More Awesome Than You!

I just sent a sim around to the hobby lots for the first time.  I'm wondering how useful they really are.  Is this one of those things where you try them out a couple of times, then never go back? 

I went to one once, but the cognitive dissonance of having my period Sims wandering around that ugly and borked art lot ensured that I never did it again.

I tried it once, but didn't see the point.  For the hobby lots with contests, you can set up a community lot in the base hood with the contest objects, and I don't see anything else of use.

The hobbyist icon people that manage the lots can instruct you in the hobby.  that's about it.

I suppose there is an advantage to the lots that you can skill up while time is frozen at home.  Like, if you needed another body point for a promotion but the car pool is about to arrive, you could send your Sim to the dance hobby lot and skill up, shower, drink coffee and roast a hot dog and then go home just before the car pool arrives.

I went to a couple just after I got FT but quickly realised there was no real point to them. You wait all that time for the lot to load only to find that it's broken and you can't get the compeitions to work anyway. I think I've deleted 2 all the NPCs that come with the lots now anyway.

On one hand they are neat to go to, but then after you've been there you're like "okay, I've been here, done that" and the lot isn't as special anymore.  Some of the hobby lots are pointless and a waste of time, while others are cool because they have aspiration rewards in them.

Now, I go to them if I'm bored and want to do something different.  I would like them much better if we could create our OWN secret hobby lots for our custom neighborhoods.  But that cheat code is "bugged" from what I've read.

Hobby Lots are only special for sheeples who oppose the use of zOMG dangerous hacks, as they're supposed to be the only non-residential lots in which you can build skills. (Well, except for Secret Society in Uni, maybe.) And I'm not even sure of the validity of that claim. But we already have Pescado's comm-skilling for that.

Aside from the constant presence of Iconic Hobbyists from whom you can get instruction in the hobby, there is nothing that you can't do in ordinary community lots.

I don't see any point in training hobby points at all. So no, I don't use the hobby lots.

Yep. They're the most pointless thing EAxis has ever shoved into the game. It's not a surprise they tried to prevent anyone from making it successfully useful.

Yup.  And not even all of them, I think I tried two and thought they were stupid.  I agree with Lord Darcy, I have the comm-skilling hack so I really don't need all that mess.  I can create my own hobby lots.

And our own Emma has a bunch of 'hobby lots as community lots' she built and posted over in her area on laverwinkle.sims.  You can save yourself a lot of effort having to build your own. :)

Wow those are great!  I am moving to a new computer so I have to remember to come back and get some of them.  All of her stores are ones I have to make for my new hood but don't feel like it.  Thanks for the heads up.

I've noticed that non-S4 DJs appear to be wearing an S4 person's FACE as part of their outfit.

Those lots do look really good.  I think I'll create a separate "sub-neighborhood", kind of like "business" or "downtown" and make that my Secret Hobby Lot Town.  Those are just fantastic.

Glad you like them-I will stop procrastinating and make the rest-hopefully by the end of this week :)

I never use the hobby lots, ever. They are completely useless in my book, plus they are ugly. I have a cooking competition lot, a dance competition lot and a gaming competition lot, plus those couple of 'hobby lots' I made, and that is it.

This may be just the thing to rid of that "Ewe need moar subhoods!" popup. Screw the Shopping District. Will now have a combo Seniors' Retirement Vista & Hobbination Alley. Thanks for all the hard work, Emma.

I hate that damn pop-up. I keep getting it, regardless of the fact that I have every subhood (my Downtown is Hobbies, though, so most likely that one isn't really registering). Ikea started it up.

If I want hobby stuff, I put it in my comm lots.  I likely will use a couple of Emma's hobby lots 'cos I can't resist new shiny stuff.

Other than that, I don't see the point of building hobby points - the benefits related to motive decay seem minimal at best, and there's no great perk to "being in the zone".  I have enough trouble trying to get sims to build skills badges before they 'go elder' and die. 

Emma's lots are quite shiny, aren't they?

The hobby points themselves really don't do anything for me either, but the hobbies do give me a couple of things to do with my elders to make them more interesting to play. I have one elder who's probably about 5 days from death, and I'm actually having fun seeing if I can get him to complete his bug collection before he kicks it. Not that the complete bug collection really matters for anything, but it beats just farting around, waiting for Reaper's Hula Show.

M'kay, I'll do the Nature lot next ;D

Whoot! Reason enough to elixir Ethan Leung's waning ass and keep him around for a few more days.  ;D
I've just sent him and his newly-eldered wife on holiday, mostly to see what'll happen if he kicks it on Twiikki, but now I'm actually hoping he'll survive long enough to kick it @ a shiny new nature lot instead. :D

Can sims die on vacation? I thought someone said they couldn't.

Playable sims don't age on vacation lots, so no, they can't die of old age there.  I believe, however, that they can die of other causes, just like on any comm lot.

Okay-I just remember someone trying to actually kill their sim by a number of means on vacation, and it not working.

Meh, fair enough if they don't age on holiday, given their pets can't even manage to finish a bowl of chow while they're gone. I didn't *think* he'd age off and die, but I was curious. Guess that just gives him more time to do holiday-type stuff in the meantime, and he can try for those last 5 bugs when he gets home and can visit Emma's forthcoming and doubtlessly shiny Nature lot. Which I'm sure she'll be working on really soon. Ahem.

Really, take your time, Emma. Unless you happen to suspect that a speedy Nature comm lot might help those Pets recolours show up faster...  ::)  No, really, take your time.

Mostly it not working because on comm.and secret lots sims have "magic hidden"extra +5 points for their hunger and energy.

Maybe nouniprotect also affects vacation lots, since I seem to remember having a sim accidentally die in the ocean (though my memory may be faulty).

I would assume your sims can die on vacation. Doesn't it affect the vacation score and make your sims have a "bad" holiday?

I seem to remember a post a while back where someone was experimenting with trying to get their sim to die in the sea. IIRC in the end he repeatedly pissed himself and complained of comfort failue but essential motives like hunger and energy stayed just high enough to stop him dying no matter how long he was left in there. I assume this was an experiement without cheats though so I don't know how nouniprotect might affect things.

Wasn't it Trepie that did it?

In related news, I found that the only way (without hacks I'm unaware of *hinthint*) to get non-playables into the ocean is to drown someone in it. Then they all get in to see the death.
(http://i191.photobucket.com/albums/z301/kariminger/snapshot_13ef2fa2_1416e682.jpg) (http://www.moreawesomethanyou.com/smf/index.php/topic,9523.msg271698.html#msg271698)

Seems that game allow only"fast"(when hunger motive drop down very fast lower than -100)accidental death on comm.lots
But in any case nouniprotect cannot have any attitude to community or vacation lots.
In game I use my own mod that allow to die any sims on any lot except secret and hobby lots.Some of tourists already died from
lightining strike on vacations,but still noone in the sea yet...hope will see it in my game too.

Not sure if it works with non-playables, but you could try Inge's Get in Sea Patch (http://simlogical.com/sl/Sims2Pages/Sims2_Voyaging.htm).

On the original topic, I dunno. I spent all that friggin' time and effort to edit mine, that I am trying to use them at least occasionally. I just wish there was more tangible benefit from hobby enthusiasm aside from the 'Max Enthusiasm in X' power want and charging the LTA meter. If you enter a sim in a cooking contest, what matters is his cooking skill, not his enthusiasm in food and beverage.

Early on I was able to 'drown' annoying playables and remember getting a pop-up when I returned to the dead Sim's home saying that the sim died on another lot. Don't know why it wouldn't work for vacations as well. Also, the cowplant ate half my uni students who lived on other lots, (annoying uni peeps).

I may have to try the vacation route one of these days when I am feeling crabby, heh.

I made only ONE visit to this annoying secret lots and I went there with one BigFoot character. He wanted to enter a dance competition. I made him to enter the competition for Slap Dance. He lost.
A female dressed as tango (or flamenco) or whatever, won the competition - dancing smustle!!!!!!!
I thought I could choose which dance would be in the competition - Blaaaa!!!
I finished yesterday an object to reset everybody to NO enthusiasm at all. And finished also a mod to avoid that anyone gets enthusiasm. It is global and will nuke completely the crap.
I hated Uni because it added 28 unuseful crap characters to my game. This enthusiasm crap added 32 unuseful extras that keep on ringing my Sims to offer magazines (I'm decided maganalphabet, I don't read magazines).
The "Zone" does nothing, my Sims gets inventory clogged with some unuseful diplomas to go to lots that disappear, cannot be deleted and occupy space in my hoods that I have to fill up with trees.
Hate the crap.

Hobby clubs are useful if you're doing a Poverty Challenge.

The nature one (only one I've ever visited) has a shower.  My poor ass sim could use the toilet and hose off.  VERY helpful.

And, since only certain sims can go to the secret lot, you can have a date there and not have to worry about some other random lover walking up and throwing a tizzy fit.

Other than that, the lot was unimpressive.

The cs stuff adapted by Pescado has a "nature toilet", a bush of bamboos. I use it to laugh and I laugh to tears.
And you don't need a secret lot to use the toilet, any commlot will do. To have a date with a lover? Man, book a vacation and bring the lover with you. No regular Sim pops up in vacation lots. Too poor? Use a trick: book a room in a hotel and keep full time visiting community lots. Go back almost at the end of the vacation and use a telephone to cancel it before the game says that it passed the time and you are going to be charged for the room. Instead you are CREDITED for the whole amount.  :):):):)
There must be a spy around. Everytime you find a new gap, they fill up (and open even worse gaps :):):)  )

I don't have BV, so the vacation thing is mute.

I did have my poverty challenge founder going to a regular lot (for the toilet and sink baths) but the nature one is smaller and runs smoother (and no stupid bingo game that she wants to hike to the ends of the earth to stand beside and wait for others to join her).

It's "moot", not "mute". Although, honestly, I don't find vacations to be especially talkative.

To be totally fair, if she doesn't have BV, the vacations are moot, but are also so mute as to be nonexistent.

 :D

Really, it was just a typo (moment of stupidity, rather).

It cracked me up, given that it's a real word. I tend to say things are "moo". Can you tell I've watched Friends too much?

Nope.  Can you tell I haven't watched Friends since its second season?

The fact we cannot change the hobby lots makes them useless.  I take sims there when I'm bored and can't be bothered to make a new place.  I have to be really really bored though.

Uh, yes we can. (http://www.moreawesomethanyou.com/smf/index.php/topic,11323.0.html)

Hobby lots are useful as weekend homes and/or love nests. You can cook there, you can sleep there, you can bring friends, the bars come with barkeeper and your mess gets cleaned up (i.e. the lots reset after the visit) - what else do you need :D? I think I'm going to change all the hobby lots to themed vacation lots (far east, tropical, sci-fi, medieval etc.) and charge the sims for their stay.

I've only used the hobbylots to satisfy the dance/cooking contest wants. The contests are won so easily because the townie 'competition' has very low skills levels.

One thing I've wondered about is how, repeatedly, a sim will meet with his or her spouse at the nature secret lot. Like, who is watching the toddler left at home?

For the most part, I feel that what can be accomplished on the "Secrete Lots" can be easily done elsewhere.

Thanks for all the input.  I'm experimenting now, editing the lots.  Maybe I can make something I'll enjoy.  I'd like to use the lots, but I'm not sure how interested I am in persuing the hobby stuff.

Yes. The fact that sims can sleep on the couches is very useful.  Aren't hobby lots the only kind of community lot you can use without your sim having to go home from exhaustion?  Aren't they also the only kind of community lot where you can skill without the most awesome commskilling hack?

I'm using hobby lots for skilling or odd things where I don't want the whole family around.  You can send 2 sims to the cooking lot, for example and have them skill in turn on the choclate making machine.  The unoccupied sim can nap, cook, get hobby instruction or add to his bug collection. 


I've had sims lose cooking competitions. The competition isn't always useless townies.  I suppose who is there depends on the balance of playables/townies in that hood and on how many playables are members/have the skills.

My main problem is the lack of sims on hobby lots - maybe it will fix itself as more playables become members, but I suspect I need to intprop something.  My arts and crafts lot has had the guru and the same 2 sims on it every visit.  Unfortunately one of them picked a fight with the guru on the first visit and they go at it every time now!

Sims can also sleep in beds on hobby lots, in fact, they can do anything they can do at home, except accessing inventory. It's pretty much like hotel lots, only without room service and the "check in" bit.

Visitors on hobbylots include anyone with a membership card, so once more sims join, the visitorship gets somewhat larger. Otherwise it will be just the maven (who, incidentally, isn't even necessarily into the hobby he's in charge of!)

*facepalms*
How is it possible that there's even a tiny corner of my being that hadn't already assumed something so ass would naturally be the case?

Ok, mild derailing, still on the subject of hobby lots. I've just installed FT but not yet played it. The post on empty templates warns me not to delete the lots while I'm sorting things out because those are the hobby lots. But, from what I've read, I don't want them! I don't even want prettier versions! So, can I just delete them? ;_; Will this also have the pleasant side effect of preventing the hobby-people from spawning? (All I want from this EP is the damn toddler table :()

You'll need to live with the default hobby lots, at least for your 'hoods to be updated for the new EP, and preferably until you have taken a sim to visit each lot. Check out leaths's post (http://www.moreawesomethanyou.com/smf/index.php/topic,11323.msg345422.html#msg345422) in Zazazu's Peasantry thread on editing hobby lots.

Using a clean template, a hobby maven will only spawn when a sim gets to a certain level of hobby enthusiasm. I feel like I heard about a "no enthusiasm at all" hack somewhere, which might prevent them spawning indefinitely. But my search skills are failing me. Has anyone else heard about it, or is that just my imagination again?

True, but leath's post did not cover simply deleting the hobby lots.  leath suggested that the lots could be edited and replaced, but the result would be more attractive sekrit hobby lots, not no hobby lots at all.  Not sure what would happen if you simply remove them.  The game might respawn them for the next sim who reaches the required enthusiasm level.

You'll seriously install a whole EP just for 1 object it contains? :-\ Not trying to be judgmental here, just curious.

That and a need for completion :P I can't be arsed with SPs, but I want all the EPs. Plus, my sister bought it on offer, and we have an agreement to always go halfsies on any Sims games either of us buys, so I figured I ought to install it after paying for it. XD



I've not heard of that hack, but I wasn't really planning on getting FT, so I've not read anything much about it. Thanks for your input, both of you. I think I'll just leave them be and ignore them for now if this isn't something people have tested :) I'm worried about invisible side effects that'll wreck my hood a year from now :(

That's my point though - you replaced them with more attractive lots.  You didn't just delete them altogether.  The question was, can you just delete them?  I am speculatively suggesting not doing so because the game includes code for the hobbies that refers to hobby lots - when your sim gets to a required level of enthusiasm, he gains access to the hobby lot.  If the lot is not there, what happens?  Does it:
1) break?
2) respawn the hobby lots?
3) not matter?

I don't know the answer, since I don't really care whether the hobby lots are there or not, but 1 would be undesirable, and 2 would make deleting them a useless waste of time.

If you delete them, they will respawn, but they will be blank. Also, hobby mavens and other enthusiasts will not show up. That's what got me started on the whole editing crusade.

Ooh, interesting! Is that "not show up" or "not spawn at all", though - do you know?

They spawn. I'd get the welcome greeting from the maven, but no maven would be present. The maven would show up as a visitor on other community lots.

Isn't that what EA made the Sims 2 online shop for?   ::)

(/sarcasm)

I see. Thanks for the explanation :)

I didn't install Pets for the floor dividers, but they are the main reason I haven't uninstalled it.  If it weren't for those, I'd have uninstalled Pets by now.

You know the railroad tie works practically the same, right? Well, I haven't tested its effects on sound, but I fixed a problem with BUY in a dorm using the railroad ties, before I installed Pets.

Doesn't the railroad tie trigger this extremely annoying "ZOMG I need to make a HUUUUGE step to get over it" animation? Also, I have the feeling that sims wouldn't be able to get a kid out of the crib enclosed by it, seing that that thing renders them unable to trim hedges. No problem with room dividers.