Hi there! You are currently browsing as a guest. Why not create an account? Then you get less ads, can thank creators, post feedback, keep a list of your favourites, and more!
Test Subject
Original Poster
#1 Old 22nd Mar 2015 at 10:59 PM Last edited by 03lilly : 2nd Sep 2015 at 11:23 PM.
Default Vallar - Swiss inspired with a Tropical twist (testing and feedback wanted)
Vallar



Hello :-)

Vallar is a large mountainous tropical world with a hot climate and white sandy beaches. Vallar is my own personal world which I made a long time ago. It used to be very much a mountainous wet "highland" type landscape but island paradise inspired me to make it more tropical and implement some of the features like houseboats and resorts into the world.

Vallar has been a project that I've been slowly working on and off for years; I created Vallar after world adventures came out and ever since then I've been updating the world to fit the themes of the expansion packs. I think it's about time I shared this world.

I would love some people to give this world a try and give me some feedback and suggestions before I officially call this world final. I hope you enjoy the world :-)

(Credits and other creators I've taken inspiration from - see at the bottom of the post)

World stats


Size: Large
Lots: commercial: 42 Res: 39
Expansion packs needed: World Adventures, Ambitions, Late night, Generations,Pets, showtime, supernatural, seasons and Island paradise.
Custom Content recommended: Sunlit Tides. (I have tried to remove most custom content, I might have missed a few things so don't be too worried if you get a message when first playing the world)
Recommended Mods: (although no essential) Nraas Overwatch, Nraas Error Trap

Pictures



Updated pictures - recolored some roofs to a more Italian theme











Some slightly older pics with a more "fun tropical" theme, including more blue rooftops






The "Old England" Architecture a lot of the old buildings follow this style.



"The Drunken Duck" The Vallar local watering hole. Meet the locals here!







A luxurious resort:



Fusion Garden at night:


"Val Islando" A luxurious resort on a west island




















West country






A lakeside venue











Some colorful houses near the Town Center (these are actually modified houseboats on land)


Beach











Inspirations from other creators

Currently in Vallar there are 3 modified venue's and one residential lot which are originally featured in Queenstown (created by AweSims). This is a very beautiful world and I would urge people to download this world (see link below); I got many inspirations from this creator and their worlds, which are very beautiful and scenic.

I gave my own twist to these lots to fit into the theme and culture of Vallar and completely modified the interior of the venue's.

http://awesims.sixty-ten.net/2011/0...s-3-queenstown/

Currently there are some placeholder lots in the world (which I have modified and refurbished) which feature throughout various expansion packs; some of them serve as a temporary lot until I get round to making my own. Many of the lots however have been made completely from scratch, including various parks, venue's, houses and resorts. Now that I've officially released this world as a project, I intend to continue to work on lots.

I am a massive J.R.R. Tolkien fan; the name Vallar comes from his works "valar or the undying lands". A world which lies across the ocean from middle earth. The world is also based on one of my favorite places in England; Windemere in the Lake district.
Advertisement
Scholar
#2 Old 22nd Mar 2015 at 11:11 PM
I'm loving so much about this. In fact, I pretty much love it all, except for the blue-green (turquoise?) roofs.
For some reason it feels like they're clashing with the rest of the colours of your world.

Maybe if there weren't any orange or red objects so near them?
Test Subject
Original Poster
#3 Old 22nd Mar 2015 at 11:16 PM
Quote: Originally posted by tsyokawe
I'm loving so much about this. In fact, I pretty much love it all, except for the blue-green (turquoise?) roofs.
For some reason it feels like they're clashing with the rest of the colours of your world.


Ahh yes. That was a risky decision on my part, originally the roofs were all light brown (Spanish style villa type), then I thought I'd try the blueish color for a more "fun, tropical effect". Now you mention it I'll definitely consider changing back to the original Spanish theme.

Thanks for the comment. Criticism and suggestions are more than welcome!
#4 Old 22nd Mar 2015 at 11:50 PM
oh my goodness, this is amazing! Very beautiful and the sculpting and painting of terrain is amazing!
Test Subject
Original Poster
#5 Old 23rd Mar 2015 at 9:27 AM
Quote: Originally posted by fairycake89
oh my goodness, this is amazing! Very beautiful and the sculpting and painting of terrain is amazing!


Thank you, much appreciated!

Just a quick note, I'm willing to share the CAW files and make this an open source project if anyone wishes to help me out on this; new lots, venues etc. There's still quite a lot a want to achieve in this world eventually and this includes re-making some of the lots and introducing new ones.
Test Subject
Original Poster
#6 Old 30th Mar 2015 at 12:26 AM Last edited by 03lilly : 30th Mar 2015 at 12:47 AM.
Just a small update here. I've decided to concentrate more on sculpting, terrain painting and scenery before I move onto the lots. I've changed the mountain range; there's now a large valley running through the hills. Before, I felt like the mountain range was sort of concealing most of the map. Now it feels a little bit more "open" I guess. I've scraped the blue roof theme too. One thing that I need to do is find some good distant terrain that fits this world... so far I'm out of ideas.

I'm now going to concentrate on individual lots and try and give the town more character; ideally I want the world to have a Swiss feel about it. Many of the lots are currently placeholder lots (such as the festival ground) until I get round to fixing them up / completely rebuilding them. Suggestions and criticism are more than welcome. Also like I said, I'm willing to share this project since I'm very busy at the moment

Some pics of the new scenery










some other shots:







Instructor
#7 Old 30th Mar 2015 at 9:17 AM
It's beautiful. I love how you've made the terrain with a lot of hills, yet flat-ish surfaces for building It's a shame my computer doesn't like large maps.
Scholar
#8 Old 30th Mar 2015 at 6:30 PM
I agree with Tigerdyhr. I love the grassy slopes and the little inlets of the river/fjord, and how you've nestled little places for lots.
#9 Old 30th Mar 2015 at 8:42 PM
I have to repeat myself .. The terrain painting is just gorgeous - I am painting a tiny island at the moment and I am no where near your standard of gorgeousness.
Test Subject
Original Poster
#10 Old 31st Mar 2015 at 11:29 PM
@Tigerdyhr: Thank you, much appreciated

@tsyokaweA: Thank you - a lot of the scenic ideas behind this world came from my childhood memories of the Lake district Cumbria (North England). I'm trying to mimic the hilly landscape and long narrow lakes and tarns. I'm also thinking of making the lake one huge body of water that feeds in from the valley and then adding more lots around the edge. As for the lot's, I'm going to completely redo 90% of them. I want the lots to have a "Swiss" feel; tall pointy towers and castle turrets over looking the lake.

@fairycake89: I like the sounds of that, I really like small cosy islands - good luck with your world! Terrain painting and sculpting can be a very frustrating process. I'm sure you're just being modest =) just keep playing around with the textures and messing around with the sculpting tool and I'm sure you'll get what you want.

Here are some buildings in Switzerland which I would like to mimic in Vallar:







some scenery:



Field Researcher
#11 Old 4th Apr 2015 at 1:24 PM
The concept is really interesting and the world looks very charming and beautiful. It must be very fun to play with IP, given that there is water all around
Looking forward to seeing more!

Find all my creations here:
My blog: Nilxis Designs // My Tumblr page: http://nilxis.tumblr.com
Test Subject
Original Poster
#12 Old 11th Apr 2015 at 11:51 PM
Quote: Originally posted by Nilxis
The concept is really interesting and the world looks very charming and beautiful. It must be very fun to play with IP, given that there is water all around
Looking forward to seeing more!


Thank you Nilxis! Yes it's fun but also very frustrating as I want to get some nice distant terrain to fit the world. Thanks for the comment.

Anyway just another small (and fairly boring) update, I'm now completely done with the terrain sculpting and painting. I've re-done a lot of the painting to try and make the cliffs and mountains more realistic and I've tried to beautify the landscape by adding trees, rocks and waterfalls.

I know my posts are starting to get a little repetitive because so far I've mainly posted scenic views, but the next update will be focusing entirely on new lots. (I've added many more lot spaces around the lake so I'm looking forward to getting started).

I've also fixed many issues regarding routing, road smoothing, custom content (this world will be cc free once done) and more.

Pics:

New landscape beautification: waterfalls, trees etc





some vertical shots of new terrain painting:








A lot that I've started working on (a lakeside venue):




I plan to build a large castle on this lot. I picked this location so it overlooks the lake



That's all for now. I've been extremely busy with things so I haven't done as much on the lots as I would've liked. I think progress is going to be slow over the next two weeks but after that I hope to have bit more time to myself to start on the lots. It might be a while before the next update, as I hope to show a lot more
Instructor
#13 Old 12th Apr 2015 at 6:22 AM
Well, at the risk of me repeating myself too, it looks gorgeous. I can't even begin to imagine the time that paint job must've taken. It's beautiful
Test Subject
Original Poster
#14 Old 2nd Sep 2015 at 11:22 PM
It's been a while. This project has been dead for a while because I've been extremely busy over the past couple of months, however I can now start to pick it up again. Hoping the release will be soon. Again, if anyone wants to help me with this project I would be more than happy to share the CAW files.

I've taken the old download down, because I feel this world has changed so much and there have been lots of improvements, I will put a beta download soon in the first post.

Update
- New lots (new castle situated on a small island right in the center of the lake), lots of new houses added.
- New terrain reshape, mountains etc, lake is now a huge continuous body of water splitting the map, new lots have been added around the lake. There is now a "celebrity" section of the map including larger houses.

Pictures:

























A Chinese style exclusive venue:





A house I made in a previous game (I literally just plonked it in the world, looks very out of place with the palm trees and edges are not conformed yet... needs some work:







Back to top