finished another one someone has to rebuild, sorry about that
just replace the poker table with an outdoor/ wooden table and i guess leave the wallart out

I'm off to hospital lot 46.

Since no one reserved lot 41, I decided to give it a try and build on it. I've uploaded a preview pic of what it looks like. The house is supposed to be a bachelor/ette pad. It consists of 1 BD, 1.5 BTH, etc... (Though there is an office room that can be converted to another bedroom. It shouldn't be hard to expand the house anyway, since the full BTH is accessed through the master BD. Anyways...) Let me know what you guys think!

I've uploaded a new version of the neighborhood (V22) with HL's lot as well as the Arcade.

@abrtx
Your check out stand for the produce will not work for they need to go in front of the cash register to pay and it looks like you have it blocked by placing it next to a wall.

Wow! I love the internet cafe It's amazing sometimes what can be built with just the base game stuff. Makes you wish Maxis had hired some better people to build their lots :S

I'm sorry this is a bit lazy, but I am too tired to edit each photo to bring it under the MTS upload limit, so you're getting a photobucket dump. I tried out two different decoration schemes for Peni's mall. Apparently, I didn't sufficiently photograph the first one. :/

There are four cash registers on this lot. Originally there were stands in the hallways too, but this would have brought it up to six, and I think the limit is supposed to be two (?) - I don't know what you want to do about that. I suppose that it could always ship without cash registers in all of the shops, and the player can add more if they don't mind getting extra salespeople. But it seems a bit unrealistic for a mall not to have at least one in each shop. I wanted to add one in the "coffee shop", too, and two in the larger stores, but I didn't. It's not been visited so they haven't been created yet anyway.

http://s101.photobucket.com/user/ba...s?sort=3&page=1

Simsfreq, your floor treatments are brilliant! I don't know why I didn't think of that - it ramps up the mall/department store vibe 100%! Also really like the aqua-and-black wall treatment.

I can't see where the stairs come up to the third floor. It looks like you've fenced all that in? I'm probably seeing an optical illusion.

There's no limit actually but it would be still nice to have not more than 3 cashier registers... because the game generates way too many cashier NPCs. Emerald Heights will have a lot of sims so there shouldn't be any NPCs or only a few. Of course, it's not realistic. But technically it's better to have few cashier registers in TS2 and not more than 3.

I like your mall lot. It looks beautiful! :lovestruc

I've rebuilt the Internet Cafe by @abrt . I've had to make some adjustments on layout to make sure there were two tile walkways for routing, and the images were so tiny that I may not have gotten all the decorating details as they were. I stuck with the overall color scheme though.

It looks great, HugeLunatic! It looks close to abrt's version and I like the new layout. :lovestruc

I like it. But in my opinion, city neighbourhoods are pretty much required to have Apartment Life to actually look like cities... ah well, good luck! It's nice how you're making this base-game only.

Ok I have fixed the Botanical Garden and added some more exotic plants as well as a chess table. I also went ahead and did the Diner lot. You should be able to hopefully tell which pictures are from which lot. Let me know if you think the Botanical Garden needs any further changes and what you think of the diner lot so far.

For the Diner, I left intentional space for the restaurant oven and podium. I figured the tables were the most diner looking tables from base game and they can be replaced. Do I need more dining tables and chairs? And I would like opinions on the flooring and wall cover. I am not sure if they look ok.

I forgot to mention that I had to change the roof due to no roof slope option in base game. =)

Peni - they are not fenced in, the angle is unfortunate. The fence looks very similar to the stair railings, so they blend in together. The stairs are clear

I will have to delete one cash register to take it down to three. Currently there is one in each of the four stores. I could replace one (or several?) with a computer so that the player knows where the till is supposed to go? Then I can upload it. And anybody else is welcome to have a go at improving it further I am really happy with the interiors of the stores, but I don't know whether the hallways are too bare. (I suppose players with later EPs can add the other arcade machines, the photobooth, food stands and elevators.)

Personally I use antiredundancy which keeps my NPCs down and I would assume that anybody who cared about such things would also, but I understand if the policy is to reduce production of them in the first place.

I like the diner, but I wonder if the walls need something to break up the monotony a bit. Perhaps some stripes of red? You could try the red/white tiles for the floor, too, (if they are even in base game) but it might be best to do one or the other of those, not both. It's difficult - nothing matches that black one and I think the black is the most appropriate.

You will have an issue with those counters - you need to leave a space. Firstly because if the player adds parts to make it a restaurant/uni cafeteria, the wait staff will complain about being stuck, secondly because if there is a BBQ (which I suggest so they can at least eat something ) I believe plates are cleared from the back of counters, not the eating side of them, so sims will complain about being unable to clean.

(Just remember if you playtest to use a fresh copy!)

Base game only has four tiled walls, simsfreq - white with a blue stripe on top, "woven white" in a herringbone pattern, sienna, and the black-and-white check, which most people find visually jarring in large amounts. This wall is actually painted white brick. The use of the red accent wall is wise.

The red and white linoleum is available in base game but can be visually jarring over large expanses, too. One way to break up floor treatments is to use more than one flooring to create a new pattern - to mark pathways like in the mall, alternating similar kinds of floors in contrasting colors to create a complex large-scale tiled pattern, visually marking different spaces with border tiles, etc. Alternating the black tiles used here with the red-and-white linoleum might have an attractive effect, or it might be overwhelming - won't know till we try.

I can't tell by looking at the overhead shot, but if the small room adjacent to the kitchen has a door into the kitchen area, sims will be able to clean up plates by going through it, so that's all right.

Thanks for all the feedback! I did some experimenting and I think its starting to look diner-y I added more color to the walls so they weren't so bland white. I did nothing to the outside or kitchen area. I tried out the red and black linoleum tiles to see which worked best. I kinda like black better. Cant wait to hear more feedback. Also, if the botanical garden is good, ItI'll upload that. It will need a founder though so it can get a name I will need instructions though...lol.

I actually like the red and white floor better there, but you're the builder The purple looks great. I think if you stick with black and white floors, lose the black and white wall. Change it to red paint or something. But B+W tiled wall with R+W tiled floor looks good (in my opinion.)

You could also try the golden yellow walls, perhaps for the wall with the toilet doors, or in stripes e.g. on the tiles where the windows are, to bring out the yellow diamonds in the chairs. But it might look awful.

Thanks! I'll make last minute touches to it then I'll upload the lots. Do I need to upload the whole hood or just package the lots into a zip file? I've really enjoyed building the lots and wouldn't mind building another if you still needed help.

Thanks for helping out! You're free to build more lots. Just pick any lot that's not reserved by anyone. Check out the first post for that.

I think the mini mart would be fun if no one else has claimed it. And I should be able to package up the diner and garden lot soon to the thread

It's not an obstacle for the sim who wants it bad enough

@simsfreq my favorite part of your mall is how the flower shop was divided & arranged

@HugeLunatic I like your changes and the bool propping~ it's more laid-back and preppier and definitely what I was going for, thank you!

@tcbandie10 I recommend that oil "fantasy scape" painting to tie the room together, it would go so well because of those chairs, same color motif. Best on the red wall.

I am thinking I might have a go at the school, if nobody else is doing it? Do we know how many kids/teens are in the hood so far?

Yeah sure, go ahead. So far, we're not quite sure, but something with several class rooms and a gymnasium/sports hall and the usual facilities, if possible, will do.

If it doesn't all fit in, you could try using a slightly larger lot. (It's a 3x4 'landscape' oriented lot, if you want more space, try using a 4x4. A 4x4 shouldn't affect adjacent lots, but it might interfere with the neighborhood deco at the back, but that can be dealt with. )

Oh no, is it a 3x4? I have just built one on a 3x3! Well I suppose too small is not as bad as too big, there's always the Lot Adjuster. Or this is fairly simple so it could be rebuilt on a larger base. You could add a swimming pool, perhaps. I was going for the typical US school theme, but again, I might have got it wrong - certainly when I looked up plans, I realised that I'd built it far too small! But the overall look, I like, and I feel that the rescaling is more of a sims issue - it's often difficult to get sim buildings to match up to real life buildings in terms of space that they actually take up.

If you don't like this or it doesn't have the appropriate rooms then feel free to scrap it, it only took me a couple of hours. I've done what I can in community lot mode - there is a real lack of the right kinds of items. It has a cafeteria/refectory (but no way to actually prepare food), a hall for assemblies and ceremonies, a small medical room, trophy display cases, two classrooms each seating 11 students, male and female toilets, and then a room which I wanted to be some kind of gym or PE/dance hall, but there is no music except the constantly playing speakers which I felt were inappropriate and no gym equipment, not even a suitable bench. So it's a blank room with spotlights to approximate the idea of a performance area. And then I wanted to build a library, but there are no bookcases! So they got a chess club room instead. At least they can build logic there... So in theory, you could have up to four classes being taught at once with two doing practical subjects and two doing book-learning, and a capacity of around 40 students maximum. (They'd have to eat in shifts ) The chess club room/library could also in theory be divided up to accommodate a principal's office and staff room, but it seemed a bit pointless with the way schools in TS2 work.

I was slightly lazy and built on the version of the neighbourhood I already had which means that I stole the Internet Cafe lot to ensure that the ground texture was consistent but I can't change the name of it, I think you can when you place it.

Photos behind spoiler.

I am finally uploading the diner and botanical garden. I thought maybe the name of the dinner could be The Spot if no one can think of something. Its based off a diner near me. If there is another way I am supposed to upload the lots let me know.

I am almost finished with the mini mart. I just need to take pictures for opinions and suggestions.

Thank you, @tcbandie10. It's nice that you decided to build the mini mart as well. I can't wait to see the pictures.

The botanic garden looks good. Maybe it could be named 'Amselina's Botanic Garden' or something similar like that. Amselina is a deceased sim I made for the neighborhood. She was a gardener during her lifetime... Not to mention that she was also a witch and it was her *fault* that Emerald Heights dried out. She tried to duplicate the crops using a spell but she failed and Emerald Heights became a wastleland...

Anyway, of course it doesn't need to be named like that. It's just a suggestion.