Preferrable Houses
Dark Trepie:
Quote from: Gus Smedstad on 2005 September 30, 22:20:18
Quote from: Trepie on 2005 September 30, 21:02:04
First and most important thing: Three bedrooms and two baths. I like making all of my couple have two kids, a boy and a girl.
I'm assuming you're talking about a second home? I've never been able to manage more than 2 bedrooms and generally only 1 bath with $20K. Since I've taken to using the "No 20K Handouts" mod, early budgets are often even more restrictive.
- Gus
Yeah. This is usually the second home. Three bedroom/2 bath is near impossible with only 20k unless you sacrifice things like paint, window, lights, flooring, and roof. Which I've had to do in some extreme cases. That family of 5 in the family bin in Veronaville who only have 20k was a pain in the arse to get started. I finally broke down and used J.M.'s moneyorder to have Consort send them about 30k.
reggikko:
First, to answer the question....I rarely download lots because I like building. Furnished or unfurnished is ok. No huge lots. I love it when someone comes up with an innovative design that's low or moderately priced since I don't use money cheats. No terrain paint. My biggest pet peeve is when someone uploads something to the exchange with custom content from a pay site and/or haven't credited the creators of shared content.
I hadn't built anything for upload in a while, but this thread inspired me. This is just an FYI. If you like something, tell me in my guestbook so as not to clog the thread. And if you don't like something, keep your damn opinion to yourself! :P I just uploaded a couple of starter homes, one with a driveway and one with an attached garage. Also, several small community lots, a Bistro, Boutique with coffee shop, Bowling alley, and gameroom with a small restaurant. Oh yeah, the bowling alley has a diner. I have a hard time playing anything designed by Maxis and I hate sprawling lots.
I limit myself to Maxis-only content when I build for upload, so if it ain't the prettiest decorating around, don't blame me! Heh. Also, I have a separate 'building' folder, so no hacks are coming along for the ride. All lots guaranteed to be nothing especially fancy, but nice enough, and very playable.
http://thesims2.ea.com/mysimpage/mysimpage.php?user_id=1132625
Myth:
I would like to add one thing that I look for before I download a house. I always look at the creator uploaded photos. Better quality, larger photos and collages really float my boat. It's the difference of having someone tell you about the new 2006 Mustang GT and test driving it. I want to see footprints, close ups of main room anything eye catching that highlights the design.
Rarely will I download anything based on the Maxi's picture alone. You have to admit they aren't that flattering.
cwykes:
I had a few more thoughts:
1. the starter house should be expandable as the family grows and earns money. Plan where a staircase will go if you build a bungalow so you don't have to change the whole floorplan when you want to put another floor on top.
2. for a starter home 1 bedroom is enough with room for a double and 1 or 2 singles. No point having 2 small rooms with low room scores instead of 1 with a reasonable score.
3. a starter family can manage with 1 bathroom, but a 2nd bathroom is always the first thing you have to add. If you only have 1 bathroom, don't put a sink in it, just shower and loo. Neat sims can wash their hands in the kitchen sink and vacate the bathroom!
4. I like a garden that can be used as a room - You can put the dining set on an outside patio plus easels, gym equipment bookcase and chair. I usually put the baby and toddler stuff outside too. Ponds with lilies work for me as they don't need gardeners. I wouldn't download a lot with nothing in the garden. sims go through the garden on the way to work, so it needs to have a good room score.
5. A big cheap kitchen is a waste of space and money in a starter home. I always put the expensive fridge and one expensive counter in a starter home to improve the food and forget the cooker - they can't use it without any cooking points and it's asking for trouble when they don't have many.!
baratron:
It's almost not worth me saying anything because I'm just echoing everyone else, but yes - I also prefer small houses.
Although I have a decent computer now, I remain paranoid about large lots. When I got TS1 my PC was four times over the recommended stats, but by the time I had all the EPs on it, it was barely making the minimum stats (and in practice, I couldn't run Superstar At All - Studio Town was unplayably slow). Laptops are difficult to upgrade, and I can't guarantee to have a spare £1000 for a new one when TS2's EPs require it. So, even though I could run huge sprawling lots right now, I keep my houses fairly compact.
Also, I hate the slow navigation time of large houses. Sim routing being what it is, they sometimes take the strangest paths to get from one place to another. I think it is unrealistic to have sims take a whole sim hour to get from their kitchen to the carpool. So my houses have lots of doors between rooms, and paths 2 squares wide for sims to find.
I don't like to use money cheats except in cases of extreme need (like if a sim would otherwise die of starvation). So I like houses that are affordable. Too often sites have amazing houses available for download that cost in excess of $100k. How many sim families can afford something like that? On top of that, sites add to the cheating by cloning e.g. the most expensive fridges and pricing them at $50. With TS1, I actually spent a lot of time with the Transmogrifier re-making downloaded objects with realistic prices for my game ::).
I won't download anything that costs more than $50k fully-furnished (which means, in practise, I pretty much never download houses). If the house is supposed to be a starter home, it should have at least the basic furnishings needed to live for a few days included within the $20k, or it should be unfurnished and priced at around $14-15k. I like small houses that are laid out in a fashion so they can easily be extended later, with an extra room on the side or a bit of internal rearrangement to make an extra bathroom. It surprises me how many sim builders insist on making two or three-storey houses, even as starter homes. I often start with bungalows with space to add a staircase and second floor later.
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