Shared neighborhood - ground rules

[ZephyrZodiac]

Oh, well, when you invite in the normal manner, if they can't find a loo they go home!

[Bangelnuts]

Oh, well, when you invite in the normal manner, if they can't find a loo they go home!

True but the normal manner is  very limiting time wise and guest wise.and for those of us who enjoy the wedding Planning not real practical.

[Kukes]

I would think that if they are freshly moved in, without playing the actual family or greeting the welcome wagon, they would know no one outside of their family and so wouldn't bring any unwanted sims along with them.

Also - when this was a neighbourhood swap I was interested but couldn't really get in on the action (due to slow modem), but now if it's just a one-off download I'd like to participate. Are there enough people already or are more participants welcome? And should the created sims we submit be singles or can we create more than one (like a family or group of friends living together) to submit?

[simmiecal]

Also - when this was a neighbourhood swap I was interested but couldn't really get in on the action (due to slow modem), but now if it's just a one-off download I'd like to participate. Are there enough people already or are more participants welcome? And should the created sims we submit be singles or can we create more than one (like a family or group of friends living together) to submit?

Everyone's welcome. I don't think we have a final tally yet on who is participating.

What does everyone think about using the terrain I created and having Jade Elliot do the neighborhood decorations in it?
Please post if you are SERIOUSLY considering participating and what you would like to contribute to the neighborhood. This way, we can get an idea of how many sim families we will be starting with and how many lots.

What we need:
Builders - residential and community lots
Test tube incubators - sim family creators
SimPE knowledgeable - ability to help create memories and relationships to give the stories their backgrounds
Storytellers - people to come up with parts of the "neighborhood" story and the background for the characters
Simmers with immagination - ideas, ideas and more ideas to help develop the nieghborhood

[Kukes]

Your terrain and JadeElliot's decorations are fine by me. 

I'll volunteer as an incubator and storyteller - I can also contribute houses, say smaller ones for the less affluent area of the neighbourhood. I've got about five that were built in the game from "starter home" plans.

[cheriem]

I don't mind incubating families if someone else will come up with storylines.

[Bangelnuts]

Also - when this was a neighbourhood swap I was interested but couldn't really get in on the action (due to slow modem), but now if it's just a one-off download I'd like to participate. Are there enough people already or are more participants welcome? And should the created sims we submit be singles or can we create more than one (like a family or group of friends living together) to submit?

Everyone's welcome. I don't think we have a final tally yet on who is participating.

What we need:
Builders - residential and community lots
Test tube incubators - sim family creators
SimPE knowledgeable - ability to help create memories and relationships to give the stories their backgrounds
Storytellers - people to come up with parts of the "neighborhood" story and the background for the characters
Simmers with immagination - ideas, ideas and more ideas to help develop the nieghborhood

I am able to work  in SimPe editing memories and Relationship. I just need the Sim relatives list and events based on the storyline to do that and I can place them in order of occurence and add family members. is Jane sim meets Joe sim  and on down the line to marriage or whatever else Jane sim has done .if Jane and Joe marry or become enemies or are furious  with one another according to the story line I can add the marker in memories it is called an invisible marker when a sim calls in sick or is furious or attraction occurs..

[ZephyrZodiac]

I like building unusual or classical styled houses and I always test them in game first as a general rule.  Obviously the houses I have copies of in the bin could be moved to an empty neighbourhood after disabling all custom content and refurbishing them, but I'd honestly like mine to come with a family (mainly because I haven't a clue how to upload a family without a house, and I'd like to contribute one family too, which was the original idea, that we each contribute one family living in a house. 

I would suggest that people who want to contribute more sims than that should work on producing the townies and NPCs for the game.

[JadeEliott]

I am still in as hood decorator *if we can get this going fairly soon*. If you can edit memories and relationships in Simpe Banglenuts, then go for it, IMHO.

And just help me get clear on how we get the houses in the hood, dl them ourselves? or send them to me and I put them in the hood in the areas they belong, so they look good and then we all download one big hood already set up hood from megashare or some site like that?

My suggestion:

Simmiecal sends me the hood. You guys do your houses and/or make your families and their stories. Send me the houses and families and story background by email. I set up and decorate the hood. Send it to Banglenuts. She sets up the relationships and memories. Then she uploads it to a filesharing place. We dl it. We play. We talk about where things are going. Someone throws a wildcard every few weeks or so, we all play with said wildcard. We have fun.

I readily admit that I might have gotten something logistically wrong, so let me know what you all think.

Also, I am working on another shared hood project with a cool simmer, so if this does not get going too soon, I will bow out and work on our own little shared hood project.

:-)

[Zythe]

Well, if we are, then it will be an enormous bfbvfos if they all go together!  

But if we all check in SimPE to make sure we haven't downloaded any unwanted sims, if the sims are created in entirely empty neighbourhoods with no sims other than themselves, the risk is surely minimised?

I theorised such with Maple Valley. Deleteallcharacters first, and make sure the sims have no interactions with any sims outside their own lots. Kids are bitches, cause they meet Marsha at school.

[witch]

Hey ZZ, your family doesn't have to include a selfsim but I liked the suggestion that we make a sim named with our own username as part of the family. This sim doesn't have to be you, could be a fantasy you, though I'm trying to make mine realistic and Man is she ugly. 

But it's the contribution of characters to the hood that's important IMHO.

As for inhabited lots - I envisioned these sims as CAS sims, with some skills, attributes and relationships pre-set in simpe. I didn't think anyone was planning to play them before uploading them?

[simmiecal]

Hey ZZ, your family doesn't have to include a selfsim but I liked the suggestion that we make a sim named with our own username as part of the family. This sim doesn't have to be you, could be a fantasy you, though I'm trying to make mine realistic and Man is she ugly. 

But it's the contribution of characters to the hood that's important IMHO.

As for inhabited lots - I envisioned these sims as CAS sims, with some skills, attributes and relationships pre-set in simpe. I didn't think anyone was planning to play them before uploading them?

No one should play them. Only move them into your lot if you are going to send them as part of a lot but save the lot right away after moving them in. We don't want there to be any memories or interactions that will mess things up when we combine them. We will use SimPE to add any needed memories.

No one has talked about a theme for the neighborhood or a general story. I've come up with one, but feel free to come up with your own.

Matyville (or whatever we want to call it)
Once known throughout SimNation as a prosperous and thriving city, Matyville has recently fallen on hard times. Several key industries that once supported the local economy have moved overseas and left many jobless. There is a growing problem with unemployment and one part of town has already become an infamous slum. Added to this, immigrants are still coming to Matyville not realizing that job prospects are not what they used to be.

Having been a thriving and prosperous city for many years, Matyville has developed culturally and has several museums, parks, shopping centers and other sites that draw sims from not just Matyville but from all over SimNation. There are several families that have built fortunes in Matyville and aren't effected by the economic downturn. There are a few family "legacies" in the neighborhood and everyone knows them or at least, knows of them.

Will the rich and powerful of Matyville hold onto their fame and fortune or will they become victims of the same economic forces that have already effected so many in Matyville? Will those that are down and out be able to find jobs and improve their family's lives or will they continue to live on Simfare (sim welfare)? What about the tensions with the new immigrant families moving in? Will they be able to adapt and contribute to Matyville? Will they and their small home-based businesses revitalize the Matyville economy?

[PlaidSquirrel]

Oh no! Mitoki went away. That's to bad I thought a lot of His ideas were interesting.
I like the 2 tier idea as well. Wild Cards sound great! I also like the idea of dl an entire set up neighborhood with story props etc. Maybe we could run it so that it comes in two options? Whole neighborhood with a little story set up or individual sims with bios for those whos comp or connection can't handle the whole hood?
Also honestly I think no matter what "rules" there are everyone will play however they like in the end anyway. We are only limited by what we choose to follow.
I tried the Legacy challenge for a bit when it first came out and while some of the rules were difficult they were also fun. Others were just annoying so I dropped them and quit the official game. I would do the same here if I wasn't enjoying myself and it wouldn't effect any one else in the least.

[witch]

That sounds like an excellent starting place simmiecal.  Good base scenario. I want to have a go at JM's bunker, but won't have any building time till next weekend.

[witch]

Oh no! Mitoki went away. That's to bad I thought a lot of her ideas were interesting.

Psst - Motoki is a male - in his early thirties I think, he just really likes the nannies in the game.

Also honestly I think no matter what "rules" there are everyone will play however they like in the end anyway. We are only limited by what we choose to follow.

I agree, that's why I think we create everything Maxis default & people apply their own hacks and custom content once they d/l the hood. I don't think we could agree otherwise.

[cheriem]

Okay give me an address and I will email my family, a house and a back story.

[simmiecal]

Okay give me an address and I will email my family, a house and a back story.

I'm working it out with Jade Elliot and we'll post an address in a couple of days.

[radiophonic]

If you're going to allow the 'no rage' mod, not allowing the elixir is a bit pointless isn't it? You want realism, without realism?

Anyway, it's a bit pointless to make a ton of rules for something like this. After all, the in-game cheats are available to make you younger, smarter and better. Not to mention, anyone can open it up in SimPE.

I'd be content to start a neighbourhood without townies and populate it with ten or so other players, no custom content, play as you will.

[ZephyrZodiac]

Hey ZZ, your family doesn't have to include a selfsim but I liked the suggestion that we make a sim named with our own username as part of the family. This sim doesn't have to be you, could be a fantasy you, though I'm trying to make mine realistic and Man is she ugly. 

Well, I don't mind contributing Zephyr Zodiac - you can have her husband and six housemates too, but I'll have to update them - they still live somewhere in Sims 1!  I think I can remember all their names, not so sure about their personalities though.  The Lyons are a bit easier to remember, they are all Leos, obviously!  And the Buckets are all - guess!

But I don't honestly think I could recreate Zephyr's house for sims2 - it was the work of several hundred sessions of gameplay, and grew slowly as the household grew!  And without those sims1 walls and floors, it just would never look the same!

But I could make a star house, even one with a basement swimming pool, if you like.

[simmiecal]

I don't mind incubating families if someone else will come up with storylines.

Works for me.
I'm pretty good with stories but some of my sims make the Maxis ones look good. 

[MissDoh]

Im in to create Sims and can come up with stories for each of them.

I still want to mention that I prefer the houses will not come with custom stuff, only Maxis made stuff can be use to share them.  Afterward we can modify the houses the way we want.  Same for Sims, no custom mesh, clothes or genetics please.

If the houses or Sims do come with custom stuff, it is important for me that it will be mention in the storytelling or bio of the Sim.

[Ancient Sim]

I can do everything except building, although my original idea would have meant that no building was actually necessary.  The idea was the story side of it, not having specific houses.  What I originally suggested was that the family was uploaded in any old Maxis house (as it doesn't appear possible to upload a family without a house) and then we put them wherever we wanted them.  As I said before, it all seems to have moved on beyond what my original idea was.  I think the main 'flavour' of my idea was "no rules", but this seems to have gone by the wayside!

[MissDoh]

I agree with you ancient sims that there is no real need to upload houses, the Sims are what makes the challenge interesting but in some cases they might need to be put in a house for the scenario to make sense.

I need a scenario to play them otherwise this thing is completely useless to me, I could go on the exchange and download random Sims there instead but it is not what I am looking for in all this.

[cheriem]

Or just a family to be loaded into a house.  I don't care.  I just want the storyline and the wildcards.

[simmiecal]

I can do everything except building, although my original idea would have meant that no building was actually necessary.  The idea was the story side of it, not having specific houses.  What I originally suggested was that the family was uploaded in any old Maxis house (as it doesn't appear possible to upload a family without a house) and then we put them wherever we wanted them.  As I said before, it all seems to have moved on beyond what my original idea was.  I think the main 'flavour' of my idea was "no rules", but this seems to have gone by the wayside!

I think we agreed,or at least I am moving forward with the two tier approach. By putting the people in the houses and placing them in lots in the neighborhood, we will be creating a situation like "Pleasantville". All of us will start with the same characters in the same houses with the same background story. All original creations will be with Maxis made only stuff but we will use SimPE to create a "backstory" - some enemies, some friends, extended family, etc. Just like with Pleasantville, each of us will then go our separate direction with the stories and whether we want to use custom content, immediately move them to another house, etc, but we will all have the same starting point.

The second tier is only for people who want to participate and has no effect on people that just want to play the neighborhood the way they want to. The second tier group will have some challenge rules that they will follow. There's no scoring, no competition, but sometimes when you keep the same playing style, each family turns out the same way and that becomes boring. If you follow rules not of your own making, there's a good chance that you will wind up playing the game differently than you usually do, and hopefully that will be interesting.

I'm working on getting some stuff together and a way for people to contribute. Some people only want to do sims, some only lots, some want to do both or several. Once we get things going, we can see where we need more contributions: story, lots, sims, SimPE, etc. I'd say, right now, work on whatever you want to contribute for the neighborhood. I think when all is said and done, we'll probably have fewer people actually participating than have expressed an interest, so there will probably be room for people to contribute as much as they want.