Hello! I think there are threads like this, if there is please link me to those threads.

However, I'm having a hard time setting up a neighborhood by myself. I have like no clue where to start and stuff like that.

Any essential mods (except for no-spawning townie stuff, because I already got those) that might be needed for like taxes or anything?

How to start with the town?
Should I like build all the houses first or creating the sims first and then moving them into houses?
Should I have decoration community lots (Town Hall, Police Station, etc.) or just community lots that really could be used (shops, parks, nightclubs, etc)?

Basically, how do you set up a town when you create one? This information is good to share, just not for me but for everyone else out there who might need it.

1. I don't use tax/no townie mods.
2. I start with a general idea for the town so that I know where to lead the storyline/what lots to build.
3. I build as I go.
4. I put decorations after I've really gotten settled. I don't want to place decorations where I might later want to build lots. That would call for all sorts of rearranging but I'm too lazy.

And there have been countless threads like this.

Hi there, I've built up neighbourhoods different ways. My usual approach whether it was a pre made neighbourhood or a custom one, was that I built everything before I started to play.
I'd start with the vacation spots, and build my hotels and community lots. Then I'd build up my downtown with lots. Depending on how I was going to start my game, I'd either build the university or wait until I had teens to go. Then I build my main neighbourhood. Mainly they are houses- yes, I build them too, and a few community lots. Sometimes I'd add the shopping district, but my intention with that neighbourhood was for housing when I needed it. My downtown is where I make my own businesses.

As for decoration, I add clouds, rainbows, and birds. I also add a bus stop here and there. But it's not my priority to have all the decorations, but that's just me.

Then I go into bodyshop and make Sims, and then I go into CAS and start making families.

However, after saying all that. At the moment, I began my game at Uni and building as I go. It's a long process to just build for a few weeks, and not play. And so, I decided I'd build my Uni, and play until I need a new neighbourhood to play with.

That's the gist of how I start out.

I wanted to add, I do use mods from the Sim Blender to no respawn hacks.

My own preference is for neighborhoods where the building areas are flat; you'll find some here at MTS, and in other places on the web. Makes building a lot easier.

I build houses as I go along, but that's just my personal preference.

I have a weakness for BACC hoods (current game is one), so I add most neighborhood decorations as I go. When I started the neighborhood I put trees down, and currently it also has a radio antenna, water tower, and an art center. (To go with its ten houses, four businesses, and two community lots.)

ETA: I use a ton of mods, but that's personal preference, too. The essentials I would have under any circumstances at all are the ones listed as "critical" at MATY (which I believe would include things like notownieregen), the Batbox, and SimBlender. Others I'd hate to play without, but aren't quite that vital - like ACR and annoyance-stoppers.

If you're looking for making a 'hood with taxes, it depends on whether you want the money to go to a sim or just vanish. For sending money to a sim, MATY's money order or Simwardrobe's checkbook. For it just disappearing, the donate option on Monique's computer.

What kind of town do you want? Suburban is the typical/default, but maybe you'd want something a little different. A bustling city? A wide-ranging farming community? A farming community that builds up to a bustling city? For me, I tend to have a brief idea of what kind of neighbourhood I'm building and then work from there. I generate a random number of families and sims in those families, and the family dynamics give me a story/background to go on. I tend to build houses to personality/family needs, so while I don't have any playables when I'm building I do know that (for instance) I'm going to have a single adult female who's living in a studio apartment and a busy three-generation family that is going to need a lot of space (or be comfortable all sleeping in one or two packed bedrooms).

Some of my 'hoods have deco lots, those being ones I don't really need/want as businesses (town hall, police station, school). If I'm in a hurry I put down visitable community lots with items that are essential (clothes store, grocery store) and build up the rest as and when they're needed.

Here's an old thread I found, if you haven't seen it yet - may give you some ideas :-)

I have various ways to set up 'hoods, depending on my aims/plans for that 'hood and the mood I'm in at the time. So I'll write about a few of them here. Warning: this may be a long post! :-D

1 - "Can't Be Bothered" 'Hood

The "Can't Be Bothered" 'hood is an old favourite of mine. For this type of 'hood I just go into CAS, create one household (or, more often, a single male founder) and then I place one residential lot in the 'hood and move them/him into it. I build up a little house with the available funds, and then I just play that household. Sometimes I get bored quickly and never look at the 'hood again after a couple of hours play, sometimes I play it for several generations and end up with several related households and a few community lots. These 'hoods generally get made when I am having difficulty focussing on anything for very long, or when I'm in a hurry to play (for example to try out a new idea or some particularly exciting CC) and don't usually last long, though one of my favourite 'hoods from my old game (before I started over with CC) was a "Can't Be Bothered" 'hood which eventually ended up with about 8 households and a few useful community lots. (That was Brettwaite Island, home of the Brettwaite family, in case anyone's wondering. Their family tree is still available here).


2 - Premade 'Hood

Even when I play premade 'hoods I'm still awkward about it - I use mods to change the length of the different age spans and I use ACR with customised settings, so even if I want to play a premade 'hood (or an uberhood) where all the sims are already made and already have homes it takes me a while to get everything set up to my liking. Sometimes I move sims into different houses, or into a main 'hood if I'm playing an uberhood where all the premade 'hoods are attached as shopping districts, sometimes I remodel their current homes, sometimes I don't change anything. It's very very rare for me to actually get a 'hood like this up to the point where it's ready for me to start playing, because all the set up required takes ages, especially if there are lots of households in the 'hood. I've managed to set Pleasantview up like this once or twice and quite enjoyed playing it, but I've never had a lon-lasting premade 'hood.

3 - Downloaded 'Hood

When I talk about a downloaded 'hood as opposed to a premade 'hood, I mean a 'hood where all the lots have been made but there are no inhabitants. For this kind of 'hood I go through it editing the lots to my liking (which can be very time consuming) and then I come up with ideas for the sims who may live there and create them in CAS and set them all up in their new homes before I start playing. I have tried this with a couple of Plasticbox's amazing 'hoods - I have yet to finish one but I'm still working on Middleground and I'm looking forward to playing it if and when it's done!

4 - "Prosperity Challenge" 'Hood

I've never played an actual Prosperity Challenge, but I do use a similar method to create households for some of my 'hoods. It's all about randomness - lots of dice rolling to come up with the number of families, the number of sims in each family, gender, starsign, aspiration and even appearance. I have a Word document with my own method of randomly creating families written out on it, and I use that quite a lot. After I've rolled for the families and created them all, I move them into their homes (sometimes built by me, usually downloaded and modified) and play the 'hood in rotation. Sometimes I make community lots as well, or at least a few of them, sometimes I don't and I make the sims buy them themselves over time.

5 - "From Scratch" 'Hood

I am currently working on a "From Scratch" 'hood called Apple Grove Island. This is a very small 'hood, so in the case I am building all the lots (or editing downloaded lots) first, then creating the families, and then I'll play it in rotation. The 'hood itself has a background story (made up by me), as do all of the families who live there. I use the Simblender to give sims appropriate skills, badges, careers and relationships before I start playing. If I'm planning on making a larger 'hood I don't make all of the lots beforehand - I make a few residential lots and some of the more important community lots and then add others as times goes by, between rotations. This is probably my favourite kind of 'hood to make, as it requires the most creativity, but it is time consuming so it's not ideal if you want to start playing immediately!

Regardless of how I set up a 'hood, I play them all in roughly the same way. I use a ton of mods, including no regen ones, ACR, Inteen, a bunch of ones to fix things that annoy me and a few that add new features to the game, like Monique's computer and MogHughson's greetings cards. I set up each sim's ACR profile separately based on calculations involving their personality and aspiration. Sims have motivation levels, which has an effect on how high they can skill without rolling a want to do so, which in turn effects their promotion prospects. I also added some extra levels of qualifications (Associate's Degrees, Master's Degrees, PhD's), and each level of each career has a certain qualification requirement that must be met for a sim to progress to that career level. I enjoy the way I play, but I know it's too regulated for a lot of people :-) (But very similar to how some other people play, most specifically katya stevens - I nicked and adapted a lot of her ideas to develop my play style :-D).

There are lots of ways to set up a 'hood, and lots of ways to play it when it's done, so I'd suggest just going with what you think you'd enjoy and seeing how it works out for you! :-D

**ETA** I have attached the document that I use when randomly rolling families, in case it's of interest/use to anybody. Some of the eye colours are custom, so they may not be relevant to you unless you happen to have downloaded the same eyes as me! I also have the mod that replaces the broken turn on/off Custom Hair with Alienism. The fertility and gender preference options are things that I set in ACR, so may not be relevant to you. If I am creating families I only roll for the parents' appearances, then I make their children in CAS using the "Make Baby" option, or whatever it's called. If I roll for babies or unborn babies I set that up in game before starting gameplay. Anyway, if anyone would like to adapt this for your needs and use it, feel free :-)

How to start with the town? [I think that depends on how you like to play. Some people like realistic, and some people want a fantasy world. Some people like a challenge of starting with 1 sim and building up, and some people prefer setting up the neighborhood with a lot of sims. I recommend you pick a story or theme for your neighborhood - that'll decide how you set it up and what is essential. It doesnt have to be a huge idea, but even a small idea such as "I want a realistic neighborhood" will give you the basics. If you want a medieval town, you're going to layout your sims differently than a modern day world. If you want to take on a challenge, that also will require a different set up. Your neighborhood decorations will revolve around that too.

Also, when you are making rules for the town, consider what you are actually willing to enforce. I find that I wont stick with taxing my sims through normal means, but I am able to enforce fees such as marriage licenses and drivers licenses. I

Should I like build all the houses first or creating the sims first and then moving them into houses? - Personally, I like creating the sims first and moving them into houses as I go, but I would consider how difficult it will be to set up versus the amount of time you're going to play it. I hate taking a long time to set up a town, and for that, I set up as I go. Otherwise I know I'll probably abandon the hood before it even gets completed. Some people just like to build a lot more though. I also like building as I go because then I can build the buildings to reflect the personality of my sims, who will own the buildings.

Should I have decoration community lots (Town Hall, Police Station, etc.) or just community lots that really could be used (shops, parks, nightclubs, etc)? - You don't necessarily need to start out with them, but I recommend it as they definitely add to the feel of the neighborhood. You can also choose to download them if you feel like you dont want to waste the time building. For me, I add them as I go.

Any essential mods (except for no-spawning townie stuff, because I already got those) that might be needed for like taxes or anything? Other than the mods to keep your game safe & well running & fixed, I dont have anything I need for the neighborboods. I use mods to make the witches more likeable - but thats personal preference.

I can only spend so much time building before I want to just play. So consider your patience level for various sorts of activities and if you have already well functioning lots in other hoods you'd want to reuse, or if you'd be happier with all new lots.
I frequently would rather have neighborhood deco than deco lots, there are Criquette's pieces on this site, of course, and a bunch of TS3 rabbit hole lots made into deco by, um, Trapping? I think, and Psychosim has some. Takes just a few seconds to place and doesn't fill up your menu of community lots. I leave the community lots for functional lots.
If you look through some of the neighborhood type mods on this site you might get some ideas for what you'd like. I think there's pretty much everything you'd need to play a neighborhood set in space, for example.

There is no "should." There is only how you like to play.

For most people, building the whole thing first would guarantee that the neighborhood never got played. For some people, their chief enjoyment in the game is building, so building the whole neighborhood is play. Some people love playing with elaborate economic systems; some of us are content to handwave all that. Some people want tight control of everything; some of us love chaos and are constantly having better ideas, for which our setup must leave room.

What do you feel like doing when you sit down wanting to play sims? What excites you? Which stories do you like reading most in places like "What's happening in your game right now?" What kind of neighborhood do you have in mind?

Answer those questions, and you'll know what you want to do; which in turn will lead you to how to do it.

If it's your first neighborhood, I say keep it simple, start small, experiment. Give yourself permission to figure out what works for you. The only person who has to be pleased is yourself, so - set out to please that person!

I'm an impatient player, so my partially self sustaining hood was started by slapping down 3 small Maxis bin houses and quickly making three separate sims in cas. I build when I feel like it, download or use bin houses other times. It started as a BACC which has changed and developed more into a self sustaining hood, but only partially. I still use Maxis jobs, along with many cc jobs as well as many owned businesses. But I have a rule that for the job to be open I need a lot to represent the job. Now ideally I'd like all of those to be owned, but that is more of a goal then a reality. My game play is mostly about goals rather than story. So for instance a position in the police opened up on the first burglary. At this stage there were 3 families who were already doing other things so I made another cas sim to take on that role. I made her family in the hopes she would want to be captain hero. She didn't so I rolled for it on the bat box. I also set my sims hobbies if need be to make them into who I want them to be. Not all the time, but if I have a specific goal in mind I do. Other times my sims will change my mind. I have a very nice police station sitting there but as yet her family can't afford to buy it, so their goal is to make enough money to purchase it. Most of my buildings like that are residential so when they can afford it they will move in. Same with my fire station and hospital. My Doctor was able to buy the hospital last rotation.
Some of the hacks I find useful are the Simlogical school system. I have prep school and home school options for children from that. Other children go to the games public or private school. It all depends on who they are and how wealthy or not they are.
The symlogical prison system. i have this waiting to go, but I plan on sending the next burglar who turns up ,to jail or if someone gets a reputation for fighting or if a playable in the criminal track gets a bad chance card they will go to jail.
The teleporter mirror by Christainlov. This allows me to teleport a toddler to a home day care (nannies have not been unlocked as a job) or send a sim to hospital and I plan on having one of the other police telported to the police station once that is up and running on some sort of schedule. This hood is still fairly new yet, the first kids just left for uni.
Aging mod-gives my sims double the life. I just shorten teens.
I balance that with slower skilling, harder grades and halved wages.
Must have is the season and day setter. If you move in and it's winter on a Thursday then that’s what it gets set to.
Hobby adjuster
bat box
simblender
Monique’s hacked computer which allows me to 'donate money'
Those are the large ones, but I have a lot of hacks and hacked objects to make things run the way I want.

If anyone has the "Random Stuff" exe. program available from MATY, I've attached a simple drop-in text file that you can just put into the program and it will randomize everything, including names, sex, astrology, turn-ons, turn-offs, etc.

You can add to or delete out whatever you don't want with any text program.

In fact, I've attached the original program as well-because I don't believe one should have to wade through the alligator pit to just get one program.

Many thanks to Hook for the program!