Jo - it is the final round! No next round where we can end up with too little money to build with No first place to lose to somebody who does the maths better. Time to gamble - I am going to spend heaps and heaps and heaps (don't know on what yet, but if it has to be flying cow mascots, so be it)

I don't get the money aspect at all! I'm building what I like

I don't understand why it's a scary spreadsheet. Just input the numbers in the yellow boxes (only 3 places to input numbers) and everything else is calculated for you. There's only three questions that it asks which should be easy to fill in:

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"How much is your company's (N) End Budget at the end of Town Contract #3"
Find this in the budget post here. Find the line that says "(N) End Budget" and put it in this yellow cell.

"What is the price of this lodging resort in your game?"
Find this in your game and put it here. Whatever the price the property is as you're building, put it here.

"How many points do you think you will receive from the directors?
Take a guess to how many points you'll get. None of us know, but write a number out of 50 points to see what happens.

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Then look at the green box on the bottom right corner. This is the estimate amount of money your company will end the competition with.

The other yellow boxes on the bottom left are optional and just need to be filled with a "yes" if you fulfill those questions.

The other numbers in black are information about how much taxes you'll pay and if you need a loan to finish construction. So again, the more your spend, the costlier it is for your company to end the game. This is why if you play around with the yellow cells, you get to see if the green cell goes higher. The higher the green cell, the better.

You don't have to input anything else, the other cells fill itself up. Just pay attention to the info to put in the yellow cells.

@Petro &others; honestly what I can tell you from my perspective as a judge for this round and competition is that I will not be looking for how much you spend, as much as I will be looking for things like attention to detail and overall look. So don't just throw your money around thinking you will be getting the best score since the competition is based on demonstrating your company's potential, which is only to be said in the case of the extreme of buying all the most luxurious furnitures. I want to stress that this round's requirements are really a little bit of both, since its meant to be high-class yet also you need to maintain a budget, so I strongly suggest sticking as close to your budget as you can, but make it work. By that I mean that I won't dock you points for using cheaper furniture instead of the most expensive, I want to see what looks best, yet if I notice that you are using cheap-looking furniture meaning that I can tell that it looks cheap, my eye will be drawn to looking for other cheap aspects and I will need to consider my scoring.

I don't intend to scare you all by saying that in any way, and I this is probably the only outfront hint I am giving you guys on how I will be judging your final entries. Just don't forget as you are still operating a company, and your general aim as a company is that you always want to minimize costs while maximizing benefits (in a sense ). I hope this clears up some of my understanding of this round from the view of the director and I hope you will all use this in your favor.

Thank you, Seth
First, I am going to spend heaps of money this round, because hotels are expensive to build - and I probably have, for the first time, enough money to spend on details. In the first two rounds I was far too careful to spend, and it took me until now to finally have enough Simoleons to spend! I built a basic hotel room on a tiny, empty lot - just the basics, not going for the most expensive beds or anything, but with a bit of decorating - 35K. We need to build four. Then, the contract says holiday resort - which means that a basic, cosy hotel will not be enough - it implies that there also must be fun things to do. And while one does not have to add everything that you possibly can - some amenities besides bed and breakfast will be needed (starting, imo, with a proper fermented juice bar, perhaps ) So I promise I will not put flying cow mascots on the lot.
@D - I like the maths aspect and found it a lot of fun. And I have more than enough money to spend on this one because the accountant had found her calculator
I also am, of course, taking a gamble when I spend more money rather than less - but is that not what Monopoly is all about? Seth, also, note that I had 16K left after round 3 - and now I have 150K in my end budget - and that is because I spent a lot of money, more than many would think wise - on my bridal shop (I could easily spent another 30K there if I had it - the 16K was not enough for what I wanted to do, and so I abandoned some ideas I initially had). And, as I said to Jo, if one is not in a position to lose something - like first place - it is worth taking a chance. Of course I may be throwing all the Simoleons in the water or the wind or wherever people from other countries throw it when they waste their money. Yet that is not the intention here. And it is nice to be able to build something at last without checking each Simoleon too
In the meantime, I am off to a real fermented juice bar at the local Lalapanzi hotel - which means Sleep Well in Tsonga, which is an African language And, yes, I am going to look carefully at the interior of the bar. Maybe more light bulbs will go on!

Since Jo said something to a judge who got her Elder Scrolls - also well done to the judge who understood the gingerbread house

I am a bit concerned by the contract saying "resort" because that isn't quite what my hotel is, lol. It will have amenities, but it's more of a downtown New York-y hotel. To me, resort is something different, but I'm going with mine anyway

And my comments to the judges comments, I totally agree that both a fountain and the sauna would have been great. I had both, but due to cost issues (both are a bit pricey, esp the sauna) I had to do away with them. If I upload it, both will definitely be making a comeback

Ah, okay, I see that "resort" has different interpretations. I attempted to word the contract as to incorporate any type of property where patrons come to stay and pay overnight. It could be a motel, hotel, resort, bed & breakfast, etc.

I'll change the term to "a temporary accommodation" "an accommodation". Or is there another term you would use to encompass all these types of lodging?

You're New York-style description for a hotel is fine for this contract.

Maybe "temporary lodging" would be pretty all encompassing.

I know it's the last round but it would be nice not to be last place when I put up what I consider to be rather decent lots.

I ran with 'resort' but then saw how small the lot was, so I kept to my original plan but made it smaller, so a 'mini resort'? To me a resort is a large hotel with many facilities. large pools, it's own shops, golf, games, perhaps shows, the kind of place you can spend an entire holiday/vacation at. Now I think it will be a nice hotel with some resort facilities.

As to how to play this. I gave my last lot as much creativity as I could and ended up in last place. Since I have no hope of understanding the money side as in 'you do this and you will end up richer' I'm with Karen, I'm building what I like!

d_dgjdhh, I actually thought your sheet with the boxes was easy to understand, but that doesn't help me get how money works or how I can end up with so little, if you know what I mean. There is a whole money game side to this and I have ignored it since I have no hope of understanding it.

Thank you, @D - that may make it possible then for me to build without spending heaps of money! I was pretty worried about where the hell I was going to put holiday resort stuff.

Jo - just make your resort another one to remember (because I am downloading a full set of Jo's monopoly lots)

All will be up, except for the tin shed. I'm sure others will be doing a lot more fancy CFE work than I am, but I hope it's a rather nice Tuscan/Mediterranean hotel.

I think ALL lots need to be uploaded for us to enjoy ya'lls labors of fun. :D

Jo - I need that tin shed
I will have to rework all mine - not good enough or not playable might be problems.

Seriously? You want me to upload that? If you want it I guess I can package it up and pm it. It's just four walls on stumps.

I've been silently watching this contest from the sidelines and cheering everyone on silently. I had to break the silence and chime in when CaliBrat mentioned the creations (contest entries) being a labor of fun (read: love) they should be uploaded. I agree with BOTH.

I have been chomping at the bit to get at these lots since they first were debuted here, and I'd be sorely disappointed to miss out on even ONE. I'm not suggesting that everyone will upload everything, but wow, it's been so very inspirational for me to witness, and try to incorporate these unique builds into some of my own (very modest) gameplay. Would I love to have a chance to have every.single.lot? YES. I won't lie. Whether it's a shed on four sticks, a grungy apartment or a construction office at an actual site... many people would LOVE to have them, and enjoy them in game. Isn't that what it's about?

I'm sorry it's a long post and I'm probably a bit low on the totem pole to say, but thanks for listening and thank you all for sharing your wonderful creations. I cannot wait to see how this turns out! Good luck!!!

Thank you @Goldenbtrfly I am sure all of us are happy that somebody is enjoying it!
Yes, Jo - I want the four walls on stumps too

No totem poles around here, everyone is welcome.

I haven't had time to prep the others for upload and now I'm working on this round, but they will be up.

"I haven't had time to prep [all - some of mine are up already!] the others for upload [yet] and now I'm working on this round, but they will be up."


Amen, sista!

Most of mine are ready for uploading, even down to the images (cos I took loads more than I was allowed to show!).

PS If you've enjoyed competing or would like to compete I will be hosting a contest (subject to approval) soon after this one ends. Mine will be a purely building and decorating contest and the only maths involved will be adding up the scores. It's gonna be a holiday/vacation destination themed contest similar to Campus Constructors and suitable for all three games - so watch this space!

Exciting to hear Karen!! Bring on the CC!!!!! :lovestruc

Jo - I will download when you upload, build the resort first, no pressure But I DO want them all

Ooooooh - another contest! I will be stocking the juice bars on the islands, in the mountains and in the Far East too if you are happy with my bar tendering skills

This hotel is taking an eternity to build - I guess I am still exploring. Maybe I should just build the bar first

I hope I can get this done in 15 days, this is not a small building.

Just thought I would mention that hotels are normally started on community lots and need a community lot phone to work properly not a mail box. The mail box is superfluous as is the residential lot bin. There is one uploaded here with a mail box that I unfortunately downloaded but luckily I knew the build and buy cheat and could put down a com lot phone that way. You need it to end the holiday and to spawn the tour guide.

I too am going for a high-class city hotel. Like Justpetro I was a bit stuck for inspiration at the start, but the Monopoly board came to the rescue. The brief is for a hotel or similar establishment in the priciest part of town, and in the UK version of Monopoly (which uses the names of London streets) the most expensive property is Mayfair. Now having a hotel in Mayfair is the way to win a game of Monopoly, as you bankrupt other players unable to pay the rent to stay the night there. So, lacking the resources to actually stay in a luxury hotel myself, with the idea of a "hotel in Mayfair" in mind, I started looking on the internet for inspiration. And, it turns out that the best-known Mayfair hotel is so well-known that even I have heard of it! It's the Dorchester Hotel. It features in a well-known Christmas poem by John Betjeman, who calls its residents "the shining ones who dwell. . . safe in the Dorchester Hotel". Its website provided pictures to inspire me, and an idea of what guests might expect to find in a 5-star hotel today. I'm not going to attempt to reproduce the 9-storey Dorchester Hotel in base game Sims 2 (I'll leave that to Zarathustra!) but a luxury hotel in Mayfair it is. And, as I've downloaded D's Monopoly Game Town, installed it as a sub-hood of Veronaville, and named the squares as they are on the UK board, I really am building a hotel in Mayfair!

I've had a long conversation with our MD about the finances, and he's quite convinced that cheaper designs will do best in this final round. After all, money you don't spend stays in your coffers and appears in the final balance. And it's the company with the highest final balance that wins. Which goes ill with our decision to build a luxury hotel. But, it is Mayfair, and we know the neighbours there would not want a budget hotel or a cheap guest house in their district. So, a luxury hotel it has to be.

At the moment we've got a 4-storey hotel partly built (in a base game 'hood whence it will be copied to Monopoly Game Town). At the moment it's little more than an empty shell, but it's already over §88K. So the top storey may have to go. That would be one floor less to furnish, and furnishing a 5-star hotel doesn't come cheap. Not if we're trying to rival the Dorchester for comfort (if not for size).

I've got Real Life family coming to visit, so probably won't be able to work on it for a few days, but at least I feel I've made a reasonable start.

Ooh la la, Andrew! Sounds awesome
I struggle a bit with this one - but I hope the neighbours will not be too unhappy with my country Inn in the city - after all, most of them should feel quite at home, since they probably are from the country and if they are rich farmers, they will probably want to sit in the bar rather than worry about anything else. And if they are not from the country - they can at least experience a bit of the famous South African hospitality here!

This is a lot of work. I have spent around 9 hours on the hotel already. Maybe it is time to check the budget

Jo, can you give us the cheat - I noticed the mail box - although for the contest it is probably all right if it is sans mailbox or tour guide (thought I'd just use the sledge hammer on the postal box

All you need do is place down the comm lot phone which is in buy mode. (can't remember if it's in residential buy mode but I think so) Delete the mail box and bin and change zoning to hotel. Of course make a copy before doing that just in case. When I am building anything large or with CFE I save constantly and save a copy to both file and the bin every time I leave the game. I already reverted to a copy with this one.

Tip:never place pond sprinklers inside stage tool, you can't grab it and the stage can not be deleted!

Sounds like a plan Andrew. I hope my Mediterranean/Tuscan two story hotel will be swish enough.