Random and Infrequent Posting

 ***This is going to be a really short and random post, because I started writing it about four days ago and never finished. Unfortunately, I think I will only be able to update once a week at most for the next five months because exams are approaching, I only have a few months of school left until my next vacation, and I really need to put my nose to a book. Also, I need to devote some time to my new "business" and other creative pursuits. Of course, this means I won't be on Blogger as much, but I'll still be around. Thank you for understanding! :) ***

Remember the bright and cheery village of Greensborough?

Well, welcome to Desolado Valley, home of the Death faeries!

Drastic change in scenery, no?

 The Death faeries, for whatever deed they did, have been punished by the Lyron Kingdom and banished to an unbreakable bubble (the butterfly pavillion) for all eternity. I still have to build the dungeon/prison/castle/whatever you want to call it, but I'm not looking forward to it since it's hard to build in a giant-yet-suffocatingly-small bubble. Something tells me I won't be playing the Death faeries often.

Off-topic, but something I love to do is just pull up Notepad while in-game and jot down a whole bunch of random notes. For instance, what buildings I want/need in a world's district and what roles the citizens of that area have:

I also use NotePad to document what "specialty" rooms I need to build, and what colors/hobbies/whatever the people in the household enjoy.

Really, this is the only way I stay organized. So how do you guys jot down your notes? Do you use a program, or do you prefer the old-fashioned route with a pen and paper? I used to use pens and paper, sheets and sheets of paper, but then it all became too much and I became increasingly paranoid of an "outsider" stumbling across these vague sheets of paper with cryptic notes all over the place and declaring me to be mentally insane.

So, I switched to digital. :)

That wasn't a very strong ending, was it? Ermm....check out the Dillard's new house if you haven't already. And to all a good morning/noon/night! *tips off hat*

Testing and Moving Out

*cries hysterically*

So now that we have that out of the way, methinks Noble Hills is gone. Forever. As in, completely. Can I load it in CAW? Yes. Can I boot it up in EIG? Yes. Does it crash in EIG? Yes. Am I growing impatient with building the same lot 3x in a row and not being able to save it before it crashes? Yesyesyesyesyes.

I am going to try and upload it into the game after I've made some terrain changes, and if it doesn't crash in game, we're good to go. If it does crash, then I have to say goodbye to NH and try to find the energy to crappily create yet another world. Go me. I'm getting sick of this.

So in the meantime, I'm taking extra special care of New Shamaar. I want to be able to load up this world when I'm feeling depressed and think "hmm, maybe I can build worlds!" 

Right, so, onto the speedy testing! 

Cypress Ivory taking in the scenery from her Green Residence

Tending the garden

Fishing, fishing, just keep fishing...

Apparently, sim-vegetarians can eat fish guilt-free. Doesn't that make them pescetarians?

That looks like such a comfy bed

The area of New Shamaar I tested is named "Greensborough", home to the Green faeries. I like it so far, I can't find any routing issues so I'll move onto the next area. :) I'm thinking of starting on either Hellion Village (Fire faeries), Lyron Kingdom (Water faeries), or Desolado Valley (Death faeries).

***[Now, onto the originally scheduled program]***

Love this house. So pretty...

This is Trudy Francois' house. Because she and Jacob are dating, Jacob now lives here as well. I'm ashamed to say that I followed him here shortly after he moved out because I missed him. The homestead seemed empty without him.

Workin' on his pecs

So now I'm left with three choices: A) I can keep him here with his girlfriend, B) I can move him out and leave her behind, or C) I can build a new homestead for the creepy vampire family so they can all comfortably reside with one another instead of stepping on each others' toes like they are now.

Is it sad that I'm seriously considering option B?

Trudy, aka The Girl Who Ruined Christmas Everything

Why hello there, Ms. Grace

Trudy - "What are you doing here? Jakey promised me you wouldn't talk to me."

Don't talk to me like you're Angie, you are not in my good graces right now. I could kill you right here. Nothing's stopping me.

Trudy - "Except Jakey."

Especially...Jakey.

Trudy - "If you killed me off, Jakey would cry. And you wouldn't be able to take that."

What makes you say that?

Trudy - "I saw you choke up after witnessing Jakey cry over releasing Tucker, you wimp. It was just a stupid lady bug."

But his tears were so convincing! :'(

Trudy - "Gag me."

And this, dear friends, is why I'm considering option B.

Stone-cold face of EVIL!

So why are you interested in Jacob, anyway?

Trudy - "His stepmom is famous, he's rolling in cash, he's a vampire, and he gives me inside access to the inner workings of the police department. What else could a girl want?"

Oh, I dunno, love? Lust, at the very least.

Trudy - "Love and lust are weak emotions. They get in the way of things. This is purely business."

...I see.

Trudy - "Shh- you're interrupting my soaps!"

Just keep running, running- wait, I feel like I've used that joke before...

Jacob, your girlfriend is a pain in the @$$.

Jacob - *wheezing* "I know."

So why do you keep her around?

Figures.

***A few magic clicks of omnipotence later***

....what have I gotten myself into?

**Two Hours Later*

It was just a matter of time before the EA bachelor pads wouldn't cut it.

The new homestead, based off of this floorplan. Pretty cool, eh? It's gigantic. I hope I can make proper use of the space when I get around building the interior.

Anyway, it's after 2AM, I'm exhausted, and my eyelids are drooping. Goodnight, all! :)

Update: Here's a few more pictures of Greensborough I forgot to toss in:

Overview

Welcome to Greensborough!

My favorite building, Tinka's Lumber Shoppe

New Shamaar: A CAW Tutorial! - Part 1

<<<---Tutorial: Introduction                                                                                 Tutorial: Part 2--->>>

****Disclaimer: I am not in any way a "professional". I just want to pass on some tips and tricks I learned from painfully documented trial and error. As always, click for larger images****

For this world, we will start off with a modest map that will be easier to navigate. I chose a "Small" map, but if you'd rather start off with a medium or a tiny, that's perfectly fine. You could even start off with a large, but I really don't recommend that. Size does matter in the beginning stages!

A picture of the prompt you will see when opening a new world. You don't have to use the same numbers as I did, just make sure they match!

Now, notice how my "SmallFlatMap200" coordinates with the 200 underneath "Maximum Height"? This is important. If you leave the maximum height on 100 and select a 200 map, your map will be underwater, sort of like a pond. And if you select a 300 map with a maximum height of 100, your map will look like an ocean! Of course, these won't lead to serious graphical errors as far as I know of, but I think it would still be easier to just make sure the numbers match up.

Those simfaeries don't like outsiders. Patch up the land!

All I did here was trace the borders of the world with the "hill-steep" tool, the strength/size/falloff I used are all on the right-hand side. The mountains aren't done yet (obviously), but this way we have a base to work off of when we're ready to do them. You don't have to have a land-locked world, but I just wanted to try one out. You can only live off of sandy beaches for so long. ;)
Tip: Be patient, gentle, and don't keep the mouse in one place for too long!
Overall I traced the borders twice: one for the edge, and one for the actual mountains. Now, we look at sidewalks!

Sidewalks are by Regina

I just put in random textures for the road, since I won't be using them. The sidewalk will be their main form of transportation. Maybe a few will teleport. ;)

But before we place the sidewalks, let's edit some terrain, hmm?

Around and around in circles we go...

What I've done here:

1. Used the gentle hill tool to raise terrain slightly
2. Used the flatten-gentle tool at full-strength to flatten out the surrounding area
3. Minimized the size of the brush to create a "falloff"

I went on to do that around the rest of the mountain base (on this side)

Voila!

What? It still doesn't look right, you say?

Psh, everyone's a critic.

Better?

I used the gentle smoothing tool to smooth around the edges, and I left the ridges in the front as they were. I painted them with a retaining-wall terrain by Regina. I like it, but I'm not sure if I'll keep it in the longrun.

For now I will bid you all goodnight. I'll work on Shamaar a little more before going to bed, and I'll update you guys tomorrow on how things turn out! :)

<<<---Tutorial: Introduction                                                                  Tutorial: Part 2--->>>

New Shamaar: A CAW Tutorial! - Introduction

Err...funny story.

Heh...so I'm pretty darn sure that my game (if not my computer) has gone kablooey. I tried to fix the lag by removing the Sims 3 folder entirely so it can generate a new one, and now three game startups in, my game lags EVEN MORE than before, if freakin' possible. [insert expletive of your choice here]. I'll have to forgo most of my CC to try and keep my mods. I don't even have that much CC. Most of it is just default replacements for hair. So, while I wait for some kind soul, or some EA employee, to fix what the latest patch has done to me (which I will admit is partially my fault because I didn't back up my game), I will find SOME WAY to blog. It was a part of my resolution.

Since my "new game" doesn't have Noble Hills installed, I'm currently refurbishing it to make it sparklier. I must admit, it certainly looks better with a little sprucing. I'm ticked off, however, because after I poured all of my energy into a park, the. game. crashed. Sigh.

R.I.P. Montgomery Park, ye shall be missed and eventually recreated.

As expected, I felt entirely unmotivated to do anything else with NH, and so I thought "what else could I blog about?"
Then I remembered back when I was trying to make worlds, you guys commented on how you're afraid to touch CAW. I, for one, do not blame you one bit. It sucks in your soul, it makes you pull out your hair and stab your keyboard. It's like a digital form of torture. Or it's a fun way to express your creativity. Depends on how you look at it. ;)

So I present to you, the New Shamaar Tutorial!
*...right after another block of text, sponsored by City Hall.*

So Shamaar was a part of a world that I was constructing earlier last year, and eventually gave up on because I loved Shamaar but not the rest of the world. The simplicity was breathtaking. I decided that a smaller world built on the same simplicity would make a great tutorial starter.

So other than wanting to blog, why am I making a CAW tutorial? Well, because you guys are really creative. I know for a fact that you guys can create better worlds than I can, and I'd love to show you guys how! :)

Tutorial Part 1 ---->>>