Wednesday, March 24, 2010

THE PROSPEROUS WRAITHSANDS: A DESERT WORLD OF GHOSTS (Updated 2/28)

UPDATE: For those who downloaded the sims3pack version, I added a link to the save game folder. Sorry about that!

UPDATE 2/27: Added a new save file. The other apparently wouldn't extract for people. 


UPDATE 2/28: If the save file that comes with the .world version doesn't work, download the one posted way at the bottom! It is confirmed to work perfectly! :D

Finally! Finally I have completed a world!


Hundreds of years ago, there was a great war in the desert. Two sides met where two rivers met, and fought. At the center of these rivers was a desert between high rock walls, and lots of people lived here. The fighting was ruining their desert and staining it with blood. The people, desperate, prayed and prayed to their god to stop the war and let them get back to their peaceful lives.

And their god responded. But their god was not the best god. He sometimes would accidentally tell someone to stop cooking and use the toilet, setting their house on fire. Sometimes he'd forget to put a phone in someone's house and they'd go weeks without noticing. He wasn't very good at what he did.

So his response to the war was to kill everyone involved, except the people of the desert. But in his incompetence, the god...well, killed everyone. A giant wave rushed towards the desert, drowning everyone, even the innocent.

The water washed away to reveal an odd shape in the sand. It was the river, which now flowed away from the sea, never allowing such a war to happen again, since nobody could get back to the town.

 

500 years or so later, the god managed to fix things. Kinda. Everyone was suddenly revived- it was as if they had never died. They didn't even know a second had passed. Since the Reaper hadn't been able to reach them beneath the waters, no one was sent to the afterlife, and they were essentially in stasis. What's more, the resurrection lead to immense prosperity! Plants grew all over the place! Grass surrounded the water!

In his incompetence, the god also resurrected those who had already died! The people who died before the wave came back, too. Most opted to jump right back into their graves and go back to their condos in the afterlife, but some stayed behind.

A couple years passed. The normal world found out about this world of ghosts and it has begun to be populated. Scientists, occult-obsessed goths, regular people looking for a change, and voyeurs who want to see the ghosts, all moving into the desert. After all, it's modern times...the rivers won't let any boats in, but there's nothing stopping the planes.

What will happen?

Will your sim be a ghost? A ghost-watcher? A scientist? A curious goth? Will the ghosts live in peace with the living? It is up to you, in the Wraithsands.


 

The Wraithsands is divided into a few districts. There's...


The developing town, Polterton. The sims weren't very...sensitive. So the name is a bit of a tourist trap kind of thing.


Polterton has a small residential area, built around a palm forest. Only a bit of the forest remains, made into a park for adults...


And a park for children.


Another small park leads into the town center, which is punctuated by an ENORMOUS manmade oasis/reflecting pool.


Which is surrounded by the school...


The Shopping District...


The Hospital/Sunstroke Clinic...


And City Hall. There's also a boring Police Station.


Far down the highway is another district...


A small hick town along the highway.It is called Kalamiaris.

Highlights include:


The Wraithsands Whailer's Stadium...


And a small underdeveloped housing district of cheap, prefabricated homes. There's also an office, a spa, and a grocery store. This is meant to be so that sims have to commute. Sims who live here must go to the city for those jobs, and those in the city must come here to work in an office.


Across from the small town is this little area of homes, situated near an oasis. Nobody quite understands where the water comes from, but it's assumed to be a miracle brought on by The Resurrection.


This area is lucky to have a full water table- which is exploited by the village center, a fancy oasis.


At the far north of town is another small cluster of homes.


Which rests down the road from the immigration office and airport.

The other side of the river is home to a more prosperous little area, which is home to an oasis- WITH A TOMB HIDDEN UNDER IT- and a palace.



Rumor has it that the man in the palace is actually one of the warriors from the war, brought back in the ressurection, living in secrecy.

Across the river by the pyramid is yet another near-identical palace.


Which, too, is said to be home to another warrior...from the other side.


And near it is the badlands, a barren, rocky area with little significance.


Near the point where the rivers meet is a small farmland.


Which rests in front of a rocky crag, which used to have religious significance to the people, but the significance has been lost. It is nothing more than a point on the horizon.


The river forks have a few small houses and a few cmpsites, as well.


And behind the hills is an enormous oasis.

Since it's hard to tell, here's an image to give you an idea of just how freaking enormous this world is.


That is the oasis I just showed you.




So what kind of sims live here? I don't have many example pictures, but the ghosts mostly have their own stories. For example...


The males in the center are lovers. The woman on the left is the left man's mother, and the man on the right is the right man's father. The two could not be together when their parents were alive. But their parents died, the mother in a cooking accident, and the father of old age. When this happened, the two moved in together. But when the resurrection happened, their parents came back...and didn't leave like some of the others. Now they're stuck with their bigoted parents in their home. What will they do?

When this woman and her family were killed by the wave, her son's body floated away. It didn't stay in the desert...so when everyone was resurrected, her child was left behind. He is lost in the afterlife and his mother desperately seeks a way to get him back. Will she find one?

Other families include A pair of scientists, one obsessed with the ghosts, the other trying to get him to notice her, and a pair of goths, who hope to get to know the ghosts and probably won't be very graceful about it. 

There's also a home in a few places you might recognize. It is sunken into the ground for cooling purposes...but one is inhabited by foreigners who just might bear a familiar pair of faces.

There are also guest appearances by de-custom-content-ified versions of a couple sims i have made. :D
This world is complete. It has houses, rabbit holes, spawners (though I can't for the life of me remember where the hell they are), everything. It does not have every spawner(though you can add whatever ones you want to any lot using the debug catalog), and it is far from being full of lots (there are plenty of empty ones to choose from). Some homes were built by me from scratch, but plenty of them were taken from Egypt. A lot of the sims were made by me, but some are renamed and ghost-ified egyptian families, too. I tried to give almost every family a story.

When playing the world, you might notice 4 lots: An empty lot with a small mine on it, two pyramids, and "Abu Simbel". These are empty community lots. I intend on eventually building tombs to fill them, but don't wait up for them. :p

(Here's some pics of the lots. There are 114 lots on this world!)


When you first open the world, you will be playing a sim who is living in a completely unfinished home.


Those plaques will recount, in detail, the story of the world and what it is for. I would really appreciate it if you took the time to have your sim read them. :D

This world requires NO custom content. Absolutely none. 

To install it, extract the .world file to documents/electronicarts/thesims3/installedworlds. Extract the save folder to documents/electronicarts/thesims3/saves. 


There are minor issues:

-The water has some of those stupid triangles of no-water. This appears in France, most obviously, and in a couple places in riverview. It's really hard to avoid and I couldn't fix it, so it's unfortunately there. It's not a big deal, though.


-There's one lot I forgot to rename. :( I re-used the Al Simhara market in one place, and forgot to give it a name to distinguish it from the one in Al Simhara. D:

-I also used rapids to make some of the river flow away from the ocean. But these rapids for some stupid reason float above the water. You can't see them from up close, but if you're zoomed out a bit it might be obvious. :\

-The Egypt Distant Terrain is impossible. The river edges are very clearly too high for the edges of the distant terrain, but you never need to move the camera that far anyway.

-After a week of in-game play I just noticed a non-connected road intersection. Directly next to my sim's house. I guess since it took me a game week to notice it it isn't a big deal, but still. ;______;

-When sims work at the science lab, the car pool will take them to the wrong side of the river, at which point the sim gets in a taxi and goes to the lab. It's weird but not really a problem.


HIGHLY RECCOMENDED: This mod, which makes ghosts walk like normal sims. Without it the ghosts will just float around like idiots, going really really really freaking slow, and getting to work/school/parties/etc really late.
 
 I don't think I forgot anything.

Please, please enjoy. I spent an absolute eternity on this and I'm very proud of it. It sucks I'm not on MTS to share this there anymore, so hopefully it can get exposure regardless.

Moreso than anything I've uploaded...Enjoy. :D

The Wraithsands

And if you can't get the .world version to work, try this Sims3pack!
Sims3Pack
Save Game  (Updated)

WHEN EXTRACTING THE SAVE GAME FOLDER: Place it in the Saves folder and rename it, adding ".sims3" to the end!

53 comments:

  1. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

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  2. It is awesome, thank you. :D Unfortunately bad words are a no-no for a variety of reasons so I had to delete that. :p

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  3. hellz yeah! yet again you rock my eyeballs! keep it up your lots have all made their way into my upcoming world!

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  4. Awesome! :D
    Thank you, thank you, thank you for not using CC!! I hate having to download CC for stuff to work, lol. My game is bogged down enough already. :P

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  5. Thank you Thank you Thank you.


    This is seriously awesome. I can't wait to start playing with that world. You obviously really put some effort into that and let me tell you your hard work definitely paid off. You rock!

    I love all the stories and everything :) Thank you for making that, it's stunning and def. appreciated.

    Congratulations for this & thanks again :)

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  6. Thanks a lot, I am going to play this world. It looks reaaally interesting :)

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  7. I really like your creations. You are simply awesome! Thank you for this and the many other things you have created. I'm really looking forward to playing this world as soon as I get my new computer running. lol, my old one finally gave out...probally because I played Sims3 too much.:P

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  8. This looks fantastic, Claeric - I've been missing Strangetown ever since I got TS3, and this will make a great (looks like it would be even better!) alternative, thanks!

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  9. Also, guys, note that the pyramids and such are *objects* on the lots, and you can totally remove them if you just want a normal desert.

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  10. Not sure but cannot get the save or world to show up... I just patched this morning, so it may be cause of the new patch. I downloaded twice still no go. :(

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  11. I will upload the sims3pack version of the world.

    The only reason I did it the installedworlds way is because I was going to put a heatwave, but decided not to, I think. I figured people could do that if they wanted or not.

    So I will upload the sims3pack version and you can try that + the save. :D I dont know if saves work like that though. Can't hurt to try.

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  12. I'm guessing this requires world adventures?

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  13. Oh, I didnt include that because I thought all non-EA worlds required it. Hm.

    Yeah, it will. It won't have bridges if you don't have it, and it might not even load.

    btw, 100 downloads! :D

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  14. Thank you, this looks beautiful. I downloaded it yesterday, but couldn't get it to show in my game either, no matter what I swore at, threatened or poked with sticks. Even though I loathe the launcher, the S3 pack is much appreciated.
    I don't have the "lets fix a bunch of bugs no one seems to have" 2.6 patch though.

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  15. Grr, I can't extract the The WRAITHSANDS_0x00000000.nhd because it's corrupt or something. Looks beautiful, and the storyline sounds great. -grumblegrumble-

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  16. Are you talking about the save file zip?

    Try renaming the zip file to something else. It might be confused because it says ".sims3.zip". Or you may not be using a program which can unzip them. If that doesnt work, redownload it. It works just fine for me. :\

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  17. Do we need WA to play this ??? or only base game

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  18. Yes, you need WA. Without WA your sims won't be able to go anywhere since there are 3 areas separated by rivers.

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  19. :( to Claeric : can you make some of them with base game ??? cause i have WA but i hate it , after 1 month install i have many problem and then uninstall-reinstall-uninstall-reinstall PLEASE make them work with Base game or CAN YOU PLEASE MAKE THE OTHER TOWN WITH BASE GAME ?

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  20. Making a world takes lots of work. This one took me well over 100. It is not as simple as just making another world, and I cannot even edit this one to be base game- as I would have to replace every single tree and home.

    It's not plausible. Sorry. :\

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  21. Yes! THIS IS WHAT I'VE BEEN WANTING! Exactly and Precisely! Thank you! --SummerSong

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  22. Darn, the saved file version of the game seems not to want to unpack. I get a corruption notice. I'll try again later in case it's a download issue. The Sims3pack installed fine, though. --SummerSong

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  23. Do you mean the .world version? or the actual save game? If two people have issue with it I guess I have to re-upload, but im not sure which you mean.

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  24. This file: WRAITHSANDS.sims3.zip the one listed under your SAVE GAME link is coming up as corrupted every time I try to unzip it after I download it. I actually got it at one point somehow loaded into the game as a Saved Game, but got some sort of massive error message when the game tried to load the save. The game did not crash, it just took me back to the Main Menu area where I could select my various saved games.

    The bare .world version loads fine. Of course when you go into it it's devoid of most of the features you built into it that you have pictured, but it is completely playable and buildable, though there are some oddities. Like and empty lot showing as a fishing venue. And there is a gas station that shows up as an un-named lot. I also can't inspect the underlake tomb, but again, I don't know what's set up in the Saved Game. From the bare bones version, I can only go up to it, and I get route fail tantrums from my sim if I try to interact in any way with the underground tomb.

    There's also a palm tree stuck into a road leading to a bridge (I need to figure out how to post a picture somewhere for you to see). I don't know if that was removed in the Saved Game version or not. It doesn't bother me, but if this world ever gets posted on the EA Create A World Forum, that is one of the little details that will get picked up on by a lot of reviewers and testers.

    I loved the terrain and every thing I could want in a world is built into this terrain. I can't wait to see the fully fleshed out version once I get a working version of the save file. --Summer

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  25. A tree on a road? There are so few roads I think I'd notice that...I wonder where.

    Anyway I re-uploaded the save file, try this one. I took off the .sims3 part at the end just in case that was the issue, you will have to re-add it.

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  26. I found the tree.

    FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF

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  27. I think I see what the problem was. The original was missing the NHD file when it got unzipped. That must have been the part that got corrupted. It's the same file another person commented as being corrupted in their version, prior to my posts.

    The new file seems perfectly intact. I'll load it up and see and report back to you--if not in the next hour, then next evening. (I'm up way past my bedtime!)

    I find your world packaged very differently from what I'm used to seeing--most of the worlds I've downloaded so far have the custom buildings and lots packaged in the Sims3pack file that gets installed via the launcher. If they happen to include a save file, it generally only adds some characters and ghosts and a few minor lot additions.

    Yours has the bulk of the custom world saved via the Saved Game folder. That tells me you did the bulk of your building in the actual game itself, as opposed to the ponderous EIG mode in CAW. Am I right on that? I'd like to know because Lee Mortis may end up having to do the same thing for his Overlook Bay world. He was trying to get everything loaded into the Sims3pack version of the world--I guess he was trying to stuff everything in through EIG. But EIG is failing him massively. It's causing crucial items to be omitted from his lots. The poor guy is pretty discouraged about this. I think if he could take a look at how well it works the way you did it, he'd feel a lot better about packaging up his custom final world as a Saved Game file.

    p.s. yeah it sucks about the tree but it's not worth taking apart your whole world over. If you ever do a Version 2 revision to fix other things in addition to the tree, it'd be worth it. Otherwise just count it as nature encroaching on a long abandoned world! ;)

    --SummerSong

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  28. Okay, reporting back--it installed fine and I ended up at the start you intended in the fully featured world. Absolutely freaking awesome! And the wall of plaques--what a great way to set the tone and kick off the game! It's got your stamp of unique creativity all over it. The gas station was genius in how you put that together. I can't wait to get the time to play more. I'm playing as well...you, odd as that sounds. At some point I'll move my pseudo self-sim in to town and she can be a neighbor. It will be funny to see if "we" get along or fight!

    I can't wait to visit the ghosts. But I'd better remember to pick up that walk mod for them. I forgot. I don't want to see them floating at a snail's pace.

    Oh by the way you have two sims named "Beck" in town. I haven't met either of them in game yet but they are in Edit Town mode. They appear to be the same but have different amounts of household money. Are they duplicates? Can I safely delete one or are they twins and both part of the storyline? They appear to be a dark skinned female with short hair, green shirt and light pants. It's hard to be sure of age from the tiny thumbnails of them. --SummerSong

    thanks for fixing the upload file!

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  29. I am veeeeeeery glad to hear that it works. I was getting worried with nobody saying they got it working.

    One of the becks is probably a townie, one may have moved in during initial testing(first time around) and then after I went back and made changes, I moved all the sims back in- apparently including the first one, so another moved in. Dumb story progression!

    And yes, I did the bulk of building in the world rather than edit-in-game. I wanted to absolutely ensure that the world didn't break and become un-usable from being bloated or anything. The basic neighborhood sims3pack only has basic lots, rabbit holes and such. I placed and built houses and sims while in-game, post-export.

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  30. That may be the best way to build a very detailed, large world and the way to go--based on Lee's problems and based on your non-problems thus far.

    I've been away all day so I haven't had a chance to get back into the Wraithsands. I'll report back with more observations and comments--if that's okay with you, after I log in more play time in this world.

    At some point after I have gotten more familiar with this world I'd like to talk about it on the Create A World section of EA forums where I hang out these days--IF that's okay with you. We have a thread there where we talk about our favorite worlds and I'd like this one to get more exposure because it is very creative and it does handle that nagging issue of how to package a detailed world without wrecking it via EIG. --SummerSong

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  31. Yeah, that's fine.

    And I was under the impression the way I did it was the only way. 0_o At least to share it with sims.

    Initially, in the first version, there were a few more sims. Each family had a relationship to each other. It took be freaking ages to set it up. I did not bother this time, though I am pretty sure each family has relationships within itself, and the sims SHOULD have jobs...

    But yeah, doing everything within a save game ensures that the world won't break during creation and lose everything. Finish the world as complete-without-sims as possible, then do it in game.

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  32. It IS the only way, so far as I know, to share the world with Sims. What I'm talking about is the lots. From what I can see the Sims3Pack version of your world is VERY bare bones--just the terrain and mostly blank lots or partially filled in lots. There is even one lot, the gas station lot, that exists only in part on the bare world. You can't see anything inside of the building unless you play the Save File version of the world. Most worlds I've played will have the full decorated fully functional buildings on the lots. The only thing extra usually packaged in a save file are the sims themselves. The lots would have been built and placed prior to exporting the world when done that way...if I understand the process correctly.

    There was something I've noticed on your world and others about certain lots not accepting houses with stairs. The house will indeed place, but the stairs become nonfunctional after a sim uses them one time and get stuck on whatever level they walked up or down to via the stairs. I thought initially our world was immune to that problem but I found one of my houses glitched that way after all--on some lots, not all. It's a general world issue. It's not specific to just your world and I have to be going so I'll have to leave that topic for another time I guess, probably on a forum since it's a general issue. -- --SS86

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  33. Shoot, typo..."our world" should have been "your world". And I mean to say certain lots not accepting certain houses with stairs. Sometimes a lot will accept one house with stairs, but not another. Sometimes one house will work on one lot, not another. It's a very odd thing. I've discussed it with other world creators but don't have a definitive answer yet. --SS86

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  34. The stairs issue is a result of something to do with the "orientation" of the world.

    When a world is created it has a direction designated as, for the matter of explaining it, "north". Now, in ALL worlds, stairs will work facing any direction. Right?

    But if you take a lot with stairs and place it in a DIFFERENT direction, they don't function. It is because of the orientation of the world. I remember a similar issue in the sims 2, where something stopped functioning because it didn't recognize what direction it was facing, I don't remember...there was an object you couldn't place a certain direction, if the lot was placed pointing the wrong way.

    It is a very odd issue but as far as I know rebuilding the stairs usually works.

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  35. This is awesome. It's nice to have a world with a nice, complete story (because I haven't seen any other customs with one, and EA seriously sucks at writing somewhat entertaining stories for SV and Riverview). Having a town full of ghosts is freaking genius, by the way. Perfect for all the goth Sims I've been making lately :-) Thanks for sharing, really well done!

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  36. Very beautiful and so detailed. Thank you for sharing!! :)

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  37. I'm reminded of the line from Lawerence of Arabia when I think of you and your Wraithsands "I'am like a river to my people",so thanks for all the work and generosity.
    MARVEL20

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  38. Rebuilding the stairs didn't work for me, unfortunately--re: the basement and stairs problem. That's okay.

    Have you tried building anything under the pyramids yet? I tried and the wall building tool acts freaky (stutters and blinks before finally settling down to build a wall). I tried even bulldozing the lot, to put the pyramid back on later, and tried removing the pyramid. No luck on any of the lots that have the pyramid. I haven't tried building on any other kinds of lots yet. I did before my game got massively corrupted, but haven't tried since reinstalling.

    As far as the gameplay itself, I had a total blast until the "supernova" that destroyed my game. So I came back a couple of days ago to fetch Wraithsands and rebuild. Unfortunately, though normally I back up every world I ever play, I was having so much fun playing this one I forgot to make a backup! I thought I did, but it was such an early one I may as well start over anyway. Pfff. Oh well.

    The ghosts were a lot of fun and worked just fine in my town. A bunch of them worked at Doo Peas, probably because my Claeric Sim got a journalism job there. --SS86

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  39. I've been playing this world since you posted it and I must say that I love it!! You did a wonderful job and I hope you do more worlds in future!

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  40. nice to see a dedicated fan of the sims. top work on the world and have been playing for a few days now.. time well spent on creating this world 5*****

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  41. Hey There! I would love to play your new world with the save game. But the loading bar stopped at the end of the loading progress and nothing happens. :-( I can load the world for a new game, but I would try the save game. I tried both versions. the installer and with the world file. But I just cant load the save game, it just stopps at the end of loading.

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  42. Okay I know now why the save game isnt loading. I moved my mods out of the folder, and after that your save game was loading. I ade a new save game then but whenI put all my working mods back in also my own savegame doesnt load anymore :-( Damn I would love to play the game with this save, but I would also hold my mods I always played with.

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  43. I love this world, I love the design the layout the buildings and especially the story. Its a nice touch to a (for the most part) story free game.

    However, why is everything so far apart :C I understand this is probably how it would be in real deserts but every Sim is late for work lol everyday.

    Still love the world, I think my only suggestion would have been to make the world medium sized as opposed to maximum lol that way sims could have been far apart but the whole place wouldn't feel so...dead...

    then again that might have been the point lol

    keep up the good work.

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  44. That is PRECISELY why it is so far apart. :D In Sunset Valley, no matter where I lived, everything was just a minute away. I didn't like that. I wanted my sims to have to commute. I wanted them to require a faster car if they worked farther away. I wanted them to need to make time for groceries or meetings and such instead of running off to do them whenever possible- to take into account that commute.

    Plus I wanted the distinct areas. Sunset Valley has distinct areas (different house styles, marked by signs on the grass near the road), but they are too close.

    So yep :p

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  45. I am having a problem with the save game as it tells me I can't load the saved games and that I need to update my game. I have WA

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  46. I downloaded the Save Game thing (what does that mean?) and I can play the Wraithsands but tons of houses are missing and there are no people. This makes me sad. I'm gonna try the sims3pack but it said that it is already installed. P.S. When I tried to enter the lake tomb my sim was all like "Sorry, no can do, something is in my way!".

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  47. This is so awesome! I think I'm in love with you, srsly. This totally rocks! Too bad CAW is broken, I would love to see more worlds from you.

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  48. wow....am absolutely floored by this....love ya for this world.

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  49. I just tested this world out and I must say it is pretty epic. I love the entire story and the history of it, it's so creative! It's really fun to play, so thanks!

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  50. Thank you! I've been looking for a decent desert world for ages! I can't wait to try it out -- it looks great!

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  51. I love it so much tx a lot it's like you read my mind. Your talented I like it

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