MTS2:Creator Guidelines/Full Neighborhoods

Full Neighborhoods

Quality

Have you made a new neighborhood in game and want to share it? This guide will walk you through every step of what we require on MTS.

Time and effort

Most good creators spend hours upon hours on even simple creations. We understand that not everything has to be that difficult, but we do expect you to not just slap together something in 15 minutes and upload it and expect it to get accepted. Really try to put some serious effort into what you create, and it will show through in the quality. This is probably the hardest one to quantify, but it's something that is obvious whenever upload moderators look at an upload: have you really expended some serious time and effort on a creation? You can't just crank out a bunch of stuff in a short amount of time and expect it to be good. Nor can you spend a while just fiddling with something but not really trying and expect a good result either.

A Sense of Realism(*)

No matter what style or design you choose, your neighborhood should be unique and different. We are looking for quality neighborhoods that have depth to them. It should feel like this neighborhood could really be alive and has some history to it that is as individual as it is. While we are calling this a 'Sense of Realism' we are not trying to exclude fantasy neighborhoods. On the contrary! As long as the neighborhood feels like it could believable exist within its own universe, then it would definitely be considered 'real'.

Screenshots

People want to see what they're downloading! Your screenshots sell your upload - if people don't like the look of your screenshots, they're not going to download - and if your screenshots are too bad, you won't get your upload approved.

Big Enough

The larger your pics, the better! Tiny pics won't show enough detail to see what you've made. Minimum Size: 800 pixels wide by 600 pixels tall is a good size for the smallest pic you would want to upload. You may have smaller pics for thumbnails and the like, but for your required screenshots, please go as big as you can! Maximum Size: MTS allows pictures up to 2560 pixels wide by 1440 pixels tall, and a file size limit of 800 kbs - so you can have nice, big, pretty pics. You may have to resize your pictures or apply compression to get them to fit within that limit. Please don't just take a small pic and size it up in your graphics program to get bigger pics - this only makes the dimensions larger but doesn't add any detail and just gives you a blurry, pixellated larger pic, not a nice clear one.

Main Image (*)
We need a main image for your hood, and it should look like how your neighborhood would be presented on a post card. Please do no show map edges and have it at a low enough angle to look pretty. This is a fantastic shot to use as your thread thumbnail. You should also make sure that this image is the one that shows up in the Neighborhood Picker window in game.

Top Down Image (*)
We also need a top down view that shows the layout of your entire town. Again, it's better not to show map edges if you can help it, but don't cut off any roads. You can also add a key system to this image to help users match up your lot descriptions.

No over-Photoshopping

While it can be tempting to get artistic with your screenshots in Photoshop, please don't. Screenshots need to be just as things look in the game, with no extra filtering such as contrast, sharpen, blur, saturation, etc. Also, please don't too crazy when it comes to adding text - make sure your text is in blank areas of the picture or covers an absolute minimum of your creation. Remember, you're showing off what you've made for the game, not your skill in Photoshopping your pics.

Maximum Number of Inline/attached screenshots

Inline screenshots are images that appear in the text of the upload that load for the viewer along with the rest of the text. Inline screenshots can either be linked from the attached screenshots, or from an external hosting site like Tinypic, Photobucket, or Flickr. Attached screenshots are screenshots that have been attached to the upload using the "manage attachments" feature on MTS. They display as small thumbnails until clicked on. You may host your inline screenshots elsewhere like Photobucket, Tinypic, or Flickr - however, these screenshots hosted elsewhere must be additional "bonus" screenshots. All of the screenshots we actually require for your upload need to be attached to the thread itself. If your Photobucket account runs out of bandwidth or you delete the pics, people still need to be able to get the required screenshots on your thread. You may now upload up to 100 pics! Of course, please keep it to a reasonable quantity... only things like huge sets, full worlds, etc. should have that many pics! Remember, you can always collage several different images together into one image if you have a bunch of stuff to show off, or want to show multiple angles of an item. For the bonus photos, we recommend you use a spoiler tag to hide the images, then people can click on it to see them. Their pages will load faster if all the images aren't downloading at once. [spoiler=interior rooms]http:// wheveremypictureis/picture.jpg[/spoiler] The 'interior rooms' can be replaced by whatever grouping you want to present, 'hidden garden', 'pool views', 'master suite', 'kids room', etc. You may place as many photos within a spoiler grouping as you'd like.

Content not allowed

The following listed items are those that are not allowed on MTS in any category. Please note that MTS is a privately owned and operated fansite, and that all content is hosted at the discretion of the MTS staff. Uploads detailed below, and any other content deemed undesirable may be removed at the sole discretion of MTS staff without further notice. The following items are inappropriate for posting on this site, and will not be allowed: Adult Content/Nudity:MTS is not an adult site. We do have an adult site affiliated with MTS, Sexy Sims 2 where adult content may be uploaded. But because MTS is a PG-13 site, no adult content may be uploaded to MTS itself. Any item containing visible nudity - that is, screenshots showing female nipples or genitals of either gender. This includes fine art containing those types of nudity. Items of a sexual nature (sex toys, genital addons, sex worker careers, etc.) and skintones with anatomically correct genitals are also not allowed here. Please upload items of this type to our adult site. If you are uploading a skintone that is "barbie" below the waist, please blur or censor the areas that would be covered by a bikini for your uploaded screenshots, even if your sims do not have anatomical details like nipples in the blurred areas. Likewise, uploads at SXS must be adult in nature - items which are okay for MTS must be uploaded to MTS. Illegal Drugs: Items relating to illegal drugs do not belong on MTS. You -may- post items relating to prescription and over-the-counter drugs, as well as alcohol and tobacco on MTS, but items related to illegal drugs should go on our adult site. Sexualized Children: Toddler sims are portrayed around 2-3 years old, and child sims appear to be about 7-8 years old. We do not allow any content that sexualizes children in any way - no breasts whatsoever on child sims, no revealing/adult outfits or sexy anything. If you want to make preteens, make a less developed body for teen sims. Sexualized child content is not allowed at our adult site either. Offensive Content: Racist, sexist, bigoted, hateful, or otherwise offensive content will not be allowed. Again, also not allowed at our adult site. Personal Soapbox Content: Content that is made not so much to be fun content for pixel dolls but a way for you to promote your personal beliefs (positive, negative, or otherwise) will not be allowed here. We do allow religious and political content that is well-done and presented in a historical context, but items whose value as game content doesn't outweigh the trouble of dealing with the arguments it will cause will not be allowed. This is also not allowed at the adult site. EXE installers: Non-moderators are not allowed to post exe (or other executable) installers for any area of the site but Modding Tools. If your content needs to be installed to a certain directory, you can compress your files and leave the directory structure intact, so you can tell people to just install to Program Files, for instance, and the files will go where they need to. Executable installers can easily hold viruses, and are generally not needed for installing most content. Screenshots or Uploads with Pay Content: Uploads should not feature pay items in their screenshots, and uploads should not include or require any pay content. At MTS, we promote the use of free content, and our policies reflect that. Please use all free or game content in your screenshots and uploads. See here for more details: Regarding Pictured or Required Pay Content Preorder Bonus Content: Certain items were only available if you preordered certain expansions or stuff packs from certain retailers. If you missed out on these items, we're very sorry, but redistributing them is a violation of international copyright law and will not be allowed on this site. Unmodified EP/SP/Store Content: While it is common practice to modify and use bits and pieces of game content to create custom content, extracting content from an expansion, stuff pack, or Store item and uploading it unmodified is not allowed on this site. You are welcome to upload significantly modified versions of expansion, stuff pack, or Store content, but you can't just be ripping it and changing one tiny thing (or nothing) just so people who didn't purchase it can still use it. Please do not link to sites with Store or expansion/stuff pack content for free either. Converted Game Content: You can freely modify Sims 2 or Sims 3 meshes and textures for use in Sims 2/Sims 3, and EA doesn't seem to mind TS2 to TS3 or TS3 to TS2 conversions of game/store content. However, you may not use meshes and textures from any other game to make Sims 2/3 content to upload without permission from the original creator - i.e. the company that made the game you're taking pieces from. As it is extremely unlikely any company would give permission for such use, unless they contact a moderator first saying it's okay for you to do, any content using bits and pieces from other games will not be allowed here. Stolen/Reuploaded/Uncredited Content: This should go without saying, but do not upload content made by others and claim it as your own, in whole or in part. Don't upload the work of someone else without their permission... if they wanted to share it at MTS, they can easily upload it here themselves. If any part of what you have uploaded (mesh, textures, alphas, bump maps, coding, etc.) comes from another user's work, you MUST provide a link and credit in the text of your post, for the original creator. State what you've used of theirs, their creator name, and give a link back to them. Please check the creator's policies to make sure you can do this - if they're still active and contactable, get their permission if their policies require it or don't state anything. If they've gone inactive/disappeared, you may be allowed to upload a modification of their work with credit. We will follow the creator's wishes if they have policies stated. Please see here for more details: Upload Policy Changes: Updates and Remixes of Broken/Abandoned Creations Artistic karma is important to us, as it should be to you as a creator - it's so easy to offer a link and credit to people who have contributed in a substantial way to your work, so please make sure you do so when you post here.

Right Info/Right Files

Once you have your creation made and screenshots taken, you need to make sure you have all the fiddly bits in order.

Files Required for Upload (*)

One .sc4 file. This file will have the name of your neighborhood. For example, "EnchantedCove.sc4" At least one .png file. This should be the default neighborhood picture for your neighborhood and should be named the same as the neighborhood. For example, "EnchantedCove.png" For your neighborhood to work properly with different terrain types, you will also need to include: Four additional .png files, taken of your neighborhood using the different terrain types. These will be named the same as your neighborhood, with an underscore, and the terrain type. For example, "EnchantedCove_concrete.png", "EnchantedCove_desert.png", "EnchantedCove_dirt.png", and "EnchantedCove_lush.png".

Uploading

Zip, Rar, or 7z

To upload your file(s) to MTS, you will need to compress them into an archive file, which makes them smaller and allows you to include many files in one download. The archive file formats we currently accept are .zip, .rar, and .7z. For instructions on compressing your files into an archive, please see: Creator Guidelines: Creating Archive Files. Do not include multiple archives with the same contents - that is, please don't put your files in both a .zip as well as a .rar because some people only want .zip files. Choose one format. Do not double-compress your files... a .rar file inside another .rar file (or any other archive inside another) doesn't compress it anymore, and it makes it so we can't see the contents without downloading, and also just makes an extra step for the people downloading. The file size limit on MTS is 50 mb. If you exceed this limit you will need to split your archives. This should probably never come up except for large worlds for The Sims 3, or huge sets of smaller items.

Upload in sets

If you have created several items in a set, or similar items in the same sort of theme at the same time, please upload these together in a single set, all on one thread (instead of all separately, one by one, on different threads). This is easier for everyone: on our upload moderators, as they only have one thread to review rather than several... on you, as submitting a single thread is much quicker and easier than several... and on downloaders, as they can get everything they want all in one place rather than having to hunt around. If you are doing a huge set, you can always break the set up into pieces, posting more screenshots along with the downloads as comments in the thread, as is done here and here. To do that, create a new thread in the Creator Issues Forum and arrange your thread there, using the first post as an introduction, and attach your uploads and images to subsequent posts in the thread. When you're done, PM a moderator to have it moved to the upload queue. For more information, read the message that displays when you go to post in Creator Issues.

Expansion Packs or Stuff Packs required?

Particular items may be added with expansion or stuff packs, and depending on how your creation is made and the item you based it on, your creation may not work for users who do not own that expansion/stuff pack. You need to be sure of which packs are necessary for the items you have made. If users don't have the EP, your stuff may not work! If you are unsure of whether or not your creation will require an expansion or stuff pack, you can ask about it in the appropriate Create forum (under the Create menu on MTS) before uploading. Make sure you only mark the EPs/SPs required that your upload actually needs! Don't just mark them all! For specifics, please read: MTS2:Creator_Guidelines/Compatibility

Good title
You'll need a good title for your upload which describes what it is, and interests people in downloading it. Good titles: Mission-Style Living-Room Set 10 Simmer Way (Large family home) Fluffy Party Dresses Bad titles: My First Upload! Lipstick

Good description

In the main text of your upload, you'll need to write a good description of what you have made. The description must be about what you have made - what it is, what its features are, etc... You don't have to write a novel here, just a few sentences to get people interested. Please make sure this description is in English, don't over-use smileys/emoticons, and if necessary, run it through spellcheck and proofread for typos. Good descriptions: This is an edit of the Mission furniture without the silly wooden armrest which makes this lovely set more versatile and suitable for any Arts & Crafts or Mission style home. Here are five dresses perfect for a special occasion. Each is different, with special details, and they come in blue, purple, pink, white, and green. This is a sim of actress Angelina Jolie, famous for her roles in Girl Interrupted and Tomb Raider. Bad descriptions: This is my first upload... I don't know what to put here... My English is bad... just look at the pictures I really liked this dress so I made a sim to wear it!! I hope you like her!

Additional Stuff

• If your upload is rejected or marked as changes required and you're not sure why, ask in Creator Issues.

• If you're not sure whether your neighborhood is ready for uploading, use the Creator Feedback Forum to get feedback on it.

http://simswiki.info/wiki.php?title=MTS2:Creator_Guidelines/Neighborhood_Numbers_Repository