00) I tinted the sea to be more redish. Originally, I thought this meant that the sea would be those colors until it hit that time of day. (Did I really picture it suddenly changing color as soon as 6:00 hit? Yes, yes I swear I did.)

But no, that isn't what it does. It moves from lavender-ish in color to redish in color. So when I was messing around with the coloring at 5:30, messing with one block or the other actually affected the coloring of the sea because it was using both values to calculate the color of the sea.


That is not all. It also does the exact same thing over two files when the sky is changing. There are files for each state of the sky. There's partly cloudy, stormy, overcast, and clear.

While my sims were sleeping, I was wanting to mess with the sea color at night. I wanted to make it pitch black. But I kept having a redish tint to it.

It's kinda hard to tell in this picture, but you can sort of see it. If you looked at it overhead, you'd definitely see it. I was very confused.

So I looked up at the sky. It turns out that it was moving into a partly cloudy cycle, so the two values I needed to mess with were in the Sky_ClearSea file and the Sky_PartlyCloudySea file. And of course, I then had to think about the extra values that the sea was heading towards. You know, what color it would be at 4:00am.


There's more that can be customized, including the lunar cycle, and cloud color, and stuff with the sun and the moon, supposedly reflection colors too. It's pretty amazing. I'm thinking my next building will have to be a proper scientific building, or maybe I'll just set one up in one of the apartments over the market, and we'll have to make a point of watching the moon and the sun.


If I do this right, I could probably mimic seasons and just swap out the INI files. Since I can do this while playing, it's much less of a hassle than using a package file.

Anyway, whoops. I let the inner geek out. Well, I suppose we all know that's a risk when we get talking about Sims. I still have a game play update coming up, and I have to do some testing because there are some things I am not satisfied with in the village and I need to go back to CAW.

Village Tour

Now that the village part is over and done with in Ruin, I thought I'd finally give a tour of the village.

A little background info (you can skip over this part if you want): I created the village for the story in Ruin. The world of Ruin is basically one land mass, most of which is in a dark age where people are struggling to survive. (Cheery, I know.)

The village I made is located in the very south of this map deep in the Southlands area which is very much like the beginning of a kingdom. They live pretty comfortably compared to some of the others. Before the Revolution, it was a self sufficient city with the village as support, so it just needed some adjustment after the Revolution to remain self sufficient while being protected.

(Click to enlarge)

Not too impressive from overhead, but you can see the layout of the town and the land from here. It's very simple.



This is along the road that the tribals would walk on to get to the village. On the outskirts of town, we have a couple of run down structures (Sheila's Decay and One Day Later). Two are houses and one is actually a community lot which is the criminal warehouse (Behind the Junkyard).



I imagine that there are people living on the outskirts of town, strays who are barely managing to make it. They can't join the tribe, and the village, with its limited resources that it doesn't want to share, won't accept hem as fully fledged towns people. So they have to live off the land, hunting and gathering and living off the good will of anyone kind enough to possibly share with them.

Game-wise, these are just sims that I don't play. I pretty much stick them there and let them figure it out.



Of course, also on the outskirts is a farm (French Country Farm). I'm sure they need to keep an eye out for those people outside of town who aren't towns people.

Game-wise, Angel and Mitchell are living here. Spawners here include lady bugs (I thought that was particularly clever of me-- they're in the crops), and common seeds.





Forest over here that includes a lot with a swimming hole inside a lake (The Wilderness Pools). I'm sure there are more spawners over here.


This is the meadow. I have it set up as a community lot. I found out a while ago that sims cannot have picnics just anywhere, it has to be a lot. So I put this random lot out so that sims can go and have nice picnics with their families.





The graveyard which includes a small church. Trying to harken back to the middle ages a bit with the villages and stuff in Ruin.



These two are the guardians of the underworld. I'm working out a story about it that is said to have taken place before the two brothers destroyed the world. The male is always looking to the female. The two statues would never be placed in any other way or it would be bad luck.

Interesting to note that these two can also be found in Neutral justice/judgment rooms like the one we find Paula at in chapter 1 of her story.






Pat's place, still technically on the outskirts of town. Pat's father built it with his bare hands and friends a couple years after the Revolution. (Story wise, for those who don't know, Pat's Place is a bar run by Patrice Sherman.)











This is where Gloria, the village leader lives. They don't really have a proper form of government after the Revolution, though they probably did before the Revolution. Gloria wasn't exactly elected, though she was kinda. She pretty much stepped up and was willing to deal with Henri Smith (leader of the Southland's tribe) as she knew him from the Revolution. And everyone agreed that she handled him best. (Because you definitely need to know how to handle him.)

Her residence is huge, but only because she takes in people. Gloria cares for her towns people. If someone were tragically orphaned, she'd still consider them one of her own and would take them in until they could stand on their own.




The market includes a book store and grocery store and the junk shop. Above I pretend are apartments.

Yes, that's a day spa and the corporate tower. They're mostly place holders for now until I stop being lazy and build my own or find some.



Old building from before the Revolution. The Southlands ran like a city, and the village was an important part of it. (Mostly, the upper class/those in power lived in the city out of gorgeous homes.)



The ring of pink blooming trees is said to bring good luck to those who stand inside it and profess their love for one another. Weddings can be held here. Sometimes couples enjoy just relaxing and having a picnic.



Artists come and paint here in front of the lake. I have an eisle set up so that sims can paint outdoors. It works really well. When a sim is done painting, they can choose to take the painting home with them.






They have no words for this, but we call it a beach. It's said that the world was destroyed by two brothers and that they now sleep under the sea unaware that people live above them.

There is a fence before you get to the beach of course because pre-revolution, people from the Neutral Territory lived here. They originally had access to the beach blocked off because of the old story. It makes them nervous. Still, even though people now go down to the beach and watch the sea, they are solomn and respectful. They don't swim or fish.

(Game-wise, they can fish. I have a mix of common and rare spawners.)



Phew, if you made it all the way through then here's a reward:

Time to experiment

Anyone remember TS3 Amberle?

I have not really been playing Sims 3. Various reasons, mostly that the neighborhoods were too large to control I think. I need to know the sims in town to have it have meaning for me.

So, with the creation of this little village world for my story, I've decided to give this another go and actually try playing the game the way we do TS2. I want to create a town, fill it with Sims that I care about, hopefully give it room to grow. (Though I didn't give it a lot of room, I admit. There's not even 30 lots on this world.)

The sims I'm using to populate it are some-- strike that, most of my story sims. Because they are faces that are familiar to me and that I can spot around town.


A couple of hacks I've picked up to help with game play:

Twallan's Story Progression and Sim Selector

The Sim selector is very essential right now. It allows you to hop from household to household without having to press all those extra buttons. (For any non TS3 players- you normally have to go to the main menu, select Edit Town, then select "change household," then you have to select the house hold you want to play). Now, with this mod, I just click on the sim I see walking around town and I can pick "make sim active" and then I'm seamlessly playing that sim's household without having to go to their house. No issues so far, and I've hopped around town on it's first actual test runs.

Still have torn lots

The lot tearing is a lot worse than I thought, to be honest. But I'm going to just ride with it. My fix had been to just delete a lot and plop a new one down, but somehow that doesn't seem to help at all (In fact it my have made it worse in the case of my meadow).

Mmm, pie!

With World Adventures, I love that we technically get shops in a way. You can buy food, and then eat it right there. So here is a semi-random sim enjoying pie. You can also buy a plate and eat it elsewhere, so I've got some outdoor eating areas. Same thing for the nectar. You can buy a bottle and then share it later on elsewhere.


I have managed to find some really gorgeous lots. Like this one which I have very near my forest.

It has a hidden little secret in the center of the lake. Sims can swim in it. (I did a little renovation though to try and make it mesh into the surroundings a little bit more because it had a fence around it.)

Here are three of my teens enjoying a dip in the pool. That's Selene (not introduced yet), Michael, and Julia (who was Killer's odd girl that stood behind him).


Right now I'm just wandering around patching up the town. Indispensable right now are MelissaMel's Rabbit Hole signs. But they're a little tricky. Place them wrong and sims either can't get in or end up getting stuck.





Here's my school that's right outside of the library. I had an issue where it was too close to the road, and sims all got stuck. I had about three standing there on top of each other. Paula just doesn't know. Teresa (the girl in front) is still traumatized about being one with two other people.

Lots of work to do still decorating the town. I think I have managed to completely gorge myself this weekend properly. It was all fast food and sims this weekend. Weekend well spent I think after the beginning of my week.

Lot tearing Boo

I'm lucky I don't have this issue. My world is so small that there are few lots. (Maybe 15? I have never counted.)

But if anyone stumbles across this blog and somehow doesn't know about the lot tears, I'd like to throw up this link about lot tearing and now about saving which I got from Poida of Wasteland. SO sad! I guess once I'm done with this world, there will be no meddling with it or adding onto it.

Right now, the problems are easy to fix. I guess the deal is that you'd have to sculpt, then lay down the roads, and then lay down the lots. Yikes. That would take some serious in depth planning so that you aren't figuring that out in game.

And that is probably a little too much for me! But that's probably why they took so long to release the tool.

Though I will have to say I disagree with LeeMortis. Even with these issues, I am very glad to have this tool. It has come in very handy.



And a sneak peek... at my lot tear.


Boo lot tear. Luckily, it's been easy so far to fix. Minor ones I've just decided to completely ignore. This tear was in a pristine picture taking area, and the lot is completely by itself, so I can't screw this up. Even if I do, the world is mostly done and I've already exported it, so so even if something happens to my saves, I'm pretty good. *knocks on wood*

World previews

All right, I admit I had some issues with Create a World. But nothing that's been too discouraging. The very worst was last night. I think I just spent way too much time editing in game. I have to use that sparingly. Either just to look or to place a lot here or there. And when I save, I need to walk away from the computer.


So some first peeks, at least the ones I am happy with. (Click to enlarge.)




Huh, floating shadows. I hope that doesn't become a problem! But I'll work with it if it is. I don't want those hills completely bare.

Also, near the mine, I have made a lot to put down a special tomb just for my own amusement.


This is one of my favorite views. Near by I've put a community lot just so sims can have picnics on a hillside meadow that will overlook the town. I did not get pics of this meadow unfortunately. And I also have to test it to be sure that sims really can use it the way I intend them too. (Not for the story, just for my own fun again.)


I love this far a little too much. The building in the distance is actually a little french farmhouse I downloaded.

2. Terrain Sculpting and Painting

Another part to my World Builder (Create a World) for Everyone thing. Because everyone should be able to create a world!


So time to sculpt. It's pretty much all about trial and error. Using the sculpting tool is pretty much the same as trying to paint something digitally. But once again, if I can do it, other people can too.

So my goal here is to share some tricks I learned trying to sculpt my neighborhood.


Scale

This will be THE single biggest problem you will face. Uh, I assume. Because it is very difficult to gauge how big your world is in comparison to your sims.

My first tip: Figure out where your center of your world will be. In my case it was very simple.


I am only going to have one center to my world. So the first thing I did was plop down the largest lot possible (64x64) so I could get a sense of how big BIG really was.

Later on, I deleted that center lot after I'd done more sculpting. But to start, I think it really helped me find the center and where I wanted to focus.



The Tools

So you definitely know where to find the tools now. Take some time to play around with them.

They work pretty much exactly like the paint brush in any art program such as GIMP or Photoshop.


The "brushes" themselves are pretty self explanatory.


This is what I really want to call your attention to:



You can change the type of brush you want to use (circle or square) and the size. The strength (which will later be the opacity for the paints) can be adjusted so that the tools do very very little. I've found an excellent working range to be within 5 to 20 at most in general. Unless I'm going cray trying to make a cliff.

Falloff can be a helpful little thing too. Compare:


The top one is with Falloff at 100%. The bottom is with Falloff at 0%. I've usually got fall off at around 20% too while I'm sculpting.



So I'm not great at sculpting from a flat terrain, but for the sake of doing it to say I've done it, I want to make something simple. How about a beach with a high cliff or sand dunes? ('Cause I've got plenty of experience with beaches with high sand dunes.)

So I'm going to start with a flat terrain for the sake of this tutorial, but I found it so much easier to start with something close to what I wanted.


First things first! (Or Where is the Sun?)

Before I start sculpting, let's find out where the sun is, if you care about such things.


So if you care do this first:

1. Go to view> Time of day

This box will open up on the side.

Feel free to have fun with this. It gives me pretty much the same amount of joy as the changing sea level button.


If you are working on a flat terrain, you'll want to make a mountain or something so you can see the shadows.

Play around with it to figure out where your sun rises and sets.



Personally, being a West Coaster, I would like the sun to set on my beach.



Here I start:
It's like laying down a sketch before actually drawing. I've only used three tools here-- hill (steep and gentle) and valley, at 30% strength and 100% falloff. I have the start of the hills and I see the spot where I want the beach to be.

Now time for some fine tuning.


First thing I'm going to do is put down a lot. So I know the scale.

Right click on "World Layers"- the one with the globe next to it. And add a new layer.




Click on the lots tab and select the first icon. That's to add a lot.



Then I'm just going to plop a lot down on my beach. (Because for the purpose of my tutorial, the beach is the center of my world.)

When putting your lot down, it's a little disorienting at first. You start by clicking on the ground where you'd like a corner to go, then stretch your mouse to the next corner and click to place it (like you're putting a sheet on a bed, it that makes sense, you want to go from one corner to the other).

Like so:
If you look in the bottom right hand corner, you will see how large this one segment is. In this case, I'm shooting for 40x40.

Then you pull down and you get your box.


You can delete this later on. This is just for reference right now.


My basic tips for sculpting:

-Remember that everything is fixable. You can undo (ctrl + z) or just layer tools on top of others to create interesting effects.
-For more effects that are usually a little more severe (like mountains or steep hills), use a larger brush and a weaker strength
- the smooth tool (both of them) are your best friends

Anything that looks too severe, you can smoothen with the smooth tool. The key to a natural beach edge seems to be the smooth tool.


After a couple of minutes I have this:

Not impressive, but I only spent a couple of minutes on it. Plus I'm building for just one sim.

I would like to point out that I actually had to move the lot. That's because I was too close to the edge of the world. When you're too close to the edge of the world, your tools will not work and you'll have to move the camera.


Now that I have pretty much what I want, I'm going to get rid of the lot. I'll add that back later. After I paint.



Paint

Painting is awesome. Really.

Ok, so you're going to start out with only four paints at first. But there are more that come with Create a World.

First we go back to the terrain tools and click the first icon.




You'll get this of course.

Click "add layer." You'll see this:

Name your layer, then hit the browse button to pull up a list of image files you can use. Notice that you can select sounds for your terrain paints. This really amused me greatly. Love the sound of a sim walking on the beach.

Anyway, the default images that come with CAW (Click to enlarge):

You can use any of these images. You can add more so long as you save the image as a DDS. (Most programs will need an add on to do DDS.) And you can always go back and edit the "layer" by right clicking on the layer you want to edit.

I'm going to keep it pretty simple for right now. I'm going to test out the Autopaint feature. It paints based off the height of the terrain and uses the first two layers of the paints.

(After doing that, CAW went a little wonky. I couldn't see the terrain paints, but if I zoomed out they'd appear. So here's another tip: When in doubt, close the world you're working on and re-open.)

This is a snippet of what I get:

Don't be discouraged, it looks worse than it is from far away, and it's a good base.


With the paints, opacity is really important. You can paint and repaint and paint over things until you get the effects you want. (I've detailed my findings in this entry so I won't go into it again. Basically, don't be disturbed about how bad it looks from far away. Up close it looks a lot better.)


Now I'm going to do a quick hand paint!

Uh... not the best, but you get the idea.




Daytime view. I actually suggest sending a sim in not just for testing but just to see the view.


Sunset. You can't be alone with a sunset like that!




Really, I think you get the idea. Hopefully I've shared something that will help someone.