Meadow Lawns - a new 'hood to play with - OFB required

[Charlotte]

I had to start my Meadow Lawns again because I lost the Jackman family (Francois and Phillip) somewhere - they were on there way to one of the community lot businesses (I can't remember which one it was but I think it use to belong to George Jackman) and it kept crashing everytime I tried again.  I couldn't find them at there house and when I used any teleport method, they weren't available anywhere - the had just disappeared and even Susans memories of them were blank.

I'm also not going to kill of Belinda even though I think she's completely irresponsible.  I might just punish her a bit - Phil is pretty goodlooking and goodlooking genes shouldn't be restricted to one woman   Belinda is working at the hair salon again and this time I might get her to save enough money to buy it for the family - she's going to stay alone with the baby she's having just to make the game a bit harder for me.  Most of the elderly people are dead; all of them except for that Fuller lady, Mr Goosem and the romance brother from the Livesly's.  I made Adam an adult again and he has two top businesses and got married to one of my CAS sims - she's now pregnant.  Fred ended up starving to death. And the second youngest brother (the family sim) got married to Isabella Monty a day before he aged and that poor lady (the chubby Staines girl) is pregnant with his lovechild. 

The Jackmans:  Well the oldest Jackman's died after a few days of playing and George got what was left of the businesses (she had sold a few to Phillipe Dumont who is living in the apartments with his brother Gerard, the old place his parents and Elijah were living).  Over at Georges house, George got caught cheating with Ruby (totally missed that) and then he got caught cheating again by Ruby when he tried to hit on Emily.  Emily had affairs with Jackbot, Jan Goosem and that romance Livesly man.  Eve got her 20 woohoos but I had run out of men in the hood and the 20th woohoo she got was that lady with the glasses that lives in the army base.  And George got to woohoo that blonde lady he liked.

Oh I forgot to say that when Philip became an adult, I let him woohoo his grand aunty Eve   And Susan is pregnant to one of my CAS sims

And curse you cwykes - I'm totally hooked on this 'hood

[cwykes]

    you made my morning!  thanks for the update... 

did you let young Philip acquire any skills or is he still completely useless?

[Charlotte]

Oh Philip - he doesn't have any skills, but he does have most of his gold badges.  He owns all of the family businesses now because his father is getting old, but I think the family only have 5 businesses left - the rest got sold back to the community and then the Livesly's and Dumonts bought them.  I had to move them out of their house because during the autumn, all Jackbot was doing was raking up leaves and the large lot lagged my computer.

I was actually going to continue on your story about the Greens that you have on the exchange - Cheryl is pregnant to Philip at the moment just to frustrate her grandmother even more because they're still broke as anything.  I just have to figure out what's going to happen to their father

[cwykes]

Thanks for the update - that lot was lagging even before leaves started falling off the trees.  I'm glad Philip moved out!  Selling off the businesses made a lot of sense as he really couldn't manage all of them - he must be mega-rich by now. 

If you put up Cheryl's story, do let me have a link and I'll pass it on to the people who keep asking me to write more about the Greens.

[reggikko]

Cwykes, did you make the terrain that you're using? If so, are you willing to share it? If not, where did you get it? It looks like the perfect size and I like the different islands.

[cwykes]

I didn't make the terrain.  It came from MTS2 so you can download it and use it with no problem.  Loverat's Dinkydowntown is here http://www.modthesims2.com/showthread.php?t=118669  I'll update the credits now I've worked out where it came from and drop loverat a mail to say I used it.  Thanks for prompting me to do it.

[reggikko]

Thanks! The 'hood looks awesome, too. I may download in the future when I don't have so many of my own projects going on. BTW, is there a tutorial explaining how to do this?

[Charlotte]

I've got the first part of the story up now - it's not as good as your story, lol, I'm a lame storyteller.  I just have to figure out how to link back to your stories - new to the BBS here   Cwykes, I also left a message in you GB   http://thesims2.ea.com/exchange/story_detail.php?asset_id=175407

[cwykes]

Reggiko - It's not an add-on suburb, but a normal 'hood, so I just made a neighourhood normally.  I did take great care not to mess it up by deleting sims or doing other stupid things and cleaned up carefully in SimPE.  I imported previously made lots like the Willow Walk houses, which reduced the amount of building, but the businesses are all new and took time.  I made my own townies - there's a tutorial on that, but basically you use Inge's shrub from Tasters' Choice.  I did some editing in SimPE as well.

Charlotte - I absolutely love your story  - thanks so much for writing it!  I'm glad you took the Greens in a different direction - that's what I was hoping people would do when I first put them up for download.  You managed to pile disaster on disaster wonderfully well!  I laughed when I read that the Staines kids ended up in care too! 

I thought your own sims were very pretty - I don't recognise the clothes and hair.  Is it CC or just from an EP I don't have?  Did the Greens get a bit of facial surgery or is it just that the hair is different?

[witch]

I enjoyed that Charlotte - things just went from bad to worse  - just like a soap opera - yet the sims managed to carry on their loopy lives just like normal. 

[reggikko]

Thanks, CW. That's how I understood it, but I wanted to make sure that if I ever took on a project of this magnitude that I wouldn't 'splode peoples games.

[cwykes]

That's the advantage of a 'hood over an add-on subhood like Sedona.  A 'hood is stand alone, so any damage is restricted to that 'hood.  You can't wreck their Pleasantview!  An add-on sub=hood is another matter - badly done, that could cause trouble in any 'hood it's added to.  Jordi was kind enough to check that over for me and I crawled all over it mutliple times in SimPE.  Keeping the number of sims right down helped!

[Madame Mim]

Is there a tutorial for add-on hood creation around anywhere? After I get a few of my replaceable N001's done I'd like to complete the theme through the expansion packs. It would, of course, be so much easier if I knew where other people had found problems before me.

edit: Oh, I should add that I am about to trawl my way through Marvin Kosh's thread on default Neighbourhood creation and also re-read SaraMK's merging the Neighbourhoods. I'm just hoping that you also have something concise on the process you used.

TIA

[cwykes]

Marvin's thread is the only one about making sub-hoods.  It's basically easy to do.  The hard part is making the files really clean, so you don't export junk.  The sad part is that it doesn't work with Seasons.  We can talk about it on that thread if you have questions.
http://www.moreawesomethanyou.com/smf/index.php/topic,3996.0.html

[Charlotte]

Yes, some of it's cc and the default skintones make a huge difference to my sims appearance

Thanks for reading the stories *redface* I have two more up now but I have to play some other household because they are being neglected
http://thesims2.ea.com/exchange/story_detail.php?asset_id=176249&asset_type=story&user_id=2513480
http://thesims2.ea.com/exchange/story_detail.php?asset_id=176257&asset_type=story&user_id=2513480

[cwykes]

I love them both - I laughed out loud at several key points and in jokes - no spoilers though.  Please keep 'em coming!

[hedgekat]

This hood sounds like so much fun.   I would love to get it and Sedona too but they are just too big for my dialup.   I did download your Green family houses and also the Jubilee Gardens.  Any chance you will be making more of these available?

[cwykes]

Hi Hedgekat, I'm sorry it's too big for you    Meadow Lawns certainly ended up far bigger than I planned! 

Base game versions of some of the lots are available on TSR and the exchange.  TSR has unoccupied houses and community lots here http://www.thesimsresource.com/downloads/cmid_427711/sims2/lots/  The exchange has two alien families who went into Sedona and 1 elderly sim who ended up in Meadow Lawns.
http://thesims2.ea.com/mysimpage/uploads.php?user_id=1159607&nstart=1&asset_type=lot

If you haven't already seen them, I think you might like the TSR challenges.  Each one is a small download, but you have a back story and targets for each family.  I've stayed up into the small hours trying to meet that last target for several families.  You can download the TSR wizard that keeps track of where you are on the challenges, but you don't have to do that to have fun with the families.

I'm away from home a lot at the moment and trying to organise a concert, so the only project I'm working on is a new default downtown with Lechapeau.  I've been building on tiny lots for a city feel 1x1, 2x1, 1x2 and 1x3.   I keep meaning to put up businesses for download, but I've never got round to it and anyway, I'm never happy with them!

[Mootilda]

I know that I'm very late to the party.  I just installed this neighborhood and it's wonderful, but I've run into a couple of problems.

The main problem is that Philip's Dream House crashes whenever I try to enter the lot.  I'm running University, Nightlife, and Open for Business with no CC.

The other issue is the family tree for the Monty family at Monty Retreat.  The middle generation is missing and when I click on any of the pictures, it's replaced by one of the two existing family members.

[cwykes]

Thank you for posting.  I'm glad you like Meadow Lawns.  It's really nice to find someone downloading it several years on.  I can't play it myself because it's sort of finished as it is and I can't decide how to move the characters on...

I'm sorry about the family tree.  I didn't notice it was broken.  It might be fixable with a few hours in SimPE, but I'd rather not tackle it to be honest.  Someone reported a similar problem on the army base.  my bad...

Philip's dream house is crashing because it has a driveway and OFB can't handle driveways.  They cause crashes rather than just disappearing like other NL buy/build items; it's one of the known issues.  You'll need to get the driveway pack and Ford Mustang from the exchange.  The mustang is on the first page and the driveway on the second.  There are actually more of the old freebie maxoid deco things in the 'hood like old Christmas decorations in the bar, but they'll just disappear if you don't have them in.
http://thesims2.ea.com/exchange/search.php?asset_type=object&pid=Exchange_objects


............................buried in the masses of print on the website ..........................
Known issues
1 Aging was turned off on the lot where Cheryl Green lives. Fixed from v.5
2 The army base is right on the edge of the map. If you can't see it, adjust your neighbourhood camera settings or download Dewshine's replacement file (here). You can also get to the base using clickable neighbours. Visit one of the camp houses and you should be able to see it and click.
3 I've used the Maxis driveway and Ford Mustang downloads in a few houses. If you don't have Nightlife or the download, the cars and drives should disappear without causing a problem provided you have Pets or above. If OFB is your highest EP and you don't have Nightlife, I suggest you get the download to avoid potential crashes.
4 Flirt wants have been reported within the Staines family. I don't understand that because they are set as "family" though the relationship is "not defined". I intended them to be half-siblings at best from parents with a trail of broken marriages; they aren't genetically similar.

[Mootilda]

I saw that.  My impression was that I could use either NL and OFB, or OFB and the downloads.  The lot crashes with either option.  It also crashes if I use all EPs and SPs.  I'm re-downloading the driveway and cars now, just in case I have an old version.

Update: It wasn't the driveway or car, it was the Cat-A-Strophic Luminous Lawn Ornament by MaxoidMonkey.  Everything's fine now.  Thanks for your help.

[cwykes]

Thanks for explaining - another thing to add to the "known errors".  Glad it's sorted & hope you think Philip's dream house is a suitable bachelor pad for a layabout romance/party sim.  It was very hard getting Philip to adulthood (more or less) with no skill points!

[Mootilda]

I've been doing a survey of neighborhoods which can be downloaded and this is definitely one of the nicest ones that I've seen.

[cwykes]

Thanks 

I've got Matyville, which I've never loaded with all the CC involved, plus these:

Seagull Island - http://www.sparkyssimsations.com/terrain_menu.html
Morewood - http://welcometomorewood.blogspot.com/
Beacon Falls - http://www.lustre-point.com/welcome.html
Maple Valley - ??

Seagull Island is just beautiful btw.
If you find more, I'd love to hear.  I put these links plus Sedona and Meadow lawns on the sims2wiki, feel free to update. 
http://www.sims2wiki.info/wiki.php?title=Content_List_Talk:Main_Page

[Mootilda]

My list is in my latest journal entry at MTS (13th Jan 2011).  As you can see, I haven't even installed a lot of them yet.
http://www.modthesims.info/journal.php?do=showjournal&j=718

There's a download link for Maple Valley, but the website with the documentation seems to be gone now.
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=5LEC9Q8D

I still haven't decided which one to try to play next, but I'm having fun looking at them all while I try to decide.