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Mad Poster
Original Poster
#1 Old 5th Mar 2018 at 8:31 PM
Default Uber- & Megahoods - Creating A Connected Whole?
I posted a bit about this in a thread which I started last year
Quote: Originally posted by lauratje86
And I am also wondering how you all link the subhoods in your uberhoods and megahoods together? Both in terms of geography and in terms of the back-stories for the 'hoods, anything which connects them into a whole rather than having them as completely separate areas with no connections to each other.

I would like to expand a bit on that here.

Do you consider the EAxis 'hoods to be geographically connected? Do you have an idea about how they would fit together on a map? Do you have specific weather or climates in the different 'hoods?

Do you have backstories for the 'hoods, such as when and why they were populated, how settlements were founded and why they are located in a particular area? Do you have ideas for a transport system in your 'hoods? Where are the schools, colleges and/or universities? Hospitals? Other facilities?

What about businesses - are there chain stores and/or local stores, and who runs them and why, and what other types of business are there?

Do you play with religion, and are there multiple religions across the 'hoods? Are there celebrities (sportspersons, actors, musicians, authors, religious leaders, others?), popular brands, films, TV shows, books etc which are widely read across the 'hood, or which have a more local following?

What about politics, laws and government?

Is there anything else that you do to make your 'hoods feel like a connected whole?

I do like reading about other simmers' games!
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Mad Poster
#2 Old 5th Mar 2018 at 8:34 PM
I mentioned this in an older thread, so I'll quote: http://modthesims.info/showthread.p...sco#post5238595

Quote: Originally posted by ihatemandatoryregister
Oakbrook is a metropolis area set on a bay (not unlike the San Francisco area, which is why I have some Painted Lady Apartments in my main hood). From there, you have the coastal area (Bluewater Village, Belladonna Cove, Bayside Flats, Shady Shores, and Four Corners), the suburbs off of that (Downtown, Pleasantview, Veronaville, Desiderata Valley, Riverside, and Meadow Creek) and then the mountain area (Riverblossom Hills, Widespot, Mountainside Valley, and Bitville). On the other side of the mountain, rain shadow comes into effect, and you get the deserts (Strangetown and Sedona).

Each subhood has its own distinct flavour, and this comes because they developed as separate communities before being amalgamated into Oakbrook.

There's decent public transportation throughout this metropolis. I never thought about bullet trains (I associate trains with the big, slow ones that rattle the entire apartment) but I might borrow that idea.

EDIT: Also the four universities are near their associated hoods - Sim State University is Pleasantview, La Fiesta Tech is Strangetown, Academie La Tour is Veronaville, and Land Grant University is Widespot. Although which one Sims go to really depends, a lot of them prefer to stay close to home.


Since then, I've also added Emerald Heights. It's a bit of a special case because of the provided story - it used to be a 'nice garden town.' So it's along the coast. I've also added Bigg City as a downtown but I'm not quite sure where that is.

I'll talk about the other stuff in a bit - I'm writing at the moment.

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Lab Assistant
#3 Old 6th Mar 2018 at 10:41 AM
My old hood - which has gotten a bit too big to handle unfortunately - consisted of Elsewhere as a main hood, with Belladonna and Bluewater as shopping districts, and Downtown as, well, downtown. I also had a bunch of holiday destinations and two universities (none of the main ones though). Each destination had their own climate. Elsewhere was up north, and it was a bit cold and rainy, while Belladonna and one of the universities were more southward along the coast, with longer summers. The other university was on an island, where the weather was always nice. Inland we had downtown, with your everyday SuAWSp climate, while further inland we got the mountains where eternal winter reigned.

Within hoods, everything was travelable by foot, but to go to another subhood, one had to take the car or taxi. In fact, the universities were so far away that one pretty much had to stay the night to get there. The holiday destinations were even further away.

In my head, these were all present in some sort of pseudo-European country, with other cities and towns scattered in between them. There was a chain grocery store, and IKEA, but ultimately most businesses were mom 'n pop stores.
Lab Assistant
#4 Old 9th Mar 2018 at 6:04 PM Last edited by GneissGuy : 9th Mar 2018 at 10:24 PM.
I had a standard uberhood made years ago that was riddled with corruption, so have tended to avoid them in recent years. But I'm currently planning to start 2 new uber-hoods, however I want to include the Pet Stories hoods, so have to wait until Hood Building Group finish their (no doubt excellent) planned recreations of them.

One of my 'hoods will be a desert themed one, with Emerald Heights at the centre with Strangetown, Mesa Flats, Sedona and possibly Viper Canyon as suburbs. The universities will be La Fiesta tech and Quadington. I can't decide between using Downtown or creating my own alternative downtown, which would have lots of beachside clubs and bars, a "surfers vs werewolves" gang theme, a couple of burnt out buildings from the violence (and accompanying ghosts), as well as the usual vampires of course. The whole town is on the shore of an inland lake, and in the nearby mountains & valleys somewhere around a southern USA/Northern Mexico region, so all the different suburbs fit. Seasons would probably be Spring/Summer/Summer/Autumn. There'd be a lot of supernatural stuff going on; aliens, servos, witches, zombies, werewolves, vampires, maybe even plantsims and bigfoot would all be common place.

I also plan a more standard uberhood of Belladonna Cove at the heart with Pleasantview, Bluewater, Desiderata Valley, Riverblossom Hills, Four Corners, Bitville, Garden Heights, Arbor Falls, and Riverside & Waterside as suburbs (I deliberately leave Veronaville out, because of plans for another hood it would fit into better). Downtown would be used, as would Sim State and Academie le Tour. I imagine this being a sprawling city in a geographical setting something like Seattle, Portland or Vancouver, again with a variety of coastal and hilly suburbs, allowing for canyons and cliffs like those around some of the suburbs. Standard spring/summer/autumn/winter seasons.

I'm also thinking of incorporating into that uberhood an urban downtown-style university with lots of multi function commercial/apartment/halls-of-residence lots in converted warehouses, old office blocks, terraced townhouses and so on. And perhaps also creating a coastal, beach-house friendly retirement suburb, for the Goodies, Oldies and everyone else when they get older.
Comments/suggestions welcome!

Edit: I just thought of another bit of character for my hoods. They'll both have a celebrity household who everyone will want to know, and whose reputations, behaviour and preferences will affect everyone else. It'll be the Pleasants and/or Bella Goth in the second hood. And maybe the Kim family in the first.
Lab Assistant
#5 Old 16th Mar 2018 at 2:10 PM Last edited by Sita : 16th Mar 2018 at 6:59 PM.
OK I started a kind of uberhood; it's not as large as some because I've had problems with uberhoods corrupting, but with way fewer Townies. This consists in Viper Canyon, a desert, industrialized sort of city, with offices and utilities. This is where the Town Hall and civic buildings will be, lso factories and large stores, workplaces. I imagine Sim State as along the road from Viper Canyon. At the other end is Strangetown. Alien tech was discovered there, as well as some mineral deposits. These two things combine to make all three of the desert areas fairly infertile. Only desert plants will grow there (ie no real farming/gardening). Then there is Pleasantview and Desiderata - neither affected by the pollution or desertified yet, but still quite warm. (I'm tired of snow! It lags my computer and sometimes crashes my game!)
Pleasantview is where the upper crust live, while Desiderata will be mostly for farming; at the moment it's inhabited by poorer Sims just getting started but who want to raise their families "somewhere that's green".
Strangetown is where I'm working at the moment - the Beaker's castle was destroyed in an experiment gone wrong, leaving a large lava crater. Currently building a new, larger version of their house on top of the lava crater (in basement). As they have adopted six children, they need more space
Mad Poster
#6 Old 16th Mar 2018 at 3:22 PM
I wouldn't really know how to explain the georgraphy of my megahood without drawing a map, but I'll try:
Belladonna sits in the middle, as you go through the heights (where the Baldwin's and that lot live) you'd get to Bluewater village, whereas if you travel East you'd reach Downtown. Pleasantview is between Bluewater and Downtown. Sim state University is close by in this area, although I haven't fully decided where, but further out is Desiderata Valley, and further out than that is Riverblossom Hills. Veronaville lies somewhere closer to Belladonna but still quite far out, near Desiderata Valley but not too close, I imagine there's farmlands or mountains or something in-between. I think they're connected by Acadame Le Tour (a uni subhood that got abandoned quite a while away when the student population died down. I'm hoping to start using it again soon though).
Then... somewhere on the map far away from everywhere (haven't decided which direction) is La Fiesta (also currently abandoned, but when more alien Sims read Young adulthood I'm hoping to bring it back) and further past that on the road to nowhere is Strangetown. So far out most Sims aren't even aware of it.

In terms of education, I don't have any schools I've built myself. I like to think the schools are just in areas of Simnation I don't play. Although a lot of Riverblossom Hills (and some Desiderata Valley) Sims go to the Greenman greenhouse once a rotation to learn about plants and socialise.

There are different laws and ways of life too: Strangetown is largely lawless. There's a military base used for 'ethical testing of aliens'. Aliens aren't allowed to live outside of Strangetown though (Ignoring Lola Curious, but that's only because of her boyfriend John Mole).
Veronaville is also a little questionable, luckily the last murder was Hero Monty, about 20 years ago by this point - things have become somewhat settled. Now that there's new Heirs and Heiresses things have settled quite a bit. Although the Capp family will disown you if you marry a Monty, and most marriages were decided by Tybalt Capp following Consort's death, but since Ariel Capp (heiress) has come of age and is a little less strict about marriage.
Riverblossom Hills have some arranged marriages too. Mostly for lot ownership and exchanging fruit, vegetables and fish. By midchildhood Riverblossom Sims usually have a bronze badge in either fishing or gardening.
Pleasantview, Desiderata Valley, and Bluewater are all kinda typical suburb. DV Sims value sharing hobbies with friends, whereas Bluewater Sims value businesses.
Belladonna Cove is split into two: Lower Belladonna and Belladonna heights. Lots of young hipsters straight out of college tend to move here, as well as people higher up in the Musician, artist and business career tracks.

~Your friendly neighborhood ginge
Lab Assistant
#7 Old 16th Mar 2018 at 4:39 PM
I've actually responded to a thread like this in the not so distant past, but I've refined my concept of hood-connectedness and I'm happy to share. I'm a native Californian (both in the literal Native American sense as well as the 'I was born here' sense) so a lot of my experiences in the cities and towns in and around California have really colored the way I see each town in the game. Pleasantview is a middle class suburb in my game, not unlike, say, Campbell in California. It has a pretty busy, pretty prosperous downtown area, and a quiet suburb with people of all manner of income levels and lots of kids and parks. Downtown Pleasantview is mostly inspired by downtown San Jose. It's a lot of business buildings and pretty, colorful Victorian and Mission style homes for the upper class, and lots of inner city dwelling and apartments for the working class. Still, lots of parks.

Only recently have I come to develop how I conceptualize places like Bluewater Village, Strangetown, and Riverblossom Hills. It quite literally took me more than a decade to realize that Bluewater Village was a coastal town; somehow the name never tipped me off, nor did the giant lighthouse in the corner. This completely morphed my perspective. I used to have a very loose idea of what Bluewater was supposed to be like, just a lot of older folks, but now I see it as a tourist friendly beachside town with lots of small businesses and a bunch of proud and diverse locals -- just like Santa Cruz here in California. I've made it a hot spot for young, creative post-grads to move to, as I see Sim State University as being located at the edge of Bluewater city limits. It's also a place where locals feel a strong sense of pride, never want to move, and want to raise their kids there, so there's a bunch of older people and retirees. I'm the process of constructing a bunch of attractions by the sea -- a boardwalk, surf shop, arcade, sweets shop, clothing boutique, fish market, pizza -- just like any proud, busy seaside town.

Riverblossom Hills is small, lush, and its economy is centered around agriculture, like Napa Valley and the surrounding areas (Callistoga, especially). I intend to keep it a small town, so my cap is ten families. I've gone in and built some public buildings and services like a national park with a campground, a library, and a singular public park for the kids, but I also plan to build a B&B, an orchard for locals and tourists to pick fruits, picnic, and go on dates, as well as a winery or two.

Strangetown, I see as being located somewhere in the Mojave, either in California or Nevada. Most likely Nevada due to the Area 51/alien connection. It's a military town with an on-site military academy, base exchange, barracks for new recruits (the Grunt House with the identical one next door), a laboratory for research and development, and an observatory up on the hill where the Curious house used to be. Everyone who lives in Strangetown has ties to the government/military in some way. Scientists, military personnel, and Intelligence operatives and their families make up the population. Not every scientist nor intelligence agent has to live on base, but definitely every soldier. It's coming along slowly, but I finally feel like o have a strong grasp of the character of each town. They're all connected via public transportation, like a train runs from Riverblossom through Downtown Pleasantview. Pleasantview is about a half hour drive from Bluewater Village by car or by bus, and only one bus route goes from Pleasantview to Strangetown.

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Instructor
#8 Old 18th Mar 2018 at 4:55 PM Last edited by conversesneaker : 18th Mar 2018 at 9:49 PM.
This is something I've written a lot about in other threads, but it's also something I've thought a lot about, so I don't mind re-typing it up here


Obviously, there is the UBERHOOD, which is every Eaxis hood put together, which is really useful from a storytelling perspective as it gives you all the options...but it can be a little overwhelming. So let me talk about megahoods and my gameplay.

First, there's geography and balance. Side note: I like my megahoods to have at least one unique vacation hood and one university. In an ideal world, sims from any hood could go to any college/vacation they want, maybe meet other sims from other neighborhoods...maybe after they graduate, decide to move somewhere else. But since moving sims between hoods would make the game explode, and I don't want duplicate sims in different hoods (I'm looking at you, college sims)...I'll settle for one of each type of subhood for each megahood.

The easy part is where I pair up the sole two desert hoods Eaxis gave us (Strangetown and La Fiesta Tech) and put them together. After that, it gets more tricky. Do I make a coastal hood, mashing up Belladonna Cove, Bluewater Village, and Twikkii Islands? Do I combine Strangetown and Belladonna Cove together because of their dual highways? Riverblossom Hills's pre-set weather is coded to be a very snowy place but if you zoom out of the neighborhood map, there are some very tropical looking islands!

I could do all of those things but for me, the deciding factor is using what information has already been given to us. Michael Bachelor of Pleasantview famously attended Sim State University - so Pleasantview gets Sim State University. Alexandra Teatherton ran off to be a pirate - where else, but Twikkii Islands? Riverblossom Hills goes with Twikkii Islands then. And since Three Lakes is an exotic climate to the desert citizens of Strangetown/La Fiesta Tech (Perhaps this is where Loki and Erin Beaker used to live? Plus, I imagine Bigfoot would be of interest to certain military/scientific communities), that leaves Takemizu Village to go with Pleasantview. In the Bluewater Village pictures, Malcolm Landgraab is seen in a hot tub with a woman looking like Nina Caliente...whose to say that isn't her?

My final rule is, that I don't mind the Roths/Goths and Pleasants/Cordials in the uberhood, I don't want them in the same megahood. So I can't put Pleasantview/Riverblossom Hills or Pleasantview/Belladonna Cove together.

1. Uberhood of all the hoods


2. Riverblossom Hills (base), Academie Le Tour (uni), Belladonna Cove (downtown), Desiderata Valley (subhood), Twikkii Island (vacation)
This was the hardest hood to make work but it ultimately feels right. It's city vs. country, rich vs, poor, law and order vs. chaos. Despite it's snowy reputation, RBH is more a Southern, maybe Appalachian area to me. BDC is obviously a homage to NYC but there's also something of the rust belt cities in it. And boring, suburban, what-the-hell-was-Eaxis-thinking Desiderata Valley...I've seen tropical makeovers of this hood and I can go with that. Perhaps DV is the mainland to Twikkii Island? It would explain the Contrarys' careers in oceanography...and perhaps offer Alexandra Teatherton an actual home when she's not out sailing.

ALT resembles a private university, older buildings, more traditional...perhaps it is a study abroad option?


3. Pleasantview (base), Sim State University (uni), Downtown (downtown), Bluewater Village (subhood), Takemizu Village (vacation)
My Pleasantview has a very California essence to it, with Victorian and Mission style homes previously mentioned. Downtown is made-over to resemble San Francisco, while Bluewater Village reminds me of some coastal towns I used to live near. Industry wise, it has a history of science (Mortimer Goth!) and medical (Don Lothario), plus there's the nearby university and athletics (go Llamas!). But there is also a seedy underbed of crime. With Bluewater Village, I imagine there's a lot of excitement around start-ups and small businesses. It's also a great place to live, since it doesn't snow here (spring/summer/fall).

SSU is the public state school, with more of an emphasis on liberal arts and getting the full college experience (Greek houses! sports teams!).


4. Strangetown (base), La Fiesta Tech (uni), Three Lakes (vacation). (there is no downtown or subhood assigned to Strangetown...yet. Although may I suggest using Tarlia's Viper Canyon as a subhood?)
This was the easiest to put together, since the base hood and game gives us so much. Desert, also no snow (summer/autumn). Huge military/science/medical/intelligence industry! Originally, the only people living here would have been those employed by the government but over time, those sims settled down and started families here, like the Curious family. We're also seeing a spike in education, as the LFT was built to encourage more scientists to move out to nowhere. Strangetown will never be as populated as the other hoods but it's certainly growing off the military bases.

LFT is both a party school and has the best program for sciences. So there's the Wasteland Lounge and the swimming pool, but it also comes with the recently renovated library and science center.


5. Veronaville (a stand-alone base hood - I don't want to dilute the Shakespeare theme, although I've introduce some familiar families to keep the hood going). Architecturally, there is a divide between the English + Grecian side and the Italian/Moroccan side.
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