Lot sizes!

[Brick_town]

Does anyone else feel annoyed about the lot sizes, I have alot of great houses I cannot use because of the damn size issue...

Does anyone know if there will be a mod to combat this?

[Slymenstra]

I find it very restrictive, and frustrating.  I also found if I move one house, set it down, and then want to move it back it gets a new lot shape and can't go back to the old one.  Very crappy to have it so restricted.  Feels like the game was built for 3 year olds, very little customization.

[Alex]

All my lots seem to rotate 90 degrees upon placing them onto an empty lot, resulting in driveways and paths leading to empty grass spaces. If that isn't complete fail, then I don't know what is.

[Captain Swooptie]

A better way to handle it would've been to make the actual structure of the house itself movable, rather than the just the whole lot. I've built a couple of houses now that have turned out smaller than I expected them to, and end up with a huge bare yard. They'd fit great on a 2x3 lot, but they're stuck being moved to another 3x3 or larger. The only choice is to grab some graph paper, draw out the floor plan, and start from scratch on a new lot.

All my lots seem to rotate 90 degrees upon placing them onto an empty lot, resulting in driveways and paths leading to empty grass spaces. If that isn't complete fail, then I don't know what is.

You're given the option to rotate lots once you place them.

[Alex]

It didn't seem to work for me. Seriously, nothing happened. But my game has become so screwy it probably needs reinstalling...

[Zazazu]

You're given the option to rotate lots once you place them.

I've had several instances where I can only rotate them in 180 degree increments instead of 90, and no matter what the intended entrance is perpendicular to the road.

[Captain Swooptie]

I've had several instances where I can only rotate them in 180 degree increments instead of 90, and no matter what the intended entrance is perpendicular to the road.

Well that's fucked up. What could possibly be the purpose of that? Do you have any problem lots available somewhere that I could download and fiddle with them?

[Zazazu]

These were EAxian, in Sunset Valley. Lot stealer. 

[BastDawn]

Yeah, if you try to put a 20x30 lot in a 30x20 space, the front door will never face the right way.  As a compromise, I've tried building on the smallest lot I could find in the game.  In Sunset Valley, the bistro (I think) is on a 16x18 lot.  Move it or bulldoze it, change the zoning, and build your house there.  The result will fit on just about any other lot in the game, although it will end up centered and you will have to extend paths and terrain paint to make it look right.

[Chezzie]

I've had several instances where I can only rotate them in 180 degree increments instead of 90, and no matter what the intended entrance is perpendicular to the road.

I've noticed this is because the house lot will only fit one way on the empty lot.  For example if you're trying to place a 30x20 house on a 20x30 lot.

ETA: Oops BastDawn beat me to it!

[Captain Swooptie]

I thought we were talking about same-size moves or small-to-bigger moves having rotation issues. Clearly a 30-tile-wide lot won't fit in a 20-tile-wide space.

[witch]

No, it's the shape that matters. If you have a wide house and a narrow lot, you can only place the house sideways.

[Brick_town]

I have downloaded alot of custom made house's and some of them example: a 30x30 does not fit in a 30x30 lot space and that just baffles me!

[Mootilda]

What irritates me is that lots are always placed in the absolute centre of the slot, leading to porches and driveways multiple squares from the road.

Yes, I hate this too.  I finally managed to move a house forward on a larger lot by moving each room separately... turns out that there are a lot of restrictions which affect your ability to move walls.  Some furniture, windows, doors, etc. move with the walls and some I had to move by hand.  I also had to rebuild the roofs, since the ability to move walls seems to be limited to full-sized walls.

In the end, I'm not sure that it wouldn't have been quicker to just rebuild the lot completely from scratch.

I have downloaded alot of custom made house's and some of them example: a 30x30 does not fit in a 30x30 lot space and that just baffles me!

I've heard about this, but haven't experienced it yet.  Do you think that this problem could be related to the lot edges, especially to fences and objects on the outside tiles?

[Kiirkas]

It could have something to do with strange lot sizes.  My current sims are on a lot that the main menu selection window says is 60x60, but when I'm actually playing the lot the size is 62x64.  Possibly the 60x60 designation is a general rule of some kind, and each lot is more site-specific?

If there are some inaccuracies in the lot sizes, then that would explain why a lot described as a 30x30 might not *actually* be 30 tiles by 30 tiles.  Just a theory.

[Czezechael]

Oh, and the lack of a neighbourhood editor in the first place. TS3 is a step back to TS1 in this aspect.

I knew about this before, but it really struck me today (I hadn't really bothered with it before, every fambly was so throwaway I lost interest rather fast).  I made a simulacrum of my ex and wanted to put her near my selfsim's house, and unless I wanted to bother with parasitically stealing neighbouring houses, lots cannot be moved, extra blank lots cannot be put down.

It's just odd and stupid that so many things are a step backward, and so many steps forward weren't taken.  Like why in the hell is everybody still the same gott verdammt height?  I don't care if it's hard EAxis, you're a giant stupid company, you delayed an already overhyped game for hype, you could have made a nice change and not ruined it in other respects.

[nanacake]

Like why in the hell is everybody still the same gott verdammt height?

YES. Somehow I forgot this is not available, and could not figure out why Don Lothario couldn't flirt with two short girls he met at the library, turns out they are teenagers oops.

I'm terribly mad about the lots situation. I do not enjoy watching my sims take forever to walk up *beautiful* pathways to enter their home. I would love to have mini lots and a small hood again, with houses that can be placed very close by the town, and why couldn't they have included apartment lots? Is this going to be TS2 redux when it comes to expansions, what kind of scam is that? :/

[BastDawn]

Is this going to be TS2 redux when it comes to expansions, what kind of scam is that? :/

Well, yes.  Half of the TS2 expansions were remakes of the TS1 expansions, and they sold well.  Why wouldn't they do it again?

[nanacake]

But going from TS1 to TS2 was like Pong to PS2. TS3=PS3 just say no. 3s are bad luck numbers now.

[Razamataz]

You're given the option to rotate lots once you place them.

I've had several instances where I can only rotate them in 180 degree increments instead of 90, and no matter what the intended entrance is perpendicular to the road.

The reason you only get it to rotate 180 is the Lot size and the home. If the lot your placing a home on is 30x40 you can't place a 40x30 home on it correctly.

[Rothchild]

It could have something to do with strange lot sizes.  My current sims are on a lot that the main menu selection window says is 60x60, but when I'm actually playing the lot the size is 62x64.  Possibly the 60x60 designation is a general rule of some kind, and each lot is more site-specific?

If there are some inaccuracies in the lot sizes, then that would explain why a lot described as a 30x30 might not *actually* be 30 tiles by 30 tiles.  Just a theory.

I can confirm that.  When you choose 'Move in Household' you will see the actual lot sizes instead of the rounded lot sizes.  A lot of the "30x30" are actually 30x29, 29x29, etc.  It makes it a pain in the ass to design lots for multiple neighborhoods since a 30x30 lot might not fit in a "30x30" lot.  I always have to find the smallest lot of a certain size to build on, so it will fit on all lots of that size.  Great job, EAxis...

[M. Ciaster]

To me, all lots below 30x30 are huge. I mean, when I build the house, I like to focus on details - paintings, little scupultures (spelled correctly?) and so on, not on building something as large it would take half of an hour to load on my crappy laptop. EAxis = pure PHAIL.

[J. M. Pescado]

In all honesty, even the smallest lot size is gargantuan compared to TS2 in many ways: In TS2, you were essentially building an enormous complex with everything, so groundspace was often at a tight premium. In TS3, you only have to construct a house, not an entire base, and the requirements sims have are much lower. You no longer need to equip the house with a full skillinatorium and whatnot, as the "open neighborhood" means that these can be located on community lots. In fact, the game will punish you for building in this way. It's not TS2 anymore.

[tizerist]

You no longer need to equip the house with a full skillinatorium and whatnot, as the "open neighborhood" means that these can be located on community lots. In fact, the game will punish you for building in this way. It's not TS2 anymore.

How does it punish you?

[J. M. Pescado]

How does it punish you?

Well, for starters, not leaving the house slaps you with a negative moodlet for not leaving. On top of that, you take a skill rate penalty in many skills for not doing so in the appropriate venues: Reading/working at libraries, exercising at gyms. These penalties effectively make it pointless to install such a thing in your home, since there is no unique bonus one can achieve by doing so to offset the penalties.