Selfmade vacation sims

[abelle]

I am a little late at BV, as I thought I am not interested in my sims going on vacations, but I recently caved and got it anyway. Now thanks to Argon I have blessedly empty vacation locations that I have to fill myself.

I already populated the asian location by downloading some normal looking asian sims which I made have children in CAS. I am very pleased with how they turned out and had to force myself to make them into locals instead of playing them. I searched for japanese names on the web and the sims really seemed different than those I normally make.

I am a little stumped on what ethnicies to base the other two groups of locals on. The lakes location does make me think of Canada somewhat and the beach one gives a polynesian feeling.

So I am asking for inspiration. What did you base your locals on? I hope it is okay to post this here. Maybe someone wants to share their locals?

Here is a picture of my asian locals:

I hope I didn´t bork anything by making them related in CAS.

[jolrei]

Canadians wear either the hiking clothes (with backpacks at all times), or look like Eskimos.  When in Eskimo costume, the sim should always have some sort of fish accessory, if not a real fish, secreted somewhere about his person. 

Formalwear is usually something with a tiara to make us look more like the Queen.  (I know that the Queen generally does not wear a backpack, but we can't let a little thing like that stop us.).  Alternate formalwear would be a Mountie uniform, but this should only be worn by people who can sing (sims with high creativity, I suppose).

I personally never learned the slap dance, but I grew up outside of Canada.

This started as a joke, but I'm beginning to like the idea...

[abelle]

Ok, than I might have to download the fish replaces pillow thing and have the mountain sims constantly pillow-fish-fighting. 

Seriously though, I planned to just put some generic sims in the mountain clothes. I thought about a bavarian theme but somehow the location felt more northern than bavaria to me. I realise this is not really important, but as I never make asian sims it was nice that the locals I made for that destination felt very different from my sims who are going to be tourists there. The slapdance actually is quite similar to the "Schuhplattler" which is a bavarian folklore dance. Maybe I will go with this theme after all. At least I know a lot of stereotypes about bavarian people.

I don´t know any Canadian stereotypes. I guess I could do some research, starting with where in the world people greet each other by pounding their chests. 

[Kazzandra]

I don´t know any Canadian stereotypes. I guess I could do some research, starting with where in the world people greet each other by pounding their chests. 

Eh? Where in the world don't people greet other with a good chest pounding?

[maxon]

I made my mountaineers an inbred family in plaid and dungerees though I could perhaps have done something more British.  mmmm.  I went with the blindingly obvious I'm afraid.  Sort of generic Eastern for the Far East location and Polynesian for Twikki Island.

[Gwill]

Don't neglect the underbite when creating the mountain folk.

[jolrei]

Don't neglect the underbite when creating the mountain folk.

And make sure one of them is called Cletus.

[abelle]

I made my mountaineers an inbred family in plaid and dungerees though I could perhaps have done something more British.  mmmm.  I went with the blindingly obvious I'm afraid.  Sort of generic Eastern for the Far East location and Polynesian for Twikki Island.

That is what I wanted to know. I guess I have to confess, it wasn´t that blindly obvious to me at all. I only found polynesian for the Island location after I searched various sites and the lakes location really had me stumped. So, I have to thank Kazzandra for giving me the hint about Appalachia. I now have many more stereotypes at my disposition. I hadn´t even known what redneck really meant and would never have it associated with that location.

Google is a bitch if you don´t have any catchword to look for. Canada, mountains and lake are pretty generic and don´t turn up much. I only need names and appearance anyway, but it is nice to have some sort of backstory in my head while playing.

[Ellatrue]

I thought "north" and made them all blond/nordic-looking, but mostly because I like to have blond sims for breeding purposes when the brown/black hair takes over my neighborhood.

For Twikki Island, I went for Polynesia/Caribbean, and used a lot of the ripped Castaway Stories stuff.

[witch]

The families I'm making for my custom island hood are nearly all Maori, who are Polynesian anyway. I know a lot of the names and they're familiar, in real life. Plus I get to use the Ta Moko tattoos.

[gynarchy]

For Three Lakes I used Norwegian names with fair skintones and lighter hair colors. My Twikkii Islanders have mainly Hawaiian names with darker skintones and hair colors. I wish there were teen versions of the lumberjack outfits and grass skirts because they don't really fit in with the rest of the Vacationers.

[cenoura]

gynarchy have you tried cloudlessnights at MTS2? She's done some converted BV stuff.

[gynarchy]

I haven't seen those before, cheers for the link jemjie!

[Zazazu]

I thought "north" and made them all blond/nordic-looking, but mostly because I like to have blond sims for breeding purposes when the brown/black hair takes over my neighborhood.

For Twikki Island, I went for Polynesia/Caribbean, and used a lot of the ripped Castaway Stories stuff.

Funny, red hair is taking over my 'hood. I started with a redhead and keep ending up with my sims attracted to more redheads and blonds.

My current 'hood has no vacation neighborhoods yet, last one only had Far East. I did two families for it...one extended family and a bunch of singles. Last names were Lee, Wang, Do, and Tseng. I don't remember all the first names, but some were common Americanized names and some the proper ethnicity. Everyone was in kimonos, just so I could keep straight who the locals were.

[Sagana]

I think lumberjacks for the lakes area, Paul Bunyan and axe-throwing and oversized pancakes, so more Northern US (Michigan, Wisconsin, Minn, Maine) than Appalachia.

[Gwill]

For Three Lakes I used Norwegian names with fair skintones and lighter hair colors. My Twikkii Islanders have mainly Hawaiian names with darker skintones and hair colors. I wish there were teen versions of the lumberjack outfits and grass skirts because they don't really fit in with the rest of the Vacationers.

Norwegians are timid and weary of strangers.  They certainly don't pound their chest, in fact they're more likely to hide behind their cabin and pretend not to be home.
Axes have not been thrown in Norway since the Vikings caught Christianity.  And if anyone eats pancakes, it will be the kind made from potatoes.  Actually, any meal you'd encounter in Norway the last 500 years will be at least 50% potatoes.
Don't even get me started on Bigfoot.  We have gnomes (nisser); they're three feet tall and watch over your livestock if you're good to them, and if you're not kind to your nisse...  Let's just say you better put out a bowl of porridge and mug of ale on Christmas if you value your cow.  Oh, and if you don't watch your newborns, the nisse will (for some unknown reason of his own) swap it for a stupid and deformed one.

Anyway; Norway: NO.
American-Norwegian descendants: Possibly.

[J. M. Pescado]

Lumberjack Land is clearly Canadian or northern US. There are no legendary Bigfoots anywhere else, unless you count the Himalayan yeti, but there is not much in the way of lumberjacking and flannel there. The absence of sherpas clearly demonstrates this is not what EAxis is referring to.

[Sagana]

Could be California which has some nice Bigfoot stories and logging for all those redwoods and such. Although actually there are similar hominid cryptid sightings in many places (Mongolia, Missouri, Scotland). Wiki has a nice long list.

I dunno, I still think the Paul Bunyan thing fits best. I can just see 'em skating around a frying pan on rashers of bacon preparing pancakes for his breakfast right before the slapdance extravaganza. I wish they'd put in Babe - I'd rather have a giant blue ox than a big foot myself.

[Kazzandra]

what EAxis is referring to

is always a load of boring bollocks to which I never listen. But that's just me. Carry on.

[hatsuniza]

Oh yes, there are plenty of hillbilly-type small towns that dot the Sierras in California.  A Three-Lakes hood set around Yosemite or Sequoia Parks would work just fine.

[Cappuccino]

What skintones do you use for each area? I guess "Three Lakes" could be pretty much everything, mainly normal-tan probably, "Twikkii Island" tan and mostly dark but I'd definitely want a paler skin than the light one for "Takemizu Village". Anyone have a good asian skinset (anatomically correct if possible )

[Jelenedra]

Enayla or Louis skintones for me.

[Gwill]

Someone just uploaded a whole lot of asian skintones at MTS2 a while ago:
http://hideki.modthesims2.com/showthread.php?t=257730

[doren]

I never associate real places with my sims. They live in their own universe, so they have places which are probably similar to some place on earth but it doesn't mean it's the same. I based the sims I created on a general idea of "Asian", "Island people", "Mountain people". When I looked at the Three Lakes locals before I replaced them all I remember were sloppy and had stink as a turn-on. There seems to be the idea that they are a bit uncivilised, being so isolated up there.

I used mainly Enalya's skins for the Takemizu village, but to avoid that they all look too much the same, I also mixed in some of helaene's old skins.

That's some of them there:

http://www.picturetrail.com/gallery/view?p=999&gid=17947901&uid=2916537

[Kazzandra]

I never associate real places with my sims.

Me neither! But I have to say, your vacation sims= teh awesome.