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Generic Lots are Still Ghost Towns
SimsLovinLycan
Posts: 1,910 Member
This has been a problem since the base game came out, but...Well, it's about the Generic lot type. It's the lot type that allows for the most creative freedom with community lots, since there's no item requirement list so you can build what or however you want. Unfortunately, in game, even with mods to increase the amount of sims on a community lot...no one shows up. Not a single NPC or townie ever enters the building. I built a bathhouse using the Generic lot type and (in spite of having other things that would attract sims, like motion gaming rigs, chess tables, and snack machines) no one but my sim was in the building...for hours on end! Sims walk around all over outside, but no one comes in...ever.
This, of course, is a bad thing because only the specified types of community lots attract autonomous NPC sims. So, if the player wants to build a venue that's going to actually have people around, one that looks lively and busy, they need to follow one of the pre-determined templates or they get a deadzone (unless they can wrangle something together using the Get Together expansion...to just have a hope of getting people into one type of venue...See the problem?).
So, please, please, please, someone do something about this. I miss TS2's high degree of freedom with community lots and the Generic lot type is the only one that affords me that same kind of creative freedom...but then my creative, fun new lots are empty and desolate! And, sure, I could pick one of the templates, but sometimes what you really want to make for your sims doesn't follow the established templates and might even be cluttered or hampered by having to squeeze those items in just to get some NPC traffic there. The checklists are great for beginners, but for old hands like me, what we want for community lots is unhampered, unpenalized creative freedom.
(P.S.: Sorry if this came out kind of ranty. This issue just hit the "For crying out loud! Why haven't they fixed this yet?!" point for me, that's all.)
This, of course, is a bad thing because only the specified types of community lots attract autonomous NPC sims. So, if the player wants to build a venue that's going to actually have people around, one that looks lively and busy, they need to follow one of the pre-determined templates or they get a deadzone (unless they can wrangle something together using the Get Together expansion...to just have a hope of getting people into one type of venue...See the problem?).
So, please, please, please, someone do something about this. I miss TS2's high degree of freedom with community lots and the Generic lot type is the only one that affords me that same kind of creative freedom...but then my creative, fun new lots are empty and desolate! And, sure, I could pick one of the templates, but sometimes what you really want to make for your sims doesn't follow the established templates and might even be cluttered or hampered by having to squeeze those items in just to get some NPC traffic there. The checklists are great for beginners, but for old hands like me, what we want for community lots is unhampered, unpenalized creative freedom.
(P.S.: Sorry if this came out kind of ranty. This issue just hit the "For crying out loud! Why haven't they fixed this yet?!" point for me, that's all.)
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12
Comments
Yes it is interesting how everyone likes to point out how 'empty' TS3 lots are yet there is a lot of evidence around that TS3 lots can be very busy!
This is getting ridiculous guys. Don't you have better things to do than jump on ts4 threads to boast about ts3? You're completely off topic, not helping, even trying to start an argument. It's getting old, feels like 2010 all over again when ts2 people could not stop criticizing ts3.
On topic. I think generic lots were made so that you can pretend to own another lot for your family, like a personal museum or a secondary house (maybe a fancy vacation house on the island of Windenburg!), so that no one can intrude in your property. I like to use it on cemetery, those places aren't usually full of people.
You can create any type of lot and just hide the required items in a closed off basement, just pick any lot type close enough to what you're creating!
I thought I'm the only one who think Sims 3 fanatics are getting a little too annoying to deal with.
Then, to OP, are you sure? In my game, I always have problem with crowd. Even if it is a generic lot, I always seem to have people coming especially the clubbers.
I am sorry but are we not allowed to give our feedback in a feedback thread?
Well, here is a picture of a busy community lot from TS3:
Anyhow on topic, I have noticed this in the sims 4. I've also noticed that my game always generates the same townies regardless of which city I'm playing in to frequent my lots including vampires appearing during the day
Yep. I've played this lot multiple times and it's always empty, even though I'm using the MC Command Center mod to increase traffic on community lots. It works perfectly for parks, gyms, and most other public venues...but the Generic lot is emptier than an outdoor water park in the dead of winter. It's crazy!
The thing is, though, that I shouldn't have to settle for a pre-defined lot type and make a nook somewhere to squeeze in and hide the checklist items just to get people to show up. If a second home property is what they're aiming for, they should put in a "Purchase Alternate Home" option somewhere. To me, it seems like a total cop-out for these lots to be devoid of life for reasons of "random, undisturbed makebelieve". If Generic lots can't be improved to automatically attract more NPC's just by default, then they should change the lot type to "Quiet" and add an "Advanced Mode" community lot with no checklists that, no matter what you put there, will attract sims who will come and do things there.
Honestly, I really do miss how hassle-free TS2's community lots were. You just picked a lot size, plopped it down, chose "Community Lot", and no matter what you put there you would get sims coming in and using the facilities. No checklists, no deadzones, just sims showing up and doing stuff. That's really all I want--a checklist-free community lot type that will still be full of activity.
Like I said before, the checklists are great for beginners. They give novice players a framework to work off of to get the feel of how to make a community lot. However, for someone like me, who cut their teeth on the unbridled freedom of previous games in terms of what to put on community lots, it can just get grating to have to put up with that all the time and the lot checklists become almost chore-like to follow. In TS2, I can build a community lot that's nothing but 30 chess tables and chairs and sims will still come. TS4? It's follow the checklists or you get nada! *head-desk*
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There's enough variety now in the venues available that I think you can fit most builds into one of them, with maybe only a couple listed items as extras you might not need. Just find the closest one, and go from there. It's not hard to hide away one or two things if you need to, or better yet, find creative ways to incorporate them.
I do wish the generic lots had more use, but if you have most of the packs, you have quite a few different lots to choose from these days.
Unfortunately, I don't have Spa Day (just the base, Outdoor Retreat, and Get to Work), and of the lot types I do have available, nothing really works as far as things that I could hide away that wouldn't cause problems or things that wouldn't mess up my theme if I tried to mash them in somewhere. Again, I wish that they at the very least had a sort of advanced community lot type with no checklists that attracts sims regardless of what you put there. Having to follow a checklist to get a community lot to actually have any life to it at all can just be a huge pain...-_-;
I've heard about this issue (haven't tried it myself yet)
And I do hope they find a fix for it
There are a couple of venue types I'd like to be able to create but I've heard that this feature is broken.
Well, you can try this. Add a few club that use the generic lot as gathering spot or attend the event which held in the specific generic lot. It might trigger the crowd boost.
I'll try that when I get Get Together, but for now that's not really an option for me (My leisure budget is totally cleaned out from the holidays still and my cash flow situation is...complicated).
But do you know the most frustrating thing in all this? The Generic lot type's tool tip description (when you hover over the option in the lot type drop-down menu) specifically says that visitors are allowed which, logically, should mean that NPC sims should be spawing in and using the facilities like any other community lot. So, this is a pretty clear indication that there's a glitch here...either that, or it's a poorly worded tool tip that's been causing players like me a whole lot of confusion and frustration for the past couple of years. Either way, workarounds notwithstanding, the dev team needs to do something about the situation with Generic lots. Fix the NPC spawning, change the tool tip description to better reflect what the purpose of the lot type is, add an advanced level community lot...something, because as things stand now it just feels like some sort of cruel bait-and-switch.
Wow. Real mature, guys.
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Ik i get the same sims alot in community lots so i hope they add varitey of sims that'll be there and two the vampire thing is one of my major feedback on anther post cause they are really dumb. I mean i had a vampire who died in the park cause he was out in daylight
If that was the case, the description wouldn't say "Visitors are allowed" though. Unless the German translation (where I took this from) is wrong and the English one actually says "Visitors are NOT allowed".
Nope, the English definitely says "Visitors are allowed". I've checked.
Sorry did I say something wrong?
Yes you did. The original poster posted a legitimate concern with generic lots in the Sims 4 and the first two responses referred to Sims 3 community lots. What does that even have to do with the topic? The OP didn't make any references to empty lots in the Sims 3. Then you follow up with pics of your Sims 3 community lots. Why? No one even mentioned Sims 3 lots. You brought it up. Then you try to play innocent when someone calls you out. If you have some info that will help the OP then fine but bringing up Sims 3 in this topic serves no useful purpose.
I still have my small cemetary listed as a generic lot because I don't want to add bathrooms and a hotdog grill to a cemetary. Lol. Whenever I am in a neighboring lot and I click on a generic lot, the travel icon says something like, "Travel to the Isolated Venue." Erm, that kind of works for a cemetary but NOT for a movie theatre complex.
I agree with you that it limits flexibility.