Sharing neighborhoods - Simpotence thread

[Motoki]

I'd be happy with whatever for the neighborhood for the most part. As long as it has a fair amount of more or less level space to build on. I know designing them in Sim City 4 is a pain because I tried it once.

I've been thinking about the logistics of working this out too. It's hard! heh. One of the things that annoys me most of this game is I feel compelled to play every damned house just so that everyone will age at about the same right. But a lot of times I don't want to play every house. It would be nice to play just one. And then even those who don't have as much time to spend should be able to manage one house.

I was thinking everyone could peridocally package their house or sims and upload it somewhere and we could update them in our neighborhood, but I don't really think that would work. It would just make duplicates. So I keep trying to think of other ways.

How much of a character's information is stored in their actual character file and not the neighborhood one? Like if I uploaded N004_User00100.package & N004_User00101.package etc and you guys all copied those files to your neighborhood's characters directory and overwrote the old ones, would it update those characters in the neighborhood if they've gotten promotions, less days left to elder, changed appearance, bought new clothes, etc etc.

But even then, babies are a problem. If my neighborhood has 200 sims the next kid will be 201. But for someone else's neighborhood, their kid will be 201. :p

Ugh, this is a logistic nightmare and it's 5am where I'm at so I need to stop thinking about it lol.

[Ancient Sim]

To answer Motoki's question, copying the user file doesn't work, because the changes are in the neighbourhood.package file.  I've tried that when I've had a corrupt neighbourhood file and it simply doesn't work. 

While I really like the idea of passing a neighbourhood round, this wouldn't solve the problem in the original thread - i.e., boredom.  In fact, it could be even worse if we're spending weeks waiting to get the 'hood back! 

This idea has made me realise why I prefer to play the Maxis hoods and not my own custom hoods (which I just cannot get into).  It's because with the former, it's possible to SHARE.  I can come on a forum like this and say "Guess what Don did today" and most people will know exactly who I am talking about, but if I were to say "You'll never guess what Mrs Blah-Blah did", nobody would know who I meant and they probably wouldn't be interested either.  That's why a shared neighbourhood would work so well - none of the Maxis pre-made crap, but we'd still have that shared feeling of knowing all the Sims and being able to understand what was happening in each other's games.  Hope that makes sense.

[simmiecal]

I'm leaning towards us all contributing people and lots and storylines to a base neighborhood and then letting it loose. We would all have the same starting point, just like the Maxis neighborhoods.  While it sounds interesting to play the game after someone else (they may have taken the story in a direction you weren't anticipating and now you have to deal with the consequences) I think it would be too difficult to do logistically.

[cheriem]

I think this idea especially with the wild card thing would work best.

[KellyQ]

I like the first idea of each participant creating a house with a set-up, everyone who wants to downloading it and working with the creator's story, and then the creator of that house periodically having wildcards that everyone has to abide by. (Obviously, there would need to be a thread where everyone periodically posted what was going on with their sims, so other people could ooh and aah and compare notes.) I don't really like the idea of rotating neighborhoods -- it seems like it would really quickly be too much of a hassle.

I agree with this. I kind of thought that was what the original idea was (I could be wrong though, wouldn't be a first!) and thought that sounded like fun. Kind of like Brynne's sim, Justin; people have downloaded him and then told Brynne what he was doing in their neighborhood/story. I like the idea of having a storyline sort of setup and then taking the ball and running with it, like the pre-made families that came with the game. I've had TS2 since late February and the Broke family is still consistently one of my favorites to play and I think it part of it at least was because of the setup story around them. I love the idea of wild cards and dealing with the consequences of them. Also just random things like the phone calls in TS1 (you know the ones, you sold a book you get $5000 or things along those lines) but in the form of wildcards would be fun too.
Okay, I'm rambling...I'll be quiet now.

[Baa]

EDIT: And maybe add some roads inbetween some of the roads. Hope that makes sense, it's very late. Another thing you could do, is add one large square road somewhere, to put community lots on to form a "townsquare," but that's totally optional.

Like this?

Perfect! Something just like that. You're so great at neighborhoods. I wish mine were as beautiful.

[Motoki]

So then we get a base neighborhood terrain, and then create characters who we can post the bodyshop sim templates for, create background stories for them and specify how their personality traits and aspirations should be set and let them interact with each other?

We could also specify which houses we want them to live and probably best to use Maxis ones I suppose since the minimizes how much we need to download. With NL it's really easy to move houses between neighborhoods too, just put an empty house from one of the Maxis neighborhoods in the housing bin and then place it in the new neighborhood.

[JadeEliott]

Perfect! Something just like that. You're so great at neighborhoods. I wish mine were as beautiful.

*blushes like a schooolgirl*

Golly, gee! Thanks!

I am liking the way the ideas are flowing so far and do not have anything to add beyond what I have already wished for, so am shutting up until something constructive is about to come out of my mouth.

Edit: Just thought of something constuctive:

Once simmiecal is done, I can volunteer to "design the hood"...put in some agreed upon community lots and layout the flora and fauna, and make it look so pretty, like I like to do...and then upload it to megashare or rapidshare or some agreed upon place, it would be named N005 or something high so that those of use who have other custom hood do not have to renumber...and then we can all go along with the plan we seem to be agreeing upon.

Can I design the hood, can I? huh? huh? *pleads* :-)

[humybyrd]

Not a problem for me- I suck at designing hoods! Can make a neat house but never even think about placement and designing themed areas. For me it would have to be hood 6 or above since I have 5 already.


Come to think of it I havent even played in #5 so I can shelve it and place this one there so....

[Bangelnuts]

Not a problem for me- I suck at designing hoods! Can make a neat house but never even think about placement and designing themed areas. For me it would have to be hood 6 or above since I have 5 already.

for me it would have to be #5 as I already have 4 the three maxis hoods and 1 custom.I suck at design of any type.hoods or houses

[Issy]

JadeElliott: I think ure Whimsy Valley is beautiful, I know it's not entirely up to me but you have my vote

I have original game, uni and NL, and I'm all for the idea's here.

[Bangelnuts]

JadeElliott: I think ure Whimsy Valley is beautiful, I know it's not entirely up to me but you have my vote

I have original game, uni and NL, and I'm all for the idea's here.

JadeElliot has my vote as well I love her Whimsy Valley.I have Uni and NL as well

[simmiecal]

Several people have expressed an interest in Jade's neighborhood. Correct me if I'm wrong Jade, but the terrain and the lots you downloaded from elsewhere and didn't create them yourself? I have absolutely no problem using Jade's neighborhood as she is a great designer (you should see some more of her pictures over on MTS2). How would people feel about using the downloads from the other sites to create the neighborhood (the lots, custom walls, custom floors, etc)?

Maybe a nice compromise (being really presumptuous here) but maybe Jade could be real involved in laying out the neighborhood and the neighborhood decorations once we have contributed our lots?

While we're on the subject of Jade's neighborhood, I really like the way she has the home / business set-up and would hope that some of the contributed lots would also function the same way. In order for them to work properly, we would need to include Inge's hacks in the game. How do people feel about that? If people don't want the hacks in their game, the business won't function, but in their version of the neighborhood, their sims would just get a regular job and the lots would still function normally. Thoughts on the matter?

[JadeEliott]

Well, I am glad you guys would trust me enough to design it. I would think along these lines:

A downtown area, with community lots...

A snobby righ uppercrust area, with gates (a neighborhood deco, not real gates)

A poor as dirt, run down area for us to put our less fortunate scumbag families in...

A middle class family homes area with a play ground

I would put a small parking lot or two in, for visual flavor...

I would endeavor to make the hood compact and easily navigatable...

and I would separate homes with trees, flora, rocks, etc.

As for all of us having the lots, that is not a problem, because I setup and easily explain how to install the hood and the lots so you do not have to download them all.

BUT, to make this as easy as possible, I suggest that we use another sims 2 folder in My documents, that we use just for playing this hood...It is easy to do, and I would write the instructions. It does not involve any SimPE stuff.

Better than going all over tarnation to find and download the community lots I put in. I would not put any houses in unless we agreed on it.

[JadeEliott]

Several people have expressed an interest in Jade's neighborhood. Correct me if I'm wrong Jade, but the terrain and the lots you downloaded from elsewhere and didn't create them yourself? I have absolutely no problem using Jade's neighborhood as she is a great designer (you should see some more of her pictures over on MTS2). How would people feel about using the downloads from the other sites to create the neighborhood (the lots, custom walls, custom floors, etc)?

That is correct, I did not build the houses, I only designed the hood - meaning I put the houses down and used hood deco to make it pretty and realistic, with different sections. I could use ErwinSims lots, his are all custom free. And I could include some other homes I know are good, in some different styles, but there would be no custom content in them, a player can add them later...that is my suggestion, for ease of use for us all. :-) What do you all think?

Maybe a nice compromise (being really presumptuous here) but maybe Jade could be real involved in laying out the neighborhood and the neighborhood decorations once we have contributed our lots?

Great idea. If you like a house, you can email it to me, before a certain cutoff date and I wil install it in the hood, cleaned of custom content. This is easy for me to do with CleanInstaller.

While we're on the subject of Jade's neighborhood, I really like the way she has the home / business set-up and would hope that some of the contributed lots would also function the same way. In order for them to work properly, we would need to include Inge's hacks in the game. How do people feel about that? If people don't want the hacks in their game, the business won't function, but in their version of the neighborhood, their sims would just get a regular job and the lots would still function normally. Thoughts on the matter?

I think, if I understand it, that each player can just pick a home they like once they get the hood and set up their own business, using the tools at Inge's and my instructions I've put in the posts here. Since we are setting up our own homes, either buidling ones we like, or going with a premade one we dl and put in, or last choice, using one I put in the hood already? Or am I confused? Trying to keep up with what we are doing.

:-)

[witch]

I thought maybe design the hood. Then when people start contributing families, they may or may not want to include a house they've built. If not, then that's where the extras like Erwin's or whatever come in. I also have 7 starter homes, unfurnished, Maxis original, I could put up for download if required. Because I'm a builder - as are many others - I saw this group effort as part of ownership of the hood.

[Kristalrose]

This sounds like such a wonderful idea!  I want to play, too, if y'all will have me. 

I have both UNI and NL installed.  I am CC and Mod/Hack crazy, but I can disable all that in-game if that is the consensus of the group.  I also prefer small-to-medium sized lots because of my computer's need for "Speed". 

I like the idea of each one of us designing a house and a sim and then uploading them to one central person.  This person installs them onto the neighborhood and keeps track of who's participating, etc.  I think that I would like to contribute maybe one or two Sims in the house, only.  And I really like the idea of us contributing one sim, it being named after our username here.  Would we upload them here, or upload them to the exchange and then e-mail or post the link?

Simmiecal:  I love the terrain you have made.  I have played around with SC4 and built terrains, but nothing as beautiful as that.  Yes, the bridges are a major pain!  I could never get them to work right!

Jade:  Your neighborhood is beautiful.  I like your ideas for the the layout of the shared neighborhood as well.   

This will be fun!  I'm excited, because I needed a change in gameplay! 

[simmiecal]

Ok -

Here's the deal:

Everyone that wants to contribute is welcome. You can contribute a sim, sim family, lot or storyline.

When you submit your contributions, please provide the following information:

Are you using the base, Uni, NL?  The "combined" neighborhood will require NL, but with the contributor's permission, the lots will also be made available separately (as well as the terrain) for any one that wants to build their own.

Submissions must be made with ONLY Maxis content. Any custom content will be excluded when importing into the hood.

If you are submitting a sim or sims, are they meant to be playable characters or are they townies? (We need townies!)

I expect to be taking contributions thru (at least) 11/27. I need to see how many people actually participate and I need to figure out how to set-up the web pages for all of this.

****

For the sim family I personally intend to contribute, their storyline will include a home based business. The original lot will not have any custom objects, but I plan to provide links to the custom content that I think would be appropriate for the storyline. Of course, everyone is free to play the lots as they see fit.  If you had specific custom content in mind for use on your lot, you can provide that info and it will be incorporated for the people to download (if they wish).

Submissions and/or questions/comments can be emailed to: SimmieCal@simpotence.com

[witch]

Looking good! Hopefully I'll get a chance to do this in about 5 days when I get to my weekend.

[Zeljka]

How pathetic is it that I already have 9 neighbourhoods. I deleted 1-3, but have 4-9. I suppose I can rename (renumber) myself if necessary.

I love the first neighbourhood, with the separate levels for rich and poor.

Should townies be put on a lot to send, have skills, jobs and/or relationships with each other or just sent as is? (cloned with SimPe and packaged in Body Shop or on an empty lot?)

sorry for all the questions, apparently I'm either very anal or very stupid and don't want to create more work than necessary.

[simmiecal]

How pathetic is it that I already have 9 neighbourhoods. I deleted 1-3, but have 4-9. I suppose I can rename (renumber) myself if necessary.

I love the first neighbourhood, with the separate levels for rich and poor.

Should townies be put on a lot to send, have skills, jobs and/or relationships with each other or just sent as is? (cloned with SimPe and packaged in Body Shop or on an empty lot?)

sorry for all the questions, apparently I'm either very anal or very stupid and don't want to create more work than necessary.

You can send the sims either way - just let me know in the email. If you send them packaged in body shop but envision them as having certain skills and/or jobs, I can add that info after they are brought into the neighborhood. Any townies that don't have characteristics assigned to them by their creators, I will assign random attributes to them so they all aren't the same (no skills, no jobs).

I would also appreciate it, if someone has a preference as to whether their sim is from the rich part of town or the poor part of town or is one of the newly arrived immigrants, that they specify that it the email. Whatever the creator specifies for the sim/lot I will follow to the best of my ability. Any details not specified will be assigned. (So if someone wants to create sims but not bother with a story for them, that's fine.)

Also, keep in mind that we would like townies of all ages - not just adults but elders, teens and kids. (Just no Marshas or Goopys, please.  )

[Twiki]

Should townies be put on a lot to send, have skills, jobs and/or relationships with each other or just sent as is? (cloned with SimPe and packaged in Body Shop or on an empty lot?)

You can send the sims either way - just let me know in the email.

Along the same lines - if we're sharing a family AND a house envisioned for the family, is it alright to send the family in the house or should they be seperated? Just double-checking here..

[simmiecal]

Should townies be put on a lot to send, have skills, jobs and/or relationships with each other or just sent as is? (cloned with SimPe and packaged in Body Shop or on an empty lot?)

You can send the sims either way - just let me know in the email.

Along the same lines - if we're sharing a family AND a house envisioned for the family, is it alright to send the family in the house or should they be seperated? Just double-checking here..

I think it would be easier to send the family in the house, but I'm ok with either method.

[Regina]

simmiecal you're definitely better at making terrains than I am! LOL  I think I'm too used to playing SC4.

At any rate, I was trying to read through all these posts to pick up info on how to properly place a bridge and noticed you mentioned something about God Mode and problems because once you start the city the terrain can only be edited with the tiny city-mode tools.

I'm not sure if anyone's mentioned it previously because I didn't spend time reading through all the posts here (might interesting reading what I did, though!)  However, more to the point!

There's a cheat that will allow you back into the terrain-editing God Mode even after you've started your city.  Hold down the ctrl-shift-alt keys, then click on God Mode and that SHOULD bring up all the features from before the city was started (then just click on Mayor Mode to go back into the city).  If that isn't right, unfortunately I don't have it written down correctly, but the info can be found at the official SC4 site.

One of my biggest complaints with SimCity has always been the lack of an undo button.

[tsrynolds]

This whole idea sounds like a lot of fun!

I like the idea of everyone having the same characters in a custom hood and then reading the different stories and situations everyone came up with.

I'm having such a problem right now keeping my game interesting. 

Simmiecal I love the first neighborhood you came up with its very nice looking.

JadeElliot I love the way you decorate a neighborhood.   I always end up adding too many trees.

Now can we make our sims available for download on the sims2 site?