Ö - A Tiny World for Midnight Sun Challenge

               This an island on a tiny map, created for Midnight Sun challenge, you can read about it on MTS. According to the rules the world is supposed to be even smaller, but I think it will feel to claustrophobic to play 10X10 lot with water around, so I expanded it a little bit. It's still quite deserted and isolated.

              Ö is on a tiniest map possible, there are two lots - one residential 20X20 and beach 30X40. There is a small plant on residential lot, so the game would consider it a house, allowing your sims to move there right away, just choose move into unfurnished house and you'll end up on empty lot. The beach lot has a boat landing, seashell land spawner and a community firepit. There are several base game fish, rock and seed spawners. The world is of cause unpopulated and I suggest nraas Register and Traveler to get rid of tourists, pets and paparazzi and to ensure that ugly Weather Stone (Supernatural and Seasons installed) will not spawn every time you exit buy mode.

12 Veranks's Movie Backdrop Recolours

      I wanted to set up a photo studio as a small business for one of my families. There is some decorative equipment available to download, but the backdrops are severely lacking. So, I've got to work and recoloured Veranka's Movie Backdrop from the Sims 3 SP9. The rest of the set and lots more awesome conversions can be downloaded from verounique LJ.

       I've done seven vintage backdrops - most images are from this museum, the rest are random Google finds and five sci-fi ones - the images belong to the very talented Tae Young Choi. You can find the backdrop in the buy mode, decor miscellaneous section, it costs 700 simoleans in game.

Zombie Aftermath Challenge Rules and Tidbits

   

          Since the Sims 4 is most definitely not going to be the game I want to play, I decided to give the Sims 3 one more chance. I am really engrossed in playing cannibalcupcake's Zombie Aftermath Challenge (thank you tumblr people, especially napoleonfrost for inspiring stories), I find it very entertaining and at the same time easy enough to hold my attention span. I'm posting a set of modified rules, taking into account new EPs content, ideas I've gathered from Tumblr and my nerdy gameplay style. The original rules can be found here and slightly updated version here. Of cause all credit goes to CannibalCupcake. Read more after the jump. Beware, the text is quite lengthy!

Aspen Bay Resort

                                                      

           This is a resort lot for Aspen Islands world, I've been writing about earlier. Aspen Bay Resort is a small but cozy hotel with two VIP rooms, a gym, pool, wedding arch, resort rabbithole, dining room and a bar. It also has a nice flat beach, perfect for sunbathing and sandcastles. The lot is 40x50 and is partially submerged in water, so I'm not sure how it will look in other worlds, I think there might be problems with stilt foundation.  More screenshots and download link is after the jump.

Updates

 Hello everyone!
 Dropped by to say that I updated CAW Resources page with some more goodies to download and I will add some more tomorrow. Enjoy!

Aspen Islands Revisited!

 

           

               This world has changed substantially since I last uploaded it on MTS. Firstly, I've resculpted and repainted most of the map and added distant terrain. Some lots changed places, some were merged and a lot more were added. This is supposed to be a home world, all rabbitholes and most community lots are included. There is a fully furnished cheap motel for those who want to use it with NRaas Traveler, marked No Visitors Allowed by default. Since most errors and lag was caused by Resort lots I left it that way, feel free to change it back. I will upload one more, rather expensive and respectable resort soon, no worries. 

           The map is roughly divided into an old town area, industrial district and uneventful suburban area, all are connected with roads. There are also three subway stations to let sims with no cars travel faster. There are also phone booths from Supernatural on most community lots. All parks and fishing spots feature various plants, I suggest to disable zombies and horses if you want it to stay that way. Spawners are situated on and off lots, some rare spawners are in far away spots, you might use Collectors Helper to locate them. 

             Most apartments don't have NPC doors, since it was also one of the most common reasons for lag and shuttering.You can easily enable them if you are simply dying for babysitter or mixologist as a neighbour. I think that's it, further details, screenshots and important info continues after the jump.

  

The Sims 2 vs The Sims 3 (Part II)

You can read the first part of my ranty review/thoughts here.
          Building: I am not an avid builder and I do not spend hours playing with CFE. From my point of view it is difficult to create cohesive routable buildings in both games, but I like the Sims 3 CAST and tomb building tools a lot. Though I wish it was as easy to precisely sculpt terrain as it was in the Sims 2 and both games would benefit greatly with complimentary themed sets of doors and windows.

         Gameplay: Well, what can I write in this paragraph, I'm completely biased towards the Sims 2. Firstly, it suits my play style better and secondly it gives me more options to play this or that scenario I have in mind. For example, I can buy groceries in town or use the telephone, I can own a restaurant or I can use one to have a great date or family outing. I like how characters interact and act on community lots according to their personalities, and that there are no long pauses between animations as in the Sims 3 case. Meaningful long-lasting memories and sane attraction system are also a blessing, they do add depth to the characters. If there was an option to roam the map freely, visit neighbours, sculpt bodies and organize social events on community lots, it would've been a perfect game for me.

        The Sims 3, on the other hand, is more restrictive, shallow and kid safe, plus I still cannot get over the fact that bistros and stores are "rabbitholes". What sane person would read text about the great time their sims are having in said bistro instead of playing it? The chances something bad happens in this game are non-existent and it has a very low difficulty level. I have yet to see a meteor and my single sim can go from empty lot to beautiful upper middle class home in a week. Overall I believe that if the Sims 3 base game would have been stable and better thought out from the start, it would work with expansions better and allow developers to introduce new and much more intricate systems, such as apartments or managing businesses. This game had a lot of great ideas - such as horses and minor pets, houseboats and diving lots, entertainment career and many more. Sadly, the execution is far from great and the bugs are never addressed properly. There are a lot of scripted events that player simply cannot avoid, for example the curfew, the reaction to seing a plumbbot or a ghost or the instant reaction to cheating. All this, plus gradual breakage of save files, poor animations and countless errors make the game unplayable for me. Yes, the visuals are beautiful and picturesque, the open world seems unrestricted and full of opportunities, but as the result you get broken lighting and empty nightclubs. This whole game seems like smoke and mirrors to me.
           So, what do I think so far about the Sims 4 we'll get this autumn? I believe it will be more like the Sims 3 then the Sims 2 in it's execution and game play depth. I think we'll lose more old and time tested features for the sake of gimmicks and online stuff. I do like how the sims themselves look and move, I don't even mind the plastic hair that much, but I greatly dislike the general brightness, bloom, proportions and fakeness of the neighbourhood and a lot of things mentioned in previews and articles bother me (car animations, neighbourhood backgrounds, unlocking content etc.). I have yet to see what can overweigh both the Sims 2 and the Sims 3 that I already own.