Sunset Valley Joe's Version v0.1

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A heavily reworked Sims 3 Sunset Valley world focused on modern building techniques and expanding the lore in the town.

Most houses have been fully decorated using modern building techniques. Public lots and landmarks received significant updates, and a number of original developer shortcuts (pool-as-fountain, fence as half-walls) have been replaced with better solutions.

What's New in 0.1

Housing & Residential

Most houses decorated and rebuilt with modern techniques many with basements added (oh my goodness that took a lot), some even have secret rooms now.
Horse arena removed (rich people don't want stinky horses living that close) and replaced with a futuristic house for residents who are definitely not time travellers and definitely not clones
Laundry machines added to many houses
New laundromat built
New apartment building on the science hill (my game has some sort of bug where it kept giving me room mates when I lived there, so watchout for that)

Public Lots & Landmarks

Library and gym updated (including seasonal variants)
Town hall, art museum, and diner updated
Science centre now has a proper dome you can actually go inside
Stylist building landscaped and parking added
Dog park added (worth seeing out on camera for the first time, if you'll be recording)
Gypsy wagon, archive, and ferry location added for the Supernatural fans
Indoor-outdoor resort built
Docks and houseboats (a little glitchy) added (you may need to teleport your active houseboat to the middle of the ocean if you get stuck)
Custom scuba diving spots
Built a resort that was supposed to float in the middle of the ocean moved to shore (water taxi pathing did not work and would crash the game)

Fixes & Improvements

Many places where the original devs used pools as fountains replaced with actual fountains
Bridges added instead of weird landscaping bridges across ponds
Teleporting phone booths added all around town (subway system made no sense)

Notes

Not every building around the ponds is a favourite yet — some still need love
I've been playing on this map for quite a while, most townies aged up once before I turned off aging if I remember right.
And more changes I don't even remember

Screenshots

Housing

Four-storey apartment building on a hillside overlooking town at dusk

This apartment building is the first in the town, it's where all those random "NPC"s nobody cares about live when they're not being a bartender, cashier, or service worker.

Cutaway view of an apartment with bedrooms, bathroom, kitchen, in-suite luandry, and a back deck

Inside the apartment building on the hill, including in-suite laundry!

My houseboat

The one houseboat I’ve built so far. There are four docks around town.

House on stilts at night with deck lights, coloured roofline lights and deck furniture

Outdoor lighting and deck furniture added to the house, including coloured lighting. I remember coloured lights not being something you could pick when the game shipped: they were always there, but no UI was made for them until later. High-End Loft Stuff, the first stuff pack, shipped with funny digital-looking lights that gave off a cyan light, before you could actually change the colour of lights in game.

Cutaway of a house ground floor with a laundry area, stairs and a lit, finished garage

Laundry added, and the garage interior finished and lit.

Cutaway of a basement with a pool, hot tub, slide, lounge chairs and forest-print walls

The basement added to the house.

Cutaway of two brick garages with wall lights, one with two bikes parked inside

Bikes and lights added to the garages.

Cutaway of a house with a rooftop deck over the garage, with a bar counter, grill and fire pit

Deck furniture and proper bars added! Not just those two-tile juice things.

Fenced construction site with scaffolding over an excavated pit and a van parked inside

Under Construction — Jerry Martin

Two-storey wood-shingle house with a curved sweeping roof, decks and a backyard pool

This house NEEDED the new roof type. It’s just MADE for this house—it fits so perfectly. Added a hot tub and a pool with a god damn diving board.

Cutaway of a house ground floor with living room, dining area, kitchen, bathroom and stairs

This house just NEEDED a basement.

Spoiler warning: tombs — click to reveal

Cutaway basement with a red-carpet lounge and large screen, and a rocky tomb room with a skeleton behind a bookshelf

The basement, with a tomb behind the bookshelf.

Cutaway of a cluttered small house with toys, a crib and a fenced yard with a clothesline and old tires

I built a family to move into this house with way too many kids and animals. They’re going to be “That neighbour”.

Spoiler warning: tombs — click to reveal

Cutaway of a concrete basement with stairs, tires, toys and shelves, and a dark side room with a round stone well

And obviously it needed a basement with a connecting tomb.

Cutaway of a furnished house with living room, kitchen, dining area, stairs and a side deck

Cutaway of a basement with stairs, exercise equipment, a sofa, vending machines and a bathroom

Needed to look lived in, as well as a basement (oh my god, it took so long to make the stairs work for this one, don’t even ask).

Grey-shingled beach house with water jets in shallow pools around the entrance walkway

This house just needed fountains!

Cutaway of the same house showing furnished bedrooms, bathrooms, kitchen, dining and lounge areas, with fountains outside

And some redecorating and clutter to make it look lived in. You’ll notice I use the micro-adjustment rotation and placement tool the Sims team is apparently ALLERGIC. to.

Modern purple house with glass doors onto an indoor lap pool, and a small fountain in front

The Sims team so desperately wanted fountains.

Huge billboard on tall stilts towering beside a small single-storey house, with a small brick shed behind it

Due to some shady deal with the town’s planning committee (who are apparently distant relatives of Wigan council), this 60-foot billboard was placed right next to these people’s house and their brand-new shed. The town claims there’s nothing they can do about it.

Corner-lot house with a dead tree, trash piles, a dumpster, a swing set and furniture sitting out in the yard

I always thought this house seemed like “white trash” with its furniture outside—the kind of people who’d own a pit bull named Princess with a body count of 1 or 37, depending on how you measure it, sitting on the front-yard couch drinking beer. Their neighbours hate them and complain constantly, but the town just won’t do anything about it.

Futuristic white house with tall pillar towers topped by large silver domes, a glass skybridge, a white sphere, and a row of solar panels

The “TheFuture” household—a futuristic household whose occupants def aren’t from the future. Living here are the ~~clones~~ triplets NotFrom, AlsoNotFrom, and StillNotFrom TheFuture. They deny any allegations regarding having a time portal in the basement.

Cutaway of a small round white room on the futuristic house, with tall dark panels outside, on a dark grid-patterned deck

Cutaway of a round white sitting room with curved blue sofas and tall panel towers outside

Cutaway of a glass-walled room with a large window mural and rows of blue lounge chairs

Large games room with a polka-dot floor, pool table, ping-pong table, arcade machines, and a sunken lounge

Black and white room with glowing columns, long white tables and benches, and green-lit floor lights

Cutaway of a round floor with white bathrooms, pink and green pod tubs, and coiled glowing heaters, beside hexagonal solar panels

Cutaway of a white bedroom with blue egg-shaped chairs and coiled heaters, next to a glass roof

Small white room at the back of the house with a glass tube, wall-mounted fixtures, and a chrome pod-shaped machine, under hexagonal solar panels

And there’s totally not a hidden door you could break into at the back of the house to get to the future.

Spoiler warning: hidden basement — click to reveal

Hidden basement room with a bookcase dividing the space, a glass tube, and a glowing cyan orb machine with curved prongs

Cutaway of a glass-walled modern kitchen with white cabinets, blue countertops, and a black tile floor, off an ornate yellow-panelled room

Wide view of the house interior with parquet floors, arched windows, a chess table, a telescope, and a red appliance alcove behind an archway

Mrs. Alto wanted a “modern”-looking kitchen. I think it totally doesn’t match the house, and Nick thought there was nothing wrong with the old one, but as long as she’s happy...

The Goth house from above, with a white footbridge crossing the pond in front of it

Hey look, a bridge!

Fenced back-yard graveyard with tombstones, wrought-iron enclosures, and a lamp post

Did anyone find it really weird that the Goths have so many bodies in the back yard?

Spoilers, the Goth house

Spoiler warning: the Goth house — click to reveal

Small stone shed under a willow tree in the back yard

Did anyone look in their shed in the back yard? (Note: the stairs currently aren’t working.)

Underground torch-lit chamber with sarcophagi, a fire pit, mist, and a large rusted mechanism

I think we all knew some really messed up stuff was happening in (or under) the Goth house, it just happens to go a lot deeper than we expected.

Caged walkway over a glowing lava floor with a skeleton lying in the middle

Sim standing in a caged room with ornate rugs, a small table, and a green jar

Resorts

Indoor-outdoor resort from the street

My indoor-outdoor resort, from the street.

Indoor-outdoor resort garden inside

My indoor-outdoor resort, inside.

Top floor of the indoor-outdoor resort with two open-plan suites

The top floor of the indoor-outdoor resort, with its two suites. I went for that weird thing modern hotels do for some reason: cuck chairs, showers and bathtubs exposed behind glass or open to the room, the toilet in full view, and windows so people underneath can see you too!

Resort built on stilts by the shore

This resort was supposed to float offshore, but Sims kept getting into the water taxi, then getting back out, over and over instead of leaving. I moved it to shore.

Public Lots

Brick store with a new parking lot along the street

Parking added to the weirdly rotated swap-n-sell store. Yes, that’s its default rotation.

Building with arched windows and a new parking lot along the street

Parking added at the salon and tattoo parlour.

Fenced pool club at night with a large pool, hot tubs, a slide, and lounge chairs

The exclusive pool club. I’ve always thought of it as a perk for the three houses that look like they’re in a homeowners’ association, rather than somewhere open to the public.

Single-storey building with a blue roof and a parking lot with four cars at a street corner

The “Drinking Bleach Laundromat” exterior.

Cutaway of a laundromat with rows of washers and dryers, vending machines, an arcade machine, and seating

Inside the “Drinking Bleach Laundromat”.

Pool with glass walls set into a grassy hillside, with a deck, stairs and one Sim standing on it

My exclusive pool club, built into the side of the hill. It’s not finished yet—as you can see, there’s still a contractor working.

Tall wooden watchtower on a sandy lot beside a road, with a picnic table and a few Sims nearby

New lot: “The old guard tower”.

Spoilers—you might want to film your reaction

Fenced grassy lot near the beach packed with hundreds of colourful fire hydrants

The dog park :) The town thinks one of them actually works, nobody knows which though.

Large public pool lot with a waterslide, a diving board, a rock waterfall, a hot tub and a bar

What about a waterslide or a GOD DAMN diving board?

Dark phone booth on the plaza beside the theatre entrance and marquee at night

Phone booth added at the theatre.

Spoiler warning: tombs — click to reveal

Cutaway of an underground stone chamber with bookshelves, pillars, a rock pile, orbs and doors

The tomb underneath the theatre.

Beach at night with wide stone stairs, a bar, picnic tables, umbrellas, and lounge chairs by the sand

Beach redecorated.

Cutaway of an underground public washroom with stalls, urinals and sinks, and a spiral staircase

Even a public washroom.

Map view of the bay with several scuba diving spot markers out on the water

Underwater scene with a scuba diver and another Sim near coral, rocks and tall seaweed

Did someone say “scuba diving”??? There's four scuba diving spots, I can't remember if I've finished all four.

Wooden footbridge over a stream beside a timber-framed house, with gravel paths on both sides

Hey look, an actual bridge! And yes, they can path over it, but of course they go all the way around XD

Aerial view of the same creekside lot with many white spawner markers and radius circles placed around the stream

Did I mention I’ve also been adding the insect, fish, and other spawners around town too?

Brick town hall with white columns, a gold statue, wide front steps, metal railings on the brick walls and small fountains

Town hall. Someone fell off the brickwork, so they had to add the gaudy railing. Then they added fountains that hardly work, and their shoddy railing fell in when a heavyset fella (cough cough Jack Bruch cough) leaned on it, broke it and fell in.

Stone library with a front lawn playground including a climbing frame, sandbox, treehouse, slide and spring riders

The library, now with a playground.

Cutaway of the library interior with a café counter, pastry case, kitchen island with stools, tables and bookshelves

Now with a café serving stale pastries and crazy expensive (but good) drinks.

Back of the stone library with a raised rear entrance and a small separate stone building with arched red doors

And with the archives out back.

Library lobby with a large decorated tree and oversized wrapped gift boxes in the centre

And using the event lot marker, the library lobby is decorated for the winter season only during the winter season.

Police station at night with a new angled-stall parking lot beside the building

Police station parking lot.

Cutaway of the gym at night showing a lit indoor pool, lounge chairs, change rooms, and a café counter with tables

The gym, but now with lighting fixes using debug lights so the pool deck is actually illuminated.

Gym rooftop at night with stairs leading up to a fenced, railed rink surrounded by tall screen walls

And a roller rink on the roof of the gym, which switches to a skating rink in winter using an event lot marker.

Brightly painted barrel-top wagon at night beside rusted cars, loose tires, scrap, and stacked hay bales near large boulders

The gypsy wagon.

Open grassy clearing near boulders with a small green tent and a tan cabin-style tent

This is going to be a campground! It turns out the pre-placed tent isn’t an object in the debug menu, even though they placed many of them in the World Adventures expansion pack, so I’m going to need to get a mod so I can place the tents. Then this will be a campground :)

Grassy campground beside a pond fed by a misty waterfall, with a windmill, picnic table, red phone booth, play equipment, and a cabin-style tent

The campground, right next to this stupidly noisy waterfall! Anyone ever build their nice house here and regret it?

Small park beside the retro diner with a central building, cobblestone paths, benches, picnic tables, flower beds, and trees

The diner now has a proper park in the blank space they had before.

Science Centre

Red phone booth beside the entrance of a modern science building at night

The teleporting phone booth added in front of the science building.

Aerial night view of the science centre beside a large glass geodesic dome

The science centre, now with a dome you can finally go inside!

Lit garden path with large trees, plant beds and a white gazebo inside a glass dome at night

Inside the science centre dome.

Cutaway of a basement corridor with stairs at each end, restrooms, a wine bar and a winemaking room

The basement passage connects the outside to the inside of the butterfly dome from Late Night. It also doubles as a nectary, for making “teen-safe” wine.

Required Packs

Base Game
World Adventures
Ambitions
Late Night
Generations
Showtime
Supernatural
Seasons
University Life
Island Paradise
Into the Future

Possibly used (unconfirmed): High-End Loft Stuff

I built this on Mac, so I do NOT have the option to turn packs off at the launcher.

Installation

Download the zip file from this repository and unzip it.
On Mac: Place the world folder in your ~/Documents/Electronic Arts/The Sims 3/Saves. On windows: Place the wolrd folder in %USERPROFILE%\Documents\Electronic Arts\The Sims 3\Saves.
Launch the game and select the world from the world selection screen.
Make sure all required packs listed above are enabled.

Tip: If you're recording, the new dog park is worth a look on camera.

Work in progress

Buildings at ponds aren't final.
washroom at the festival park isn't final.
Tombs have issues, my version of the game won't show the green link lines betewen linked objects, so it's REALLY hard to tell what I've done.

Tombs

Tombs are under the theatre, goth house, and the empty house on the beach front, and maybe one more.

Credits

Custom overhaul by Joe Boll.
Built on the original EA world using the packs listed above.

Please credit me and link to this repo if you're posting about my map :) https://gitlab.com/JoeBoll/sunset-valley-joes-version/

Version 0.1 — First public release.