A fairly utilitarian house with Awesomespec in mind (Pre-Pets)

[lowbart]

I would have entered this in the lot-building contest, except that it ended in July.

So I present to you:


LOWBART'S ATTEMPT AT AWESOMESPEC

Size: 2x3 (2 wide, 3 deep)
Bathrooms: 5
Parking spaces: 2
Floors: 2 (plus roof)
Square footage: 216 + 124 = 340 tiles

(with room for expansion)

FEATURES
- Only the front 3 rooms are accessible to visitors

- Refrigerator locked in separate room (small enough that sims will leave it instead of blocking)

- Street parking

- Skillinating room includes:
-- Weight machine for low body skill
-- Treadmill for high body skill
-- Espresso machine close to bathroom
-- Two adjacent bathrooms
-- Indoor telescope
-- Computer
-- Two bookshelves to prevent traffic jams

- Easily accessible visitor bathroom

- Drop table right inside idling room (I tested it and they always go straight to it for newspaper, homework, pizza etc)

- Reception area with Fun and Comfort objects for visitors

- Infirmary with separated crib rooms (located near the kitchen - but you can replace The Cheat with a minifridge if desired), changing table, child objects so children can keep toddlers entertained, and The Cheat

- Several emergency exits including one in the kitchen

- Street trash can is right outside kitchen exit

- Sprinkler to douse fires immediately so you don't have to rely on the SCFD

- Bushes in front for sims who can't find a toilet

- No 2x2 grass areas outside of perimeter fence (to prevent holedigging)

- Phones are located on easy-to-see red tables

- Barracks area with 6 single beds (Couples will not waste time waking each other up to cuddle) (I forgot that you need a double bed for babymaking, but two of the rooms are big enough for a double bed and you can always use the car.)

- Two bathrooms in the barracks area for topping off bladder and hygeine before bed

- Mirrors and lockers are located in the hallway so that the smaller rooms are not tied up

- Macrotastics and Lot Debugger

- Plenty of room for expansion without overhangs: Just extend the hallway through the brown bedroom and you can add more rooms behind the stairs.

OTHER NOTES:

- The car in the driveway has just enough space to pull out without slamming into the other car.

- It's not the most beautiful house I've ever made but it shouldn't disrupt the look of the neighborhood.

- I really only designed it with Uni and Nightlife in mind, so the lawns are not wildlife-proof.

- All rooms have Authorized Personnel Only except the upstairs bathroom and upstairs hallway, but the stairs are not closed off by doors on either floor so anyone that can get to the Skillinating Room can get to the upstairs hallway anyway.

- Visitors go to the correct front door (the big one)


CONTENT REQUIREMENTS

From Maxis:
- University
- Nightlife

From MATY:
- The Cheat
- Authorized Personnel Only
- Lot Debugger
- Macrotastics Launcher

The only non-Awesome item is the stereo in Reception. It's a remake of the cheaper Sims 1 stereo, and I can track down where I got it from if anyone wants it.


IMAGES


Classy front view
Ground floor
Top floor


DOWNLOAD LINKS

FURNISHED
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=AVGPLQSX

UNFURNISHED
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=CS1U5IFH


Oh yeah, I should be getting Pets and OFB at some point this week. So there is a good chance of an update in the future.

I don't know if it would need to be changed much for Seasons and Bonvoyage, but I am not going to put that crap on my computer.

[dizzy]

With the fence flush against the sidewalk, if you ever get more than one sim on one pedestrian portal, one of them will likely appear inside the fence. I always put the fence one tile in further from the sidewalk. Another problem with that fence is that it leaves the entrances vulnerable to animals (so definitely not good for Pets).

The problem with a combined kitchen/dining room, while more economic on space usage, will bombard your family and guests with smoke if you ever have a fire. This will cause a sudden swarm to the showers.

The TV/game console is a major bottleneck there in a high-traffic location. Granted you have double-arch and a kick the cheat there to mitigate the problem, but having a lot of visitors could cause a tie up.

Outside garbage too near the house can cause strange walkby behavior. I tend to put the mailbox closer to the house than the garbage, lately. To be realistic, the mailbox should be one tile inside the sidewalk and the garbage should be right next to the street (where it is by default).

[Aggie]

Excellent; a furnished home for my afrotastically-endowed Ratbowl. *rubs hands maniacally*

[Invisigoth]

I think you did a very nice job on the house! My only critique is that there is no bathtub to wash the toddlers in. Ideally an awesome-spec house, as I understand it, will have a bathroom that connects directly to the larvae facility. I also would have put a door between the larvae facility and the kitchen to allow for faster sprog feeding. I would also take the phones out of the bedrooms because some sims work night jobs and must sleep during the day. That said, this house looks very playable. Thanks for uploading it!

[J. M. Pescado]

Outside garbage too near the house can cause strange walkby behavior. I tend to put the mailbox closer to the house than the garbage, lately. To be realistic, the mailbox should be one tile inside the sidewalk and the garbage should be right next to the street (where it is by default).

Well, realistically, the mailbox SHOULD be near the street so the mail truck can reach it. Also, if you move it, it fucks up cutscenes. So don't move the mailbox off the strip. The trashcan, however, can be brought closer in, such as inside the perimeter gate so it can be locked against kickers, or else you can simply pre-kick it, rendering it impossible to ever kick again.

[Strangel]

-nabs- I'll be watching for improved versions based on feedback, but meanwhile, this looks like it'll work juuuust about right for my purposes.

[lowbart]

I think you did a very nice job on the house! My only critique is that there is no bathtub to wash the toddlers in. Ideally an awesome-spec house, as I understand it, will have a bathroom that connects directly to the larvae facility. I also would have put a door between the larvae facility and the kitchen to allow for faster sprog feeding. I would also take the phones out of the bedrooms because some sims work night jobs and must sleep during the day. That said, this house looks very playable. Thanks for uploading it!

The phones in the bedrooms were a mistake, yeah. I think it was residue from my old Sims 1 mindset where phone calls would actually do something useful (give you money) and I wanted them to be able to wake up and call the police in case of a burglar. Now you don't really need access to a phone unless you are making a call.

I'll see what I can do about the larva/kitchen door. The way I set up the kitchen, they share the least convenient wall.

I can definitely put a bathtub in the upstairs bathroom but it would really need to be right near the larva facility. That might take a little reconfiguration.

With the fence flush against the sidewalk, if you ever get more than one sim on one pedestrian portal, one of them will likely appear inside the fence. I always put the fence one tile in further from the sidewalk. Another problem with that fence is that it leaves the entrances vulnerable to animals (so definitely not good for Pets).

Hmm, didn't think about that. I'll move it back a space. What are the most popular ways of breaking up the lawns to prevent holedigging? I was thinking either the cheapest bush, or those edge smoother things since they are really cheap. (But they are non-MATY content.)

The problem with a combined kitchen/dining room, while more economic on space usage, will bombard your family and guests with smoke if you ever have a fire. This will cause a sudden swarm to the showers.

With the sprinkler, all fires will be doused almost instantly, so this effect will be minimized. Still, there are five showers in the house and I don't really want to redo the kitchen.

The TV/game console is a major bottleneck there in a high-traffic location. Granted you have double-arch and a kick the cheat there to mitigate the problem, but having a lot of visitors could cause a tie up.

Good point. I think I'll nix the console. I hate how they spread the controllers all over the house. The idiot box will probably stay though, especially since more serious sims tend to head for the chessboard anyway.


I installed Pets and OFB last night so I'm not going outside my test nhood until I'm satisfied all my downloads are working again. Lowbarthaus 1.5 should be up in a couple of days. Thanks for your feedback everyone.

[Zazazu]

Well, realistically, the mailbox SHOULD be near the street so the mail truck can reach it. Also, if you move it, it fucks up cutscenes. So don't move the mailbox off the strip. The trashcan, however, can be brought closer in, such as inside the perimeter gate so it can be locked against kickers, or else you can simply pre-kick it, rendering it impossible to ever kick again.

Yes, never ever move the mailbox far from the starting point. I've had issues with schoolbusses never coming due to that. For the trashcan, I prefer to make a tiny room off the kitchen in larger houses and plop it there. It's safe from kickers and pets, and no long walk when the compactor needs to be emptied.

[J. M. Pescado]

I'm not a big fan of the compactors. They're unreliable and break frequently, and have a high chance of electrocuting the repairing sim regardless of skill. The low-tech trashcans are much better. Macro-Empty makes even a long trash run fairly fast if your sim is active, and you can shorten trash runs with the Seasons compost barrel, which can also be a trash emptying point...and makes your trashes useful.

[Khan of Wyrms]

I'm not a big fan of the compactors. They're unreliable and break frequently, and have a high chance of electrocuting the repairing sim regardless of skill.

Interesting.  I would have expected you to be quite amused by the 'Influence>Repair' electric light show.  What is not to like about that?  Granted, it is not as effective or efficient as the 'Smite' option on the lotdebugger, but still fun, and it works inside.

[dizzy]

Well, realistically, the mailbox SHOULD be near the street so the mail truck can reach it. Also, if you move it, it fucks up cutscenes. So don't move the mailbox off the strip. The trashcan, however, can be brought closer in, such as inside the perimeter gate so it can be locked against kickers, or else you can simply pre-kick it, rendering it impossible to ever kick again.

Actually, I've never seen a neighborhood in real life that puts 4 feet of curb between the sidewalk and the street, but the mailbox is always within the sidewalk. This forces mail/spam delivery to drive up onto the sidewalk, but that's rarely a problem. In the game, mail is always hand-delivered, so that's no problem either. Cutscenes are just a waste of time.

Kickers aren't a problem for me anymore. So what if there's bugs in the yard? There should be roaches in my yards. 

[lowbart]

I've never used cutscenes. I saw it on my friend's computer and they just look really annoying and interrupt the flow of the game, in my opinion.

I like the idea of pre-kicking the trash can. Roaches annoy me though, I keep Free Will on and my sims always want to run outside and get sick from them.

[BastDawn]

I'd swap the door on the brown bathroom to make it a second visitor bathroom, or your parties might suffer.  Then expand the green bathroom one tile in front of where you currently have the brown bathroom's door and place the green bathroom's toilet there.  That will give you space for the bathtub.

[lowbart]

I'm planning on rebuilding the house with a few significant design changes tonight. I'd release a tweaked version of this one except that I think that even if I didn't use any post-NL content, it still would require all the expansions I have to load properly. (Is that right?)

So I have one question: Should I bother walling off the stairwell (since will be starting a new lot) or is it fine as-is because it's only accessible from the resident-only area?

EDIT: Also, since I am starting a new lot, should I put in a foundation? I don't like them because they make it harder for me to plan spatially, they result in annoying camera crap, they make the lot more expensive, I hardly ever use basements, and they make every entrance to the house more expensive and less efficient. Actually, never mind, I'm not going to use a foundation.

[Sapnish]

Nice place you have here. Too many stories for my taste, but then again, I'm not quite right in the head, I guess. I just don't like playing multi-story homes. The up-down transition seems unnescessary to me, so all my houses are single floor abodes.

What's your beef with Seasons? I'd rather have Seasons installed than OFB, frankly, because at least Seasons came with some actually useful stuff (though, admittedly buggy)(and I hate OFB. I think it's entirely useless).

Dizzy, I prefer to leave the mailbox where it is (seeing as when I move it, my walk-bys come too close to the front door and block the entrance) and I usually move the trashcan to inside the perimeter fence. I've never noticed any odd walk-by behavior due to this (though I did have a floating duck-skunk yesterday during play, but I haven't investigated the cause of that and so I'm not ready to blame anything specific yet.)

[lowbart]

Nice place you have here. Too many stories for my taste, but then again, I'm not quite right in the head, I guess. I just don't like playing multi-story homes. The up-down transition seems unnescessary to me, so all my houses are single floor abodes.

What's your beef with Seasons? I'd rather have Seasons installed than OFB, frankly, because at least Seasons came with some actually useful stuff (though, admittedly buggy)(and I hate OFB. I think it's entirely useless)

I just don't want to screw around with all that temperature crap, it sounds like it's horribly designed from what I've read in The War Room. That, and I am really tight on HDD space and don't want to fork over earthmonies for a new drive. My copy of Sims is bloated enough as it is, with Uni, NL, OFB, Pets, and both stuffpacks.

I like the business thing in OFB because it gives me something else to do when I get tired of powerleveling.

But, if I'm in a good mood I might make a single-floor version of Barthaus 2.0.