Black Mesa - Base Game [no cc]

Overview
Black Mesa has been an on again/off again, love/hate relationship going on for just over a year. The stickers...oh the stickers! There is also a distinct lack of good, desert terrain hoods. It seems the vast majority of hoods all have some sort of lake or river running through. The first few months (try nine), were spent sporadically building a house or two before I really dug in and started building. Almost all of the houses were made right outta my head, only the large estates were based off real house plans. There were even a few trials of using cc; but then I'd be giving up my challenge of building a base game, no cc hood. One of my biggest obstacles was finding the right hood and in the end I couldn't. So I made one!

This is a complete neighborhood, all lots are placed and the 'hood is decorated. There are no character files and all houses were compressed by Mootilda's Lot Compressor.



Back Story
Or...whatever.
It was never known exactly what was going on in Black Mesa, or what caused the disappearance of most of the towns buildings and residents. All that remains of its previous tenets is the barracks, church, and cemetary. The old barracks have been renovated into loft living and the church doesn't appear to have aged a day. A new generation has moved into Black Mesa and have built it up into a modern town. But beware of the terrors of the age old cemetery.

Note: The cemetery is actually empty, you'll have to kill some sims to fill it up.


Lot Info
All lots are fully furnished, but decorated sparsely. Each has a fire alarm and phone placed, but no burglar alarm. What's that? Why are there country style homes with grass?! meh. I have no idea, but I liked the way they turned out so they stay. Lets just say they are the oldest houses in the hood, and obviously some shenanigans are going on to get that grass to grow.

Post #	Lots	Type	Description	Lot Size	Price	Notes
2	Mesa Pool	Community	Swim & drink, Drink & Swim	3x2	0
2	Mesa Mall	Community	Read, shop, eat, play on the swings	5x3	0
2	Mesa Gym	Community	Get fit & stinky	3x2	0
3	Mesa Cafe	Community	Drink coffee and chill on the patio	2x2	0
3	Mesa Park	Community	Fun in the sun playing with balls	3x2	0
4	Church	Community	It's a church, what can I say?	3x2	0
4	Graveyard	Community	Filled with dead Sims	2x2	0
5, 6	Mesa Court (4 lots)	Residential	Small homes for 2-4 Sims	1x2	30k - 40k
7, 8, 9	Ridgeline Road (10 lots)	Residential	Small homes for 1-2 Sims at most	1x1 & 1x2	< 20k
10, 11	Olde Towne Road (4 lots)	Residential	Country style homes for 6+ Sims	2x2 & 3x2	30k - 65k
12	Modero North (2 lots)	Residential	Ultra modern family homes for 4-6 Sims	2x2	45k - 80k
13	Modero South (2 lots)	Residential	Ultra modern family homes for 4-6 Sims	2x2	45k - 80k
14	The Estates (3 lots)	Residential	Larger family homes for 4-8 Sims	3x3	90k - 100k
15, 16, 17	Prickly Pear Lane (9 lots)	Residential	Mid-size family homes for 4-6 Sims	3x2 & 2x2	50k - 80k
18	Mesa Lofts Parking	Community	Parking area between the lofts with a small park	1x3	0
18	Mesa Lofts North (8 units)	Apartments	Small units for 1-2 Sims	3x2	76k	Need AL or a mod to play as apartments
18	Mesa Lofts South (4 units)	Apartments	Two story units designed for 2 Sims	3x2	53k	Need AL or a mod to play as apartments
19	Mesa Condos (4 units)	Apartments	Large two bedroom units for 2-4 Sims	3x2	123k	Need AL or a mod to play as apartments

What's Missing
While the city center area is pretty full, there is open space around the outer lying roads to add more lots. Of course, you can also move some of mine around to accomodate more of your EP specific lots. Due to lack of Maxis objects with just the base game, these are some lots that I would add if I were playing with those EPs.

• UNI - Coffee shop (lot is there, just not playable as a barista)
• NL - Club
• OFB - Beauty Shop or other own-able business
• OFB - Flower Shop
• OFB - Toy Store
• SSN - Produce market or Community garden
• BV - A dig site for aliens...or treasure
• Pets - Pet Store
• FT - Hobby lots
• AL - Turn those residential lots into actual apartments
• H&M - An upscale clothing shop

Terrain
This is a custom terrain created by me to have the roads close together so that it fit my small lots better. I used a Maxis base game terrain and obliterated all roads except the outer lying ones, I then built new ones using the layout of Merrycliff by wgroome as a guide. If you want just the terrain it is Black Mesa sc4. Feel free to use it for your own new hoods and include it any you share, but please give credit and a link back here.


Defaults
These are the defaults I have in my game and that you see in the screenshots. None of these package with the lot, they simply change the way things look in the game.

• Terrain & Road Replacements by eclectica - I'm using RoadDefaults_MaxisMatch and TerrainDefaults with no Radiance
• Loft Bed w/o Canopy by Me
• Bedding by Me - currently not available
• Independent Expressions - Shop Window FIX by Me Note: This was fixed in an EP...or something. plz see thread.
• Default Wall and Floor Edge by Psychosim - Wall top is either by Maranatah or edited by me, can't remember.

Installation
This hood is N299, if you already have one you'll have to alter the number to something not already in your Neighborhoods folder.

• Unzip the N299.7zip file and place the N299 folder in\Documents\EA Games\The Sims 2\Neighborhoods.
• Unzip Black Mesa sc4 and place the .png's and the .sc4 file in Documents\EA Games\The Sims 2\SC4Terrains.

Cheats Used
CFE - to create dummy levels; one or two houses use this to create a staircase with a landing. Not used on usable objects such as furniture!!
moveobjects on - overused(probably) on outdoor plants, you may need a no garden mod to avoid foot stomping

Credits:
aelflaed - Desert Mini's
Mootilda - Several of her tools used during/after building
CEP by Numenor

..almost forgot to give credit for the name to my son. When he saw it was originally Mesa Valley, he insisted I change it to Black Mesa.