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Original Post

Ooh this is an exciting project! And your hoover dam looks pretty good, although i'm not sure what the big white thing below it is doing, but i'm sure there's a reason for that One thing with the damn, shouldn't there be water going to the top basin of water?

I lol'd when I saw your plan, normal suburbia, i didn't think anything about Las Vegas is normal But your plan looks good, I like it a lot and you seem to have all the areas in all the right places for game play. Although from recollection I thought there were 2 strips in Las Vegas, there was 'the' strip, where all the major hotels and casinos are, but isn't there also another smaller strip that is (if possible) more seedy, and a bit rougher?

One thing I noticed when I went to Las Vegas was just how odd it all seemed, it really is in the middle of nowhere, and the houses are all in HUGE estates, packed in like sardines, so i think in your normal suburban area beneath the highway you should have lots of small bunched together houses. I hope this helps

You also definitely need cars with large boards on the back with half naked women holding phones, with phone numbers that cost $20 per second because there are a LOT of them.

Ohowowowowowowowowowowowowowo! LV! Now I can say, ''We're going to Vegas, baby.''
About the painting, maybe take a look at Red Desert (You need to download it, there aren't any pictures. But it isn't big anyway.) for terrain paint inspirations, it's done very realistic.

BTW, if you need help for houses, I'm there for you

Viva Las Vegas!

I love it already, although there is nothing there actually.
I didn't follow you're project of L.A. a lot, but I think I'll keep up with this one. I would love to see
how you build this city from the ground.

I never been to Vegas, nor I ever will (well.. I hope to) but I do think there are normal suburban neighbourhoods.
There are normal people there, I guess. It's not that every house is packed with lights and billboards and casino's. xd
I do agree about the white thing below the dam. What is it? And can it be removed?

I'm excited already and I would love to see an update. Can't wait. :D

Gabry, keep it up! :D

* edit:

And if you need help with building houses, I'm there for you too! xD

Oh, cool I actually live in Vegas atm so might be able to help if you have any questions about the area. I'm on the outskirts and don't bother going to the strip unless we have visitors over but I'm sure I could find stuff out if you needed to know anything, I just can't promise to get you answers right away

Also, are you gonna re-create all the casinos? That's quite a big undertaking Somebody recently (sorry, don't remember who off the top of my head) posted a Luxor like pyramid in creator feedback. You could ask to borrow that if you don't mind using other people's creations.

On that note: if you need any help with building I might be able to help a little. I'm sure I could easily re-create some of the typical Las Vegas style houses that are all around me for the "normal suburbia" area.

First of all: THANK YOU veryone, your support means everything to me!

@DeluxeDesign: There should be water, right? The problem is that there can be just one water level for the whole world: this means that only the river beneath can have "real water", the Dam (which is placed much higher) can only have "lot water", the one you create with Build mode... I'll put some stones and sprinkles to make a "natural spring" effect, unless someone has a better idea. :-|
I didn't know there was a second strip. I'll get some info about that!


@Zandvoort: Hummm, Red Desert is a bit too red for me. I think that desert around Vegas is more of a light brown, beige one, isn't it? I will still have a look at that, though. Of course, any help you would like to provide is totally appreciated.

@nikkicornelisse: The white thing below the dam... Well', let's just forget it I was looking for a way to connect the river and the dam but of course I failed, I have another idea though and will try to rebuild that part! When I will get to place lots and build on them (hopefully soon) I'll let you know so you can make some houses too, thanks.

@missroxor: Well, I'm not going to re-create all the casinos... The ones I thought about (and which I already made signs for) are: Luxor (because In TS3 we already have the sphinx), Paris (we already have an Eiffel Tower), Bellagio (it will be a nice challenge to re-create the fountains) Planet Hollywood and the Venetian. Probably some more, I'll decide. I was thinking that some casinos could be nightclubs, community pools and so one, while some others could be penthouses, like hotel suites. Watcha think?
As for the others, your help is much appreciated

Right now I'm gonna finish the highway and then sculpt/paint some terrain. Next step will be the airport (and I'll fix that DAMN DAM!)

I was so ''smart'' and searched for Nevada like terrain types, but LV is near Arizona I thought I'd search for Arizona terrain.


^Somewhere in Monument Valley

As you can see it's reddish-beige, I hope this helps

Caesar's Palace would be a great casino to use as a "pool". You could do a whole Roman Bath look with tons of columns and marble.

Arizona terrain is a little red, especially the ones from Sedona. But I like red, and I'm so excited for the outcome of this project. I've always had a thing for desert neighbourhoods. As for the comment on the suburban neighbourhoods, I think that you're right about starting off from the center of things. Vegas is like a clump of compact buildings and structures spreading out further and further away the more you get away from the center of things. Also, are you planning on using custom plants?

Another thing for the casinos: Barnacle Bay came with the pirate ship thing. I recall seeing a casino with a ship before. If you don't mind adding the ship in, then you're got a diner right there. But then again it's store content so it's really up to you. Maybe make the lot optional for those who have Barnacle Bay? Oh and don't forget the nectar.

The mirage volcano is probably do-able too with some lava terrain paint (I know there's some for CAW but not sure if that transfers to normal game terrains) and I'm sure you can get the effect with a combination of fountain drops, fire and light fog from the fog emitters and some well placed coloured lights

I love the idea of using some of the casinos as apartment buildings, that'll be awesome! Maybe some of the more regular shaped ones like the Rio or the Wynn (without the curve, lol) would be good apartment buildings? I think both would be pretty easy to build.

There's one that's opposite the Mirage that looks like a little row of victorian houses but I can't for the life of me remember what it's called...I could be wrong but I think it's irish themed, could maybe be an irish bar? I actually took some pics of that one last time I was down that way because I thought about trying to re-create it myself but then never bothered so if you fancy it let me know and you can use my pics for reference if you want.

@Zandvoort: Thank you! I decided I'll work on the terrain paint later, though, or paint little by little the parts of the city I'm focusing on.

@RedHead: Great idea! I'll definitely do it.

@BartholomewMaximillion: Yeah, Treasure Island. That place is to die for. I'll think about the pirate ship... Probably that's one of the few worlds where that object wouldn't look inappropriate! I never downloaded that world, though. I'll figure out if it's worth spending money for it...

@missroxor: The volcano would definitely make this world unique, I'll follow your instructions when I'll build casinos The Wynn is an amazing building, but there's no way it could be done in TS3. The curve and the whole shape would make it look extremely awakward... But the Rio or even the Palms could look good.
I looked on Google Maps and in front of the Mirage there's like a little village of victorian houses, it's called Casino Royale and looks very charming! Maybe I'll turn it into an irish bar as you suggested

Barnacly bay? I've played with it at my neighbours', it isn't that special, and buying it for the pirate ship only would be a bit.. useless I think.

Does somebody know what this means? It happens when I try to save in Edit-In-Game.

Hmm, I believe I had that before..
But I just closed my world after that error and restarted it and it did save.. (although it said it didn't)

I don't know if it's exactly the same thing, because I don't know the exact translation from Dutch.

I know some people have been having problems with CAW ever since the Generations patch. Dunno if it's the same thing and dunno if there's a fix yet but might be worth searching for.

Gabrymato, see here:
http://www.modthesims.info/showthread.php?t=445028

Oh, I fixed it. Well, I have to open the world in EIG, close CAW, go back to EIG, save, and that works.
Sometimes I wonder why I'm still playing The Sims while there are plenty of other videogames which work smoothly and without any of these stupid issues.

I built the airport, what do you think?




Do you think it's a good idea to make an underpass under the Sphinx? (Please don't look at that awful pyramid)

Love that airport area. If you made the tarmac darker it would stand out as different from the surrounding road.
Not too keen on the sphinx. Will there be routing issues with that?

Oh your airport is awesome, i thought it was a rabbit hole at first great work!

Also, i really like the underpass under the sphinx, i mean realistically i think that the sphinx would probably collapse with a big hole under it, but it's the sims, and it looks cool so who cares! :D

There's something similar to that underpass beneath the real Sphinx:

And if I put the statue on the middle of the road cars would go through it anyway, so... At least with the underpass there's a physical reason for cars to pass through the sphinx! I'll add palms and stuff so it won't look like the result of an earthquake as it does now.

@tizeris: I don't think there will be routing issues. I remember that once I left a tree in the middle of the road, and cars would go through it anyway.

Maybe there's a way you can put the Sphinx higher so you can make an underpass like that ^

DD: I personally don' think so, since it's the fake Sphinx, guess it's no big stone mass like the real one

The airport looks awesome! It looks very realistic.

I also like the Sphinx. As Zandvoort suggested, maybe you can make the Sphinx higher so the road stays on the same level, as the real Sphinx.
Under the real Sphinx you can park you're car (as you can see on that picture), so it would be logic if the road is on the same level as the rest of the roads.
But if it's not possible, I think the lowered road is fine too.

That was mighty good of the ancient Egyptians to have the forethought to make our commute that little bit more interesting

Like others suggested I would maybe raise it a little so there's more of a gap between the sphinx and the road.

Love the airport! My only suggestion would be to maybe add more lights? Airports, runways especially, are always brightly lit so they're visible 24/7. I'd maybe even consider adding road junctions to the ends with a striped crosswalk to simulate the threshold (see below) ....but maybe that's going into too much detail, I dunno, lol

Ok, I placed the Sphinx two tiles higher (the maximum without having it floating in the air) and also heightened up the road. I also started the first casino, the Bellagio.

oh
my
GORD

Ok that is seriously amazing! You should consider having an underground carpark, there is an entrance to the left hand side in the real building. But that might be quite difficult to do post build. The overall look and feel is fantastic though, i appreciate you couldn't do the angles of the wings because of the limits of 45 degree angles of the walls in game, but it still looks phenomenal. And the fountains out the front are very epic and realistic! Super work!