Hi!

This is a lot I'm building which is meant to be part of a set that'll fit together to create Bleak Road, a dark and dismal street full of sims that aren't so well off, in a remote part of town. Each lot will have one or more shops on it as well as rooms or flats to let.The idea is to choose a lot to live on and either tag it as an apartment or use the roommate option and the door privacy options so that all the rooms would be lived in, and there would constantly be sims roaming the shops on the street level. The other lots on the street would then be tagged as community lots, so you'd be free to go everywhere and it'd always be pretty busy.

This 20x20 lot is the corner of the street. There's a computer shop, a pub and a launderette. There are also four small rooms and a tiny two room flat behind and above the shops, all in a rather derelict state. This is intentional because the rooms are meant for really poor sims who can hardly afford wall paper let alone interior designing, for instance art students, bankrupt sims, ex convicts, criminals on the run, homeless sims. The rent is 913§, the price furnished is 91399, unfurnished 50903.

The next lot is going to be a bicycle shop with an overgrown car park full of graffiti behind it where homeless sims light fires and have fun. Above the shop I've planned two large flats so that families can live on Bleak Street too. Then I thought I'd build a lot with a restaurant and a small roach infested hotel and tag it as a resort, so you could visit it or manage it and live next door. Etc etc. I'm eager for an opinion on the idea, the playability of it, the lot, and I'm open to all sorts of suggestions. I was going to upload the whole street on MTS in one post if it's approved, but I'm making it for a few challenges I had in mind for my own sims, so if you think it's a really bad idea, don't worry, I won't be offended, and I won't have done it for nothing anyway! Thanks for any advice!

Okay, so generally I like it. It's a great idea and I think you've got some good things going. I love the layout and I think the dodgy area 'round back looks great.
I'm absolutely not a fan of the array of signs on the outside of the pub - to me, they look like they've just been slapped on for the hell of it. Delete them (except for the sandwichboard) and I'll be happy
Have you playtested it? I like the small apartments, but I do worry about playability in a few places.
I do have a beef with a few of the intended grungy patterns (like the wood panelling in the stairway), but since I don't really have any suggestions for better ones, I totally get if you chose to ignore me on that.
It's hard to see the terrainpaint, due to the poor quality, so I can't really say too much about that. From a far, it looks good.
I would imagine there are some fab builders in here who will probably have something more constructive to say.
Looking forward to an update, it's a cool project

Thank you! You're quite right! after so many hours looking at the same old lot I can hardly see it anymore, There are quite a few things that need to bee CASTed, I'll try new walls in the stairway and will delete the signs, I'll send a screenshot later (my game takes ages to load at the moment).I playtested the lot and sims can go everywhere and use everything, I was worried about that too, but it actually doesn't take long to get up and down the stairs. There is a problem in the larger flat, due to the warped walls, so there's a hole in the living room floor that I covered with a rug but you can't put objects on the tiles closest to one of the walls. I'll post close ups of this and of the terrain paint.
I'm so glad you like the idea, and I really appreciate your advice. I'd got to that dangerous point where you start to get slightly bored and doubt the whole project, that's when you start slapping patterns and stuff on walls just to get it over with, and it inevitably looks shoddy. Now I'll get back to it with a fresh start. I'll use spladoum's 99 beer bottle pose set http://modthesims.info/showthread.php?t=490833 and the bully fighting one http://modthesims.info/showthread.php?t=498270 for this lot, I love them!

I really like this idea and look forward to more lots! A series would look good as close as possible along a street. Maybe one with an alleyway area where there's always a police car responding to a call?

That's a really good idea, I'll try, a police car would look great, thanks! I've started on the local pool and the "resort" (on the same lot, in case anyone wants to manage the resort, the pool would then come in handy). Of course, a trip to the pool on Bleak Road isn't quite the soothing spa like experience sims are used to elsewhere! No one knows when this pool was last maintained. But here on Bleak Road no one worries about a little bit of slime! I'll send a few screenshots later

Here is the pool. It's a pool for sims on a budget, so they can have pool parties too. The hotel will be next to it on the same lot. I play tested it with a few locals and they had a great time there, fighting and drinking beer (as is the custom on Bleak Road).
The pose sets are by spladoum, 99 beer bottles and bully fights, you'll find them here
99 bottles of beer http://modthesims.info/showthread.php?t=490833 .
bully fighting http://modthesims.info/showthread.php?t=498270
I used cmomoney's pose player http://modthesims.info/showthread.php?t=438706

Always nice to see my foolishness being put to such good use But I would love the idea regardless because I've always had a soft spot for rundown lots. Can't wait to see where you take this!

Thanks, there's still so much work! I had such fun with the sets I couldn't stop laughing, I didn't post all the screenshots but it was hilarious! Thank you so much, and they're just the thing for my street. Beer and fighting will be the main social interactions on Bleak Road from now on!

Your pool is... just awesome. I'm so impressed with your ability to grungy up the place. I can feel the "slime" from here.

I'm not sure what other lots you have planned, but how about a homeless shelter/soup kitchen/urban church-mission type thing set as a Uni dorm? Anywho, looking forward to seeing more.

Hi!
Thank you I love that you get the slime!!! And I love your idea, a soup kitchen with a dorm and some nuns would be great lot to start off on! It could be tagged community, and you'd have to get rid of all your simoleons, you'd get a 10X10 lot and pretend you didn't have it, and you'd have to make your sim live on the soup kitchen lot until he could afford rent. There could be a residential lot just next door as an extension for a permanent family of homeless sims. Or the soup kitchen could be a resort so you could dress the employees as nuns and at least they'd be there all the time. I have to think about it, but yes, a soup kitchen would be great on Bleak Road!

I was on my phone yesterday when I replied, so the pics weren't completely clear. Now that I've had an opportunity to see large views of the lots, one suggestion I'd make is that you make (or request that someone make) desaturated versions of the big wall posters. I didn't think anything was particularly wrong with them, other than that they seemed too "new" and "clean" for the area. I've no doubt that Bleak Street gets advertising for concerts, but if the poster was more worn-out looking and sun-bleached, or crooked and torn, it might fit the area better.

I thought so too, but I have no idea how to make them. I'll ask, I'd love them to be torn and sun bleached. If they were more saturated they'd look better on any lot in my view. Also I wish sims' graffiti didn't look like stickers, and that they could overlap, or at least not require a whole panel to themselves. Worn out graffiti covered in layers of dust and some more recent, more airbrushed graffiti would look so much better!

I'll see if I can help with the posters. Maybe I can find better graffiti for you, too.

That would be awesome! Thanks so much!

http://jinglestartk.blogspot.com/20...wallpapers.html -- 10 graffiti wallpapers from JS Sims 3
http://club-crimsyn.dreamwidth.org/34562.html -- wall signage from Club Crimsyn
http://club-crimsyn.dreamwidth.org/42184.html -- wall writing from Club Crimsyn
http://landofwoe.simvalley-realesta.../Buy/buy_14.php -- Wall flyers/graffiti from Land of WOE


And as for myself, after getting a bunch of help from a bunch of people, I think I've gotten the hang of ruining nice posters:

*poofs out of nowhere* I actually check the CFF regularly, so I've been watching the progress of several projects. Quietly. From the shadows. In a total non-creepy way. :D

@spladoum: That looks much better! My suggestion would be to make the cuts a little less smooth/round, so it would look more torn, you know? Also maybe retain a bit of the colors. As it is, with only yellow and gray, it looks like the poster was never colored to begin with. The level of decay of the colors doesn't match the level of decay of the borders and such, if you get what I mean. But it's a big progress, it's gonna suit the lot much better now.

Do you use Photoshop to ruin the posters (I don't know anything about creating CC)? If so, an overlay of "clouds" gives a nice, uneven effect.

Wow spladoum that's just wonderful! Sorry I couldn't reply earlier! I love your new poster, (or should I say old ) it would look perfect on Bleak Road. Thank you for the links, I'll download the graffiti and post some new screenshots, hopefully today, I'm a bit busy this weekend and my game takes ages to load at the moment. But I can't wait to try them.

Agreed. I've found a tutorial that teaches about simulating a paper fiber border along a tear, so that may help too. I'll definitely keep working on it--that was just the first product I had that I wasn't ashamed to put on public display


That poster currently has an embossment, a cloud layer, and another filter--maybe sepia tone? I found several good paper textures that will probably help in future as well.

And Anais, I'm so glad you like it! I'm leaving town for the rest of this week tonight, but I'll be back at my simming computer by next Saturday evening, so hopefully this time next week I'll have a few more posters that I can actually give to you to place on your lots.

This is such a cute idea! And you've done a really excellent job with the decorating. It looks so authentically rundown- Love it! A couple of suggestions:

• I'm not feeling the roof on the first lot. Actually, I'd say most of it looks quite good, but the roofing on the tallest building seems a bit mismatched. I don't think there's much you can do about it at this point, but it's just something I'd recommend working on a bit more in the future.
• Also on the roof, there's a small seam showing on the tallest building, seen in Screenshot29. If you can't fix it through fiddling with the roof section pitch slider tool, then I'd recommend deleting both pieces and placing them again. I know it's not a huge deal, but I sort of hate those gaps. If you do have to replace, remember that holding down the shift key while using the pitch tool allows you to select more than one roof piece at a time, so that they always keep the same angle when you adjust them (with no holes ).
• I really like how you've matched the stucco with the brick on the exterior, but it seems a tiny bit random where you've chosen to apply each siding. For example, on the computer shop, the brick goes all the way around the building except on the very front and along the foundation. Perhaps I'm just being nit picky, but that arrangement looks strange to me. If it were my lot, I'd bring the stucco from the front around to one wall tile on the left side (facing the building) of the first floor. Also, have you considered using the wallpaper with the quoin (under the masonry section)? It's a bit more work, but if you were to apply it to the corners of the buildings and on those spots where the stucco meets the brick it might give the exterior some extra detail and architectural interest. I'm not 100% sure it will work (or even look good, for that matter), but it might be worth a shot.
• Small thing, but I *think* you may have an errant ceiling tile on the second floor of your pub. You can see it in Screenshot1, right above the second story window on the right.
• I am seriously in love with your pool lot, and the only thing I can see that I think you might want to change is the random stuff floating inside the pool. It's a really clever idea, but some of the objects seem out of place to me, like the rolls of toilet paper, the paper towel dispenser, the exit sign, and that yellow jar from Supernatural. I really like everything else you've done to the pool, but those few things just look strange there.
• When you take your screenshots, would it be possible to turn advanced rendering on? It would really improve the quality of your pictures I think, and you can turn it off again once you're done. It's not as important for your CFF screens, if you don't feel like bothering with it, but I do think it would be a nice thing to do when you upload.
• Lastly, try to remember to put the walls all the way up when you take your pictures. You've done a good job of that in your exterior photos, but in Screenshot-9, for example, you can see right through into the bathroom. I know it's a pain, especially in smaller spaces, but if you tab into camera man mode it can help you maneuver into those tight places. Also, try to keep the walls up in your floor plan shots as well, as it makes them look more polished, imo.

Sorry, I know that was a long list, but I really do love both of the lots and I can't wait to see more. Also, I think cutsocks' idea of a soup kitchen/homeless shelter type of place would make a fabulous addition to your street as well. It's a perfect fit for that kind of area, and it's such an original idea. Anyway, keep up the awesome work! =D

Thank you Buckley!

Yep, I see what you mean about the roof and stucco! I didn't know about the shift key, so I'll see what I can do, I can delete those roofs very easily. I think the wall paper you mentioned would look really good on the corners. The reason I only stuck the stucco on the front of the computer shop is because I imagined several previous owners painting the bricks in their own shop colors over and over again until they just decided to render the whole facade (which is such a pity but it happens all the time), and you're right, they probably would have brought it round the corner.
Well done spotting the errant tile! I'll delete it!
As for the random stuff in the pool, a lot of it does look strange, but I my EPs didn't have much to offer, so I threw in stuff that sims could have found elsewhere on the lot, torn off the walls, and thrown in for fun. It's a bit tricky getting them to float, so I don't really want to delete them yet in case I can't replace them, and I love seeing sims swim around them. I'll look for some better items, but I really do want the pool to be full of rubbish!
I will turn advanced rendering on, and turn the graphics up (and the walls). My laptop seems to be having a hard time in building mode, especially with CAST, so every time I do, I'm really worried it's going to crash the game. As soon as I get my simming computer back I'll be able to post a lot faster!
I'm working on the small hotel and the soup kitchen. I love Cutsocks' idea! They're not quite ready to post yet, there's a lot of CASTing to do, and that's tedious to do on this computer... but I'll do my best!
Your post was really helpful, I'm off to look for floating Band Aids and roofing tutorials! Happy Christmas

Anais