Catch me at my other sites! (Tumblr + The Sims Depot, etc.)

 Hey, everyone!

You may have noticed that things have gotten a little quiet here. The reason why couldn't be more weird. A few years ago, I jumped ship from Blogger to Wordpress because Russian hackers were all over Blogger making a mess of stats. On top of that, the editor was becoming a mess. Anything that you posted was always out of alignment when you finally published.

Fell in love with WordPress and used that for awhile. Then WordPress, for no reason that makes sense, decided to mess up a good thing by rolling out a ridiculous update called Gutenberg, which made it so that you had to relearn WP all over again. Angry and frustrated, I moved back to Blogger. Then, lo and behold, Blogger decided to roll out a frustrating update of its own that did the same thing but seems to be even worse than Gutenberg! Not only was everything out of whack, Blogger keeps dropping and changing buttons every other week. Like, right now as I'm typing this, I can't see where the options are to center text. (Are you kidding me??? 😡) Okay, I eventually found it, but c'mon...it took me five minutes clicking everywhere to find it.)

This issue is why I started posting less and less on Blogger even though I had loads of updates for Pottersville and my other projects. It was getting too annoying to post while trying to figure out where the "read more" button had jumped to that week, why images were now posting at a fraction of their size or why another button was now buried in the place you'd least expect it to be.

In any event, future updates on my CAW projects will be available at my Simblr, where I post on a regular basis. I'm pretty much done with Blogger at this point (too annoying). Ironically, I might go back to posting at my WordPress blog, too. Anyway, here are sites to bookmark:

For Create a World updates, pics, etc.:
My Simblr

My Personal Website:  

The Sims Depot

My YouTube Channel:  

youtube@ts1depot

BTW, good job on this update, Blogger. Ya, really! *slow clap* *roll eyes* 🙄

Pottersville (WIP) Update: Currently Populating

Hey, everyone--just a quick update: I am currently populating Pottersville. What this means is that the world is very close to being released. Sorry if it seemed as if I've been dragging my feet getting this world out, but trust me--I've been working on the world overtime over the past several weeks to fix all the glitches, visual mistakes and other issues after the last play testing session. In any event, the world is back on track and should be released shortly. 😀

Pottersville (WIP): Some More Preview Pics from Play Testing Session

Hey, everyone! I'm still working as hard as possible to finally clean up and fix Pottersville of its minor glitches and issues. Right now, I'm playing through all the seasons to make sure that the Festival Ground is working correctly and to see how the world looks in Spring, Summer, Fall and Winter. I also have to keep playing because as I said in a previous post, there are some issues with a Showtime stage. The proprietor keeps complaining that she can't finish her show, and I'm waiting for a new version of the venue to generate a new SimFest in-game to check and see if I've got the problem licked.

 

Seasonal Lot

In any event, below are some more screenshots from the latest play testing sessions.This is to reassure everyone waiting for this world that I am indeed grinding to get this released. 

Co-Op City during the winter.

Co-Op City at night.

The Showtime stage at Riverside Park-East. This is
not the one that's glitching, but there's a weird thing
going on where sims will randomly respawn
back to their house as if they are unroutable.

The bar at the same park. I really love how
those four towers dominate the skyline no matter
where you look in Pottersville.

Mini-Update on Pottersville: Play Testing for Last Time, But There are Still Some Minor Issues

This past week, I've been heavily play testing Pottersville to hell and back to make sure that everything's in working order. For the most part, everything seems fine. However, there's an issue I'm having with one of the Showtime stages unfortunately, and I have to fix it before I can officially release Pottersville.

Dawn over Hacienda Drive

 

Another Update on Pottersville (WIP)

Hey, everyone!

The last time I posted, I said that I was very close to finishing Pottersville but still needed to do tweaking and other things before I could release it. This is why I haven't been posting of late. I've literally been so busy fixing and tweaking Pottersville that I haven't had time to update what I've been up to on this blog.

The very close to being completed Pottersville.

Pottersvile (WIP): Mini-Update--Will Be Populating World Soon

Hey, everyone--just a mini-update on Pottersville. I've pretty much cleaned the world up and will finally start populating it soon. The process of tweaking and cleaning up took such a long time because Pottersville is a huge world, and I had to go over it several times to make sure that I didn't miss anything. 

In any event, yes, I'm still very much working on it, and yes...it will be released soon. It's just a matter of populating, putting in household bios and making sure that all of the lots have street names. 

Pottersville, seaside/beach area.

Pottersville (WIP): Two More New Residential Lots (Motels)

Pottersville's lighthouse is on an island that connects to the mainland. For the longest time, I was thinking of leaving it deserted. But as I was fixing the world, I felt that the area was too nice to leave empty, so I built two more residential lots in a motel style.

The island and lighthouse. The two new motels are in the foreground.

The two motels.

A closeup of the two motels. They each have 7 bedrooms.

By the way, I promise that this is the last time I build anything new in this world. You guys have been waiting long enough!

Pottersville (WIP): Gone Fishing (In-Game Screenshots)

One of the things that I had to go back in and fix while cleaning up Pottersville were the shorelines. There will be lots of places to fish there, so it was very important that the shorelines were sculpted correctly and the routing around them were in working order before putting in fish spawners. Below, you can see what a mess some of them were before tweaking. Sims were standing in weird places, and areas didn't look properly sculpted:

Yikes!!!!

Now, after a lot of sculpting and routing paint, everything looks better and I can finally place my fish spawners. Below are the main areas your sims will enjoy in the upcoming future:

Area One:

This is a very large lake in the "grungy" side of town. I deliberately made it gunky, because this is supposed to be the run down part of Pottersville.

 Area Two:

An ocean shoreline near the lake above, which sims can either run to or get to via water taxi (if you have Island Paradise installed).

Area Three:

This is an ocean shoreline that lies right outside Pottersville, near the entertainment district and Plumbob Studios backlot. I placed some sea gulls and wave effects out here, so everything sounds very calm and soothing.

 

I have a lot of other fishing areas in and around Pottersville, but I'm keeping them a secret so I don't give away too much. After all, part of the fun in trying out a new world is exploring it, and Pottersville wouldn't be much fun if you saw every inch of it beforehand!

Pottersville (WIP): More Cleaning Up, Tweaking, etc.

Yesterday, I had an update showing all the various tedious things I'm now in the process of adding to Pottersville to make it feel more polished and complete. But then Blogger's new updated software got stupid, so I wasn't able to post screenshots. Now here I am again, wrestling with this new and "improved" version of Blogger (*cough*). In the off-chance that I'm not posting fast enough on this blog, you can check out my Tumblr, where posting screenshots is so much easier.

Area awaiting completion in terms of landscaping.

Pottersville (WIP): Tweaking World, Before and After Shots

This weekend, I've been looking for glitches, errors, etc. as I play test. I've also been seeing how I can tweak the world in terms of landscaping, because some areas still looked kind of dead or unfinished to me. Below, I will post some below and after shots to show how adding trees, rocks, etc. can go a long way in making any world come alive:

BEFORE: This is a section of the world that I was very unhappy with. It
looked very grey and unfinished to me.

Pottersville (WIP): Play testing, Preview Screenshots, Part 2 (The Beach and Boardwalk)

Below are more play testing screenshots from Pottersville, specifically of the beach:

Overview of the beach

Beach from a distance

The bathrooms and bar.

Chillaxing, with the bathrooms and
bar in the background.

Pottersville (WIP): Play testing, Preview Screenshots

This past week, I started play testing Pottersville. Everything seems to be okay for the most part, but I turned up some routing errors that I have to fix. In any event, here are some screenshots:

Downtown Pottersville, looking towards
Cascade Plaza.

Pottersville (WIP): Still Cleaning Up Sites, Looking for Mistakes, etc.

Hey, everyone! Just wanted to post another update on Pottersville. Right now, I'm still in the process of combing over the world, looking up anything that looks sloppy or unfinished, as well as fixing any mistakes that may have turned up. I will show you some examples below of the typical type of little errors that often happen in the course of a world that need to be cleaned up upon release:

Misaligned lots are a common mistake in CAW.
Here, you can see one where the road isn't
straight against one side of the lot.

Pottersville (WIP): Took Out Some Lots, Adding More Builds

This past weekend, I started taking a long, hard look at Pottersville, because there were too many lots. I managed to whittle the count down to 210. However, there's a chance that I'll add four more back in for Island Paradise users. I won't actually build on those lots. I'll just leave them empty in case players who have IP can build their docks and houseboats in them. Maybe after I release Pottersville, I'll build an IP version with lots. But for now I'll just place empty lots.

Pottersville (WIP): Cleaning Up Lots, Doing Appraisals, Etc.

So, right now I'm in the phase of world building where although things on the surface look pretty much complete, there are some things I need to do to make sure that everything looks good and feels polished before I release it.

Will Update My Other Worlds; First Stop: Oceanview

I've been building worlds for a very long time, and have come a long way since building my first world, Oceanview. So, after finishing up Pottersville, I am going to go back into my older worlds and improve them.

Pottersville (WIP): Public Pool, Possibly Poolside Club

There's a 50x50 lot in Pottersville that I had originally decided to leave empty because it's where I wanted someone to be able to place Sims 3 Store content, namely World of Wonder. But because this lot is located in a "busy" location, it looked weird leaving it empty. So I first built a placeholder structure. Then before I knew it, the structure turned into a pool venue!

Overview of new pool venue.

Pottersville (WIP): Library, Gym and Park

So, for the longest time, I had problems figuring out what to do with a particular part of Pottersville. I was just stuck for ideas and left the area undeveloped for months.

Well, finally, I figured out what to do. This area of Pottersville is kind of remote from where the action is (Downtown, Co-Op City), so I built a library, park and gym out there. Originally, I was going to place some residential lots but I already have way too many, IMO.

Library #2 in Pottersville. The second one is
located way across town in Co-Op City, so
residents of Hacienda Drive will sure to
appreciate this one.

Pottersville is About 98% Done

Well, after spending so much time on Pottersville, it looks as though the world is pretty close to being finished.

Pottersville (WIP): Boulevards and Side Streets

Something about Pottersville that always bugged me were the side streets and boulevards in Downtown. They just didn't look polished to me. So, I went back into the area this week and started working on them. Now I'm much happier with them, although there's still a ways to go:

Main boulevard, looking north. Some work
still needs to be done but it looks better than it
did before.

Sims 3 Create a World WIP-Pottersville Update

Pottersville (WIP): Seaside Area

For the longest time, I had neglected the seaside areas of Pottersville because I was stumped about what to put there. But finally, after grappling with it for so long, I became inspired, and now this part of the world is no longer neglected.

Freshly fleshed out seaside portion of Pottersville.

Big Update Coming Soon...Just Sit Tight

So, if you've been following this blog, you'll notice that I haven't posted any updates for the past couple of weeks. Ironically, it's not because I've stopped working on Pottersville; it's that I've become so bogged down working on it that I didn't have time to update my progress on this blog.

Plus, Blogger updated its dashboard, but in a way that's become very confusing and frustrating, which has slowed me down even further. On top of that, I went back to updating all of my other TS1-related websites, like my Tumblr and The Sims Depot. Oh, and I launched a Patreon account, too.

So, I've been a very busy beaver. In the meantime, as you're waiting for a new update, feel free to  hop over to my website, Tumblr or Patreon page.

WIP (Pottersville): More In-Game Screenshots

After play testing Pottersville some more this past week, I was able to get some more in-game screenshots. As you can see, the world is finally shaping up!

Looking across the water, from the South

Another shot across the water

WIP (Pottersville): Some More Nighttime Shots

Well, it looks like I'm heading into the homestretch with Pottersville. I'm about 80% done with the world. I'm seriously in shock right now. As large and complicated as it was, I never thought I'd ever get to a point where I'd be this close to completing it.

Pottersville (WIP): Riverside Park (Left Bank)

I have two riverside parks in Pottersville, one on the left bank, one on the right. At one point, I decided to tear this bank down, but recently changed my mind when I saw this view of the park across the water in-game:

View of left bank riverside park across
the water from Downtown.

Another view of left bank riverside park from Downtown.

Pottersville (WIP): Work on Underpass #1 Almost Complete

I have two underpasses in Pottersville, and I just did a lot of work on the first one that connects Downtown to Hacienda Drive. I was afraid completing it would be a nightmare but it turned out much easier than I thought:

Eastern entrance to underpass, looking towards
Hacienda Drive.

Pottersville (WIP): Apartment Life

While play testing Pottersville this past week, I was able to sneak in a few screenshots of sims in various apartments. Here are a few of them:

Cooking up some breakfast.

Pottersville (WIP): Some In-Game Shots of Downtown Pottersville During Playtesting

Last week, I went back to play testing Pottersville for bugs and routing glitches. Unfortunately, I found quite a few and am crossing my fingers that I'll be able to fix them. In the meantime, here are some in-game screenshots of Pottersville in and around Downtown.

Pottersville (WIP): Aqua Vita

Aqua Vita is a poolside club located in the heart of Downtown Pottersville. The outside is done in a crazy postmodern style, and the inside of it is very Las Vegas/mod:

Pottersville (WIP): Googie's Consignment Shop

In Co-Op City, there's an atomic age style consignment shop called "Googie's."

Googie's from the outside.

Pottersville (WIP): Downtown at Night

This week, I have been testing Pottersville and was able to get some cool shots of Downtown at night:

One of the main boulevards in Downtown Pottersville.
This one runs east to west.

Pottersville (WIP): Odyssey Club

I just started work in one of Pottersville's many nightclub venues. One of them will be "Odyssey," a funky dance club with metallic and concrete interiors:

Odyssey bar.

Pottersvile (WIP): Gooder School

Well, after months of stalling, I finally completed the lot for Gooder School, which is located Downtown. I think it looks pretty good:

Gooder School, early morning. Still looks a little
bare to me, so will probably be adding more stuff
in the future.

WIP (Pottersville): Some Apartment Screenshots

I spent a lot of work over the past two weeks completing apartments left and right in Pottersville. I   think they're a lot better than the ones I built in my other worlds because I finally learned how to lay everything out in a way to make them feel more apartment-like. Below, some screenshots:

 

WIP (Pottersville): Cascade Plaza, Nighttime Pics

Below are nighttime screenshots of Cascade Plaza, an area of stepped platforms and staircases in Downtown Pottersville. Keep in mind that it's still very much a work in progress, so it will look pretty sparse in some screenshots. That's because at this stage, I'm trying to work out routing issues first before finally completing the lots. Once I can be sure that routing is fixed, I'll go back in and finish the lots.

Eastern side of Cascade Plaza.

WIP (Pottersville): Cascade Plaza, Daytime Pics

Every world that I make, I try to have it based around a main feature. With Oceanview, it was its hideaway piers. With Sim Acres, the main feature was its art deco district. With Riverside, it was the entertainment district. Pottersville's main feature will be an area of Downtown that I call Cascade Plaza:

Overview, from the southeast.