Shared neighborhood - ground rules

[SweetCat]

This sounds fun =) Can i join in too?

[humybyrd]

I can contribute some houses (not so good with businesses) and my story family.  I would also like to try to do a farm imigrant or hobo town lot. Just need to know how big you want them- Lot size limit? or Price limit to start? Can also make some townies.

[Zeljka]

I would like to contribute a family,

I was hoping I could
1. Create a new neighbourhood, delete all characters and create 2 families (fine, Maxis only) Family one is the family I'm sharing, Family two will be townies and put on an empty lot, given jobs then ignored.
2. I would play Family One a day or two to establish their bedrooms, relationships, a few memories, skills, and a bit of a story. I would promise to hire NO service people, their only 'friends' would be family 2.
3. Once a story is established, I use Inge's shrub to move family 2 in, and upload it with a note that X, Y, and Z (family 2) are actually townies and moved in to prevent the big fiery ball.
4. Whoever we upload or email this stuff to uses Inge's shrub to make X, Y, Z townies
That way, my family already knows people other than themselves, and as townies, X, Y and Z can possibly help introduce them around.
This way, we would have a nice variety of families and townies.

Typing this out now, I realize there would be a paperkid and mailman, but if nobody meets them, there shouldn't be a problem right? A family I'd moved to a different neighbourhood (before knowing what I know now) that didn't meet NPCs didn't bring them along, not even the maid.

Either way, I'd like to contribute a family, or townies and will follow whatever rules decided upon in doing so. Not a designer of spectacular homes (my sims have to earn them, and if they aren't played, how can they do that?) But I can certainly put them in a starter home. I also have a small but fairly efficient email community lot - heh heh.

Ancient Sim, I agree with you, I'd like to download a neighbourhood with a story, because the Maxis stuff didn't interest me. I  prefer playing without my hacks and mods limited, I want smartserv, homework in bedroom, tripletquads, Inge's doors and shrubs, I could go on but won't. I love the idea of the chance cards and will do them without 'cheating' to do them, as it will make things more interesting and like that we can discuss how our games differ...

[ZephyrZodiac]

I think a lot of what you say, Zeljka, makes sense to me too, but I think I'm happier just making one family in a house.  since it's been suggested that thre are some wealthy families in the hood, I could perhaps contribute a more expensive lot and A small family group living in it.

Or my original suggestion of a star house with a basement (the pool could be added later if desired) and a couple of floors with an observation platform.  Since I still have an installation with just Sims2, this house could be made in that, without hacks etc., very easily, and would be available to everyone, whether or not they have the EPs.

[MissDoh]

I think a lot of what you say, Zeljka, makes sense to me too, but I think I'm happier just making one family in a house.  since it's been suggested that thre are some wealthy families in the hood, I could perhaps contribute a more expensive lot and A small family group living in it.

Or my original suggestion of a star house with a basement (the pool could be added later if desired) and a couple of floors with an observation platform.  Since I still have an installation with just Sims2, this house could be made in that, without hacks etc., very easily, and would be available to everyone, whether or not they have the EPs.

I would love to add such a house in my hoods, I never was really good at making houses with basement.

[ZephyrZodiac]

Well, if I make one for the game, then it would be available for you to put in your game - you'd just have to make a copy of the house/family in an empty neighbourhood, move the family out and then put the house into the houses bin,  then put the house back into the neighbourhood and package it.

[Bangelnuts]

Well, if I make one for the game, then it would be available for you to put in your game - you'd just have to make a copy of the house/family in an empty neighbourhood, move the family out and then put the house into the houses bin,  then put the house back into the neighbourhood and package it.

I envy you guys that are able to build nice homes .my sims are lucky to get a 2 story box to live in when I build a house I just have no talent for building stuff

[Twiki]

Here's another interested person. I mostly play with historical neighborhoods, so any lot I contribute would probably be a little old-fashioned, if that's acceptable. How about a poor farmer and his large family crammed into an aging farmhouse? If nothing else, you could use the kids as breeding stock or faux townies.

(I've been lurking here since the Big Move from VS, and haven't posted til now - that's how inspiring this thread is. )

[JadeEliott]

Well, I am very involved with my own shared hood with another talented simmer, but I still offer to decorate this hood and whatever else is needed in that department. So I am just going to watch the thread and wait and see if a decision is made and when it is, then let me know.

[Andygal]

Hi. Yeah I dissappared for a while, went on holiday.

but I'm still interested. I can create families. I can also create relationships in SimPE though I don't want to try messing with memories because the last time I tried to add something to a sim in the memory panel it resulted in a BFBVFS and I had to delete the neighbourhood.

And as for the idea of "rules" I was thinking that if we used Ancient Sim's idea and each uploaded a self-sim the person that uploaded each sim could dictate the rules the wanted that sim to be played by (ie no Skillinator, no macrostatics etc. )

[ZephyrZodiac]

I think separate rules for each sim would cause tremendous problems!  Unless you have a memory to match the memory Man, you'd spend more time checking lists than playing!

[Andygal]

well you could always stick the rules in the family bio.

[Bangelnuts]

I think separate rules for each sim would cause tremendous problems!  Unless you have a memory to match the memory Man, you'd spend more time checking lists than playing!

memory recording in Sim PE is tedious and time consuming to do it right . I have spent many a day in simPE doing detiled memory for my sims that have large familys  and a long history.from birth to college the average sim has four columns of memories in Sim PE that actually belong to that sim. and thats after you delete the spam about A+'s. because the game records everysingle A+ in a sims memory  if you have 6 children in a family who all get A='s twice during childhood right there it adds 12 A+ memories to your sim's memories. I delete alot of that 1 A= per child per life stage is all I leave in. then you get memories in there that dont even belong to your sim or anyone in his family, case in point  MY JM Pescado has barely met Jon Smith Tricou but in his memories was Kernan moved out owned by Jennicor Tricou. those I deleted.JM could care less thatKiernan Tricou moved out of Brad Harper's house

[ZephyrZodiac]

Bangelnuts, I was referrring in my post to MY memory, not my sims' memory!  simply that, if I had to remember a list of rules which were different for each house, and sometimes each sim, I'd go totally mental!  And how about if a sim who has the rule "no hacks at all" marries a sim who hasn't?  And how on earth can you have rules AGAINST global hacks for one sim, but not others?  If a Global hack is disallowed for one sim, then it has to be disallowed for all of them!

And I'm afraid even if the rules are in the family bio, I'd still have better things to do than keep referrring back to them every time I enter a lot.

[Bangelnuts]

Bangelnuts, I was referrring in my post to MY memory, not my sims' memory!  simply that, if I had to remember a list of rules which were different for each house, and sometimes each sim, I'd go totally mental!  And how about if a sim who has the rule "no hacks at all" marries a sim who hasn't?  And how on earth can you have rules AGAINST global hacks for one sim, but not others?  If a Global hack is disallowed for one sim, then it has to be disallowed for all of them!

And I'm afraid even if the rules are in the family bio, I'd still have better things to do than keep referrring back to them every time I enter a lot.

I dont think separate rules for each sim will work. most will forget  along the way which sims are allowed hacks and which ones arent. and constantly having to check the Bio takes away from letting the sim's story develop.in my game I use hacks and fixes .the insimenator and the teleport shrub saved my poor Sim from being stuck at Uni forever after graduation, he graduated and used the dorm phone to call a taxi numerous times and still couldnt transition to adulthood. I used the shrub to teleport him to his Brothers house in the neighborhood and move him in and the insimenator to transition him from YA to adulthood.. I clicked grow up the first time. he grew up all right . he became an instant elder. he went from YA to Elder no adult hood I quickly reset his age and selected  adult.how would you fix the  move out bug if no Global hacks or fixes are allowed?. contrary to popular belief the patch really didnt fix much if anything. nannies still get stuck and  YA's still have trouble moving back to the neighborhood after  graduation.the only thing I see that was allowed by the patch is toddlers  can be served smart milk in their high chairs.but again this is just my opinion. and I do agree there should be one uniform rule in the shared neighborhood for all sims. either all can use global hacks and fixes  or none can.

[Zeljka]

I think a lot of what you say, Zeljka, makes sense to me too, but I think I'm happier just making one family in a house..

Or my original suggestion of a star house with a basement (the pool could be added later if desired) and a couple of floors with an observation platform.  Since I still have an installation with just Sims2, this house could be made in that, without hacks etc., very easily, and would be available to everyone, whether or not they have the EPs.

I was thinking of family 2 more as perhaps an adult or 2 and a kid, just to allow friends, but again, the idea of this is so appealing that I will go with whatever is decided.
I am still cleaning out my game to install the EPs, so unless it happens in the next week, mine would be available to anyone with just the original game as well. I already have my Sims figured out. One of my first families in the game (pure Maxis) had 22 kids, but the last few were lost after a game crash. I managed to get them back but they have no memories, so I put them in Foster homes to grow them to teens. Seeing as they're orphans now, I'd like them to have a chance to grow up and have 'lives'. I cloned them because they're cute and fairly distinct, even though pure Maxis.

[ZephyrZodiac]

I think the general idea is to have sims start out in everyones game as if they'd been made in CAS in that game, but with the bonus that in fact someone else made them, and there would be subtle differences in how they have been put together and their stories composed. 

[witch]

I agree ZZ. If we have sims we want to share, I reckon they should be cloned. I don't even think we should muck around with memories as has been suggested, too much risk of corruption IMHO. I think the storyline would be enough. If I know sim A is in love with sim B's husband, then I can make that happen in the story.

If we set up too elaborate a storyline at the beginning, it partly negates the point of developing different plots for the players of this hood. I'd be happy with a basic structure.

[simmiecal]

I agree ZZ. If we have sims we want to share, I reckon they should be cloned. I don't even think we should muck around with memories as has ben suggested, too much risk of corruption imho. I think the storyline would be enough. If I know sim A is in love with sim B's husband, then I can make that happen in the story.

If we set up too elaborate a storyline at the beginning, it partly negates the point of developing different plots for the players of this hood. I'd be happy with a basic structure.

I agree that the memory part of it is probably too much. But, I don't think it'd be too difficult to have sim A know or have a relationship with sim B. For example, if someone was contributing two sims in different households, but the sims were friends, I think it'd be easy enough to set-up.  Like how Dina had a relationship with Don, etc.

As far as storyline, I'm thinking of it as more "background" info - some creative ideas for people to think about rather than just "here's a group of sims to play".

[Zeljka]

I suppose I was thinking more of background than story, and definately clones, not active Sims from a game.
I clone all my favourite Sims because I find it interesting to see how much of their 'personality' is actually them and how much is learned.
That surprisingly devoted Romance sim from neighbourhood 4, cloned and put into a different neighbourhood with identical personality can be a real dog.