Bon Voyage satisfaction

[Orikes]

Beach lots are a definitely plus in my book. I'm probably going to make a whole custom Uni hood that's nothing but beaches.

I'm curious which terrain you'll use. I was looking through my terrains and there are really only a couple that offer good beach locations. Isla Segundo is actually disappointing for how little beach front property it offers. Or are you going to be making your own terrains, Dizzy? If so... share?

I love the new public toilet recolours

Forgive me for being dumb, but I couldn't find the public toilet recolors. I can see them on the public lots, but I couldn't figure out how to change the colors. The design tool wouldn't work on it, which was most frustrating.

As for the ep itself...

I'm really happy with the beach lots and a lot of the new building options. They make me a very happy simmer. Overall, I'm pretty pleased with this pack. I don't know how often I'll actually use the vacations, but it's still a very cool option. Beyond that, there are lots of smaller additions from this pack that I will be using all the time.

[Process Denied]

I love this EP--they did a great job.  One of the things that I like is the fact that Sims can stay over at each other's houses.  I like the fact that you can invite extended family on vacation.  Hope that you can invite children without their parents--for the sim males that like to spread their genes around(generously I might add)..

[Sleepycat]

Orikes, theres some really nice beach terrains at -> http://www.simsanne.com/Forum/filebase.php?cat=12&sid=c19a3c3542ad24cd48c62d1eb02b6440
I'm using Insel-19 for my new neighborhood (Despair) and it's great! 

I have some pictures up at -> http://www.the-isz.com/theisz/index.php?s=&showtopic=518&view=findpost&p=6232


CEP needs to be updated, it blocks the new stall recolors so you have to choose between CEP or the new maxis stuff (not sure if anything else is blocked by CEP but I removed it until it gets updated)


I haven't had a chance to play any sims in BV yet, been to busy setting up my new hood but so far, I'm loving the new beach lots and the new building options/stuff and the new turn ons/offs (finally reached the point of running sims through CAS so I'll be able to actually play soon)

[Zazazu]

Here's a beach 'hood terrain I made. Best used with GunMod's camera hack at MTS2, but the inner lake and beaches should still be visible without (the image below is cropped to eliminate a lot of water...this is the zoom I keep it at).

Obviously it comes without the tiny bit of deco and the lot shown. No preview image, 'cause I make custom ones based on the 'hood name and haven't decided what to permanently name this one. It's currently called Donutville Queen's Cove. 

The majority of the inner lake-bordering roads can fit beach lots. Nearly the entire east coast can, approximately half the southern coast can, and nearly the entire north coast can. The western coast has a low mountainous range. There's a few spots that are optimal for the 1x1, 1x2, 1xwhatev lots by Marylou at MTS2. Alternatively, you can place trees and such in them.

Terrain at MTS2.

[Orikes]

Thanks for the links, Zazazu and Sleepycat. I will be definitely making use of a couple of those terrains. I like what you've done with your neighborhood so far too, Sleepycat. It looks pretty nifty. If I weren't almost halfway through my legacy, I'd consider switching neighborhoods for it to get some beach terrain. I may consider adding a ocean based shopping district since I haven't had one added as of yet, but we shall see.

And thanks for the info on CEP. That makes me feel less feebleminded. I was going crazy because I knew those stalls were different colors, but couldn't figure out how to get them. The odd thing too was that my stall recolors from Piggisims weren't working either.

[Sleepycat]

your welcome Orikes    and thank you    (I just added a few more pictures to that thread of mine. I managed to finally get some sims moved in)

You could consider doing terrain surgery on your hood after SimPE gets updated. (I'm assuming simpe needs updating to be able to do terrain surgery but it may not)

[Zazazu]

your welcome Orikes    and thank you    (I just added a few more pictures to that thread of mine. I managed to finally get some sims moved in)

You could consider doing terrain surgery on your hood after SimPE gets updated. (I'm assuming simpe needs updating to be able to do terrain surgery but it may not)

The Seasons version won't open 'hoods in a game that has BV. It errors into oblivion. So no, no terrain surgery---unless you're one of those with the forethought to get in on the QA group.

[Orikes]

I've never mucked around with the terrain surgery tool. Do you have to remove all existing lots before doing it (send the families to the sim bin, then move the empty houses to the lot bin), or will it just relocate the lots to the nearest road? There are some features to the neighborhood terrain I have that I like, but in addition to their being no ocean front property, it's just too big.

Obviously, this would have to wait until SimPE comes out anyway, but still. My interest is piqued now.

[jsalemi]

Back to the sorta topic -- the more I play BV, the more I like the new travel system.  It works very well for walking, taxis and ownable cars.  They got this part right!

[Dea]

I love the food stands and just discovered that the stools are a seperate part of the object and can be replaced.   I had fun with CAS in debug mode making a fake bigfoot and the sauna towels are available in underwear section.  I was also suprised to see that vacation houses can be sold in a real estate business.  I figured they would be like regular houses.  My favorite thing to do is dig for treasure, I have made a couple of sims do that all day.  I can finally build a proper Spa location although I wish they would have made a couple of the Sims 1 spa objects.  My sims have also taken tons of pictures with their cameras.  Im really happy about that addition and the pose menu.  Its cool that they can also order a framed picture or an album.

[Sleepycat]

I've never mucked around with the terrain surgery tool. Do you have to remove all existing lots before doing it (send the families to the sim bin, then move the empty houses to the lot bin), or will it just relocate the lots to the nearest road? There are some features to the neighborhood terrain I have that I like, but in addition to their being no ocean front property, it's just too big.

Obviously, this would have to wait until SimPE comes out anyway, but still. My interest is piqued now.

you'll want to read JM's tutorial --> http://www.moreawesomethanyou.com/smf/index.php/topic,151.0.html 
that thread answers a lot of questions.

in short - you can leave the houses & sims in place, do the terrain surgery, move the houses so they are back on roads, then if the terrain is a bit warped in the spots where the houses were, re-do the terrain surgery to fix it. 

I prefer smaller terrains. The one I'm using has plenty of room and I spread most of the houses out. If I need more room I can either move the houses closer together so more will fit or just add on a custom subhood.


/on topic

From what I have seen in BV so far, I love it... even though I haven't seen much at all *laughs*  but I was pleased to discover that unlike weather, you can see the waves/spray through windows!  I'm going to end up redesigning some of my sims houses so they can have large windows facing the beach 

I've already placed some of those food stands on some of my community lots. I've made a public beach (for those poor saps that can't live right on the beach) community lot and a campground community lot that once I can take a sim there to see if it plays well, I'll re-zone it to a hotel...provided it does play well, otherwise I will re-do it.

[Vren Lyet]

I actually like Bon Voyage though I'm not a vacation fan myself - I never go on vacation.

But there are some really nice things in BV, stuff that made me laugh and THAT I like.
Also, the asian (kind of chinese/japanese) theme is a very nice thing to play with. Though the constant Tai Chi stuff is annoying.
I could have lived without the tropical theme - as said not a vacation/beach fan - the mountain one is nice, too.

Over all BV has less impact on every day life of the Sims than the other eps, the benefits being temporal and such - not sure whether that's a good or a bad thing...

I need the Community Time project updated for BV so vacations actually take time - only question is, how being away from work for seven days would be handled.

[trudy]

thats not the only one.. since there is no aging, having vacations count will desync the age, unless u age at arrival like was the case with the mod, but what will u do if u left 7 days and theres a birthday or a pregnancy...?

[witch]

Trudy - that's 'you' not 'u' for a start. Start typing in complete sentences if you want to stay here and not get poked with pointy sticks. I mean capital letters and full stops, in case you don't understand.

Better do it fast, I see a bunch of people heading this way with their pointy sticks now. There's also the Grammar Police to watch out for, they're way tougher than me.

[trudy]

Don´t worry, I don´t mind pointy sticks. But I´m sorry if its hard to understand what I write. My english isn´t the best and i tend to mix up letters anyway. Also english has so short sentences. It´s hart to get used to ;-)

[Sivany]

Ah, the delights of opening an 11 years old's book to see the sentence '"but u sed it woz alright mum." said jane.' causing you get out a very large red pen and scrawl '"But you said it was all right, Mum," said Jane.' You then proceed to spend the next few minutes with your head in your hands wondering why on earth you wasted an entire year attempting to teach these children decent spelling and grammar.

Back on the topic, I like the fact that time doesn't pass on vacations. The problem with the Community Time thing would be when you sent only part of your sim household on a holiday. Since you can't play the home lot whilst some of the sims are on holiday those sims would arrive back much older than the sims they had left behind. The seven days away from work shouldn't be too much of a problem though, simlogical has that object which shuts down college for a few days, surely it wouldn't be too difficult to have something to shut down work for a few days? (So it would be as if your sim was on leave from work.) I'm speaking here as someone who knows nothing about making hacks or mods so it's probably a lot more difficult than I imagine!

I'm also looking forward to making some beach lots in my main hood as soon as the new Sim PE comes out. I haven't been able to access the Sim PE site for two days though, is anyone else having this problem?

[Orikes]

Thank you, Sleepycat! That will make life very easy when the new SimPE comes out.

Back on topic, I found another little thing that I like. When you use the 'pose' feature to get your sims to pose, they're not static like they are in Squinge's Hula & More. They  will actually track the camera as you move it around, or look at new people who enter the room. I was very pleasantly surprised at this when I was trying to get a couple of specific pictures today.

[Velda]

Digging for treasure is great.  If you have some useless Sims hanging around, you can make loads of money with the dig for stuff macro, as my sister discovered last night after invading the Bright household at Sim State University.  She sped her Sim through college with the collegeadjuster while the three Eaxis Sims there (with motive decay off) dug for stuff day and night.  It's kind of a nuisance to have to sell off a bazillion rocks and such, but you get a lot of the more valuable items, too.  She got at least a dozen treasure chests.  She ended up with 240,000 Simoleons by graduation. 

[AnnaM]

Cars now seem to only be for travelling cross-neighborhood to downtown, or for going to work, yes. The drawback being that you have to tell everyone to run to the portal (and hope you picked the right portal), or else they will TAKE FOREVER to get there.

You can cancel the "walk to lot" action and have them run to the portal after you've established which one it is. The "walk to lot" icon will regenerate in the queue and they'll leave.

[sloppyhousewife]

while the three Eaxis Sims there (with motive decay off) dug for stuff day and night. 

Hehe, this reminds me of the good old zombie movies from the 40s - you were lucky that they didn't turn against your sim in the end

[J. M. Pescado]

The Seasons version won't open 'hoods in a game that has BV. It errors into oblivion. So no, no terrain surgery---unless you're one of those with the forethought to get in on the QA group.

You don't need New SimPE to perform terrain surgery, just disable all the sim-related plugins so that SimPE will not attempt to read sim-files, as well as the lot-descriptor plugins. If a plugin errors on a specific datatype, simply disable it.

[dream_operator]

I would have to say that Twikki Island and the beaches are my favorite.  The beaches just look and sound really great.  I use to live on the beach and the noises in the game bring back good memories. XD  The beach with the pirate ship on it is really top rate...like something you would see in real life.  The Dragon Legend is really beautiful as well.  Oh and the Unsavory Charlaton is my favorite NPC to date.  I like his regular outfit the best and all the interactions he does and the way he sounds. XD I just cancel out the "Greet" interaction when I see it on my sim and then sit back and enjoy watching him con other sims. XD Overall I think Maxis did really well with this EP.  The only things I would have liked to have seen would be surfing and skiing, but everything they did give us is really great.  I am actually surpirsed at how much I like the EP and how much I enjoy taking my sims on vacation, since I didn't really think I would enjoy it all that much.

Dream

[spaceface]

Zazazu, thanks for the Donut terrain. I used it to add an extra Downtown neighbourhood and my sims are now moving to beach houses in droves. The children get home from school and head straight for the beach.

I had a bunch of plant sims that I didn't know what to do with (as I made my first ever plant sim grow 4 plantbabies in quick succession, just because I could, then I got bored with them...) they live on a beach lot now in a state of bliss.

Building community lots is now a lot more fun. I built a community beach with a camp site (and shipwreck), so my poor sims who cannot afford a vacation can spend as long as they like there. I love it that they can sleep in the tents. Also, the first sim baby conceived in a tent has been born and named Lilo.

[Havelock]

I really like on BV this:



Picture taken on Beachlot in my updated Bluewater Village Hood.

[witch]

That's lovely Havelock.