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Doing all the things, and *mostly* not failing.
retired moderator
Original Poster
#1 Old 5th May 2017 at 8:16 PM Last edited by Phaenoh : 20th Jul 2017 at 7:17 PM.
Default Phae: Pleasantly Thriving & SimCity
Main Hood
It's been an ongoing project of mine to completely update and renovate Pleasantview. I was done with it a few years ago, and then decided I wanted to upload it. That brought the entire project to a screeching halt. It was the perfect time to do it, I had just rescued all my sims and put them safely to the side (yes, you can package 150+ sims into a single lot if you try hard enough), and the new hood was entirely empty. Uploading a hood this full is a HUGE undertaking.

Recently, my little sister nearly lost her main game and had to do a similar rebuild from her backups, and she inspired me to finally pick this project back up and get my simmies back into their homes. I'm planning on releasing this hood for my 10 year Creator Anniversary coming up this July. I have a TON of photos to take still, and putting a post together with over 50 lots is daunting. While I realize that the requirements regarding uploads has eased up to not require photos of every lot, I plan on offering every lot individually, and I'm super happy with how each turned out, so I'm going to forge ahead and show them all in the upload.

Every lot included is an original Pleasantview or Bin house, none of these are scratch built. This is what I believe the neighborhood could have looked like if EA had included all the Expansion and Stuff Packs from the beginning. I tried to stick to Maxis-match, and stay within the original lot's styling or intended architecture as much as possible, while stuffing them full of everything that makes a house feel 'real'.







Still to do are fixing the Objects States on a few of the commercial lots. I'm trying to make sure that things like the TVs and radios are set to the right channels, the lights are on, the OFB locks are locked against customers, things like that. Some of the lots I've done saved their object states properly, and others did not. I turned the FT Sporty Shack into a really neat Sports Bar and I need the TVs to have the game on! Unfortunately, for the life of me, I can't find that tutorial anymore and I don't recall how it was done... my google-fu has failed me.

Another thing I need to do is to take new photos using the amazing skys and horizons I've only lately discovered. These hood photos are simply photoshopped, but those hood deco objects are beautiful and crazy easy.

Downtown SimCity
Thanks to joandsarah and her latest Foundation Contest, I've been building city apartments. I used to have this awesome Downtown for my Pleasantview (ok, not really that awesome, it was about halfway there), but after my hood disaster, I can't find a backup of it anyways. Oh well, great time to start fresh. I've always hated the default downtown anyways. I discovered an awesome map and got to work. With the main hood being entirely my own Maxis-makeover lots (and it took FOREVER) I wanted to go the opposite direction and throw together a really good looking downtown fairly quickly using scratch-built lots from lots of talented MTS creators. It has a nice balance I think to do one of each. Most of the creator's lots I'm using allow for sharing, and those who don't I'll be PMing for permission and if I don't get it, I'll replace it with a placeholder lot. Almost all the lots I'm using have been altered in some way though, for some it's as simple as converting a multiple family residence into actual apartments, but with a few I've changed almost the entire interior because the outside was perfect, but I needed something else on the inside.

My SimCity downtown is loosely based on NYC thanks to the map, and each area feels like its own hood. I've already mostly finished both banks, and the french quarter in the middle. I'm currently work on some hotels and hospitals for the city center. I'm creating this hood as a main hood and as a subhood. I put all the freshly downloaded lots on the subhood, and clean them up and get them placed all properly and as I finish sections off, I move those edited lots to the main hood. That explains why some photos seem to be missing the finished areas, and why some of the pictures list the hood name as SimCity Terrain instead. I'm not putting all the images inline, cuz that's a lot, so be sure to look at the extras below!







Screenshots
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Instructor
#2 Old 5th May 2017 at 11:32 PM
Wow! What a beautiful hood Phaenoh!! I love what you did with both SimCity and Pleasantview (and I'm slightly jealous too ) I don't think I have the skill to set up such an amazing hood like that! I can't wait until you release it, as I'll most certainly be downloading it. What kind of layout do you find preferable for your hoods, linear or non-linear? Additionally, do you customarily incorporate a consistent housing style throughout your hood, or do you prefer to use a vaster array of housing styles, as to encourage variety?

What's going on in your game group here: http://www.modthesims.info/forumdis...546&groupid=906
Check it out ;)
Doing all the things, and *mostly* not failing.
retired moderator
Original Poster
#3 Old 6th May 2017 at 1:11 AM
What do you mean by linear or non-linear layout, are you asking about the fact that both these hoods have a rather regular grid system of roads, or something else?

For the housing style, I first decide where my hood is located climate-wise, then I try to make sure all the houses make sense for that area. If it doesn't fit in this hood, I probably have another that it will fit into better. Usually when I see a lot I like, I instantly think "ooh that's perfect for [hood]"

Pleasantview is my suburia hood, SimCity is my Big City, with blue-collar working class houses on each bank. I'm also working on and off again at a custom University for this group and it fits somewhere between suburb and inner city. Strangetown is obviously desert and I've done a lot of trailer parks and rambling mid-century ranches there, its shopping district is plasticbox's Baskerville so desert/beachy, and I've converted Belladonna Cove into it's downtown. You can see those pictures here. Strangetown's sole vacation destination at the moment is my wip Pollination Station #23 and is coded as an Asian hood because teleportation is the closest I can get to strange alien tech. My last group of hoods in my main game are Riverblossom as my main, Bluewater as the downtown, my West Weasels as the shopping, and plasticbox's Elsewhere as the beach vacation hood. I'm still trying to differentiate Riverblossom from Pleasantview, and the two main differences seem to be that Riverblossom is more rural, and the supernaturals are more prevalent in Riverblossom/West Weasels. I also have a zombie apox AnyGame and a medieval Veronaville AnyGame and you can guess the style of houses in those games, but I haven't played either much because they are a lot more work intensive.

Hi, I'm Phaenoh, and I'm addicted to hood building.
Top Secret Researcher
#4 Old 6th May 2017 at 3:01 AM
Love the new Pleasantview hood! I've always found the default Pleasantview to be a bit bare and empty, but I suppose it was deliberately done that way to give new (and returning) Simmers a place to build their own lots. I had a few (corrupted, thanks to my idiocy) Pleasantviews throughout my history of playing TS2, and I tried to make it "urban" (which didn't exactly work out well), but your hood looks nice and cozy and complete, for once!
Top Secret Researcher
#5 Old 6th May 2017 at 4:29 AM
I love how your Neighborhoods looked Phaenoh. I have always played Strangetown in my game and so I don't know how the default Pleasantview looks really. I do know that I like how yours looks though.

I am looking forward to more from you. I hope that everything goes well for you in your upload project.

for info on changing the Mac Open File Limit check out my post here http://www.insimenator.org/index.ph...html#msg1628939
Curiosity killed the cat,
but satisfaction brought it back.
Instructor
#6 Old 6th May 2017 at 4:23 PM
Thanks for replying Phanoah! By linear or non-linear I actually meant whether you mixed your community lots with your residential lots, or you had designated areas for each. I should have clarified more, so I'm sorry ! Anyways, I love your Belladonna cove, and how its buildings are placed in an aesthetically pleasing manner. I am currently struggling with the placement of my hood- I can't even figure out where to place the houses! Or even where to find more beachy- cape cod(y) houses . I can't wait to read more about the hoods you're working on .

What's going on in your game group here: http://www.modthesims.info/forumdis...546&groupid=906
Check it out ;)
Space Pony
#7 Old 7th May 2017 at 1:18 AM
@Phaenoh , that is just amazing <3 Okay waiting for July to come

~~~~Call me Ellu ~~~

My love, my love, my fearless love, I will not say goodbye..
Sea may rise, sky may fall, My love will never die..
My heart, my heart, My drowning heart, Oh all the tears I've cried
Oh I may weep forevermore, My love will never die..
Doing all the things, and *mostly* not failing.
retired moderator
Original Poster
#8 Old 7th May 2017 at 4:17 AM
Emperor Crat, unless I'm super forgetful, I think my Belladonna is still for the most part as-it-shipped, aside from changing it to desert and adding some sky deco of course. As for the layout, most of the times my community lots are on their own streets but usually a few are sprinkled in with the houses as appropriate. It's getting a little more mixed in SimCity, just by virtue of the lots I have available to me and what they look most similar to (and hence get placed next to).

Today I've *actually been playing*. I've got a spreadsheet of all my simmie's ages and I've been trying to get everyone back into their proper order. Right now I've got a group of 7 teen girls celebrating Cassandra Goth-Dreamer's second daughter Olivia's birthday at a bowling alley. Her friends include her older sister Samantha, her cousin Dina Caliente's daughter Josie, Josie's cousin Nina's daughter Dawn, John and Jennifer Burb's second and third daughters' Susan and Michelle (their older sister is already grown up and out of the house), and a really unfortunately ugly teen girl born from a family I made in CAS long ago named Janine Tradger (I've made her passable with CC hair and glasses, but her nose barely exists). From left to right, it's Olivia Goth-Dreamer, Susan Pleasant-Burb, Samantha Goth-Dreamer, Josie Caliente-Bachel, Janine Tradger, Dawn Caliente-Lothario, and Michelle Pleasant-Burb.



Thanks to my aging mod, teens get 12 days, and I've decided to call the 6th day their 16th birthday. All of these girls are supposedly still under 16 and can not yet drive. I'm trying to come up with another way of differentiating their ages, like dressing them younger looking and going lighter on the makeup, but its tricky. Any suggestions?
Screenshots
e3 d3 Ne2 Nd2 Nb3 Ng3
retired moderator
#9 Old 7th May 2017 at 4:29 PM
I need a 'Love X 100' button to click on for that first post. :lovestruc
Instructor
#10 Old 7th May 2017 at 8:14 PM
Your sims look adorable! I admire your ability to play generationally without getting bored. I do like the idea for desert-Belladonna cove, and I wonder how Pleasantview would look if it were a desert . Anyways, I don't play shipped hoods much at all, so that's probably why I didn't see that it was nearly identical to its non-desert counterpart, my apologies .

What's going on in your game group here: http://www.modthesims.info/forumdis...546&groupid=906
Check it out ;)
Doing all the things, and *mostly* not failing.
retired moderator
Original Poster
#11 Old 7th May 2017 at 11:41 PM
Oh, I get bored plenty, but I'm too OCD to allow any one family to get too far into the future. I HATE how messed up in time my hood is currently. When I get bored, I pick a different family to play for a while. And I have things that help drive my story, like my Holiday Calendar. The day after Olivia and Samantha came home from bowling with their friends (which annoyingly crashed my game on their way home, and so ALL the socializing I'd done got lost including all the adorable photobooth pictures), turned out to be Founder's Day, which I treat like Thanksgiving. I invited all the family over, dressed all fancy, and had a great meal together.

In attendance were Granddad Mortimer, Uncle Alexander and (what should be except for another save fail) wife Estella, older brother Dirk and his wife Lillith, and Great Aunt Dina and her daughter Josie.



The next morning, baby Rebecca was born. Cass and Darren both want to marry off 6 kids, so I had her pop out two more since the hood disaster. I have a mod that allows for trips and quads and it took me nearly an HOUR of reloading without saving when she was giving birth. Almost every single time it was a twins birth, but I got at least 2 trips and a quad in before she had a single birth. It claimed that the odds of twins was only 25% but I don't believe it at all. Since she was already in labor, it was too late to change the odds. I was very nearly ready to download and use the OMGWTFBBBBQ on the extra sibling, and say that Rebecca's twin died in the womb. Thankfully, it did not come to that. Normally, I'd let whatever happen happen, but this family already has 5 kids, and they share the same last name with their older half brother who has triplet sons. My hood will be overrun next generation with Dreamers.
Screenshots
Instructor
#12 Old 8th May 2017 at 3:14 AM
Ah... The OMGWTFBBBQ... I thought it was hilarious when I first saw it, but my sims aren't cannibals, and wouldn't have enough offspring to eat... UNLESS, plantsim babies became a delicacy... Oh well, anyways, sorry about the crash. I hate when that happens to me-the 'modified' save never feels authentic, y'know

What's going on in your game group here: http://www.modthesims.info/forumdis...546&groupid=906
Check it out ;)
Doing all the things, and *mostly* not failing.
retired moderator
Original Poster
#13 Old 8th May 2017 at 3:57 AM
Quote: Originally posted by Emperor Crat
Ah... The OMGWTFBBBQ... I thought it was hilarious when I first saw it, but my sims aren't cannibals, and wouldn't have enough offspring to eat... UNLESS, plantsim babies became a delicacy... Oh well, anyways, sorry about the crash. I hate when that happens to me-the 'modified' save never feels authentic, y'know.

I've used it to kill infants in my medieval hood. I have a mortality randomizer for that game and dead babies were pretty common back then. I *never* let the parents eat the baby though. Cooking it was really too far for me, but I needed the greyed out portrait in the family tree. I got them an assignable tombstone and 'buried' them.

Yeah, crashing does suck, but I'm pretty used to it. I play fast and loose with my CC and I've learned to save often. It took me months to track down one particularly bad serial crasher years ago. Turned out it was an incomplete hair meshing project that I'd set aside. The game crashed every time I visited a community lot, because the game was trying to generate a townie or NPC with that hair and couldn't. I've just finished catching up all the laggard families and now I need to relive this wedding from four years ago. (my post says it took me 2 years to build it, so they've literally been engaged for 6 real life years now) O.O

After the wedding, the next major event will be sending my 10 playable teens (5 families) off to college!
Top Secret Researcher
#14 Old 8th May 2017 at 7:14 PM
Hi Phaenoh I like your pictures it looks like they had a nice Dinner and nicely decorated room too. Taking care of 4 babies at once is hard. I don't do the triplets and quads, but I have multiple sims giving birth close to the same time, so it is close enough.

I love Generations of Sims, nice that you do too.

for info on changing the Mac Open File Limit check out my post here http://www.insimenator.org/index.ph...html#msg1628939
Curiosity killed the cat,
but satisfaction brought it back.
Doing all the things, and *mostly* not failing.
retired moderator
Original Poster
#15 Old 13th May 2017 at 4:27 AM Last edited by Phaenoh : 13th May 2017 at 5:50 AM.
I think I'm going to cry. I've spent all evening trying to get this wedding done. I had 3 'rehearsals' and this last one FINALLY went off without a hitch. Then I pressed my luck and let them go have a toast. Computer lost it at that point. Crashed and burned. I'm really tempted to just get them married at home, but I do love all the socializing all the guests do beforehand and I was really hoping to save that, and then the whole neighborhood gets the memory I think, since they watched it? Welp, fifth time's the charm, right?

Since I'm a little behind time-wise with Alexander Goth and Estella, I made sure to only invite sims that would be at least child aged at this point, so most of the current children would be toddlers and so did not attend. In case the memory thing does work, I want to make sure it's only the right sims who should know about it. Leaving out the youngest generation, this is my entire group of playables, seated by family.









Additional photos below, including one UI pick showing how many people I was controlling to set this entire ensemble up. I have like 40 more pictures, but these are the best (and most succinct) ones.

Some weird things I noticed, while Estella's family has over $250k, she only brought $10k with her and is not counted as a rich sim? Apparently I had booked them a honeymoon, but had forgotten about it and since I currently have no vacation hoods set up, their trip got cancelled and refunded. Since I have to do this over a 5th time, I think I'll attach a vacation hood first so they have somewhere to go.

I have A LOT of old people in my hood right now. I don't have a cemetery set up yet, so I've been letting them linger a bit longer than they prolly should. Plus, it's sad when my simmies die!
Doing all the things, and *mostly* not failing.
retired moderator
Original Poster
#16 Old 13th May 2017 at 5:51 AM
I DID IT!!!! This last time, I didn't let them do ANYTHING right after they got married. Straight back to the car and praying the whole way there. I did get them home and instantly saved. Best part? I remembered to sethour the day earlier, so the 'real' wedding took place during the day and the pictures are even prettier. Then like 5 minutes later after they were home, game crashed again. Don't care, it saved so it's canon!

Screenshots
Top Secret Researcher
#17 Old 13th May 2017 at 10:16 AM
WOW! I am really impressed. Just a great looking wedding and a lot of guests too! My compiments on doing this it must have been a lot of work. Glad that you got it saved before the crash happened, I really hate it when I get a crash and I hadn't saved.

for info on changing the Mac Open File Limit check out my post here http://www.insimenator.org/index.ph...html#msg1628939
Curiosity killed the cat,
but satisfaction brought it back.
Mad Poster
#18 Old 13th May 2017 at 11:55 AM
You have some amazing and impressive screenshots. Congratulations on the wedding!

I couldn't help but notice - in the screenshot of the UI, the bride is furious at the groom? What did Alexander do to deserve that?
Doing all the things, and *mostly* not failing.
retired moderator
Original Poster
#19 Old 13th May 2017 at 3:51 PM
Quote: Originally posted by RoxEllen1965
I couldn't help but notice - in the screenshot of the UI, the bride is furious at the groom? What did Alexander do to deserve that?
After one of my crashed trial runs, the game remembered that he was supposed to be meeting her at the comm lot. (He did, but we crashed) When I reloaded the game I got a message from her about standing her up and to 'not call him again'. It didn't happen any of the other crashes. I'm pretending that he forgot to go to the cake tasting with her, or one of the other many wedding appointments. It didn't stop them from tying the knot, nor 'commencing with marital relations' once they got home. Estelle is already pregnant with their first baby, Xavier. They are planning on having two kids, heir and spare, like a proper legacy house. (I've never actually played a legacy challenge b/c of trying to keep my game time synced.) Baby number two will also be a boy, Sebastian.

I have also learned, that despite my efforts, only those related to the bride and groom have a memory of the wedding. I'm debating changing that in simpe.
Lab Assistant
#20 Old 13th May 2017 at 8:40 PM
Oh wow ! What a wedding. Must have been enjoyable. I usually don't do big weddings, but maybe I'll do them now.
Doing all the things, and *mostly* not failing.
retired moderator
Original Poster
#21 Old 17th May 2017 at 3:45 PM
So now that the Goths are finally caught up, I'm trying to catch up the Pleasants. Mary-Sue and Daniel have been empty nesters for YEARS now. Angela and Lillith were part of my first sims ever to go to college way back when UNI came out, and then aside from getting them both knocked up with triplets from their EA respective sweethearts, I haven't touched them or even less, their parents.

What's happened previously: Mary-Sue kicked Daniel out of the house when she came home to find him cheating. She spent a good portion of her daughter's college years alone. Daniel moved out to Sand Simolean point with Kaylynn his lover. After about a week of his shit though, she grabbed all her stuff, and a good deal of his, and left him while he was at work. With very little to her name, she purchased a very cheap Katrina cottage and made her way up a job track, all the while bemoaning her failing Family aspiration. To help her out, I gave her a secondary as a Grilled Cheese sim, and it helped with her loneliness. Post hood crash, she has been given a grant by the government to set up and run a foster care facility. She is waiting on passing her final inspection before she'll get the first few kids. Sidetracked though, this post is about the Pleasants, not Kaylynn, but she did land on her feet.

After Kaylynn left Daniel, he realized the errors of his ways and did everything to get his wife back. She eventually did let him come home, but there are a few extra rules at the Pleasant house now, like no female service sims allowed at all. Daniel must do the majority of the cleaning as she will not tolerate another maid. They attended their daughter's college graduation together. To Daniel's displeasure, Angela is STILL dating Dustin, that broke trailer trash. How on earth he managed to pay for college he'll never know, but he knows it couldn't have been honorable nor legal. This is obviously NOT the kind of man his little princess should be dating. Lillith is also still dating her beau, Dirk (now Derek because I kept getting him and his dad mixed up). Lillith hasn't spoken to either of her parents since leaving for college. Whatever war they had when she was a teenager has cooled and become a standoff. Angie and Lilly's relationship with each other however, has repaired it's twinself like one would hope. The four of them lived together in college their junior and senior years.

After graduation, Lilly and Derek moved into his father's now empty but not yet sold, house. Angie moved back in with her parents. Daniel forbid her to move to Dustin's trailer park mobile home. Shortly after that however, Angie found herself pregnant, and when she started showing, Daniel threw her out of the house. With nowhere else to go, she moved in with Dustin, who was shocked to find himself about to be a new dad. Before she showed up however, Dustin had the misfortune of walking past her house that night to see if she could sneak out. She obviously wasn't there anymore, but her exceedingly angry father was. Daniel attacked Dustin and gave him a sound thrashing. Mary-Sue panicked and called the cops. (Unfortunately, I'd forgotten that it was a mod that mad the police break up the fight, so I actually got fined for wasting their time.) Limping home, Dustin discovered Angela crying on his doorstep. He immediately went back to the Pleasants' house and called Daniel out for throwing Angela and her unborn child out onto the street. That lead to another attack, which he again lost. A few days later, the babies were born. Beauty, Charity, and Joy. Two redheads and a blonde. When Daniel heard that Dustin had ruined Angela's life not once, but three times over, he lost his shit. The next time he saw Dustin, he attacked and kicked his ass three more times, once for each child. Mary-Sue is entirely distraught over this all, and so calls and invites Angie over while Daniel is at work. They are keeping up a good relationship despite their husbands. Poor Angela.

Screenshots
Top Secret Researcher
#22 Old 17th May 2017 at 5:55 PM
Lol your post made me grin. Enjoyed reading and looking at the fight.

for info on changing the Mac Open File Limit check out my post here http://www.insimenator.org/index.ph...html#msg1628939
Curiosity killed the cat,
but satisfaction brought it back.
Instructor
#23 Old 18th May 2017 at 2:59 AM
Triplets! Poor Angela and Lillith . I agree that it was a hilarious post; Daniel sounds like a bit of a jerk Thanks for the update!

What's going on in your game group here: http://www.modthesims.info/forumdis...546&groupid=906
Check it out ;)
Doing all the things, and *mostly* not failing.
retired moderator
Original Poster
#24 Old 19th May 2017 at 3:28 PM
So I've just spent the better part of 2 days trying to fix everyone's memories from before the hood apocalypse crash. I also made this really cool cemetery for all the pre-dead that I brought along in the move. Then SimPE crashed on me and deleted my neighborhood. I really need to learn my lesson once and for all and ALWAYS make backups when messing around in simpe. Actually, doesn't SimPE have that feature? I prolly turned it off years ago, maybe I should turn it back on again. Luckily though, I have Previous Versions enabled and was able to find my hood from 2 days ago. Unfortunately, that one still had whatever was bugging the Goth house. Sims would animate and do things, but the clock would not move forward. So, I found a version from last week instead. That one happily still has baby Xavier in it, and the house works properly. The cemetery was gone though, so I had to rebuild it. Then I went to put all the graves back, and somehow between Don Lothario picking them up into his inventory and moving to another lot, he lost them. WTF Don? That cause a minor panic attack. I immediately closed the game and loaded SimPE and found that all my dead still have grey backgrounds. So while I might have lost their current tombstones, I have not lost their data. I can give them new ones later.

Since I had to rebuild the cemetery, I'm thinking about uploading it (since it doesn't have any tombstones yet), but am concerned because it has uneven edges. Still, as long as I mention that warning, it's allowed. Does this lot look like something you'd want? I actually filled my first one up pretty quickly and am considering making a version that is an extra 10 tiles wider on each side. I'd prolly offer both in the upload.

Screenshots
Instructor
#25 Old 19th May 2017 at 10:29 PM
Wow! A terraced cemetery... That's the first I've ever saw one like that. It looks pretty awesome, and the foliage is well paced . Are you going to arrange the graves in a particular order (by family, material acquisition, prevalence etc.) or just place the graves randomly? I would definitely download though (especially because I need a cemetery ) It's a relief that the deceased sims are still recoverable, and that is creepy for Don Lothario... Thanks for the update!

What's going on in your game group here: http://www.modthesims.info/forumdis...546&groupid=906
Check it out ;)
 
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