Thursday 1 December 2011

CHAPTER TWO: PLANNING AND RESEARCH

What will your world look like? That's the basic question. I don't always know. Personally I like to sort out the Road system and lot placements first. The actual shape of the world will work itself out. This way, the shape is not too regular like a square or a circle. I feel randomness enhances a natural look. Plus I don't really plan where there would be hills or valleys until I start sculpting then I just go with my guts. 

Here is my Rough sketch of the central part of my town, my starting point. It doesn't look like much, yet. Now I will show you how I came up with it.


Decisions decisions
  1. Island or landlocked - I suggest island for beginners since it is easier to shape
  2. Lush or desert - If you are going for realism, this determines the type of houses and plants/trees. But this is sims, have fun with your imagination.
  3. Rural or Urban - Are you aiming for a small town like Sunset Valley or a bustling city like Bridgeport. This also determines how big your city is because a town with many big buildings can't be too big, while a town with few houses and farmlands can be very big. It all has to do with game speed and game loading. No point building a city you cannot play.
  4. Fishing or farming - doesn't really matter, but it determines how many lakes or ponds you want to squeeze in.
  5. Real or Fantasy - As I said earlier, use your imagination, but if you are aiming for realism, I would advice you do your homework and use pictures of real towns and terrains for inspiration. Otherwise, just have fun, your sims won't mind.
  6. Playability - This is key. Your world must be playable. I have tried alot of custom worlds and no matter how beautiful or real they are, the ones that take ages to load are just not worth it. It just becomes frustrating. So try not to get carried away even if you are copying a real city, scale it down.
I decided on 3 main Islands, lush, small urban town, some fishing/farming and a wild life park of sorts in honor of pets plus I believe in being Green. :D


What's going in?
At this stage, don't worry about the fishes and bugs and spawners and effects yet, they are easy to deal with. First thing is first. Make a list of Community Lots and Rabbit Holes that you are going to put in. I know this is tedious, but it will save you a lot of stress later. You also need to get the basic lot sizes.

Here is my list. I decided to put everything so that all the career options are available except for the movie studio.

RABBIT HOLES
s/N
NAME
SIZE
LOCATION
1
CRIMINAL HIDEOUT
25 X 25
OTHER
2
BISTRO
15 X 15
CENTRAL
3
BOOK STORE
10 X 15
CENTRAL
4
CITY HALL
50 X 25
CENTRAL
5
HOSPITAL
35 X 30
CENTRAL
6
OFFICE BLOCK
25 X 25
CENTRAL
7
POLICE STATION
20 X 25
CENTRAL /DOWNTOWN
8
SCHOOL
40 X 25
UPTOWN/DOWNTOWN
9
SCIENCE LAB
35 X 25
DOWNTOWN
10
SPA
20 X 15
UPTOWN
11
STADIUM
64 X 64 LN
DOWNTOWN
12
GROCERY
20 X 15
UPTOWN/DOWNTOWN
13
MOVIE THEATRE
20 X 25
CENTRAL
14
RACE TRACK
40 X 40
UPTOWN
15
DINER
20 X 15
DOWNTOWN
16
MILITARY BASE
4 X 45
CENTRAL


COMMUNITY LOTS
s/N
NAME
SIZE
LOCATION
1
LIBRARY
20 X 30
CENTRAL
2
MUSEUM
30 X 30
UPTOWN
3
POOL
30 X 30
UPTOWN
4
BEACH
ANY
OTHER
5
GYM
20 X 20
DOWNTOWN
6
GRAVE
50 X 50
OTHER
7
MAIN PARK
40 X 40
CENTRAL
8
FISHING SPOTS
ANY
OTHER
9
CHILDREN PARK
30 X 30
UPTOWN
10
CONSIGNMENT STORE
20 X 30
CENTRAL/DOWNTOWN
11
LAUNDROMAT
20 X 30
UPTOWN
12
JUNKYARD
20 X 30
OTHER
13
TRAINING GROUNDS
30 X 40
UPTOWN
14
FIRE STATION
20 X 30
CENTRAL
15
SALON/TATTOO
20 X 30
UPTOWN
16
DIVE BAR
20 X 30
OTHER
17
FUSION LOUNGE
40 X 40
UPTOWN
18
EXCLUSIVE LOUNGE
40 X 40
CENTRAL
19
DANCE CLUB
30 X 30
DOWNTOWN
20
POOLSIDE CLUB
40 X 40
CENTRAL
21
NECTARY
60 X 60
OTHER


For Residential lots, just a list of the Number you need and their sizes. (You can make up this list as you go) I never know how many I'll need. More of the 20 x 30 lots, and less of the 64 x 64 sizes. But it depends on what will be in your world. If it is a farming community, Large lots are preferable. It all depends on you. This list is not set in stone, amend as you will. If you are like me and you build lots and probably have some laying in the bin, make a list of the ones you want to use and include them in your list of Residential lots.

Families
This isn't my strong point. I am okay with just putting in families from the bin that I have made or are EA made. But for those who like stories and connections, I suggest you make your families and their houses so that you can fit the lots in you residential lots list.

Putting it all together
So now you have made all these lists, how do you make them work together? This is where your sketch comes in. 
  • The simplest way to go about this is by grouping. Create groups of lots that will be near each other and then fit them in your sketch. Generally residential houses form a group, Work places form another group, recreational spots, fishing spots, beaches, farm lands, etc. 
  • Usually there's a city centre which has the most buildings and then the outer layers which have fewer buildings. 
  • Plan out wild areas for your sims to explore
  • Think of rivers or lakes, hills or mountains if any. Never build a completely flat world.
  • Think of an uptown or downtown area, wealthy and poor neighbourhoods
  • If you are completely clueless, Start with a Main Street, City Hall, Hospital, Business district, etc Fit in the parks and work your way out to the residential areas.
  • Picture your sims driving around town and the sights you want them to see. Is it open fields, farms, buildings, trees?
With all this information, draw your rough sketch and label where your rabbitholes and community lots will be. This is very important. You don't want to finish your world and then discover that you forgot to put in a School.
Here is a sketch of the last world I did, Port Jones.


Custom Stuff
I am not going to use any custom stuff in the world building. But I will use for making lots. But if you are feeling adventurous and want to make your own rabbitholes and terrain textures and road textures, well now is the time to do it. But that is another kettle of fish. The only 'custom' thing I plan to do is the roads. Which I will simply do by using the EA terrains in CAW to make the different types of roads I will require. More on this when we get to laying down Roads.

That's all for this Chapter. Next we will move on to laying Roads, Lots, and Sculpting. Thanks for reading.

10 comments:

  1. First of all thank you so much for this walk thru, it certainly has become more "doable" than after my first attempt with the EA provided 'directions'.

    I have a question about the community lots and rabbit holes. It seems like within my game, when I am in the Build/Buy creating a community lot I have all the different buildings. Does it matter which one I pick? I mean ... if I put say the book store "building" but make the lot my 'academy'. Would it function as the Bookstore rabbit hole or the School?

    Thanks again so much for this guide!!!

    ReplyDelete
  2. HI Fallenangel23,
    Welcome and thanks for visiting. Now to answer your question. Rabbitholes are their own lot types, which means the Bookstore, cityhall, stadium, bistro, etc cannot be changed from what they are even if you change the lot designation. Designations like, academy, market, consignment store, saloon, etc only work when you build your own lot. So to put it simply, Rabbitholes are different from the standard Community lot, they have their special functions which cannot be changed. You may put more than one rabbithole on a Lot, but that's it. All other community lots have to be built by you, and then you can choose the community lot type.
    Hope this is clear, you may ask more questions if you still have any.
    Thanks!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Okay, I just have one stupid question--How do you zoom out? My camera is so close to the ground I have to scroll to place a 64x64 lot, and it makes road placement virtually impossible. I can't seem to figure out the camera controls

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hello Nightprince75, It's ok. There's no such thing as a stupid question. So for Zooming in and out..If your Mouse has the scroll button on it, you can use that by rolling it back and forth. Or...You can use your keyboard, "W" and "S", or "+" and "-", on your Numpad. Generally for just movement, you can hold down right-click, or use the direction/arrow buttons on your keyboard. Have fun!

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    2. Is there a way to rotate the camera with keyboard as well? On mouse, I'm guessing it's by pressing the scroll button, but my mouse isn't working properly, so I can't use that.

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    3. Hi, sorry I had actually replied this before, but it looks like it didn't register. I believe to rotate, you can use the . and , buttons. Sorry for the delay again.

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  4. for some of the lot sizes such as city hall I made the 50 x 25 lot, but can not get the city hall to fit on it.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hello,
      It might be because the city hall in the list above is smaller than the one you want to use. Recall that there are different sizes of city hall, I believe the one in Riverview is smaller than the one in Sunset Valley. The solution would be to make a bigger lot size.

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  5. Been a while since this post was out but where can I find the lot sizes for rabbit holes? I've searched but can't find anywhere, thanks :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi there, here is a link below. Hope it helps.

      http://cawtool.wikia.com/wiki/Rabbithole_lot_sizes

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