World Building: [Picture for reference only]
So I’ve got some work to do. One of the main reasons why I wanted to get into creating for the sims 3 is because one of my biggest passions is to create worlds. Everytime I start on a world I learn so much more that I wind up starting over to implement what I’ve learned on a fresh turf. Now that I’m working with 3d models and getting comfortable with landscapes in blender, I’m about to start rolling out the big guns on my world.
Create custom distant terrains. [Because how many times can we redo sunset valley, really?]
Create 3d model buildings [One reason for this is because of the rendering process of sims 3. Most computers simmers are using can only handle rendering one, maybe two lots at a time. With using 3d models, that eliminates the blotchy mess we have when we really want to see our towns & villages in detail. The second reason is LAG: if you have a ton of lots you’re game is going to drastically slow down, especially with how much CC [I’m 100% guilty on this] we use. With 3d models, you can have gorgeous scenery without building a crap ton of lots just for filler around your community. Then, you really get to focus on building the lots sporadically placed within your 3d village/town.
Create more/improved world items: Some of the objects we have for world decoration is okay, and really enough to work with most of the time, but when you’re dealing with themed worlds such as medieval themes, the lack of world items to build things such as castles and harbors/ports is really kind of depressing. For example, one of my projects is to take the sea diner rabbit hole from barnacle bay and turn it into a decoration item. Because nobody wants a dozen diners out at sea in your world, right? Also, recoloring and resizing the walls from monte vista for better use to the community. I’ve already started on some castle towers, because the only one we have is the one from china.
Create custom height maps: I’ve spent a TON of time fiddling with sculpting in caw, when blender and other resources can do it better, faster, and with better realism.
Using photoshop for the painting process: Same as the height map problem above, you can use GIMP/Photoshop to paint your terrain [and I’m sure you can work with blender on this as well but I haven’t gotten there yet] and have more accuracy and realism with this process.
Create custom brushes: The CAW brushes do the job alright, but I recently found out that you can alter the files to create CUSTOM tools for sculpting in the program.
Create more textures for use in CAW/With MATCHING terrain paint: A lot of the time I find great textures for both, but they almost never match with the paint that you have in game. I’m wanting to bridge that gap, so everything that I have for textures in CAW, I want to have in the game as well for better details on your lots.
Using mods to create better atmospheres [this one’s easy and already done with the variety of mods creators have made] Thanks to the creators of this awesome community, we already have things such as improved stars, moon replacements, cloud replacements, planets, and lighting/water improvements.Since EA didn’t put any effort into this at all.
In my opinion, out of all the SIMS games the Sims 3 has the biggest variety and the best graphics. TS4 was a huge disappointment in the fact that they made the graphics extremely cartoonish and didn’t put the effort into making it an open world game [not to mention the lack of customization the game offers], but I only know of a small handful of people who work in this area of modding. My goal is to work on the atmosphere of the game we all love so much and make enhancements that other games use while still using the sims 3 gameplay/building.
I’ll wrap this long ass thing up, but if you’ve made it all the way to the end of this I want to invite anyone who wants to join this project with me. If you’ve got ideas for any of the thoughts above, let me know. I’d love to see what the community wants/thinks. Edit: If you have any CAW/World objects that you’ve already done that you don’t mind sharing/or know creators who’ve done the same, feel free to tag me!