How do you start your world?

[Peoinee]

Im looking to start a discussion on how different creators start their world. Once you have thought it over in your head, you have that basic idea of what you want to see in completion were do you start?

Pre-sculpted or Flat, Sculpting painting or your buildings/road layout.

Im trying to get feed back in general on the subject. I have started worlds with all these methods ,currently trying the building first, and seem to always not be happy with it once i get to the town part.

Im trying the building first like this. I have pre-builts im using since im not doing good at sharing my creations im not expecting to put this up on the site. I laid down the lots and went in to EIG and dropped all the lots on res/com lots then im going to shuffle them all in an area that will eventually be water. then ill try to sculpt. once done i can drop the lots and resculpt around them to make them blend better. Im doing this because after i sculpt beautiful worlds i try to set them down and wind up looking funny or not quite right.

So how do you start your worlds or do you have an almost perfect model in your head the differs very little in the finished project?

[auntielynds]

I usually start with a theme in mind, with a few key features I'd like to include. I don't have a completed picture in my mind of how it will look, but more of a feeling I want to achieve. I start with creating a basic color palette that will enhance the mood I'm striving for, then I start sculpting. Base first, I rough out different elevations, and several different areas. I like to get the outskirts sculpted, and painted first to get it out of the way, then I let the actual Sim area develop as I go. Sculpt, paint, roads, lots, and a little back and forth at that point. I tend to keep going in and getting more and more detail till I feel like it's done, or I just can't stand it anymore.

[armiel]

My worlds are definitely not planned out, you can see it, lol...

I usually start with some sort of idea in my head, a certain layout for a few lots or something I have seen and want to simmify. The rest I usually have no idea on how and what to make ^^

The last world I started making after playing Fallout New Vegas and falling in love with the starting town, Goodsprings. The idea for the world did not come from my head though, It was all lee's idea.

Charlton then, I wanted the commercial lots like I made them, everything else just grew around them.

I suppose I'm silly in a way that I care more for the landscape than if the layout makes sense.

But yeah, I don't have full plan for things, I just build, and the things tell me they want to be made so I make them. *has a group of Sim spirits living inside her head*

[High Plains Gamer]

Some people seem to make worlds as if they are taking dictation from God. That is, everything seems to flow in a nice orderly direction.

I am not one of those people. I am constantly tearing things up: builidng hills, flattening hills, making rivers, filling in rivers, placing streets, moving streets, removing streets, adding lots, removing lots.

I tend to work in one section of the map. When it reaches a point, I move onto another section. (Notice I did not say a point of what.) Then I go back to the first section and think: "This sucks," so I tear it up and redo it. Any semblance or order is entirely accidental and unintentional. No plan survives the loading of my world into CAW.

But the funny thing is, I have a pretty good idea of what I want and how I want things to look at the end. As I learn how to do different things and my technical skills improve I can see how sadly deficient my earlier work was.

[Peoinee]

armiel i love love "sim spirits" could you loan them to me. I think i have the same bad habbit with CAW that i have ingame, I cant finish anything. Right now the excuse is the towns just not right so i have to build my own. Ive started upwards of 20 worlds in the past month very few make it to the buildings and those that do almost never make it past Community buildings only 1 world got done and loaded into my game. I shudder at the thought of it. It was horrible and thrown together.

I finaly finished loading all those lots there is almost every community lot and around 60+ res lots. After a nap im going to go see if my plan of sculpting then dropping the lots will work.

Do you guys feel once sclulpting and painting are done that its best to look at the whole map or zoom in and just work on a small section and let it grow threw the map.

I usually lay down my roads first to get an idea of were my buildings are going i think im going to lay down the lots first this time then do minor adjustments when the road gets to them.

[Sweet Mystre]

Hi =]

I usually go on a site seeing tour with Google. I have a region in mind such as the Moon or the Desert and those are the pictures I'll look for online. Types of Deserts help narrow it down. While looking at all the pictures, the world is kind of formed in mind- which can take a day or more sometimes.
Doesn't mean that's the way it will look in the end but I do have a visual of how I want it took. Some worlds can flow but most have taken several maps tossed while sculpting before I compromise what I want and what I can get CAW to do. =D

I usually put a road section down after a general sculpting layout of the whole map... then a lot for size and perspective of the central town layout and just start putting down roads as I work around the land.

For me- the terrain is painted after all the roads are placed. Each area is of itself and yet has to flow into the next... There seems to always be a few little spots to touch up with the paint no matter how much you work on it as you go- it's the whole world with the lots.

All the lots are placed before I begin putting down many trees- the surrounding trees or forest areas. It does help if the lots are built in an area to see how the trees should flow. . . It's nice to hide some areas but allow others to peak out...

I pretty much to have a routine or way of doing each step.... Even if the idea is not fully formed the land layout is the first thing I do, roads, paint, lots, objects, trees, objects, lots, trees, Effects, spawners,... go over the routing paint Again. =D

[Peoinee]

So what im getting from all of you is... everyone is different in how they do the world, but no one really knows what it will look like at the end?

I wonder is it best to put DT down first or sculpt it in later. I hate DT its hard to work with but the world looks stupid with out it. I was looking in game at Appaloosa Plains and found that they actually used 2 DT on there one behind town and one across the river. What do you guys fee about doubleing DT like that i had never thought of it before but it appears to work well with AP.

I proud to announce i finally found the stupid river objects ive heard of them several times over the past few months but never could find them in the meta stuff. Well i found them here is my quick sculpt of them just to get an idea of that i could do.

What do you all think and do you have any special ways you like to use these in your own worlds. Like rocks and the rapids, or slant and elevation lakes.

http://thumbs2.modthesims2.com/img/6/9/7/5/4/3/2/MTS_Peoinee-1254604-Screenshot.jpg

[armiel]

OK, first, you can loan the spirits, be my guest :)

Second - you started a thread on how to start worlds, so stick to your topic :) If you wanna talk about different ways of using objects you should make a separate thread for it :)

Placing DT is an exception I think, cause it is relevant on starting the world-part of convo. Personally, if I decide I need/wanna use a DT, I place it as very first things I do, and I also try to blend it in the other terrain in a very early state of making the world.

[Redhead Creations]

I've seen people do things many different ways. Like Armiel and Ouerbacker look like they do small little portions at a time (Ouer even more so - you can see in some of his pics that some areas of the map look almost complete, while others haven't even been sculpted yet).

I think that's a great way of doing things, but it isn't how I did the world I'm currently working on. Granted, it's an island, which I think is kind of taking the easy way out, but I sculpted it all first, then placed roads, then did terrain painting. Now I'm alternating between building lots and adding decor around the world (and terrain paint touch ups - which is always an ongoing thing).

I also think the key to not getting burnt out is to vary what you work on. If you feel like you have to terrain paint for 20 hours at a time - yes, that's going to get boring and you'll want to quit. So terrain paint for a little bit, then go add trees/guardrails/decor for a bit, then build a lot, etc. I had no idea how long world building took, it can be quite exhaustive. I am constantly in awe of the amazing builders here even moreso now after knowing how much goes into these creations.

[simsample]

I always have an idea in mind, and I start first by marking where sunrise and sunset are, so that I build my world around that.

Then, I start by placing a lot or a landmark, or some aspect of my world (just roughly- it will be deleted and replaced correctly later). This is to give an idea of scale, so that I know how long roughly to make my roads and how wide to make a river.

I always do lots of research online, saving hundreds of images that inspire me. For my current world, I have 1500 pictures in a folder! Then, I select some terrain paints that are near enough, and do some basic sculpting and painting. Add some roads and lots.

All this will be tweaked and moved and deleted about 100 times, and the world will change and evolve, and I will keep redoing bits and making new terrain textures and changing them and demolishing things and so on, until I realise I've spent a decade on it and most people have made 47 worlds and moved onto other games by now.

But it makes me happy. And a little mad.

[Peoinee]

Ok so with the offical announcement of showtime Ive found my self wondering if i should continue trying to build a world or if i should just call it quits. With this it makes me think with how quick the EPs are announced do you build your worlds with eps in mind (current, soon to come, Unannounced). Do you start over or do you just try to adapt your current world to fit the things your seeing in new ep videos.

I also dont understand how you all do it this is the first ep announcement aside from pets (which is why i started trying to build in the first place) since i was really trying to build a world. I think i should start new but i dont know.

Simsample you and someone else said that about landmarks, When i think lot i think the 64x64 would you say larger is better or maybe closer to a 40x40. Im persoally like to place my lots and get the EIG to put a prebuild on. I sometimes cant see the outline of the lots but i can see how its good to have a landmark

armiel im going to use your current world as an example, did you sculpt then look and see were you wanted your areas or did you set your areas and then sculpts out the terrain. Your doing something there that i can only dream to do. which is size of your playable world.

[simsample]

Peoinee, it really depends upon preference, I usually build the world around my landmark (in my current world, it was a park which had a railway line alongside it), so placing that lot and the railway lines just roughly gave me an idea of what else I could fit and where, and also where to put rivers, lakes, hills etc. Then I could place the Distant Terrain in the right place, so that the sun set where I wanted it to in relation to my landmark.

In my current world, I've had three EPs released since I've been building it (I think), it's easy enough to adapt a world to new Eps as you build, or else to retrofit it later. If you give up now then you'll never build a world, as EA will probably release a few more EPs yet!

[Peoinee]

Im so jealous of your guys stamina when it comes to working on worlds. And your right i know they wont stop making EPS till TS4 is released (shudders in horror) so I need to find a way to start a world that will be upgradable later, IE no tiny islands lol.