Holland Town - Vacation Destination

[lauratje86]

I decided that 2011 is going to be the year that I take my Sims 2 creations several steps further! :-) I have had fun making painting recolours, wallpapers, floors, careers and majors, but there are some other things that I'd like to learn to do. The two main things on my list are meshing and lot building. So I decided that it would be more interesting to work on one largish project that would combine everything!

And that's how my idea for Holland Town was born....... I want to make a vacation destination based on the Netherlands (Holland). Originally I was going to just do Amsterdam, but there are some interesting places outside Amsterdam that I wanted to include. I used to live in the Netherlands, but moved back to the UK 6 years ago, so having lived here for 9 years when I was younger I have visited a lot of attractions, so I have some idea of what I want to include. But I'd love some feedback/ideas from people on my initial "list of lots", posted below. As I start building lots, I'll be posting pictures and asking for feedback on them too - I have a lot to learn buildingwise, and I hope that you guys can help! The same goes for object meshes - I'm going to need to make quite a few of those, I think, to get things looking how I want.

Anyway, here's the list of lots:

Attractions:

Dam Square
Anne Frank House
Van Gogh Museum
Vondelpark

Hoge Veluwe (national park (type thing) with museum, art gallery and sculpture garden)
Dierenpark Amersfoort and/or Emmen and/or Apenheul and/or Dolfinarium Harderwijk (combine into one zoo - they're really awesome zoos, all four of them!)
Keukenhof (huge flower garden)
Zuiderzee Museum (museum of Dutch culture and history, with mock historical buildings)

18+ Attractions: (I won't be mentioning them anymore here, and they'll be for upload on SXS2 if/when I make them rather than included in the subhood - I just wanted people to know I hadn't forgotten them!)

Coffee Shop(s)
Sex Museum
Red Light District/Sex Show

General Community Lots:

Cheese shop
Row of clothing/jewellery/gift/souvenir shops
Supermarket (Albert Heijn)
Sinterklaas lot! (St Nicolas – Dutch celebration in early December, kind of like Christmas, only different!)

Lodging:

Amstel Botel (boat hotel)
Canal boats (as hotel “rooms” on one lot)
Eden Amsterdam American Hotel (art deco style, with wedding facilities)
Seven One Seven Hotel (boutique hotel in a canal-side house)

Houses:

“House with purple windows” (a historical house from Amersfoort)
A couple of traditional Amsterdam canal-side houses

Obviously I welcome comments/suggestion from anyone, but as far as the list is concerned I'd especially like to hear from people who live in the Netherlands or have been on holiday here. I know there are quite a few Dutch/living in the Netherlands people on MTS, so hopefully some of you have some ideas!

I haven't decided whether to have it as a mountain, beach or far east destination yet - none really make sense, but I'll have to pick one! To make it more accurate, people who downloaded it would have to makeover the locals, so they didn't look mountainy/beachy/far easty - Dutch people just dress like people really. Though by UK standards many of them wear trousers that are slightly too short..... :-D

Thanks in advance for any help/suggestions/comments! :-)

**EDIT** Suggestions for a better names would be good too - Holland Town sounds more like a football club or something than a vacation destination to me! :-D

[lauratje86]

I have started work on the first lot - Keukenhof. Keukenhof is a garden which is open in Spring/Summer, and has a lot of tulips, daffodils etc. The Netherlands is kind of famous for its flowers, and Keukenhof uses them to their full potential!

There are going to be three buildings in my Keukenhof - a restaurant, a shop and a toilet block. I have included a few pictures of them. They are still in the first stages of development, I would mainly appreciate comments on the roofs. I suck at roofs.......

Bear in mind that when the lot is finished the buildings will very much take a back seat - the flowers & landscaping will take centre stage for sure! :-)

Comments, suggestions and constructive critisism welcome - and needed!

Here are the pictures. The first two are the restaurant, the third is the shop and the fourth is the toilets. The last one shows where they are in relation to each other.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v409/kathryn1986/Holland%20Town/RestaurantRoofFront.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v409/kathryn1986/Holland%20Town/RestaurantRoofAbove.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v409/kathryn1986/Holland%20Town/ShopRoofFront.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v409/kathryn1986/Holland%20Town/ToiletsRoofFront.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v409/kathryn1986/Holland%20Town/GeneralLayout01Roofs.jpg

[maybesomethingdunno]

Could you lessen the slope on the hexagonal (or whatever) roof? It seems a bit tall and pointy for such a small alcove. :)

[lauratje86]

Could you lessen the slope on the hexagonal (or whatever) roof? It seems a bit tall and pointy for such a small alcove. :)

Agreed! Am searching for tutorials now to see if that's possible, and if so how to do it - so far I've only found one that doesn't have any pictures and hence is a bit useless :-(

It looks pretty daft the way it is, doesn't it?! Thanks for the suggestion!

**EDIT** Bah! Apparently it isn't possible without the Mansion & Garden SP.... I think it looks a bit better with a round roof instead, though. Thoughts?

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v409/kathryn1986/Holland%20Town/ShopRoofFrontRound.jpg

[el_flel]

There are roof height cheats you can use without MGS: roofSlopeAngle [15-75]
Adjust angle of all roofs on the lot. Acceptable values are 15-75, which seem to equate to the angle in degrees.
Compatible with: NL OFB PetsindividualRoofSlopeAngle [15-75]
Similar to the roofSlopeAngle cheat from Nightlife, this cheat allows you to change individual pieces of roof, separate from the other roof parts. To use, first build the roof. Then enter the cheat. Acceptable values are 15-75 (degrees). While the roof tool is still selected, hold down CTRL and ALT and click on the the section of roof that you want to change. The roof will change angles.
Compatible with: Pets Source: http://www.modthesims.info/wiki.php?title=Game_Help:Sims_2_Cheats#Build_Cheats

[lauratje86]

There are roof height cheats you can use without MGS: Source: http://www.modthesims.info/wiki.php?title=Game_Help:Sims_2_Cheats#Build_Cheats

I tried those, but I read in a couple of tutorial threads that apparently they don't work on octagonal, conical or round roofs (possibly unless you have Mansion & Garden). I used those cheats for the other roofs on the lot, but I couldn't get them to work on the shop one. I also saw a suggestion that if you build the roofs, then go to Autoroof and select remove roofs, then click Undo it will make octagonal etc roofs shorter, which does work, but then the tops of the walls show through..... So it doesn't seem like it's possible. I'd like to be wrong though - it'd be good if there is a way to get them to work.

[maybesomethingdunno]

Perhaps you could use flooring, possibly some small fences, and the CFE cheat? Since it's open, it wouldn't need to be Seasons-proof.

[lauratje86]

Perhaps you could use flooring, possibly some small fences, and the CFE cheat? Since it's open, it wouldn't need to be Seasons-proof.

Haha! Good idea! I shall give that a go tomorrow - it's 5:30am here now, I should really go to bed.....

**EDIT** Whilst I've been trying to figure out that roof, I've been doing a bit of landscaping. The pond thingy is deep, but I think it looks better that way - I tried it shallow(er) and didn't like it. Still need waaaaay more flowers though! Thoughts?

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v409/kathryn1986/Holland%20Town/GeneralLayout03PondAndBridgesDoneAndLandscapingStarted.jpg

[Vampire_of_Death]

The roof over the dinning chairs is floating, I would add some pillars to these without snapobjectstogrid off so that they will line up. Same goes for the entrance and teh bathroom roofs.

I think the pond look great.

The entrance way to the lot itself seems very small, maybe try to make it slightly more grand. Maybe may your own arch way using the same style you did with the glass tile roofs.

[maybesomethingdunno]

Allow me to append what I said. Because it's open, you wouldn't need to worry about the cold, but I don't know about slanted tiles keeping out rain. That is, I don't know if Sims running to get out of the rain could find dry shelter under a CFE floortile roof.

Since you're going to go nuts with flowers and vegetation, here's another thought. Create a flat floortile dummy roof with whatever flooring. Then, with stackable,angled OMSPs (http://www.modthesims.info/download.php?t=317716), create a floral facade for the roof or whatever, similar to what was done here (http://thumbs2.modthesims.info/img/2/1/3/4/6/3/0/MTS2_SilentLucidity_872541_FlowerShack2resized.jpg).

[lauratje86]

Thanks for the suggestions MSD and Vampy :-) I'm going to try an redo the roof using the CFE cheat (I'd never used this before I made the bridges for this lot - good isn't it!) and if that doesn't look good I'll try your other suggestion, MSD.

Agreed about the floating roof things, Vampy. They're actually "sunscreens" from 4esf (with permission to share it with lots). I'll try to put pillars underneath it. There are a couple of pillars under the entrance greenhouse roof bit, but they don't reach all the way to the roof, so I'm trying to find some slightly taller ones I can use. Then I'll use the same ones for the sunscreen thing too. I'll have a go at making an archway, if I can't find one for download anywhere, that's match it. You're right, the entrance is rather underwhelming! I also plan to make a Keukenhof sign or two. Glad you like the pond! :-D

Thanks again for your suggestions, keep them coming please folks! :-)

[Lavaster]

Just decided to comment because this reminded me of the time where I created a Paris, France vacation destination once.

[whitewaterwood]

I'm not really seeing the 'Holland' part of this. It just looks too modern. It's a land full of lots of history and old buildings, whereas this looks 2050-ish. The buildings are nice, but not very Dutch.

[lauratje86]

I'm not really seeing the 'Holland' part of this. It just looks too modern. It's a land full of lots of history and old buildings, whereas this looks 2050-ish. The buildings are nice, but not very Dutch.

Keukenhof doesn't actually have traditional Dutch looking buildings - I have been there a couple of times, and I'm also basing this off the photos on the Keukenhof website. The main restaurant there is pretty modern looking, lots of glass and white walls. I think it was actually designed to look modern/futuristic, to present a different view of Holland to tourists, maybe? I guess that traditional Holland is represented by all the flowers and the bulbs - they're very traditional Dutch, right back to the 16th/17th century (or was it 18th?)....

When I move on to some of the Amsterdam buildings, they'll be much more traditional Dutch, with gabled (do I mean gabled?) roofs, made of traditional materials etc. Keukenhof is just not like that in RL though, and I'm trying to reflect that in my Sims 2 version.

Thanks for the comment though, I'll bear it in mind when I move on to the more traditional buildings :-)