Hey there Hoppereenos!
Bouncing on by with a lil fun run down of some design ideas that have been in the game a while.
We have been seeing an influx of comments from Players wanting areas to put their Cars. Whether it is finding a way to “Park” them or a way to make the “Drive” around town. We have posted similar ideas in the past, but it seems like the perfect time to put up a new and fresh perspective on them.
For more on the “Bumper Cars”, see post HERE. You can also give it and any path or road a “curved” look to it by adding a few small shrubs or other small items to the corners instead. 😉
PARKING LOTS
There are lots of different ways you can create a Parking Lot or even a Parking Structure to place your cars in.
For a 3D Tutorial on a Parking Structure, tap HERE
Let’s just look at a few basics for making a generic Parking Lot to put your cars in. First, you have to figure out just how big you want to make the Lot. The easiest thing to do is start with just a small square of Pavement to play around with until you get the general idea of what you want.
Then figure out just HOW you want to place your cars. Then place a couple down to play with. What direction? How many? Turn them both ways so you can decide what direction you feel they look best. Sit a few side by side as, you can see, the sizing is a lil off on a few of them so you will want to place them so they look proportionate.
Now that you have an idea of what cars you want to use, place a few into your Pavement Square. Leaving a few open spaces in between. You can move them later into better position.
Now, add a few Parking Lot Stalls. As you can see, the stalls don’t necessarily go the same direction of the cars. EA changed them a long while back so we don’t have a 360 degree turn option on them anymore. Kinda bites as it looks better if they seem pulled in. Now most will look like they “backed into” the Parking Stalls.
You can then finish it off by placing some decorations around it, adding an entrance, even putting it by the Krustyland Shuttle so it looks like a Parking Lot for it. Anyway you want to decorate it to match the theme of the area you are placing the Parking Lot at.
“DRIVING” CARS
Now for a little more fun. Many of us want our cars to actually look like they are driving around our Springfield Towns. As the actual Road Squares in the game are coded to carry the Characters, cars can’t really go there too. But where there is a will… there is a way.
Let’s take a look at some solutions to help you make it look like your cars are “Driving” around town.
The first option is again, using Pavement. Pavement can have pretty much anything go on top of it. Cars too. So instead of putting roads in front of your homes and businesses, put Pavement.
Make sure there is enough room for the cars, maybe some Parking Stalls, and some decorations.
Then start just adding decorations and cars.
Now for a little trick to make the cars look like they are “Driving” on the actual road. Similar to “forcing” Pavement under items that might not be coded to allow it, you are going to “force” the Roads under your cars. NOTE: so far this ONLY works under Powers Car. Update 7/30: This post was written at the time the Powers Car hit the game. Now with the addition of Homer’s Ice Cream Truck, you can also use the same methods below to put it on the Roads too.
First, get an idea where you want your car located. Putting down Pavement first may help as it fits into the same grid layout as the Roads. Then, time to put the Roads down. Start at one end where the game allows you to place a Road.
Now, “Drag” the Road along a the path… going under Powers Car you placed already all along the length that you want the Road. (You will want to keep the Powers Car kind of to the further Left or North side of the square as if you put it closer to the other side, it will look like it is driving on the Sidewalks.)
Now you have a car “Driving” down the Road of your Springfield. Sadly, it is only the one. Keep in mind, this is NOT supposed to go there. So if EA changes the coding, you may have to leave it where it is or be forced to move it.
Ice Cream Truck & Powers Car on the road.
Myself, for now, I prefer to stick with the Pavement for my roadways. As it not only allows me more options of placing the cars, but with Characters attracted to Roads I prefer to keep them in places I know where they are and can easily find them. So I have limited amounts of Roads in my town for the Characters.
Here are some very basic empty Paved Roads, Parking Structure, and Parking Stalls examples that you can see how adding a car here and there will give the impression they are on the Road… without actually using the Road Squares.
There you have it. Some simple design ideas of places to put your cars around Springfield to give the impression cars are parked or “Driving” around on streets.
What ideas have YOU used to Park your cars? How about Parking Lots or Structures? What do you use for roadways in town or in the residential areas? Create any “Speedways” or “Tracks”? Feel free to share in the comments below.
~Bunny
Edit Bunny:
TODAY’S KEYWORDS: Eat My Shorts!