What would you change or leave the same?

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Add the obvious missing turn-ons such as alienism.

Since this is the EP that introduced Downtown as a location, I'd have wanted more things to actually make the setting feel urban and distinct from the suburbs of the basegame, both in terms of build/buy items and Sim interactions and opportunities. Really I feel like both NL and AL should have embraced the big-city feel better- it doesn't need to be huge skyscrapers a la Manhattan (though that's a lot of fun too), but if you're in the middle of the city you should have more things just going on around you all the time, and the world should usually feel much more constructed, as opposed to the pleasant grassy woodland of the suburbs.

I am cool with Nightlife. Over the years, I have changed some of the lots to my personal liking (I doubt if everyone or even anyone would like them the way I do - but we tend to party outside).

Being South African, where a tall building is always the exception rather than the rule, I also simply don't like to play tall buildings (although I do have some in my game) because I don't like trying to find my Sims. I don't even like playing split-level houses.

Which means my own downtown lots are as flat as my favourite sport bar (well, it does have a foundation and is quite pretty) around the corner, literally walking distance from our flat in the suburbs of our capitol city

Having lived in a medium sized rural town for some decades, I can certainly take you to the "Downtown" area, so I don't honestly like the cement terrain a lot.

I won't change much - personally, not fond of vampires, so I kind of ignore them completely. I like Mr Big and the Diva, though

Yeah, I can't get my head around trying to create an actual urban/downtown area in the game.

The cement terrain is really odd. I don't know anywhere IRL which is all paved like that.

I think it should have included some skylines as this gives you a sense of being somewhere bigger, more crowded.

I don't really understand the NPCs - the Diva and Mr. Big are supposed to be what - celebrities? DO celebrities randomly wander around city centres? But the Slob is supposed to be - a homeless person? Mrs. Crumplebottom can stay because she is from Sims 1 and was/is hilarious.

What I have realised in respect of celebrities being present in Downtown is that there are a LOT of "performer" type jobs in the whole list of jobs. You've got Music, Showbiz, Entertainment and Dancer. Then there's also Athletics which would be celebrities too, and Journalism feeds into all of this, which is making me lean towards making a downtown area for my custom hood which is the performance/arts type area, with theatres and stadiums and maybe a big transport centre to show the idea that lots of people are coming here from all around. That way the random celebrities wandering around would make more sense, and it also makes sense why there are so damn many performance/celebrity type jobs, when no other sector (except maybe STEM, but even those are distinct from one another) has so many careers in the Sims world.

On this note it would maybe have been interesting to bring Reputation from AL into NL - perhaps with some kind of Fame meter alongside. Or have them as two separate things - either you're a notorious baddie or a beloved star, and when Fame is high, changes to Reputation are much more sensitive, whereas if you're a nobody, nobody cares about your reputation. My only concern about this is that it could end up like the fame system in (I think) TS3, which is much too easily triggered. I don't want every outgoing sim to become famous. I want them to have to do something specific to be famous, and for it to affect a tiny minority of sims. Hmmm I wonder if I could do this manually and maybe come up with some kind of inventory-token way to make other sims react to famous sims? Is there already a Trait?

The cologne is nice. Especially with Simler90's mod to automatically put it on. I like the idea of turn ons and turn offs, but they are a bit clunky. Having one for every single supernatural is a bit silly, too. I prefer LazyDuchess's edited ones: https://lazyduchess.tumblr.com/post...quested-updated (I think some of these are irrelevant for a NL re-do because half of them were added later, with FT and then AL.)

In general though, Dates are great, Outings are great. I would probably have preferred a community lot party to a scored Outing, but I tend to treat it as one so it's all good. I love the way that they let you create a group of other sims and bring them around with you to community lots. Super fun and all the community lot types are really great. I think you can have a really great time creating and visiting all kinds of community lots with Nightlife.

Photobooth is funny, awesome, and fits in surprisingly many places.

Maybe if OFB and AL had come out before NL, they could've done a better job with downtown lots. Downtown, Sims should A. Be able to live in apartments above their businesses, and B. Active Sims should be able to visit those home businesses. Perhaps that could've been achieved with the sort of coding that allowed apartment lots (which I believe are actually several lots all occupying the same space). So instead of having four separate playable lots in an apartment, a Sim could rent out two of them, live in one and run a business out of the other. The business itself could be classified as a community lot, so everyone could visit it, and the Sims who lived in the apartment block could visit without a loading screen. The same way apartment blocks in the game sometimes have little parks attached that serve their community.

Terrain paint IN neighborhood view. Somehow. Or a way to make part of the terrain grass and another part of it asphalt, and maybe also other options.
Sometimes I want a portion of the neighborhood as a green patch, and another portion as more of a town/asphalt jungle. Or maybe I want a green patch in an asphalt jungle. Or I want more (visual, not functual) roads. Parking lot. You name it. Just the ability to change the terrain, and it showing on the lot, outside the lot build barrier.

Driver test for teens.

Bikes (for all ages - including trikes for toddlers), strollers, and baby carriers. These could also work for FreeTime, but the earlier, the better. If you're taking the kids shopping, you want a way to move them around. You don't need to take them downtown, it's enough down to the nearest mall, but still - you don't always want to hire a nanny every time you go running errands.

I have absolutely no use for a celebrity system. It was annoying in TS3, and I don't think I have the EP for it in TS4 but it looks annoying there too. Please, no. If its going to be a thing, I'd want it to be a system you'd have to "manually" activate, in the sense that they'd need to first become a celebrity through some spesific activity, and that it wouldn't make every single sim a celebrity and level them up/down just because they interact with someone or do/say things.

More turn-ons and turn-offs would be ideal. Also, I uhh, wish the matchmaker wasn't a racist caricature.

Truth be told, there's not much I'd change about NL, it's easily one of my favorite EPs.

Imagine if they had it like GTA V, with cop chases and such happening at random in Downtown. You have to admit it'd be funny watching the cops chase down burglars or shoplifters randomly on Downtown lots. I don't think that was the feel EA was going for though, LOL.

Speaking of cops, I feel like they should have had it where there would be a chance that the host at restaurants would call the cops instead of just lecturing if one dined and dashed.

Not only mine but my Sims' as well. They just love going downtown.

As Petula Clark once sang:

The lights are much brighter there
You can forget all your troubles, forget all your cares
So go downtown, things'll be great when you're
Downtown . . .

. . . -and . . .

Maybe you know some little places to go to
Where they never close
Downtown . . .

Absolutely true! The Sims downtown nightclubs never close!

just listen to the rhythm om a gentle bossa nova
you'll be dancing with them too before the night is over
Happy again

Sorry for the double post - had to sing along with AndrewGloria and Petula first

@simmer22 - Mr Big and the Diva are rich - imo, probably famous from being the most successful gamblers in Downtown

I don't mind (too much) NPCs or the ability itself to become a celebrity, but more how the systems implemented in TS3/TS4 worked (haven't played with the EP that has this system in TS4, but I think there is one?) that makes all sims into celebrities, where they level up automatically whether you want them to or not.

I vaguely remember from TS3 it was a whole deal with other sims crowding them, paparazzis, a gossip system running haywire, and so forth. I just wouldn't want any of that running uncontrollable through a neighborhood. It's fine if you want a spesific sim to be a celebrity, but not if you want your sim to be a completely average "nobody" without any fame.

TS2 is pleasantly free of that type of celebrity system, and I wouldn't want one implemented that worked the same as TS3/TS4.

Yeah, more options would be nice. I use a mod that alters them to other stuff, so I don't have Stink, but I do have Life Skills or Talented. If it were possible to make your own custom Turn On/Offs to add into the game, I'd love to do that. Especially to bundle the alien, plant sim, witch, and all into one Supernatural bundle, so there's more room to add different Turn On/Offs. Suppose it'd be similar to Supernatural Fan and Skeptic traits in Sims 3.

So maybe I'll see you there,
We can forget all our troubles, forget all our cares,
And go Downtown!!!!

MidgeTheTree's turn-on/offs replacements do this! Assuming, of course, that the other replacements also interest you.

But yeah, more turn-ons and turn-offs would've always been nice, especially since they did add more with each EP, but only like, the bare minimum for some reason, usually just whatever new life state was added for that EP. I'm still genuinely baffled that none of the actual talents added in OFB were added to the list, only servos, and similarly none of the hobbies were added for FT, in fact I don't think they added ANY new turn-on/offs for FT at all? Or that things such as education, pet friendships, etc. were even considered. This is why I like Midge's replacements much better!

I think I've probably said this before somewhere, hope I'm not nagging anyone's ears off about it, but I'd have made made sure the sims could dance more socially and pick eachother up on the dance floor. They dance next to or opposite eachother in front of radios or DJ booths, but they don't seem to get much out of it socially. Going dancing together as a group or a couple should fill social metres and build relationships more. I agree with others above about the matchmaker being a sad cliché that we could do without, and while I sometimes use the matchmaker, I'd like it to be replaced with something that was simply more efficient. If my sims simply wanted a date for romance- or pleasure purposes, they should be able to to get a fairly random date without paying anything or by paying a one-off fee like for the membership on a dating app. If my sims wanted a chance at finding the love of their lives, they should be able to get more than one option, like a speed date set-up.
I'd definitely keep the vampires, I love all the supernaturals, but I'd make them a bit more special. They should be more restrictive with their friendships and protective of their own, so there should be challenges to meet for sims who wanted to befriend them and get a chance at vampire life. Also, I'd change the silly asymmetry in the vampires' titles! As a language nerd it's always bugged me that the male Grand Vampire has the English title of "Count" while the female Grand Vampire has the Italian title of "Contessa". Either Conte/Contessa or Count/Countess would be fine by me but I don't see the point in mixing.

Consort agrees that it's confusing to call female vampires "Contessa". He says, "My late wife (God rest her soul) was Contessa. She was never a vampire!"

Strictly speaking, "Count" isn't an English (as in British peerage) title - they use "Earl". It's an English-language translation of the Continental equivalent (Comte, Conte, Conde....).
But apparently "Earl-ess" was a no-sell (looks too much like "Earless", ie someone with missing ears), so the feminine of "Earl" is "Countess". Go figure.

I didn't know that, Sims2Maven! The nerd in me rubs its hands and gobbles up this new piece of delightfully useless knowledge . For the vampires in Sims 2 of course it makes perfect sense with "Count" because it's been a trope since Dracula.

I'd make it so cars wouldn't suck.

I almost forgot - baby/toddler car seats, and toddler seats for bikes. Maybe also bike trailers (the little wagon-type things to put behind a bike) for toddlers/kids to sit in.

Motorbikes, maybe. Not a must for me, but I'd appreciate some more vehicle options. Would also appreciate if smaller one-person vehicles didn't need a full car driveway. Sometimes you'd want a smaller vehicle for a small lot.

Cars are already the better ones in TS2 (actual car animations vs just driving animations in TS3 vs deco cars in TS4), but there's always room for improvement. I'd love if sims had a longer stretch they could drive on, especially for storytelling purposes (nice background shots is really the only thing I'd want an open hood for, possibly the option to go slightly beyond the home lot too).

My big gripe with Nightlife is the dining system. I wish it stuck to the menu contained in the podium BCONs instead of switching to copies in the game code. Then you could make custom podiums, with custom menus, instead of needing all restaurants to be owned to change the menu.

He never found out?

I always wished sims would chat whilst dancing, after all they chat whilst eating and watching TV!

Yes, I love the idea of a dating app, but also I thought this would be a great use for the chat option on the computer. There's already a dialog that pops up and asks if you'd like to invite someone over when your relationship is high enough when chatting, so perhaps there could be a pop-up for single sims of teen and over that asks if you'd like to set up a date with the person you are chatting to. Could be some fun blind dates there!