Preferrable Houses

[Myth]

I'm just curious as to what the preferences are when you are house shopping for your Sims on the internet.  If you have more preferences that aren't listed like hack free, medium sized lots, etc. please feel free to comment.

[BlueSoup]

It depends on the house, whether I want it furnished or not.

If it's furnished, I want CC.  I don't want to download a house full of Maxis furniture - I could do that myself.

[gethane]

No custom terrains. I'm so tired of downloading stuff that has 20 custom terrain files tagging along.

[SQK]

I chose unfurnished, because I like to decorate them myself. A few custom created contents is fine for me, just as long as it isn't overdone. I don't like a lot too large to where there is a lot of "empty spots" in the yard...other than that, that's it. That's my input. 

[mmmyrs]

Hack-free and custom object free. I hate when I get a bunch of stuff I didn't download myself. I preferr unfurnished and medium sized lots. I hate huge palaces that don't have a live-in-me feel.

[gynarchy]

I prefer the houses I download to be mostly unfurnished. I like when the builder adds a couple of objects in each room so I have an idea of the layout, but otherwise I like them empty. I remove any and all CC that comes with a house because I find that I either have it already or I wouldn't want it. If it's something that I would really like to have, I find out where it came from and download it directly from the creator. I rename and organize all of my downloads and with the way CC is named in TS2, I don't have the patience or time to sort through hundreds of files that are all start with 0923fkjhd09whjfsdfjhd0we0w9.

[BlueSoup]

Oh yes, I remember some stuff now. I also hate custom terrains, and don't install them anyway.  They cause too many problems in my game.

And I like a nicely landscaped yard as well, even if it's on regular Maxis grass.

[TreyNutz]

I like them furnished.  That way I know where stuff is supposed to go.  I also like to see other's people's take on interior decorating, because I'm pretty bad at it.  (I did not get that gay gene.)  But I don't care if it's furnished cheap.  That's actually preferable because my sims are never rich.

I also tend to look for starter homes and prefer 1 or 2 stories.  Too many floors and I get sick of going up and down levels.  That's probably because I usually play with a full household.

edit: I also don't like a lot of custom content like floors and walls.  I get easily confused by too many choices.  Simple Maxis items are fine with me.  I use the Sim2PackClean installer to get the lot without the custom content anyways, so if it's there, and I like the house, it's not a big deal.

[witch]

Playable is my main criteria. A lot must be playable, whether it is beautiful or not, if it's not easy to play I don't bother. The exception of course are the lots I download for scenery only, like Stonehenge.

I don't download custom terrains because of the corrupt nature of terrains.

Mainly I make lots for upload as I don't find many I like for download.

[Diala]

I perfer my houses unfurnished. It isn't that I don't like to download custom content with houses (usually, I get some good stuff from it. Anything else, I delete), I just don't trust people when it comes to placing items, especially gardens. I've had major problems with tending to gardens in 90% of the houses that I downloaded. The gardener complains that they can't water them, or a bush can't be trimmed because someone put it in a place where it can't be reached. Usually, I just delete everything and redo the gardens. (A major pet peeve is when someone uses flooring for "dirt" and moves the flowers onto them using moveobjects. Um... you CAN'T SEE under the flowers anyway, so it is moot point, and what is wrong with using the dirt terrain paint?)

Speaking of moveobjects abuse... I also don't trust people's interior decorating either. They either put the object in a place where it cannot be used, or just fill space with decoration crap and make it seemed 'cramped.' I don't mind some decoration crap, but a ton of it is just too much.

[MsMaria]

I prefer a medium sized house that is at least partially furnished. I too, like to see how others decorate. I tend to change it, but it's fun to get an idea of some else's tastes.

I don't care for crazy terrain, flat is fine with me. Easier for the gardner.

[shadow]

I normally prefer to build my own but sometimes I get lazy and look for houses to download.  I look for something unusual, though not weird.  Usually, I remodel and redecorate them so I don't really care if they are furnished or not.

[Myth]

Thanks everyone.  I really appreciate your input.  I'm in building mode with all of the new tools and options in NL. I haven't been inspired in a while, so I'm actually having fun building. I never upload terrains because I know they cause problems. I usually upload unfurnished lots because that seems to be the preference but really have a hard time doing it because I love decorating and think that even if all of my decor is deleted they may use the same layout or get the general idea of what I was going for, but another benefit to unfurnished is that they are very small files.

Small and medium lots do not seem like the most popular downloads but I like building on them because as cool as the huge lots can be I hate having a huge beautiful lot that's not any fun to play because it lags my PC.  

Trey I tend to stick to ranch style homes for playing as well as I hate sending them up and down stairs and flipping between the levels when I am trying to see what my silly Sims are up too.  I love a good ranch style home with a great floor plan.  But I usually build two story homes for uploads.  (They just tend to be not so blah.)

I am a horrible landscaper.  My yards tend to be pretty average.  Every now and then I get a cool idea, but the gardeners get on my nerves and I always forget to water the flowers and end up with dead dirt.  So I stick to trees, potted plants, ponds and pools for outdoor decoration.

Blue, question about custom terrains.  I didn't know about the terrains causing crashes when deleted like most simmers until after I had used a few.  If I manually go house to house and cover the custom terrains with Maxi's terrains, will that make it so that I can delete the custom stuff without making my lots unplayable?

Anywho, thanks again everyone.  Sorry to get so wordy, it's late, I have a huge headache and I think I'm getting delirious.  So without further ado. I'm going to ditch for the night before I end up nominated in RL.

Good night.  

[Motoki]

I generally like them furnished, particularly for starter houses. Most times I will change or move some things, but I at least like having a base to work off of and knowing the essentials are budgeted out already before I move someone in.

Playable, obviously, is important. I've been suprised how many people make houses they don't play. Just because something looks nice doesn't mean you sims won't go nuts and complain like hell about not being able to reach certain things. And in this respect, Maxis is often just as guilty as users (try hiring the gardener in the Smith house in Strangetown   ).

I don't really see any reasons to ever intentionally include hacks, but some custom content is okay. I don't mind walls and floors and recolors if tasteful. I'm wary of custom objects though because a lot of them can have crazy high poly counts. As mentioned, the terrains are also a problem due to a Maxis bug, which hopefully will be fixed at some point *crosses fingers*

I also generally do not use money cheats and thus will very rarely download any houses over 100k no matter how nice they look because I just probably won't ever get to use them. For the families that have over that much, they tend to be well established and I'm more or less happy where they are would rather expand than move, so I usually only download low to mid range houses.

Since Nightlife, another important factor for me is that the house either have a driveway or enough space on the left side to put a driveway in.

[Motoki]

Small and medium lots do not seem like the most popular downloads but I like building on them because as cool as the huge lots can be I hate having a huge beautiful lot that's not any fun to play because it lags my PC.  

I notice this too and I really don't understand this. Besides the slowness that you noted, I just don't see the point in them. If you don't money cheat, you'll probably never have a need for them. I prefer to upgrade as I go. However, most starter houses are too small for upgrading a whole heck of a lot (although you'd be suprised just how much I've managed to fit on some small lots) and I generally have to move those sims from a starter to a mid range with room for expansion. Starters are always welcome too, particularly furnished ones so I can move in new somes into unique houses and not have to worry.

[Hook]

I prefer a fully furnished and decorated house with no custom content.  And no families living in them.  And unless it's a special showcase house I'd prefer that the creator has actually played the house enough to test everything.  I don't mind the use of cheats while building as long as everything is playable and works.

Hook

[shadow]

I don't think I've ever left a house 'as is.'  I always change something.  I've downloaded some houses that had rooms with no doors and other strange things.  Maxis houses are the worst.  The first thing I do after starting over is remodel all the houses in all the neighborhoods.  (I know, kind of weird but I enjoy it.)  I'd like to meet whoever designs the housed for them, they are so bad.  I try to keep the same outside walls but move all the inside ones to make them livable.

[BlueSoup]

Blue, question about custom terrains.  I didn't know about the terrains causing crashes when deleted like most simmers until after I had used a few.  If I manually go house to house and cover the custom terrains with Maxi's terrains, will that make it so that I can delete the custom stuff without making my lots unplayable?

I don't think so, mythchick.  Once it's on the lot (even when you manually remove the terrain) it seems to "stick there," for lack of a better word. After I removed the terrain from the Downloads folder, I was never able to fix it with the 2 lots I tried to upload, and I tried it three different ways, probably about 10 different times.

And I tried to package the lot to a file too, and that didn't work either.

[witch]

Small and medium lots do not seem like the most popular downloads but I like building on them because as cool as the huge lots can be I hate having a huge beautiful lot that's not any fun to play because it lags my PC. 

I notice this too and I really don't understand this. Besides the slowness that you noted, I just don't see the point in them.

I seem to end up with immense buildings often, partly because I experiment with different building techniques - like the internal spiral stairs with levels on either side at different heights etc. You'd be amazed at how much room a bit of innovation will take up. My PC doesn't seem to lag on large lots so I forget that others might not be able to play them. A new lot I haven't uploaded yet is a split level home in the retroville style inspired by the stuff released on MTS2. All black and white and grey, except for a touch of colour in each room. Probably end up huge even though I try to keep the filesize reasonable.

I usually play all my lots before uploading, I also include a lot of custom stuff in the way of wallpapers and floors, but like Motoki I'm wary of custom objects because of the possibbility of high polygon counts.

[simposiast]

I like building, so I tend not to download lots unless someone I know asks for feedback or I'm playing a challenge.

If I'm playing rather than testing, I don't even put sims in my own lots. I prefer to start on an empty lot and build the house round the family while I'm playing. That way the sims get something that suits them, the house improves as I play, and it's an extra challenge to make incremental changes without going broke or having the sims live on a building site.

If someone disabled all my building tools, I'd pick lots with only maxis content, preferably unfurnished, with no view obstructions, no scrolling required (except up and down), flat terrain and no landscaping. The inside is more important than the outside, since the outside is going to be invisible when playing.

The sort of lot I'd be looking for would get culled.

[Ness]

I like to have a few furnishings - just enough to give you an idea what each room is supposed to be - other than that, you generally end up changing it to suit your own taste anyway...

I prefer houses that are compact - I like to pick on spot on the screen and just sit there, only going up and down levels, not zooming madly all over the place trying to figure out what's happening and going completely sea sick!

unfortunately, the type of house I like is nothing like the type of house I can build - they all end up being huge monstrosties that your average sim family would rattle around in!  But, I have at least progressed beyond the shoe box stage!

Ness

[witch]

I enjoy building houses around sims as they gain money, some of the houses I've uploaded are just that.
I might try my hand at a few starters for a challenge next, many people have mentioned they prefer them, not just here.

[Vesca]

I like a full house - nothing worse than a home scarcely decorated.  It's great to get decorating ideas from others.  If they've done a good job decorating, I won't touch a thing, but I've downloaded a couple of homes where they actually put the T.V.'s in the bedrooms, which I thought was the worst place in the world to put a T.V. - no livingroom, just plopped a T.V. up against a wall in the bedroom and added some furniture.  Things like that I change.  I also go through and add the good toilets too.

Oh, and yes, I hate custrom terrains also.

[windy_moon]

Starter houses, please!  I like to download rather than build, at the moment, because I'm more interested in playing my Sims than digging basements.

I have 6 starters that I downloaded from Sandy at AroundtheSims that are a lifesaver.  They are gorgeous, very playable,  furnished with no EP Maxis items, and still under 20K.  I'm always looking for nice starters.

With rare exception, I don't download anything over $40K.  My Sims just don't have that much money.

My favorite type of house to download is a well-designed one story.   I like to add a whole second story myself, when my families expand and have $$.  Adding and expanding rooms, rather than adding a whole story, is really a pain and I find the end result (in my hands) is less playable and kinda sorta ugly.

I played a 3 story house for a couple of Sim days and had the family move out.  I have enough trouble managing Sims on 2 floors!   

[Emma]

No custom content like floors and walls or hacks and furnished only with stuff that comes with the game and it's expansion packs! Unoccupied and under 20k  But other than that-I'm not fussy!