More Awesome Than You!

Egads, I'd forgotten how hard it is decorating with only Maxis stuff! Holy hell, some of that shit's ugly. Kudos to everyone who's entered the contest so far.

THE BRIBE:

If I win, I will provide an updated Hack Descriptions list in the form of a .txt file for easy copying/pasting by admin into the appropriate post/thread, mostly because I've been wanting it done for quite awhile, but nobody else has put forth an offer.

GENERAL DESCRIPTION:

A 3x3 lot on a foundation, two stories, containing only Maxis content except for a few Awesome items (sleepclock, kick the cheat, etc); 4-5 bedrooms depending on how you arrange it and easily added onto; 3 bathrooms -- 2 upstairs, 1 downstairs; fully furnished; expensive (§100,430) because nicely decorated and includes skill-building objects for all subjects; includes piano, chess set, and robot-making bench, as well as various career rewards and pet items; lot made with all EPs up to Pets and all SPs except for Celebrations and H&M.

FEATURES:

* Tastefully understated décor, both inside and out -- mission/arts-and-crafts style with a slight Asian flair
* Accommodations for 2 adults, 2 children (1 boy, 1 girl), 2 babies/toddlers (either sex), and at least 1 dog and 1 cat -- all supplies included
* Plenty of lighting, both inside and out, but not excessive
* Yard decorated with only trees and shrubs, so no puddles to mop from over-watering flowers
* Backyard spacious enough to add crops, fruit-trees, or greenhouse, if desired
* Fenced-in covered carport (less expensive than a garage but still protects from the elements) has lockable gates, keeps yard secure from strays, wolves, etc
* Burglar alarm on exterior of house means you don't need to install a car alarm, and police will be alerted as soon as a burglar arrives on premises
* Lot Debugger conveniently hidden in foundation of house, out of sight but easily accessible
* Multiple points of entry/exit, all lockable
* Multiple spacious decks, all with double stairs to reduce traffic-flow problems
* All stairs are modular, further reducing traffic-flow problems
* Main entryway is double door, even further reducing traffic-flow problems
* Lockable stairwell just off of main entryway
* 'One Desk' just inside main entryway
* Lockable kitchen with plenty of counterspace and room for more, if desired. Could also fit small table/chairs. Currently holds career rewards.
* 'Wet bar' in living/dining area has counters, espresso machine, and sink, so sims will not just stand around while they caffeinate, as per usual, and will set serving platters on counters instead of table or floor
* Dining table seats 6 sims
* Spacious living area has seating for 6, but will fit a lot more 'standing room only'
* Bookcase, chess set, and piano in main living area are guaranteed to impress the headmaster
* Toy chest kept on upstairs landing instead of children's bedroom(s), so can 'show room' to headmaster without invading family's private sleeping areas
* All upstairs rooms lockable
* Nursery accessible from master bedroom
* Separate 'spawn pod' for infant/toddler cribs to cut down on late-night wakings
* Small rubbish bin kept next to litterbox for ease of cleaning
* 2 programmable sleepclocks in master bedroom
* An easel in each child's room allows easels to be locked safely away from those who would usurp them (essentially making them reservable)

PICTURES:

Neighbourhood View (sorry, that's as zoomed in as I could get):

(http://audra-art.com/ts2/bldg_contest/nhood_view.jpg)

Front Elevation:

(http://audra-art.com/ts2/bldg_contest/front_elev.jpg)

Rear Elevation:

(http://audra-art.com/ts2/bldg_contest/rear_elev.jpg)

Foundation View (please note location of Lot Debugger):

(http://audra-art.com/ts2/bldg_contest/foundation.jpg)

Downstairs Layout:

(http://audra-art.com/ts2/bldg_contest/dnsts_layout.jpg)

Upstairs Layout:

(http://audra-art.com/ts2/bldg_contest/upsts_layout.jpg)

Roof Detail:

(http://audra-art.com/ts2/bldg_contest/roof_detail.jpg)

Some pics of the interior, so you can see wallcolours, etc:

(http://audra-art.com/ts2/bldg_contest/dnsts_decor1.jpg)

(http://audra-art.com/ts2/bldg_contest/dnsts_decor2.jpg)

(http://audra-art.com/ts2/bldg_contest/upsts_decor1.jpg)

(http://audra-art.com/ts2/bldg_contest/upsts_decor2.jpg)

THE FILE:

Download Here (http://audra-art.com/ts2/bldg_contest/NVA_Contest_Submission_3x3.rar)

ETA: I'll try to take some better pictures that are zoomed in more and are less fuzzy.

I like the layout of this house. Great idea about the easels too, definitely stealing that idea for my gameplay :D

It definitely helps. It's the only way I can stand to have easels in my sim-houses anymore.

I know you can't do it for this contest, but I recommend Inge's reservable easels for just that reason.  They still work fine in Seasons, and macrotastics recognizes them ok as a skilling device.

Yes, but I use JM's 'paint continuously' hack, which does not work with the Ingelogical easels. If the two functions could be rolled together, I would be a very happy simmer.

ETA: The easel(s) would also have to draw textures from the original Maxis one, because I just can't live without my recolours.

Inge's reservable easels are a MUST in my game. (I am the one who requested them in the first place.) I almost always put the easels in bedrooms so that when Sims wake up, they have something constructive to do if I'm not paying close attention. In dorms, I either put them out front so Sims returning from class will paint, or stick them in the bedrooms.

No kidding. It just kills me. Nothing matches! The wood is the worst. Where did Maxis even find that many different shades and grains of wood? And the colors... sometimes they look like they'll match... oh, so close... and then it turns out the shade is just a teeny bit off... just enough to drive you crazy.

That is my biggest beef with the game. Really.

How hard would it be to match furniture that is supposed to match? Male all bedding patterns work on all beds? Make all chairpad colours work for all chairs?

Really, now. They had to go to a great effort NOT to just reuse textures that match!

Or kitchen appliances that do not complete a full set, or counters that lack island version, or crazy-ass coloured items that clash with everything in the house (video game console! bubble blower!).

Grrrr.

The fact that all bedding patterns DO work on all beds is one of the few things that they actually managed to impress me with early on in TS2, and is the reason why I have about a zillion bedding downloads and every bedding-match custom item I can find that looks even halfway decent. (And also a lot of other Maxis-match stuff, especially if it uses repository techniques and picks up recolors.)

Trouble is that the "aesthetic" of the game in general leans toward cartooniness.

The mismatching walls and floors are one of my major annoyances, too. It's one of the reasons I completely dump my \thumbnails folder after installing a new EP or SP, so all stuff will be displayed with accurate thumbnails as rendered on my box, and not with what EAMaxis claims it displays as.
I have a few dozen collections of matching wallpapers and floors, painstakenly matched by hand.

For anybody who hasn't seen these, Nectere has some nice Maxis match  desks  (http://www.nectere.net/smf/index.php?topic=718.0) to go with the kitchen counters. I like having a desk in the kitchen, so I think these are great.

MTS2 member Ailias has also been doing some good Maxis-matching furniture, completing their sets. Windkeeper also did at least one (a Meroccan chair to match the sofa and loveseat).

Windkeeper has some lovely Maxis match sets, especially for later-EP furniture themes. Tabbylou on TSR has an insane amount of Mission-match stuff. And there is a truckload of Maxis match stuff from N99 as well.

You know, it's funny... I love all the Maxis-match stuff. Somehow I manage to forgive Maxis for giving us crap, simply because I have stuff to match it with. I think that's kind of strange. I mean, it defies logic. If something is crap when on its own, you certainly don't expect it to become less  crappy when there's more  of it.

akatonbo - where can I find this Windkeeper stuff? All I know of is the Meroccan chair, and a giant servo statue/lamp.

Most of Windkeeper's stuff is on TSR, and most of it should therefore also be in the booty. The best way to find things is to browse her sets (TSR -> Featured Artists -> Windkeeper's profile -> Sets) and locate something you want, then look it up in the booty.

Jordi, make sure you check out Windkeeper's window sets. I know she has done a fantastic job on the Lafenetre & the Helios but I also think she did something with the Storybook ones as well.

EDIT: She has expanded the Storybook set & the Open Me set

Doh! I just realised there's not a terlet in one of the upstairs bathrooms (the one closest to the stairwell). I had one in there, between the showertub and the potted plant, but clicked 'undo' one too many times when fixing something else. I suppose it's too late to re-upload my submission?

About the mismatched Maxis content: Yes, that is one of my principle annoyances, as well, especially the wood. Some of the wood has a pink tone, some a greenish caste, but most of it is either yellow or orange, but never the same shade of yellow or orange. It's quite irritating.

0.95 for aesthetics. The exterior is much better than the interior.

I must admit I was feeling rather uninspired by the time I got to the interior. IRL I take a more eclectic approach to decorating, and hate when everything's all matchy matchy, but when viewing sim-houses from a zoomed-out position, everything must match, dammit! This is quite problematic when nothing actually does match, due to the strangeness of Maxian colour choices. It really creates quite a quandary. Not that I'm making excuses, mind you -- I know the interior is boring. I was going for a neutral palette with occasional 'pops' of colour in keeping with the mission/arts-and-crafts theme (which is known for its subdued and rather 'muddy' palette). Oh well.

Edited to correct misspelling.

And edited again to correct another misspelling (actually incorrect diction).

What I need most are walls to match the stupid modular stairs. I don't really use any other Maxis content consistently. I've been struggling to do it myself, but HomeCrafter seems to darken my images on upload, so it requires repeated tweaking.

There does not appear to actually BE a file at the link provided, seeing as it is 404'ed. Since there's no particularly compelling reason why this file would simply be MISSING...

(http://www.moreawesomethanyou.com/cats/fail.jpg)