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Mad Poster
Original Poster
#51 Old 19th May 2015 at 5:50 PM
Go ahead and take the one that's there now, please. I've managed to get rid (I think) of all the wrinkly roads and have addressed all the points I could; but I'd like to get a little more substantial criticism so I can have something as nearly finished as possible before I stick all the NPC generators again and upload a final empty version for assessment.

I'm still working on all the fiddly stuff I want to do with the populated version, so I'm not in a hurry. Maybe next week I'll be ready.

Ugly is in the heart of the beholder.
(My simblr isSim Media Res . Widespot,Widespot RFD: The Subhood, and Land Grant University are all available here. In case you care.)
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Field Researcher
#52 Old 19th May 2015 at 5:52 PM
Okay, I'll download it once I've got my clones extracted. D'you mind if I share pictures on Tumblr as I go along?

♫Cuz I don't have a home in this life, I have to roam. Got nowhere to lay my head, so I'll follow you instead, and set my gaze on the place I'm going to. Til then I'm homeless, but I'll roam with you...♫

My Simblr: http://natteryaktoad.tumblr.com
Mad Poster
Original Poster
#53 Old 19th May 2015 at 9:09 PM
Free advertising? Are you kidding? Post away! Just so they know it's a work in progress.

Ugly is in the heart of the beholder.
(My simblr isSim Media Res . Widespot,Widespot RFD: The Subhood, and Land Grant University are all available here. In case you care.)
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#54 Old 19th May 2015 at 9:35 PM
There's no stove in 9 Market Street. Well, not really an issue. But it would be nice, if there would be a stove. I like that lot. It's suitable for big families (six children)
Screenshots

Catalogue of Custom Neighborhoods for TS2
All Hood Building Group neighborhoods are available here
Want to get rid of EA's sims in neighborhoods? Check out my Clean and Empty Steatlh Hoods and Clean and Empty Neighborhood Templates
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Mad Poster
Original Poster
#55 Old 20th May 2015 at 3:43 AM
I keep poking at the floor plan, trying to get something more apartment friendly. And I realized doing that that there were several things I hadn't quite finished. Like I don't think I'd put lights in it. I must've gotten tired, quit before I was quiet finished, and then forgotten that I hadn't finished it up.

I may have multiple copies of it, like I do of the big house that became the basis of 1 Market Street. Not much yard for the kids there - but that's why there's a Family Fun Center, parks, and the Municipal Pool, because city kids get shafted on yards.

Ugly is in the heart of the beholder.
(My simblr isSim Media Res . Widespot,Widespot RFD: The Subhood, and Land Grant University are all available here. In case you care.)
Field Researcher
#56 Old 23rd May 2015 at 4:20 PM
Okay, I've started! (As you can see from my tumblr, which I think is still linked in my sig). So:

13 The Enclave :
I had to change the carpet upstairs because it was hurting my eyes! But that's a taste thing, and there's a limited amount of carpets you can use with just BG, NL and UNI. The only other thing is that in some rooms the lights are right over in the corner rather than anywhere near the middle of the room. I don't know if this effects the distribution of light around the room, as I haven't played this lot at night yet, but it bugs me from a stylist point of view.

Enclave Park :
I love this lot - plenty to do. I wonder whether it might be worth adding a bin near the picnic area, so the sims don't have to walk to the restroom to wash up, or to the bin by the curb (thinking about it, they might chose to wash up rather than throw the plates away even if there was a bin there) - if you've got enough money to live in the Enclave, you'd think the exclusive park would be designed to minimise the need to walk.

Also, the almost-but-not quite symmetry with the diving boards on the pool bugs me. Maybe you could remove the middle diving board and move on of the others to make it symmetrical (perhaps the furthest away one as you look at it from the street, forwards one tile?).

Enclave Shopping Centre :
When I loaded this one up, there were no cashiers or bartender, just a barista. The cashiers spawned when the family arrived, but there was still no bartender. The only option available on the bar was to juggle tumblers.

The cashier in the shop with games/magazines was trapped behind the counter because there's no gate in that fence.

3 Hillfoot Street :
This is a lovely little lot - a good size for the family of five I moved into it. There's no light in the entrance hall.

Art Gallery :
This one floor down from the top, which means the flat bits from the roof aren't present. This isn't actually a problem, but since everything seems to have been loaded with all the floors up/roofs on, it might be worth saving this with all the roof to keep it the same as the others.

The top left room I assume is empty ready for a new exhibit?

The sims weren't able to go past the foot of the stairs to get to the right hand room downstairs - they had to go round the left side and behind the stairs. It's not really a problem, just something to be aware of - I guess the only thing you could do to rectify this would be to expand the middle entrance bit of the building forwards or backwards one tile so there's more room. There's a picture illustrating the sims walking around in the next photoset I'm about to put on tumblr.

Although the playable family I had didn't use the restaurant, other sims did whilst they were there, and it looked like it was working fine. Just checking you know that with eight tables, it spawns two servers, which might be what you wanted, but if you wanted to minimise the number of NPCs generated, you could just take out a table.

That's all for now!

♫Cuz I don't have a home in this life, I have to roam. Got nowhere to lay my head, so I'll follow you instead, and set my gaze on the place I'm going to. Til then I'm homeless, but I'll roam with you...♫

My Simblr: http://natteryaktoad.tumblr.com
Mad Poster
#57 Old 26th May 2015 at 8:55 PM
Just spotted this thread, Peni. I'm off on holiday tomorrow (Paris, woo!) so I won't be around until Sunday, but I'm excited about play-testing it when I'm home :-) Perhaps there'll even be an updated version available by then? I'm delighted that you're working on Bigg City again!
Mad Poster
Original Poster
#58 Old 31st May 2015 at 5:11 AM
Sorry to be taking so long uploading the next version, y'all. I need a lot of tedious testing and notetaking to be sure which bars I want in which building - because not all of them generate bartenders at all, and they have to match the counters - and I've done a lot of tweaking, but I've been so exhausted lately it's hard to make myself do the tedious part. I'm going to try to get Mark 2 posted tomorrow, but I bet it'll be late in the day.

Ugly is in the heart of the beholder.
(My simblr isSim Media Res . Widespot,Widespot RFD: The Subhood, and Land Grant University are all available here. In case you care.)
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#59 Old 31st May 2015 at 7:57 AM
It's OK, Peni. Just take the time you need! We can patiently wait.

Catalogue of Custom Neighborhoods for TS2
All Hood Building Group neighborhoods are available here
Want to get rid of EA's sims in neighborhoods? Check out my Clean and Empty Steatlh Hoods and Clean and Empty Neighborhood Templates
My Simblr
Mad Poster
#60 Old 1st Jun 2015 at 12:12 PM
Quote: Originally posted by Jawusa
It's OK, Peni. Just take the time you need! We can patiently wait.

I fail at patiently, but I'm quite happy to wait for the awesome to be ready! :-D
Mad Poster
Original Poster
#61 Old 1st Jun 2015 at 11:27 PM Last edited by Peni Griffin : 2nd Jun 2015 at 2:02 PM. Reason: Removed attachments when got a good 7z into a later post
Okay, here we go - Bigg City Mark II (as far as y'all are concerned). I think I managed to get every cash register, bar, restaurant podium, dj booth, stove, and coffee stand placed this time, and almost all of the lots are almost flat - in certain ones I would've had to tear down too much building to get perfect flatness so I said, screw it.

I've made major layout changes to some of the lots - notably the Art Gallery, which has had a rearrangement of the restaurant/restroom area, the Worn Wire, the Game Room, and Your Cue. Some of the buildings look drastically different because the way the signs clip into the eaves of mansard roofs was driving me wiggy, so I did some experimenting. I took the stoves out of the Wreck Room and 1 Market Street because nobody could use them, which was annoying - it would have been nice to have them in place for the people who use the hack that generates dorm cooks on community lots. But they didn't have counter islands so that might not have worked anyway.

Dammit, it's not uploading! What's the matter here? Apparently the .7z file is more than 50MG. So I'll go dump it on mediafire - which won't let me log in, what the heck? I only use three passwords and it doesn't like any of 'em. And the cat won't get out of my face, making everything harder - okay, I told it to make a multi-part rar with 10MG parts, we'll see how that works. I'd rather make it two 7z files but don't see that option. Seven parts, geez...But it seems to be working. I'm sorry about this, Laura! Let me know if you have a problem making them open right. I'll have to look into a more efficient way to do this. I was reluctant to use LotCompressor before I had a final format, because I've never done it before; but it looks as though I'm about to learn.

I'm at the stage of wishing I'd never started, which must mean I'm pretty close to the end of Phase I and it's starting to look pretty good.

Ugly is in the heart of the beholder.
(My simblr isSim Media Res . Widespot,Widespot RFD: The Subhood, and Land Grant University are all available here. In case you care.)
Mad Poster
#62 Old 1st Jun 2015 at 11:38 PM
In the 7zip window down in the lower left it says "Split to volumes, bytes:" in the space just type the size you want it split in and that is all you have to do.

Say your size is 80M so you can chose 20M and it will split it up into 4 parts or chose 40M and it will do 2.

It must look like this 40M for 40 mb files size.

All my Beginning Hoods here at MTS. http://www.modthesims.info/member.php?u=7749491
All my Beginning Hoods as Shopping Districts plus Old Town. http://www.modthesims.info/download.php?t=523417
MooVille, a tribute to Mootilda and her fabulous lots http://www.modthesims.info/download.php?t=534158
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#63 Old 2nd Jun 2015 at 10:43 AM Last edited by Jawusa : 2nd Jun 2015 at 12:05 PM.
I noticed that you didn't delete the .bkp files after using Mootilda's LotAdjuster.

After deleting the .bkp packages, it went from 148 MB to 78.4 MB.

ETA: I went checking the lots and noticed that you can place objects on the road. Meaning the road is not regenerated yet. After using Mootilda's LotAdjuster, you have to select the lots you've adjusted and place it back into the neighborhood. It can be the same place, of course. You don't have to move the lots somewhere else. Then, the game fixes the roads.

If the game does not let you place the lots back, then you're neighborhood is not completely flat.

ETA2: I didn't check all of the lots yet. But I found some issues...

1 Market Street: There's no stove in the kitchen

Weddings on the Green: The toilet doesn't have any lights.

8 The Enclave: There's a missing half-tile at the front (pathway)

26 Front Street: The fence is not complete
Screenshots

Catalogue of Custom Neighborhoods for TS2
All Hood Building Group neighborhoods are available here
Want to get rid of EA's sims in neighborhoods? Check out my Clean and Empty Steatlh Hoods and Clean and Empty Neighborhood Templates
My Simblr
Mad Poster
#64 Old 2nd Jun 2015 at 11:39 AM Last edited by lauratje86 : 2nd Jun 2015 at 1:48 PM.
It won't let me download Part 6 :-( It gives me a 403 - Forbidden error message when I click on it. The other parts (including #7) worked fine.....

When I tried to do it using "Save Link As..." it said Failed - Server problem.

**ETA** Never mind, after about 10 attempts it finally worked! :-D Yay, I'm so excited!

I'm not sure if it's extracted properly though, grrrr! :-(

Question: in the populated version, how many households and playable sims do you intend to have, Peni? Do you have them all planned out already?
Mad Poster
Original Poster
#65 Old 2nd Jun 2015 at 2:00 PM Last edited by Peni Griffin : 23rd Jul 2015 at 1:58 AM. Reason: removing the superseded copies; see end of thread
Argh, lights! No wonder a light in the back of the lot is so often the "What's This?" object on Maxis lots!

I hadn't even noticed all those .bkp files - yes,deleting those gets it down to one 7z. Try this one, Laura! I have not made the corrections mentioned because I haven't even had breakfast yet - and it's going to take all day again with all the NPC generators in place. Stopping to check the character folder and make interim backups after each lot is a major time sink.

I took the stoves out of 1 Market and the Wreck Room because in playtest no one could use them and that's just annoying. Especially since they were the dorm stoves and the lots would've been set up for people with the hack that spawns the dorm cook outside of University - ready-made soup kitchens!

Dang, I thought making a structural change was enough to fix up the lot. They so often won't go back where I want them after I pick them up. Probably another indication that I didn't get it completely flat. Part of the problem is that I built right to the edges on most of these lots, so the buildings would be close together and there'd be very little unbuilt space on each lot, in true urban fashion. And you can't flatten terrain that borders an improvement, so I'm having to take down fences, unbuild parts of buildings, etc. to get the lot edges flat. Definitely made things too hard for myself, not having the lots flat to begin with.

ETA: Laura, I'm still planning in the populated version. Bare minimum there'll be a multi-generation Bigg family in The Enclave, a middle class family on Hillfoot Street, a dirt-poor family on Domestic Drive, a gang of semi-homeless teens with an adult leader in the Abandoned Warehouse, and a couple of shady lawyers if the law career is available with this combination of EPs; plus most people will have somebody in the graveyard.

I also sometimes think I should make my own NPCs and townies. Because I have no sense at all apparently.

Ugly is in the heart of the beholder.
(My simblr isSim Media Res . Widespot,Widespot RFD: The Subhood, and Land Grant University are all available here. In case you care.)
Scholar
#66 Old 2nd Jun 2015 at 2:57 PM
*downloads with fervor* I'm not sure how much playtesting I'll be able to get done this week, but when I'll be staying up 24+ hours on Friday to get ready for a vacation? It's Bigg City time!

Custom townies and NPCs would be amazing.

My CC creations, updated April 21, 2015.

My Simblr
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#67 Old 2nd Jun 2015 at 3:52 PM
Quote: Originally posted by Peni Griffin
Dang, I thought making a structural change was enough to fix up the lot. They so often won't go back where I want them after I pick them up. Probably another indication that I didn't get it completely flat. Part of the problem is that I built right to the edges on most of these lots, so the buildings would be close together and there'd be very little unbuilt space on each lot, in true urban fashion. And you can't flatten terrain that borders an improvement, so I'm having to take down fences, unbuild parts of buildings, etc. to get the lot edges flat. Definitely made things too hard for myself, not having the lots flat to begin with.


To get it completely flat, move all of your lots into the bin. Then, copy your neighborhood into your full game. Then, flatten out the all of the streets using the cheat "modifyneighborhoodterrain on". After that, quit the game and use Mootilda's HoodReplace to replace the current terrain of your empty Uni/NL only neighborhood. Then, you can place the lots from the bin. I'd firstly take an overview picture of the entire neighborhood before doing this, then it would be easier to place the lots in the right places.

As for the custom townies/NPCs. You can do it, if you want but there might be people who don't want any new townies/NPCs because their neighborhood is already full of townies/NPCs and don't want to add any other subhoods with townies or NPCs...

But if they are related to the story, then I'd include custom townies/NPCs.

Catalogue of Custom Neighborhoods for TS2
All Hood Building Group neighborhoods are available here
Want to get rid of EA's sims in neighborhoods? Check out my Clean and Empty Steatlh Hoods and Clean and Empty Neighborhood Templates
My Simblr
Mad Poster
#68 Old 2nd Jun 2015 at 5:03 PM
Peni, or someone, would it be possible for you to take a picture of Bigg City from neighbourhood view so that I can see how it's supposed to look? Mine is possibly missing some lots, but I'm not sure....

I don't know how much of this is intentional, but these are the few things I've noticed so far:

Abandoned Warehouse - looks great :-)

Seedy Bowl - looks like there is space for 4 lanes but there are only 3?

1 Industry Street - no wall coverings inside the house.

Old Churchyard - looks good! I like the way you made the mausoleum (I assume that's what it is? I mean the building that isn't the toilets) with the stone wall on top, it looks cool. In the populated version there will be graves here, right?

Bigg City Library - love it! I wish my local library looked like this! Is there anywhere for the sims to pay for magazines or are the magazine racks just decorative?

Stoppen Gap - I like the green (and the name!). Is the idea that people with BV/AL replace the fridge/island counter/bar stool area with a food stand?

I would really appreciate it if someone could post a neighbourhood view picture of the whole of Bigg City so I can work out if I am missing any lots :-)
Mad Poster
Original Poster
#69 Old 2nd Jun 2015 at 5:49 PM Last edited by Peni Griffin : 2nd Jun 2015 at 6:08 PM.
Laura, I bet the download in the multiple parts screwed up - there ought to be wall covering inside 1 Industry Street (oh, dear, when did I last edit that? The one in the lot bin doesn't have wall coverings because I knew I was making several copies and didn't want to have to strip walls every time; maybe I never actually went into that copy - argh, I thought I did! I'll check today). Do the single 7z in post 65 and that should be everything.

It's not possible to get one shot with every single lot because of the skyscrapers, but I can get you a composite. Since I obviously have to open it up later today anyhow.

Laura, Bigg City Library should have a cash register and I specifically remember putting one in. Or at least, entering the lot with the intention of doing so. Which isn't the same thing. It does need one so the magazines can be browsed. There are several places in town where placing I have refrigerators and island counters standing in for food stands, but I did not take care to leave enough space for them. One should fit in the Stoppen Gap, but I'd be surprised if one could be squeezed into the Family Fun Center, which has a similar arrangement. I tried to leave room for player imagination and later EPs, but where Widespot looks fine if it's a bit bare, open space in the congestion of Bigg City itches at me. I was deliberately using lots of small lots with as much space as possible filled by improvements in most places. That could be a mausoleum in the graveyard, or it could be a garden shed. I've been editing the graveyard hardly at all, because in an empty hood all the player needs is room to place graves (sorely needed with so little spare room on the lots), and in a populated one I'll no doubt be getting inspired by the identities of the graves I'm placing. There will be graves in San Simeon Chapel, too - that's where the Biggs family and anybody whose death type I want to preserve (like celebrity rice chef Edith Pilaf, who will burn, and one poor woman who'll get killed by a fallen satellite on her wedding day or something similar) will be, which is why my editing copy still has that lot residential. But in the empty neighborhood it's just another wedding venue and graveyard. The Seedy Bowl is missing a lane, yup. You'll notice the wall and floor are damaged there. Who knows what grisly story lurks behind this bit of deferred maintenance? I think the floor is always sticky in that place, and if I could set it up so that both TVs above the bar are continually set to different stations, and maybe had bad vertical hold, I totally would.

Jawusa, I've already done the modify neighborhood terrain! It's true I didn't take every lot out first...argh. I hope people out there are learning from my mistakes. It matters so much what order you do things in when making a hood to share. Are you sure it's necessary? I haven't noticed the roads being editable at all. Though I suppose I wouldn't have...I'll have to look at 26 again. It's a place it makes sense to have a broken fence section, but on the other hand the fences have been giving me fits for some reason and it might have just skipped a place without me noticing.

I was thinking of levels of population - an empty version, one with just NPCs and townies, and one fully-populated one. And of course downtown and subhood versions of each, and in the subhood versions this time I'd remember to give the cashiers register badges. (I didn't think to do that for Sadie Wilkie, who obviously should have a gold.) I run mad sometimes, is all. And I'm having a little trouble wrangling the playables into line with all the ghosts and distinguishing "sims who need to be there" from "sims I think are cool but don't serve a purpose;" making NPCs would give my brain a little more time to sort through it at the level that makes the connections. I could also use unnecessary characters as townies instead, making them easier to give up.

But first I have to get the infrastructure down.

Oh, just FYI - the bar in the Notell Motel is supposed to be one that doesn't spawn a bartender. I decided to live up to its name, employees should be invisible to the general public. Every other place with a bar should spawn one. I think I got it all right this time.

Ugly is in the heart of the beholder.
(My simblr isSim Media Res . Widespot,Widespot RFD: The Subhood, and Land Grant University are all available here. In case you care.)
Mad Poster
#70 Old 2nd Jun 2015 at 6:08 PM
@lauratje86 here is the pic, I had to remove the tall buildings to be able to show all the lots.

Also a .rar file of it to download if needed.
Screenshots
Attached files:
File Type: 7z  Hood View.7z (265.5 KB, 6 downloads) - View custom content

All my Beginning Hoods here at MTS. http://www.modthesims.info/member.php?u=7749491
All my Beginning Hoods as Shopping Districts plus Old Town. http://www.modthesims.info/download.php?t=523417
MooVille, a tribute to Mootilda and her fabulous lots http://www.modthesims.info/download.php?t=534158
Mad Poster
#71 Old 2nd Jun 2015 at 7:39 PM
Ah, that explains a lot - I'm missing loads of lots! I did redownload and switch to the version of Bigg City from the single file you uploaded, but it's still not working. I'll start the whole neighbourhood again (it's just an unplayed version of Tarlia's Riverblossom Hills that I'm using purely to test Bigg City) and see if it works properly then. Thanks for the picture, Mark, not it's absolutely certain that I'm missing lots! Before it just seemed likely as Peni kept mentioning lots that I didn't have - Art Museum? Your Cue? Wreck Room? I don't have any of them! :-(
Mad Poster
#72 Old 2nd Jun 2015 at 7:52 PM
Did I miss something I thought this was a full hood and not a sub-hood yet.

All my Beginning Hoods here at MTS. http://www.modthesims.info/member.php?u=7749491
All my Beginning Hoods as Shopping Districts plus Old Town. http://www.modthesims.info/download.php?t=523417
MooVille, a tribute to Mootilda and her fabulous lots http://www.modthesims.info/download.php?t=534158
Mad Poster
Original Poster
#73 Old 2nd Jun 2015 at 8:33 PM
That's the problem, then - it's not a subhood, Laura! No telling what's happening at your end if you're trying to use it as one. Pop it in your Neighborhoods folder. It was originally going to be a Downtown, but my first version went horribly wrong because creating sims in a downtown-only subhood turns out to be dangerously weird. So once I get full-neighborhood versions working perfectly I'll try out downtown and subhood versions.

Ugly is in the heart of the beholder.
(My simblr isSim Media Res . Widespot,Widespot RFD: The Subhood, and Land Grant University are all available here. In case you care.)
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#74 Old 2nd Jun 2015 at 8:41 PM
Quote: Originally posted by Peni Griffin
Jawusa, I've already done the modify neighborhood terrain! It's true I didn't take every lot out first...argh. I hope people out there are learning from my mistakes. It matters so much what order you do things in when making a hood to share. Are you sure it's necessary? I haven't noticed the roads being editable at all. Though I suppose I wouldn't have...I'll have to look at 26 again. It's a place it makes sense to have a broken fence section, but on the other hand the fences have been giving me fits for some reason and it might have just skipped a place without me noticing.


There shouldn't be any issues if you haven't changed the lot size, actually... but maybe I'm wrong. The LotAdjuster says that you'll have to select and place it back in order to fix the road. If I try to do that in your neighborhood, certain lots can't be placed back. That's because, the neighborhood terrain under the lots is not completely flat. In order to fix that, you'll have to move all of the lots into the bin and place them back after flattening out the terrain. Because of this, there will be junk text files of the previous lots. So, when you're going to do that, then also make sure to delete all of the leftover lot text files (with Instances 0x0008000) in SimPE before placing the lots.

Catalogue of Custom Neighborhoods for TS2
All Hood Building Group neighborhoods are available here
Want to get rid of EA's sims in neighborhoods? Check out my Clean and Empty Steatlh Hoods and Clean and Empty Neighborhood Templates
My Simblr
Mad Poster
#75 Old 2nd Jun 2015 at 8:48 PM Last edited by lauratje86 : 2nd Jun 2015 at 9:12 PM.
Aha! All of a sudden this makes more sense! How odd that it is still possible to attach it without crashing etc....

**ETA**

I downloaded it again.
I put it in the Neighbourhoods folder.
I loaded the game.
There are still a bunch of lots missing.... :-(

I'm giving up for now, I'll try again after work tomorrow!
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