I'm working on my first custom vacation destination. Nothing that elaborate. I'm using Three Lakes for the customs, etc., and may do a secret lot later. I figure if my Sims want mementoes right now, they can hit the three standard destinations.

I'm using a junk hood, and will then try to send my test Sim on vacation. I plan to package my hotels for future use, though,

Right now, I'm working on a hotel which also has vineyards. I know there is one such hotel here on this site and it's lovely, but I'm addressing a different culture and climate.

I WAS planning to do a two-story hotel, but got lazy and am winding up with six rooms already on the first floor. I don't really want to go for any more than that, thanks. So I'm chopping my hotel in half.

The two adjoining lots are on hills. The hotel is on an island accessible by ferry (at least in my mind). I'm having trouble with the ornamental slips (found on MTS). I'll have to look at a couple of real pictures to see if I messed up and if so, how. Maybe I did place them right.

Originally, I had planned to make two vineyard-only lots with the Plumb Bob Keep vines on all the lots, including some on the hotel lot. The vineyards on MTS are ornamental. It turned out the ornamental ones will work better because those two other lots really are too hilly. EDIT ... It appears the Plumb Bob vines DO work on vacation lots fairly easily. My Sims will just have to wait until the grapes are ready, though. Not a problem. In real life, winemakers have to do the same thing!

I'm sticking with a tiny hood because this IS all a test. Good thing it was. When I use the lots and layouts in the future, I'll know what to do a bit more.

If worse comes to worst, I already packaged a prototype of a lot that had the Plumbbob Keep vineyards. I can imagine that my Sim on the mainland sells wine to the vacation hood. It's all good.

Constant edits because I'm learning as I go! The hard way, usually.

I am currently finishing up my "Le Chateau de la veuve" Also know in English, The Widow's Mansion. It'll have a back story to it. I am just waiting on feedback regarding the wallpapers, floors, kitchen, and bathrooms. All other rooms will be unfurnished except for lighting.

... And I've now encountered an episode of learning the hard way again.

I've finished the vineyard/hotel lot. It turns out that if visitors stay at least a few days, they can pick grapes with the Sunni vineyard. Not sure yet about stomping them, but at least they can take them home. They can't do much with them, unless they have a winery on their premises, but they can sell them or keep them as decor.

I next finished a Dutch colonial "historic house" that seems to be a part of many vacation destinations. It's not period-perfect. There aren't as many early- to mid-Colonial CC furniture and building stuff (I'm leaning more toward early-Colonial than late- Colonial) out there, so I've had to wing it more than I thought. My house is anachronistic all over the place, but at least it kind of looks colonial-ish. I do know there is a Dutch door out there, but I opted for a Maxis door.

Next was a saltbox. This one took a little less time because saltboxes are boxy and pretty basic. Even back then, people apparently thought they were boxy. I imagine that this was was once a pottery and basket shop owned by a widow. I still have to see if visitors can weave baskets with that Sunni basket-weaving station. There is a large pond with reeds in the back.

I'm now working on a second church. The first one was a lovely lot I downloaded from Sims Community Project and I revised it to match the theme of Old Forsythe Town (the name of my vacation hood). This one was the original church, but the inhabitants moved to the larger building as the population grew. I'm also keeping ultra-basic on this one, since this one would be a much older building for a much-smaller population. This one will have a room once used for meetings. Time to put that motivational lectern in there. I have to see if a Sim can use it. That would be good for skilling.

I'm still trying to be good re windows, since early- to mid-Colonial buildings often didn't have many of them. Glass was expensive. But I did add an extra window to some of the buildings. I tweaked a little with authenticity there.

I do need to play the buildings to check routing. Since most are on larger lots, I have to check to see if they're playable that way as well. I had to include much more CC interior detail than I usually use to try for some semblance of authenticity, and I'm not sure if that will cause lag. I cut down on the landscaping for that reason, but don't know if that will be enough.


Tcbandie10, that's a really nice lot, by the way!

(Section snipped because I revised the lots, and really should make sure the routing is good before I post pictures. Pictures under spoiler tags later.)

Almost done.

-- I did a LOT more terrain adjustment than I ever did. I've figured out how to correct slight elevation problems in beach lots, using a tutorial here. More dramatic elevation differences .... not so much.

-- I also learned how to do flatter and smaller beach lots. (Vimpse ... http://vimpse.tumblr.com/flatbeachlot) Those are for the north (bay) area of my hood. The ones on the south end (ocean) are farther apart and pricier.

-- Checked all the new lots I've done (at least 14 ... I have to count) in another hood for playability. Corrected mistakes and re-packaged. Am ready to take the housekeeper out back and repeatedly smack her with wet noodles (glowers at housekeeper), but I THINK I corrected all housekeeping routing errors that caused freezing. I will never use Echo crops or the PBK chickens on a vacation lodging lot again, though the chickens work great on a vacation community lot. (Coop only. Not the nesting box.)

The largest lots are slightly slower, but playable. I'll have to keep an eye on those, though. I removed several outdoor items to reduce any lag, but may have to take off a little more. I'll see when I put this all together.

-- Learned how to do a two-step foundation. It's tempting to re-do a couple of the Colonial houses, but I don't think that's necessary. My Warlock's house, though has the two-step. (http://shastakiss.livejournal.com/24987.html)

Lots of trial. Lots of error. Particularly lots of error. Lots of research into saltbox, Dutch Colonial and early Georgian houses. Lots of adjusting my lots because I often realized that I couldn't be a stickler for historical accuracy, and I was experiencing routing problems. As a history buff, that makes me wince, but I think I'd better suck it up and move on.

This hood has taken me more than a month to do (at least five to six weeks), and is STILL only a test hood. I plan to save it, then see if I can make the Bigfoot lot (the empty lot on the lower left). If I bomb badly, I still will have the pre-Bigfoot hood.

I was going to use another terrain when I do the good vacation lot, but I think I'll stick with this one, even if it isn't my favorite. I think it would be too much of a PITA to do this on another terrain and have to deal with extra elevation issues. I'll already have to be doing this with several of my lots, such as the flat beach ones and perhaps the slightly-sloped ones.

An overview. When I'm done, I plan to make a photo of most of the terrain and use it as a map in my Visitor's Center.



Extra thanks to the creators of these threads. Where ARE my manners?

http://modthesims.info/t/529698
http://modthesims.info/t/278903

I'm starting to hear crickets here. Allow me to babble, please. It's better than a quiet forum ... maybe?

Inspired by the Community College thread in the Sims 2 forums, I'm actually working on a main hood community college. Well, not exactly a community college. But as close as one is going to get. I'm aiming for a more suburban-style college, since I am best familiar with those. In real life, I've waited on those campuses often (my kids and I would ride-share) since 2008!.

Charmful's MTS submission is inspiring me greatly, and I commend her for a great lot. (Here is hers, by the way : http://www.modthesims.info/download.php?t=549043 ), Really nice!

In my case, I'm working on a community college more inspired by the type my kids have attended, plus a couple of other ones I've seen and visited. Also, I wish to cut down on downloading too much extra CC because my Downloads folder is getting bulgier all the time. All those historical lots in the other post really expanded it! My packaged lots, however, will be pared-down even more, and I will have mostly Maxis items and recolors before packaging. I'll add the frills later.

I also commend Charmful for keeping her college on a single lot. Mine is up to two separate lots, lot-adjusted to make them appear closer to each other. I might be a little over-ambitious, though. So far, I have a small cafe area, a tiny coffee shop (students NEED caffeine! ) , a small admin/counseling area (in reality, the Sims will probably just do their homework there. I wasn't planning to put fake Sims in these!) , art studio, science lab, computer lab, a building to build robots, a small auditorium for solo and duo performances and/or poetry readings (those can vary), a wee dance studio (I kind of borrowed that idea from Charmful), two spare classrooms (probably use the Sophie-David lecterns in there) and a library.

I will probably do a third campus with a medium-sized gym containing a makeshift basketball court. Since I will use the same lot template, I'll probably leave the main building on this one for ... something. Who knows what? A cooking lab is very possible. Community colleges do have those, and I usually have a cooking lab on all my Uni campuses.

Needless to say, my kids went to a pretty good-sized community college.

I also hope you don't mind a hood shot soon. I'm not finished yet, though. The buildings are my favorite boxy shapes, but in all fairness, like the old houses in my historical vacation hood, most community college buildings are pretty boxy in real life! (There is a part of my very-much-unfinished-at-the-time main building in this picture, but I switched out the windows ... http://www.modthesims.info/showthre...302#post5039302 )