Hey Hey Hey Addicts!
So the nuclear option came back in TSTO and it got me jonesing for a redesign in Wookieetown. While my finger IS hovering over that button, I’m not ready yet but it did make me consider my town and things I liked vs. new ideas I may have. I know some of you might be in the redesign (or design) phase for your Springfield so I thought I might share some pics with you to maybe provide inspiration.
We get quite a few comments asking for tips and design ideas for Springfield. While we do have a basic design guide here at Addicts (mostly just tips to get started), we thought it would be fun to create a series of posts based on different ways to design various areas of your Springfield. Note: In no way do we consider ourselves “experts” at this design stuff, in fact MANY of you could teach us a thing or two about town designs. These are just fun and different things we’ve come up with, inspired from our own minds or friends towns, to “spice up” our favorite virtual city!
For this edition, we’re going to look at PERSPECTIVE. Basically taking items in your town and making them look different than intended. It is one of my favorite things to do and I thought I’d share. Without further ado… let’s get started.
I love this work of perspective art from James Hopkins. It illustrates my point in this post perfectly. Designing is all about what your viewer sees. The way you place things can make certain items different than they were initially intended. Here are some examples:
So you want a limo for you rich Springfieldians but the only thing available is the DMV Limo with that “Student Driver” sign. I chose to hide it behind my mansion. You can also see I hid the base of the Left-handed Roadster with some hedges.
Here’s another example of hiding the Roadster with Boardwalk trees.
Another example of hiding something is this next one. I took the Egg Nog Bar from the 2013 Holiday Event and turned it into a hillbilly moonshine joint. Seemed only natural to make Cletus the proprietor.
One of the buildings I had that I never really liked the look of was the Cracker Factory. Inspiration struck recently when I realized it could flesh out my Springfield Mall area quite nicely provided I hid its sign. Here’s what I came up with. The billboards just seemed to tie it in even better.
It’s up to your imagination what a building can be. My neighboreeno Steven took the Springfield Skating Rink, Gulp ‘N’ Blow, El Chemistri, Up Up & Buffet, and the Sunsphere and created an airport in his town. Really rad IMHO.
There are all sorts of buildings you can mash together to make something new. The White Houses fit together nicely. All you need is a big decoration to hide what you don’t like.
My neighbor Cybersilly took the Ultrahouse 2 from the 2013 Halloween Event and made it an addition to Frink’s Lab. It’s really cool.
I love Frink and his lab so what I did to add to it was take the spooky walls and a Bomb Shelter to create an extra structure to Frink’s Lab. This could easily be done with Cobblestone Walls also. I think the ghost zapper works as a great addition too.
We all know that 3D is an example of forced perspective. We have some great info on that here. Using the lessons from previous 3Ds, I took the Sunsphere and made it part of my high rise area in Wookieetown. This is actually part of one of the movie sets I have near Krustylu Studios and Channel 6. (shoutout to Chris J. for that inspiration). You may also notice I wanted to give the Stonecutters their own plane. These building worked great to hide the Up Up & Buffet’s sign.
Using this same technique, you can put Billboards on the roofs of buildings. For the longest time, I have had a Radioactive Man Billboard on top of the Android’s Dungeon. Same idea also turns a silly Popsicle Stick Disco Stu into a roof decoration that makes sense to this Fuzzball.
Using a billboard and my Itchy, Scratchy & Poochie Balloons from Thanksgiving 2013, I was also able to spice up my new animation studio. The placement easily makes things look higher than they really are.
Another example of this is what I did with my 2013 Fireworks. Apu sold them during that event so I gave him a stockpile behind one of his Kwik-E-Marts. Just lined up the boxes with the roof edge and then used brown fencing to make it look larger than it was.
Using perspective, you can also create jokes in your town. I took the Escalator to Nowhere and decided anyone using this would obviously be deposited at Calmwood Mental Hospital. I love watching the crazies drop into its backyard.
Using water you can create pools for virtually anywhere. Until EA gives us one that’s not solid gold, my Wookiee-made ones are by my apartments and Community Center.
I also used perspective, a little 3D and the clever placement of my Springfield Buddhist Temple to create a waterfall flowing into a river.
The 2014 Stonecutter Event gave us those pretty pink Tube Slides. How about taking them and creating mega slides? The first folks I saw do this were reader Kelpek and Cybersilly during a Showoff. We all get inspiration from others. Here is my slide I put in my park a la Silly.
Kelpek took it one step further and if I had the room, I would so do this.
Got a few Kang & Kodos Topiaries from the 2014 Easter Event you don’t know what to do with? Well, you could always copy misspandi like I did. The top picture is hers and the bottom is the fun area I created on my Squidport.
There are so many possibilities in your town using perspective. Hopefully you enjoyed seeing some of mine. While I know a bunch of these examples used items you may not have, trust me when I say there are probably many more ideas I haven’t even considered that are purely premium. If you have something you came up with, please share with us. The awesomeness of TSTO is all the great things different designers come up with!
Well, that’s enough from me for now. Sound off below with any questions, comments, cussing or discussing you may have about all this. We love hearing from you. Happy designing and keep on tapa-tapa-tapping in the free world.
TTFN… Wookiee out!
Looking to see how some people are able to put ocean items in land water
Please let me know how you can do that
Thank you tappers
What’s your username? I wanna visit your town and check out the Buddhist temple. I’m trying to ‘copy’ yours but am having a hard time.
I saw a pic come up on the little Flickr box the other day where the user had created plank steps over a moat using the water/river tiles and boardwalk benches. They were actually *on* the water. Do you know how to do that?
It was an optical illusion. There are loads of ways to make things look like something they aren’t…but it has to do with manipulating how they are placed to give them a 3-d look. you need land to place a bench.
Is it possible to turn on a buildings animation without a character being inside? Maybe when we highlight a building it also has an off/on button to turn it’s animation on or off. I love watching all of my 96 characters do their stuff on-screen but it would be cool to watch my buildings do the same at the same time.
it’s currently not possible..but not a bad suggestion
I recently built the Itchy and Scratchy building and remembered this post, so I decided to do the same with the related balloons I have. I think it looks great, they are slightly more spaced out since I don’t have the billboards.
Send us a screenshot, let’s see what you came up with 🙂
Where is the airplane from? I have been playing for well over a year but I have never seen that item before!
In the game? Or from the Series?
Game…
http://tstoaddicts.com/2014/02/10/should-i-spend-donuts-on-up-up-and-buffet/
Series…
http://tstoaddicts.com/2014/02/10/wdtcf-up-up-and-buffet/
Hi everyone! Here is an image of my redesign of the “fence” around the Stonecutter’s Lodge. I created it when I was really bored with the dull brown building, surrounded by yet more dull brown fencing with the “all-seeing eye” on it that is intended for this building. I scoured my inventory and found that low and behold the “training wall” was almost an exact color of the contrasting maroon on the sacred parchment, treasure chest, etc. So I went ahead and used it as my “fence” for the lodge and used trees to cover the doors. I hope you find it as refreshing as I do. I think the lodge really stands out now, and it is now one of my favorite buildings in my SF. 🙂 Thank you for sharing your designs with us. Keep on rocking TSTO Addicts! – glamgirl956
https://imageshack.com/i/n66a5up
Really sweet. I’ve seen the walls used around Wolfy’s mansion but this looks really rad.
A great post, love the ideas on show my favourite is the Whitehouse I now have George Washington living in one.https://www.flickr.com/photos/alunited/14449501607/
I also like the tapper self designed buildings and enhancements as well.
Awesome! 🙂
Hi Addicts, sorry this is off-topic but need a little help please.
I just bought a new tablet (Samsung Galaxy S) and when I install TO and update the game it only downloads about 300MB of data instead of the usual 800MB. When I enter the game it’s obvious that I only have the low-res version rather than the HD version.
This could be a playstore issue as the device has only been out for about 2 weeks but just wondering if this has been reported by anyone else on any other devices (or the same one)?
I’ve tried contacting EA but it seems for the last 3-4 weeks the only option you have to contact them is via email, and let’s face it, they just never respond to those now.
Frustrated Addict :/
Awwww sorry about that. I am not familiar with the newer device. Have you tried moving the game to an external SD mini card, restarting the device, then reloading the game? Sometimes it may be a memory issue causing it. It is worth a try.
Thanks Bunny, that certainly sounds like it’s worth a try! I’ll do that and report back on whether it worked.
Ps, any hint of an update coming soon? 🙂
Nothing yet, but we suspect something will hit Wednesday or Thursday 🙂
Well, moving to SD card didn’t work 🙁
Spoke to Google tech support who confirmed the device has the correct profile in Play Store. Spoke to Samsung who were useless and avoided all accountability. So, guess I’m left waiting for EA to respond to the ticket. I’m destined never to enjoy TO on a large screen.
Cool, very well timed as I hit the nuclear button on Thursday and have been slowly re-building my Springfield over the last couple of days. Not yet complete and still room to change things about slightly.
Thanks for this post—I am itching to do a Springfield re-design. I did start in Krustyland. It is a little more challenging than I thought, for me anyway, so I’m happy I started a bit smaller scale :-). Thanks too to everyone that shared their creative town designs!
Some pretty nifty ideas! I hit the nuclear option the other day and I’m currently still rebuilding! It’s so much fun having the room to move stuff around and redesign! Looking forward to what I can come up with 🙂
Great post! I too want Springfield Falls! I love taking my time to visit my neighbors SF whenever I can-so many creative peeps out there! Nuking my SF terrifies me, but I do small redesign areas at times!
Some really creative ideas Wookiee, I want the waterfall sooooo bad LOL
These were great. You addressed a few of the buildings I feel challenged by and opened up some new ideas! Looking forward to more of these posts. 🙂
🙂 Glad they helped you out!
Just thought I would warn you guys. I know a lot of people are blowing up their Springfield. I blew mine up and lost my volleyball court, my fountains (except the Valentine’s ones), a bunch of boardwalk benches and regular benches. That’s all that I can recall at the moment. I sent an email to EA but have yet to hear from them.
Thanks for sharing the info. I’ve heard of several folks missing a couple things recently. Alas, I fear the nuclear option may become unavailable again like last time.
Maybe that’s why I’ve had this little voice in my head saying wait to do it. (hard to believe I hear it over all the others LOL). Seriously though, I hope EA gives everyone back what they lost, or at least forks over some sprinklies for the time & hassle.
Wow. People are way more creative with their towns than I think I am capable of being. I usually just create stories for why things are the way they are.
These are all so cool and creative! While I enjoyed each one a lot, the Kwik-E-Mart back lot stockpile and the add-on wing to Frink’s lab are probably my favorites.
This post captures what I think is the most fun thing about TSTO: the freedom to use items to design new structures/landscapes that aren’t included with the game. The sky’s the limit, and there are a lot of neat ways to make your Springfield unique and attractive to visit. I’m just now nearing level 42 on my A Town, so I’ve finally saved enough money/land to start trying out some designs like the ones you posted.
Anyway, awesome stuff man. Thanks for sharing.
Glad you liked it. I love all the amazing things everyone does to add that extra something to their towns.
Just FYI, the “design guide” link in the article above redirects to this article. Could you fix the link?
Just checked it. The link actually takes you to where all posts like this are kept. The most current is always on top. Just scroll down to see all the others we have done.
Once this event is over, i do not think another will be coming for awhile so after the 16th, it’s KABOOM time!
It’ll be goodbye railroad, goodbye prison, SP and all but good ole Simpson house, lisa and homie!
Your rail road made me smile.
Your multistory penitentiary made me laugh out loud and show it to everyone in the room.
Looking forward to seeing what awesomeness comes next!
Banana kaboom time!
I love the waterfall and Frink’s lab stuff.
I’ve been wanting to redo my town since I’ve been basically playing Tetris with the buildings and street designs since I started, but it just seems so intimidating and time consuming to do it all over again.
Don’t most item decorations like trees still stay once the nuke is used? I have a lot of trees and manually shunting them to the side until I need them sounds annoying.
The nuke stores everything except any rubbish left in you town, the Simpsons house and Krustyland bus stop.
Awesome!!
So timely Wookiee. I had prepared this morning for the nuclear button. Tapped all my buildings, had all my people finish their tasks and then ……. Folded. Too terrified to do it :). Maybe a few more hours thought and then I’ll do it. Help me neighbours. Should I?
You’re town is one of my favorites to visit. A lot of creativity! It’s your call but I think it would be fun to watch your creative process and see the evolution. I say go for it!
Do whatever makes *you* happy. I have another neighbor who nuked & is rebuilding, I haven’t mustered up the courage yet.
Thanks guys. Still procrastinating. There are a lot of things I like in my town, particularly my Duff party area but other areas are haphazard to say the least. Think i will sleep on it 🙂
Can’t wait to see the finished product 🙂
Nuked!!!!!
cool designs
So many clever inspirations! Thanks for sharing these.