Ah, yes it works and sims teleport, because the last step of modular stairs chain is not holding the last animated bit of the sim making the last step to the plain surface and the portal, holding it, stays on the next tile which is the tile of the upper level. So it needs just one free unoccupied tile upstairs, which can be surrounded by any type of walls at three sides. Excepting the forth side which holds those portal itself and attached animation of the sim.

Hope I was not too complicated in description and technical details. Usually when I say such they just end with WAT? Tested with my mom. And I regret it.

Isn't that what we used to call "Stealth Stairs"?

I was thinking of doing the Ranch as a second "play along". Of course, not having the later EPs, I had to build it fro scratch using the EPs I have. I worked on it for several hours, but, when I saved it and returned to the neighbourhood, there was just a hole in the landscape where the lot should be. I sometimes have had this problem with lots I've moved in and out of the Lot Bin, but I think this is the first time I've had the problem with a lot built in situ.

I fixed the hole in the landscape by just deleting the lot file in Windows File Explorer, but I've lost all the work I did on the lot. I really don't know if I can be bothered to do it all again. It is frustrating when I lose several hours work. I've actually kept the defective lot file, and it looked OK in SimPE, but I don't think there's any way to get it back into my game.

Dear Judges: @joandsarah77, @HugeLunatic, @simmer22, @Charmful
We still have a few stragglers - who I hope will be posting soon; but, Round 2 has officially ended.
Please start your judging engines

The sooner you can get scores in to me, the more time the contestants will have to "make improvements" in their next, and final, builds.
Thank YOU!!! Root Beers all around for the Judges ...or maybe it should be Mt Dews?




Can you try re-numbering it so it fits the numbering scheme in your LotCatalog folder, and when you load up your game, it should be in the lot bin. See if that works?

I'll try to get the judging done tomorrow (and hoping the stragglers get their entries in asap!)
Don't think I'll have the energy or brain power today, 'cause my brain is fried after nearly 40 hours of work in 3 days + bad case of insomnia...

Thanks for the heads up. I will get started on it today as I have not even looked. This contest seems to be fast.

Here's my entry, I hope in time to lose only one point for lateness! I had to edit the post to add more information and get all my pictures lined up properly. I've also corrected a small mistake that was visible... but I'm out of time, so the major mistake I discovered in my construction has to stand.

I've staged this one for resale, so although the red and blue exterior stands out, the interior decoration is fairly neutral - and all the furniture goes back in the truck once the staging photos have been taken! This time I did use CC; since this is an urban property, I thought I'd try out using Psychosim's Urban Roof pieces and a glass roof object from cityof2morrow. I owe a lot to Michelle, iCad and Goat for most of the recolours... and many, many others for lots of bits and pieces.





Thank you again to the judges - I have now stopped rearranging my pictures and I'm walking away!
(edit again - added lot information pic and NOW I'm walking away!)

Can you not download lots made in games with later EPs? I thought that it was just that any furniture/build stuff that you didn't have wouldn't show up?

Looks great! (And yes, just one point late.)


No. The game's "engine" changed with the later EPs. It is not backwards-compatible.

Back home and I have just read the comments of the judges and Cat.

While I am happy with my score (I just realized that I came 2nd)! - I come from a different country. Growing up in a small railway town, we were just 20 minutes away from Johannesburg (or Jozi, as we call the city). The largest landlocked city in the world is the heartbeat of our economy - but it is also the largest urban man-made forest in the world when it comes to trees per square meters. With well over 10 000 trees, more than half of them planted by residents, no Jozi resident understands what anyone can mean by: there are too many trees. Or plants.

And the rest of the country tries to catch up! I have not been to a tropical midcentury city (they exist?) in my life.

Well... this is more what I was thinking of:

Not the suburbia that sprawls around the city (usually where the trees are.)
What are those beautiful purple trees in your pictures? Are those Jacarandas?
...and second is a pretty good standing for the first round.

Sadly it didn't work -- placing it in my neighbourhood just created another hole in the landscape. Clearly there is something wrong with that lot, even if I can't spot what's wrong in SimPE.

But I then tried with a new empty lot, and it transpired that, with my memory still fresh of building the lot that I lost, I could remember a lot what I did the first time, and I was able to build the basic structure of the house, in a fraction of the time it took me the first time. I've now made a backup of the neighbourhood, so I can always get back to this stage, even if the lot vanishes down a sinkhole again. I won't promise anything, but I'll see what I can do. I have a family, currently living downtown in temporary accommodation, who I think might like this house.


Like Catherine says, I don't think I can open a lot made with a newer version of the game engine. More than once, I've remade such a lot that I liked, by following a posted floor plan. In such circumstances, it actually helps me if the grid lines are shown!

Unfortunately I can't remake that roof in my game. For the gable roof in the middle, and the bigger "Hip" roof to share the same ridge-line, the gabled roof must have steeper sides than the "hip" roof. I only have the "RoofSlopeAngle" cheat", which sets the roof slope for all the roofs on the lot. It makes me quite glad I'm not a "proper" contestant. This is as good as I can get the roof:
The first time I made this, I used wall and floor coverings very similar to Catherine's original, and I think I'll try to do that again. Then I'll try if I can make it over, meeting all the requirements, but trying to keep the price under §25K.

@CatherineTCJD

Those are indeed jacaranda trees - although Pretoria/City of Tshwane, just 45 minutes North of Jozi (where I live now) is known as the jacaranda city. Jozi has more jacarandas, though.

Your image seems to have skipped the trees in the inner city, though, so here are some

Jozi has a lovely tree named after the city - the Johannesburg Gold, and you can find many of these trees all over the city too. I added a pic, one in the previous post of them too.

As I was finishing landscaping my lot yesterday, I did something (I have no idea what!) to my lot so that it crashes to desktop every time I try to load it. I spent several hours trying to find a way around it, and all I have is a backup from the last time I used LA... which was a few days ago. So I'm going to try and remake it, but it'll probably be tomorrow before I'm done, sorry! I admit I shed a few tears... and now I have a new fear locked for the rest of my game! I think I'm going to be making a lot more backups in the future! I had no idea this could happen to an uninhabited lot!

@Treehawk That is really horrible. You deserve a very big hug!

Like most Simmers, I've had a few disasters, but never in such a time-critical situation.

@Treehawk
I find that that happens at times, especially if the lot is big. I have tried to teach myself to save and exit after 2 hours ( cofee break) and that help a lot. Of course, at times I forget all about my self-taught skill and the lot crashes anyway.

I hope there will be no more crashes for you.

I hope you get it fixed, Treehawk. Could it possibly be a misbehaving CC element?

So currently we're missing entries from @Gwathgor and Treehawk?
(apart from those two, I've got my scores ready)

Oh NOOOOOO!
You didn't happen to use the big 2-story chandelier, did you? That always crashes my lots!

I hope you get it sorted, and entered, soon. (It's only 1 point per day late, so it's not too much.)
Many hugs - and the best of luck to you.

As @Charity spotted something, which was really innocuous, but looked inappropriate, in my recent post about changes made in my play-along entry in the Pictures sub-forum, I have now replaced the first picture in that post. In the new picture my Sims are (by their standards) fully dressed, with nothing inappropriate-looking showing. (It was really only the leg of the dining table. )

Hello. We had no our scores yet? We are preparing now to summer camp so I am not into reading that much.

@CatherineTCJD you wrote me such a long response. But I am so busy now, just caught the plot and explored through the link to the stairs mod. Thank you.

We are kinda in business now. I feel partly existing.

Opened my lot and - I have a white screen?

Hopefully I have a backup somewhere, but I am honestly not impressed, I don't even have cc in my game right now. And I have already cleared the cahce files, restarted the pc, did whatever else I could think of. The other lots - no problem. I guess it is either finding the backup or starting over.

(My contractor is swearing like a sailor. Can't say I blame him).

Aaaaaaack! Oh NO! {{{hugs}}}
Ditto.

What is it with everybody's computers these days!

I have never seen that before in my game.

Granted, I have not tried to use the minimum objects - but I honestly think I have had lots with a lot more stuff on it, bigger too - think Zarathustra - and i seriously don't know what to do now.

I spent the whole day on it yesterday - I don't have another day open this week to do that again. And the lot looked so damn nice too. Going to have to burn the midnight oil.

Getting enough Fat Bastards and coffee should do it (I hope).

Cigars?
Coffee alone should do the trick. Strong and black.

Usually, when I have to 're-build' for whatever reason... *sigh*
...It usually goes together faster than the first time. I hope that works for you too.

Thanks, Cat. In for a penny, in for a pound, I guess. (Have you tasted a Fat Bastard wine? It is an excellent wine)!

I do have a backup, which is basically the original lot with everything (allowed to be) removed.

I am going to take a break now, though 🙂