Testing the waters: What do you want in a 'hood?

[myskaal]

I think offering a saved file version of the world in progress is a fine idea, for those that do enjoy a story in progress. Just be aware any mods (such as AM) would have to be properly uninstalled/hood reset before a final save. Doing that should null and void any conflict issues users might have.

[JEthel]

I've thrown out the first two worlds I made in CAW. I'm worried about distant terrain - it's pretty, but the suggestions here had caused me to experiment with small worlds. This doesn't leave a huge amount of space for rolling hills miles around while still having decent non-camera routing! What are people's thoughts on having limited distant terrain with a consolidated area like the 'hood posted by Zazazu above? (Or am I missing something?)

I have no problem with large world and distant terrain. When it comes to the level of performance of a world, I think that the amount of 'things' you put in it, and how packed they are, are factors that matter as much as the size of the world. As far as I understand it, it's a matter of balance between the overall/complete amount of said 'things' you put in world, how much of those things are in the zone of focus of your camera at one time, therefore rendered in high detail by the game, how many sims live in the world, especially if you use Awesome Story, and of course how beefy or not the computer is.
When I speak of 'things', this can be:

• The amount of ground paintings used/chunk (with a limit of 8/chunk) for instance. So, large decorative zones (yellow non camera paint) on the outskirt of the world, with only a few layers of ground painting, shouldn't impact too heavily on the performance. And a distant terrain is just one large but low detail object, weighting almost peanuts I think. (BTW, you might be interested by this thread@mts, a list of extracted height maps for all the distant terrains released so far). Be aware too that the .dds come in 2 flavors, high quality ones (1024x1024 pixels), heavier but better rendered in distant view and thus suited for the larger zones (main grass texture for instance), and low quality ones (512x512 pix), looking a bit shitty in distant view, but lighter to render and better suited for highlights and detailed small zones of painting.
• Obviously, the objects themselves. Animated ones (spawners/effects/street lights) are -much- worst than static ones (rocks/trees/fences...). Moreover, trees get clustered (by type, by layer, by chunk) so a large crowd of the same type of vegetation in the same chunk is still one meta object in the end. (there might be a limit on how many items can be clustered, but I have no clue about this value. Does someone know?) 
• One of the heaviest 'thingy' you can put in a world is a lot, especially the large residential mansion with an over-decorated garden, and its cousin, the very large buildable community lot. So you may want to pay attention on how you group your lots. Denser areas are very nice and have the real-looking feeling, I love them too, but they should be well thought out, balanced and tested.

EDIT: I've been doing a lot of reading, and it looks like in order to create the kind of lived-in, pre-made soap opera world I'm planning on I should share this as a save file as opposed to a world file. While the mods that allow Edit-in-World to manipulate Sims are fairly powerful, I'm interested in something even deeper - possibly even letting the game play out for a while. Is this an absolutely horrible idea? Are there any technical issues I should worry about/that mean I should avoid sharing as a save completely? Does this cause you to scoff at me?

I have a preference for save file myself. I've had troubles with pre-population included in sims3pack, frozen needs and non aging sims (only the pre-made ones, not the CAS I would put in). I'm not sure what causes this, it could very well be something stupid on my computer or game installation, and thus this little experience of mine is probably irrelevant. Additionally, within a save file, you can include mummies and playable ghosts.

[cwurts]

If I had a hood, I would want one that fits over my head without falling off.  Actually, I'd prefer to just use a winter hat.  It's easier, and when you don't need it, you can put it in your pocket.

[spockblock]

Cwurts, you are a hat. Is your real name Canada? Thank you for keeping the US warm, Canada Wurts.

[tryoutz]

I want a world with a complete downtown area, all the builds from Bridgeport and a nice big residential area like Pleasantville. If I knew how I would just combine the two.

[AnimaSeverem]

Preferably something like Glitchport. Minus the glitches, of course. And a lot bigger living space around the area.

Oh, and a laundromat.

Because putting a laundry room in a one-room studio apartment is kind of silly.

[friendlyquark]

One of the things I most hate about the hoods is the tendency to paint large swathes with "do not enter" paint. If I want to put on lot way the hell off the beaten track, so that I can stick a dungeon there, then please allow me to do so. I hate the Twinbrook map for just that reason, so much terrain is simply off-limits to building. Where's the fun in not being able to build an old abandoned whatever off somewhere else?

Other than that, I like save game files, I like a multiplicity of lot types. (Though, please watch the amount of shrubbery added to lots. Some of the houses I have downloaded are so overfull of garden plants that my first task is to strip out all the shrubs before I can play it with any speed.) Much of the other stuff you were suggesting sounds good as well. Looking forward to seeing what you come up with.

[herefortheparty]

My ideal hood would have some starter houses. I enjoy building myself, so housing really isn't important so much as having all the spawners, clubs and other businesses already set. Then just give me plenty of room to build, lots of lots from say 20x30 and larger. I have yet to build anything that needs spawners at this point but eventually I'm sure I'll start messing with them too in order to give them a more contemporary look.
So far my favorite CAW is one called Milton. I either got it here or on MTS. I forget which. And for those who like to build on nice flat terrains, I love RichDre's Builder. He's now at {bearmtncreations4sims3.com }
There are also several on {www.the-isz.com/theisz/} that are good. Haven't played many from there however.
Thanks to the others that posted up and critiqued some other CAW Hoods. I'm always on the hunt for good hoods.

[WhiteWaterWood]

I hate it when I see another neighborhood that is 'downtown' or 'rural.' There are a bazillion rural and downtown hoods out there. I'd like something with creativity. Maybe Chinese or futuristic or a hood with a story or a conspiracy theory everyone in the town is hiding. I never really see the appeal of yet another boring generic hood. If I wanted to play that, I would play the EA pre-made ones.

[Sita]

This sounds interesting. I would like to try it.

I'd second the starter houses - I love to build but would much rather build for my Sims once they have made a little money and got established in a career (and developed a personality!)

Lots of spawners please. large is definitely good. I was playing Bay City, which is beautiful, but I ran out of building space because although it was not marked off with no-go terrain paint, a lot of the empty countryside-ish land was too hilly to build on; quite unrealistically lumpy. If I WANT open countryside with nobbut scattered farms, fair enough, but if my town wants to expand I want that possibility open to me too.

Saved files for a world which is already in play are fine - I got the world JFade made that way, once I knew how to install it, it worked pretty well (I suspect the problems I later had with it were caused by mods or CC I had installed, not the fault of the world) and I DO like the idea of families who already have some story, so long as there is room for me to add my Sims and work them into the stories.

Easter Eggs are always fun, specially at this time of the year!

[tjstreak]

My suggestion would be to do something which has not been done to death before.  There are a billion and one Sunset Valley, Riverview and Bridgeport clones out there.  If you are going to do another Sunset Valley, at least make it better than the original.

Most world builders are really crappy lot builders.  Maybe its because they put all of their time into making a world, that they really cannot be bothered to make good lots.  Many people download worlds but want to use their own lots.  Make it easy for them.  Personally, when confronted with a world with lots of unroutable terrain and twisty roads, I tend to toss it pretty fast.  This means flat lots, straight roads and a sparing use of non-routable terrain.  Hands off the non-routable terrain unless there is a damn good reason for it.

Some people think they can stick 300 lots in a world and NOT have problems. Most of the EA worlds have under 100 lots.  If you want the feel of a larger neighborhood, you need to come up with another solution.  Mine is to use deco buildings which I can pump out in an hour or two.  If I spend a day or two on it, I can make a deco home which is almost indistinguishable from an in game home.

A number of sub neighborhoods is good.  But don't overdo it.  Look at real life cities.  They have their residential, commercial and industrial zones.  But unless a subdivision has strong covenants or built by a single builder, you can find a mix of expensive and inexpensive homes.

And yes, a lot of starter homes is a good idea.  And I don't mean one of those faux 100,000 simoleon "starter" homes.  I mean a home for under 16,000 simoleons.  I have a ticky tacky starter home which gets plastered in all of my cheap subdivisions. There's a green one and a pink one and a blue one and a yellow one, and they're all made out of ticky tacky and they all look just the same.
 

[Zazazu]

Mine is to use deco buildings which I can pump out in an hour or two.  If I spend a day or two on it, I can make a deco home which is almost indistinguishable from an in game home.

No, your solution is to make a box mesh and photoskin some brick and a sign on it. I suppose that's good for you, but it pretty much looks like crap.

That being said, I commonly don't furnish or cut a portion of the homes in my neighborhood to keep the population down. My current 'hood has 62 lots (counting community, maybe 50 residentials) and no more than 40 residentials will actually get beds.

[mageborn]

I really love this idea. I agree with most of what has been said. If I were to ever build a hood (unlikely as I'm not a builder - I just download!) I would take real life examples into account.

For instance, most cities/towns have commercial zoning - so most of the stores/public places/community lots would be grouped near to each other (thus eliminating as some people mentioned, the need to run ALL the way across the hood to skill.) Some community lots, like the school, library, stadium, should be closer to residential, as in real life. A downtown, with a few skyscrapers, clubs, bars, fast food joints, would be welcome in their own little area. Agree with the rural need - I want some space for a few farms /cabins. So there needs to be some woodsy (a maybe hilly with a pond) area (for just a couple cabins for the family camping trips /hermit sims) that is route-able, and some set-aside flat land for farms (deco or sim-tended) - these would be at least a few street-widths distance from the rest of the residential.

Things I'd like in a world:

- A good number of starter homes (I'd be starting fresh!)
- Smaller number of mid-range houses
- Only a few (maybe 3) mansions (and not HUGE ones with so much space that you can't play them)
- One or two 'older' homes - if the neighborhood is 'well-established' meaning maybe the old Victorian on the hill, or the historical governors home
- Straight flat roads, lots etc closer to the roads (who wants to walk across 100 ft of grass to get inside?) (Unless for a reason like the one or two historial houses)
- Fishing, gardening, and cooking help lots (easy access, near to roads and close enough to the residents) with all the plants available (who wants to travel all the way to the other countries JUST to pick up recipes and fruit?)
- Room for expansion for future EP's/neighborhood growth. That said - I personally want at least one of each of the community lot types available. (IE - laundromat, dump, bar, club, firestation, police station, etc- there needs to be room for all of them in one hood - unlike Twinbrook and Sunset Valley)

I'll keep an eye on this, hope to see it progress!