Better Willow Creek
I feel like Willow Creek really lacks more personality. Watching many review videos about Willow Creek it all goes to the blandness of the world and how it doesn't give nothing special.
When compared to other worlds Willow Creek really lacks personality and care on details, specially when it's supposed to be based on New Orleans which is incredible rich in everything you could need to create a new world inspired by it. Some depictions of NOLA in pop culture:
Dinsey's Princess and the FrogScooby Doo and the Zombie IslandRed Dead Redemption 2Monster HighAlso this is a way to give us a swampier world that have been asked on the forums and rescue the goths worlds from TS3 a little, just like Forgotten Hollow and Mourningvale, so nothing better than Willow Creek/New Orleans.
1) Better atmosphere
1.1) Light:
Something about Willow Creek's colors and atmoshpere is really uncomfortable to me. I wish its lightning was more warm to the world, since it's a tropical humid climate, something between like Glimmerbrook or Forgotten Hollow.
1.2) Fog: The fog really is something characteristic of New Orleans and add so much to the mysterious atmosphere of it. We can see the same happening with other Cities/Worlds of the game and franchise, especially Forgotten Hollow and Ravenwood's Mourningvale swamp that should be used as reference for Willow Creek as it is really perfect.
2) Better wild life
2.1) More small plants and trees: Currently it looks like Willow Creek was built over a golf field. It doesn't feel natural and accurate to the tropical humid vegetation New Orleans and Louisiana have in general, so I'd like to see more swamp trees in the whole view, more grass everywhere and medium length plants like bushes cluttered everywhere and not only at some places.
2.2) More animals: The fact that Willow Creek doesn't have a single animal that usually gives the world more life and the DLC usually have them and SO well really disappoints me. When searching for NOLA's nature you can't miss the alligators, birds, hogs, snakes, turtles, rodents and many more animals that give life to those gorgeous wild views.
2.3) Water bodies:
When comparing to more recent worlds water bodies, i feel like Willow Creek's ones really feels artificial like too blue and with little vegetation that is really well adapted to the flooded/wet lands of the swamp.
3) Better cultural gameplay
3.1) Lifestyle: It's a crime that a world inspired by New Orleans, one of the most famous cities in fiction stories, doesn't give nothing near to what the real city has to offer. In Willow Creek we don't have gameplay related to the strong jazz musical scene, the swamp adventures, fishing culture, the festivals like Mardi Gras, Jazz fest, etc. Currently we can only go to to bars, play piano, fish on random places, but where are big parties, the dancing, the markets, the community, the vending, the festivals that so many other worlds have, and where is the cultural knowledge skill like the Jungle Adventure one?
3.2) Lore: As seen the care to fulfil the high demand for more on recent packs after 10 years, the game really lacks on deep and gameplay-meaning lore specially on Willow Creek, the first base game world. I feel like there's many things that need to be explained like who's the mayor, there are any historical figures there, who's Jasmine Holiday, what's Sylvan Glade, etc. ? And where's an aspiration to get to know the world lore like in Strangerville?
3.3) Occults: New Orleans is super famous for its connection to the occult and really portrayed in pop culture as such. There are many tales and legends about creatures, ghosts, swamp monsters, werewolves, vampires, witches, voodoo priestess and many more. The fact that Willow Creek, being inspired on it doesn't give us a single reference to any of it really upsets me, or even ghosts that are base game and super famous on NOLA. I think we should have more mystical NPCs like older games to fulfil this space adding ghost characters (like Mimsy and Bernard), a swamp monster, witches/voodoo priestess, etc. I'd really like if we had and vampire and werewolf NPCs like the ones from The Sims 2 PSP Strange Town, that we can't play as but they exist, but I could also accept Vlad and Greg being used, appearing here and there, or just being referenced a lot.
So in general my suggestion are basically:
• Make the world look more natural with visual effects and natural decoration: Sunny light, fog, grasses, ferns, bushes, distorted trees, rocks, animals vfx, etc.
• Add local culture gameplay: Aspiration, lore, festivals, market, NPCs, town mascot, etc.
• Add more details to existing gameplay: Beware of alligators signs, chairs at fishing spots, caution signs for Vlad and Greg, bonfires and lounge chairs at beaches, etc.
