Another play-along here. I really had to back up my PC after my problems (University being uninstalled when I exited AGS base game) and my backup is still running, so I can't even start the game yet. But having made the base game version of the foundation, I feel I must build a house on it. Missing the "cut" actually takes the pressure off me -- I haven't even started building yet, and there will be a lot going on in my Real Life church over the next few days. Also being a mere "play-along" may mean I can be a bit more flexible in my interpretation of the rules. To be honest I'm not good at sticking to rules anyway! Too much of a rebel I fear.

I think I'll create a new neighbourhood for this, and now I've got a bit more time to select a terrain for it. I'll build the house in my Sim-free building 'hood first, but I won't take pictures till I've moved a copy to the new 'hood, and have created the family to move in. I'm really quite looking forward to this. And I really can't claim that I'm a raw beginner any more. It's better if the places are taken by people who haven't done a contest before. (And I did rather mess people up in Phaenoh's contest -- I still feel sorry about that.)

I'll also try to make base game versions if you make any more 2x2 foundations!

P.S. My backup has just completed!

CaliBrat and Andrew: Get me your play along entries and I will make you a table along with Phae and anyone else who wants to play along.

Andrew given my shocking memory I don't even know what you did in Phae's, but I'm sure it wasn't that bad. You are still a fledgling builder.

Thanks, not all of them are 2 by 2.

Well, it's been busy here. I went to bed for the night with a plan to come back and resubmit my images (so they are not cropped at all), and I see the contest is now full. So, I will just go back and delete my previous postings.

Wishing all of you good luck with the contest - hope you have fun.

Sorry Penelope, this contest really sped along. I can add you to the play along table if you like.

Yes, Penelope, please join us in the play-alongs! I think it could be quite fun.

Oh. My. Goodness!!! We're at 20 already
...why did I say I'd be a judge? *gasp* You guys are really gonna make us work aren't you!?! I see several super-cute perfect little houses (yeah, like 20!) LOL!
So, @Jo, when do we get out the red markers?

Well, if at least the top two or three play-alongs do submit valid entries and pictures on time, should one of the twenty miss a deadline, could these people could still get in as alternates? Maybe take a minor penalty ... or not. It will not necessarily hurt me as much as the top three or four contestants, so perhaps I'm not one to comment. I've seen alternate systems in non-Sims contests. Different contests have different rules concerning alternates.

(For instance ... .https://getinspired.mit.edu/competi...ists-alternates)

Alternates would need to understand, though, that they may need to put final touches on a couple of entries at once, or that they might be added quickly, or they might indeed have to take that minor penalty, since they could technically tweak their lot after the deadline. And at some point, there would have to be a cut-off to alternates coming back. I can't see them being brought in the final round, for instance. This might also be harder on the judges so again, it's definitely not my call. (I'm thinking of PenelopeT's case, where the lot was fine, but the pictures needed to be fixed.)

Honestly, joandsarah77 ... I've rarely seen a contest this busy since way back in Sims 2's heyday. I think it might be a case of your contest being TOO successful.

I think one reason for this having such a high response is that it's beginner-friendly and no one is eliminated because of one lot entry not exactly being your best one ... you just don't get very high up in the points. Some contests really rely on high skill levels, and it leaves out those who just want to give contests like these a shot. I feel for the judges, though, if not too many people drop out! Egads. Judging 15+ entries four or five times!

Now that the table is full can nobody else enter? I was planning on joining :P

@SimsRocka778 Like mentioned in some of the replies, you can always join the 'play along' which basically means that you can show off your lot but it isn't exactly an official entry. Of course feel free to play along! It will be fun! :D

It pays to advertise. Jo announced the contest with a thread on the main Sims2 forum, so people who don't normally look at contests (like me) saw it. I could be persuaded to drop out if someone wanted my spot bad enough and qualified, but adjudicating that sounds like a hassle for Jo - if I dropped out and Penelope% and SimsRocka competed for the open slot, that's a mini-contest right there. I'm not normally a builder and don't regard myself as a strong candidate for first place, but I am trying to give myself meetable challenges utilizing my weaknesses rather than what I'm used to thinking of as my strengths right now so I thought I'd give it a whirl.

The thing that's leaping out at me as I look through the entries is how different our priorities are. I'm focused on routing problems and getting the most bang for the buck out of the furnishings in terms of motive increase, so the landscaping is neglected and there's no way I could have afforded to make this an airplane bungalow instead of a simple California one. (But I did take a wild hair to go with the fancy ceiling treatment in the public areas, and what's up with that? I could have gone with something cheaper and had a nicer yard.) Other people are willing to use the electric stove (I hate that stove and its ultra-low hunger score!) and beds and seating with low comfort scores in order to coordinate colors and/or afford the extra floor or deco, and it enables them to fill visions it would never have occurred to me to have.

And that, of course, is the appeal of the contest. My rut is somebody else's out-of-the-box thinking and vice versa. We don't have to score high to learn here.

No thanks, very nice of you to do a play along though.

Honestly, I am kind of an all or nothing girl (either in it or not). Just wasn't meant for me to participate this time is all. *grumbles about different time zones, needed sleep and slightly cropped pictures*

Peni, you should keep going and have fun with this. Like you, I normally build for functionality, so this would have been quite the challenge (took me over two hours to decorate the application home :giggler. Then, there are those that are used to building absolute show stoppers, but not the most functional lots (routing wise). So, it is interesting to see what other players create.

Though I missed out, I will be keeping an eye on this contest and liking pictures and such.

@joandsarah77 added the foundation floorplan and since I know you were curious about the roofing, So I included a roof floorplan as well ^- ~

I actually finished my entry yesterday evening, but wasn't sure if I should enter or not (university starts again in a couple of weeks) and when I got up this morning, all the places were taken anyway. Well, I don't know whether I'll be motivated to do a play-along for every round, but since I have the application finished, I'll post the pictures.

I love the way all the entries are so different from each other; and I also like all of them (new hood beginning to take shape here). Great work, everyone.
Peni Griffin - I think it is great that you are taking part As for being playable - Jo said the lot has to work, so there you go. That is always my priority too.
Cat - hehe Need a drink? Think you will be a great judge. Strongs!
@PenelopeT - I believe, judging from your creating skills, that you would have been an awesome contestant. Keep an eye on that contest thread in future.
Jo - thank you, I have added the basement pic, no landscaping not shown because the family is too poor for more :D

Hi

I don't know why I just HAD to keep the fireplace. I could have had a better yard and more decor... but I seem to just Love fireplaces. I noticed you can't really see the phone but a little bit of it in the over-view picture. It's there, though~ Not blocking the door or anything.
I was never great at taking pictures and decorating is one of my many weaknesses in building but challenges are fun.

So, we still wait 11 days? Newbie here... asking those newbie questions.

WOW WOW WOW! I can't believe *all* the spots were filled and there are even more people interested or playing along. Dang, just goes to show how popular ts2 is. Anyway Jo, do you just want judges to send in scores via PM per your rubric on the first page? Or will you have another system for communicating that? Also do you allow for judges comments? I tend to get wordy.

I was planing on entering when I returned from my holiday. Do you still need a judge? I don't want to do a play along.

Ugg, this budget is killing me! XD

Hi joandasarh77, sorry for my late reply but I've been working a lot lately. I didn't got the first sentence, sorry lol anyway I reuploaded the pics to imgur, the size is 1364x768 according to my pc :/ still my entry doesn't show in the main list, is there still something wrong with my post?

I felt the same way about the bay window. I could have put more decor in the house. But I like big windows in the kitchen. I had really small windows in my old house, and it felt claustrophobic. My current house has a kitchen alcove with one huge window and two smaller ones, and I enjoy looking at our small wooded area in back and seeing the wildlife (hey ... I could put deco trees near the lot in the game, if necessary! Not sure about the deco animals ... all I have might be CC cows. ). And I like bay or bow windows.

That is what I meant by focal points. Some houses have this one focal point that is meant to draw attention to an area... a huge window or wall of windows, a fireplace, a stunning foyer. Other houses do not have these. It's interesting seeing lots here that fall into either category ... or sometimes, in their own category.

And I agree re the budget. I actually have four packaged versions of this lot. I package lots at intervals just in case something goes very wrong. In the other three, I either really overshot the budget or forgot major components, which then overshot the budget.

In the case of alternates, I would have simply taken the first completed entry outside of the Top Twenty. No tussling involved.

This contest's popularity does raise a question: Can we end this round earlier, or should we go on to the next one? I'm not fretting too much. Right now, I'm trying various ways to use Maxis content to separate a gothy area in a single room from a frilly area if I play that particular family; also, trying to build a credible tree house without using the CC tree provided in the Download section here. I've built one ... just not without the CC. I've been looking up pictures of tree houses for inspiration. Some barely cover that term! Googling for tutorials on how to build a tree house in Sims 2 without the CC is proving educational. I'm also putting on a couple of favorite tunes to get me inspired, and looking at a floor plan or two to see if I could match a style to a family (though obviously, I can't use the exact plan since I won't have the dimensions; I can only draw inspiration). So I'm not entirely idle.

One promising idea ... this contest shouldn't last more than a few months at best (probably less). If this goes well, a Part 2 might very well be on the horizon!

Yes it was hard to stay within the budget, because of that my house ended up much more empty than I wanted, and of course the garden is so empty I’d prefer it more like this but that itself would probably cost 25k

Lol~ I was working on the tree house when I read a little more and found I wasn't supposed to chose which family to build yet.
What I came up with to make it look 'interesting' was for the only entry to be through the boys bedroom balcony. Hopefully I'll have more room with that challenge.

I've added a foundation pic I hope it's alright.
All of these houses are so different. I thought there would be a lot more similarity because of the same foundation but it really shows different approaches and ideas really are diverse. I think that I am going to learn a lot from the contenst and all of you talented contestants/judges.
Scottiedoag

@Sweet Mystre ... Right now, I'm between ALL the families. Each has its own story to tell. There isn't one family that is making me think, "No way I can handle that one!" I have my three favorites, but it remains to be seen whether I'm going to use them.

Initially, I had written that perhaps we would be randomly assigned a family; perhaps a dice roll or coin toss. But looking at post #82 here, joandsarah77 wrote that WE could pick.

If there is no random selection, I might be the one rolling the dice or flipping the coin! It might be a personal challenge. It's not as if I'm the Star Builder here. I can be playful. I can take chances. It might be interesting if I assign myself the family I find a little more challenging. So my dice is ready for the next round!

@gazania I think random selection is a good idea, that will definitely split the families more equally.