Dragon Valley Medieval Makeover

MiaSkywalker and I have teamed up to remake Dragon Valley in fully medieval style, not just the building exteriors but the interiors, furniture, and feel. This means no modern things like TV or computers, and trying to make other items look as medieval as possible.

This will include reworking some buildings or lots and remaking others from scratch. The goal is to make the town feel as truly medieval as we can while still being fully functional. All the lots will be available on the exchange to download and enjoy.

There will be absolutely no CC or CAP in any of our builds, however there will potentially be any EP, SP, or store item.

We may accept requests for specific buildings to remake, we will work out the logistics on that shortly.

If we feel particularly ambitious we may also make-over all the Sims as well.

Stay tuned for more updates!

Before the revamp....

I've decided to post images of the lots as they are/were before we modified them. That way you'll be able to see WHY we decided to do this! :p

​​First, let's take a look at some of the rabbitholes. Here's the bookstore.


Not a lot going on there. A lot of empty space not being used. And the furnishings they DO have... what ugly chairs. Pretty sure those are from base game. Well, that's going to be changed!
​
Now, let's look at the community garden. (Named - both appropriately and boringly - "Community Garden")


That's just boring. All of the plants are base game, of course, and all are of normal quality. We are going to do something about that!

Next, we'll look at the grocery store. Yes, as I said, we are even going to modify the rabbitholes. Make them more interesting, as well as (hopefully) more medieval!


Not too bad, but not very exciting. There are some tables in the back, although no way to cook there. No other activities, either. I can think of a few things that would be appropriate here.

Now for the gym. Let's see how EA decided a medieval gym to look.


Really? They can't be serious. Five exercise machines in the entire place? One television (exactly how is a television medieval?), and one stereo. Hmph. I can do much better than this. (And I already have... but I'm getting ahead of myself!)

Now let's look at the library.


I'm not sure the point of the decor on the second floor. Is that supposed to be good and evil, or something? I just don't see the point of it, and I dislike how if you're on one side of the second floor, you can't get to the other side. There's something very inefficient about this build, and I can't stand inefficiency. I like the basement area... which I just might expand on.

​Now for the pub, Dragon Tavern.


The outside is OK, but the inside is rather... um... plaid. Or something. I guess they're trying to get the whole Irish pub look, but it's not one that I care for. It also looks too much like a residential house. I suspect it originally was, and then someone from EA decided to make another bar lot, but didn't change the outside to do it.

All right, so all of these are going to be changed (plus more on the way). Once I finish my revamps and have tested them and gotten them uploaded, you'll get links to them. :)

Hello :) It is very special that you are doing a makeover of Dragon Valley! It will look very great with your lots in it! I will enjoy looking at the builds that you do for the world! The opening post is written so creatively well! I enjoyed reading it!
It was great seeing the pictures of the original lots.Your revamped lots and new builds will be a great improvement :)
Happy simming, building, furnishing and landscaping! :)

Thank you, @rosemow! You always have such nice things to say. :)

The ones I've shown the "before" pictures of have already been renovated and are in testing (or are in the final stages of renovating), although you KNOW how it goes; you think you're done, then you think of something else, and then off you go, having to change a bunch of things again! :) Plus, a few of them I've had to go back and fix some things, because the underground areas had one problem or another.

CM has been working on the residential lots. Quite frankly, I am unable to keep within a budget, so there's no point in me remaking a home that a family already lives in. The commercial lots give me a bit more freedom, plus it gives me the option to include a hidden underground area for the player to explore. :)

I really think the creators of DV kind of slacked. Many of the builds are very boring, or just seem like no thought was put into them. Maybe most of the builds were done before they had created all the items for the world, I really don't know. But using only base game furnishings and not the ones that came with the world, just seems like someone was being lazy.

"Fruits of the Earth"
A revamp of Dragon Valley's Community Garden.

There is a non-tomb version uploaded as well, for people with lower end systems.

While I haven't uploaded it yet (I'm still testing the underground area), I thought I would show you the garden.



This garden has every EP and store fruit or vegetable in Perfect quality, with the following exceptions: It has no carrots, death flowers, mermaid kelp, or forbidden fruit. The first one is simply because I forgot (and because there are no auto-soils for carrots, I couldn't add it in later); the other three were deliberate omissions.

Kelp would have been inappropriate; this garden is not underwater.

The forbidden fruit was deliberately omitted because I have no intention of having townie Sims randomly turn into plantsims. If you want a plantsim townie, use Master Controller, or have your own Sim purchase the lifetime reward.

Death flowers were omitted because this garden is SO large that will have to use a dragon to harvest from it, and if you harvest with a dragon when there is a dead or barren plant in the garden (death plants die after a single harvest), then your Sim will reset. It's a glitch that EA never fixed, and I know of no way to get around it. My feeling about death flowers is that they should all be in the cemetery, or maybe in a tomb or two.

You actually CAN get several death flowers on this lot... just not in the garden. You'll have to explore a bit, and see what you can find. :)

The design and layout of Fruits of the Earth looks so very nice! :) The way the plants have been arranged and planted look so very ,very great! The wishing well is a nice touch in the middle of the lot. It is nice that there is a honey hives nook in the garden. The flowers look very pretty and colourful on the edges of the garden. The type of fencing used suits the world well.
Sims will very much enjoy visiting the garden and harvesting the plants! :)

Thank you, @rosemow. You are always so kind. :)

I should probably put in a warning that I definitely recommend using either a green dragon, or Doug Veiga's gardening spells to harvest here. Harvesting by hand would take forever.

Perhaps I should put that information in my post above, along with the link to the upload once I have it. I just have one more thing to test on it, and it should be good to go.

Note that although this garden is a weird size (25x40), you can add it into any world, and it wouldn't look anachronistic. You might want to use the "Add any lot size" mod to add that size lot in, before you do, if you don't want to waste a 40x30 or 40x40 lot.

For anyone interested (I suspect not too many people are playing Sims 3 anymore), I have "Fruits of the Earth" uploaded now.

There is a non-tomb version uploaded as well, for people with lower end systems.

Warning: Placing the tomb version will take several minutes, as there are many goodies in it for your Sims, which apparently take time to place. The non-tomb version only takes a few seconds, at least on my computer.

This is a wonderful idea @MiaSkywalker and @creativemetaphor! Will a full world version (for lazy folks like me ;) ) be available at some point?

"venusdemilosims;c-16035712" wrote:
This is a wonderful idea @MiaSkywalker and @creativemetaphor! Will a full world version (for lazy folks like me ;) ) be available at some point?

Yes. @creativemetaphor is doing the residential lots (because I can NOT keep on a budget), and I'm going to do most of the commercial lots. CM has been working on the graveyard and the pub inside the town in addition to residential lots; I've been working on (so far) the library, the bookstore, the grocery store, the gym, the garden, and the pub outside town.

I'm actually finished with all of those, and they're in testing now. I'll work on some others after those are done. The gym has been up in my studio for some time, because I made it as a gift to CM a few months ago. The library is there too, but I've made some changes to it, and want to upload my improved version.

I have a tendency to put tombs under my buildings, btw. :) I've gotten completely into dungeon adventuring with my own Sims, and since I've been unable to find very many tombs for me to raid, I figure I'll make some for others to play in. :) Unfortunately, the goodies I tend to put into those tombs can make it hard on some users' systems, so I'm uploading a non-tomb version of some of them as well.

We're even thinking of doing the Sims themselves, after we're done with all of the buildings. I've long been convinced that EA intended all of the residents to be supernaturals, but they couldn't make them that way as a default, since none of their worlds is designed to require any expansions. But they're all berries, and almost all of them have pointed ears, so I do not believe that any of them are supposed to be human. (Other than the two Pleasantview Sims who got transplanted there.)