Create-A-World Tips, Tricks, and Annoyances

[The_Goddess]

Cute, but you are going to have problems with the lots that go into the water.  The sims will not fish there.  I've tried it and it was a funny failure.  Here is another problem I had.
http://www.moreawesomethanyou.com/smf/index.php/topic,18037.msg520252.html#msg520252

I kept a lot or 2 with just a corner in the water, but pulled all the others out.

PS.  Those lots that are outlined in orange/red; they need to be removed and remade.  The red means that they have been damaged or are otherwise unusable.  Try placing them with snap to grid on.  If the grid is not at the right angle for them to line up with the road, you can change the angle of the grid itself using the degree indicator at the bottom of the screen.   

[kazebird]

Ok, what does the yellow mean?

[The_Goddess]

Yellow means community lot.   

[kazebird]

It's too bad about the water thing, because not only do I have to redo all those lots, but I also have to scrap my idea to make a pier.

[Claeric]

Speaking of non-fishable water sims can enter...

That is caused by...well, it just being water. In CAW, when you lower the land, it doesnt FILL with water- it's just going through the water. The water is just one big flat square of moving transparent texture.

So a lot going into it is just a lot that clips through that texture. Similarly, if you have a lot close to the water (very close, and very low) and you lower the land, you'll get water. But since you aren't using the pond tool, it's not defined as water- it's just a hole.

Therefore, sims can walk into it and it doesnt count as fishable water. I exploit this a lot in my Paradise world, which has beach lots that have water mere inches beneath their sand.

[kazebird]

Does it matter if I have about half a tile submerged underwater? The visual effect seems negligible, plus it will appear that sims can wade their feet in.

[The_Goddess]

I have a few with just a corner of the lot in the water and it does not have seem to have any adverse effect.  They just won't be able to fish in that spot.  It is a good idea to keep that in mind when placing spawners.   

[tea_and_blues]

Has anybody investigated the world files for info on the cinematics that launch with EA worlds the first time they load? It would be quite nice to add them to custom worlds.

[The_Goddess]

I had planned on looking into that to add to my Fargo update.  Until EA fixes CAW I can't poke around and see if there is an option that allows for it.  The guide doesn't have anything about it.
http://www.thesims3.com/content/en_US/promo/gamepages/worldtool/help.pdf

[J. M. Pescado]

It's basically data incompatibility. Some data format changed between Pudding editions, and as a result, Create-A-Crap barfs reading the deltapacks. Reverting the deltapacks results in a hardcoded game lock against running with different installed version.

[tea_and_blues]

I had planned on looking into that to add to my Fargo update.  Until EA fixes CAW I can't poke around and see if there is an option that allows for it.  The guide doesn't have anything about it.
http://www.thesims3.com/content/en_US/promo/gamepages/worldtool/help.pdf

There's definitely not an option *within* CAW. I was wondering if users like Claeric remembered seeing anything when poking around in the world data, it probably needs adding using tricks and magic, but it seems to draw off of the basic EA camera mode by the looks of it, so there's a chance it's not too hard to understand and edit in. It's just the .world files remain ruddy great mysteries in a lot of ways.

Claeric, what was the info you found about facial data and clothing restricts for the WA worlds (but have never been able to find it again, despite searching for it)? I remember you mentioning it back on MTS.

[J. M. Pescado]

The facial data and clothing restricts basically adds a "theme" to the world, like, say, China, where the sims have facialblends and colorations set to make them look more "Chinese" and dress in a "Chinese" way, while Egyptians look, ostensibly, sim-Egyptian. You could use such a rulesheet to create, say, a vacationland populated by elves or moar Rhaydens.

[tea_and_blues]

Could this potentially ever be carried over into non-vacation worlds? Or is data kept quite separate from the .world file? I actually had a number of requests from players who wanted to investigate restricting the Sims that could generate in Niua Simoa.

[Goggalor]

Has anybody investigated the world files for info on the cinematics that launch with EA worlds the first time they load? It would be quite nice to add them to custom worlds.

Yeah, a fly through camera can be added with two simple ini files to the world. I got it working with simply extracting them from the Egypt world and adding to my own. One file (tgi 1F886EAD:00000000:7886A7F59355762F) contains the camera path definition and an explanation how to generate the numbers for your own path.  It says something about entering "camera debug UI panel", which I haven't been able to from within the game. Could be a CAW or EIG thing, but I can't test that now. The format is pretty simple though, with what should be xyz coordinates, camera rotation and FOV.
When I tested the Egypt camera it followed my terrain height automatically, it didn't cut through hills although I didn't change any values.

The other file (tgi 1F886EAD:00000000:3EC0CF0CC4A6540F) just says which one of the paths to use from the other file. This one can also have world specific settings for other things, like "color of wall tops".

Attached both ini files from the Egypt world as text files.

[tea_and_blues]

Excellent! Thanks Goggalor. Exactly what I was after for the cinematics.

Edit: Control over the world top color, as you pointed out! Bonus! Yes, thanks again.

[ascarrott]

If anyone interested I made a post ages ago about how to add the heat wave effect from Egypt appear on any hood with a importable .ini file here: http://www.modthesims.info/showthread.php?t=386817

[Claeric]

Control over the color of wall tops? That's an interesting one.

I didn't see the question about clothing/hair restrictions, sorry. I don't really remember a thing about it, but it mentioned specific sets of clothing and hair- I guess the clothes must have some sort of data in them that defines them as a certain type (chinese, french, egyptian). I really have no idea, and am totally shooting in the dark, but if you can figure out how the clothes identify themselves, I imagine you could very easily make custom clothes with a custom identification, and then use that identification in your own world.

Apart from the clothes being defined as a certain "type", it's all apparently a matter of ini files. ini files all over the place seem to change anything and everything.

[Gelina]

Someone on this forum (witch, I think) made a world called Idle Haven for TS2 that I loved, so I am trying to create my own world similar to it.  Below is a picture of what I have so far.  I'm wondering if anyone has any "rules of thumb" for how many of each type of spawner I should put down and how many trees are needed.  Also, is there any way to get water, like ponds, on places that are above sea level without doing in out the lot?

[J. M. Pescado]

Many of your lots are visibly warped. This is bad! Flat-edges only!

[Solmyr]

Would anyone happen to have a handy list of what size lots (minimum) are needed for various rabbithole objects? I'd like to give creating my own world a try but I don't want to accidentally create too little space for important rabbitholes.

[Motoki]

Would anyone happen to have a handy list of what size lots (minimum) are needed for various rabbithole objects? I'd like to give creating my own world a try but I don't want to accidentally create too little space for important rabbitholes.

There's no need. Someone made custom rabbithole rugs you can place in any building. http://www.customsims3.com/smf/index.php?topic=1931.0

[ciane]

The latest on the rabbit hole rugs from Jynx:

"There are problem with the last patch which hs messed up many objects, this includes changes to the rugs that may cause problems
for some people. I'm looking at alternatives."

[J. M. Pescado]

Yellow means community lot.

The people who picked those colors have NO sense of tradition. Clearly, the community lots should be BLUE and the Residential lots should be GREEN. Everyone here should know why! The color scheme dates as far back as RCI.

[Gelina]

Many of your lots are visibly warped. This is bad! Flat-edges only!

All flattened, except for beach lots.  I'll probably clean up some of the edges where I carved into the hills, but I'll wait until I finish testing it to see what else needs cleaning up.

[Claeric]

Yellow means community lot.

The people who picked those colors have NO sense of tradition. Clearly, the community lots should be BLUE and the Residential lots should be GREEN. Everyone here should know why! The color scheme dates as far back as RCI.

I knew there was a reason I always got confused in CAW. You have made it clear- I think blue = shopping.