Getting that "big city" feel in Late Night

[GabyBee]

So I've been a lurker around here for a long while, downloading some custom content browsing even more. One of the things I've always kept an eye out for is custom content that helps give you that "big city" feeling.

I'm from Boston, and went to college in NYC and lived there for a year and a half afterwards, so when I think of cities these are the two "go to" places that I use for inspiration. I got kind of tired of how the default Late Night stuff was, as it really didn't feel like a "city" to me, merely just a bigger version of the regular Sims suburb, except your home happened to be a few floors higher than usual.

So to that end I've started completely redesigning Bridgeport to feel like the cities that I think about when someone says "big city".

One of the things I've started doing is making everything SMALL. It kinda weirded me out that the basic starter apartment for Late Night is like 10 times bigger than any apartment I've ever lived in. Apartments in New York and Boston, especially "in the city" are either tiny, or ludicrously expensive (and still not all that big).

Secondly, I started designing stuff to have more of a mixed development feeling. With community lots and residential lots being completely separate, this isn't 100% possible, but I've sort of found a few ways around it if you use your imagination (which is what half of playing the Sims is about anyway, right?) For instance, on many apartment buildings in NYC or Boston, the first floor often hosts a small business of some kind. So in my lots, I've been making several first floor businesses like laundromats or gyms on the first floor. In one I even added a "coffee shop" as a public room, which is sort of like a self serve coffee place with all the best coffee makers in the game.

Thirdly, I'm trying to move everything to be as closely and densely packed as possible. Part of the huge draw to living in the city is that everything is mere steps from your doorstep. Playing the default Bridgeport city, I felt that my Sim was wasting just as much time getting from A to B as she was living in the previous Sim suburb type areas. So I've started laying out a lot of places like grocery stores, bars, and whatnot so that it's not like an hour long trek across town to run errands or meet up with friends.

And lastly, repetition. If you've ever been to NYC or Boston, you've probably noticed that a lot of neighborhoods are more or less the same building over and over and over again that have grown unique over two centuries of subtle customization. In building my new neighborhoods in my redesigned Bridgeport, I start by using the same cookiecutter buildings over and over again. Once I have the whole lot built to basic specifications, I go into each building and customize it just ever so slightly so that each building looks just different enough.

Here's my screenies so far:

http://i407.photobucket.com/albums/pp159/gabybee/Sims%203/newboston1.png

http://i407.photobucket.com/albums/pp159/gabybee/Sims%203/newboston2.png

http://i407.photobucket.com/albums/pp159/gabybee/Sims%203/newboston3.png

http://i407.photobucket.com/albums/pp159/gabybee/Sims%203/newboston4.png

Anyway, I guess let me know what you think. I'm really looking for some pointers on this, so if anyone has tried to make a city in this type of style before please give me some pointers!

[secretsim]

Wow, fantastic! I love what you've done. It even feels like certain parts of Chicago to me, like the Lincoln Park neighborhood. I think you did a great job! Are those actually apartments that you made (using the cheats like restrictbuildbuyinbuildings) or are they houses? Do you have anyone living in them yet?

[Robodl95]

Wow! Those are lovely! I love what you did with the place!

Try downloading a custom town, there are some really good cities made already

[tizerist]

After reading your post, I was expecting to see the same high-rise shell again and again and again, like so many builders have done before. You actually have put regular buildings next to the shells, and made it look natural.

Bridgetown may one day be a good town with your endevour. Otherwise its an absolute shambles.

[smacksim2]

Really nice. Definitely has the city feel. Keep up the good work!

[Inge Jones]

I do like your style! But what would make LN cities feel even more alive would have been to have more traffic and more pedestrians out on the streets! I guess EA thought our computers couldn't handle it :D

[GabyBee]

After reading your post, I was expecting to see the same high-rise shell again and again and again, like so many builders have done before. You actually have put regular buildings next to the shells, and made it look natural.


It's kind of funny that in order to make the "big city" feel, I'm actually tossing out most of the high-rises. It's realistic though... the vast majority of residential buildings in Boston, and even New York City, are under 5 floors.

Also yes, I do have livable apartments in the neighborhood now. I haven't started officially playing my new creation yet, as I'm still trying to work out all the bugs. One problem I've run into is that on the uppermost floor of a few of the structures (where I made a cheapy apartment), the roof slant makes the very front of the apartment unusable. So I'm having to redesign some stuff based on that.

Also, I can't seem to get NPCs to move into the doors that I mark as NPC apartments. Though maybe I should give them more time.

And yes, one of the things that's always bugged me is that there's never many people around in Late Night. Unless you go to the bar that's the "spot" for a given night, everywhere is dead. I might just make some huge 8 person families and plop them in a few houses just to add some extra people to the neighborhood.

[lewisb40]

I love the buildings, it does remind me of Chicago also. Uptown area have apartments like those, Wrigleyville area too. Might make me play some of the new CC cities out there if I could get those buildings.

It is true, big cities have reproductions of the same building up and down the block. Just a little change of the bricks outside. Good job!

[tonlynski]

This is the same kind of thing I wanted to do in my game but was never able to correctly execute. I think your buildings look great, and I love the idea of having "businesses" on the first floor of the apartments. Also, I like how the rabbit hole buildings blend in with your buildings; it took me a minute to realize they were even there. In EA's version, some of the rabbit holes stick out like a sore thumb and are in the middle of nowhere (the grocery store comes to mind). I also agree that everything should be closer together. It takes way too long to get from one place to another the way everything's spread out, which can be problematic if your Sims want to visit 5 hot spots or get drinks at X number of bars.

I think you're doing a great job of capturing the big city feel so far; I hope you decide to release your version of Bridgeport for download sometime!

[pirate_wolf_12]

Oh, wow. That looks incredible. Excellent job in blending everything in.

Are all the row houses linked together? Like, are they apartment shells with only one usable apartment, a large home on one lot designed to appear as a row of houses or single houses on their own lots that have been edited to be right next to each other?

[GabyBee]

Oh, wow. That looks incredible. Excellent job in blending everything in.

Are all the row houses linked together? Like, are they apartment shells with only one usable apartment, a large home on one lot designed to appear as a row of houses or single houses on their own lots that have been edited to be right next to each other?

Each lot has one apartment in it. It's generally squeezed into the tight space of one of the row houses. I've also made a top floor apartment in one of the row houses that takes up the space of two row houses' upper floor.

All of the apartments are very small, though. You really have to be creative in laying them out. A 2x4 room as a kitchen is especially fun!

http://i407.photobucket.com/albums/pp159/gabybee/Sims%203/newboston5.png

Furnished it's about 11k, unfurnished it's just 1.7k! That's the apartment I designed as the "starter" apartment in my redesigned neighborhood. I may make another starter apartment just to add some variety. The other apartment I've already made is a true townhouse, occupying the first two floors of one of the rowhouses.

[Greenlea]

Wow I'm loving what you've got going on there.

[ani_]

Your city is amazing, hopefully you will consider putting it up for download.


And yes, one of the things that's always bugged me is that there's never many people around in Late Night. Unless you go to the bar that's the "spot" for a given night, everywhere is dead. I might just make some huge 8 person families and plop them in a few houses just to add some extra people to the neighborhood.

Emptiness is really a problem in LN. Adding "townie" families into the town does help, I did the same thing in my own town because I got bored of all the default faced sims the game generates, as well as never having anybody in the clubs. Basically I shifted everybody from Bridgeport and twinbrooks and put them into empty lots that I hid in the forest so they are out of sight, but still there to keep the town populated.

Also, what helps in having more people in the clubs, is limiting the number of clubs in the hood. It's also not only clubs that attract sims during the night, but Hangout lots as well, even thou technically they are not bars.

[aGOLDENbox]

Great apartments, I would probably download this world.

[acid_paradox]

This is really great! I seriously hope that you upload this project when you're done, I would love to download it.

[GabyBee]

So I guess I'll eventually upload this when I'm done, since people seem to want it! hehe

A few things though... I'd like someone to help me out with like beta testing it, and also to help me remove some of the Store and custom content stuff. There's some custom content that will be left in, but not much.

Also, I'm looking for ideas for what to fill in with the rest of the city hehe.

One idea I've been working on is redesigning one of the skyscrapers as an office building on the inside (redoing the gym skyscraper actually), but it will be zoned as a library. It could be a neat place for your author sims feel like they're actually going to work. Or other sims that would benefit from the library motives.

[cmcallister]

you should put the world on the website it looks very nice

[smacksim2]

Y'know, Sarah did a little of this on Redcliffs Late-Night edition. You may find some ideas in her designs or vice-versa: http://awesims.sixty-ten.net/2010/12/09/updated-for-late-night-redcliffs-for-the-sims-3/ Its only a few buildings in the downtown, but she was creative in mixed-use type of thing...

[FridaKahlo]

This is FANTASTIC. Seriously, you should upload this.

[Miko09]

Looks Awesome! I definitely see a lot of the Chicago references, especially in the coffee shop picture. Oh how I miss it :cry:

It would nice to try out the world if and when you upload it

[86caprice]

This I like. Great job man.

[ThEtYrOnEgUy]

i would surely download or test this if u upload it, AWESOME JOB MAN, KEEP UP

if you want we could create a neighbourhood like that, im prety good in CAW, and i like american rowhouse style

[ThEtYrOnEgUy]

bumpy bump

[hungryhippo]

OMG Is this finished?!?! Are you gonna upload it!!!! It looks like a real "big city", really good!!

[D111creations]

Has this been abandoned?

[shadohart]

I was wondering the same thing. It would be a shame to lose all that work.

[tiffyandthewall]

this is really fantastic. i don't play bridgeport very often even though i'd love to have a big city to play, but if it were anything like what you've done, i would always play it! i do hope you upload it, i'd download it in an instant.

[GabyBee]

(If this is too much of a necro someone yell at me and I'll start a new thread. Actually I'll probably do that anyway in the next day or so...)

I'm back and better than ever! Good news is I've kept up with this project slowly over the past year, but have really gotten a lot of work done on it in the past month or so. It's not dead! It's better than ever!

[cheeChiii]

I love this!

When I bought LN, I was really hoping for something more like what you're working on. I have to admit that I was extremely disappointed to find such empty clubs/bars, so few realistic buildings, and so few apartments to choose from. I can't wait to see your finished product!

[GabyBee]

http://i407.photobucket.com/albums/pp159/gabybee/Sims%203/eastport1_zps609b25e6.png

Here's a map showing what I've gotten done so far. I've got 3 distinct neighborhoods of Eastport (my rename of the LN city) going so far, and as soon as I finish a couple other things I'll have at least 5 or 6 by the end of the week. Red is the West End, dark blue is the Lower Docklands, and light blue is the Upper Docklands. To clarify a bit... north is left on this screenshot.

The West End is based on Boston's Back Bay neighborhood, and maybe a bit of the South End neighborhood as well. It has 3 apartments, a local watering hole, two bookstores (one is non-rabbit hole), two grocery stores (one is non-rabbit hole), a gym, and a disco club (named Club Oberon).

The Lower Docklands is my least completed neighborhood so far, but I have a distinct plan for it so I'm counting it on the map right now. It's based on the South Boston waterfront. Right now the only building I've done is a nectary that takes the form of a beer brewery (the Norcross Brewery). Other buildings in the Lower Docklands will have an industrial feel to them, and I may or may not make it a purely community neighborhood without any apartments.

The Upper Docklands is based on any number of New England urban working class neighborhoods. Because I'm most familiar with it, I drew a lot of inspiration from the Allston and Brighton neighborhoods in Boston, and Somerville too. It's meant to have the feel of a working class neighborhoods where there are also a lot of young adults living in their first apartments after college, having moved there because of the cheap rents. It's mostly triple and double decker houses with each floor being a 2 or 3 bedroom apartment. All in all it has 7 apartments with a total of 17 bedrooms, so it'll likely be one of the most densely populated neighborhoods in the city, which makes sense given that Somerville is the most densely populated city in New England, and it's outside Boston.

I've been slowly chipping away at a few other parts of town too. On the other side of the rotary from the West End I've already put in a theatre, restaurant, and cafe. I'm planning on turning the arena and some of the surrounding lots into a university modeled on Harvard University, and zoned as a library and art gallery.

Down the main avenue from the West End I've started decorating Imperial House, which will be the new center of government for the city (in my overall Sims story Eastport is in an alternate Earth, and is the capital of a city-state known as the Eastport Imperium). I've gotten the exterior decorated, but not much done on the inside yet.

Around the EA city hall building I've been modeling one side on Victorian "painted lady" type houses (think opening sequence of Full House) to bridge the gap between urban and suburban neighborhood. On the other side I've started building large semi-urban condo complexes. Eventually I'll tear down the EA city hall building and use that lot for either a park, or more houses. Probably more houses ;)

Anyway... let me know what you guys think so far.

[taylor!]

This looks great so far!

[van Dorn]

This is wonderful! If you want to clean out CC, look for CUSTARD in Modding Discussion. I think that is what most people use.

[GabyBee]

I've been a bit busy lately...

http://i407.photobucket.com/albums/pp159/gabybee/Sims%203/Screenshot-40.jpg

http://i407.photobucket.com/albums/pp159/gabybee/Sims%203/Screenshot-24_zpsbe319534.jpg

http://i407.photobucket.com/albums/pp159/gabybee/Sims%203/Screenshot-25_zpsc98e481b.jpg

[norton3938]

I can't wait till it is finished.

[Lord Vetinari]

I love the screenshots. I've been looking of a proper urban world for a while, I'm definetly following this.

Do you plan to update the neighborhood to the latest expansion packs too? Like showtime, or pets?

[Arcrammer]

I do like your style! But what would make LN cities feel even more alive would have been to have more traffic and more pedestrians out on the streets! I guess EA thought our computers couldn't handle it :D

OMG I KNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOWWWWWWWWWww.....

That's my biggest problem with all of EA's towns! There are plenty of sidewalks, plenty of roads, but there are NEVER ANY SIMS USING THEM. :faceslap:

[Arcrammer]

I'm going to pass over and die! This is so amazing! LOVE LOVE LOVE IT

[TheCantankerousUnicorn]

Wow, the place looks great

[pirate_wolf_12]

Looking great. Much better lot placing, too. Brideport looks like they just chucked some skyscrapers down and hoped for the best. So did you change the roads or keep the map as it was? I've tried renovating Brideport but the "Can't place Lot on unroutable area" errors I get make it difficult.

[GabyBee]

I've been ridiculously busy with work lately, but next month I fully intend on returning to this project. Next show at my theatre opens on Saturday, and then I'll have tons of free time for Simming. In the meantime, enjoy a subway station:

http://i407.photobucket.com/albums/pp159/gabybee/Sims%203/Screenshot-142.jpg

[Eeria]

I've been ridiculously busy with work lately, but next month I fully intend on returning to this project. Next show at my theatre opens on Saturday, and then I'll have tons of free time for Simming. In the meantime, enjoy a subway station:

http://i407.photobucket.com/albums/pp159/gabybee/Sims%203/Screenshot-142.jpg

can i ask, was there a mod or some type of shell you downloaded to make your skyscraper? im searching hard for something that will let me build past 5 levels or have something that will help me build a skyscraper but i can't find it. and im loving your world and the subway is very creative, love it.

[GabyBee]

Made a nice handy guide for a 15 story skyscraper. It's a bit more complicated to get them even taller and I'd have to chat with you in real-time or IM to explain it in full detail, but this should get you started:

http://i407.photobucket.com/albums/pp159/gabybee/Sims%203/Screenshot-134.jpg

http://i407.photobucket.com/albums/pp159/gabybee/Sims%203/Screenshot-135.jpg

http://i407.photobucket.com/albums/pp159/gabybee/Sims%203/Screenshot-136.jpg

http://i407.photobucket.com/albums/pp159/gabybee/Sims%203/Screenshot-137.jpg

[Eeria]

Made a nice handy guide for a 15 story skyscraper. It's a bit more complicated to get them even taller and I'd have to chat with you in real-time or IM to explain it in full detail, but this should get you started:

Thx sooo much!! it really helped alot. :) once again i really love how creative the train station is, looking forward to the rest of your world. ^_^

[GabyBee]

Thx sooo much!! it really helped alot. :) once again i really love how creative the train station is, looking forward to the rest of your world. ^_^

We're getting a blizzard this weekend, so assuming the power stays on here in Boston I should have a lot of free time on my hands to work on the city again.

I've already started working on a custom station sign:

http://i407.photobucket.com/albums/pp159/gabybee/Sims%203/kirklandsign1.png

[dreamfoil]

Your new Bridgeport looks awesome so far.

From the pictures I can't tell if you used windows or wallpaper/fake windows on the skyscrapers?

I was under the impression an excessive number of windows on a building causes lag.

[gemly_teddie]

This looks amazing. I realise you're not ready yet, but if and when you need beta testers, just PM me I'll be happy to do it :)
I live in a small town and haven't ever been to a big city. London is only 100 miles away, but I've never been and my closest city is nowhere near the size you think of cities as being, so it will be a new experiance for me and my little simmies at the same time! :)

[Dogdancer]

OMG I KNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOWWWWWWWWWww.....

That's my biggest problem with all of EA's towns! There are plenty of sidewalks, plenty of roads, but there are NEVER ANY SIMS USING THEM. :faceslap:
I get Sims passing by every now and then in front of my Sims home, which is in Bridgeport.

[Arcrammer]

I get Sims passing by every now and then in front of my Sims home, which is in Bridgeport.

What do you mean? Have you been making Sims and residences for them all?

[Arcrammer]

Wonderful! It's so wonderful that you've been slowly working on this project, and you haven't let it go to waste!

[Arcrammer]

If you have Create a World, you can raise the terrain, flatten the terrain, place a lot over the terrain, then open Edit in Game and build the walls on the raised terrain and raise the building about 40 to 45 floors! The catch is that you can only raise it around 40 to 45 floors, any more then you won't be able to flatten the terrain to build the walls on it, and you wouldn't be able to see the building after you were done building it if you actually could build walls on the raised terrain, because it would disappear!

Afterwards, you can export the lot when you're done with it, and place it in other worlds in the game.

I've made about a million buildings using this method, and the biggest problems are how you catch hell trying to adjust the camera angle until you finish building, and how you run into problems with all of the floors staying level ALL OF THE TIME. You just have to be clever, keep flattening the floors when you run into problems, and press CTRL + Z instead of trying to fix it another way, unless you know what you're doing!

[Shannenleigh]

This is such a good idea! i'm going to try this! thanks :)

[LunarRain]

I really hope you are still on this project. It's absolutely amazing that you put so much work into this project and it looks awesome like this!

[megan-la]

What you've done with Bridgeport is beautiful! I hope you are still working on it. All the effort you've put into it is mad awesome!

[GabyBee]

I should pay more attention to this thread... Yeah I'm still working on it slowly but surely. One thing I'm really working on is trying to eliminate the need for cars in the city. It's tough, but it's getting there. One of the hardest things is trying to make the city feel cramped, but still functional as a Sims game.

http://i407.photobucket.com/albums/pp159/gabybee/Sims%203/Screenshot-168.jpg

http://i407.photobucket.com/albums/pp159/gabybee/Sims%203/Screenshot-169.jpg

Bar I'm working on lately, somewhat modeled after MacLaren's from the show How I Met Your Mother.

[dreamfoil]

I should pay more attention to this thread... Yeah I'm still working on it slowly but surely. One thing I'm really working on is trying to eliminate the need for cars in the city. It's tough, but it's getting there. One of the hardest things is trying to make the city feel cramped, but still functional as a Sims game.

Bar I'm working on lately, somewhat modeled after MacLaren's from the show How I Met Your Mother.

The bar looks awesome. Getting the terrain around the basement even must have been a nightmare.

[PotterDoctor]

are you still working onit? I would love to have it for my blog on Tumblr