Difference between revisions of "MTS2:Creator Guidelines/Sims 3 Worlds/Sandbox"
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Make sure you understand how to create lots that meet our standards BEFORE you try and upload fifty of them at once. Changing one lot so that it meets our standards is relatively easy; having to change fifty of them all at once will only lead to frustration. | Make sure you understand how to create lots that meet our standards BEFORE you try and upload fifty of them at once. Changing one lot so that it meets our standards is relatively easy; having to change fifty of them all at once will only lead to frustration. | ||
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* '''Quality:''' If you are doing a full map and including sims for a populated world (including sims is completely optional!), please make sure that your sims meet the [[MTS2:Creator_Guidelines/Sims_3_Sims|MTS Creator Guidelines for Sims]]. Unique faces for random "other" sims and good likenesses if you're trying to make them look like real people. The standards for sims uploaded with a world are the same as if you uploaded them separately, so make sure they're good! | * '''Quality:''' If you are doing a full map and including sims for a populated world (including sims is completely optional!), please make sure that your sims meet the [[MTS2:Creator_Guidelines/Sims_3_Sims|MTS Creator Guidelines for Sims]]. Unique faces for random "other" sims and good likenesses if you're trying to make them look like real people. The standards for sims uploaded with a world are the same as if you uploaded them separately, so make sure they're good! | ||
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Revision as of 08:08, 18 October 2013
Contents |
Guidelines for Sims 3 Worlds/Neighborhoods
Creating a World is a VERY time consuming process. Creating a fully decorated neighborhood from scratch including all the lots can easily take a month or more of regular hard work. There's a lot of tedious parts to it that aren't very fun, and it can be tempting to skip over the technical parts like routing and layering, but it's important to go ahead and do it right so it will work well in the game, since you are sharing your neighborhood with other people for them to play with. Players don't want to download neighborhoods only to find out that some essential parts of the play experience are missing or done poorly.
The Create a World (CAW) tool allows you to create your own unique vision of the perfect neighborhood/world, and share your creation with other Sims 3 players. MTS hosts neighborhood/world uploads that meet our upload criteria, as outlined below:
Creating your world
Quality |
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Let your imagination run wild when creating your world, but remember that it will take a lot of effort for your vision to come to life. Any concept can be done well, or done poorly, and your result depends on you. Even the wildest alien world should still look good and make sense - weird for weirdness sake as a gimmick really doesn't work well for something that will be used as much in the game as a neighborhood/world. Use your imagination, but put enough work into the expression of your idea to make it look plausible.
Does your world/neighborhood look nice, with a good flow to it? Is the layout attractive, interesting, and enjoyable to look at? Do you have a cohesive style or theme that works well and shows throughout the neighborhood? This is hard to quantify, so you may want to get several other opinions (from people who aren't your mom).
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Playability |
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The prettiest neighborhood ever made is useless if it's not playable, so it's very important that it's well planned. Consider some of the following:
There's a lot more to it - some covered down below, but put yourself in the player's shoes and imagine what you would want in the perfect downloaded neighborhood and build accordingly.
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Basic Map
A basic map is one that does not include any buildings, but has all the rest of the neighborhood in place. Everything that needs Create a World to do has already been done, and what's left is to build the houses in-game. Some players really just want a blank canvas upon which to build (like SC4 maps for TS2) so this is the most basic type of neighborhood/world map you can upload here to MTS.
But even for a basic map there's still quite a bit that needs doing.
Show the minimum requirements for a world upload | ||||||||||||
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Full Map
A full map is a complete and decorated map including residential and community buildings - not just a blank slate but similar to Sunset Valley or Riverview: a complete neighborhood except the sims. Creating a full map is a really, REALLY big job.
For first-time creators, we strongly recommend to upload a few lots first before you attempt to create a full map (and also sims, if you plan to include sims with your world). Be aware that it is in no way required to build anything in a world you want to share, or to include sims with it.
The standards for the houses you build in a full map are the same as if you were uploading them separately to MTS. Please review our Lots and Houses Upload Guidelines fully!
Make sure you understand how to create lots that meet our standards BEFORE you try and upload fifty of them at once. Changing one lot so that it meets our standards is relatively easy; having to change fifty of them all at once will only lead to frustration.
Show what is also required when making a full world for upload | ||||
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Uploading your world
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It's important that you include certain information so that players know what to expect when they use your creation! Part of this is also so the MTS moderation staff knows your world has been made right. You may want to copy-paste the headings here to use as a template. This information should be in the text description for your upload. TitleYou probably already have a name for your world - it makes a good title for your upload. DescriptionYou need to write a decent description for your upload. You don't have to write a novel here, just at least a few sentences about world's theme, history, landscape, people, whatever. Let people know you've put some careful thought into your creation. If your English is not good, you can ask for help writing a description in Creator Feedback. Please also include the following information into your description:
Lots:
Sims (Full Map Only):
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Screenshots | ||||||
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The screenshots you take will show off the world you have made and allow people to see what they're downloading. Take some nice big (800+ pixels-ish on the smallest side is a good size to aim for), clear pictures to entice downloaders into using your lovely new creation. Please do not take the pictures in Create a World*. Do not apply filters like sharpen, contrast, etc. to the required pictures, as downloaders want to see what your creation will look like in their game, not your skills at using Photoshop. You will need to include at least:
Lot picturesIf you have built on the included lots, you will need to post pictures for at least 10 lots - 5 residential and 5 community. You may choose which 10 lots you show, but we suggest you choose lots that are representative of the overall style of the world. We have this requirement so both MTS staff and people who may download your world can see that your lots are good quality. Please include
You may also include additional pictures like floorplans, backside picture, comparison picture if a lot is based on a real life building. But those are completely optional! Sim picturesIf you are including sims with a save file, or pre-populating your world, you will need to show at least 5 sims. You may choose which 5 sims, but as with lots, we suggest you choose ones that are representative of your creator style and quality. This is so MTS staff and downloaders can see that your sims are good quality. Please include
You may, of course, include other pictures like a full-body picture, posing pictures, whatever, to show off your sim how you like, but please make sure to include at least the above. For sims based on a person or character, you can include a comparison picture of the real person, ideally similar to the close-up picture of your sim.
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Custom content |
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If you have used any custom items in your world, you MUST provide full links and credit for ALL items used in the world. This means any custom build items, objects, patterns, or content used on any included sims must be linked and credited. Make sure to state whether or not the content is included or not (as downloaders need to know if they need to download it all separately or not). If you do include content, it must be okay with that content's creator. Please check their policies. If you have included override resources into your world file, such as texture recolors, please list what objects/textures are overridden, so that the downloaders may avoid conflicting files. |
Split RAR's | ||
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For a complex neighborhood, it's likely that your upload will be over the 10 mb file limit that we have at MTS. You will need to upload your creation in parts. To do this, you will need an archive program like WinRAR that can compress a file but split it into multiple pieces.
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Uploading Full maps |
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Because worlds are so complex, it may be easier for you to compose your upload in MTS's Creator Issues Forum rather than going through the regular upload wizard. Create a new thread - the first post will show as the main post on the upload once complete -; make sure to attach at least one picture to the first post and at least one zip or rar attachment. You can use subsequent posts (which will show up as comments on the upload) to attach files and pictures and organize showing off different parts of your world. Once you're done putting together your upload in Creator Issues, private message an Admin or make a new post at Creator Issues, to ask if your world can be moved to the Moderation Queue. For an example of a full neighborhood done like this, see Plasticbox's Elsewhere Neighborhood. Obviously it's a bit different being a Sims 2 neighborhood rather than Sims 3, but you can see how the general information and description is on the Overview tab, with the main screenshots attached to the first post to show up in Screenshots. Then click on the Comments tab and see how she has a description and pictures for each included house as well as the required sizing and pricing information. Again, the details included would be a bit different, but the concept is the same for both TS2 and TS3.
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Additional Stuff
- If your upload is rejected or marked as changes required and you're not sure why, ask in Creator Issues.
- If you're not sure whether your world is ready for uploading, use the Creator Feedback Forum to get feedback on it.