What exactly do you mean by a traditional victorian floor plan?
Great question Linday! What we mean by this is a floor plan that fits with a traditional Victorian home, so no open plan kitchen/dining/living areas, as these were not used back in the olden days Hope that helps
And yes, using 'low value/high quality' custom content is also a no no, as it gives those who use CC an edge over those who don't.
This is the only part that I'm not clear on. I've used CC in several of my previous builds to flesh them out and I'd like to make sure I'm not breaking the rules in the process. I had no idea there *was* a rule on CC. :oops: How do we determine what CC is "low value/high quality" and what isn't? I understand the need for this rule. It just seems, as it stands, that too much is open to interpretation. Can someone clarify?
Ooooh! im excited now,
I haven't built a Victorian since the one i made for the Dracula challenge back in october, and 3 weeks is a generous amount of time to be really creative, there should be some great stuff come out of this challenge..
And yes, using 'low value/high quality' custom content is also a no no, as it gives those who use CC an edge over those who don't.
This is the only part that I'm not clear on. I've used CC in several of my previous builds to flesh them out and I'd like to make sure I'm not breaking the rules in the process. I had no idea there *was* a rule on CC. :oops: How do we determine what CC is "low value/high quality" and what isn't? I understand the need for this rule. It just seems, as it stands, that too much is open to interpretation. Can someone clarify?
Arika - you are right, a lot of this is open to interpretation, but here's hoping I can make some sense of it all. If you have a high quality bath in the base game that costs say $1,000, and you had a piece of CC that you could use instead, we would hope that the bath would cost around and about the same amount of simoleons, not $1. Does that help?
Arika - you are right, a lot of this is open to interpretation, but here's hoping I can make some sense of it all. If you have a high quality bath in the base game that costs say $1,000, and you had a piece of CC that you could use instead, we would hope that the bath would cost around and about the same amount of simoleons, not $1. Does that help?
That makes complete sense to me. It's the gray middle area that I'm mostly worried about, as I don't want to get so close to the line that I cross it without realizing. For instance, what if the CC bathtub was $500-600 simoleons? It's still quite a bit less than the EA tub, but not necessarily cheap. Do you see what I mean? I'm not sure where the actual cut-off is. Sorry if I'm being difficult. Just want to make sure I'm playing fair.
Is there an optional challenge? I love the optional challenges!
An optional challenge has been added, which does add to the build specification, apologies if this interferes with anyone's build, if you have already started and do not wish to include the butlers suite to comply with the optional challenge, you do not have to
The Build-n-Share challenges will be posted on Wednesdays and run for two weeks. Results will be posted one week after all entries have been submitted. If you are interested in previous challenges, the archive thread can be found here.
For those new to the challenge, you may want to read the information in the second post to see more information about Build-n-Share.
Addict & Company Build-N-Share Challenge (233-235)
Venus
‘How lovely.’ You think, stepping back from hanging the picture Xantha sent you. It was such a wonderful thank you for building her the perfect home. “It looks great there doesn't it Rose?” You ask.
Rose nods happily, “Such a talented young lady. She will do well I think.”
“And we will be able to say ‘We knew here when…’”
Rose laughs as the front door opens. In walks a tall, elegantly dressed young man. He neatly wipes his feet and removes his coat before turning to you. A polite smile crosses his face and he bows in greeting, “Good afternoon. My name is Victor VanEllis. I was wondering if the architect is available for a consultation? Or will I need to make an appointment?” His warm voice suggests a well educated young man. Between his boarding school accent and the expensive, tailored suit, you begin to sense a lucrative contract in the offing.
You step forward with a smile, “I’m the architect.” You offer your hand, introducing yourself. “Why don't we talk in my office?”
After settling in, Victor smiles. “It's so good of you to see me on such short notice. I’m in a bit of a jam and I’m hoping you can help me.”
“I’ll certainly try,” you reply, smiling as Rose brings in the tea tray. “What seems to be the trouble?”
“Its a bit of a story actually,” He pauses as Rose serves him a cup of tea. “Why thank you dear lady.” He takes a sip, then praises her tea. Rose blushes happily and leaves the room. “So nice to have a good cup of tea. Now then..
“When I was a child, my family lived near another with whom we were friendly. They are of a noble bloodline, while my family is… how do they say it? Nouveau riche? What I mean is, my grandfather built the family fortune and my father has maintained it. But I intend to build it up even further.” He pauses for another sip of tea.
“Very ambitious” you say, leaning back in your chair to listen.
“Ambition is a family trait, you might say.” He smiles, “The family I mentioned has a daughter, named Venus. She is as beautiful as her namesake, in mind, body and soul.” He smiles, joy at the thought of her lighting his face. He places his hand upon his chest, “I have loved her from childhood. The fates have blessed me in the fact that she has reciprocated.
“Over the years, it has not dwindled, despite being separated by boarding schools and growing… disagreements between our families. We have been able to keep in contact via letters, emails and even video chats over the internet. Now, we wish to marry.
“However her family has announced that, despite our family’s wealth and prosperity, we are not good enough for my Venus.” A flush fills his face, forcing him to take several calming breaths.
Despite feeling pity for the young man and his love, you are a bit confused as to what he could want. Surely not to act as mediator or go between…? “And how can I help?”
“Venus’s family have promised her to another of noble blood, but she does not wish to acquiesce to this. We have made plans to elope here. My family retainer, our butler Jarvis, is going to bring her here in 3 weeks time. I have come ahead to secure lodgings. As I want her to be comfortable, I've come to you to prepare suitable lodgings for my Venus. I’m told that you are both quick and capable, delivering magnificent results.”
“Thank you.”
“My family is entirely supportive of our plan, for they have hoped for a union between Venus and myself for years. They have advanced me a some money. Between that and the bonds I have cashed in, I want to build a house suitable for my love, so that she might live in the manner to which she is accustomed.”
Letting out a silent prayer of thanks that you wont have to help smuggle her out or anything like that, you smile. “A house we can definitely help you with. What kind of budget did you have in mind?”
“I have $256,595 for this. I would like the house to be on a large lot and finished with high end details and modern updates. No less than 3 rooms, as we intend to grow our family. I will require an office with which to work out of. Venus and I are simply mad about Victorians. We want one in a traditional style, with traditional interiors and layout. Of course, full landscaping to compliment out beautiful home. “
“This is something that is very doable in 3 weeks.”
“I've heard so many good things about your company, that I have no doubts. Thank you.” He stands and offers his hand.
“My pleasure,” you reply, shaking his in return. “Rose will show you out.”
Requirements
50×50 lot
Full landscaping
Traditional Victorian
Traditional Victorian floor-plan
No less than 3 bedrooms and 2 baths
Office for Victor
Suite for Jarvis the Butler
You have 3 weeks for this build, since Victor expects only the finest of work.
Optional Challenge:
To create Victor, Venus and Jarvis and show them enjoying their new abode.
Victor: Ambitious, Hopeless Romantic, the other three traits are yours to choose.
Venus: Family Orientated, Friendly, the other three traits are yours to choose.
Jarvis: Perfectionist, Neat, the other three traits are yours to choose.
OFFICIAL ENTRY FORM [include challenge name and number]
NAME: your forum id
LINK TO LOT:
LINK TO MEDIA: your entry will be judged on your pictures
OPTIONAL CHALLENGE: if you entered the optional challenge, include a link here
LEVEL: beginner, intermediate, or advanced
LOT SIZE, ADDRESS & FINAL COST:
LOT DESCRIPTION & DETAILS: tell us about your build, include any details and rationale that might not be obvious from your pictures
CONSTRUCTIVE CRITICISM: "yes" if you'd like suggestions for improvement, "no" if you'd like only positive feedback
CREDIT TO SIMMERS FOR CUSTOM CONTENT USED:
This is going to be so much fun! I was worried about keeping on schedule, but then I see that we have three glorious weeks. And a huge budget!
Arika - you are right, a lot of this is open to interpretation, but here's hoping I can make some sense of it all. If you have a high quality bath in the base game that costs say $1,000, and you had a piece of CC that you could use instead, we would hope that the bath would cost around and about the same amount of simoleons, not $1. Does that help?
That makes complete sense to me. It's the gray middle area that I'm mostly worried about, as I don't want to get so close to the line that I cross it without realizing. For instance, what if the CC bathtub was $500-600 simoleons? It's still quite a bit less than the EA tub, but not necessarily cheap. Do you see what I mean? I'm not sure where the actual cut-off is. Sorry if I'm being difficult. Just want to make sure I'm playing fair.
Arika - it is a completely subjective part of the build, if you feel uncomfortable using an item of CC which is much lower than the cost of an EA then don't use it. Personally, I don't use any CC in my game, but this is personal choice. I don't want to have to set a concrete rule as it goes against the nature of the challenge and may stifle creativity...
Good Morning everyone. All of the builds for the Nature's Child challenge have been gorgeous. I have enjoyed looking at them all.
I have a question about using sim made creations (Paintings, sketches, sculptures, etc). I saw that someone said they have their 'tester' sim maxed in skills so they can use items they have created in builds. How do you do this? Do you have access to sim made items in the 'edit town' build mode? Or do you have to go in as if you were buying the home with that sim? If buying the home/playing - won't that lower the total cost?
Good Morning everyone. All of the builds for the Nature's Child challenge have been gorgeous. I have enjoyed looking at them all.
I have a question about using sim made creations (Paintings, sketches, sculptures, etc). I saw that someone said they have their 'tester' sim maxed in skills so they can use items they have created in builds. How do you do this? Do you have access to sim made items in the 'edit town' build mode? Or do you have to go in as if you were buying the home with that sim? If buying the home/playing - won't that lower the total cost?
Desii - my simself, Faith is the Sim I use to build all my homes, I have taken the time to upgrade her skills outside of a lot that I am using for challenges. As long as you take a note of what the build costs prior to play-testing and getting the sim to photograph, paint, sculpt etc, then you are OK. The point is to purposefully depreicate a lot to allow you buy more for the budget is cheating. As long as you take no more than around 24sim hours to get everything you need (using the testingcheatsenabled and maxmotive cheats to ensure your sim doesn't need to pee or sleep ) that is allowed.
....
Which brings on another question. I find the use of the words custom content confusing. Anything colored from a pattern, bought in an expansion pack, or the store is custom content as well. Shouldn't the stuff created by people making their own meshes and designs be called moderated content? Another question...When using custom content; is using patterns a no no? Or Sim store items etc...
When I was deleting custom content, the stuff I call moderated, from my game a week ago. I was shocked at how much I accidentally got in my game just by uploading other peoples worlds, Sims, and houses. Since I deleted all of that stuff the game has only crashed once. It still freezes a lot but all I have to do is press f5 to get it to unfreeze. The game designers really need to start making their games more compatible with more computers and laptops. I have had 5 laptops since Sims 3 came out and only 2 could handle the game. None of my tower computers could handle it either.
....
One of the things I found when I had an issue with a build I did last year that had CC in it that I wasn't aware of was there is a to go through your installed content and find it and manually delete it. If it has an * in pink next to it instead of the Sims store logo it's probably CC instead of store stuff. If you have a lot of installed content it could take awhile but if it messes up your game play it can be worth it.
Good Morning everyone. All of the builds for the Nature's Child challenge have been gorgeous. I have enjoyed looking at them all.
I have a question about using sim made creations (Paintings, sketches, sculptures, etc). I saw that someone said they have their 'tester' sim maxed in skills so they can use items they have created in builds. How do you do this? Do you have access to sim made items in the 'edit town' build mode? Or do you have to go in as if you were buying the home with that sim? If buying the home/playing - won't that lower the total cost?
Hi Desii,to make a test sim go into create a sim and create a sim with the kind of skills that will be usefull eg: artistic, handy,good cook,anything you think they might need. then in game just set them to tasks and put the speed to 3 or 4 bars. To make it so they don't need to pee or sleep, just use the cheat code:"testingcheatsenabled true"without the quotes, hold down the Ctrl,shift C keys simultaneously and a blue box should show at the top of the screen wright the cheat in there and then press enter,after that hold the crtl and shift keys down together and click on the letter box it should come up with options click the the one saying make all happy, your sims happyness should go up to max, then click the ctrl and shift keys again and click on the letter box again on your lot when the options come up this time press make needs static, your sim should now stay happy whilst they complete their tasks.Remember to turn of the cheat when your done "testingcheatsenabled false"
Just thought I would post what I do to not depreciate my house. I save my house after it is built to my bin and leave it where it is. I then go and place the same house on another lot to test play. If everything is good then I'm good to go. If anything needs tweaking I take note of it and go back to the original lot and fix or add what is needed. Then I save it to bin and upload. After I am done I delete any extra houses in my bin. Be Careful to name each save with a different number so you don't delete the wrong one.
What exactly do you mean by a traditional victorian floor plan?
Great question Linday! What we mean by this is a floor plan that fits with a traditional Victorian home, so no open plan kitchen/dining/living areas, as these were not used back in the olden days Hope that helps
Not sure I fully understand. You mean all rooms have to be enclosed?
Arika - you are right, a lot of this is open to interpretation, but here's hoping I can make some sense of it all. If you have a high quality bath in the base game that costs say $1,000, and you had a piece of CC that you could use instead, we would hope that the bath would cost around and about the same amount of simoleons, not $1. Does that help?
That makes complete sense to me. It's the gray middle area that I'm mostly worried about, as I don't want to get so close to the line that I cross it without realizing. For instance, what if the CC bathtub was $500-600 simoleons? It's still quite a bit less than the EA tub, but not necessarily cheap. Do you see what I mean? I'm not sure where the actual cut-off is. Sorry if I'm being difficult. Just want to make sure I'm playing fair.
Arika - it is a completely subjective part of the build, if you feel uncomfortable using an item of CC which is much lower than the cost of an EA then don't use it. Personally, I don't use any CC in my game, but this is personal choice. I don't want to have to set a concrete rule as it goes against the nature of the challenge and may stifle creativity...
What exactly do you mean by a traditional victorian floor plan?
Great question Linday! What we mean by this is a floor plan that fits with a traditional Victorian home, so no open plan kitchen/dining/living areas, as these were not used back in the olden days Hope that helps
Not sure I fully understand. You mean all rooms have to be enclosed?
Kris - google victorian homes, there is tonnes of info out there on what rooms they had...
I did but most of them are of modern style and they look like they are open plans. Well most of them are, or the rooms are sectioned of by columns/arches. So I'm just wanting clarification on if they need to be enclosed by a door.
I did but most of them are of modern style and they look like they are open plans. Well most of them are, or the rooms are sectioned of by columns/arches. So I'm just wanting clarification on if they need to be enclosed by a door.
So, If we asked for, or elected to have, constructive criticism for one or any of our builds.... where do we find it?
You'll find it in the Winners Circle after the results have been announced. There's a link to the Winner's Circle on the first page of the blog. Keep an eye on this one and the judges will announce when they have completed their judging.
Just thought I would post what I do to not depreciate my house. I save my house after it is built to my bin and leave it where it is. I then go and place the same house on another lot to test play. If everything is good then I'm good to go. If anything needs tweaking I take note of it and go back to the original lot and fix or add what is needed. Then I save it to bin and upload. After I am done I delete any extra houses in my bin. Be Careful to name each save with a different number so you don't delete the wrong one.
That is a great idea. Now I know to do that in the future.
Comments
We try suepea
This is the only part that I'm not clear on. I've used CC in several of my previous builds to flesh them out and I'd like to make sure I'm not breaking the rules in the process. I had no idea there *was* a rule on CC. :oops: How do we determine what CC is "low value/high quality" and what isn't? I understand the need for this rule. It just seems, as it stands, that too much is open to interpretation. Can someone clarify?
I haven't built a Victorian since the one i made for the Dracula challenge back in october, and 3 weeks is a generous amount of time to be really creative, there should be some great stuff come out of this challenge..
Hmmmm...
*Enters*...?
Arika - you are right, a lot of this is open to interpretation, but here's hoping I can make some sense of it all. If you have a high quality bath in the base game that costs say $1,000, and you had a piece of CC that you could use instead, we would hope that the bath would cost around and about the same amount of simoleons, not $1. Does that help?
That makes complete sense to me. It's the gray middle area that I'm mostly worried about, as I don't want to get so close to the line that I cross it without realizing. For instance, what if the CC bathtub was $500-600 simoleons? It's still quite a bit less than the EA tub, but not necessarily cheap. Do you see what I mean? I'm not sure where the actual cut-off is. Sorry if I'm being difficult. Just want to make sure I'm playing fair.
An optional challenge has been added, which does add to the build specification, apologies if this interferes with anyone's build, if you have already started and do not wish to include the butlers suite to comply with the optional challenge, you do not have to
Most victorian floor plans have a certain number or type of rooms. if you Google it, you'll get many suggestions.
This is going to be so much fun! I was worried about keeping on schedule, but then I see that we have three glorious weeks. And a huge budget!
Arika - it is a completely subjective part of the build, if you feel uncomfortable using an item of CC which is much lower than the cost of an EA then don't use it. Personally, I don't use any CC in my game, but this is personal choice. I don't want to have to set a concrete rule as it goes against the nature of the challenge and may stifle creativity...
I have a question about using sim made creations (Paintings, sketches, sculptures, etc). I saw that someone said they have their 'tester' sim maxed in skills so they can use items they have created in builds. How do you do this? Do you have access to sim made items in the 'edit town' build mode? Or do you have to go in as if you were buying the home with that sim? If buying the home/playing - won't that lower the total cost?
Desii - my simself, Faith is the Sim I use to build all my homes, I have taken the time to upgrade her skills outside of a lot that I am using for challenges. As long as you take a note of what the build costs prior to play-testing and getting the sim to photograph, paint, sculpt etc, then you are OK. The point is to purposefully depreicate a lot to allow you buy more for the budget is cheating. As long as you take no more than around 24sim hours to get everything you need (using the testingcheatsenabled and maxmotive cheats to ensure your sim doesn't need to pee or sleep
Hi Desii,to make a test sim go into create a sim and create a sim with the kind of skills that will be usefull eg: artistic, handy,good cook,anything you think they might need. then in game just set them to tasks and put the speed to 3 or 4 bars. To make it so they don't need to pee or sleep, just use the cheat code:"testingcheatsenabled true"without the quotes, hold down the Ctrl,shift C keys simultaneously and a blue box should show at the top of the screen wright the cheat in there and then press enter,after that hold the crtl and shift keys down together and click on the letter box it should come up with options click the the one saying make all happy, your sims happyness should go up to max, then click the ctrl and shift keys again and click on the letter box again on your lot when the options come up this time press make needs static, your sim should now stay happy whilst they complete their tasks.Remember to turn of the cheat when your done "testingcheatsenabled false"
There's a world of info at this link, lots cheat codes and how to do stuff.. http://forum.thesims3.com/jforum/posts/list/279453.page
I hope this helps,you may already know this stuff, and if so just ignore all this
Not sure I fully understand. You mean all rooms have to be enclosed?
Got it. Thank you!
I don't know if this will help any but this is a site I like to use when I'm looking for Victorian style homes, it may be of help to you or anyone else.
http://www.architecturaldesigns.com/victorian-house-plans.asp
You'll find it in the Winners Circle after the results have been announced. There's a link to the Winner's Circle on the first page of the blog. Keep an eye on this one and the judges will announce when they have completed their judging.
That is a great idea. Now I know to do that in the future.