Following the Springfield Guide
There's a few threads about this. A few people are doing it.
I think it's an awesome idea.
I molded mine after my own town, but if I was to ever spend any time on a second town, I'd do it this way.
Looks great by the way. I like your double wide roads.
I think it's an awesome idea.
I molded mine after my own town, but if I was to ever spend any time on a second town, I'd do it this way.
Looks great by the way. I like your double wide roads.
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Howdy, Stranger!
Replies
I'll have to check out some of those similar threads. I'm sure somebody else figured this out, but if you look across the street from the Simpsons house in the far right, I've got northing-facing houses, by adding trees in front of the doors and garages. I don't know how much that makes me sound like a noob, but I just figured that out, and I like having things facing more than 2 directions.
Welcome to the OCD obsession that is that map
I like your maps, in particular the price grid overlay
Here is a previous thread started on the subject in 'The Simspons: Tapped out FAQ' thread.
Paulzuk has located as much as possible and listed their locations. He updated it last in June. Very useful
http://forum.ea.com/eaforum/posts/list/9312730.page
I know it may seem boring to set up your map to a pre-set layout, but i do enjoy the challenge of keeping to it and making it still look good
But emmcee1 is correct, don't try too hard to be exact. I've been working on mine since I started last August and often there simply isn't enough room in a given location.
But if we ever got a look at everyones Springfield who is doing the same, it would be interesting to see how different they might look
You have some great points on the missing buildings.
The only real informaiton I could get on EL Chemistri was that it was on West Oak Grove. So I put mine up behind the Elementary school
For now I've put Krabapples apartment where Spinter Apartments are on the map, as they are surrounded by plenty of apartment blocks. But I think I'll move it once Patty and Selma get released, (whenever that happens...)
I have a forested area in my top right corner, I've hidden Frinks lab there as a secluded Mad scientist. I've also got a space waiting for the Ray gun when Kang and Kodos are released (I didn't spend the doughnuts at Holloween...regretting it ever since.)
It is really satisfying to watch the map develop,
Happy gaming
PS: Also good to see finally somebody else is taking the double-road thing serious
Maybe you can PM him to ask for his experiences and why he changed his course?
(and indeed the layout changes all the time, sometimes buildings even change location in one single episode, artists need freedom to express what they want to express, so they will never lock themselves down to some basic design)
Like JaredEgan stated, I have also designed a way to search for a location by creating a zip code. I created my map as a time saver, not out of a need to copy the map. This thread would be an excellent companion thread to mine, giving people another option.
I managed to get my thread mentioned in the sticky post: Questions? Click here! -TSTO User- Compiled Forum Index, by Simpson0001, in the Simpson: Tapped Out FAQ section. Simply post the link to this thread in there and Simpson0001 may add it to his sticky.
Peace.
That's some damn fine work there. Very well detailed, explained and laid out. You should actually thank your stars you do not have more material as it makes layouts much harder. Good work and please keep updating! Also feel welcome to add in game as I am working off the same map with some variation plus episode by episode decoration for details. Might give you some ideas.
And then I got all serious. "...I must build it"
Ahhh, my people
I am thankful, particularly surrounding the city hall, there is no room left.
I'll definitely have to make room on my friends list in order to add people following the guide.
Thanks for the feedback everyone!
July was a pretty intense month of playing the game. I was hourly tasking most of the way through, and didn't get a lot done otherwise. But I finally managed to expand as far as I needed to go, and put all buildings I have from the Springfield guide in their respective places. It literally took the whole month to do so. With that out of the way, my OCD can finally take a breather, and for the month of August, I will try limiting myself to playing the game on 4 hour intervals.
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Now I know some people have doubts about me following the overlay exactly, as there are some places that might look too crammed together. And believe me, I'm not going to make it look weird just for the sake or perfect longitude and latitude. But as far as I've seen, there is only one area of the map that is giving me difficulties, and it starts with the school.
If you look at the overlay, the school and the church are crammed pretty close. The school in the game is already just a little bit wider than the $44, 000 square of land it's supposed to fit in. To add to that problem, one of my "popular" double wide roads is already taking up half of that particular square of land. Moving that wide road to the left would cause a whole lot more problems south.
Another factor to add is that the look of my school area was copied from an overhead view of the school from an episode I watched, with the parking lot to the left, and the brick wall in the back. The look of my school is pretty true to that still shot from the show, and also from a bunch of different perspectives I've seen from other episodes. Plus it's one of the few places on the map that I've been able to decorate at all so far.
But when all is said and done, the square of land that was supposed to have the school, only has a double wide road, and the school parking lot, which is actually Otto's bus. That pushes the actual school into the square of land where most of the church and the community centre are supposed to be. That pushes my church in to the next square to the right, just north of Veterans Park. I had to place my community centre directly north of the church, instead of north east, where the retirement castle should be. And finally my retirement castle is pushed right 2 spaces.
It's a good thing there is nothing really significant on the guide north of all these buildings, because if I kept on having to push them all to the right,they would have easily overlapped my Pressboard Estates. And then I would have had to move my whole suburb to the springfield mall area, and at that point, there would be no reason to follow the guide anyways. But this is by far and large, the biggest problem I've had with perfect positioning, and so for the rest of it, I should be able to deliver a comprehensive adaptation of the guide.
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Shortly after I made this thread, I started to do a little bit of house farming for the first time. Originally, I filled up all the empty land in the right, where the cemetaries and the Springfield University should be, as well as the room around the river. But now that I've expanded, blazing a trail of empty space in my wake, I've been able to use those houses to fill that void.
I keep my residential spaces compact, so I shouldn't have to worry about running out of room any time soon. I still have most of my Pressboard estates to fill up, once I get around to buying that unsightly patch of land north of the Simpson's house. But that is not a priority. I would like to pretty up some of those houses with fences and trees, but I don't see them being there permanently, so that is also not a big priority.
One thing I would really like to see added to the game is farmable generic buildings. When you watch the show, and look at scenes in commercial districts, you don't see generic houses in the background. You see generic boxy looking buildings, typically brown or orange or some other type of pastel. Two generic buildings I think would really help to add a look to the game that is more true to the show.
Some people already make these generic buildings, using fences. I have one which is used in place of the nameless hotel two doors down from Moes' Tavern. I don't want to make too many of these types of 3d structures though. A generic building would work much better in this instance. My guess is for a lot of players, generic buildings would cut down on 3D structures, unless their purpose is to make something creative and extravagant.
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The Level 31 update took about 6 days off of my land expansion, and in hindsight I should have waited until the level 32 update to let the Level 31 stuff go down in price. That would have reduced the amount of time it took to buy those buildings to less than 2 days. My main goal is to be accurate to the guide, and when their are so many other things for me to work on, I'd say it pays to be patient with content updates. So i will not be getting anything for level 32 until level 33 comes out.
Level 31 saw the entrance of Wolfcastle. I had already prepared land for the mansion. It goes right between Springfield Downs and Burns manor, but after finally buying it, the next thing I did was expand Springfield Downs down to the shore. The guide indicates that there are a number of golf courses surrounding the mansion, so when it comes to decorating, it would be nice to have some kind of golfing motif. I don't know what I can do in that regards, but I am open to suggestions.
Looking at the overlay map, the All Night Gym shares the same square space as Sprawl Mart. I don't have sprawl mart yet, so that's not something I have to worry about cramming. I plan to get it at some point, but I have 3 other square spaces in that partially enclosed area, so I am sure it will turn out fine.
The Sir-Put-A-Lot has been on my wish list, and I'm glad I don't have to wait until Valentines day for it. I just have to wait until level 33. I haven't bought the land yet for the Rodd and Todd buildings, but I've expanded pretty close to both of them.
Kamp Krusty is technically not on the Springfield Guide, with a mention in the top left corner that the road leads to it. Its an expensive premium item, so it's definitely not my biggest priority. Not actually being on the guide doesn't help it. But if I get around to it, it will place it in the top left corner, where the guide conveniently says "Campgrounds"
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Speaking of Krusty, Krustyland is here, and it's nice and fresh and new, and better than I could have ever expected. And guess what?... If you didn't already know, it has it's own guide to follow! Yaaaaay! And while it's nowhere near as geographically precise as the Springfield Guide, it is much more visual, and I am just as obsessive about it. Just when my OCD was ready to take a breather, this update came out just in time to pick up the slack. So now while my Springfield is on 4 hour interval tasks, my Krustyland is on half hour interval tasks , until I unlock the rides that allow me to work with 4 hour intervals.
Since we're getting a shuttle bus with the Krustyland expansion, I found a place on the guide near evergreen terrace, just to the right of the Springfield Railroad Station called "Bus Depot." That should do nicely.
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Now for some of the other thing's that I've been up to.
On a personal note, I recently realized how broke I am. And when I say broke, I mean my credit card is near maxing out. So no donuts for me anytime soon, even with a Gil sale. My real world priorities have suddenly trumped my OCD. Hopefully I will be back on track by October, and if the Gil sale comes around then, it would be perfect. As of now though, no more donuts for me. I have almost 150 donuts saved, and I'm saving them for any potential limited time must-haves
But on a positive note let me show you something I am proud of.
This is Fort Fragg. It's pretty easy to spot from the guide, between Burns Manor and the Murderhorn. Their have been a couple military bases from the show, but this one has apparently only appeared twice. First, when Bart stole a tank during his ritalin binge, and second, when Bart and Milhouse found Fat Tony's fireworks stash, and went around setting off fireworks. You might remember one of the fireworks fell into Fort Fragg near a bunch of soldiers stabbing those bags with their bayonets and, when the firework went off they all panicked. One of them pranced up to the camera and said "We're not readyyyyy." I laughed.
Their is a lot of stuff that can be used to make your own Fort Fragg, and feel free to make one yourselves. You've got the practice dummies of course. I use bomb shelters as military barracks, the standard telephone booth and baricade as an entrance, fences for look out towers and other structures, and some pylons and moat for an obstacle course. Since the Murderhorn is actually volcano Lair, I incorporated the door entrances to look like it is indeed part of the military base. I only bought one American Flag during the 4th of July sale (I'm Canadian, so that's generous.) and so I figured this was the most appropriate place for it. I never bought any tents during wacking day, as I was still new, and didn't know any better. But I could imagine those would come in handy here. All we need now is a tank.
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Looking forward, now that everything in town is in place, I have a whole new set of priorities. Krustyland is going full speed ahead, with everything I can do there, being done. In town though, I'm going to start saving up for the escalator, magnifying glass, and popsicle stick skyscraper. I've already got the land reserved.
When new updates come out, I will change my priorities accordingly, but with the money I will be saving, anything new will be purchased instantly. I'm glad to not be playing hand-to-mouth for once.
I'm still going to decorate when I can. Their are other things on the Guide like Fort Fragg, that I want to artificially recreate, including Veterans Park, the lighthouse, the drive thru, Springfield Airport, and Springfield University. I need to plant a lot more trees and stuff to bring up my tree hugging rating. My multiplier bonus so far, only stands at 10%, which is what happens when you get this far, and only spend donuts on premium characters.
Level 33 will allegedly bring The Springfield Wax Museum, the sun sphere, and a training wall. The wax museum is located on the map just west of the Duff Brewery. The training wall, I will probably use in my Fort Fragg, and replace the 3d fence structure I already have there. I don't know what to do with the Sun Sphere, as that is clearly not from Springfield. Most likely that is a premium item, but if not, perhaps I can repurpose it like I did with the volcano lair, so I am open to suggestions.
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That's my report for this month. Thanks for following along. To make up for the lack of creativity in my game, I've been making signatures on request for forum members (and a few for myself). I like to keep my PS skills sharp, and I've got a pretty quick turnaround, so if you're interested, give me a shout. These are the five I made for the month of July.
Not a lot of expansion this month. I bought several necessary spaces for new buildings, and one space in the pressboard estates so that I could start on my suburb. With the north-facing houses trick, I am creating my 'burbs as compact as possible, into something I believe looks pretty unique. This is generally the look I am going for, with all my residential.
I had saved $900,000 just before Level 33 hit, which was the most I have ever saved, at that point. My goal was to save up enough to maybe get the escalator to nowhere, after I finally paid for the Level 32 buildings. I was kind of upset that the Level 32 stuff hadn't dropped to lower price, but I couldn't wait any longer, and spent money on the Sir putt-a-lot, and the Calmwood Mental Hospital, plus 4 spaces of land, just to put them where they're supposed to be on the guide. Then I realized that the SWAT Van was more cheaper and useful than the mental hospital, and so I couldn't wait for level 34, to see that go down in price.
After all that, I was back down to $100,000, and then I couldn't resist using the training wall to make some generic buildings, which cost a lot in roof-like decorations. They don't look that great, but they're supposed to be generic buildings, and it's better then nothing. At least they're unique, and not made out of more fences. So after that, I was down to $60,000. That was a far way off from being hundred grand short of the escalator to nowhere.
By the time level 34 hit last week, I had saved $1,150,000, and I realized that buildings like Calmwood are not necessary to adding characters or quests, and I should not purchase them until they are discounted as far as they can go. All I need to know is where they fit on the guide, and I'll get around to placing them eventually. So from now on I buy the necessary buildings right away, and the unnecessary buildings can wait.
Level 34 brought the Spingfield High School, and the Springfield Knowledgeium. I thought the Knowledgeium can wait, but apparently it is essential to the "SKINNNNER" quest, so I'm going to buy that next. I know it is placed by the waterfront, south of the town hall, and west of the Springfield general hospital, and in my town, you can see the empty space where I will try to make it fit. I had previously watched the episode with it. It's the one where Bart and Ralph are forced to be friends, and get the skeleton key.
I've already purchased the high school, which goes right next to the Java server, north of the other school. If you read what I wrote last month, you'll know that this area is the hardest area to keep geographically accurate to the guide. Currently I am able to fit the high school in the right spot from the guide, with one new space of land, however I am not so sure how I will fit the Springfield sign above it, when I get some donuts to purchase premium stuff. I may have to scrap the double lane road I got going up there, but we'll see.
I was banking on the Sunsphere being a premium item, so I didn't put much thought into where I would put it. Instead, it looks to be another silly expensive tourist attraction. I wasn't sure if it was going to go down in price during level 33. Now that we have level 34 I know that it isn't. And since I could still afford the Sunsphere after the high school, and not the escalator, I purchased the Sunsphere. Once again, I am back down to $100,000, and the escalator has to wait.
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Now the problem with the Sunsphere is that it's supposed to be in Knoxville, Tennessee. Not Springfield. So before I even place it, I have to look at the Springfield Guide, and like I did with the Volcano Lair, I have to repurpose it into something else.
On the Guide there is a number of circular buildings, and so I compared each one to be the most likely to look like the Sunsphere. (The fun part is watching older episodes, to keep an eye out or those buildings). The Springfield Knowledgeum has something round next to it, and theres a sexagonal Imax theatre behind it. I never saw anything round when I watched the Ralph episode, so I'm not committing to that. There's the Rock & Roll Museum, which is actually the Rock n' Roll Wax Museum. I never got to see the outside of that building either, and one wax museum is enough. There is a Medieval times next to the Putt-a-lot, but I don't think you could fit a medieval times in a Sunsphere.
There is a planet Springfield, which actually looks like the planet hype down at the Squidport. I could say that maybe the Planet Springfield was relocated to Squidport, and was left nothing but an abandoned sphere. That is an option to go with, although it's a little flimsy.
Another option is the Springfield Revolving Restaurant, which is actually called the Sit-and-Rotate. It's the evolving restaurant that Skinner went to, on a date with Patty. The problem is it looks more like the Seattle Space Needle, than it does a Sunsphere. But a loophole around that is, during the Treehouse of Horror X the top of the restaurant is actually a spaceship that gets up and flies away. It could be said that to replace the top of the Restaurant, they imported the top of the Sunsphere from Knoxville, since that thing fell over. This is also a very flimsy excuse. But I think it looks more like a revolving restaurant, than an abandoned Planet Springfield.
So where the revolving restaurant is on the guide, is where I'm going to put the sunsphere. It goes directly south of Zesty's pizza. I think it will also look nice next to the Knowledgeum.
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Last month I made Fort Fragg, and got a taste for making up stuff from the map. This month I came up with an idea to use my extra white houses from farming on that empty strip of land. This is my Springfield University. I did my best to make these houses look like Animal House style dormitories. The two houses in the middle could be replaced with something more university-like but until that comes along, thats just what it is. If I ever get a chance to get Flannagans pub, then I think just north of this would be the perfect place, because what is a university, without a local pub?
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I've now purchased everything in Krustyland that doesn't cost donuts. It is weirdly shaped, 3 stars, and that's he way it's going to stay, until we get more KL content. Mine looks the way it looks, because I placed everything where I saw them on the theme park map.
Krustyland was a nice little month-long distraction. Now I'm glad that I can bring all the characters back to Springfield and I can save for the escalator quicker. That escalator continues to be my first priority, given nothing else big enough comes along that circumvents it. After that, comes, the magnifying glass, and then the skyscraper.
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Last month I mentioned I have money troubles, that would prevent me from buying donuts if there was a Gil sale. I'm not saying I'm out of that yet, but I am working on something, and I am close to it, and if everything goes well, then by next month you might just see a heap load more premium content on my map, causing more challenges to keeping this accurate to the Springfield guide.
Thanks for following along, as I try to recreate this thing. Here are the signatures I made during the month of August.
I'll have to bookmark this so I can look at it as you add stuff to your town. Neat idea. :thumbup:
It wasn't until I took the land value grid, and overlaid it on top of the guide. Thats when I figured it doesn't matter which way the roads are going, as long as the buildings are exactly where they need to placed. You can see my mini-putt for example, all isolated by itself right now. I may not be able to give it the exact roads, but it is in the exact location it needs to be. I can't even give exact roads to the buildings in the west, so when you think about it, perfect road placement is just not worth attempting. But I believe the perfect building placement can be done.
I actually have been doing the exact same thing. When I started playing I searched for maps of Springfield and found that one to be the best and most detailed. I laid out my town and roads as closely as possible and slowly expanded. I've been playing since August so managed to get all the Limited Time buildings, characters, and decorations. I've also spent a fair amount of money on the game to purchase one of everything, including all the premium/donut buildings, characters, and decorations.
I'm fully leveled at lvl 34 and have everything, and fully expanded in terms of land.
However, while I used that map for the most part, I made several changes based on this top down view of Springfield from the show itself (from the opening of one episode where the couch gag resulted in a quick zoom out from the Simpsons living room, up and up showing the Evergreen Terrace neighborhood and then all of Springfield, and out into space and so on), which showed some notable differences from the interactive map we're using: mainly Burns' Manor is obviously in the northwest corner of town instead of the southwest portion, and the airport is farther west and south, as well as a few differences in road layouts.
http://adn.blam.be/springfield/img/springfield_anim2.jpg
Of course, most buildings on that map can't be differentiated easily or at all, so with the exception of the few obvious ones (Burns Manor, the Mall--though the Mall hasn't been introduced in the game yet), I still use the interactive map for the most part. I do need to do a bit of reorienting after the lvl 34 update. But I'm a little more lax with placements after seeing the discrepancies between the two.
Basically, as has been said, the layout of Springfield often changes based on the events in episodes or whims of the writers'. However, as someone who also understands the strange precision of OCD, take a look at my Springfield and let me know what you think. I also laid out Krustyland based on the same map you used.
My Origin ID is DIrishB.