More Awesome Than You!

LEVEL 3x3 lot  ;D
$138,455
Requires all EP's through Seasons + Family Fun

I tried to follow AwesomeSpec v5 when building this.  Only a copy of this was playtested, so reward & craft items were placed through various collections.  Lot cleaned with Clean Installer to remove all non-Maxis content.

Features:

-4 spacious bedrooms -- girls' and boys' rooms have plenty of room for additional beds
-4th bedroom could be used for another purpose, such as a game room or music room
-3.5 baths (1/2 bath for guests right off the Vomitorium) -- all baths have BUY
-Perimeter fence secures lot from hole-digging critters and wandering guests
-Reasonable amount of trees/shrubs.  Most trees provide leaves for compost, but could be replaced if less raking is desired
-Compost bins located in front and back yards
-Greenhouse accessible from indoors only
-Trash can inside perimeter fence to prevent kickers
-Mail table directly inside perimeter fence
-Theft-proof gnome-kicking area (or replace gnomes with The Cheat or flamingos if desired)
-Exterior burgular alarm on outside of garage (behind ivy trellis)
-Guest-friendly fishing area with secure enclosure (or you can lock guests out if you choose)
-Guest areas secured with actual doors
-High traffic areas provided with double doors
-Secure kitchen protects your food from fridge ninjas, smoke alarm also included
-Kitchen includes muffin stove for neglected children
-Dining area includes seating for 6, Caffeination Station, dishwasher & trash compactor
-Nursery includes skilling toys plus 2 separate crib cubicles for screaming infants/toddlers
-Garage has attached workout room which could later be turned into a home business/break room, or you could take the windows out of the workout room for a vampire's lair right off the garage
-3rd floor attic with stealth stairs to store boring stuff or to use as a mausoleum
-Double modular staircase to ease stair traffic
-2 small storage areas (under and next to staircase) to store Awesome Stuff like the Lot Debugger
-Sun room could be made into a covered hot tub area, observatory (probetarium), or an additional greenhouse
-Pet areas for both a cat and a dog -- dog area features a water wiggler so the dog can wash itself
-If desired, dog area could be removed or relocated to make room for a small outdoor pool

(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v135/2flower/MATY%20Entry%2007/ScreenShot06-29-07103344001.jpg)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v135/2flower/MATY%20Entry%2007/ScreenShot06-29-07101336001.jpg)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v135/2flower/MATY%20Entry%2007/ScreenShot06-29-07101327001.jpg)

Additional Images (click to see a larger image):

(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v135/2flower/MATY%20Entry%2007/th_ScreenShot06-28-07231309001.jpg) (http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v135/2flower/MATY%20Entry%2007/ScreenShot06-28-07231309001.jpg)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v135/2flower/MATY%20Entry%2007/th_ScreenShot06-29-07102201001.jpg) (http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v135/2flower/MATY%20Entry%2007/ScreenShot06-29-07102201001.jpg)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v135/2flower/MATY%20Entry%2007/th_ScreenShot06-29-07102846001.jpg) (http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v135/2flower/MATY%20Entry%2007/ScreenShot06-29-07102846001.jpg)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v135/2flower/MATY%20Entry%2007/th_ScreenShot06-29-07101812001.jpg) (http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v135/2flower/MATY%20Entry%2007/ScreenShot06-29-07101812001.jpg)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v135/2flower/MATY%20Entry%2007/th_ScreenShot06-29-07103109001.jpg) (http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v135/2flower/MATY%20Entry%2007/ScreenShot06-29-07103109001.jpg)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v135/2flower/MATY%20Entry%2007/th_ScreenShot06-30-07081748001.jpg) (http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v135/2flower/MATY%20Entry%2007/ScreenShot06-30-07081748001.jpg)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v135/2flower/MATY%20Entry%2007/th_ScreenShot06-30-07211128001.jpg) (http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v135/2flower/MATY%20Entry%2007/ScreenShot06-30-07211128001.jpg)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v135/2flower/MATY%20Entry%2007/th_ScreenShot06-29-07103513001.jpg) (http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v135/2flower/MATY%20Entry%2007/ScreenShot06-29-07103513001.jpg)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v135/2flower/MATY%20Entry%2007/th_ScreenShot06-29-07103409001.jpg) (http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v135/2flower/MATY%20Entry%2007/ScreenShot06-29-07103409001.jpg)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v135/2flower/MATY%20Entry%2007/th_ScreenShot06-29-07101308001.jpg) (http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v135/2flower/MATY%20Entry%2007/ScreenShot06-29-07101308001.jpg)

Bribes:

(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v135/2flower/MATY%20Entry%2007/bribe2-1.jpg)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v135/2flower/MATY%20Entry%2007/bribe1-1.jpg)

For El Presidente -- Hand-knitted Real-Life Stuff to Kick (sadly, flamingo didn't get finished)  + 2 hand-knitted 100% cotton dishcloths like the one pictured (may request color preference) + submission of my simself for humilation and torture and/or mutilation

For Rohina -- 2 hand-knitted dishcloths like the one pictured (may request color preference)

edited to remove extra copy of my lot  ???

Ooooh, very pretty house and such cute bribes!  XD

Thank you, Amber.  :-*

I love the house!
(the knitted gnome is impressive, too!) ;D

Gorgeous house, and I love the knitted gnome! :D

Very nice! I love this contest- pretty houses to download that are actually playable and won't lag like hell, either.

I want the pattern for the gnome, not some lame dishcloth.

knitted Cheat FTW!

*is ded from cuteness*

Twooflower I really like your entry. I'm trying to recreate it as I don't have Family Fun but I'm having problems with the stairs - how did you do the stairs so you can have space underneath and at the side?

I'll bet you're just a joy to be around at Xmas.  :-*

My guess is the constrainfloorelevation cheat. The first landing is actually a 2x2 room lowered to be four 'clicks' high. If you look closely in the screenshots you can see the walls slope very steeply towards the landing, from 16 to 4 clicks. That's probably also why twooflower used that particular wallpaper, the vertical lines cover up the sloping walls very nicely. Horizontal lines would only emphasize it. I often use the same technique when connecting a garage to an house with a basement.

Disclaimer: my google spellchecker does not work at the moment so text above may not be mistake-free.

Why? I am offering to make my own gnome. Which, for a present, is really quite a lot of work.

I'll take it you're a knitter, then.  ;)  My apologies for the lame dishcloth offer.  I've never written a pattern before (gnome is my own design), but I'll do my best to write it up for you.


Vilia, Eleonora is correct, except that the 2x2 room is 8 'clicks' high.  I hope that helps.

The "platform" (indoor stage) can also be used to do a split stairwell, without the wall distortion effect or need for building tricks. One possible issue is that it is only 4 steps high, not 8, and has no freely usable space below it.

You're right, Jordi.  With some rearranging of stuff, the stage could be used to do a split staircase for anyone who wanted to build a similar house without building cheats.  That would also open up many other wallpaper choices for that wall. ;)

Thanks for the help  ;D I've just finished and she runs sweet.

Cool, I'm glad to hear it works for you. :)

Wow, twooflower, your house is gorgeous (not sucky at all). Very nice! Oh, and the knitted gnome and cheat are adorable.

0.5 for aesthetics. We were not fans of the patchwork thing.

This is one of the best designs in the contest, although the exterior needs a more unified architectural theme (I realize that mixing styles has been a trend in architecture over the past couple decades, but that doesn't mean the results don't look bad).

Unlike a lot of the designs here, you could take this one to an architect and end up with an actual house that was both buildable and livable. However, for gameplay purposes many of the rooms are way too big, especially the bedrooms. If you've ever played the Capp house, you know what a drag it is to have to schedule every sim activity well in advance to allow for the trek from one part of the lot to another. Heh—I had a homeless CAS family in Veronaville (they didn't have enough money to finish construction of their own house) so I moved them in with the Capps, and used the Capp fortune to add a third floor to the mansion. That made for some interesting game play, especially when it was time for work or school.   :P

Well crap, Rohinas can't even be bribed with gnomes to tolerate patchwork.   ;)


Oh well, I'm sure you're right about the commute time to school and work from the upstairs.  I'll try to scale down next time.  It's hard for me to maintain a balance between having enough room and too much.  I always err on the side of building too big.  Next year I'm going to have to build on a 2x2 lot.

If you had ponied up with the PATTERN, you might have got a better score.

I turned the girls room into a games room complete with pool table & card table. The spare room became the music room and I put an extra bed in the boys room. I confess I did stick with one external pattern/colour though. It works well although I must confess I tend to put my sims through a routine of bathroom & breakfast prior to leaving the house, so they are not actually upstairs just prior to going to work.

Bribe: 0.05
Functionality: 0.8
Scenarios: 0.8
Cost Effectiveness: 1.7
Expand 1.4
Physics: 0.85
Aesthetics: 0.5


Technical: 0.908
Total: 0.565

Correct Behaviors
Level Edges - Will Not Damage Neighborhood
Kitchen Firebreak & Visitor Raid Defense Good
Expansion Room Adequate
Anti-Wolf Fencing
Nursery Adequately Provisioned and Placed

Correctable Issues
DO NOT MOVE MAILBOX AWAY FROM ROAD KTHX
Use of "Stealth Stairs" unnecessary negatively affects physics, but only leads to superfluous attic area

Fundamental Flaws
Visitors cannot be adequately confined to viewing deck without complete restructuring of stairwell

I thought I had planned well enough for visitor control, but apparently I missed something.  Would you mind explaining it for the non-awesome?  I would like to understand so I can improve my future houses.

Basically, there's no facility for physically preventing visitors from traipsing up the stairs and out of your line of sight on the viewing deck. They will then get lost, or worse, start congregating up there, generally being a pain in the ass. Proper Awesomedesign generally encloses the stairwell in a lockable structure to deny them the ability to leave the viewing deck. Locking them off after they've already gotten upstairs is considered a very poor substitute as it does not address the underlying issue of NOT LETTING THEM LEAVE YOUR SIGHT.

Thank you, Pescado, that makes sense. I misunderstood the AwesomeSpecs, and I had planned around the idea that visitors wouldn't go past the foyer/dining areas.  Next time I'll be sure to make the stairway lockable. 

What are stealth stairs? I've never heard of them before.

Stealthy stair stuff :
http://www.modthesims2.com/wiki.php?title=Category:Build_Mode_Stealth_Stairs_Tutorials

Don't do it, though. It looks ridiculous.

Thanks Khaki :)


I won't.

Ach, I hate stealth stairs! The concept of them is kind of nifty in a 'hey, look what I can do!' sort of way, but they just never look quite right, and often don't function very well, either. JUST SAY NO TO STEALTH STAIRS! Please forgive the yelling. I obviously feel very passionately about this topic. ;)

Thank you for the intervention, NVA.  I'll look for a 12-step program.  :D

Technically, there are 16 steps in proper stairs. :P

True, but then stealth stairs already have 4 steps, so a 12-step program would complete the staircase.  ;)

I love stealth stairs! They save so much time moving your sim from one floor to the next!

They also appear to be incompatible with pet animations.

That they are. The pet appears to be going up an invisible normal set of stairs and then pops to the correct ending point. It's weird, but a minor annoyance and worth the space saving when you have six sims, a dog, a womrat, and at least one on the way in a 8x8 house with basement bunker. So says sim-you.

All that in a two-level 8x8?  It sounds like hell to me.  You must be doing the Apocalypse Challenge.