So, I'm pretty scatterbrained when it comes to what I work on at any given time... that's one of the reasons why I don't take requests, and also one of the reasons why I end up with a variety of different creations, and so few of them are just your average suburban house.
One of the projects that I've worked on more than a few others lately is a Gothic-architecture country mansion, (yes, it's another 5x6 lot, I'm sorry!) and since it seems like there's lots of people who like specific interpretations for lots (as opposed to just "here's another big mansion") I'm trying to pick an interpretation to go with.
One of the things I've noticed is that Downton Abbey from the period drama on PBS, and Wayne Manor from Christopher Nolan's Dark Knight Trilogy, have A LOT of architectural similarities (to the point where I wondered whether they were actually filmed at the same place [they weren't] when I first saw them!). I enjoy both of those stories, and I'd be perfectly happy to see the building go either way (and who knows, I might end up building both at some point), but for uploading, which would people like to see more?

The English country estate of Downton Abbey with the "upstairs" for the wealthy and the "downstairs" for the servants?



Or the ancestral Wayne family mansion, with the rich-man house of Bruce Wayne sitting atop the top-of-the-line crime fighting cave of the Batman?



(Sorry for not putting up pictures of the Sims building itself, but right now it's at the point where it looks like complete garbage unless you know what the different things will become when they're finished!)

From those pictures I like Downton Abbey. Have you ever built a small lot in your life Zarathustra?

Small lots? Sure, lots of my 15-storey high skyscrapers are on tiny lots!

I have built smaller lots in the sense that I'm sure you're actually referring to, but I tend to think of them as being more boring than the larger-scale stuff, and I have more fun with the designing-buildings part of the Sims than I do with the controlling-Sims part, so that tends to be where my efforts and uploads end up being directed. I do have some smaller lots that I like though, and since they tend to be more haunted-house types, I may have a few of those that I set up for uploading around Halloween... we'll see!

15 story high skyscapper lol. That wasn't the kind of small lot I was referring to, no. Interesting, I don't know how you find the motivation to keep going with these huge lots, I get bored and want to go do something else, although I probably have the attention span of a gnat. My larger lots took me ages of start and stop as I go off and make medieval hoods or play Skyrim or have triplets. My sims not me lol. I can't even keep going on a 3 by 5 lot most of the times. I started a medieval dorm barracks which I should get back to, It's about 10 stories high which is as high as I've ever gone. I'll keep an eye out for your haunted house if you upload one.

Do you have inside pictures of those lots pictured.

Me, personally, I think you should do a mashup. Build Downton Abbey with a Batcave underneath, and have the inhabitants fight crime!

As far as the game goes, no, not yet, but the interior style for the public areas of both houses would be done in a very similar style, probably... kind of a turn-of-the-century old money style, (with a few more electronic gadgets for Wayne Manor) and then the real difference will be in the private spaces of the house. Even the non-secret parts of Wayne Manor, I feel like a top-of-the-line home gym or things like that would be appropriate, plus the obligatory Batcave hidden doorway, and for Downton Abbey, the hidden aspects of the house wouldn't be behind bookshelf doors, they'd just be servant's passages that aren't anywhere near as ornate or ostentatious as the public areas of the house.

As far as public areas go, I'd be thinking styles like the ones in the images below- nothing too creative, just obviously the home of a fantastically wealthy family or individual.

I also figure that I'm making both of these lots now... I keep coming up with aspects that would be lots of fun to include in one or the other, and wanting to make them work! We'll just have to see which one ends up done first...

I prefer the look of Wayne Manor from outside. It looks more interesting.

So, first (completed) pass at the exterior of my Wayne Manor lot... thoughts? I'd love to get some feedback before I'm really too far into this. I'm going off of the building they used for the exterior shots in Batman Begins rather than TDKR, just because I like it better, but the real-world building is massive (even if I were willing to fill a 5x6 lot with interior space, I don't think it'd all fit) so I'm kind of trying to incorporate the design features I liked best, and find a way to keep the general theme there too. If you're interested, the real-life building is called Mentmore Towers (the building used for Wayne Manor in TDKR is Wollaton Hall- I may pull elements from both).

BTW, I am still working on a Downton Abbey lot too, it's just not as far along at this point.

I really like the look of it so far.

I don't have any suggestions though...

It looks great to me but I have to tell the truth that if I would download it I would only use it for hood deco for (to me) it looks to busy.

Hey, I'm fine if you just want my downloads for neighborhood decor! I try to make sure things look good from any angle, and that includes from the neighborhood!

It does mean you'll have to wait while I finish the interior though... right now I'm trying to figure out how to make a 3-story Imperial Staircase in a house that's just 2 stories for the most part...

What are the spikey things on top? i think there is too many on top.

Looking good. I would change out those round windows.

The spikes and round windows and whatnot on top of the towers are my attempts at imitating the crenelated and gothic-inspired cornices on the building actually used for filming Wayne Manor. I'm not as pleased with them as I am with some of the other aspects of the lot, but of the attempts I've tried thus far, it's the best look I've found. If you have suggestions for doing it better (without mods- remember, it's me!) I'm all ears! I'd love to find a way to do that style that looks more polished than this!

Not sure, what about the smaller round windows or the small arched ones?

*Lol I feel like this is Playschool, the arched or the round window?* (And nobody but an Australian will probably get that reference because it was a preschool show for kids running over something like 30 years or more)

Trouble with the smaller round ones is that they're so obviously windows, instead of having the possibility of being a different kind of architectural accent... I did kind of like the small arches, I had just opted for the circles at that point. I've made enough other changes to the tower peaks though, I'll have to check them again, and see if I like them better! I'm inclined to keep the circular ones over the center of the building itself though, just since there's supposed to be a massive clock face there- it's the closest approximation I'm gonna get, I'm almost sure.

It's just a suggestion/observation about the effect you're trying to create on the roofs, but I've seen it done successfully with a mix of fencing and columns placed with the MoveObjects On cheat. I've also seen it done well with CFE'd walls instead of fences. Maybe that's something to experiment with? I could track you down some pictures to demonstrate what I mean if you like?
Also, I hate to burst your bubble, but neither Highclere Castle, Mentmore Towers nor Wollaton Hall are Gothic; they're actually Elizabethan and Jacobean in style, Highclere and Mentmore can both be considered Jacobethan because in the late Georgian/Early Victorian era they like to mash the two styles together along with hints of Tudor to create ornate hybrids. I could suggest a whole list of English country houses you might find of interest/inspiration, but that would probably get quite boring/irrelevant. I look forward to seeing what kind of stance you actually take on the interiors of both lots.

No offense taken! (well, maybe except for seeing the "Judging You" in your avatar!) Thanks for pointing it out though- I wouldn't want to end up with the wrong terms in my descriptions whenever I end up finishing this! Now I'm curious though... what is a Gothic building going to have that differentiates it from others? I tend to be the type to know architectural styles by appearance more than by name, so I'd gotten obviously gotten my understanding of "Gothic" twisted around at some point.
And I'd absolutely welcome a list of other techniques and buildings to draw from- I've tried a few different CFE approaches for the tower roofs, but didn't really have a clear idea for what I was trying to do with it, so it didn't work and I ended up abandoning it in favor of what I have now. If you've seen things like this that DID work though, that'd be a big help! Same goes for other country houses- there's a good amount of material to pull from, both from film and physical versions of these specific buildings, but I'm sure I'll have to take a few creative liberties here and there, so having a better sense of the style as a whole could be a big help! Thanks!

Yeh the spike things don't look as great on TS2 and the real downtown abby, the placement just looks so off in TS2 but maybe deleting a few off it would make it look better.

That's just Bette Davis doing what she does best; the resting bitch face.

I couldn't find a decent picture illustrating the one I was thinking of, but if you take a look at the first few pictures in this page, ignore the fact that it's in the sims 3, but the use of columns and fencing can create the kind of look I think you need. I can't really remember what kind of columns there are in the sims 2, so I don't know a specific one to suggest for you to use. I'm going to have to do the CFE method I was thinking of myself in order to get the pictures to best illustrate what I mean.

At some point I should probably split this into separate threads for each lot, but right now I'm still finding lots of things that I can apply to one or the other of these buildings, regardless of which one the idea comes from! The lots are starting to look much less similar to one another too... trying for a light, cheerful, turn-of-the-century-old-money ambiance for Downton Abbey stands in pretty sharp contrast to a dark, brooding, modern-depression-old-money house like Wayne Manor!

At any rate, I've finally gotten my Downton Abbey/Highclere Castle lot to a point where I think it's worth showing for feedback- I included a couple comparison shots too.

Here's my building, with the link for a comparison shot below:



http://www.skewenhistoricalsociety..../highclere2.jpg

And another angle:



http://www.ashtonlamont.co.uk/1001/...0591-04_ven.jpg


As always, I'm open to any feedback on what I have so far- just so long as it's mod and CC-free! I haven't really done anything on the interior for this lot yet though, so I'm not really at the point where I even have much to go on there- I'm hoping I can find actual floorplans for Highclere Castle to at least give me something of an idea for the direction I should be heading!

OK, so I contacted Highclere Castle to see if they had any information on the upper levels, since while there's lots out there for the main and second levels, there's nothing that I've been able to find above that. Since the castle is still the residence of the Earl and Countess of Carnarvon, they told me they don't have information to give out (can't really blame them- would YOU want to just hand out floorplans of your house?).
So, I wanted to see if by any chance any of my fellow Simmers have actually visited this estate, and could give me a bit more direction insofar as the upper levels are concerned. At this point, I've found basic layout drawings of the main and second floors, and lots of photos of the main floor rooms, so that's fairly well established, but nothing whatsoever for the third floor, and only a few shots of the bedchambers (mostly stills from scenes of Downton Abbey). If there's nothing available, I'll just take pointers from what I've found on the second floor, but I'd love to be able to be more accurate!

And, surprising no one (Jo), this lot is turning into another massive lot! I've not even finished furnishing the first floor, the second and third floors just have walls, and nothing whatsoever above that, and it's already north of $600,000!

Lol, they may have thought you wanted to case the place out Zarathustra. Is the upper levels their living areas? If it is, it's probably only those that live and work there that know what it is like, but that does give you some creative freedom.



I expect nothing less!

Haha, that's kind of what I'm thinking too! I tried to word the message in such a way that it wasn't going to come off as creepy, but I'm not 100% convinced that there's actually a way to do that when you're just asking for the layout of a building completely out of the blue! The impression I get from what I HAVE been able to find is that you're right though- the first and second floors are either completely or mostly open to the public at times, while the upper levels are the private domain of the Earl and Countess. I'll probably just end up putting another eight or ten bedrooms up there too... I was mostly hoping to find a bit more of the style used for the upper levels, just because it's hard to come up with original ideas for EVERY room of a building this monolithic!

I promise, I'm trying to find smaller lots that I'd still be willing to upload! Really!