Its time for the final screenshot thread! Show us what ya got here!
Forum Announcement, Click Here to Read More From EA_Cade.
Monthly Building Challenge!!!!Challenge 2 Now Open!!!
Ivanna420
Posts: 5,432 Member
Welcome Everyone!
To The Sims 3 Just For Fun Monthly Building Challenges Thread.
I thought I'd try something a little new (at least for me) this time around. I know there's a lot to read here, but please trudge through it all. I want to explain my purpose to these challenges and a bit about what types of challenges will be posted.
First off, I have loved hosting many contests here on the forums and although I haven't hosted any that had huge numbers of entries, I have managed to host some that have inspired Exchange Features for their creators. We've always had fun while they were running, and I've have the privilege to meet and make friends with some of the most awesome people I've ever met anywhere, RL or otherwise, from all over the world. All of which was made possible by our mutual love of this game, building in-game, architecture, and design. I was very sad that it was no longer possible for me, at least currently, to host my contests due to things way beyond my control that have made it so that I am unable to devote the time, energy and financial backing required for running a proper contest. This all left me trying to come up with a way to continue sharing the fun, our friendship, and building. Then, while closing my last contest, whatsociallife and ciane both mentioned doing challenges, as they don't usually enter contests for the prizes anyway, and that's when inspiration struck. Ok, I admit it, it was somewhat borrowed inspiration that struck, but since many of us here already own the store, or what we want of it, but we still like the challenges and fun that a building contest provides, I thought a monthly "just for fun" challenge could give us that. I know there are other challenges going on, but this one does have a longer time allowed for the builds and these will be more about building challenges with some decorating mixed in. Now, I am aiming for variety in the challenges, so some will be that you are giving just a floor plan to re-create as close as possible, while given the freedom to finish/design the exterior, landscaping, and any interior designs to your taste. Others, you may be given a picture of an exterior to re-create, as close as possible, while given the freedom to lay out and design the interior to your liking. For still others, you may be given a description of, or an architectural style of, a building that may include interior requirements as well. I will guarantee that at least one challenge will require the use of CFE as a major part of the challenge, because, quite honestly, to say that I am not good with CFE would be the understatement of the year and I want to challenge myself, and anyone else in my boat, with a chance to learn and practice. I also plan to include various commercial and park lots, and maybe even trying some structural and interior makeovers of a few of EA's most atrocious looking lots. My plan is also to make use of the vast amount of store items, especially some of the less often used ones, in the challenges, since in my opinion, figuring out placements, etc. for some of those items can be a challenge all by themselves.
I am leaving a lot of my normal rules out because these challenges are intended to be more about inspiring creativity, challenging or stretching our building skills a little, and just having some fun. Plus, all that you need to enter/join are pics, so there shouldn't be any possibility of someone downloading any unwanted CC. You are free to upload any entry you wish (I will rec any lot uploaded to the exchange), and, in fact, I wouldn't be surprise to see others request some, and once you've take your final entry pics, you may use the lot any way you wish.
It is my hope that these challenges will appeal to both our more seasoned/experienced builders and our newer builders alike, as participants, so some challenges may be more difficult than others, but please don't let that stop you from joining in. My hope is to have a varied skill range of builders participating, so that we can ask questions, share tips, and give or get feedback with each other.
I also want everyone to feel free to offer suggestions for future challenges. These are meant to be challenges for everyone at all levels, not just what challenges me. Oh, did I forget to mention that since there are no prizes to compete for, I intend to participate in the challenges or at least some of the challenges, myself.
So here's the basic info about the challenges all made to look like rules....lol
1. These will be "Just For Fun" challenges (hence, the name...lol) for Sims 3 lots of a variety of types, depending on the current challenge.
2. All challenges will be about 30 days in length.
3. There are No Prizes, except a rec from me for any entry uploaded to the exchange and therefore, No Judging.
4. These are open to everyone who wants to join. You may join in any or all challenges, it's up to you. If the current challenge just isn't for you, feel free to skip it and check out the next one. Again, I will try to post challenges that will vary in skill level, but the whole idea is to challenge yourself a little, to step out of your normal comfort zones, so don't be shy. Even if you think it's a little beyond your skill set, give it a try, you might just surprise yourself. Since there is no placing for prizes, it might also take some of the pressure off. This is more about improving your skills and having fun, than it is about which one is best to win the prizes.
5. If you are trying something new for you and get stuck, feel free to post WIP pics and ask someone here in the thread. One of us is bound to be able to offer tips, suggestions, or just give feedback in general.
6. Entry will be by pictures only, so uploading of your builds are not required for entry. Feel free to upload if you would like to share them with everyone or would like to add them to your studio, but is not necessary to join.
7. Please limit your entry pics to the 8 that best display the main challenge, but I encourage you to add a link to additional pics that show off the whole lot, whether it's in another thread in the forums or at a pic hosting site.
8. Because uploading isn't required, I'm going to say that using any content you wish, including CC is allowed, but please list any CC shown in your entry pics and give credit to it's creator(s). Please state whether or not you used CC in your final entry. If you do decide to upload your creation, if I may make a suggestion, you may want remove all CC before uploading, because it has created issues in the past when trying to upload to the exchange. If you prefer to upload with CC included, MediaFire is a generally accepted hosting site alternative to the exchange, but please state that it includes CC somewhere in its name.
9. Entries may be posted at anytime during the challenge. I do prefer that all entries be new builds though, as part of the object of these challenges is sharing the journey along the way.
10. All normal cheats are allowed and some challenges may even encourage the use of them.
11. I am accepting and will encourage any suggestions for future challenges. If there is something you've always wanted to try or something that sounds fun and I haven't covered it, then by all means, please make the suggestion. I will include a suggestion form below for you to use when making suggestions, that will help me, hopefully, to not miss them. If I do accidentally miss one, please let me know, as soon as possible.
12. Even though this isn't an actual contest with prizes, please use the entry form provided at the bottom of the second post when posting your completed challenge lot's post, as it will make it easier for everyone to tell the completed challenges from any WIP pics.
13. The currently running challenge, along with it's due date and a list of links to any completed entries, will always be posted in the second post. I update the entry links for the current challenge at least weekly. I will try to keep a list of past challenges and their entry links updated in the third post, however, this one will largely depend on my health and time allowing.
I think this covers most everything, but if I've missed anything or if you have any other questions, please ask.
Challenge Suggestion Form
User Name:
Description and/or Explanation of Future Challenge:
(I know, it's not much, but it will still hopefully make it stand out for me.)
Post edited by Ivanna420 on
1
Comments
Current Challenge
Hello again, my friends!
Before we get started on the next challenge I want to take a quick second to thank each of you who participated in the first challenge. Whether you actually built along with us or even those that just popped in to say hi, offered help and/or encouragement, you all helped to make this thread a success. I, personally, had a great time working on my own build and and trying some new things right along with everyone else, for a change. Granted, some of those new things I tried worked out and some didn't, but those I'll just have to keep working on. I hope everyone enjoyed it as much as I did. I am honestly thankful that this wasn't a contest I had to judge. Each one of you who turned in an "Entry" (I really hate calling them that, but I can't come up with a better term to call them) did an amazing job. You should all be proud of your creatipns. Even with the same theme, they were all so different. I have given them all a much deserved rec. It's not very often I have a reason to say this, but....Thank You, EA for fixing the rec button! I do have the first half, at least, downloaded already and those that I haven't been able to download yet due to internet issues, I will be downloading as soon as my issues are resolved. In the meantime, we have a new challenge to start, so let's get started, shall we?
Challenge 2 - Ends Tuesday, May 5th, 2015 at 11:59pm
Yay! It's here! Its time for the second challenge. Since I was, and am, still working out details for another challenge that obviously still isn't ready yet and I knew wouldn't be ready in time, I asked for your suggestions. KaytayRoall suggested we do a remake/remodel of one of our WA vacation towns. Everyone else, that posted their opinion, agreed so that's what this challenge will be about. We will be building a base camp. Now, Kaytay had suggested Egypt's base camp, as she said it always seemed to be lacking. So, I decided to go have a look, and I have to agree with her. The other two towns both have nice large buildings for lodgings, but Egypt just has a literal camp site, and not a very well laid out one, in my opinion. I also considered allowing you all to choose between any town you own, since I use a mod (Twallen/Nraas's Traveler mod) that allows you to use any town as a vacation town, so I could possibly acquire a couple of base camps for other towns that I haven't managed to getting around to creating yet for myself...lol I know, that one seems kind of a selfish reason, but, in my defense, I can't be the only one, right? So, what I finally decided was that we are going to remake/remodel the Egypt base camp, but if you have time and are feeling extra creative, you are free to share additional base camps for any other town that you would like to see as a vacation town. Any additional base camps can be newly created or one you already have in your studio.
OK, back to the actual challenge. For this challenge, you may remodel the existing Egyptian base camp, you may demolish the existing and rebuild on the same terrain, or demolish the whole thing and start completely from scratch. The only thing I ask, is that you use the existing lot location. You can replace the existing lot with either a bigger or smaller lot, all depending on what will fit, but please place any new lot at the original location. Also, please design it to fit into Egypt's environment. Again, for this challenge, you may go as elaborate or as minimal as you choose, as long as the basic requirements are included.
The Minimum Requirements(These are very basic and you are free to improve on them as you see fit.)
Adventure board/mailbox (added automatically)
Sleeping Quarters (Minimum of 1 with a double bed and 3 with 2 single beds or 1 large tent and 3 small tents.)
Public Accessible Bathrooms (Minimum of 1 male and 1 female with at least 3 toilets, 3 sinks, and 3 showers. These can be reduced to 1 each, if sleeping quarters include private bathrooms. You may also use All-in- One bathrooms.)
Kitchen or Food Prep Area ( Minimum of 1 oven or grill, 1 refrigerator, 1 sink, 1 counter, and 1 trash can.)
Dining Area ( Minimum of 1 table and 6 chairs.)
Living Room/ Social Area (Minimum of 1 sofa/loveseat and 2 chairs.)
Entertainment Area (Minimum of 1 way to increase their fun.)
I told you these were very basic. The main point is to be a way to take care of all our sims basic needs while traveling and like I said, feel free to improve upon them...lol
Oh, one last thing. For those who aren't already aware of it, you will need to unlock the lot in order to do any building or designing to the lot. Here's the easiest way I know of for unlocking it. First, I enter the Edit Town mode in any active town I have. Then I choose the icon for the travel location I want from the group of icons in the upper left corner of the screen. Next, I locate the desired lot, in this case the base camp, and click on its map tag. That will bring up the familiar blue box. Notice that the build/buy button is grayed out and unusable along with a small padlock icon next to it. At this point, open the cheat command line and enter the cheat "testingcheatsenabled true" without the quotation marks. Open the command line again and enter the cheat "enablelotlocking true". Once you have entered the second cheat and pressing enter, you should see that the padlock icon is now usable. Click on it and you will now have the build/buy button usable and are now ready to begin.
Lastly, a friendly reminder to anyone who wants to take on any additional base camps for other towns. Don't forget to set the lot type to base camp or the adventure board/mailbox appear on the lot.
Entry Form
User Name:
Challenge Number:
Lot Name:
Lot Size Used:
No CC or CC Used:
CC used with Creator Credits:
Challenge Entry Pictures (Please limit entry pics to 8 for this thread and list a link to additional pics):
Link to additional pics:
Link to download (if uploaded):
Completed Entry Links:
Previous Challenges and Their Entry Links
Challenge 1 - Tropical Island Retreat
Completed Entry Links:
Naley22 - Your Own Little Paradise
ciane - Pepperino
Ivanna420 - Ivanna's Paradiso Retreat
Sweet2 - Island Escape
tanubanue - Simple Living
Teegers - Grandma's house
Helpful Links
Most of these links are ones that have been floating around for quite some time. A few I was recently reminded of when a dear friend used them in her contest. Thank you GreenCats for the links I borrowed from you.
Time Converter - This link is a time converter to use if you have problems figuring the difference between time zones.
Countdown Clock - This link is a handy countdown clock that can be set to a contest deadline and track the time remaining until then.
ZooU Master Thread - This link is to the old 'Zoo University' master thread. It lists links to past lesson, which are wonderful step-by-step build tutorials.
Another List of More Tutorials - This link takes you to another list of more links to various building tutorials, including landscaping tips, roofing walk-throughs, how to use 'constrainfloorelevation off' (also know as CFE), fog emitter codes, ideas for working with 'moveobjects on' (or MOO), and much more.
Landscaping Tips - A link for a thread where people were sharing landscaping pointers and helpful links. See the landscaping tutorials in the 'List of Tutorials' linked above for more ideas.
Upload Image Changer - This link is to a tool that allows you to add pictures you've taken to your exchange uploads. Completely optional, but a nice way of allowing people browsing your studio to get a better idea of what your builds look like in-game.
Photo Taking & Location Choosing Tips - A wonderful group of tips to help you choose and optimize your location and for taking photos of your finished creations, put together by and borrowed from GreenCats Perfect Lot Perfect World Build Contest.
Crin's Removing Unwanted CC - This is a link to the wonderful Crinrict's site that has detailed instructions to help remove bad or unwanted CC. CC is not always the easiest thing to find and remove and the process can sometimes be slow and time consuming, but with Crin's instructions it can be done, safely.
http://forums.thesims.com/en_US/discussion/817478/hello-come-and-introduce-yourself
http://tinyurl.com/OneRoomOneWeek
http://tinyurl.com/rosemow
My Showcase thread https://forums.thesims.com/en_US/discussion/948861/rosemow-s-rooms-showcase
I posted a link on my page to help spread the word around a little.
hope you'll stop in to chat on occasion as well.
Store Install
Unlocked Stencils
random legacy
http://forums.thesims.com/en_US/discussion/817478/hello-come-and-introduce-yourself
http://tinyurl.com/OneRoomOneWeek
http://tinyurl.com/rosemow
My Showcase thread https://forums.thesims.com/en_US/discussion/948861/rosemow-s-rooms-showcase
Here's a little inspiration for anyone still thinking about it.
I hope that you enjoy working on your build.
http://forums.thesims.com/en_US/discussion/817478/hello-come-and-introduce-yourself
http://tinyurl.com/OneRoomOneWeek
http://tinyurl.com/rosemow
My Showcase thread https://forums.thesims.com/en_US/discussion/948861/rosemow-s-rooms-showcase
oh man would i ever love to live there..
i am in a building mood.. i think ill give this a shot. i am not a very good building but id like to improve
http://forums.thesims.com/en_US/discussion/817478/hello-come-and-introduce-yourself
http://tinyurl.com/OneRoomOneWeek
http://tinyurl.com/rosemow
My Showcase thread https://forums.thesims.com/en_US/discussion/948861/rosemow-s-rooms-showcase
I got started earlier without really much idea what I was going to do. I had a little something I wanted to try to build (a water-level gazebo), just to see if it could be done. Without any sort of plan, the rest of the house is just growing out of that. I don't know if it will be any good, but I'm already having a lot of fun and have had to learn how to make sunken rooms as a result. So, thank you for the spark of any idea that I'm having a lot of fun building and is expanding my knowledge of building! I hope others find as much enjoyment as I have so far. :)
http://forums.thesims.com/en_US/discussion/817478/hello-come-and-introduce-yourself
http://tinyurl.com/OneRoomOneWeek
http://tinyurl.com/rosemow
My Showcase thread https://forums.thesims.com/en_US/discussion/948861/rosemow-s-rooms-showcase
First off, Sorry, but my internet is being so slow today if killings any plans I have of getting anything accomplished here. So forgive any tardiness in relying to anyone.
@Naley22 - I agree I would love to live there. Just wait I've seen some others I'll be posting for inspiration too. There are some gorgeous retreats out there. I'm glad you're in a building mood. I can't wait to see what you can do. Remember, if you have any questions or need help figuring it out, just ask. That's part of what this thread is about and if no one knows the answer, we can figure it out together. The only way to improve is to practice and try new things, right.
@KaytayRoall - I definitely don't mind if you chime in, especially when you have such nice things to say. By all means, chime away. I'm glad the challenge has help give you some direction and focus for your building. I'm so glad your enjoying your build and learning new things. That's exactly what I'm hoping for. I can't wait ot see some pics.
Maybe this one will help inspire someone else that's thinking about joining in.
Well, since I'm a full member now, I guess I can post pictures.
Very much a work in progress, as I'm sure you can tell from the lack of walls. I'm pretty happy with the gazebo-like-thing, but I'm still trying to figure out the shape for the rest of it. Did I mention I went into this without a plan? Well, that's what's making it an adventure and a lot of fun.
Wishing everyone a fun day and happy simming!
Kay~ That is a beautiful start to a home. You'll figure it out.
Haven't had much time in game yet but I'll get there.
http://forums.thesims.com/en_US/discussion/817478/hello-come-and-introduce-yourself
http://tinyurl.com/OneRoomOneWeek
http://tinyurl.com/rosemow
My Showcase thread https://forums.thesims.com/en_US/discussion/948861/rosemow-s-rooms-showcase
http://forums.thesims.com/en_US/discussion/817478/hello-come-and-introduce-yourself
http://tinyurl.com/OneRoomOneWeek
http://tinyurl.com/rosemow
My Showcase thread https://forums.thesims.com/en_US/discussion/948861/rosemow-s-rooms-showcase
User Name: Naley22
Challenge Number: 1
Lot Name: Your Own Little Paradise
Lot Size Used: 30 x 40
No CC or CC Used: No CC
Link to Uploaded Lot: http://www.thesims3.com/assetDetail.html?assetId=8601022