Two Futuristic Houses for a Space Colony

[ingeli]

I finally got my new blog up - and two houses for download, built for my Space Colony version of Sunset Valley, Colonization 102. It's a small basic semi-bunker and a Science Museum:


The small bunker is built on the smallest lot in Sunset Valley so it can easily be placed anywhere.


The Science Museum is a Community Lot showing collections of rocks, butterflies and fish, with a library and a café. Its built on Summer Hill Court 20 but you can place it on any of the bigger lots, of course.



Science Hill (Summer Hill Court) with the Science Museum on the left. The building on the right side is similar but there I have an Art Gallery instead of a Museum. In the middle you see the Science Dome, containing the Science Lab and the Produce Store, both hidden underground.

See more pics and download here:
http://simverses.net/blog/default.aspx

[saraswati]

My favourite of the three is the small lot. The glass walls are a nice design feature drawing the eye to that corner of the lot and the overall proportions of the lot are pretty much perfect. The glass starts to lose it's impact on a larger scale. I'm a little unclear though due to the shots whether the glass area is open air or not.

With the issue of having the gridlines show up in your images, what you can do to combat that so you get better shots is take your images while you've got terrain paint selected, then hide your cursor under a bush.

You should still include probably an overhead view of both of the houses so people can see what you've got inside, plus give them an idea of how much it costs so they can see whether or not it's affordable in-game. Plus Pescado will want to know what sorts of furnishings you've used in case you've used the substandard furnishings.

[ingeli]

There are more pictures on my blog, I didnt't want to clog the post here - I will take your advise on the grid trick, was a little too fast there .
The Small Bunker comes in two versions: one unfurnished, and one with furnishings - high quality plumbing and appliances, the bed may be lower standard but I also aim to keep the theme (metallic simple) and I used only base game stuff for the small house, no store items or downloaded content. And yes, as the roof is open, the green house counts as open air. There are plants in the green house.
The Science Museum has some store items (modern doors) and the Gender Doors from MTS.

[brownlustgirl]

I like the last picture with the Science building and museums. Just confirmed for me the idea to put several of the rabbitholes on one 60x60 lot and clear up space for more residential building.

Your lot is quite imaginative and creative.

[Orange]

The science museum looks terrible outside, maybe the insides redeem this. Of course, it might blend in well if all other buildings around it adhere a similar style, but as a standalone it's pretty weak.
The tiny house is pretty damn well done. I really like it.
The dome is pretty cool too, but I'm worried about my precious robot fish.

[Regina]

This whole thing just reinforces my thought that we need to be able to replace the terrains in-game with something appropriately space-like, like moon dust or some such. I love the thing with the dome on it--looks awesome!

The dome is pretty cool too, but I'm worried about my precious robot fish.

There are ways to replace the precious robot fish.

[tizerist]

I like the pyramid style science centre.
I'm having to be fussy over what lots I put in my game now, but I think that could go quite nicely in the middle of Summer Hill Court, due to its shape, it should be a 'central' building.
Think I'll do that now actually, thanks.

[Zazazu]

The science museum looks terrible outside, maybe the insides redeem this. Of course, it might blend in well if all other buildings around it adhere a similar style, but as a standalone it's pretty weak.

A very slight adjustment might help it. Turn the top floor into more of an upside-down U that goes 2-3 squares past the bottom level before hitting ground. Or maybe an X with legs, hitting similarly to the U possibility. As it is, it is a blocky pyramid. Not bad, really, not for a community lot. But yeah...again and again we come up against the limits of being stuck with two green suburban sprawl terrains. Nothing urban or futuristic can look right.

I like the greenhouse portion of the residential lot. I really miss CC glass tiles.

[Regina]

It would probably be possible to make terrain replacements. In all the default replacements I've done I haven't played with that but I'll bet it could be accomplished in the same way. I may even give it a shot a bit later on but I have too many irons in the fire right now.

Replacement textures could also be made for trees and flowers, and if some of the DDS files were saved in the wrong alpha format, they might possibly look very other-worldly.

[ingeli]

That sounds really interesting, Regina - replacements would be really useful, both for the terrains and other stuff. And if there only was a way to get rid of props like water towers and commercial signs and the annoying road signs..
They don't fit in, not in the Space Colony and certainly not in my planned historical hood..
Thnx for feedback about the houses - yes I also miss the greenhouse walls . The Science Museum is meant to be pyramidelike, but I am sure it's possible to adjust it. I did aim for the museum and library part - and there is room in the museum for new collections, from Egypt for example. I like how easy it is to change between residence/community zoning. In my game this building is my sims first choice for library studies. It also has the Beautiful Vista boost, so they are quiet happy there. I built it with the BV-buff from start (thnx Regina for the empty hoods with BV!) but now they are of course easier to fix with the new tool that Tiger made on MTS.

[Regina]

And if there only was a way to get rid of props like water towers and commercial signs and the annoying road signs..

That shouldn't be a problem either, that is for someone who can mesh. All it would take is replacement objects. In order for any object to not over-ride the original, it has to have extra coding added. Without that coding, the new mesh object will just replace the default.  I may learn eventually but right now I've no idea how to mesh.

You're welcome for the empty town maps! I downloaded TigerM's lot editor the other day and can't wait to try it. I've been working on my own version of Sunset Valley off and on for over a month so was extremely happy to see that!  Sometimes I procrastinate badly and one thing I was really dragging my feet on was starting to build houses on the buffed lots. This time procrastination paid off in a big way--now I won't have to build them all by hand!