So I,m trying to create my own world again, most of the sculpting is done, roads are laid out, spend ages adding retaining walls since it is geographically based on the map of Steelport (Saints Row) which is a bunch of islands with canals in between. I've placed some lots because I needed a sense of scale for where some building that are central to the build of their area are going to be.

So now I'm coming up to lot general placement and the question is, should I do this in CAW or wait for it and do it in game? What are the benefits of either way?
I've noticed I can drag lots out over items such as walls in CAW, not sure if I can do this in game, this would be essential for placing houseboat lots on the docks (over retaining walls).
I also imagine I can't really create (build) dive lots or proper houseboat lots? As CAW was never updated for that I can probably place lots just on the ocean floor but would they be build-able in game as dive lots?
Does Edit World have any advantages over placing in CAW (less/no tearing) or should I just do everything in CAW?

Any insight would be welcome.

The most important thing for players experience is routing, and I don't know, but can you even see routing in Edit World?

Placing lots in edit world means you will need a savegame file as far as I know. Do you plan on providing that you can build the houses in game. Placing the lots is better done in caw.

I have already tested the hoyseboat option in caw a bit for my Angkor Wat inspired world. I believe divelots can be made in caw as well. I made them for my Stranda world and plan 3 of them at least for this one as well. I plan to do it in caw and eig.

I have a feeling your knowledge is perhaps a bit outdated? I seem to remember such issues from before.

You need a tutorial when it comes to houseboats though. It's a bit fiddly and done the wrong way can end up in a mess. I found several when googling for it. Good Luck.

We have a subforum for caw, but I don't know where it has been moved to now. I will have to check it out. There is a lot of knowledge you will need there, and posting in that forum will attract world builders. You might not meet them here, perhaps more players, technical questions might need people who do it themselves.

The technical create-a-world forum is under sims3/modding in the top menu.

A world like that would be so cool! And to your question: always place empty lots in CAW. It offers all advantages - easy placement, easy changing. If you have lot tears, delete them and undo your action (if they already contained a built lot, you will have to place that again in Edit in Game (EIG) though). You can rotate lots and all those things. You have free choice of lot sizes. You can place lots over obstacles, like retaining walls. You have all lot types available, you can add beautiful vista values or change the default lot price for it. You can give it an address. All this can only be done in CAW.

Placing lots in game always is limited in comparison - a rock or some unroutable terrain might already prevent you from placing a lot of the desired size. You cannot add addresses or any of the other properties a lot can have.

A tiny FYI - you can add an address to a lot with the Tagger mod ; )
I've only been able to change the address on community lots or the lot the active sim is living in.

Another vote to place the lots in CAW. I only ever place a lot in game when the world is done and I am playing it and want to add one. There is a sequence for adding houseboats into custom worlds we are making. I have added them to worlds I have worked on. My guess is dive lots are placed in CAW if wanted and then built in EIG like any other. Have fun and post some photos when you can.

Thanks for the replies, looks like I'll be doing everything in CAW then

Last time I attempted this was 2012, when we didn't have the possibility to add lots in game. (only the option to use the extremely buggy/broken Edit in Game option in CAW)
It is something I always promised myself I'd do but never really got 'round to doing, until this summer when I had a surprise 3 week holiday, might as well do something useful I thought

It is a world I'm just planning to make for myself, a "Superhood" with elements of all the different EPs and different build up areas (urban, suburban, rural, beach front, trailer park etc.) I don't really have intentions of a public release, but I might look into it.

That is gonna be a heck of a lot of work and a huge project, and TBH odds are you will never get it done. There are many large multi-purpose worlds out there already that you can play. IMO plan something smallish, such as a vacation destination to get the hang of it again, and with a better chance of actually getting it finished so you can play and enjoy it.


Baby steps before you sign up for a marathon! :D

That sounds really neat! Some words of advice as someone now over a year in to a massive "meet every need" type of world. Use the rabbit hole rugs, and do not make a ton of giant lots. It's a whimsical idea, but ultimately just not worth the time sink. The rabbit hole rugs enable you to have the function on whatever size lot as long as it's big enough for the rug.

Have a strong concept going in of what it is you want and how it's laid out. Before you even get into CAW, make a doodle of where you want everything and a general shape of your world. figure in how many lots (roughly, you can always change it later) you want in each area. I've successfully finished a few worlds now, but the only ones that actually get done are the ones that I have a strong vision for. The wolds where I just kinda do whatever never really make it past the terrain paint and sculpt phase.

Best tip (wish I'd heard it earlier!) is set a time limit for building. This was my Achilles heel with starting my current world project. I would spend WAY too much time on one lot, and would get burnt out. I now have rough time constraints on each part of the lot. Two hours for general building (excluding windows because this world has a LOT of them, and I may give myself more time for large mansions), 2 hours on landscaping, and 1 hour per room of the lot. I may not use the whole time I give myself, but it helps a lot to prioritize what I really want and need out of a lot to keep an eye on how much time I'm wasting on pointless details.

Make a few template buildings, and just edit things slightly so the world is just different enough without requiring a from scratch lot to get things done. This was another huge issue I ran into, I wanted a world what matched an image from a series, which meant every building was unique, oddly shaped, and fit together like a puzzle. The oddity of these buildings also meant I needed the largest lot size for the entire city. I will NEVER do this again, as I'm now so ready to just finish the world that I am using hidden room markers to just black out large portions of the buildings so I don't have to decorate them.

Also, if you think you might upload your world somewhere, and have merged your store content by decrapifying, DO NOT use the merged store content! This created some really bad effects and someone here cautioned me against using it at all in builds I plan to make public. Since then I have separate folders. I have a build folder that has non merged store content and build mode CC only, and another that has everything.

Remove all irrelevant CC before doing things in CAW! Especially if using EIG a lot! CAW isn't the most stable, and the more you pile on for it to handle the worse it is. So all of the CAS content is useless, and outside of making a populated world, so are most mods. It isn't a play version of the game so don't have that content in the folder while using CAW. Like mentioned above, It really just is easier to have two copies of the Sims 3 folder if you have space. Have one folder that is just for world building so you don't make mistakes.

Also, I'm also team only place them in CAW. Placing them via EIG is just an annoying and frustrating process.

I agree with Daisylee! I've spent a year plus just editing an obscure, medium sized world I found hidden away on a forum on the internet.
Why go through all that trouble (and heartache) to make your own world when there are dozens of large worlds with all the things you mention you want in a world?
A few examples:
http://modthesims.info/t/567898
https://www.thesims3.com/assetDetai...assetId=4839095
http://sims3.thesimscatalog.com/sim.../alpine-county/

If you really want to build something in Create a World Tool - Beta ... Please finish this lovely world....I'm joking ...but really....I'd love for this one to be done
https://stefizzi.tumblr.com/post/11...rsion-of-bright

Thank you.

I have seen so many projects like this die on the vine as too ambitious. And I have also seen worlds done that are magnificent to look at and totally unplayable as overdone and too complicated. It can take years to make a large world and most folks just will not stick with it that long and/or run into problems and have to scrap them.

Odds are so much higher that a smaller project will actually be completed.

I know it is a big projects but that doesn't bother me, as I said it's a personal project so I can take all the time in the world. This is going to be the world I'll be playing in for hopefully years to come.
I'm going to take my time, only work on it if I'm motivated and taking a brake from it if I feel like it.

I'm not doing al the building from scratch, I looked at the buildings from the various worlds I have and picked certain lots that would do well in my world some can go right in , others need a bit of customizing al in al that is about 80 lots then there is a bunch of lots I've downloaded from here, like a couple of brownstones that would go well in my urban area. I also made a list of all the rabbit holes I'm going to need/want I'm looking at about 120-150 lots total, maybe a bit more.
I do have a strong vision of what I want to build, I've been thinking about this since 2012.

Please keep us posted about your progress. Lot of photos please.

Lots can sometimes be placed successfully in game in Edit Town mode, but it is tricky: sometimes the game won’t allow you to place a lot even on a perfectly flat, routable terrain with no obstacles on it; or a lot can’t be put right next to a road without leaving a gap, which is a common and a very annoying problem. There is, however, one benefit of adding lots this way: you won’t accidentally overlap an unroutable area, which is possible in CAW, but can result in major routing issues.

In CAW you can place lots almost anywhere on the map, no matter how your terrain is sculpted; you can technically overlap roads and deco objects with lots as well (the latter can be seen in some custom worlds), but it is strongly recommended to avoid this, since it can cause routing issues such as sims and animals getting stuck under an object overlapping the lot, etc. To make your world functional, put lots only on flat terrain or smooth slopes, and makes sure the terrain is routable under these lots before adding them; placing lots over the roads will cause routing problems as well.

Living in a country with sometimes fierce topology, making lots and houses on hilly terrain in CAW isn't a problem if you won't mind a few obsticles.

I have built 2 worlds with hilly terrain. A small one had very steep terrain and issues with terrainpaint on steep terrain, while Stranda didn't really have that steep terrain except on one lot.

Stranda had several lots with more gentle hills. I love building lots with a bit of topology. The houses looks so nice with a bit of height.

The routing isn't the biggest problem with hilly terrain in my opinion. The biggest problem has to do with downloading houses and place them in the world. It's not possible to find houses with the same kind of slopes unless it's made for the lot.

Otherwise unreasonable routing issues in even the flattest areas happens often. I haven't heard a lot about routing issues in Stranda. I think routing issues happens mostly because of a lack of attention to the problem when making the world. Routing is boring and time consuming. It also requires knowledge. It's so easy to skip.