I’ve mentioned a few times on the TS2 social boards discussions about the ‘Accommodation Office’ lots I use with my universities attached to Little Carping (my main only neighbourhood). People have asked questions before but bkwrm112 was asking me specifically about tips for building them and what can be included on the lot. So I thought I could create a thread here about building this type of lot where anyone can see what I do and you can (if you like) use the tips or add some of your own! Yay Sharing!!

I’m using pictures as examples from both my accommodation lots: the one from Redbrick University and the one from Metropolitan. These are the two universities attached to Little Carping. Thanks to bkwrm112 for her interest.


Purpose and Form of an AO Lot
Accommodation Office lots on university campuses are essentially one-room dorms. The purpose, at least for my game-play goals, is two-fold:

1. Using this lot, I can set up a sim as s/he enters university life. I can change their appearance or set up their major, their college progress, +/- score or even adjust their relationships.

2. Using this lot as a student sim comes to university life allows me to see, consistently, the cutscene with said sim’s parent dropping them off (i.e. born in game sims or CAS sims with an extant parent).

I started using these lots because I got sick of fugly clothes filling up my dorm wardrobes (dorms are in almost constant use and so don’t get cleaned out) and because I like that particular cutscene and want to know who turns up to see the student started on their new life (usually the ‘inappropriate’ parent which causes much snorting and giggling).

Essential Features
The essential features of these dorms for me are, therefore, also two-fold. They need to look good in the cut scene and need to contain all the mods and items to allow for fiddling about with the sim. My idea is, I suppose, that this is like registration for university (when you’re a real student): you go to an office, fill in lots of forms, pay money, work out your time-table etc. etc. Actually, it’s not like that these days; they do it all online – but, hey, I’m recreating my own student experience not my own students’ student experience. So there.

Looking Good (or atleast appropriate) in the Cut-Scene
This is, of course, the architecture (build) and decoration. I have never wanted to spend too much time building these lots and tend to doing not too much. This is because the incoming student sim is not going to live here or even spend a lot of time here: it’s a set up lot not a play lot. In terms of decoration and interest, I concentrate on the outside because that’s what you’re going to see in the cut-scene. Think of it as a stage set.

This is what you see if you take a student to university in Little Carping.

Redbrick is an august and well-established institution – a proper Redbrick in the English sense. Hence it has a lot of 19th century buildings and the accommodation office is no exception. There’s nothing fancy here; just an L-shaped building with defined brickwork, sort-of gothic windows and leafy-ness. I didn’t spend a lot of time on this, just enough to give the impression of Redbrick’s character.



OTOH, Metropolitan is a modern university – what we call post-92 or New Universities over here. It’s building style is modern though not necessarily classy (Brutalist maybe). Anyway, in the cut-scene for Metropolitan you get this: grey and box-like with big windows.

Build and Content

As mentioned above, this is a one-roomed dorm lot. It should be built then as you would build a dorm.

Start with a residential lot and build as you like. My personal advice would be to keep it straight-forward and with the ‘scenery’ in mind for the cut-scene rather than building an elaborate and beautiful lot. Remember, the idea is not to spend too much time here but to enjoy the cut-scene and adjust your sim as required.

Use ONE dorm room. This means that your sim, when they move in, will be the only (temporary) resident. You don’t really want other students turning up and claiming doors. Also, the lot is intended to be used by only one student at a time. You don’t get a cut-scene for any second or subsequent sims added to the lot as residents nor do you get it for a group of sims. You want to be adding ONE sim at a time so you get the cut-scene and then can concentrate on their appearance and anything else you want to set before you move them out.

Don’t worry about any money your sim moves in with – they will move right back out with it when they leave. This is another reason for moving in (and out) one sim at a time. Besides, I don’t know about you but my dorms are stuffed to the ceiling with money and don’t really need any more.

As you can see, the lot reads as a dorm from the neighbourhood view.

I include on the lot the following:

For changing appearance
A mirror – I usually stick this in a bathroom
The Shop at Home Coathook http://modthesims.info/d/225251

For Adjusting Sims
SimBlender
College Clock
College Adjuster
At least one computer on lot

Buying stuff
Gadget kiosk (to buy a phone)
Photo Booth (I like them to get a picture of themselves at university)

General (optional)
Pescado’s batbox (you’ll know what it is if you use it)
One of Inge’s transporters

You can see these in the pictures.

Redbrick - 2 floors and locations of facilities (just distributed around as appropriate)



And Metropolitan plan and scene - I included the scene because the plan picture is missing a couple of the facilities, notably the photo booth and the clock which you can see in the picture



Don't forget, once you have completed building and furnishing, to save the lot with the walls up and the roof on - the cut-scene takes the state the lot was last saved in as its starting point. If you leave the walls down, you'll see the walls down. I usually park the camera by the entrance when I leave just as an extra make-sure. Also remember when you exit to neighbourhood when you have worked on your sim and want to move him/her out you also pass a save point.

@ mods - I think I have stuck this in the wrong place. When it said a picture tutorial forum I thought it meant tutorials with pictures but looking at some of the other threads I think it's meant to be tutorials about pictures. D'uh. Sorry - if possible could you move the thread to the right place? Thanks in advance.

Thank you so much for the pictures! They really do help a lot.

I'm off to re-do my office building now. Thanks again