Custom Sims 3

Hi,

I'm starting this thread hoping to receive some help from users with lot more experience than I have. I'm not a complete beginner at this. I did make my own world in sims 2 and I made my own with CAW. It worked fine until I destroyed it with CC (I was lazy to build houses on my own and downloaded. That didn't work well...). Now I'm planning a new world. After reading many tips about painting and sculpting and placing lots etc., I still have some questions.

Firstly - I'm planning a large fantasy world (huge island) with rivers (using water planes), lakes, waterfalls, mountains, canyons, a meteor crater, woods, fields, etc. - basically, I'd like to use the whole map. So far I red that in SIMS 3 it doesn't matter how large is the world. Is it really like that? I have all EPs (no stuff packs), so I wonder - how playable will the world be? I wont use any CC on the world, CC I have are mostly mods for sims to look fine, hair etc. I also know about chunks and paints.

Secondly, is it fine if I have more than 8 paints in some chunks? 10-12 (max) in some.

Thirdly, what would be the best recolor for base texture? Darker green or medium? Any suggestions?

Fourthly, how many layers is “fine” to have in one world? Are there any limits?

Lastly, so far I finished sculpting and decided to add roads. I had problems finding matching textures for intersections, so I played around with colors until CAW crashed... I resaved the world, but still it started crashing after saving once or twice (maybe because I was deleting and re-organizing layers?). Could cleaning CAW caches help?

Thank you :)

It does matter how large a world is, it is the number of items and stuff the game has to constantly render that taxes a computer. So common sense says bigger world more stuff, more area, harder on the old PC.

More then 8 paints per chunk is a no-no.

the base color is really an aesthetic choice for you as the creator. You know the feel you want and envision for your world.

not sure about the layer issue, maybe someone else will know about that one.

Deleting cache files always helps with caw.

I agree with Sookielee about your envisioning your world, yet I do have just a suggestion, since you asked. In my humble opinion, a fantasy world would be a lush, dark green, but then, it could be a desert too, depending on what kind of fantasy creatures you are talking about. Since you mention that it's by a river, I see it being more lush, but if play desert creatures in it, that would be completely different, so it seems it would depend on what kind of fantasy creatures you play.

Elves and such live in a lush environment, for example. :)

Thanks :)

Well I guess I'll firstly try to clean caw caches.

About the size of the world... actually if I think now, I didn't have problems playing (after buying extra memory for my PC) my previous large world until I bought showtime and updated the game. So I figured - must be because of CC. I guess I'll have to keep objects to minimum - not more than is recommended.

Extra thanks for some color tips. I'll try to remind myself about 8 colors limit.

Are there limits for trees? In EAs original worlds there are almost no trees.

Put them on a layer together and be sure to use the group trees option in CAW. This takes several trees of the same kind that are close to each other and makes them become one object.

Thanks for that. I'm also trying to find some specific Mrcrumplebottom's textures (like ocean depths). Maybe someone can help me with that?

I didn't look through everything in the following thread, but it is a great place to start when looking for textures for CAW.

http://forum.thesims3.com/jforum/posts/list/181739.page

Also, if you haven't already check out the CAW Tutorials & Resources Links here at CS3.