Do you customise worlds before playing?

I usually just begin playing, and then as I go I might add some more lots after my taste.

I like having the "iconic townies" in my world, but I don't use Sunset Valley much so I usually miss them, so I've got a whole collection I place in every world. The Landgraabs, the Goths, the Calientes, the Brokes, the Capp family, Agnes Crumplebottom, etc all go in, even if it's a bit weird having the Goths on a tropical island :D I also have my own custom townies, I like to recreate sims from other games so I've made some MySims characters like Poppy, Violet, Travis, Summer, etc who go into every save, I'm not very good at giving sims unique looks/personalities so if it's a character from another game they already have that.

Also always place the supernatural alchemy? lot, my sims lore for it is that it just magically appears, so it's always in the most bizarre places like on an island on its own, or at the end of the swamp with nothing around it. Not sure what it's called but I also always place the penthouse exclusive lounge lot as I like that lot a lot. + I've found placing subways is a good way of getting around, especially in Isla Paradiso.

I've only ever successfully completed one build in my entire 10 years of playing this game... :D
This sleazy/trashy bar, which I also created 'exotic dancers' for. So in every world I play in I always bulldoze any other bar/club (because EA ones aren't as good as mine, lol) and place mine along with the dancers.
https://imgur.com/JlktXES.png


But as far as placing other lots/moving in new sims, not really. I like most EA worlds as they are.

I sometimes customize worlds, but not always

It depends on which world I am playing in. I like to play Glenvale County by @Rflong7

It comes with the basics for community lots, so I will add the community lots/venues I want to my game. It also comes with just one house, so I need to add houses to the game. Because the world comes unpopulated, Story Progression will need to add Sims to the game, and they will need housing.

Every time I play a new game in Glenvale County, the world is different. I place community lots/venues in random locations, and will either place residential lots or use prebuilt starter homes that I have created so Sims can afford to move in.

Edited to add my vote to the top as it removed it when I changed my post.

I took the second option. I didn't count stuff like not letting the game place the expansion lots and placing those I actually want to have myself, which is more or less always happening. Other than that, I have everything from very minor changes to sweeping edits.

For example, my short Riverview game from a few days ago involved just placing the consignment store, a junkyard, and The Grind. I edited the bar in the center to a real one, and of course the lots I was playing on. Now that I think of it, I also placed cribs, upped the number of beds in many houses. Hmm, okay, that was more than I initially remembered.

In one of my long-going games in SV, I had to edit the whole town after I deleted the whole existing population and used Porter to get the whole population in its advanced stage from a prior version of SV that became unplayable in. Most houses were edited, lots of venues placed, stuff like replacing the science center with a combined bot shop, cafeteria and the old rabbithole, etc.

The upper end of the spectrum is a "town" that started on an empty map without a single building, not even rabbitholes. Although that was probably less work than editing an existing state of SV to the state I needed it in.

Which means it depends.

When it comes to EA worlds, I basically redesign and rebuild the entire town to fit my vision of how I think the world should look, feel and work. I leave the original map layout as it is changing only the locations of the businesses and housing. Because I prefer to play in mostly rabbithole-less worlds, I custom build all of the homes and business in the towns to suit my population.

I only do this once and make a Master File of the world to use as back-up should things go wrong. I start with a new game, immediately go into edit town and begin making the changes I want such as demolishing house, removing Sims adding homes or community lots. This is done over time and not as an all-in-one go.

In the meantime, while I am working on my Master File, I play my game in what I call temporary saves. In these saves I work with each household who is to become a permanent resident in the new town when it is finished. This is where I help my Sims skill up and develop. Once they are ready, they are saved to the library where they await their turn to be added to the finalized town.

Yeah I do, all the time.

Not in sims 3 I would never get to actually play the game :lol: building one house is bad enough

I edit minor changes. I don't like all the venues from Showtime, so I delete most of them then add store content and usually an apartment building on a lot (learned that trick from @CravenLestat).

I always add or edit community lots. I also edit all the houses and add content from stuff packs and the Store.
I don't add my own townies unless it's an unpopulated cc world