Rave about starter homes and 20k? Loan, we need loans!
Gus Smedstad:
Cheapest reasonable home I've manage to make was a $10K single-wide trailer. Patterned after some actual trailer floorplans I found online. It's enough for a couple to live in, but starts to get too cramped if they have any kids.
I use "No $20K handouts," which means that my Sims graduating from college often have only $4-5K. Actually, they could have $10K or more if I pushed them hard enough, but I find everyone graduating Summa Cum Laude really boring, so I play with rules that only has the real over-acheivers doing that.
The first couple of times I did that, I started the Sim in a one-room shanty. No seperate bathroom even, the toilet's out in the open, like a prison cell or a frontier house or something. That was kind of amusing, but after a while I got sick of how unpleasant those shacks were, so I started using the mortgage shrubs so they could at least afford the trailer.
I've done apartments as well, but I've never been happy with the results because there's no way to keep the finances of the different sims separate.
- Gus
Zazazu:
Quote from: Gus Smedstad on 2008 April 20, 22:14:16
I use "No $20K handouts," which means that my Sims graduating from college often have only $4-5K.
My sims now get nothing or very, very little when coming out of college. College costs 20k (or 2,500 a semester). Initial scholarships are taken off the total, but money for the subsequent semesters has to come from somewhere. So if the parents don't have enough, the kids have to give up their grants. Actually, I've been thinking about just making them give up the grants across-the-board (in life, when have you ever been giving a grant for education and then used it to get a place after college? You can't.). Then mom & dad can give them some money to get started, or they can take out a loan, or they move back in with the parents.
I like the loans better than the mortgage shrubs because they force priorities. You can't take out an inordinate amount...you won't be able to afford the payments. And you have to pay it back, as it's included with your normal bills and you'll get a visit from the repo man if you let it sit.
jjsy:
Interesting resources pointed out. I;m taking a look at IJ's mortage shrubs. Looks very usable except that it.. well... looks like a shrub .. (was hoping for something more reminding of the debt status like a mortage contract or something. sounds kindof silly if a shrub starts deducting money) and that there's no grace period. Maybe when I can draft out enough stuff I can try to bug IJ for an improvement?
For the more advanced loan, I agree that the control is much better. My only complaint is that it is sim-initiated. Unlike mortage objects which can be pre-built into the house (a house with an housing loan plan attached)
Maybe there can be a way for loans to be initiated via objects prior to sims moving in, but let another loan system takes over?? in that the loan objects just lower the initial "downpayment" of the building and "bootstraps" whatever global loaning system there are once the sims move in?
Count Four:
I seem to have a different play style. Making Sims more realistic isn't really my aim. I think of it in terms of "This is how things work in Simland." My sims often start with a 10k trailer, where they live until they have too many kids. Then, they get moved to a new, empty lot. Their house evolves a room at a time, as they have the money. I like this style--I get to play the career game, and have little building sessions, too.
And sometimes I get really interesting houses that I wouldn't have built that way otherwise.
jsalemi:
Quote from: jjsy on 2008 April 21, 02:15:15
Interesting resources pointed out. I;m taking a look at IJ's mortage shrubs. Looks very usable except that it.. well... looks like a shrub .. (was hoping for something more reminding of the debt status like a mortage contract or something. sounds kindof silly if a shrub starts deducting money) and that there's no grace period. Maybe when I can draft out enough stuff I can try to bug IJ for an improvement?
The mortgage shrub doesn't 'deduct money' -- it adds interest payments to the normal bills the sims get. The cost of the 'mortgage' doesn't get deducted from the sims funds until you sell the shrub. Kinda like an interest-only mortgage with a balloon payment.
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