Fargo Updated

[The_Goddess]

I guess now would be a good time to introduce myself.  Hello, everyone.  I've come out of lurking to share with you my work in progress on a little world I call Springville Fargo.  I've been sharing my fiancé's account for some time now, but if I'm going to make Springville Fargo available for download, having my own account would be nice.  Thoughts and opinions are welcome.
http://twitpic.com/108zx9



Edit/Update:  I have updated Fargo to include new career lots from Ambitions.  There is now a Junkyard/Consignment Shop, Laundromat, Styling Salon, Hangout/Tattoo Parlor and a Firehouse.  I have added a thin land bridge to provide access to the Island.  I have fixed a few floating objects and roads that grew grass from certain angles.  Because Ambitions gave us the ability to add and remove world objects, I added the Space Shuttle back to Fargo.  My Astronaut sim is quite pleased, but if you prefer not to have it, you are welcome to delete it.  I added 2 new neighborhoods to make up for the military housing that I removed.  I've also added a couple of cute parks.  There are now 109 residential lots and 40 community lots.

I'd like to offer special thanks and recognition to all the builders that created the lovely houses in my neighborhood, but I don't know who many of them are.  MATY's own Tangie created one of them; see if you can find it.  Plasticbox created many of the small houses I put in town.  Hatshepsut created many of my suburban houses.  In all cases, if there was something written in the details box, I left it there so there might be a signature of the artists on some of the houses.  If you know the names of any of the other creators, feel free to list their names and give them credit here.  I did not build any of the residential homes but I did alter many of them in tiny ways, either to touch up terrain paint or replace custom content with game objects.

If you are already playing the old Fargo, don't forget to package up your families; you will have to uninstall the old in order to install the new.

Here is where you can get your hands on it…
http://www.mediafire.com/fargo


Though I tried not to use CC in the world, I have been informed that 44 items are in fact attached to the world.  These items include: a few windows and doors, a baby pram, gardening decorations, graveyard decorations and some patterns.  I'm sorry for any inconvenience this might cause.

[Moryrie]

It looks nice overall... but some more info would be helpful... like what world size, how many lots, how many things are built on it, other views, lot size ranges ect.

I'm also not quite sure what to say about the mountains. Something seems a bit off about them.. but then again, CAW is kindof weird to use, so that might not be intentional.

[The_Goddess]

I used the medium island with a max height of 200.  There are about 87 residential lots and 38 community lots.  The sizes of the residential lots in the main part of town are 20X20 - 20X30.  The average size for the lots in the suburbs are 30X30 - 30X40.  The farms range from 40X40 - 64X64.  The homes in the mountains are random sizes.  The lots on the tiny island off the shore (which you will need to zenaport to get to) are about 15X15.  All of the rabbit holes have been used, and there are three markets in the country that use WA cash registers: a grocery store, bookstore, and relics shop.  (Warning! The game chooses a random unemployed Sim to man these markets, so it is a good idea to load your neighborhood with a few shopkeeper candidates—then have one Sim visit each of the markets to activate the selection prior to loading your beloved Sims.)

More photos now on TwitPic

http://twitpic.com/10a2a7
http://twitpic.com/10a2bg
http://twitpic.com/10a2c9

[spaceface]

The farming area is supercute! I would love to play this once you have completed it.

I agree that your mountains are a bit weird; unless this is set on an alien planet with different gravity you wouldn't get such pointy peaks. The space shuttle looks totally out of place on such a dinky little island, if you want to have the rabbit hole I suggest you bury it and design a much smaller building that will blend in better. The town hall, stadium, office building etc should have some sort of paving around them to look realistic, you could soften this to match the overall feel by putting in formal flowerbeds and/or benches.

[The_Goddess]

I haven't had much of a chance to put details in the lots themselves yet, I really just set the rabbit holes down to give me an idea of placement.  I wasn't sure if I should upload it blank (all empty lots) or fill it.  I don't plan on custom building the residential lots, as I have downloaded so many adorable homes from various sites.  So many in fact, that I can't remember where I got most of them.  I wouldn't know who to give credit to.  My thought was that I would work on giving the rabbit hole lots a finished look, and let whoever downloads the town, fill it with homes they love.  I thought I would just post photos of how I fill it with the homes I had acquired.  I could upload a completed version as well, but I wouldn't know where to begin with cataloging all of the custom content.  Sim worlds become so personal to the person controlling them.  The mountains are rather pointy.  They look cool up close.  Detail gets lost from a distance.  For the most part it is completed as of now.  I have all of the spawners and the basic shell of the rabbit hole lots all in place.  I have one of the markets finished, though it is an adaptation from someone else's farm lot.  I was just getting ready to give it a test run to see how she plays

[Lion]

You may want to give this world a different name. Springville is the very first custom world uploaded at MTS and a lot of people remember that name. And without saying too much, you may not want to be associated with that.

I also love the farming area, and like generally the variations in the terrain.

I totally understand your problem about using lots from various places. I'm just like you, having horded so many nice lots and just wanting to plop them down in a custom world. For me personally, finished lots are the least concern and I couldn't use most of the worlds out there as it is any way even after bulldozing them (sub-neighborhood setup, lot sizes, deco, etc.). So a world with reasonable build-up of terrain forming, terrain painting, forestation, road network, spawners, etc., and uploaded with CAW files is what I'm looking for.

For example, for your world, I'd like to flatten down the biggest mountainous area and develop that into another sub-hood with MOAR lots, change the road texture, get rid of the space shuttle and some other decos, and most importantly change the lot sizes to fit my needs.

[brownlustgirl]

The pics so far are impressive, so yes, I would love to try this world out.  I see lots by the shores, wonder if they are more expensive and do they have the "beautiful vista" buff? All the worlds I have downloaded have the expensive areas, but no BV buff.

[alaira]

The space shuttle looks totally out of place on such a dinky little island, if you want to have the rabbit hole I suggest you bury it and design a much smaller building that will blend in better.

Or use those nifty rabbit hole signs from modthesims2.  In my custom neighborhood I'm currently playing, I've rebuilt and themed all my rabbitholes(ie, the military has a barracks, shower area, and gym in addition to the main office(where the actual rabbithole is located).  I think it helps immersion, and if you're going to make a custom world, why not go all the way?

As for what kinds of lots to include pre-built, I would build a few residential lots, but leave the majority blank for people to populate on their own.  It's nice to have the option to just toss a family in a house if you're too lazy to build your own, but at the same time you need lots of space to put down your own favorite lots, or build your own.  I would definitely build all community lots, though.

[AloeOwl]

It's actually not that bad. It seems like an interesting neighborhood. The only thing I'm not too fond of are the mountain peeks. I would have liked it better if it were smoother. Anyone agree?

[J. M. Pescado]

The pics so far are impressive, so yes, I would love to try this world out.  I see lots by the shores, wonder if they are more expensive and do they have the "beautiful vista" buff? All the worlds I have downloaded have the expensive areas, but no BV buff.

The Vista buff is independent of the expensitivity of a lot. Lot prices are scaled based on the size of the lot, and an additional surcharge can be added during create-a-crap, but this value is independent of Vistaness.

[Zazazu]

The BV buff has to be set in CAW in the lot properties. I chose not to in my 'hoods because, really, is it that important? I've only had one non-grumpy sim go negative, after her dad died and her mom made a pass at her husband.

[BastDawn]

A picture of a pudding is not a pudding, however nice it may look.  Provide a download link, or tomorrow I will move this to the Horror section.

[J. M. Pescado]

Nah, let's just move it now. It's not ready to be a pudding anyway, so even if released now, it would be spoiled pudding.

[The_Goddess]

Ok to capsulate, There are 3 changes that seem to be a general consensus.  First, the steep mountains, I can soften them a bit prier to upload.  Not too much though, steep mountains take up far less real estate than realistic ‘Earth' mountains.  Second is the Shuttle bay.  That's an easy one, as it is simply a world object that I can remove without effecting anything at all.  I will remove it and put an empty lot in its place.  Last but not least is a desire to have a few livable homes.  I can add a few to the lots with no visa.  Yes, I did include visa points to many of the lots in this world.  They range from 10 points to 75 points (My favorite lot).  I will let that remain a surprise to the player; hint, they tend to be lots with a view.  I also added vista points to most of the community lots.  I understand that there is a mod that can be used to re-add vista points to a lot that has been bulldozed and that there is a cheat code to make your lot free, so I'm not too concerned with the affordability of my lots.  However, for the most part I did not add price to very many of the lots.  They are priced according to how the game prices them.  As for making the community lots customized with the "nifty rabbit hole signs from modthesims2"; that would make the world usable only to those that have downloaded them.  If you like the ‘lay of the land' and want to customize the lots for your own theme, I will not be heartbroken if you change any of these lots for your own themes.

Thank you to everyone who has given me input.  It is nice to have potential flaws pointed out. 
These changes shouldn't take too long.  I hope to have the ‘community lots filled only' version of this world ready by Monday.  Any other suggestions before I begin the changes? 

[brownlustgirl]

Thank you for making some BV lots. I like them, makes me feel that my sims have gone up in their world. 

[ShortyBoo]

It looks great, and I could definitely see myself playing this hood. I do agree with Lion about renaming the town, though. People could confuse this with the one from MTS. Actually, when I first saw this thread, I thought it was about the Springville neighborhood at MTS.

[russellcraiger]

Some of those mountain peaks have to go-it looks unnatural.  I speak from experience having lived 5 years in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina.  Maybe you could get rid of about half those peaks and round the remaining ones off.  I do really like your world and am looking forward to it's release.  It has a nice small town feel to it.  I especially like the farming area and the semicircular road by the town hall.  I also like the fact that you didn't overdo the trees and that you've used a lot of 20x30 lots.  I agree with changing the name-doesn't look quite like a Springville.

[Dragon Slave]

Some of those mountain peaks have to go-it looks unnatural.  I speak from experience having lived 5 years in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina.  Maybe you could get rid of about half those peaks and round the remaining ones off.

Yeah, but remember -  the Appalachians are ancient.  Many other mountain ranges aren't so low and rounded.  I'm not sure what The_Goddess was going for, but the mountains in her world remind me somewhat of these.  I do agree that some of the sharper peaks could go, but I still like how it looks even with them there.

[russellcraiger]

That's true, but the overall flatter terrain of the rest of this world with such sharp peaks is too much of a contrast.  It is still looking great, and I stand in awe of anyone who has the patience to create a world.

[kiki]

They might not suit what you are used to, but anyone that has been to the middle-east of Russia can tell you things can go from flat to jagged peaks in miles.

[hussy]

I like what I see so far and will definitely download it with or without jagged hills.

[The_Goddess]

It took a bit longer than I thought it would, to get all the bugs out; my world is now ready for habitation. I removed the shuttle bay, as requested, and added a few more lots in its place.  I also softened the steep mountains just a bit. Also note that the name has been changed to Fargo.

Here are just a few tips for those of you who download it: I used the graveyard from Sunset Valley, thinking that the ghosts would come with it.  After all, it worked when I wanted two graveyards in Riverview. For whatever reason, the data for habituated tombstones does not transfer over to the CAW tool.  No Ghosts! If you want ghosts, do one of the following.

Option 1: Open Sunset Valley and package up the graveyard. Then bulldoze the graveyard in Fargo and place your newly packaged graveyard there. Then you can alter the yard to match the town, as I did, or however your heart desires.

Option 2: Start killing off Sims like mad. Have a loved one of the dead Sim pick up the tombstones and place them in the graveyard.
 
Also, perfect plants do not transfer over to CAW, so all the hard work I put into planting them at the Sim Farmers Market has not transferred. If you want perfect veggies there, you will need to plant them yourself.

One last bit of strangeness I noticed: For whatever reason (probably user error) the sprinklers I set down in the children's park retained that strange glow that surrounds them in buy/build mode.  It goes away if you go into buy/build and just pick them up and set them back down. I could not even begin to guess why this happens.
 
Here is where you can get your hands on it…
http://www.mediafire.com/fargo


More photos too
http://twitpic.com/12cq5s

http://twitpic.com/12cqmz

[kittyuk]

I downloaded it
I'm playing it
I love it

[riggs]

Nice job!

Additional previews with links to larger versions below:


http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?jqhmz3md3nn


http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?klconxenngk


http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?yyjoom0zwmy


http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?mknjyzwd2dg


http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?ozzmmzqmmcz


http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?omyzznmn2nn


http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?zzt2yig32zz

[cwurts]

I enjoy your use of different-levelled plains.