What would you do with CAW?

Despite how I would love to create my own neighborhood, as I finally got around to doing in Sims2, I never fully grasped the mechanics of CAW in Sims3. I washed out. :'( So, if they do bring it back, unless they have a CAW for Dummies, I won't be doing a thing with it.

I miss CAW. But I miss being able to place empty lots if various sizes even more. If I had to pick, I'd choose the latter. I don't really remember using CAW with 3, was it base game? I mainly just created new saves. But I loved it with 2. It always had a really great SimCity vibe for me. I'd actually really love for it to come back so that I could create at least one world per save that was all my own, even if it's as simple as it was with 2. With the ability to place lots where I want, I wouldn't really need much else.

I would use it. I tried it in TS3 and loved it. It was complicated and I never shared my worlds with anyone but I played them. In TS2 I created many different type worlds for many type different times and stories. It became an obsession and in Sim City games I liked moving everything and changing everything, didn't matter if things suffered, I did it my way. lol I think it is the biggest failure of TS4 not to allow Simmers to build their own towns, or worlds or whatever you want to call them, and not to be able to move a vacant lot to a different part of the map. It's way too limited for many in this game. In TS1 it wasn't as bothersome but we all did demand we have more control and we got that control in TS2 forward, until now.

What would I do with CAW - go play Sims 3 where it could be used. Sims 4 does not use CAW - so no point in having it in this game. It is a world building map program - Sims 4 has nothing in it that would make the tool work - never mind let us place anything that doesn't fit on a lot. Sims 4 doesn't even have a map system - that's why we get artist renditions of what a map could look like instead of a view of a map like we got in Sims1 - 2 and 3. How would it work. We can place nothing. There is no programming in the game for players to even work anywhere but on a pre-placed lot that we can't move or do anything with but build. Player has no permissions or allowances. So if there is rumor it is wishful people making them would be my guess.

I have seen modders try and nothing works.

If CAW happens and allows us to edit the current worlds then I'd add a few more lots in San Myshuno, for starters. As for my own projects, the first would be a dense European city and an Edo Japan inspired world.

"taydev;c-16818059" wrote:

"Writin_Reg;c-16817997" wrote:

"hmae123;c-16817487" wrote:
Just a few small tweaks. I’d add random swing sets in some open areas. Create some lots as hills so there’s a house overlooking the rest. Change lot sizes here and there. I tend to stay within one to two worlds other then some sims traveling so each save would be a bit different as far as how much I’d do.

CAW did not let you put a finished world into it - it let you build a new world. It was only for editing the world YOU built. Maxis game worlds and the store worlds could not go into CAW as you need the files from the worlds to put into CAW to edit them - and EA did not share those files - so we built our own worlds or copies of the EA worlds. It is not a world editing program.

You guys are looking for world editors not CAW at all. (CAW stands for Create A World.)

I never used CAW in TS3, but some of the Maxis created worlds were edited in that they were expanded, had new roads etc. I thought it was CAW that allowed this?

No you had to have the original files in order to edit a world so people sometimes copied and built them over - there was a simmer over at modthesims that use to remake the worlds and would give you the files for you to edit them but you had to remove the maxis world and put the new one in it's place once you were done working on it. You didn't get the sims though. It was a lot of work to do that even with someone else making a copy because we had no files to feed the CAW so we could not edit the worlds. Either way it took months no matter how you did it. Caw has a huge learning curve too and is not easy to work with. A few simmers like my friend Rflong is excellent using that program but it takes a long time to get real good with it and nothing about it is easy, fast or simple. (also making a copy took many months.) I used to help with a lot of worlds - but it was never easy and took many months.

EA did have an editing program where you could add lots and decor in the neighborhood - but you could not add roads or anything like that. If you broke the routing editing though you were left with a broken world as you could not place the world in CAW to fix the routing unless you had it's original files - which as I already said Maxis did not share the files EVER and their sims were embedded in their worlds to add to the issue. Believe me - CAW is not what most people are looking for. A few that liketo build their own worlds - but it is useless for editing any existing Maxis world - beside Sims 4 does nt use a CAW tool so - there is no point.

If it were an easier to use program than previous versions of CAW I'd make lots of things. Possibly more city scapes. But I have to agree with Dekay on this one. If its like the earlier versions, probably not much. I was terrible at it. Getting those roads to lay down correctly and such...*shudder* I don't want to even think about my old results :D

"invisiblgirl;c-16818546" wrote:
a very limited CAW in which you wouldn't really build the world, just choose from some pre-canned features. That seems possible .... to choose the backdrop, vegetation, weather.

This seems like a happy compromise that would allow us to customize new neighborhoods/towns but would be easy for the average player to use.

"Writin_Reg;c-16819509" wrote:

"invisiblgirl;c-16818546" wrote:
Someone suggested a very limited CAW in which you wouldn't really build the world, just choose from some pre-canned features. That seems possible - you might, say, have a virtually empty world like Newcrest, but you get to choose the backdrop, vegetation, weather. As with Newcrest, you could place commercial venues and houses within pre-designated neighbourhoods, and maybe have some ability to edit the neighbourhood (to add or remove things like playgrounds and skating rinks, but not to build walls or other things that would cause routing issues).

There would also have to be a limit - perhaps you could only add one world, with just a few residential lots, since that seems to be an issue with the engine. (I think the mistake was allowing unlimited Sims in the world - they can't go back on that now, so they're limiting the number of houses to put a lid on it.)

That is not CAW - that is an editing program but without the ability to do anything in any world but work on lots - we will never be able to have that either - as they do nt seem interested in allowing us access to anypart of the world that is not an empty lot.

It may be because of how these worlds are made - freehand and with no specific tool - I just don't know. I cannot seem to access that kind of info in the games data so even that is not open to the players. I would assume it is obviously some issues involved as every Sims series game eventually gave us some sort of editor long before now for at least the neighborhood. Shoot look how long we waited to get just an easel Sims could place else where to use.

When I try an place items in JA for my sim to use they get sent to my home inventory. The only way I can place a tent is let my sims do it - and it almost never goes well - it goes flying off somewhere and I find it back in my sims inventory on their home lot after their vacation is over. Really annoys me how difficult they make it for sims to use their own stuff off lot.

I understand that what I'm talking about is more edit-a-world than create-a-world, but the original question was whether we would use CAW. I agree that CAW in the sense of Sims 3 isn't possible. Personally, I never used it, anyway, because it was just too complicated. I'm pretty happy to let the developers design the basic world - I'd just like to change some of the details. (I'm with that guy who wants the high desert world - I want snow and succulents.)

I can understand why they haven't opened up the non-lot areas for editing, routing issues being the chief concern. It would be nice, however, if we could move things that exist, or remove some things we don't want. (Those skating rinks that plop down at weird angles, for one.)

I haven't had too much trouble with tents (other than NPCs deciding to sleep in them), but I do wish my Sims would put their chairs in a sensible place. They never end up side-by-side or facing one another (never mind snapped to the firepit).

I haven't thought about it really. First because I don't want to get hyped for something we don't have and second because I didn't use CAW much in earlier games. I only did some minor touch ups in TS2, so I honestly don't have a proper idea of everything that CAW could provide.