Santa Carla (WIP) - Based on Santa Cruz, California

[Shanna86]

Hello All!

Welcome to Santa Carla, a Sims 3 world based (loosely) on the real life city of Santa Cruz, California! The project is still in it's early stages as I continue to add and tweak the terrain painting and sculpting as well as lot and road placement.

I was holding off on creating a thread for this until I had specific things I wanted feedback on, but after a more thorough read through of the upload guidelines, I thought maybe I should post something sooner than later!

On to the pictures! Sorry these are from CAW, I haven't had a chance to open this in game.

Overview:
http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m3b3uzwA5r1r9sw56o1_1280.png
http://28.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m3b3uzwA5r1r9sw56o2_1280.png
http://29.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m3b3uzwA5r1r9sw56o4_r1_1280.png
http://28.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m3b3uzwA5r1r9sw56o3_r1_1280.png

Side angle:
http://27.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m3b3uzwA5r1r9sw56o8_1280.png
http://26.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m3b3uzwA5r1r9sw56o7_1280.png
http://26.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m3b3uzwA5r1r9sw56o5_1280.png
http://28.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m3b3uzwA5r1r9sw56o6_1280.png

Town areas and possible street names (ignore numbers and horrible Photoshop-ing, that was for something on Tumblr):
http://26.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m380dytpth1r9sw56o1_1280.png
http://26.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m3843jCK5M1r9sw56o1_1280.png
(More pictures here) (http://shannasims.tumblr.com/tagged/santa-carla/chrono)


I'm currently patched to 1.33 and have all EPs and SPs. So far I have used no SP objects.
Required EPs are WA, AMB, LN, Pets (mainly for the rabbitholes), and Showtime... so basically all of them but Generations.

Red bridges were placed using Jericho resources from Simsample (http://modthesims.info/download.php?t=464250)
Custom lighter water has been added using Claeric's instructions (http://modthesims.info/showthread.php?t=388840) but I'm thinking of editing it further.
Terrain shaping and painting have been done partly by hand and partly in Photoshop

Ferris wheel, lighthouse, water tanks, and food carts are all CC items.
I anticipate using a little more CC for specific lots (what would a Santa Cruz-like world be without a vegan diner and skanky bars!?) but overall I'm trying avoid it. I'll add a full list when I've made more progress.


Where I'm at in the process (4/30/2012):

Terrain shape and color is more or less complete but needs touch ups
Majority of lots and roads have been placed but might be moved if needed
I've been playing with various road textures and have tried editing EA's, but I've yet to find a combination I'm happy with
Peninsula is pretty empty but I'm thinking more upscale homes and venues. I'm not positive though since that's not anything like the real city.
No plants, town deco/lights, or spawners have been placed, that'll come later



Main questions:
Do the terrain painting and shaping look okay? Is it aesthetically pleasing? I feel like the painting is okay but I can't decide if the hills are too lumpy. Originally I wanted it to be more like mountains since the UCSC campus is in the mountains but I decided to go more with NorCal style hills (tall but soft edges).

When I started this project I was just going to share it on my tumblr so didn't think much about lot sizes. How strict is multiple of 5 size rule on lots given that there are mods available to allow adding any size lot? I'd say most of my lots are odd sizes and now I'm wondering how that will affect sharing this.

Other feedback?

[Shanna86]

So of course after posting this I ran into an issue! Hopefully I can get your thoughts.

I realized that the peninsula area was actually meant to be like East Cliff Drive in Santa Cruz and somehow I forgot that. This part of town has a bunch of homes and is higher up over the water. The road winds up and has a retaining wall. Here are some pictures for reference:

http://media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m3bztpbkM41r53gx7.png
http://media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m3bzvaYjHu1r53gx7.png

The reality is there's not a lot of space right there in my world but I decided to try it.
http://30.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m3cwbbsXJE1r9sw56o2_1280.png
http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m3cwbbsXJE1r9sw56o1_1280.png

To me it looks way too cramped, especially having those two roads so close to each other. The lots aren't staying there, I was just trying to visualize how much space I had to add things later.

Here I moved the road closer to the water. Its not so squished together but has less room for lots:
http://26.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m3cwbbsXJE1r9sw56o3_1280.png

What looks best to everyone else? Version 1? Version 2? Leaving it flat like it was before? Or does anyone have an idea of what might work better? Thanks!

[Riptide651]

It looks really nice when you have the raised roadway over the cliff.

Also, I noticed the lots aren't touching the road, it would be more realistic if they were touching.

And... (sorry lots of stuff) I don't know if its just me but the grass looks like it should be a bit darker/ a little dirtier to match the ones in Santa Cruz.

Other than that it looks great so far!

In the area between the overpass and thge road along the beach, you could place small starter homes, or possibly a really long one, or a small park.

[Shanna86]

Thanks for the input! Yeah those lots near the water will be deleted, I was just using them to plan out what I might do there. I was kind of thinking of some shops or eateries. There's a music studio of some sort by the water on Front Street and when I used to walk by there in the evenings someone was always singing Beatles songs! I was thinking of using the recording studio set from Around The Sims to make a little place like that. We'll see, more homes would probably be more practical!

You're definitely right about SC being darker and dirtier. I haven't quite decided how to address that. I was mostly aiming for the fun, kind of idyllic feel of Santa Cruz rather than the grungy reality. As it is, "keeping Santa Cruz weird" without too much CC is going to be a tough task! But I might play with the terrain paints a bit more and post some pictures =)