Difference between revisions of "MTS2:Creator Guidelines/Sims 3 Lots and Houses/Sandbox"

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(Guidelines for uploading Sims 3 Lots)
(Guidelines for Sims 3 Lots)
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=Guidelines for Sims 3 Lots=
 
=Guidelines for Sims 3 Lots=
  
Needs a new nice introduction
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I really will write a better introduction later honest...
  
 
=Creating your Lot=
 
=Creating your Lot=

Revision as of 12:17, 20 October 2013

Contents

Guidelines for Sims 3 Lots

I really will write a better introduction later honest...

Creating your Lot

Quality

Does your lot look nice? Does it have a good flow to it? Is the way it's laid out attractive, interesting, and enjoyable to look at?

  • Realism: Does your lot look like what it's supposed to look like? Not all lots have to be realistic, and fanciful ones certainly shouldn't look like your everyday house, but if your lot is based on a real building or real type of building, it should look like what it's supposed to look like.

For example, a castle should not just be a huge building with stone walls, but should look like an actual castle, and supermarket should look like an actual supermarket. You can look up pictures of the type of lot you're trying to build on Google Image Search for some good ideas.

  • Playability: The layout of the lot should make sense and be routable. Make sure sims have enough room to move around the house, and that they can access all items that can be used.
  • Roofing: The roof pieces should connect each other nicely, and not leave gaps between each other.
  • Landscaping: ?

Tip: Using Create a style-tool in TS3 can have a tremendous effect on how your lot will look. Please explore the possibilities of this tool. Selecting the patterns and colors yourself instead of using EA-made presets creates much more unique, and often better looking results.

A small tutorial here.

Uploading your Lot

Packaging your Lot

TS3-LotShare.jpg

Once you have finished building your lot in the game, you will need to save it and then Edit Town to return to the neighborhood. From there select your lot and click the Share button on the lot panel.

Enter the lot name and description on the next screen, and then click the checkmark. When it's done, you'll have a new .sims3pack file on your computer.

TS3-ExportedLot.jpg

Lots are saved to the Exports folder, which is located in My Documents\Electronic Arts\The Sims 3\Exports

Packaging Lots with no custom content

Installed sims3packs will package with your lot but package files do not do this. Some creators do not allow inclusion of cc in lots so you need to remove it when packaging.

LauncherNoCC.jpg
LauncherNoCCWarning.jpg
  • Start Launcher
  • Tick box "Run without custom content"
Take note of the warning. You are just going to the neighborhood to package the lot - you do not want to enter the lot.
  • Select the lot
  • Click Share in Lot panel

Title and description

It's important that you include certain information so that players know what to expect when they use your creation!

The following information should be in the text description for your upload.

Title

You probably already have a name for your lot - it makes a good title for your upload.

Description

You 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 your lot. It's nice to 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.

Screenshots

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.

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:

  • Pic requirements here


Credits and Links for Included and Pictured Content

Before uploading your lots please scan it with CUSTARD. Content that is installed from sims3packs will package with lots, and some patterns will package even if you didn't use them on the lot. Note: Presets of EA patterns do NOT package with lots.

Uploading

Once you have your creation made and screenshots taken, you need to make sure you have the correct files and information ready to do your upload.

Zip, Rar, or 7z
To upload your file(s) to MTS, you will need to compress them into an archive file, which makes them smaller and allows you to include many files in one download. The archive file formats we currently accept are .zip, .rar, and .7z.

For instructions on compressing your files into an archive, please see: Creator Guidelines: Creating Archive Files.

  • Do not include multiple archives with the same contents - that is, please don't put your files in both a .zip as well as a .rar because some people only want .zip files. Choose one format.
  • Do not double-compress your files... a .rar file inside another .rar file (or any other archive inside another) doesn't compress it anymore, and it makes it so we can't see the contents without downloading, and also just makes an extra step for the people downloading.
  • The file size limit on MTS is 50 mb. If you exceed this limit you will need to split your archives. This should probably never come up except for large worlds for The Sims 3, or huge sets of smaller items.
Upload in sets
If you have created several items in a set, or similar items in the same sort of theme at the same time, please upload these together in a single set, all on one thread (instead of all separately, one by one, on different threads). This is easier for everyone: on our upload moderators, as they only have one thread to review rather than several... on you, as submitting a single thread is much quicker and easier than several... and on downloaders, as they can get everything they want all in one place rather than having to hunt around.

If you are doing a huge set, you can always break the set up into pieces, posting more screenshots along with the downloads as comments in the thread, as is done here and here. To do that, create a new thread in the Creator Issues Forum and arrange your thread there, using the first post as an introduction, and attach your uploads and images to subsequent posts in the thread. When you're done, PM a moderator to have it moved to the upload queue. For more information, read the message that displays when you go to post in Creator Issues.

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 lots are ready for uploading, use the Creator Feedback Forum to get feedback on it.
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