World Suggestions

@Springfairy556 So it's pretty much up to the person seeing it?

I'm in Arkansas right now and it's pretty much backwoods, winding roads, and country life. ;)
Lived in Washington State, up state, and it was pretty much backwoods, winding roads, and country life. Left South Carolina and it was by an Air Force base but it was a small town, winding roads, and country life.

That's why I'm always confused about what makes it "New England." It must be the houses. Although the older houses are pretty much the same.

@Rflong7
Basically the same as those towns/states.Its hard to describe unless you've been there.
New England just has a certain charm to it.

From its farmlands to its prestine coastal towns.

https://www.histerius.com/hs0715/newport.jpg

"NE life can be rough and rugged, or it can be stately and classy. Either way, you still have to deal with the weather fluctuating between steamy hot summers and bitterly cold, snowy winters, with rain and mud in between. This makes life unpredictable, and our style of dress strange. Overall, people aren`t terribly flashy, and flaunting wealth is frowned upon, even if you have it. Also, because of the environmental diversity, New Englanders have a wide range of interests, ranging from skiing and hiking, to boating and swimming. We like baseball and football, but we also love hockey"

Think of: Small towns, lighthouses, stonewalls, dirt roads, picked white fences, picking blueberries in the summertime,
driving the two lane roads at sunset, rolling hills, sugar shacks, cidar mills, pine trees as tall as a building, quaint rivers running along a sleepy road, rich in history and lore.

Its hard to explain.If I had the time and patience, I'd build a world based on Connecticut, prettiest state in NE in my opinion.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hZ6-CUbuBfA

This is New England.

But it's also Hartford (as mentioned), Providence, and Boston. There is a (Yankee?) feel to the region that can be a bit difficult to define ever since the colonial era. Even the charming upstate New York towns and villages like the one where I grew up with plenty of history and apple orchards don't quite match it.

@igazor
New England is hard to describe.It gives me a certain feeling.Gosh, this brings back memories.I miss my hometown.Stuck down in Icky florida now.

I guess I don't get it. If it's in the houses, then just download houses. You miss fall and winter?

That cover picture of the youtube- that could be Arkansas. :lol:

*South Carolina -blueberries, strawberries, coastal towns, seasonal changes, windy roads, old houses, ... ;)

**Maybe what's different is that New England has a 'Rich' feel? Prosperous and Rich? Arkansas doesn't have that. :(

"Springfairy556;c-16856707" wrote:
@igazor
Stuck down in Icky florida now.

Florida has a lot of different but easier to define feels to it as well. The panhandle, the central part of the state, the two coasts, the Keys, and Miami/Ft Laud are like entirely different worlds from each other. And, very sorry to say and try not to do so in front of my relatives who have retired and moved down there, I can't stand any of them. My condolences.

But then there's key lime pie. Every region has at least one redeeming quality. :)

Its not just houses.It has to have a certain atmosphere to it.I could download colonial houses but if the world doesn't feel quaint and quiet, its not gonna work.XD

https://scontent-mia3-2.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/47089569_202758557315071_7162052970480140288_n.jpg?_nc_cat=108&_nc_ht=scontent-mia3-2.xx&oh=0b9550596d325c141dd72b70e68e5988&oe=5CA5D4AC
https://scontent-mia3-2.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/46801528_200941174163476_9087966930786058240_o.jpg?_nc_cat=104&_nc_ht=scontent-mia3-2.xx&oh=0c5d02bee46691255af0036e08d60b13&oe=5C65A52F
https://scontent-mia3-2.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/46925576_200941194163474_894973396671004672_o.jpg?_nc_cat=108&_nc_ht=scontent-mia3-2.xx&oh=025b84d05113647dd9f530f97f86e62e&oe=5C9F14F2
https://scontent-mia3-2.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/47024063_200365377554389_1603843627023335424_o.jpg?_nc_cat=106&_nc_ht=scontent-mia3-2.xx&oh=26e87beb0049c4c064ba05ccf7bac762&oe=5CB21D04

Great Bear gives me that feeling or at least the closest I could come to.
I miss the winter, I miss the fall, I miss the simple life.I miss driving the back roads looking for thrift shops, I miss stopping for a new england lobster roll by a seaport.I miss visiting lighthouses.

@Rflong7 New England towns do seem to have their own "feel," but it's hard to explain what might be different from other areas. In a lot of New England, town government is more significant than, say, where I am, where county government is more significant. Early towns (I don't know - maybe more than early) were set up around a town center that would have a meeting house for the community. At this point, I would think most of the open area in a town center would be park-like. I used to go to areas in New England occasionally, although haven't in a long while, and the last time was a city trip, Boston, so I'm getting fuzzy. Honestly, I think the set up of a New England town is a lot like a lot of Sims 3 towns, where your big park is probably fairly central and near things like city hall, the library, etc.

You're going to find a lot of colonial type buildings in styles that would offer a lot of protection from the winter weather and that aren't too "fancy" or ornate. Think Cape Cods, saltboxes. Early houses would have had steep roofs due to snow, fewer or no windows on sides that got a lot of wind, would face in a direction that minimized wind and maximized sun exposure (I think I've read facing South). Of course, as time marched on, so did styles of buildings, but I think the tendency toward being restrained in decoration continued to be a New England thing.
I think of the classic steepled country church as being New England-ish, and I think some of the town meeting halls were built along those lines.

This is just a combination of my hazy in-person memories and observations and my later fascination with a cultural geography class where I studied a little of this stuff, basically flow of things in US from one area to another over time.

To me, the difficulty with reproducing a New England feel in TS3 is how regular the buildings are. I've never lived in New England, but I have a number of relatives in and around Boston, and have spent plenty of time in Maine (during the summers, thankfully; I'm not cut out for that kind of winter). Thinking about how sims buildings look, it's like they're all too new, too regular, or too perfectly made.

To me, New England houses and stores need to look like they've been there for a while, like they're weathered, even if they've been diligently cared for, like the wood has responded to the passage of time, bending and shrinking and drying out as it aged. Corners can lose their sharp edges, some of the buildings don't quite stand up straight, and nothing feels overly polished or smoothed out. A downtown area may have a row of buildings all pushed up against each other, but each one looks like its own character, completely distinct from its neighbors.

One other thing I haven't seen mentioned is the lighting. New England is so far north, the sunlight can feel kind of thin or washed out, even in the summer. A few years ago, my brother and I drove up Route 1 in Maine, just to have a look. (We got a couple of towns past Winter Harbor before turning around.) Even on a sunny day in August, it felt like there were always a couple of clouds dimming the light. One local mentioned how in winter, everyone's home by 3:30 because it's already dark outside. A lighting mod that reflects a far northern latitude might make a big difference in how one of these worlds feels as you're playing it.

Anyway, those are just the thoughts of a lifelong Californian who thinks New England is a wonderful place to visit any time of year that one jacket is enough.

Quailhog gets it. His city, The Stoneshields, is in New Hampshire and has the type of architecture you're talking about. It is however a city and not a small quaint town. I would link but I'm too new around here.