MATY HOOD CONTEST

[witch]

I read the initial plan/proposal and thought, like others, well that seems like a time-consuming request and not particularly exciting. Then you tell us we're not responding as you wished. Well, hello, what's in it for us?

I wouldn't have said anything except I thought it was kinda cheeky to berate us for not flocking to the call, so to speak.

[MaximilianPS]

spend hours--if not days, weeks or months!--to install and build an entire neighborhood according to your specifications?

wooow .... you are slow   
well i suppose that you're much more fast that that...
usually i install, a hood in 2mins. and, usually i made a complex lot  in 30mins...
on our italian forum we are all over 30, but a pairs of element, it's just a way to have some fun with the other forum members...
indeed Numenor are with us
Some of us have discovered some "advanced" buildings technique from the others... nothing is useless 

[jrd]

I like the idea, but I don't do challenges. When I play TS2 at all, it is according to my rules

Besides, proper lot building takes me too long just to do it for a contest. Most of my houses are predownloaded (I like plasticbox's collections), and those few lots I've built myself are populated by old families, so I can't rip them out of my current 'hood without doing damage.

[witch]

...usually i made a complex lot  in 30mins...

Bollocks. Not with building, decorating, landscaping and some thought. A box maybe.

[eevilcat]

It's a nice idea and I'll probably give it a go at some point but at the moment I'm tied up with playing an alphabet legacy challenge so it's not likely to happen in the next week or two. I also need to get back to writing code for my family tree viewer and finish off a bunch of assignments for a CPD qualification for work.

It's probably worth pointing out that while MaximilianPS' English is infinitely better than my Italian, I suspect that some of the subtleties of what he is trying to say are getting lost in translation hence the tone being a bit rude/abrupt and people reacting accordingly.

[Emma]

Like I said, I probably will join too, just don't want to make too much work for myself if I have to make my own 'hood. When it stops being fun, then starts to become a chore, then I stop playing.

[msalwaysright]

quote from: MaximilianPS

...usually i made a complex lot  in 30mins...

quote from: witch

Bollocks. Not with building, decorating, landscaping and some thought. A box maybe.

A simple lot takes me longer than 30mins. Show & tell-I wanna see your 30min lot.

[MaximilianPS]

i pend hours to made stuff like this one...
http://www.max3d.it/pub/cofanetto.jpg
6h 30'
most of the time gone during the renderings

2 days.. .... 11h for the render
http://www.max3d.it/pub/laserGameTribute.jpg


for sure not for this one...
http://img293.imageshack.us/img293/2128/snapshot000000029381653tl5.jpg
http://img248.imageshack.us/img248/1872/snapshot00000001338ed96cw7.jpg

@ the end it's a game

[Zazazu]

The first two images have naught to do with the Sims2, so how much time they took you means nothing. It's also much more than 30 minutes. Making & decorating a lot takes longer than that. Typically, building a house takes me 3-4 hours..and I build a lot. The ten-story glorified rectangle obelisk took longer than a half hour.

[Sagana]

Hm, why not start a 2 hour lot contest (30 min. would make a bad contest I think)? Rules are, you can plan out how you're going to build in your head but not on paper - no graph paper before starting. Start timer, start building - wherever you are when 2 hours is up, stop. Post pics. Everyone gets to vote on whether they think you cheated or not :p

[Aggie]

I like that idea, Sagana. In fact, it would be even better if the 2 hours didn't have to be consecutive (i.e. You could build for one hour, take a break for a day or so and then build for another hour before stopping).

[witch]

Would there have to be some ground rules about maybe, I don't know, a medium sized family home, or a family grocery or something similar? Then there's the old CC debate...

[msalwaysright]

@ the end it's a game

And?
I've heard that phrase millions of times in the ten years that I've been playing and I still never know what the person using it is trying to convey.    Of course it's just a game, but people will have opinions on all the aspects of playing it and on the other players as well.

2hr lot contest=yea!

[Sagana]

I don't see any reason why time would have to be consecutive. I also wouldn't bother deciding what kind of things could be built - anything goes. The point being to see what's the most elaborate/neatest/coolest stuff you can do in the time period (or who can build the most/best, or whatever).

But... I'd say whatever you decide to build, you hafta go ahead and try and finish that - so don't start something you don't think you can finish in 2 hours (or you'll have a partially done masterpiece, and the cartoons don't usually come out looking finished). But no - "ok, I can build a mansion, no I can't let's make it a 1-bedroom shack instead" (not that the shack is really easier to build *well*). Since there's a vote on who cheated - a 1 br shack on a 5x5 lot, people would probably think someone dumped an idea in the middle

Also I'd allow custom content. These aren't for an awesome contest afterall, and Pescado probably wouldn't like them anyway They also don't have to be put up for download at all anyway, just nice if the good builders want to. Time spent looking for custom content doesn't count against you though (lots of people will already have things anyway) - so count that in with planning time.

[Sleepycat]

btw i'll attach the terrain.. (i hope it's the right one)
have fun

checked it but the bridge isn't connecting the roads on either side of the river (the bridge is actually in a different spot on the terrain, off all by itself)

[cenoura]

Yey! My game is working! I'll download the neighbourhood (Thanks SaraMK for a base game hood file) and have a play I'm not much of a builder so you'll have to wait and see what I come up with. Dispite the backlash you've had MaximilianPS, I think it's a nice little project to work on over my summer vacation.

[cenoura]

Here is a lot for lot 9 or 10.



Lot is 30x10 and just under 20K ($19,196). Built with Sims down on their luck in mind. I went for a run-down/mouldy feel, I hope it comes off well. The lot is no more than two rooms deep when viewed from the long side, there is also only one storey and no foundation. This fits in with my playing style: I'm a lazy simmer who almost never moves the camera view. This lot has been play tested with a new CAS family of five: mum, dad, one child and two toddlers. While money was tight for the first few days, a job in the politics career soon sorted things out.

Images

Floorplan:


Bedrooms:


Kitchen:


Lounge:


Nursery


Play testing sucessful:


The photos were taken before play testing so there has been a little bit of rearrangement and addition to the house, also the swing was taken out to keep the cost down.

Features:
-> 2 bedrooms
-> 2 bathrooms, one off of nursery
-> Nusery for twins
-> Skill objects for all skills except creativity
-> Perimeter fence
-> One storey
-> One / Two room depth
-> Room for driveway or expansion
-> No custom content

Known faults
-> Main bathroom has a shower, not shower/tub combo
-> Noisy toys in the sleeping area of nursery
-> No lights
-> Lower end objects used through-out, including beds (though not the worst beds) and toilets due to budget constraints

FYI: Took me one hour to build (I had already planned it on paper though), one hour to play test and a further half hour to admend and package... And twenty of an hour to find an image host and write this post...

PRECAUTIONS

I have Uni and Nightlife installed so I guess you must have at least these expansion packs installed
I cannot run Clean Installer as I do not have .NET on my WinXP partition: Therefore use of clean installer is recommended

[Eleonora]

Instead of creating a whole hood, wouldn't it be a much better contest if everybody just picked 1 or 2 lots to build? Combine those into one hood and you'd have a true maty-build community, without having to spend oodles of time on it. Yes, the 'challenge' part of it would be gone, but I suppose the focus could be on the end result. It would definitely interesting to see a combination of different styles.

ETA: I'll give it a go and try and build community lot B, the market place. That is a 3x3 lot isn't it?

ETA2: FAIL! I got about this far with my lot, 'till I realised that I wasn't really going anywhere, the lay-out of the building sucked, and that it was just generally non-awesome.

Notice the brown line stretched from one end of the lot to the other. That's what happends with my video card when I place too much fencing.

[Lorelei]

Nice entrance archway, though! I like that a lot. Haven't seen anything quite like it elsewhere. Is it constructed with cutaway walls, or is it one big piece?

[Zazazu]

That's two 1x4 walls, floorheight cheated a bit lower than normal, with a inside stage foundation plopped on top (EDIT: Maybe not, maybe a second floor also floorheight cheated lower than normal, I forgot that the inside stage doesn't warp well). Then she floorheight cheated the arch shape.

Quite nice. I really like it, just not the awnings. Maybe replace with a loungey-garden area and swings? Or somewhat. The main building is great.

[Lorelei]

Very clever!

*is impressed*

[Eleonora]

Zazazu is right with here second attempt. It's made of two 4x1 rooms with a 12x1 room on top, and then lowered to form the archway. Whilst on the lot it looks really nice, but from neighbourhood view the game shows horizontal floor tiles instead of curving ones, making it look like some kind of retarded staircase.

@ Zazazu, the awnings where supposed to represent the market stalls, I just hadn't placed anything underneath yet. Normally I make stalls by using a 15 degree roof, but I didn't want all 4 stalls + the building to have to some colour roof. Note that this lot is only half-finished, more 'green' was also going to be added in the form of scattered flower boxes.

[Zazazu]

I hate what 'hood view does to lots. I get landscaping showing where it isn't, roofs looking like they are detached...ick!

I madly hope that one of the new cheats we get with Bon Voyage enables individual roof color, just like we can now to individual slopes. After the ghastly auto-roofs of Sims 1, roofing is one of my favorite things.