Simpleton DC (update 17 Dec)

[Sleepdrunk]

Hi everyone, long time no see I guess. :help:

Once upon a time I was a builder. Mostly with grafics and stuff turned down, cos my PC sort of was a relic. Times have changed, so has my PC. Time to reinstall TS3, right?

Researching neighbourhoods to build upon I stumbled accross DIY Island (http://www.modthesims.info/download.php?t=419136) and Builders Island (http://www.modthesims.info/download.php?t=403308) by armiel (http://www.modthesims.info/member.php?u=3524400). For slow PCs / fast loading when working on one specific house a must-have. A few days later I found An Island Americana (http://www.modthesims.info/download.php?t=403522) and went "We wants it, we needs it". But downloading such a big world and all the houses - when all I really want is just the isle alone - is not a question. So I couldn't ignore CAW any longer.

During installation I kept swearing, cos I so wanted to avoid this tool. Really, house building is all I want - so I thought I'd hate CAW! Granted, one has to get used to the way it works - and read tons of tutorials. (I've read a few, but there are so many and they're all _long_). The earlier mentioned Isle Americana was inspiring me to try some version of Washington DC - but highly adjusted. (I'll highly mod the original city, it is just to big and not everything seems nice).

One very comprehensible tutorial (http://www.mein-tutorial.com/computer/sims3/inhalt.php) told me: Start in the middle, go from there. Never change a running system:

[lost picture]

The picture is upside down, this time North is North (at least I hope so). The white unfinished box at the top is supposed to be the White House, the ornament the Lafayette Square. It took me a week to figure out (try and error) whether to make Lafayette ONE big lot, or a wide area with a number of minor lots.
[lost picture]
Which already leads me to a noob-question. I NEVER played theSims3 as in "created a family & explored the city", (I'm a builder by heart) so I basically know nothing of game mechanics - except for the most useful cheats such as MoveObjects On and constrainfloorelevation. o.o'

For the streets I mostly used the sidewalk. Does every lot need to be connected to streets / sidewalks? I hope not! As you can see in the next picture, I hope Sims are able to just walk whereever they want, cos else I'm lost with the Lafayette Park already. Tried to build it on a lot, but it wasn't being half as decent (layout-wise) than this:

[lost picture]

And another question: Can I place furniture like park benches on non-lot-area? Trees I have found in meta-data, but current plan is filling the world with a few more lots and decorate when most is done. [Atm I sort of build a house, add some streets, build another house, add some more streets, letting the world sort of grow from mid to border...]

Feedback / help would be very welcome :)

[kattenijin]

Does every lot need to be connected to streets / sidewalks?

Technically no, they do not need to be connected. There are several non connected lots in Sunset Valley for example. However, not being connected will cause some issues with residential lots. I'd recommend having all residential lots connected to a road if you want to be sure it is easy for police and fire to get to a house in a timely manner. Sidewalks are also ok for residential, but will add additional time. You can be more free-form with your community lots, especially parks, beaches, etc.

[Sleepdrunk]

However, not being connected will cause some issues with residential lots. [..] You can be more free-form with your community lots, especially parks, beaches, etc.That's good news. *relieved*

My residential lots will all be connected via streets from at least one side (the big one which enable cars), but inside the park, the different objects most likely will stay like the picture above then. Certain aspects will have streets (the one that carry pedestrians only), but some stuff will "float around losely".

Since I couldn't come accross a statue that looks like this: Original (http://image.shutterstock.com/display_pic_with_logo/51467/51467,1126054004,1/stock-photo-lafayette-park-washington-dc-537443.jpg), at night (http://bayimages.net/images/13k/andrew-jackson-statue-silhouette-lafayette-park-12655.jpg)

I created this for my Lafayette Parks center:
http://i1126.photobucket.com/albums/l603/deidre_sims/Simpleton%20DC/First%20attempts/th_LafayetteSquare.jpg
Not happy with the top-lightning, will see if I can find something better. Opinions always welcome!

I got the feeling of never having been more creating than with the Sims3. But i love the option of CAW / the game itself - and switching back and forth. Finishing some lot, back to CAW adding a new street. So addictive. :rofl:

[kattenijin]

That's good news. *relieved*
Not happy with the top-lightning, will see if I can find something better. Opinions always welcome!

Do you have WA? The buy debug tomb lighting always works well in these cases; especially since it is hidden in game mode.

[Sleepdrunk]

Do you have WA? The buy debug tomb lighting always works well in these cases; especially since it is hidden in game mode.

Yes, I have World adventures, but I failed searching for the lightning. Thing is: Foreign speaker here, game not installed in English and sudden lack of fantasy. xD

Maybe you can post a picture of said lightning please? =)

[van Dorn]

Those white lights that are squareish rectangular?

[kattenijin]

Yes, I have World adventures, but I failed searching for the lightning. Thing is: Foreign speaker here, game not installed in English and sudden lack of fantasy. xD

Maybe you can post a picture of said lightning please? =)

You probably don't have buydebug enabled. I use awesommod which allows it to be enabeld by default, but I think the "normal" way of enabling it is: typing "testingcheatsenabled true" in the cheat box (ctrl + c) and then again in the cheat box "buydebug" or possibly "buydebug true" . This will place a new category in buymode with all the debug items.

[JadedSidhe]

((Totally off topic: kattenijin .... its scary how easily I read your signature))

Here is a list of easy to understand cheats: http://sims.wikia.com/wiki/Buydebug#Advanced_cheats

To get your cheat window open, press CTRL+SHIFT and press C at the same time.

At the top of your screen, you'll get a bar you can type in. Type: testingcheatsenabled true/false

True is if you want the cheats on, false if you want to turn them off.

Once the testing cheats are on, open your control window again ( CTRL+SHIFT and press C ) and type:

buydebug on/off

'On' gives you the extra buy options while you are in buy mode, 'Off' turns it off.

[Sleepdrunk]

Thanks a lo for the imput, will try it out tomorrow - maybe I can finally find the lightning kattenjin suggested earlier. ^^

[Sleepdrunk]

Those white lights that are squareish rectangular?

Squarish rectangular I could find:

http://img37.imageshack.us/img37/7155/questionrs.th.png

But are these actually lights? Or did you mean something else I failed to see?
And if these truelly are lights, how come I didn't get the feeling of the object actually creating light? o.o'

[armiel]

The invisible lights are not in the tomb objects - they are in the misc. buydebug objects, which is the tab in far right. In there, look for white rectangular objects, says something like -light 1x1, -light 1x2 etc. (-light cause I have no idea what they are in english or any other language as i play in finnish myself.)

[Sleepdrunk]

Thanks a lot for the detailed description@armiel. Due to it, I found the lightnings. Now the question is: Place one more on top of the statue guy, or just light the area to his feet? ^^

The neighboorhood seems to expand very slowly, teaching me patience. Who ever thought I'd reach such a thing? Anyways: At north of Lafayette Park the Lafayette restaurant / Hay Adams hotel.

http://i1126.photobucket.com/albums/l603/deidre_sims/Simpleton%20DC/First%20attempts/th_ShellHayAdams.png

It's currently pretty empty, cos I'm trying to work the shells first, to get a feeling of how big my hood will get / needs to be, to contain the parts I enjoy the most. Currently thinking about different railing and tapestry / walls, cos the original looks like this:

http://www.holidaycheck.de/data/urlaubsbilder/mittel/193/1157145245.jpg
Took an EA wallpaper and tried to recolor it, but my mixing color skill seems rather broken. So any help here is very appreciated.

Another issue I come across, when trying to make this as close as the original as possible: Level restriction of building. There are ways to work around it, but I couldn't find somethign satisfying. Later on I want to fill the house with a restaurant, rooms and a disco in the cellar (hence the markise / railing at the side, just like the original building) (or should I ditch that idea and just use some stairs from inside?).

Any chance to make it a mixed "community" / "apartement" lot? And is there a way to convert some of my own buildings into rabbit holes? I don't want to insert any pre-made, cos I currently can't imagine them fitting here.

Thanks a lot for reading so far - and feel free to give feedback. =)

[Sleepdrunk]

Updates:

Found Winterharts rugs (http://www.modthesims.info/download.php?p=3723213), deceided not to use any EA-rabbits (hurray!), which translates to more work (urks). But well, at least I don't have to dump the EA rabbits into my cellar anymore. While on it I had to increase my textures catalogue with new street tiles (http://ashillion.wordpress.com/2011/08/26/car-urban/) and started to get rid of the EA-data.

Highly motivated, I started St.Johns Church. At current state only building empty lots to figure out distances. If my feeling for distances as any better, might have started landscaping / forming the world first. But well, hopefully I'll be still able to do stuff like that at a later point.

Current White House:
http://i1126.photobucket.com/albums/l603/deidre_sims/Simpleton%20DC/First%20attempts/ShellWhiteHouse.png

Hay Adams Hotel / Lafayettes Restaurant:
http://i1126.photobucket.com/albums/l603/deidre_sims/Simpleton%20DC/First%20attempts/ShellHayAdams.png

St. Johns Church:
http://i1126.photobucket.com/albums/l603/deidre_sims/Simpleton%20DC/First%20attempts/ShellStJohnsChurch.png

[Sleepdrunk]

Ashburton House, the vicarage of St.John's Church:

http://img3.imageshack.us/img3/5517/ashburtonhouse.jpg (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/3/ashburtonhouse.jpg/)

After finding some awesome cornices reworked the outside a bit - due to 4 floor-restriction not able to recreate the dormer windows tho. *sigh*

http://img827.imageshack.us/img827/6908/revampedroof.jpg (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/827/revampedroof.jpg/)

[Sleepdrunk]

Current state of my Lafayette square:

http://i1126.photobucket.com/albums/l603/deidre_sims/Simpleton%20DC/Lafayette%20Square/LafayetteI.jpg

http://i1126.photobucket.com/albums/l603/deidre_sims/Simpleton%20DC/Lafayette%20Square/LafayetteII.jpg

The corners are empty, the statues will get inserted at a later date. Enough for today.