Under Your Skin
The Sims 2 => Sims 2 Discussion => Topic started by: Tanathir on Jul 10, 2010, 09:00AM
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I actually plan a lot of my houses out on grid paper beforehand without even loading the game. I think it's made me better at building. Most of the time I can now make houses that fit on smaller lots, are interesting, and are easier to play a family in. Instead of using a lot of building cheats, I try to design a house that's cohesive and not just a bunch of randomly added rectangles like when a legacy gets money for an addition to the house. Sometimes I try duplicating real life houses but not very often.
So what's your building style?
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Planning it out on grid paper is a good idea :) I guess I just wing it but sometimes I end up with rooms that are either a little too small (but having clutter about doesn't help that fact either) or a little too big. Not massive rooms of course. I tend to like open plan industrial lofts with a lot of big windows, but I also really like smaller, older looking houses. Not sure how good I am at building either, but it's still one of my favorite parts of the game.
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Building is something I really need to work on. I'm not very good at it especially when I don't have a lot of money to do it. What I do like to do is decorate once the house is set up. I take each room and coordinate to what ever theme I pick.
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My houses are boxes with more boxes and a couple of boxes too. xD
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My houses are boxes too, because I can't make roofs. Sometimes I get creative and add balconies and not so straight borders but basically they're all boxes. Most of my lots are 1x1, 1x2, 2x1 or 2x2 for big community lots, so I like to keep it simple. Also, in the zombie apocalypse, sims can't be picky with their houses design. Some even live in metal containers or abandonded hangars.
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I suck at building, and stuff.
So when I try to make my houses look ~unique~ i replace corners with diagonal walls.
:D
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It depends. I go to various house plans sites and pick bits and pieces of random houses that I like. For story purposes my houses are all blocks though! LOL!
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When it comes to story sets I tend to go all out even though I know most of it wont be seen -.- Total waste of time.
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Sometimes I do flat corners just to be different XD
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I forgot to mention, I also have been trying to incorporate landscaping into my lot design. I've been playing a lot of asylums and legacy-style houses, and instead of haphazardly plopping down flowers I try to make the yard look nice. It's actually easier with Seasons, then I can place a grove of trees or decorate the pond and make sure the garden plots don't look out of place. I used to never use fences but now I am using those small border fences along sidewalks and gardens.
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My houses are boxes with more boxes and a couple of boxes too. xD
Ditto that! :P
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But do they include boxes? :P
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I tend to get lazy on building, but I think I might go for a binge on making IRL houses.
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My houses are boxes with more boxes and a couple of boxes too. xD
Same! Sometimes they become rectangles, and a few corners, too XP
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Houseplans!! Ohhh God did my houses ever improve tenfold when I first got my roommate to lend me the houseplans magazine she had gotten from a friend to use for The Sims... now I use websites like globalhouseplans.com and architecturaldesigns.com but all the houses I build now are floorplan based, it makes it sooo much more realistic layout wise - and it actually really helps for realism with the exteriors too!
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Another trick I like to use is taking a Maxis premade house and altering it. With the sledgehammer tool I can adjust walls and even completely gut the interior of a house. It's pretty fun taking a premade house of fail and improving it.
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Have any pics of such projects? ;)
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Not at the moment. :'( I've been enjoying playing my families and remodeling downloaded houses too much to fix up Maxis lots. I should try some more of that.
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I build my houses with boxes too .
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My houses consist of "oh a cute house that is fully furnished for download". I download it and make minor adjustments as needed. I try to only create one story houses if I do create a house and usually it's just a random rectangle that's either too big or too small. I honestly plan them out in my head but the actual execution of the creation is pretty blah. I bought a book to help with that so hopefully I can get into building more houses that are decent enough to share instead of a bunch of rectangle boxes with trees and a square pool and a greenhouse.
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Hope it's much more inspiring :)
I've been looking at house plans lately and try to stick to them for the most part, but sometimes I just change up an existing house already in game. I've gotten pretty lazy about building.
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I know that it is maked old thread... Sorry if I reply.
I try to find inspiration from houses photos of lots I downloaded.
My houses depend a bit on my mood or if I have something specific in mind. Sometimes I make makeovers and refurnish.
I like to mix styles : a bit oldish or classic and I like large bay windows somewhere for a small touch of modern.
I don't like to furnish too much, decorate with clutters everywhere. So basically my houses have often more plants and trees outside and indoor. What's important for me also, more than decoration, it's the quality of floors and walls, depending on what I really want for a house.
Working on some architects' paper plan can be interesting for ideas and it can be challenging sometimes.
In the early years I built a lot of Gothic houses or some kind of castles, but they need to be on large lots when they have an inside yard. They're not easily playable with Sims needing to walk long distances LOL. So I make much smaller lots, today farm styled or modern, with just the necessary rooms. I also like to have rooms under the foundation having an exit door to a garden or a beach.
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No worries, post away.
Lol that's understandable, who wants to wait 3 hours for a sim to walk from one end of the house to the next? :P Not to mention it's a lot of space to fill... even though I realize they weren't crazy cluttered back then.
As far as clutter goes, I think there's a limit. It's one thing to have books on a table and a box of tissues to make the place look lived in, and so much shit everywhere that you can't even walk through is another. Unless maybe you're playing a theme I guess. Not to say people can't play how they want, but if there's too much it looks kind of terrible.
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This is true about clutters. I like to collect them for so to say my designed houses but not to possibly play with a family.
Some people use a hack to walk through places full of clutters on the floors. It seems that it can maybe cause lot crashes. However with te tons of plants I got outside and inside, I use a preventive hack by Inge Jones, to not have my Sims constantly water flowers, etc.
Once I started a mobile homes project. I hope to get into it again, because I love Gipsy homes, roulottes, etc.
I also refurnished a Moroccan palace (this one is huge on a beach) and used BB niches and bits to make alcove double beds against walls, with long curtains on the front. I try to be creative in such cases when there's a premade object (like one alcove bed from the medievalsmithy) that isn't exactly what I want for a house project.
I also like bunk beds very much, but find Inge Jones' ones very practical to use, near an alcoved window corner giving full view to the outside (forest or beach...).
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Your Moroccan palace sounds really lovely :D I don't blame you for wanting something more creative. It's really neat to see it work out, and fun to try.
Hmm, I didn't know about the hack for clutter-walking. Sounds handy for those people, I guess.
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Once I figure life out as a mommy, I am going to try and create some empty small starter lots and finish the challenge. I have been downloading and I do intend to use my some plans from the books.
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Oh man, all the downloading I've been doing lately... it's a good thing we recently upped our package.
That sounds cool, Rana :)