'Pleasantly Thriving' Hoods and Lots -10yr Creator Anniversary-

While I've missed my last two Creator Anniversaries, I'm not about to let my 10 Year one go by unmarked. I haven't been nearly as actively these last few years, and this project has been sitting on hold for far too long, but it's time to get this off my ToDo list and into your hands! It took years of work, and then sat for a few years, but it is done! I've renovated the entire Pleasantview Neighborhood! I am incredibly proud of all of this, and I'm sure you'll love it. :lovestruc

After more than a decade, Pleasantview has grown and developed. This is what I believe the neighborhood could have looked like if EA had included all the Expansion and Stuff Packs from the beginning (and also employed people with any sort of architecture or design knowledge AT ALL ). What I mean is that for my renovated versions I tried to stick to Maxis-match, and stay within the original lot's styling or intended architecture as much as possible, while stuffing them full of everything that makes a house 'real'.



There are now 52 lots in Pleasantview; 12 of which are community lots, 5 are apartments, and 35 are residential. The only houses that qualify as starter houses are the four trailers (and The Hermitage). When you are first starting out in a city, or straight out of college, don't you usually get an apartment for a while till you can afford a house? I recommend New Turf Apartments as your starting spot, but Pleasantview Towers also has affordable one bedrooms. Unless you have a mod (or was it Freetime?) that gives you more than $20,000 for large newly created families, you are going to have trouble with those, but single sims (and couples) will be just fine.

Additionally, many community lots has been edited to include set object states, which is a fancy way of saying that the music and lights are already on, and the tv is set to the right channel. This was both trickier and easier than I expected it to be, and it really adds to the 'flavor' of the lots. While I tried to do this to most of the lots, the OFB locking gates in particular didn't seem to always stick, so you might see some visitors walking into the Employees Only areas.

Things that most every house now has:

• Parking/Garages and Streetlights on every road
• Electrical Meters, AC unit, Heating System (some use vents, others use radiators)
• Basements w/ Utility Rooms with Furnace and Water Heater
• Attics w/ proper wallpaper and flooring in the unused areas
• Closets, Laundry and Bathroom Towels
• Window Treatments (all have blinds, many also have curtains.)
• Ceilings, Lights, Exterior Lighting
• Smoke Detectors, Phones, and most have Burglar Alarms
  • (because it's the most annoying thing when you forget to include a phone on a lot)
• Community lots and Apartments also all have sprinklers
• Most Comm lots and Apts also have Mog's Parking Spaces

Because adding SO MANY THINGS (most of which are still incredibly useless) makes the lot values crazy high, I've used Pescado's Magic Wand to depreciate the lots. Now, I hate leaky showers and fritzy tvs as much as the next person, so after depreciating the lot, everything that can leak, break, get out of tune, or such has been replaced so you don't have to worry about a clogged toilet on day one. Seriously, who remembers which box we packed the plunger in!?

Every lot included is an original Pleasantview or Bin house, none of these are scratch built. Many of them have been Lot Adjusted to move the house to better accommodate driveways and/or garages, and many have been expanded to include better yards. All have had their uneven edges flattened out, this means you will never have to worry about warping your neighborhood terrain. More than a dozen have been turned into the coveted corner lots and have roads on two sides. Oftentimes a building has had its zoning changed to better accommodate its new life in this new hood, for example some of the larger houses have now become apartments, and some other larger rambly houses have become community lots. See the comments for all the detailed changes.



Requires: ALL Expansion Packs and M&G. Also good to have all SPs as well. This hood was created for a Full Game. As no roads were added, the standard camera is sufficient to view everything, but any camera that allows for more travel is usually better than the default one.


Custom Content REQUIRED and NOT INCLUDED:
---Stairs---
Custom stairs have a special install, so I've decided to direct you to their original threads instead of including them. I used 3 custom stairs, but two of them say they require the recolorable version (maybe only to make them recolorable, but they seem to work as stairs without them - YMMV), so you need to install 3 or 5 stairs total. You will need the Scriptorium to install them.
♦ Crocobaura's Open Underneath Wooden Stairs - You just need the wooden one.
♦ HugeLunatic's Open Underneath Chic Stairs and possibly her recolorable version.
♦ HugeLunatic's Open Underneath Art Nouveau Stairs and possibly her recolorable version.
--Additional Items--
♦ MogHughson's Decorative Parking Spaces with Random Cars - These are used on almost every community lot. It's an awesome mod that makes parking lots actually look used!
♦ Apartment Life Stereo and TV Preorders Edits - I recommend Lord Darcy's edited versions as they have had their effects fixed and have subsets.


HIGHLY Recommended Content (not required, and not included):
:lovestruc ---Hood Deco--- :lovestruc
To get your neighborhood looking as pretty as my pictures, you'll need to download a few extra pieces of CC. I didn't include them because the files are HUGE, they are often being updated (most recently as just 5 days ago!) and some are game overrides, so you should be aware what you are adding to your game.
♦ Lowedeus's HoodSkyDome Circle Dday - Click on "SFS folder for NHood Sky" and download the 'Lowedeus_HoodSkyDome_circle_day.package' file.
♦ Zena-Dew-Drop's Lowedeus's Rotating Skybox Update - Download the Hood version. You need the file 'YAE_HoodSkyDome_clouds_ZDDEDIT.package'
♦ Nopke's Sky Fix - The custom sky requires this mod to work, so if you get Lowedeus', make sure you get this too. You can see stars!
♦ Voeille's Water Overhaul - I made my horizon recolor based on her water color, so you should get this too. It's really pretty!


Recommended Mods (not required, and not included):
---Usage Mods---
♦ BoilingOil's No Sim Loaded - This is the vaccine against the Super Duper Hug Bug. If by some miracle you haven't gotten this bug in your game yet, get this mod and you'll be safe forever. I'm fairly certain these hoods do not have the SDHB, but you can never be too careful!
♦ dickhurt's Water Half Tile Flowers - It's just dumb that a half tile flower can't be watered if something else is on the other half of the tile. That was the whole point. This fixes it.
♦ MogHughson's Thirsty Bathmats - This mod makes the bathroom mats soak up puddles! Almost all of this neighborhood's bathrooms have some sort of bath rug, so you'll get a lot of mileage out of this mod with no set up!
♦ MogHughson's Watch TV from All Chairs - Some of my TVs are set at angles, and you'll likely need this mod to watch them
--Placement Mods--
♦ Numenor's Slot Enable Package - This lets corner counters become useable. I've placed a lot of microwaves and coffee makers in corners, so if you don't have this amazing fix, pick it up now!
♦ Sims99Fanatic's Apartment Life Shelving Fix - I'm fairly certain nothing will 'fall' off the shelves without this mod, but you won't be able to put anything you take down back up.
♦ HugeLunatic's Off Grid Rugs Fix - without it, most of the rugs are dark and sad looking.
♦ HugeLunatic's Ikea Sofa Repository - I've made sure that I didn't use any colors that go missing without it, but some of the new options would look better.
♦ Goggalor's Shiftable Curtains - Again, I don't think the curtains will move, but without this mod, you can't put them back as they were or emulate them yourself.


Custom Content Included:
Each piece of CC is listed, linked to and credited in each lot it is used for in the comments section. While there are 108 pieces of CC for the entire hood, no lot is a CC mule, and all but 12 pieces are used in at least 2 lots. For the full list, click the info button. Links with a ❤ on them indicate that I used only a few items from the set and I personally recommend you at least look at, if not download, the rest of the set.




Install Instructions:
Place the folder N463 in your Neighborhoods folder. Place the files from the PT Downloads into your Download folder. I've tried very hard to keep the CC to a bare minimum because I know there are so many of us out there who don't like to use CC or don't like to download it in houses. That being said, I've reused the CC I do use multiple times, so if you delete the PT Downloads folder, ALL of the lots WILL be broken.

This neighborhood will install as N463 (I picked 463 because that was the local exchange number on the phone number I had growing up). This number is, as far as I can tell, available and should not conflict with any existing published neighborhoods. If you already happen to have a N463, then I recommend the Bulk Rename Utility to change all the files from N463 to an available N###. Start up the game and you should see Pleasantly Thriving probably at the end of your neighborhoods list and its custom thumbnail.

If you want the original Playables in your Pleasantview, download N464. I have already taken the time to swap in my hood and lots in a cleaned Pleasantview template for you. I used MeetMe2TheRiver's clean template for Pleasantview, and empty templates for the subhoods, so the one with the playables only will come with the families, no extra townies or garden clubbers. The template I used included a fixed Bella Goth, so you will see her walking around town. She does remember who she is and is married to, but you'll need to convince her to move home again (or kill her off and say the aliens got her, your choice of course!) Unlike the template, I have aged her up to be 2 days away from elderhood, as she was currently younger than her daughter Cassandra. Michael Bachelor's urn is in Nina and Dina's house, so if you decide to move them somewhere else, go grab that first. The Goths and Dreamers also have relatives buried in their backyards. I do not know where Skip Broke Sr. is, but I recommend using an assignable gravestone to get his grave where ever you wanted it. I do know he is here in spirit somewhere! N464 uses the standard Pleasantview video thumbnail, and is named as such, so don't get them confused! It will still install at the end of your Neighborhoods list, and your original Pleasantview will be right where it always was.



If you'd like my Pleasantview hood with your current Pleasantview sims (or any other hood for that matter) I highly recommend using Mootilda's Hood Replace program. This will let you transfer my flattened Pleasantview map and all my hood decorations to your existing neighborhood. This will let you have your sims in my hood. Unfortunately, you will then have to move each lot by hand. You can either use the lots I've included in the hood download, by moving them to the lot bin and then into your new hood, or you can use the separately downloadable lots, and install them via Clean Installer.



Known Oddity: If you move any of these lots to the lot bin or package them up without first having made any build-mode changes to them, their thumbnails will be BLANK. This is not a permanent problem, just go back into the house, turn a flower 90s the other way, save and exit the lot. Now when you bin it, you'll be able to see it. You can still bin and place the lots with blank thumbnails, it just makes it harder to see what they are. The hover tool-tip is the only way to tell before clicking on it. The reason the thumbnails are blank is I went through every lot and deleted out those images from their packages. It was the only way to get the file size small enough to allow for upload here. Unless you plan on instantly rearranging my neighborhood, chances are, you will never encounter this issue. Thumbnails for the individual downloaded lots are not affected and perfectly normal.

For anyone worrying about corruption, I've scanned and fixed up both hoods with Mootilda's Hood Checker. I also have not played either hood (beyond limited test something fast and then exit without saving), so there are no extra townies or spawned characters you don't want. I recommend using NoStrayRespawn, NoTownieRegen, NoDormieRegen, NoSSRespawn, AntiRedundancy, and NoHumble to keep your hood population down. These mods are all available from Pescado at MATY. Cyjon's ThereCanBeOnlyOneProfessor is also helpful.

This has been a very very long process. Nearly two years in the making and another two of waiting, though not constant work. Back in the winter of 2013, my original Pleasantview finally kicked the bucket, and I needed to implement an emergency procedure to save my poor simmies. They (every single sim in Pleasantview, living and dead) got tightly packaged up on a Noah's Ark lot to weather the storm. Then, I needed a new clean, empty, and perfect Pleasantview to put them down into, that's where this hood comes into play. Now that I've finally finished this part of the project, I can 'play' my game again! After realizing I would need to rebuild Pleasantview from the ground up, I decided I would share my version, and this is the result. I hope you like it as much as I do. <3

Enjoy!
-Phae

Additional Credits:
A small handful of lots were directly influenced by previous makeovers (because they were such a great reno!). For each of these instances, I have credited and linked to the inspirational version. None of those lots were actually used as starting bases for my own renovations. Each was constructed from my own copy of the original lot, or entirely scratch built if the original lot seemed buggy.

Thanks to Jo, for allaying my fears about the SDHB. I'm sure she is sick of the subject at this point. As she says, "just get No Sim Loaded and forget about it!"

Also, shout-out to the WCIF crew, for helping me track down the last few missing credit links, and to Maxon for helping me troubleshoot a bit of master-missing CC at the last minute.

Big thanks to my mom, for helping with all the uploading bits. I was running really behind schedule, and without her doing the easy but time consuming tasks, this upload would have been a few more days later than it already is. I've promised indentured servitude for a week and a half as repayment.

Special thanks to Justice Jennifer Burb and to Brandi Brook for their efforts in enacting a few new local ordinances in Pleasantview. Brandi is most proud of her working requiring all pools be fenced. Justice Burb had the most pushback from the Goth family about the new law requiring all deceased sims to be buried in community cemeteries rather than in private backyards; as the compromise, urns are still allowed in residences. While no one was pleased with the idea of having their power usage metered, the community allowed Sim Energy to roll into town and retrofit all properties with electrical power meters provided at the same time they set up street lights.