your all welcome   

I was busy working on my new hood (with this terrain) all night and I checked out more of the beach lots. So far only about 3 needed a little leveling and they have slightly warped edges afterwards but all the rest (around the bigger water) were totally flat.  The other uneven ones I know about are by the smaller water.



Gwill, have you seen the ones at -->  http://www.simsanne.com/Forum/filebase.php?cat=12&sid=161165890951eeafcb7337a548c0efd8

   I love the beach lots too.

It was driving me nuts that I couldn't find a good beach lot terrain that actually fit a lot of beach lots so I bought SC4 so I could try to make my own. It's not easy... I ended up deciding it would be easier to edit one that was already close to what I wanted, with the beach at the level I wanted.

Thank you 




sure, go right ahead   

I should go read that discussion. I don't think I will have time to play around in SC4 for awhile since I want to get my new hood going (so I can work on my new story) but the contest should be interesting to see.   edit - silly me, my brain was reading it as a beach terrain building contest *laughs* still it will be interesting to see the house entries.

Ok first I want to say that the original terrain is named Harmony it was made by Juliejaz1  at mts2
http://forums.modthesims2.com/showthread.php?t=251979

She truly did a wonderful job, the beach lots are totally flat 



I edited it and now I love it even more!   My version can fit 50 totally flat beach lots (the smallest beach lots, thats the only one I use) ...and 4 more that do have a bit of a slope and aren't even on the beach  (the little pond didn't show up in SC4)

note: on checking some of the beach lots - A few of the 50 flat lots aren't totally flat, some are a little bumpy but you can easily level those sections. Other then that I think 1 or 2 might have a slight slope down to the beach.










see, they are totally flat 





note: BV is only needed if you want to use real beach lots, SC4 terrains don't care what EPs you have or don't have.

I found a couple really nice terrains for beach lots at mts2 by CardiganAnjel and by Caupi

I've recently looked at/checked in game many terrains to see how they handle beach lots     I didn't check the Diamondbar Islands/Delta terrains by Caupi but they look like the beach lots will be nearly flat (which is wonderful).

the run down for the ones I did check by CardiganAnjel

Echos of Simology - really nice and nearly flat beach lots, with a bit of fiddling you can fit quite a few beach lots.  I suggest if you get this one that you place beach lots first, then if you screw up the terrain, you can just start over and not make the same mistakes (thats what I had to do, currently holding onto that hood for future use)

Miho Island 2 - really nice (if you want to see pictures click my Despair link and look in my "Despair and The Story" thread), you can fit exactly 25 (of the smallest), nearly flat, beach lots. Two of my pictures are of my new Public Beach community lot and in other pictures you can see exactly where the 25 beach lots will fit.

Miho Island 3 - really nice (almost used this one instead), with a bit of fiddling you can fit more then 25 (smallest) beach lots but they won't all be nearly flat, some will have more of a slope from the sidewalk to the beach.


Avoid "Sand Simolean Point" by Phaenoh, it's sad to say that. That terrain is really nice and I was considering using it but it SUCKS for beach lots...unless you like needing stairs to reach the beach. it's so bad the slope starts at the sidewalk   


some other nice ones can be found at http://www.simsanne.com/Forum/filebase.php 
Insel-19 - I was using it for Despair, the slope on the beach lots wasn't bad to play but sucked for taking pictures. you can see pictures in some of my other threads via my Despair link.

I haven't checked the other ones there except for Land1, some look like the beach lots will be nearly flat. They were nice on Land1, briefly considered using it for my new hood but I disliked the mountain (to close to the roads) and it wouldn't have been big enough for all my sims, specially when trying to stay away from the mountain/hills.

actually I don't think it is a hack causing only 1 townie to spawn since I had it happen (ages back) with no hacks installed. It still happens to me.

I use clean templates and I have found that if I want townies to spawn I either have to force the game to make them by starting a business (it will then make some for customers) or shift-click on the mailbox (with testingcheats enabled) and have it create a batch of townies.  Otherwise, it might make one every once in a blue moon.

Until the BV bug, I never bothered to use Anti-Redundancy. I don't use notownieregen or any of the other noregens.

I've been using avast! for many years, it's never caused a problem with my game and until recently I left it running while I played. Now with BV, I disconnect from the internet before I load the game so I stop avast! since I don't need to have it running when I'm not connected.

under Troubleshooting you can tell it to check for full screen applications (ie; games) before displaying pop ups. some of the messages can be turned off also, under Confirmations.

thats what I thought   

Thank you!

Do you know if new vacation locals would spawn with the correct clothes and stuff?  If they do then I wouldn't mind using those empty templates too. I'm not up to making my own. 

you can remove the skill/knowledge of the gestures and dances/sea shanty(or whatever it is called) with InSIM.

I thought of that while making a base template hotel (rather then build a few, I made one and used copies of it). It has 2 bedrooms (1 suite) and I made sure I could fit more beds in if I need them without needing to add on.  I know you can visit other hotels and wasn't sure if tourists do so I built a recreation center in a separate building with a food stand placed between them.  Looks nice, in the mountains the Hotel looks like two mountain cabins.  I redecorated it for each vacation subhood.


It was to late for my new hood to use empty templates but is there one that just affects those vacation townies that get dumped into your hood before you even attach the vacation subhoods?  Those are the only ones that annoy me and it'd save me having to clean them out when I make my next new hood. The clean template thread just got me all confused so I quit looking.

I have a community lot with a bunch of custom paintings on it, the sim that made them is not even in the current hood this lot is in now. It has never crashed on me. It also hasn't crashed in a friends hood.

The lot was bought, paintings were placed, lot was sold back to community.

I have crammys cock in my game (all EPs and SPs) and 'walk to' shows up and works.

my sims will autonomously sunbathe at night too, I think it's funny 

I use NoKickTrash by Inge Jones. I always hated having the trash cans kicked over 

I have a few playable sims steal the paper on a regular basis and they aren't furious with anyone in the household. 

I always thought mean sims would steal the paper and if I remember correctly, the sims doing the stealing only have a few nice points.

I had this problem before BV, forget when it started doing it but every so often it would just decide it didn't want to load after all 

oddly enough I have not had the problem since installing BV



XP pro, with SP2 probably

theres a tutorial story on the exchange about how to make your own secret vacation lots. I copied it to save it in a text file. heres what it said

how to make your own vacation secret lots


While you are in the neighborhood you want to add your own vacation destination to, click on the "Create a Vacation Destination" button up in the top left hand corner. Where it says Create a Vacation, go to the bottom - circled in red - and pick the the type of template you want for a Vacation Destination. You can choose The Islands, The Mountains or The Far East. Now just remember which destination you are going to work in, because this will determine what type of Secret Lot you are going to be building.

Set up your Vacation Neighborhood the way you want it. Add some decorations like trees and rocks that match the type of destination you picked. Don't forget the waves along the coastline if you are working on an Island.

Now pick a spot you would like to put your Secret Lot in. Any place in the neighborhood is fine.


Just use a small lot template. These lots do not have to be that big. Make sure you make the lot a "Commercial lot" at first. You might want to have the phone out front.

This one here I made was for the Islands. It's a Mysterious Hut where the Witch Doctor lives. When you are all finished building and hiding your lot, the game will automatically spawn the right Secret Lot NPC when your Sims finds the right map and goes to visit the lot.

Make sure that in the Island Vacation Destination you put in appliances so your Sim can help out and repair them. This one here only had a microwave.

The Far East needs a Tea Table so your Sim can serve tea to the Wise Old Man.

The Mountain Destination will need some type of radio so they will be able to Slap Dance with Bigfoot. Add in what ever else you like. As my friend Polly mentioned, "Bigfoot's lot could use a bathroom". Might be a good idea to add these to any of the Secret Lots you make yourself. Your Sims might need to spend a long time on the lot before they get what they came after.
Now, go back through the lot and make sure everything is there that you need. Once you do the next few steps, thats it, you will not find your lot again and can not get back in to change things.

Now we are ready to hide the lot. Bring up the cheat window by pressing Control, Shift, C. Type in the cheat box changelotzoning secretvacationlot just like that. You'll know when the cheat worked because 1. You will not get an error message and 2. The option to save will now be grayed out.

Exit to the Neighborhood view - "Oh NO! The lot is still there".
Don't worry. Just move the lot into the Lots and House Bin, now go and move it back to where you had it.

Poof! It's gone, never to be found by you again. All you need to do now is get one of your Sims to find the map.
( I would delete the copy that gets saved in the bin now. You really can't have 2 Secret Lots in the same Neighborhood)

Have fun making your own Vacation Destinations. Now they can all have Secret Lots custom made by you.
A special thanks to Polly and Andy for Wondering how this would work. They gave me the idea to test it out. ~dlgo1012

No Dancing in Silence by twojeffs 


the no dance on toes dosen't kill it totally, they'll only do it if their fun is under 50 or something like that.

monique has a no dance on toes hack over at mts2 

it's in her thread of no autonomous hacks

ok, the guide says

"A hotel's rooms are priced individually based on their size and the value of their contents. The bigger the room and the more expensive the objects, the more the room will cost to rent each day.

note: A hotel's Simoleon rating is based on the average daily rate of all its rooms."


sounds right from what I noticed in the different hotels I edited.

I was wondering about how the pricing per suite is determined also. I noticed in some of the 'cheaper' hotels that cheaper furniture was used, some I replaced with much more expensive stuff but haven't yet had a chance to play again. I'm hoping to see a big price increase since I'd like to make some nice small very expensive Hotels and some small crappy very cheap Hotels.

I haven't checked the guide about it yet though, not sure if it says anything about it.

no clue, I got rid of almost all of the extra rooms, mostly by getting rid of the whole second floor *laughs*  At one place, I turned 1 room/suite into a TV/chess room and I put a pool table in another, switched the doors to archs. At a fancy beach hotel, I got rid of the second floor and turned one suite into a TV room.

I got rid of all the TVs in the suites, in every single hotel that had them.


I hate lag. If you haven't already then I suggest going into all those vacation lots and trimming them down. You won't believe how much stuff is on them. On some of the Island lots, there are flowers and bushes under the small trees, I never knew they were even there until i started deleting trees.

I actually had lag on some of the vacation lots in build mode and it always cleared up after I deleted a ton of 'extra' stuff, like plants/trees/fences. so I hope that is a sign that playing those lots will be better now.

I got rid of both of the 'Ruins' on the Island, made a 2x2 lot called "Monkey Ruins" and stuck the monkey fountain thing there for the memento, with a couple other things (bathrooms, food stand and stuff). The maxis/ea lots look really nice but suck to play IMO      In time, I will go back and dress up my Monkey Ruins a bit more (or redo it on a slightly bigger 2x3 lot). IMO, smaller lots are easier to make look nice and they play better.  Big/Huge lots always need tons of stuff just so they don't look empty.

I second that. 

yes, InSIM has been updated for BV