Moving a Vacation Lot and Other Questions

[CoyotesLaugh]

A week or so ago, I decided to copy the Brickstone Chateau from Twikki Island and move it into my beachfront shopping district. I noticed BAD THINGS immediatly when I dropped it and saw that the price was still in the high $50Ks like it had been when it was on Twikki Island, rather than what all the other similarly sized and appointed houses nearby were going for (about twice that). I loaded the lot and found that the beach had been flattened to ocean level, with a newly formed sheer cliff drop-off between it and the house. This caused the small patio previously on the sand to be suspended in the air. Deciding that since I was going to wipe the computer out in a day or two anyway, I shrugged, plucked the patio furniture from the sky, and moved some Sims in, only to find that the Sims were building indestructable sandcastles. By the time I left the lot, the whole beach was lousy with half-built titanium spires.

I saw that the moving of vacation lots to non-vacation maps was addressed here: http://www.moreawesomethanyou.com/smf/index.php/topic,11353.0.html where it's stated that a vacation home should function like a normal home outside of vacation maps. In what way am I doin' it rong?

In other news: after a failtacular three tries to install an empty game with clean templates, I began playing with the Townie Gun and saw that there was an option to add already made PCs and PCs-turned-NPCs (via Inge's telleporter painting) to social groups. Now, generally I feel the fuglified, poorly-attired social group NPCs are a blight upon the Sim universe, good only for roommate fodder, but now that I have clean templates, I'm wondering if I need them. I don't see how it would hurt anything to assign a fresh batch of NPCs to be in the social groups, that is unless doing so will change their wardrobe to reflect their dark allegence. I spent a lot of time dressing my NPCs like pirates, after all. Do I need these social NPCs? If I fail to assign people to the group, will they be deemed "nessisary NPCs" in the way that if you don't have a service NPC with clean templates installed, one will spawn when required? I would assume that notownieregen would stomp them, but, as previously stated, it took me three tries to install clean templates with a very detailed guide and all the files, so obviously I'm an idiot, and should assume nothing.

On a related note and purely out of curiosity, does anyone know what would happen if I were to assign a PC to the social group? Would they be booted into NPCland? I only ask because I won't be on the gaming computer for the next week.

If no one knows the answers to this or the previous question off the top of their heads, I'll find out then, but the vacation home relocation issues are a little out of my league. Thank you in advance for anyone who's able to help clear things up for me!   

[reggikko]

Beach lots are tricksy. They can generally only be placed in the exact location, on the exact terrain on which they were built. I suspect this was your problem. I don't know of any way to fix that. I'm not sure why you thought the price would change simply by moving the lot. Am I missing something?

My suggestion is to copy the floor plan of the house you want to move and build it in your beach hood.

[jolrei]

Yeah, you have to be a bit creative when moving beach lots.  I have had some success trying beach lots in different locations, but often have to do some terrain leveling and other retro-fits to make them work.  Never had the suspended patio thing though.  I suspect you tried to install your lot on a rather shorter beach lot than it previously occupied.

Not sure why you would assign a playable sim to a social group.  You do not need to assign anyone to the social groups.  Social group townies are automatically and annoyingly created when your sim first moves into an apartment.  Just create townies.  Don't create NPCs.  With proper use of notownieregen and antiredundancy, your hood will create all necessary NPCs as required (and no more than needed).

[CoyotesLaugh]

It was from Twikki Island, and all the residential lots in vacation destinations are, I think, about half the price of normal residential lots since your Sim is only going to be there for a few days at a time. I figgured that moving a lot out of the vacation map and putting it in a place where it could be bought for year-round residence would bump it's cost up to a more relevent number. It's not a huge thing overall. The indestructable sandcastles bothered me more since unnatended Sims make a beeline for the sand.

It's good to know about the quirkyness. I'll try moving it around the map, and if I still get indestructable castles I'll just can the idea altogether. I was afraid it was going to be a VBT like moving a Uni lot into a normal map.

Heh, I was only curious about being able to assign Sims to a social group because the gun said I could. It's a bummer to hear they'll spawn on their own though. They seem to be completely useless. When you say don't create NPCs, do you just mean the social townies or should I not be making Garden Club members or Hobby Gurus, either? On account of I've already done that. Gun options are shiney and I poke first and question my judgement later.

Thank you both for the responses!

[jolrei]

Right.  Garden Club townies, gurus, nannies, grocery clerks, taxi drivers, and all other NPCs will be automagically created as necessary.  I don't think there is necessarily anything wrong with creating them yourself.  You may get more than you wanted, I suppose.  What happens when your sim goes to a secret hobby lot?  How many gurus?  Are they the ones you created?

[CoyotesLaugh]

If I get on before the computer gets reformatted in three days, I'll tell you. Otherwise I will totally tell you when I reinstall. If I bork it up too badly then, I'll only have lost an hour of install time, so I shall go nuts.

[CoyotesLaugh]

The husband's boat did not get in today, sadly, but it left me with time to hop on the Sims. My memory was faulty. I hadn't created any Hobby Gurus, I'd just intended to. Turns out that even though the gun gives the option to turn a Sim into a Hobby Guru, the only Sim available to me was the Polination Technitian. I decided against it and just told the game to spawn a Nature Guru. It spawned a man in athletic wear. If I'd left it alone, it probably would have spawned a woman in a leaf dress like in all my other games. I chose to keep him and when my Sim gained enough Nature enthusiasm to get a mebership card, sporty man did, indeed, show up to deliver it.

I did however successfully make a Garden Club full of CAS Sims, one of whom showed up at the lot in the morning like any game-made NPC. I was quite thrilled. She was still wearing exactly the same outfit I'd given her and had the same name. She and the other Garden Club members had been in the bin when I used the gun to assign them. It removed them from the bin, and as far as I can see, they're normal NPCs now.

In the few hours I toyed with the game, no computer-made Nature Guru or Gardening Club members appeared. I do wish I could turn other CAS Sims into NPCs the same way as the Garden Club, but I see them so rarely it probably doesn't matter.

[Emma]

Nope, if your game spawned the Hobby Mavens by itself then they wouldn't be wearing their 'costumes'. You need to create your own mavens in CAS then use the gun to set them as so.

[CoyotesLaugh]

That's good news! I'd definatly prefer to do that. But right now it says I can only use the gun to make the pollination technitian a Hobby Guru. Is that just my own unique game wierdness? I have tons of extra Sims hanging around on that game, so I'm not sure why it wouldn't show the option to use any of them like the Gardening Club option did.

[Emma]

They can't be on-lot playables, I know that. Mine are usually in the bin when I make them into Hobby Mavens. Do you have any (down)townies at all?

[CoyotesLaugh]

Ak! I'd made townies but not downtownies. I have a lot of bin characters, though.

[Emma]

You don't particularly need downtownies, apart from the special NPCs. I never spawn them. I haven't a clue why the gun isn't working for you, though. I am thinking you are not looking at the correct option. You need to find the 'Iconic Hobbyist>"hobby">"Sim!Name"' option on the gun.

[reggikko]

You need to find the 'Iconic Hobbyist>"hobby">"Sim!Name"' option on the gun.

I must be missing something here. I made a Sim for the Music and Dance hobby. She is in the Sim bin. When I try to make Iconic Hobbyists, only one name comes up for Music and Dance (in fact, only one name comes up for all of the hobbies except cuisine). HALP!

[Emma]

Okay, I haven't made them in a while, but I'll see what's up with it. I feel like making a new hood anyway.

[J. M. Pescado]

Death to Emma.

[Emma]

You need to find the 'Iconic Hobbyist>"hobby">"Sim!Name"' option on the gun.

I must be missing something here. I made a Sim for the Music and Dance hobby. She is in the Sim bin. When I try to make Iconic Hobbyists, only one name comes up for Music and Dance (in fact, only one name comes up for all of the hobbies except cuisine). HALP!

Ok, I worked out your problem, I just made 10 original mavens easily in game when I remembered why it isn't working for you. You need this.