Oh those are fantastic! I'm glad you've gone for a much more realistic approach than most of the EA ones. I always get a bit of a "how the hell has that not capsized" eye twitch in IP. :vlol: I love the run down look of them too, can't wait to have a charming trashy family move in. xD

I really, really love how this is coming along! The overview picture is superb and I can't wait to get my hands on it. Any chance of another beta with the new changes?

I'm not sure how quickly I can make that happen - I had to go and uproot a whole bunch of trees since some of them ended up floating after the whole landscape-raising extravaganza after all, and rather than going through the pain of searching for them and then removing them one by one, I ended up deleting a lot of them chunk by chunk. I was thinking now that I would like some pine trees around the area where Fangtasia is supposed to be (turns out there are pine forests in Louisiana) but am not sure about how I will integrate those into the rest of the forest (transition-wise), so that was going to take a while. Then I have to re-check and re-paint the routing for a fairly big zone in the center, and for the new fishing village type area.

I also have a thesis due on august 9th and the issue of the day job...

I'll see about doing those things first though, instead of building more lots (I can build those after the bèta is out anyway)

Lovely, just one hint - your Sims won't be able to sit at that table in the last pic.

^^ oh, thanks... I need to bèta test this myself :D

Haha, yes LA has pine forests. A lot of the Southern states do. Florida, where I grew up, had tons. This is a forest-y area around where I grew up. The pine trees were really well mixed with a lot of the other vegetation like this. My uncle lives on a small, 5 acre farm in Florida and he has pine trees mixed with oak, mixed with palmetto and who knows what else. There were a good portion of pine tree farms though too, if you want something less wild: Farm 01 and Farm 2.

wow, thanks - that's really helpful! Though you're making me want to redo even more sections of trees, haha
(I stuck with the original Twinbrook selection originally, but I've grown quite bored with those by now...)

Here's an overview shot of the unfinished part that wasn't in the last one (I'm done with the basic layout and painting now - just needs new vegetation )

I think you should put a sleazy motel somewhere along there - maybe at the end of that curved road with nothing along it?

I have one right above where it says "2nd school"
it's one that I downloaded from here but as usual I'll put the link to the original creator's download in the empty lot's description when I release the bèta

(if you can't read the text it's the dark grey building next to the one with the white roof - I don't know why photoshop botched up my text like that - may want to save on higher quality next time)

Man, these little fisherman's cabins are just so stinkin' cute, I can't wait to build some more of them! ^_^

I love how precariously perched it appears.

^^ meh, I'm in the process of changing most of my foundations to the 'concrete beams' one, and changing the texture to wood. That makes it appear a little bit more sturdy at least

I wasn't being sarcastic, I genuinely like it. LOL. But either way, Im sure it will look nice with the other foundation. ... Does that mean you have to redo the entire first floor? 0.o I never really thought about it but it seems like you'd have to to replace the foundations. Failing on the IP team's part really, not making that easier when all youre doing is changing a mesh.

^^ nah, you can just drag the other type of foundation over this one and it changes it. All you have to do is repaint the floor

Have been doing large sections of flora, and I really love this mixed forest! I've applied Ouerbacker's idea of mixing tall grass in with the fir trees (here's hoping he doesn't mind - his ideas are just so great!) for color. It will look so friggin lovely come autumn :D
Pics will follow soon

Also finished removing the camera non-routing paint that was covering most of the ocean. Now sims will be able to boat all the way to the edge of the map, if they want to. This means I have to redo a lot of the sims-non-routing paint on the coastal areas though. Maybe I'll put in a tiny island just for laughs. :P

this is awesome!! do you think it will be done soon?

^^ depends what you mean by "done" ;-)

This is really good, and you have done quite a lot on this.

"done" as in "released" i love this idea, twinbrook needed some serious sprucing up!

That will take a long time. I have tons of lots still to build, and would like to make them special.
However, as soon as I am done with putting in new trees, spawners (I took them all out because I was afraid some of them might be under the terrain) and reviewing the routing, I can put out a (light) bèta like I did last time, and people who want to can put in their own lots.

Wow! Your version is definitely much better than the original one. The landscaping has improved a lot (I've never really liked the swamps in Twinbrook), and the new builds are looking fabulous Really cool!

I love the house boats (they look so real !) and I like that you made the world compatible with the Island Paradise features.Also good job on the flora, I like the way you mixed the vegetation, it looks really natural. And I think that now the fishing village is growing on me.. It looks so quaint like that. ^^ I'm also totally for a empty version (because I like building) and I can't wait for it. ^^

So... this was supposed to be a little fisherman's chapel, with a small graveyard for those lost at sea (for you drowned ghosts of course!). As you can see, I couldn't find any Southern looking examples of one of those, so I went with the generic one. Does it clang too much with the rest of the world?

Here is an overview shot so you can see where it is (it's right at the far end of the fishing village)


Using the small stone bridge in the swamp: yay or nay? (would look better once I refill the trees of course)

If you're sticking to the Southern vibe then you simply must have one of those tiny white clapboard churches that they have:



They're often rather plain and small compared to other churches but you get the general idea. I think the chapel you have at the moment is a bit too... European?

As for the bridge, I'd suggest using a wooden one instead. It would just make more sense to have a wooden bridge when all the buildings are on wooden stilts.

^^ ah, thanks for that!
It would make sense that my chapel would look European when I was going for "generic" since I'm European
I'll change it once I'm in EIG.

I wanted a wooden bridge too, but they are all so freaking long! I suppose I'll just fill that area up with land and road then.