Based on this one design, I'd have to say YES, that "real life" plans are less efficient. I've downloaded and played the house you linked to, and although I kept it (I hate having to move a household that I'm only going to be playing for a couple simdays, and I DO like the exterior very much), I had to widen the foyer, then widen the center hall to allow for more than one sim to enter the house and walk the center hall without bumping into someone and complaining.

The only real reasons i really play this game is
one: i want to become a future architect :D
two: its fun

The stairs do get painful once in awhile because they block the view..

All my houses are playable.. just takes awhile to load ... I guess i'll start making those easy lots that only take a few hours and not like 6 hours.

And i also love designing the unique houses.. where they go off in different shapes and such :D..

Behold! I give you Hideous House.. proof that money can't buy class

Ok, this is the best I could do.. good taste and sytem resources prohibit any further construction. If anyone wants to finish it, please do.. and share the results

The pics don't do it justice.. you can't see the 12 computers or kitchen from hell or the hot tub in every bedroom.

There are several reasons for this: First, "real life" houses often also take a view of aesthetics over efficiency, as opposed to form-follows-function. Secondly, people are flexible in their behaviors, unlike Sims: For instance, a Sim always require a coffee table near the coffee machine. Otherwise they will hike across the entire house to find one so they can put the cup down, even when the dishwasher is right there. A human would not be so restricted. In fact, the lazier the human, the more likely he puts it in the dishwasher. So, in essence, a "real life" house is designed to host an entirely different animal! Not to mention that few "real" houses are engineered for concepts like "how to compartmentalize rooms such that your Sim will not be noticed cheating on his wife or "How to contain a kitchen fire such that the entire house does not instantly freak out and moth the fire".

For instance, many Maxian houses feature a huge oddly-shaped area which is essentially a huge open area undivided by any interior walls. The living room, the kitchen, and the dining area all meld into a single giant "room". In real life, this works. In the Sims, the entire house will freak out when the kitchen catches fire again, instead of just the cook, and everyone will moth the fire. Thus, necessity causes you to compartmentalize the rooms.

In real life, dining areas are often located away from the bathroom because bathrooms can produce foul odors that are counterproductive to a good eating experience. In the Sims, bathrooms are often located adjacent to dining areas because Sims always want to pee after eating, and it takes them 10 minutes to otherwise traverse the house if the target is not immediately adjacent!

In real life, a study room can be located anywhere in the house. In the Sims, the study should always be lcoated as close to the front door as possible, because Sim-children want to deposit their homework upon the vicinity of The One Desk, which should be as close to the front door as aesthetics and functionality permit.

In real life, TVs and computers are often located within bedrooms. In the Sims, this is unwise because some random person will always turn it on while somebody else is trying to sleep, and unlike in real life, Sims can never sleep through noise no matter how tired they are.

In real life, the nursery need not either contain a fridge, or be located adjacent to one, because real parents can fetch bottles and bring them to the baby, instead of fetching the baby and bringing it to the fridge.

In real life, it's possible for somebody to wake up an hour before he has to depart for work, change, eat, and shower, even when living in a large mansion, all without ever having to RUN or feeling pressured for time.

In real life, an impassable traffic jam does not occur which takes half an hour to resolve if somebody rings the doorbell on a small porch.

In real life, your home is viewed from the ground level, not from above.

All of these Sim-idiosyncracies combine to make an "Efficient" Sim-house often resemble a real human one only superficially: The reason being, humans entirely lack the idiosyncracies inherent to sims, and can adapt to their surroundings. Sims cannot adapt to their surroundings, so their surroundings must be adapted to them.

And it has 3 stars. How high can it go....

I'd rate it down myself but I'm curious what the masses will think

Oh, here's an idea for a challenge: Everyone should make the most HORRIBLE house they can. Over here, we score it based on how absolutely wretched and unusable it is. Then it is uploaded over the official exchange, written up with fancy marketing, and then we see how highly rated it is!

The winning entry will be the one which has the largest dissonance: The most horrible house with the highest rating.

Hmm...I don't think that's necessary.....Its already happening there at the Exchange every day. Just look at all the horrible Houses being loaded up there every minute.

Too true... maybe we should create awards for the best of the worst.

That's true, I think the Sims 1 did a better job at simulating "real life" designs, because the Sims were simpler "animals." I never had some of the strange "life-flow" problems in the original game, so I tended to make my designs more realistic, with an occasional nod to gameplay (2 square wide halls, for instance).

I guess as the game got more complex, strange situations start to pop up like having to put something down on an open surface. In my house, the cup would go on the dishwasher, or the junk on the table would get pushed to the side to make room for the cup - lol.

Somehow, I think these "quality of life" annoyances are just as important as the big bugs to fix, and Maxis should get on the ball fixing them (your modding work is way ahead of Maxis, IMHO). For me, they are the "immersion breaking" bugs forcing you to think in "how do I make this work in the game" terms, instead of "I'm telling a story" terms.

It also makes that headmaster scenario pretty darned hard if you just have one big room. :p

Well, the Headmaster usually only wants to see about 3-5 rooms before he gets tired of touring your house. Bathroom, bedroom, kitchen-analogue, and the outside. I was able to get the freakin' Brokes into private school, and you know what their home is like. If total trailer trash can make it, anyone can. :P

I love it CC... The hottubs in the bed rooms was a nice touch! I will edit this with more after I view it some more...

I already gave it a 5 in the exchange >D

EDIT: I like the big empty room, and how there are no doors on the second floor and how you can't get into the dining room! Priceless!

Mmm.. I would make one of those totally ugly houses right now if i wasn't working on a house that's actually fully furnished and accessable .. I think I might've just found a way on how to make a laundry room ..

LOL.. I told you I couldn't do anything else with it. It was almost frozen by the time I finished what little there is

I design homes for another site and although the homes are uploaded without being furnished I always play test them.... nothing worse than finding the best play postion only to find that you have to move stairs or you cant quite click on the piece you most need to get at .... I like to find my favoured playing spot and survey my home from there.... My house designs reflect that playable before look though I hope they fulfil both those needs.....

Well, i just spent 3 hours building a livable house.. not tested yet :D.... but it should work mostly.. i don't know about the closets... ummm yea fully furnished.

:mad: This might sound strange but hve any of you all played the consol versions of the Sims. Maxis I think decided to build the most inefficient peaces of bull droppings that I have ever seen. The Mansions that were the prizes on the games were more or less like the ones mentioned as bad ideas. Either cramed too full as in the Bustin Out one or the oh crap I got to get to the corner to get to work and I only got one hour to do it type. As for the current Sims 2 game I hate the fancy looking "Beach Style" houses in the Pleasantview hood. Why have a house that the only usable bedroom is the roof? :confused:

Yes en7en there definitely is. This is the kind of discussion that I hope will be prevelant over at the AAA.

I try to make my houses and community lots both playable and easy on the eyes...here is a link to some of my Basic/playable uploads to the Exchange...I would like feedback on what you think that I can do to make things better..feel free to rate them as well. Thanks

http://forums.modthesims2.com/showthread.php?t=31192

I rented the Urbz, and it is definitely not efficient layout-wise. The worst thing about it, though, is how hard it is to tell Sims apart. Everyone in a neighborhood looks virtually identical, and you have to talk to them before you can know their names, even if you've already met them. Things like this make me wonder if there was any gameplay-testing.

I made a Sims 2 house the other night for pure aesthetic value, just for the heck of it, but it turned out to be quite useable, though with some quirks. http://thesims2.ea.com/exchange/lot...?asset_id=58131 I just uploaded it for a friend, so it's not completely "clean"; Phone Hack: the Revenge! is packaged with it.

I downloaded a "featured" lot the other night that my computer could barely run in buy/build mode, and my computer is hardly wimpy. Ridiculous.

Actually I am very meticulous on both the design and playability of my lots. Although there are many narrow hallways, and sometimes smallish kitchen, all of my lots have been playtested meaning that I fill the house up to 8 sims and let them run on free will for at least a couple of generations including child raising, cloning multiple sims, and much more.

Each room iare usually tested for a large bed + drawers (ensuring that the drawers can be open/close). Couches + coffee table are tested, stairs, access, pools, showers etc.

All houses are built without the Sims presence. Once the house is complete, it is saved. Sims then move in for playtesting (for several hours) to see how the house feels. At the end of the playtest, the house must have the feel of actually being lived in. Notes are takened, pictures are taken. Once the playtesting is complete, the sims are moved out and the playtest house is deleted.

The backup copy of the house is restored and any changes are made, then saved, then playtested again before finally packaging the lot into the exchange.

This stringent packaging comes from my computer application design background.

You will find my lots listed under SimMasterRalph at thesims2.ea.com.

Ralphael

I have a House Plan book that i sometimes try to make houses out of. But most of my houses are CRAP anyways because im terrible at making them
Have a look yourself: http://thesims2.ea.com/mysimpage/my...?user_id=204377
Sign my gusetbook with any ideas/suggestions :o

This is a good thread, like what I read so far.

I gave a 5 start rate on CC's house, let's see if Maxis places it in the featured lots... :D

I build a lot of houses in the Sims 1 and 2, most of the maxis one’s never lasted one day.
My houses are mostly one floor only, but not too big.
I only uploaded 3 houses and one is already deleted.
All uploaded houses, I build for my Sims and used them in my game.

My uploaded lots for anyone who is interested.

Like I said, I like this thread, enough for me to learn from.

Maybe people should submit "What not to Build" along with a description on just what is wrong with the house. Its one thing to tell someone too many acres of floor space exhausts a sim .. it another to invite their sim through the door