My builds - Jude525

Jude525 · October 2017

Thank you so much @bebasim. I really enjoy building, and sharing is an amazing bonus.

Jude525 · October 2017

Building my first festival grounds from scratch. *Whew* What a learning curve. What can and can't be unique to a season is annoying. Something as simple as plants and flowers! What genius at EA decided that flowers had to stick around through Fall and Winter festivals? No wonder all their festival lots are covered with balloons and those ugly leaf things. I'm experimenting with houseplants instead.

Also, ground painting is cross season. That at least makes sense. It isn't an object, so I get where it would be hard to separate out. It also explains why they stick to such rigid patterns from one season to another. This is proving a challenge for me since my primary goal was to break away from these rigid patterns. I imagined an empty lot where each season a different travelling carnival rolled into town and set things up their own way.

So, I've opted to have very little hardscaping. Really just a bridge and the restrooms. The area for the kids' play zone is gonna be a fixed location because I want a "safe zone" of sand under their tender little bodies. Really, it's because kids' feet wear out the grass under them when they play. If I didn't want to keep the same equipment, then I needed to have a Plan B. A large sand pit lets me place different equipment each season.

So far I've got spring almost done, but my eyes are exhausted trying to sort through those tiny icons in Buy/Build mode searching for items. I'll post preview picks once Spring is done and I am ready to move on to Summer.

rosemow · October 2017

Hello
I am sorry that you are finding that building a Festival lot is challenging. You would be learning a lot as you are going along!
I will look forward to seeing the preview photos of Springtime

rosemow · October 2017

You probably have already read this thread, but I will post a link to it in case it helps
http://forums.thesims.com/en_US/discussion/604761/guide-to-seasonal-lot-markers

Jude525 · October 2017

Thank you @rosemow, I hadn't seen that particular thread, but he had published it elsewhere on the web. That was actually my prime source of data. BUT, I will browse through the rest of the thread that followed after his tutorial for hints from other users. Thanks.

rosemow · October 2017

Jude525 wrote: »

Thank you @rosemow, I hadn't seen that particular thread, but he had published it elsewhere on the web. That was actually my prime source of data. BUT, I will browse through the rest of the thread that followed after his tutorial for hints from other users. Thanks.

You’re welcome

Jude525 · October 2017

Ok, so here's some preview pics of Old Oak Park festival grounds. This may not be final, but it's where I'm starting at. Forgot to do a night shot, but that can wait for the final post. It's mostly Valentine's Day, but with a nod to St. Pat's and just a bit of simple outdoor activity after being indoors all winter.

An overview, which I'm not entirely thrilled with. That big gaping hole in the middle needs something. I'll figure it out. But the "Old Oak" is prominent in the center of the park. The tree, the surrounding pond and bridge, the restrooms and a few shrubs are the only features I intend to have consistent through the four seasons.

A bit of romance.....

A ❤️❤️❤️❤️ wagon to try and foresee your lovelife....

The kids' springtime playground, as well as a grill and picnic table...

The eating contests, both pie and hot dogs. I realized that having just dogs was limiting when playing a vegetarian. It took me a couple days to realize why he was sick for so long after the competitions ended. *duh* This is where I gave my nod to St. Pat's day......

The "outdoor activities" zone....

And, finally, the restooms. The only "permanent" structure on the lot. It contains a "changing room" for babies....

Like I said, this may not be final, but I think it's close. Really, the only thing I think is missing right now is something to fill that gap in the front. I had considered a fountain, but when I tried a few I found they simply didn't work when set against the natural water feature. I'm thinking maybe as I work on the other seasons something will come to me.

rosemow · October 2017

The Springtime version of Old Oak Park Festival Grounds looks very nice!

It looks great that the old oak that the festival grounds is named after is the middle of the park, with a surrounding pond, Very nice design of each of the areas of the venue! The hearts shape floor prints look very pretty! It is very nice that there is pink hot air balloon there. The food stands look great in the build! The red tiled dance area looks great! Sims will enjoy dancing there. Very nice kids playground area. They will have lots of fun playing on the play equipment and in the sand pit. It is great that there is a grill there for sims to enjoy cooking and dining at the picnic table after doing all other fun activities at the festival .Very nice St Patrick’s Day themed area! The green four leaves clovers floor prints there look great! Sims will have fun competing in the eating contests! It is nice that there is a photo booth to take a festival photo! The balloons look very colourfully nice around the edges of the skating rink . Sims will enjoy going skating and rock climbing ! Very nice chess nook area. The black and white patterned flooring looks great under the chess tables.
Sims will enjoy visiting the festival in Springtime!

MiaSkywalker · October 2017

Doing a seasonal festival lot (or even a non-festival lot using seasonal markers) can be a real challenge. Make sure you test it in all four seasons, and make sure you test every item on the lot. Some things become unusable in snow, but NPC Sims will try to get to it and will route fail, and you'll try to send Sims to it and they'll route fail, too. It's very challenging, and a lot of it is due to that.

Also, you have to worry about if you change an item out in the Common area, and not realize it will conflict with something in one of the seasons. I've had that happen to me before.

Your lot is very pretty right now, and you've done a few things that really intrigued me. (I've never thought of using the heart-shaped rugs to make clovers.) I particularly like how you've decorated the dance/maypole area, and the lavender and pink hearts around the helium balloon area.

I can't wait to see how you'll do it for the other seasons.

GraceyManor · October 2017

Jude525 wrote: »

But, now I'm curious. Why still have a wishlist?

Cause those are the items I don't have, and if I find a lot I wanna download, but am missing something I buy as I go.XD Its kind of reminder list of what i don't own.

Your festival lot looks great! love how you set up the contests booths.

Jude525 · October 2017

@rosemow As always, thank you for your thoughtful and kind words. It is always nice to see how you have truly observed all the aspects of a build.

@MiaSkywalker , thanks for the hints. I remember having some problems like that when I had edited an EA festival lot. It was my first experience with seasonals and as I played it over several months I would notice one issue or another from seasonal overlaps. I was especially not clear on the distinction between Common and Construction at the time.

One thing I should be able to avoid is the Common vs Seasonal issue, since my Common lot is almost empty. I trimmed the island around the tree back after reading about the game generating eggs in unrouteable areas in spring. It had been larger for aesthetic reasons, but playability trumps aesthetics. Especially when sharing a lot with others.

I was very happy to remember that hearts could be used to form clovers! I was desperately trying to make the St. Pats theme clear in that area. One little garden gnome just wasn't doing the job. At first they were going to be regular 3-leaf clovers, but I felt that they didn't look right without a stem. A stem wouldn't have been difficult with 1/4 tiles, but they are not a seasonal feature. And 4-leaf clovers are much luckier anyway.

@Springfairy556 I must have misunderstood your earlier statement to be that you owned the store, rather than most of the store. Now that I know you have a wishlist, I will have to keep you in mind if ads come back or if I win any contests.

Eeriette · October 2017

i love the pics youve taken that have jennifer or pablo martinez doing something in your lot. haha. a fave bin family. :'3

Jude525 · October 2017

Thanks @Eeriette for checking my stuff out. I wanted to play test and 'photograph' the lots in a 'clean' game, so I just grabbed the Martinez's and started a new game. The funny thing is that whenever I do this I end up actually playing the Sim(s) I load for this purpose. All the while i keep thinking that this is not a 'real' game and I don't need to worry about satisfying their needs or getting them the jobs/careers that they want.

The job thing is where I feel most torn. I feel compelled to give them work, but I need them available to visit lots at whatever time of day works for my testing purposes. So I often end up skipping work or just quitting. A favorite way for me to maintain household funds without using cheats is eating contests and other activities at the festival grounds. The items that can be purchased with tickets can then be sold for some hefty prices. I actually do this most of the time now for my starter families rather than resorting to cheats. It still kinda feels like cheating, but since it technically isn't, it isn't. Especially since those early funds usually go into things like skill building items or books. I think it's a fair trade off when building skills in a Sim straight out of CAS, as opposed to one that I have raised in a family setting who reaches adulthood prepared with a handful of skills already in place. (As well as a pocketful of funds from their parents.

)

Eeriette · October 2017

Haha. I do that too~ project build and play test with a townie or bin family. End up playing them for awhile. No biggy but takes away from getting things done sometimes.

Your builds are great btw.

Jude525 · October 2017

Eeriette wrote: »

Haha. I do that too~ project build and play test with a townie or bin family. End up playing them for awhile. No biggy but takes away from getting things done sometimes.

Your builds are great btw.

Thanks. And it's weird for me, because in 18 years it's my first experience with playing bin Sims.

funkeeferret · October 2017

I love your festival grounds. I look around at what you have to offer and can see it's a place Sims can go and spent a large part of their day without leaving to take care of their various needs. That's important to me. Great idea having pie along with hot dogs. Myself, I'd go for pie every time.

I got a kick out of you playing your testing family. Some how they always find a way to make us care. Well ok, not all the time because I have pressed that delete button in the bin many times but sometimes when you least expect it, you start getting a bit attached.

I wanted to tell you that whenever I build something (most recently it was a smallish bar/club) I always go to your build thread to see how you did it. I wanted to see what items you place in there that they would need in a bar.... I'm not good at venues, so it really helps to see what you have done. So thank you!

Jude525 · October 2017

funkeeferret wrote: »

I love your festival grounds....

I wanted to tell you that whenever I build something (most recently it was a smallish bar/club) I always go to your build thread to see how you did it. I wanted to see what items you place in there that they would need in a bar.... I'm not good at venues, so it really helps to see what you have done. So thank you!

Awww, thank you so much. I can't imagine a stronger compliment.

Jude525 · October 2017

Ok, so it's my thread, so I can bring this up here:

The Sims 4 Cats and Dogs has me totally jonesing. It's really going to take some self control not to buy it the week it is released. Here's why. I just watched a recording of an official feed on the CAS for them. Making a pet in TS4 looks amazing. Even as you're making them they play around and the cats cough up hairballs. That alone is so cool. the semi-open world feeling of City Living helped a lot and this may finally push me over the edge to actually finding TS4 enjoyable enough to play on a regular basis.

I've often commented elsewhere how TS4 just doesn't do it for me. For a long time I thought it was the lack of content. But then I started playing TS3 from the base game and gradually adding EPs one at a time. The exceptions being that I immediately installed Seasons and Pets. Seasons I might have been able to wait for, but Pets just aren't optional. It is exceptionally rare for me not to have a pet in my Sim's household. Either immediately or early on.

So, if anything is going to make TS4 work for me, or prove that it doesn't, it's going to be the introduction of pets. I suppose since I haven't touched the game in months that waiting until it goes on sale for the holidays really shouldn't take much resolve. But I am not known for my patience. We'll see.

Anyone else?

EDIT: I do resent that because I wasn't able to complete the spring challenge I've missed out on a whole life state (Plant Sim.) They'd better repeat the challenge in the spring, or at least have the life state available through a different challenge. Having items available through a limited availability like that is one thing. Limiting game play is something else.

funkeeferret · October 2017

A couple of things, @Jude525... first, I forgot to tell you how much I loved your St Pats theme in the park. So nice. When I was making my first and only (so far) dance club, (while looking at the club you transformed) I told myself I must make an Irish Pub in the future. Love the theme.

Sorry for hogging up your thread with this. Ok, I have just been through quite a house building ordeal and needed to come up for air. You know I don't have a whole lot of experience with building in TS3 so remember that when I tell you I stupidly built a two story house on a platform.... not a foundation... a platform.
It was actually quite nice before I had to abandon the whole platform idea. Things were working out ok until they weren't.

The idea was to have a platform leading up to the front door. Things snowballed from there. I even made a tiny single step up to the platform. The game allowed me to place doors and do other things with no cheats, on these platforms... since I realized I should probably put the entire first floor on a platform too (big mistake)... that's when things got ugly.

I realized it wasn't working and I would need to knock it all down and start over, but then it occurred to me that I could just delete the entire first floor platform and try to deal with the second floor after that. So far so good. I'm sorry I didn't take a pic of the front entry way before I deleted the platform but no big deal. I didn't want to use cheats since this house is to be shared.
So I learned if you try to build an entire house on a platform, you will have trouble placing doors and fireplaces and will have to delete the platform. I hope I got that right.

And finally... I'm getting a new computer and we will be able to play TS4. I didn't buy it yet, but I will. I mostly want to see what it offers as far as CAS and building. But I love TS3 and made sure to get a disc drive on the new computer for that purpose. So, that said, I read your TS4 comments and smiled.

Let's see how long you can hold out, because I could feel your anticipation jumping off the page.

rosemow · October 2017

Hello
I think that sims can still become temporary plantsims. This link article contains information in the last section about becoming a plantsim in Sims 4.

You can get the forbidden fruit in debug mode or simmers have uploaded rooms to the gallery with the forbidden fruit in them. Being a plantsim only lasts 5 days, then they will need to eat another forbidden fruit.

I am looking forward to Sims 4 Cats and Dogs!

The new CAP tool looks and sounds great!

Jude525 · October 2017

@funkeeferret, I'm still learning the restrictions of platforms. That and custom depth foundations, where you sink the ground below where you want to build the house, place the foundation, then use the raise ground tool to further bury it so that is resembles the effect I think you were going for. I've seen it done, but it seems to be very finicky.

As for getting "x" far into a build and finding a crucial error, THAT is why I bought myself some graph paper. Next time that happens I will carefully transfer the measurements to the graph paper so that I'm not starting from scratch ..... and he hits his head as he has an epiphany... CUSTOM BLUEPRINTS!!!!! Just save each room as a blueprint, transfer the footprint of the building to the graph paper (because the blueprint tool won't build the basement) and put each room back into place complete with furnishings, wallpapers, etc!!!!

I hadn't discovered custom blueprints when I'd come up with the graph paper solution. The blueprint solution is so elegantly simple. Rebuilding my childhood home project, 25 Cute St, will be a breeze this way. Coincidentally, I'm rebuilding it to add the missing basement.

And you aren't "hogging up" my thread, you're participating!

Jude525 · October 2017

@rosemow, thanks, I'll have to check around for those options for PlantSims. I am pretty sure the life state is always temporary, and would be fine with that if it is the same for everyone. That's all I've ever seen in my limited YouTube experience anyway. I haven't even gotten around to them in TS3, but I remember really liking them in TS2. I especially remember being able to get creative with their houses, since their needs coincide with being outdoors. I used to do more outdoor living rooms so that they got plenty of sun while they met their other needs.

MiaSkywalker · October 2017

@Jude525: I'm totally with you on the Sims 4. I was playing it for several days this week, because the lag in my Sims 3 game was annoying to me, but I do NOT like the gameplay at all. I just don't like the whole moods (aka "emotions" - baloney) thing.

The Sims don't have much in the way of personality. You can only select three traits; In Sims3, depending upon how you change the Traits XML, you can select as many as you want. Actually, with a mod you can add more in Sims 4, but they don't appear to affect the personality of the Sim AT ALL. Not that I've seen, at least. I guess the creators assumed that because we can change the walk style that it changes the actual personality, to which I say, not hardly. Especially since the Sim's mood totally changes his/her walk style anyway.

And it's just BORING. I like a few things, like the rocketships, and the idea of evolving plants. I like being able to graft plants; I hate that fish start to rot as soon as you catch them. (Once again: a mod fixes this, fortunately. Until I got that mod, I just decided to ignore fishing, once I realized the problem.) Most of the game play though, I just don't find interesting. I don't find juggling moods to be something I really like dealing with.

The Aspiration system... I'm ambivalent on that. In some respects I like it, in others I don't. I like that you can change your Aspiration without losing progress on it, especially if you come up against a requirement that you don't think you can manage for a while. I just don't like some of the requirements for some of them. (Like, for the Soul Mate aspiration, my Sims had to have two Silver level dates. Getting a Gold level date did NOT count. Huh?

)

If I had a different play style, I could see myself enjoying it. I tend to focus on one or two Sims, though, and have them run around a world and do lots of different things. Fun to do in Sims 3; a bit difficult - and not as interesting - in Sims 4. People who play Legacy or family style play also wouldn't enjoy it, despite what they've added with toddlers and all that. The game focuses on things having to do with grouping, and outings, and hanging out with other people. That's all the fun stuff, and I did some of that, but I didn't want my whole game focused on it.

I watched a Let's Play by Wallin way back when S4 came out, and it was hilarious and looked like fun. But his style is to play huge households with each of them doing a bunch of different things, and that seems to be what works best for the game.

So despite the lag in Sims 3, I'll stick with it. It's a much more fun game than Sims 4 is, even when you start to add expansions. Admittedly, right now I only have two of the expansions, and none of the game packs or stuff packs. So maybe with more of them it would be more fun... except that I can't see it changing the game play all that much.

That said, the one pack I REALLY want right now is the vampires one. Not for the vampires per se, but for the building possibilities. (I'm ambivalent towards vampires. Now, if they had added witches and fairies at the same time, I wouldn't be waiting even a minute to buy that game pack.)

The dogs and cats expansion looks interesting. I also find it interesting that they didn't bring back horses; guess they realized the problem with horses getting stuck in Sims 3 all the time, and didn't want to deal with it in Sims 4. Can't say as I blame them.

But I learned from Sims 3; don't buy the pets expansion right away. I still remember seeing stretched pets because they were trying to do human interactions with things, and how creepy looking that was.

Maybe they'll have the same problem, maybe they won't... but I'll wait. For a sale, at the very least.

I like what the Guru said about how no one used the Pets CAS much in Sims 3, because it was so complicated. I'm glad they simplified things in Sims 4; I never did get the hang of making pets in Sims 3, it was always pretty much a random dice roll for me.

But man, kittens in Sims 3 are so unbelievably cute! I sometimes put my human Sims doing something on autopilot, just so I can watch one of their kittens!

.

Edit: Btw, there have been mods that have made it so you can continue doing the various holiday challenges, even after the holiday is past. Unfortunately, Shimrod doesn't appear to be updating his mods for Sims 4 anymore, and he's the one who made them. Since they're script mods and not XMLs, it's not easy for someone else to simply take over the mod; they'll have to make it all again from scratch. Still, it just says that there are ways of getting around things... and of course, there area always the unlock cheats available.

I really WISH that the Debug mode allowed you to buy things like the plants, like you can in Sims 3. Once again, a limitation in Sims 4 that I don't like.

MiaSkywalker · October 2017

Jude525 wrote: »

@funkeeferret, I'm still learning the restrictions of platforms. That and custom depth foundations, where you sink the ground below where you want to build the house, place the foundation, then use the raise ground tool to further bury it so that is resembles the effect I think you were going for. I've seen it done, but it seems to be very finicky.

As for getting "x" far into a build and finding a crucial error, THAT is why I bought myself some graph paper. Next time that happens I will carefully transfer the measurements to the graph paper so that I'm not starting from scratch ..... and he hits his head as he has an epiphany... CUSTOM BLUEPRINTS!!!!! Just save each room as a blueprint, transfer the footprint of the building to the graph paper (because the blueprint tool won't build the basement) and put each room back into place complete with furnishings, wallpapers, etc!!!!

I hadn't discovered custom blueprints when I'd come up with the graph paper solution. The blueprint solution is so elegantly simple. Rebuilding my childhood home project, 25 Cute St, will be a breeze this way. Coincidentally, I'm rebuilding it to add the missing basement.

And you aren't "hogging up" my thread, you're participating!

Are you talking about the Blueprint mod on MTS? Or something else? Could you explain (PM me, if you don't want to use your thread) how it works? I've never figured out the blueprint editor, and man, I think it would really save some time for me in one or two builds I've been working on.

Jude525 · October 2017

Yes, @miaskywalker, that mod by velocitygrass. I've tested it out, and so far it is simple and successful within my own system. The link is .

Why EA left didn't include this feature themselves is beyond me. I thought the blueprint mode was pretty cool when I found it and figure it would be really fun for novice builders. But being limited to the handful provided seems arbitrarily restrictive.

Anyway, I have actually used it to create an almost instant greenhouse which I've been meaning to post. So.....

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