Sharing neighborhoods - Simpotence thread

[simmiecal]

For those that expressed an interest in sharing a neighborhood, why don't you list your set-up and playing styles and maybe we can match some people up.


I have the base, Uni and NL installed.
I play with mods and custom content but wouldn't mind if it were a "clean" neighborhood
I'd be interested in trading neighborhoods after someone else has played them or just posting stories about what my "game" has done.

I was thinking of a "trailer trash" kind of family - something similiar to the Brokes - to contribute to the neighborhood. I was thinking we could have a "good side" of the neighborhood and a "bad side" and see how the sims interact. The "bad side" would start out with very few things and low level or no jobs. The "good side" would be uni educated sims with jobs at higher levels.

      

What expansions, if any, do you have installed?
Do you play with mods or custom content? Will you consider a neighborhood that has/doesn't have mods/custom content even if that's not the way you normally play?
Do you have a story idea for the neighborhood?
Do you want to pass the neighborhood back and forth between people in the group-picking up where someone else has left off story-wise  -or- do you just want to create a neighborhood story where everyone starts out with the same characters and lots and then update the group with stories as to how your sims have progressed?

[SickPuppy]

It would be cool to create a neighborhood and pass it(and the downloads folder) from person to person, each person playing it for 1 day and making whatever changes/additions they wish. At the end the neighborhood could be posted for download.

 

[Baa]

It would be cool to create a neighborhood and pass it(and the downloads folder) from person to person, each person playing it for 1 day and making whatever changes/additions they wish. At the end the neighborhood could be posted for download.

 

That would be cool, but that'd be a hell of a lotta downloads and (unwanted) hacks being spread around.

I recently started a new neighborhood, I was inspired by JadeElliot and his WONDERFULL downtown Whimsy. Right now I've only constructed the downtown area.

Now I have to make the residential area. I'm thinking about doing what the above mentioned: making a somewhat "bad" side of town. Maybe just some moderately cheaper homes.

[SickPuppy]

It would be cool to create a neighborhood and pass it(and the downloads folder) from person to person, each person playing it for 1 day and making whatever changes/additions they wish. At the end the neighborhood could be posted for download.

 

That would be cool, but that'd be a hell of a lotta downloads and (unwanted) hacks being spread around.

The hacks or the neighborhood/downloads folders can be removed...no?

[Bangelnuts]

It would be cool to create a neighborhood and pass it(and the downloads folder) from person to person, each person playing it for 1 day and making whatever changes/additions they wish. At the end the neighborhood could be posted for download.

 

That would be cool, but that'd be a hell of a lotta downloads and (unwanted) hacks being spread around.

The hacks or the neighborhood/downloads folders can be removed...no?

yes they can be theonly issue I see is some of us have CC that we have no clue now who made it

[Motoki]

I have uni and nl. I'm sorry but I am going to have to refuse to play without my hacks. Going without the phonehack for several weeks was hell for me and I'm not willing to do that again.

[simmiecal]

It would be cool to create a neighborhood and pass it(and the downloads folder) from person to person, each person playing it for 1 day and making whatever changes/additions they wish. At the end the neighborhood could be posted for download.

 

That would be cool, but that'd be a hell of a lotta downloads and (unwanted) hacks being spread around.

The hacks or the neighborhood/downloads folders can be removed...no?

Exactly - there are a couple of ways to handle that.

1. The shared neighborhood has no mods /hacks - so nothing gets moved from machine to machine except Maxis made stuff.
2. Only "agreed upon" mods/hacks are used and everyone using the shared neighborhood downloads them. There would be nothing in the neighborhood that people didn't already have.

As you noted, your personal download folder can be moved and a new one put in its place for when you are playing the shared neighborhood. You remove that folder when you play your own game and no new hacks/mods are introduced into your personal neighborhood.

Also, if you are a windows xp user, you can create a separate user ID to use with shared neighborhood and that user ID would keep all downloads separate from your personal folders.

[lefty]

I have the main game and both EP's installed.

I play with all kinds of hacks, mods, and custom content, but could live without them (except ones that take out annoyances, like "What's This" everytime I add an item, and the VERY excessive whining).

My idea for a neighboorhood in this project: Start off with 2-4 houses, all somehow connected (family ties, friendship, or lovers... anything as long as they are connected). In these houses the sims included are varying in how old they are (like, one is a adult halfway to elder, a child is almost a teen, etc... it annoys me how when you create sims they are all the same age, there should be gaps sometimes)

I think passing the neighboorhood back and forth between other members after say, 1-2 sim weeks, in a week our time would be fun. We could update with a story what happened, and let the next person pick it up from there. Reminds me fondly of highschool when we would pass along a 'story' notebook, one would start, pass it around, and it would eventually end.

Makes for an interesting reading, seeing what everyone did with the story. I believe the same in this situation.

[MissDoh]

I am one of the exception here which have no mods, hacks, genetics, clothes or objects in my game and I am not really interested in adding any (except for some mods that sounds really useful).  I do understand though that for some they are essential and would not ask for anyone to remove them.  The only thing I use are the in cheats like boolprop testingcheats, aging on/off, aspirationlevel #, etc...

Why not make a few basic families with a scenario that everyone can place in their game.  Since I have a clean game I could make those familes if you wish and upload them on Sims 2 bbs site, you just need to give me the scenario for each of the family and I could write it in the family bio.  We can then place those in a custom hood we create with a downtown section and University if all of us who wish to participate have all the expansions packs (I do have Uni and Nightlife).

The important thing for me is not to share the neighborhoods but to have specific goals for each family which would of course not involve using hacks or cheats as a shortcut so all of us start the same.

We could have a married Romance Sims (female or male not important) who is really excited about the new downtown area that arrived in its town and wants to date everyone but must keep his/her relationship with spouse perfect.

Another could be a single mom/father with a knowlege teen that really wish to go to University but for some reason the parent is against that and all paranormal stuff.  The teen would need to found a way to make its parent accept the fact it needs to go to University by making it be friends with professors in the game and by going to private school.

Another family could be made with 2 elders and 1 adult in a huge house.  The adult must find a spouse that needs to be approve by both parents (must have a relation of 100/90 in a certain determine time) to be able to inherit the house, otherwise it will go to charity.  The elder cannot call the future spouse to build relationship, it must done other ways.

These are some ideas, let me know what you think of them.

[MsMaria]

I have Uni and NL installed. I have thousands of files of CC. I think my game just blew up actually. I added download folder number 20 and the poor game wouldn't load. I may have to do some culling, hehe. Anyway, I'll go with the flow and do whatever you guys agree is best.

I do use hacks, but I don't have to if that's an issue.

[Sagana]

hm, I don't want to upload and download a bunch of stuff for a whole neighborhood... my net connect isn't very good, and I suspect it'd blow up for me. But an rpg-type thing sounds like a lot of fun. If you decide to do something like that, I'd love to participate, if there's room for me (I haven't even finished reading the original thread, much less posted to it).

Another way to do something rpg-like that hasn't been suggested yet would be to have a neighboorhood theme and for everyone to make a character/family that is "theirs" and fits in with the theme and put in everyone else's characters as townies and then play out the story, see how they relate. Updates could be posted and added and have to be added in to other games as well (temporary control for babies or making sure someone goes to Uni when they should or the like.) Some goals to reach would be good as well.

If that doesn't make sense, and anyone's interested, I can try again to explain, with examples and suchlike

Um, I have the base game, all EPs and use hacks and CC - tho if I can't play a dl thing, that probably doesn't matter, thought I should say anyways.

[Motoki]

I don't think the actual bare terrains are that big to download. Lots that contain no custom content usually aren't bad either but we could even just use Maxis lots. *shrug*

The rest of the custom content I suppose could be up to the user. Even if we upload our played lots later, they're easily cleaned of custom content with clean installer or you could exit the game, take your downloads out, then package the house and then go put the downloads back in for the next time you play.

[Baa]

Aha, I also forgot about the feature in NL that allows you to disable all CC.

[BlueSoup]

I would love to participate - sounds like a great way to alleviate some boredom.  I have both EP's, and hacks/CC are not a problem for me.

[Sagana]

Oh terrains aren't big at all. Maybe I'm misunderstanding totally.

<goes back to lurking and quits enabling footinmouth>

[simmiecal]

OK - first we need a terrain for our neighborhood. I have SimCity4, so I can do some custom terrains, but I warn you - I'm not too good at it. Please give HONEST feedback - if it looks like crap, say so.

What kind of terrain does everyone vote for: flat, hilly, mountain, river, ocean beach?  Lush, desert, concrete?

While people are posting what they want, I'll play with a couple of terrains and post pictures.  People could critique them and I can make adjustments.

[BlueSoup]

I like lush, flat terrain.  I'm boring that way, but I prefer houses I make to not be too much hassle - liveable and nothing fancy (besides, all the huge houses make my computer slow to a crawl anyway).

[simmiecal]

Oh terrains aren't big at all. Maybe I'm misunderstanding totally.

<goes back to lurking and quits enabling footinmouth>

Remove foot from mouth.  

Actually, we were talking about different ways of doing it.

1. We all contribute to a neighborhood and build one and then we all start with the same beginning story and "do our own thing"
2. #1 plus we actually share the neighborhood and play out stories that other people have started

I'm going with the idea that whichever route we decide, we at least need to build the neighborhood. We can start using only Maxis items until we have enough of a consensus of where we're going with this.  Besides, if we go with option #1, people can always add their mods and CC after we "launch" the neighborhood.

[Baa]

I'd play the typical lush terrain. Something interesting, but flat. Maybe a large omnipotent hill in the corner that slowly goes down into a flat valley type thing? Call it MATY Hill.

[PlaidSquirrel]

I like lush terrain. It doesn't have to be flat I actually like hills but I prefer for the lots to be fairly level. If just the area along the roads is flat the rest can be hilly or whatever for interest, yes? I have all the ep's and boat loads of hacks and cc. I can always change some of this for the "thing" we do.

[JadeEliott]

I recently started a new neighborhood, I was inspired by JadeElliot and his WONDERFULL downtown Whimsy.

Thank you so much for the compliment, but I am a woman. female. girl. with ta-ta's.

*bows. adjusts her bra strap. exits stage right, grinning.*

[Baa]

I recently started a new neighborhood, I was inspired by JadeElliot and his WONDERFULL downtown Whimsy.

Thank you so much for the compliment, but I am a woman. female. girl. with ta-ta's.

*bows. exits stage right*

Whoops. Sorry about that. My mistake! Normally when I don't know a posters gender I'll say (s)he. But for some reason I totally assumed you were a dude. I guess it was the Elliott.

Again, sorry.

[Bangelnuts]

I like lush terrain. It doesn't have to be flat I actually like hills but I prefer for the lots to be fairly level. If just the area along the roads is flat the rest can be hilly or whatever for interest, yes? I have all the ep's and boat loads of hacks and cc. I can always change some of this for the "thing" we do.

I have the eps and a boat load of cc/ some hacks but not a boatload of those most of mine are fixes and behavioral types like no rabbit spin and no "whats this". I like lush terrain with fairly level lots I like hills just not on the lots

[Torkle]

Thank you so much for the compliment, but I am a woman. female. girl. with ta-ta's.

*bows. adjusts her bra strap. exits stage right, grinning.*

Can we see pictures?  Just to remove all doubt, mind you.   

[simmiecal]

Well, it's seems like there's been a lot of votes for flat terrain....figures I'd make something with a mountain. Well, at least the areas where we'd build lots are flat. Let me know what you like and don't like-this is a group project. I've already said that I'm not very good at this, so I won't have hurt feelings if you say it's crap.

Here's Matyville: