Town Life Lots: How'd you use em?

[Srikandi]

I see from other threads that TLS is not a very popular SP, and I can see why, but I am a completist and have to have em all, so I picked it up :) Just in case there are others like me, I wonder how everybody used the new community lots?

One neat thing is that they are all (except the school) 20x30 with the narrow side facing the street, so you can fit them in a lot of places. After some experimenting, I decided to make a new strip mall facing the beach in SV... similar to what you'd see in small California beach towns. There's a group of five 20x30 lots there, and three are on corners, which works with a couple of them. I put in the laundry, grocery, cafe, and gym, and added this very nice 20x30 salon: http://www.modthesims.info/download.php?t=436951 .

Having done that, I could bulldoze the other lots that had these functions, and add Late Night and Ambitions buildings around the main square in Sunset Valley :) With a lil more rearranging I wound up with a more urban looking downtown, including a couple of apartment buildings and clubs, in addition to the fancy beachfront strip. The new school went where the gym used to be, for instance, which freed up the huge school lot, which I used for the Banzai Lounge... nothing says "small California city" like a huge parking structure in the city center ;)

I guess you could do the same thing in Riverview, if you're willing to sacrifice the small row-style houses on the river island... again, that would free up some much larger downtown lots for other uses. Where have other people been using them?

[sabrieljo]

I'm liking your idea and I might just steal it ! Still waiting for my copy of stuff pack, like you I'm a bit OCD about having all the packs.

[lewisb40]

Mostly, I replaced RH that were on the established lots, like the school and Mirabella shopping lot. Some lots are a pain to replace, the gym, big park, and where the police dept. is located, when trying to remove the original lot then replace with a new set up, I get the "placing on lots" error. I really hate to give up the residences across from the beach, but I might have to. It seems eventual. LOL.

Nah, I will give up some high rises first.

[AngelicScot]

I used them to redo Sunset Valley. I replaced the grocery store, bistro, school, library, and gym. Got rid of the Mirabella (?) Plaza and placed the bistro, grocery and spa there. The bookstore got placed where the spa used to be. I replaced the City Hall with Bridgeport's City Services building, and deleted the Military Base and Police Station. I placed the Theatre where the Police Station used to be and the Movie Studio where the Military Base used to be. I put the Fire Station where the old bistro had been. I put a wedding venue and expanded the playground in the Central Park. I built a Lounge and put the pool-themed Dive Bar in. I moved the Junkyard across the street from the Science Facility. I replaced the Business Building with the Bridgeport Business Complex. So I have two bistros. The one that comes with TLS doesn't seem to require formal attire, the one at the business complex does, so my sims have a formal and informal destination. I still have the diner, museum, hospital, and public pool where they always were. The second public pool (the one by the lofts) was removed and the new park placed there instead. So far, I tend to get a bit lost in the new Sunset Valley, but I like the way it turned out.

[zigersimmer]

Mostly, I replaced RH that were on the established lots, like the school and Mirabella shopping lot. Some lots are a pain to replace, the gym, big park, and where the police dept. is located, when trying to remove the original lot then replace with a new set up, I get the "placing on lots" error. I really hate to give up the residences across from the beach, but I might have to. It seems eventual. LOL.

Nah, I will give up some high rises first.

I get the "can't place on lots" business whenever I'm trying to place a new land plot next to one of the default plots when there is a lot on the plot. When I remove the existing lot from the plot (copy to the lot bin first so I can put it back) then the game will let me place the new plot.

Sometimes I have to clear all of the adjoining lots, even the ones across the street, so that I can place the new land plot.

[AngelicScot]

I get the "can't place on lots" business whenever I'm trying to place a new land plot next to one of the default plots when there is a lot on the plot. When I remove the existing lot from the plot (copy to the lot bin first so I can put it back) then the game will let me place the new plot.

Sometimes I have to clear all of the adjoining lots, even the ones across the street, so that I can place the new land plot.

Yeah, lack of "plop-ability" in Sims 3 sucks. A lot of the time you have to change the lot type before you can place them. When I placed the new grocery store, I couldn't get it next to the street like the old one had been. I just lived with it. But I don't have CAW and I don't know if that changes how you do lots.

[Srikandi]

CAW isn't relevant to the way Edit Town/Edit World works... CAW pretty much assumes you're starting from scratch with a blank world, it's not used for editing existing ones (well, it can kind of be bent to do that, but it goes against its nature).

And yeah... lot plot plopping is a pain in the bot(tom) ;) Plopping lots on plots, to use zigerzimmer's very euphonious terminology, is not a problem if you zone the plot right, but plopping new plots in the world as often as not does not work the way you expect it to... even if you've just bulldozed a plot from the same spot and you have plenty of room and it ought to both fit and snap to the road.

Plus, plot bulldozing can't be undone, so if you experiment with this you have to save every step of the way.

For that reason, I've been trying to minimize world editing, except in the case of the rare lot (like a junkyard or fishing spot or ruin) that I don't care about lining up with a road. I get driven crazy by narrow strips of grass between my lot and the sidewalk :/ Been making do as much as possible with the lots already there.

All this lot plot spot plop talk makes me feel like I'm in a Dr Suess book :)

[AngelicScot]

CAW isn't relevant to the way Edit Town/Edit World works... CAW pretty much assumes you're starting from scratch with a blank world, it's not used for editing existing ones (well, it can kind of be bent to do that, but it goes against its nature).

And yeah... lot plot plopping is a pain in the bot(tom) ;) Plopping lots on plots, to use zigerzimmer's very euphonious terminology, is not a problem if you zone the plot right, but plopping new plots in the world as often as not does not work the way you expect it to... even if you've just bulldozed a plot from the same spot and you have plenty of room and it ought to both fit and snap to the road.

Plus, plot bulldozing can't be undone, so if you experiment with this you have to save every step of the way.

For that reason, I've been trying to minimize world editing, except in the case of the rare lot (like a junkyard or fishing spot or ruin) that I don't care about lining up with a road. I get driven crazy by narrow strips of grass between my lot and the sidewalk :/ Been making do as much as possible with the lots already there.

All this lot plot spot plop talk makes me feel like I'm in a Dr Suess book :)

Read your post to my husband, he thought it was two thumbs up! :up: :lol:

But yeah, with this incarnation of the game, I never bother with creating my own "worlds". To me, it's just not as fun or productive as it was in Sims 2. I did end up spending all of Tuesday redesigning Sunset Valley. All the buildings I added to the town were more modern and built-up. I'm originally from Long Beach, CA where you will find buildings from the 1900's cheek to jowl with modern buildings. Turn of the century homes across the street from new builds. I wanted to find that feeling for the Sunset Valley I created.

[zigersimmer]

All this lot plot spot plop talk makes me feel like I'm in a Dr Suess book :)

Now THAT sounds like an entertaining expansion pack!

I very much encourage starting a new game to experiment with plots and lots before bulldozing in a playable game.

[skmt999]

So... this new Library... does it actually have skilling books in it this time? I'm somehow betting not. I do like the description of how you've redone SV.

[AngelicScot]

So... this new Library... does it actually have skilling books in it this time? I'm somehow betting not. I do like the description of how you've redone SV.

My sims have been too busy to go to the library just yet. One is an actor and the other a Politician.

I very much encourage starting a new game to experiment with plots and lots before bulldozing in a playable game.

I did start a new game for this. I wasn't sure how my plans of what to replace would impact sim's careers if I moved places of employment. Such as the Military Base.

[lisfyre]

So... this new Library... does it actually have skilling books in it this time? I'm somehow betting not. I do like the description of how you've redone SV.

Doesn't the new patch fix the lack of skill books in the libraries? I thought I read somewhere in that long list that it did.

[cameranutz2]

While changing around the landscape on the library, I found white boxes by the fountains that can't be deleted or sold and they don't show in game. I don't find them in buydebug. Anybody know what they are? I haven't sent a Sim there yet so no idea.

[Srikandi]

While changing around the landscape on the library, I found white boxes by the fountains that can't be deleted or sold and they don't show in game. I don't find them in buydebug. Anybody know what they are? I haven't sent a Sim there yet so no idea.

Spawners?

[cameranutz2]

Spawners?

I thought the same, but they are below ground, in the pool. When I delete the pool they pop to ground level. There is no indication that they are spawners, just says can't delete or be sold. Could be spawners but dunno what they would be since I don't see any spawners while in build mode with debug active.

Saw the same thing at the school but they did show as butterflies, so, no idea what's up at the library. Guess I'll send a Sim over there and see what shows up.

[severedsolo]

So... this new Library... does it actually have skilling books in it this time? I'm somehow betting not. I do like the description of how you've redone SV.

Nope it doesn't. I had to place the right sort of bookcase in the one I just plopped into Twinbrook.


While changing around the landscape on the library, I found white boxes by the fountains that can't be deleted or sold and they don't show in game. I don't find them in buydebug. Anybody know what they are? I haven't sent a Sim there yet so no idea.
You aren't supposed to be able to see those.... they are placement blocks. Something to do with routing I think, I had one show once in a house, by the stairs. When I moved it the stairs became unusable. Also putting it back didn't fix it. The only option was to quit without saving, when I came back, they were gone.

[jenieusa]

i thought those white boxes were....say if there was a bug spawner there...previously....long enough to produce some bugs flying around...
you could delete the actually spawner....however where the "live bugs" were/are would show up as a white box...and could not be deleted...they
had to be caught..

[fairycake89]

Nope it doesn't. I had to place the right sort of bookcase in the one I just plopped into Twinbrook.


You aren't supposed to be able to see those.... they are placement blocks. Something to do with routing I think, I had one show once in a house, by the stairs. When I moved it the stairs became unusable. Also putting it back didn't fix it. The only option was to quit without saving, when I came back, they were gone.

I agree, I saw them once in a house I used from the basegame - moving the Mysterious White Box was a disaster, they were placed near the door and the sims refused to enter the house when I moved it. I think that these white boxes come in many forms, spawners, markers and as severedsolo said, routing doodars.

[mithrak_nl]

I see the white boxes only sometimes when I used /buydebug and can see the other spawner boxes.

[cameranutz2]

These aren't the boxes that are clearly marked in buydebug mode. I am aware of those boxes.

These are plain wait boxes, below the water surface in the corner of the "fountain" which is actually a pool, so not sure what that would have to do with routing. I moved the ones in the school yard and they were also white but they were butterflies according to the text when the box was clicked.

I bulldozed it anyway cuz I didn't like my changes, so they are back to where they need to be if they are important.