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#1 Old 20th Sep 2015 at 11:29 PM
Default Ayne County - A 'Hood Under Construction


Welcome to Ayne County!

Nestled somewhere in the North-Western mountains of SimNation, Ayne County is an idyllic, quaint little suburban town for your Sims. With room for almost 30 residential lots, its spacious accommodations are perfect for any family! While the area of town that's closer to the lake is mainly just suburban homes, the more inland portion of the town features four farm-homes, each with their own small barn, and plenty of land for growing crops. On the road running through the middle of town, Sims can experience Ayne County's main street! Restaurants, a cinema, plenty of parks, and the necessary police station, medical clinic, and both elementary and high schools can be found on the main street.


THREAD INTRODUCTION

All right, so first off, hello! Thank you for clicking on my thread.

Ayne County (name currently undecided, though I quite like the sound of this one) is a project that I've been working on for almost a week now. I would've preferred to keep working on it for a while until making a thread here in the Creator's Feedback forum, but turns out feedback really does help get things rolling! The idea for this 'hood is simple - I want to create a 'hood that is somewhat realistic, is in a forest environment (turns out there aren't too many 'hoods like that out there!), and most importantly, I want to make my own little Sim country. Ayne County is only the first building block in my goal of creating a fictional Sim country. Further down the line, I'll create more 'hoods (all of which will be able to be added as subhoods), and fill things out. For example, Sims living in Ayne County need to work somewhere! So, eventually, I'll create a 'hood which holds a lot of office, commercial, and industrial buildings. Same thing with farming communities, beach-towns, and any other kind of environment I want to make in the Sims.


GENERAL INFORMATION

This neighborhood is built on the default Pleasantview terrain. It is being made with CC, but I'm keeping it all organized so I know what needs to be written in the "required-CC" bit of the submission once I get to uploading the 'hood. It is also being built with all EPs/SPs installed. It's been created using a multitude of townie-suppressing and bin-family-suppressing mods, so there are absolutely no Sims generated in Ayne County! It will be uploaded in different flavors: no Sims, no playable families, and the typical populated version.

Ayne County currently has 29 residential lots placed, 4 of which are farm-homes (or planned to be, anyways. I've only built one at the time I'm writing this). The rest are/will be typical suburban homes. There may or may not be more residential lots, because I have not decided yet on how I'm going to approach the Simlogical schools. There are 9 community lots currently, but I foresee this number to expand by the time I'm done. Maybe it'll be bumped up to 15 or so, maximum.

Currently, only 4 suburban homes have been built, and 1 farm-home. Only one community lot has been built, and that is a campgrounds built far away from town, across the bridge.








PICTURES





Awkwardly glitchy trees... Oops.


Okay, so... that's it for now. Please shoot me a question if I left anything out in my OP. Any feedback, advice, and other good stuff would be greatly appreciated!
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Original Poster
#3 Old 22nd Sep 2015 at 4:47 AM
Glad to hear, PlatinumPlumbbob! I do think I'll stick with it - otherwise... any attempts to actually playing the game are futile. :P

Interesting idea for your 'hood! Send me a PM or tag me when you're ready to present! Sounds awesome and I'd love to see what it looks like.

Didn't get a chance to build today, since yay, work! (Booooo...) But, I'm thinking to add the main street next time I load up the game. Probably will end up being a typical small-town downtown sort of thing. Maybe something like this?
Ideas? I mean, I'm basing Ayne County off of my hometown in terms of aesthetics, and that picture is actually of a nearby small tourist town. Not sure if the rows of buildings will detract from the overall feel of the 'hood.
Mad Poster
#4 Old 22nd Sep 2015 at 5:27 AM
Not if they're confined to an obvious main street. Those squashed-together commercial buildings on just one street, or set in a square around the central administrative building, are absolutely typical of American small towns. And then every place else you have the big yards and the single-family homes.

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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#5 Old 22nd Sep 2015 at 5:35 AM
That's true... Thanks, Peni.

I'll play around with them tomorrow. Pretty sure I'll have to figure out how to use the Lot Adjuster, too, because it'd be fun to have either A.) one big lot with all the buildings, like how Maxon did it in Polgannon, or B.) squashing mini lots next to one another, since I remember seeing a tutorial on rowhouses somewhere around here...

Hm, I also have an idea for a farmer's market. If I use Lot Adjuster to create a lot on a street (however you do that - I know it's possible because, again, Polgannon), then I can act as if it's a temporarily closed portion of the street that is reserved for the market. I can see that being fun.

*shrug* I'm just shooting off ideas right now, haha.
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#6 Old 22nd Sep 2015 at 6:49 AM Last edited by Jawusa : 22nd Sep 2015 at 7:22 AM.
Wow! It looks gorgeous. I'm looking forward to it.

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
Lab Assistant
#7 Old 22nd Sep 2015 at 10:41 AM
Wow! :o
I don't have my Sims 2 installed anymore. BUT, I'm about to reinstall it pretty soon!
The Great AntiJen
retired moderator
#8 Old 22nd Sep 2015 at 12:12 PM
Quote: Originally posted by Ather
Hm, I also have an idea for a farmer's market. If I use Lot Adjuster to create a lot on a street (however you do that - I know it's possible because, again, Polgannon), then I can act as if it's a temporarily closed portion of the street that is reserved for the market. I can see that being fun.

Yes, that's doable - you will need a minimum of 10 squares on each side of the street though, you can't have a lot that's just street, also the cars will still drive down the original road unless you move (or delete - more risky) the car portals. You do it in the advanced settings of Lot Adjuster - expand over the road. Portals can be moved using Inge's portal revealer though pay attentioni to which way they are facing. You can also, if you like, for a different configuration, add streets to more than one side of a lot - corner lots obviously (you can have roads on all four sides if you have the road layout for it). I do that with markets often (usually with a pub on the corner) - you can make quite a nice sense of an open space/square doing that.

A word of warning about building this type of lot - don't do it until you are sure of where it's going to be and what size you want. They are notoriously difficult to move afterwards and often don't work properly if you try.

Row houses (or terraces as we have it here) are also easy to do with the Lot Adjuster. If you get stuck, just ask.

I no longer come over to MTS very often but if you would like to ask me a question then you can find me on tumblr or my own site tflc. TFLC has an archive of all my CC downloads.
I'm here on tumblr and my site, tflc
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#9 Old 22nd Sep 2015 at 5:08 PM
Thanks Jawusa! Maybe I'll consider making a CC-free version, just because now you're interested (and I know you don't play with CC... unless my goldfish memory is acting up again).

All right, thanks for the info, Maxon. 10 square minimum for the street-lot would be fine - I think I'll base it off of the farmer's market that happens here where I live. It's a small street that has the post office and some office buildings, so considering I wanted to nab the postal CC items to make a little PO, perhaps I could combine it with the market. I need to write a note somewhere that says "poke Jo's brains about pixellated post office things."

Then the rest of the main street can be row "houses", and actually... I think that could look really nice! Excited to hop to it today when I'm free.

Now, new question. Where do the elementary and high schools go? I can't possibly imagine them being really tall, narrow buildings on the main street. And what kind of style would they be? I didn't go to a brick-and-mortar school, so, um... I'm rather lost on the subject, haha. I tried looking up some photos online but all the buildings I found were either big brick boxes or modern boxes. Boxes are no bueno.

Perhaps this calls for deeper Google searches later today!
The Great AntiJen
retired moderator
#10 Old 22nd Sep 2015 at 6:02 PM
Quote: Originally posted by Ather
All right, thanks for the info, Maxon. 10 square minimum for the street-lot would be fine - I think I'll base it off of the farmer's market that happens here where I live. It's a small street that has the post office and some office buildings, so considering I wanted to nab the postal CC items to make a little PO, perhaps I could combine it with the market. I need to write a note somewhere that says "poke Jo's brains about pixellated post office things."

Then the rest of the main street can be row "houses", and actually... I think that could look really nice! Excited to hop to it today when I'm free.

I'm wondering if I made myself clear. The actual minimum size of the lot would be 30 squares - that is 10 for the road and 10 on each side. The road needs to carry the cars unless you move the car portals (though they will have to run somewhere).

I no longer come over to MTS very often but if you would like to ask me a question then you can find me on tumblr or my own site tflc. TFLC has an archive of all my CC downloads.
I'm here on tumblr and my site, tflc
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Original Poster
#11 Old 22nd Sep 2015 at 6:05 PM
Ah yes sorry - you did make yourself clear! I just am bad at words sometimes (great trait for a writer, huh?). I mean, my brain comprehended what you said, just... it didn't seem to want to write it down? I don't know. Maybe I need to stop writing forum posts when I've just woken up. I've been messing up all over the place 'cause of it!

So, 30 square minimum lot. Got it. I'll play with Lot Adjuster later today and try to get this market thing going.
Mad Poster
#12 Old 22nd Sep 2015 at 6:32 PM
The architecture and location of rural/small town American schools depends largely on the historical period. You may get better results in your google searches if you add a date, as this will pull up images of schools built in that year. 1915 and 1950 will provide widely divergent aesthetic choices.

Prior to the big wave of school district consolidations in the mid-twentieth century, schools in rural areas would be small one- or two- room buildings located on public or donated land someplace accessible to farm-based students, at a time when four or five miles was considered an acceptable walking distance. This was the traditional one room school, and the "little red schoolhouse" stereotype did tend to apply. There'd be a yard, an outhouse, a pump and/or water barrel, separate cloakrooms for boys and girls, and a little cupola on top of a basic wooden box with windows. It would be built by volunteer labor of available materials, so they tended to be log, clapboard, or picket construction with minimal windows and insulation. The cupola might serve as a mini-bell tower, or it might be for air circulation (one of many pre-air conditioning dodges which deserve to be better used by modern architects), or it might serve both uses.

Small-town schools were rather bigger and tended to be located more or less centrally so no one part of town had farther to go. One room per grade was the rule there. If the town was big enough (or segregated by race and class enough) there might be multiple small elementary schools located centrally to a defined residential district, and one large high school, centrally located. (In racially segregated towns, this would be a whites-only high school and non-whites just wouldn't go to high school, but this need not trouble us in Simlandia.) Brick is the traditional material for American schools.

My mother attended a one-room schoolhouse in Iowa until third grade, after which she attended school in town. Her high school was located on a large block adjacent to a main street like the one in your picture, and the high school auditorium doubled as an assembly hall for other civic functions. High schools from this era sported frills like small towers and central domes. Neo-classical, Federalist, and Gothic models of public architecture were common, and school architecture had a lot in common with the architecture of churches, libraries, and government halls. For a particularly beautiful example of 20th century high school architecture (albeit in a large town) google Jefferson High School San Antonio.

After the wave of school consolidations, students who would formerly have attended small schools in the country were shipped to towns, causing a boom in school construction. This is why you keep finding brick boxes in your searches - they were built during a period when boxy minimalism ruled public architecture. Old schools were often retained, but had to adapt in function. The town school my mother attended after her one-room school closed was a multi-story building about five blocks from the town center. By the time I started school in the same school district, that building housed the fourth through sixth grades and the art and music rooms. A supplementary single-story (with basement) building was constructed on the same property to house the kindergarten through third grade students. No attempt was made to harmonize the architecture of the two buildings. When you looked at the old building, you saw brick; when you looked at the new building, you saw glass and that asphalt shingle siding that, thank goodness, nobody puts anywhere but roofs anymore. The most recent school I'm aware of in that town, built in the late 70s-early 80s, is yellow brick, multi-building, and on the edge of town.

If you're modeling this neighborhood on your own town, I suggest doing a little research, if possible finding an old map of the area, and taking a little walk. If it hasn't all been torn down to make way for a highway or a Walmart, you may be able to find a viable model still in existence. If not, your local historical society is bound to have photographs showing the buildings.

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.)
The Great AntiJen
retired moderator
#13 Old 22nd Sep 2015 at 8:16 PM
Oh one last thing Ather - make sure the starting lot is flat with flat edges. It can be difficult otherwise. Any questions, just ask (always assuming I can answer them but I'm not the only LA user around here).

I no longer come over to MTS very often but if you would like to ask me a question then you can find me on tumblr or my own site tflc. TFLC has an archive of all my CC downloads.
I'm here on tumblr and my site, tflc
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#14 Old 22nd Sep 2015 at 8:52 PM
Oh, wow, Peni! Thank you for all that info! Very interesting to read about. You kind of sparked something in my brain with your post, too! While still brick, I did find a few photos of schools with lots of elegant little details - like frills underneath the roofs and nice big columns. Maybe I'll go with something like that. I don't think I've used brick yet in this 'hood, so that might be refreshing, actually. Thanks!

Thanks for that tidbit, Maxon! I think the main street is pretty flat, though I'll go in with the neighborhood terraforming cheat and double check.
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#15 Old 3rd Oct 2015 at 4:04 PM
@Ather You can use Mootilda's LotAdjuster to make the lots completely flat.

As for the CC, I think the game replaces the content but there are exceptions for this. CC like the farm animal objects won't get replaced and will crash the game if they are not installed.
So it depends.

I'd love to playtest this neighborhood once it's complete. I'm just wondering, which empty templates are you using for this neighborhood? Do you even use any? Or did you create this neighborhood using AnyGameStarter?

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
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Original Poster
#16 Old 3rd Oct 2015 at 5:55 PM
Oh, nice tip about Lot Adjuster, Jawusa. Thanks.

Regarding the CC - I'm being relatively careful in what CC I plop in there. No farm animals, haha. If I want those, I'll put those in my personal version of the 'hood. I wouldn't want to force them onto anybody. I'm just using some windows, wallpapers... that sort of thing.

That's so sweet of you! Playtesting didn't occur to me, since I'm so fresh into this 'hood, but you raise a great point. I will definitely be opening it up for testing ('cause knowing me... I probably accidentally placed phones backwards and stuff like that!). I used your empty templates, by the way. Super easy install, I'm really grateful for your work! :lovestruc

Anyways, about the 'hood itself and its progress - I haven't had a chance to work on anything in the 'hood lately because, honestly, between work and studying for exams, and... y'know, eating + sleeping, I really haven't had a lot of time on my hands! Hoping to get some work done this weekend.
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#17 Old 3rd Oct 2015 at 9:33 PM
Well, I was worried about those types of CC. I never download them because they create NPC object sims. But custom wallpapers, floors, windows and such are OK for me and maybe I'll install them anyway, just for this neighborhood.

Just let me know if you have uploaded your beta version and I will playtest it. You have many, many empty lots. So if you need help, you can always PM me and I could build something for you.

Oh and thank you for your nice compliments about my empty templates. I'm glad you're using them. :lovestruc

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
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Original Poster
#18 Old 4th Oct 2015 at 7:20 PM
Oh, you're so kind to offer help with building! I may just take you up on that when I get tired after building the billionth residential lot. I'm gonna try and build the remaining farm homes today, since I noticed those ones are actually pretty darn easy to build... Will edit this post with pictures after they're done. Maybe I'll also get started on the CC list... maybe not... Dunno. Feeling kinda lazy today.
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staff: trainee moderator
#19 Old 4th Oct 2015 at 9:20 PM
I can't wait for the pictures. Lol.

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
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