A great summary of this month in OldSunset!

Good night people! I'm happy to share some radiant news with you! If you follow me on Twitter, you must already know, otherwise I'll share it here:

I'm aiming to deliver OldSunset to everyone starting in September (meaning completing this amazing work!). For this, it was necessary to put your foot on the accelerator and be more detailed than ever!

I set this as my goal because in September with the release of Life By You, I want to be able to be at the forefront of developing worlds, houses, mods and everything possible to create within my skill spectrum!

So this month I focused on some pretty important things to deliver THE BEST The Sims 3 world ever made. It will be big, it will have an absurd number of lots, details, vegetation and in my greatest ambitions: It will run as smoothly as any tiny world you want to compare it to. I did everything in my power to make this possible.

It's time to talk more about it

The first step, of course, was to review, improve, simplify, and micromanage map routing. Ensuring that all lots, streets and decorations are in the right place and every little white dot is connected to the next. A lot of people don't know, but poorly done routing is one of the main problems behind lags, crashes and performance overload in The Sims 3. That's because, if there is any white line isolated from the rest of the map, or any poorly designed contact, and the game decides to spawn a Sim there, he won't be able to move and will start causing problems. See the before and after of a capture made in CAW to exemplify what I mean. 

Before:

After:

It took me about 6 days, working nonstop for 8-12 hours a day (I looked at every little line and hit the Rebuild Route Data button more times than you can imagine)

*This region has been reviewed again following screenshots

The next step was to add road signs all over the world! (This was almost as much work as adjusting the posts, which, by the way, also underwent improvements regarding placement) In fact, I just remembered that I need to do a second check, because I'm sure I left some posts out unintentionally.

Honestly, I was amazed at how a simple detail can make the world more "Real"(?) Now, it's clear that this couldn't be done anyway. Something that has always caught my inner perfectionist is the inconsistent way in which posts and signs are positioned in Sunset Valley! At some points they are on the street, at others on the sidewalk or even on the grass! I wonder if more than one person was responsible for this, because it's weird to say the least. That's why I made sure that all the signs were on the asphalt and preferably centered between the white line and the sidewalk:

Take a closer look (I literally did this with every board, thought I'd leave you out of the zoom? Haha)

Reviewing all of this is not as simple as it sounds, but with the right video/music playing in the background, it gets easier.

Speaking of easy, I noticed that orders were having difficulty getting to the lots, because they didn't have: ADDRESS! Now they own (all of them). There's such a wide variety of tributes... ranging from console game locations, last names of The Sims 2 and 3 producers, my pets, family, and other creative names I came up with while mixing it all up. Below is an example of the university region with tributes to Tim LeTorneau:

By the way, don't worry. The map is empty because I have revised the placement of all (currently) 194 lots! It is, I know, an absurd number (compared to Sunset Valley) But don't worry, this should still increase towards the end of the process. God, there are so many batches I still need to pre-ship!

Before I forget, we have an empty version of the map for aspiring builders who prefer their own style of building (I heard them!)

With all these changes, enhancements and revisions, several decorations have moved (I honestly don't think you'll even notice, because most of them were trees)

I don't have a before and after, but trust me, access to the camp is CONSIDERABLY better routed and visually pleasing <3

Please don't forget to capture your Sims at an angle that provides the amazing view of the lighthouse!

OK. Maybe not so wonderful because the lighthouse seems hidden. Sorry.

Guys.. I did something that I think is cute! I mean, you should probably also be bothered by the map borders, showing the map inverted (inside) and OH MY GOD, that emptiness is heartbreaking. Therefore, as creating a distant land is not within my range of skills, I bet on a Simcity-style solution! And look .. I liked the result, how about you?

I recognize that this fog may not be to general taste (I think it visually makes the map bigger and deeper) so if this is the case, don't worry, you'll only get this kind of adjustment if you've followed my fog tutorial.

Oh and don't go thinking I forgot about the rural region, it needed more affection and attention. Look how it's going:

For comparison here is the before:

You know that new waterfall I added a long time ago next to the access to the rural region? So it looks like the rocks got me excited:

Obviously, I didn’t forget that isolated (and hidden) beach in the central urban area, so I went there to give it a special touch:

This is basically the ACCESS to the city. OldSunset input and output. It needed to be special too!

Obviously, I didn’t forget that isolated (and hidden) beach in the central urban area, so I went there to give it a special touch:

Of course, there is still some work in progress. I revised several vegetations that seemed to float, others I will have to remove because the CAW does not allow me to move (for some reason that I don't understand, maybe because the map already has more than 10 thousand decorations? I'm just guessing. The numbers don't let me lie (But rest assured that a good part of them merge and the overall set is less than 3000. (Your cpu just got relieved, didn't you?)

It doesn't even feel like 10 years have passed since I started this. I am proud, happy and grateful for each and every one of you who have chosen to support this 2020 project thus far. You guys are amazing and have allowed me to sit in front of my computer with a little less pressure from real life and bills coming in. Thank you for your support and especially for your feedback. Everything we did was only possible because you were involved. I almost always share the news on Twitter first because I can get quick feedback there and make adjustments based on how I feel about the crowd. But, I have to say, I've had amazing opportunities to read your comments here and also message some of you. Thank you again. Remembering that we came out of this:

For that:

(Okay, a little unfair to compare to the non-lot world, but even without lots, you can see how much the artistry and setting has evolved considerably!)

Again, thanks to all of you! Now I'm going to go back to work on the map and check the posts. Our next job will involve creating at least 200 sims to build a narrative world in OldSunset. See you soon for more news!