This is 5 Sim Lane. Note the fading shingles, the ancient weeping willows, the somber iron fence. A bit gloomy, isn’t it? My dad always says it’s the perfect place for a family named “Gothâ€. Funny guy, my dad.
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Category Archives: The Sims 3
The Newbies of Simsville (With a Side Trip to Egypt)
It’s official: I am in love with CTNutmegger’s Simsville. Part of it is the nostalgia factor – it’s a hoot to visit these 3-D renditions of the Sims 1 homes and think back fondly on the fun I had playing that game. But all nostalgia aside, Simsville is just a beautifully-crafted world, with many of the features I wanted to put into my own world before I settled on making an island. It has distinct residential neighborhoods, a very urban-feeling downtown, rivers, bridges, coastline, woods (even a cabin in the woods!), farmland, and about a bazillion lots, which is nice for builders.
The Prince of Plumbridge
(Quick note: As you can see, I’ve switched over to a different WordPress theme. I haven’t figured out how to get my “Recent Comments” working again, but otherwise I think everything is here. I liked my old template quite a bit but wanted to update to something more recent and also make my archives/categories easier to navigate — they now show the posts as excerpts instead of full posts, and there are five per page instead of one. Anyway, let me know if anything looks weird or wonky or if you’re just having a bad day and need a cookie.)
Work continues on Plumbridge Island in little bits and pieces. Building lots and creating Sims in between tinkering with Create-a-World breaks up the tedium somewhat. Plus it helps me to develop the atmosphere of my world a bit more. So over the past week I’ve been working on the Royal Palace, home of the Mittendorf family. I’m still not done with all of the decorating, but I’ve finished the exterior and most of the landscaping. Much like the Plum Point Lighthouse, the Palace is one of the major landmarks of my world, so it was extremely satisfying to see it take shape.
As you can see in the first pic, I overdid the foliage a bit, but I wanted to convey a sense of mystery and privacy. The trees get in the way when I’m playing though, so some of them might have to go. It’s too bad, because I love me some trees!
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Felix Farr, Tomb Robber
I’ve been taking a bazillion pics of my “Seasoned Traveler Challenge” Sim, Felix Farr, on his many adventures abroad. I thought I’d share some of them just for fun.
Felix starts out on his 60 x 60 lot. Right away he calls the travel agent and books a trip to Egypt. Who needs a house?
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Shuffling Along
Work continues on Plumbridge Island, even though I didn’t get as much time to putter around with it as I hoped over my long weekend. I have finished the terraforming and the roads, at least, and done some preliminary terrain-painting. I’ve placed a few more lots as well and even added some trees. (LOOK! TREES!)
I reshaped the southwestern peninsula a bit and added a beach. There’s also a “harbor walk” (dunno what else to call it) made out of the France bridges. I’m not sure if I want to keep it yet or not, but if I do, I’ll post some pics.
I’ve also decided that Plumbridge Island is now a country unto itself, albeit a tiny one, kind of like Monaco or Liechtenstein, only much, much, MUCH smaller. It has a constitutional monarchy as well as an elected governor who oversees a group of councillors. I know, sounds a bit weird, but I decided I wanted some royalty on my island, so there you go. The military rabbithole will be located on the training grounds of the Royal Guard, near the Palace (a Victorian mansion that I am REALLY looking forward to building).
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Roads! Shrubs! Seagulls!
Building your own world for The Sims 3 can be time-consuming and sometimes very tedious work, but I have to say I’m enjoying the crap out of it. I’m feeling more and more comfortable with Create-A-World (though I still think it could be a LOT more intuitive and user-friendly) and getting a huge kick out of experiencing my world in-game. The silliest little things can thrill me, like running my test Sim around the lighthouse and hearing the clamor of the seagulls, or watching the mailwoman race down the pathway to deliver his mail. It’s weird how creating my own world has gone from being completely infuriating to totally exhilarating. And thank goodness it did, because I’m having some serious fun.
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My Island
After much pulling out of hair and clawing out of eyeballs, I’ve settled on creating an island world. I avoided it for a long time because everyone and their dog is making an island world, and I wanted to do something different. Plus all my ideas were for an inland town. But CAW just wasn’t cooperating, and I didn’t want to retrofit Riverview. I wanted something new, something that is completely mine (ok, mostly mine).
So after some thought and playing and building and planning, I’ve come up with Plumbridge Island. It’s still in its embryonic stages but I thought I could share my trials and tribulations as I go.
Some Kind of Progress
Hey all, things have been quiet on the blogfront, but I’ve been plotting and planning behind the scenes, figuring out what kind of Sims 3 town I want to build and how I’m going to build it.
Two things currently stand in my way. One is the Create-A-World tool itself. It’s still incredibly frustrating to use and still makes me want to kick a hole through my computer screen most of the time. But…it’s getting better. I’m learning more about it every day, and I’m finally to the point where I think I can muddle through making a basic world. It’s going to be a long and sometimes painful process, but I’m determined to figure it out.
Last night I was able to place a couple of roads and lots without going into some kind of Hulk-rage, so that’s a start. I’m doing it somewhat backwards — placing my roads and lots before doing the terrain sculpting — but I needed to get an idea for just how big the town can be before it hits the boundaries of the camera-non-routable area. I’m going to attempt something like Riverview, that is, a landlocked area that doesn’t use the distant terrain objects. We’ll see how that goes. Maybe next time I’ll be able to post some actual pictures!
The second thing with which I struggle, as always, is the theme of my town. There are bazillions of options — how can I pin it down? I love so many things. Victorian, midcentury modern, Tudor, rural, suburban…and that’s just the architecture. What about plants and trees? Should it be tropical? Or something like the Pacific Northwest? How about an autumnal New England feel? Should it be a river town? Lake town? Hilly? Flat? Gah. Seriously, I’ve had this churning around in my brain for a month. I eventually settled for: whatever is easiest to build. Sounds like the slacker route, but this is my first world, and I want to play it at some point, not spend a year agonizing over lot placement.
So it’s going to be flat, surrounded by hills to block the ocean (because trying to use the distant terrain is maddening, and I don’t want to make an island). It’s going to have the kind of flora I might find in my own backyard. It’ll essentially be a small midwestern town, the kind that looks like it might be stuck in the 1950s. A bridge going over a river, a main street, a range of homes from trailers to ranches to Victorians, the town surrounded by fields and farmland. I know, sounds a lot like Riverview. Again. But it’ll be MY Riverview. And I’m going to use Jynx’s rabbithole rugs, so I can build completely different schools, police stations, etc. Hopefully in the end it’ll look nothing like EA’s version of Smalltown, USA.