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- Lots and Housing - Plot of Land - BETA 2 out now! (Testers still wanted)
#26
28th Sep 2024 at 7:53 PM
Posts: 3,459
Thanks: 298 in 4 Posts
Quote: Originally posted by ed95
Fantastic!! I was gonna edit my other messagge, but it's better if I write a new one. Let me say, your biggest feat is undoubtedly the ambiance of the game!!! All the lots have a very distinctive visual personality, and they're beautifully planned and built!! I love you TS3-like way of interconnecting the lots, and the subdued colors that give the whole game a different flavour. I can see you and me have similar taste in downloads and music teehee |
Thank you!
I really wanted Plot of Land to have its own unique feel and be in a way like its own little world when I originally started making it. I never really intended for people just put in their game and forget about it, but rather for them to appreciate all the effort I put into it and still am putting into it. I wanted, and still do want, to make something that people will want to play for months or years on end. Kind of like they do with the Maxis neighborhoods. And that's my philosophy about neighborhood making in general. 'Is this unique? Will I find myself wanting to continue playing it in 3 months' time?" These are things I personally ask myself often when making a neighborhood. That's why for Plot of Land there is so much CC used, and why I made custom theme songs, custom floors, a terrain paint, roads, recolors, and etc. etc.
Having spent numerous months making this neighborhood, it makes me really happy to know that I am doing great in achieving my goal of unique-ness!
Because the earth is standing still, and the truth becomes a lie
A choice profound is bittersweet, no one hears Cassandra Goth cry
A choice profound is bittersweet, no one hears Cassandra Goth cry
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#27
Yesterday at 10:41 AM
Last edited by HarVee : Today at 1:26 PM.
Posts: 3,459
Thanks: 298 in 4 Posts
Wanted to share a roadmap of what I'm doing for the next major update - it'll be known as the 'Community' update. One thing I am noticing as I play is that Plot of Land's community life seems a bit dead. There aren't enough townies to fill out all the roles and with the current build you tend to see the same few over and over. Also, there is a lack of things to do in the community, not many community lots as currently in 2.1 the options are a graveyard/church, a plaza, a thrift shop, a tavern, and an unspecific business for OFB. This is simply not enough IMO. So, by introducing several new townies and by creating 8 new community lots the town will be more fleshed out and interesting. The lot types will be as follows:
A public pool (Done!)
A restaurant (Done!)
A community garden (Done!)
An electronics store (place to buy the cell phone, mp3 player, video games, and electronic objects - ideal for OFB)
A grocery store (Done!)
A hair salon/beauty parlor
An arcade or a gym (I'm unsure which yet)
A bowling alley
Don't expect any more hotfixes or anything until I get this all done and ready for release. But I would like to emphasize that reporting bugs and whatnot are still important for me, so report them if you find them!
A public pool (Done!)
A restaurant (Done!)
A community garden (Done!)
An electronics store (place to buy the cell phone, mp3 player, video games, and electronic objects - ideal for OFB)
A grocery store (Done!)
A hair salon/beauty parlor
An arcade or a gym (I'm unsure which yet)
A bowling alley
Don't expect any more hotfixes or anything until I get this all done and ready for release. But I would like to emphasize that reporting bugs and whatnot are still important for me, so report them if you find them!
Because the earth is standing still, and the truth becomes a lie
A choice profound is bittersweet, no one hears Cassandra Goth cry
A choice profound is bittersweet, no one hears Cassandra Goth cry
#28
Today at 3:08 PM
Hey @HarVee I've managed to test the Beta 2 hot fix version a bit over the last few days. Overall, I really love it and appreciate the detail, creativity and imagination used. Aesthetically it's a really beautiful town, I would play this for a long time I can tell! I like that you cut down on the CC load a bit, I can now play it with full neighbourhood view without having pink soup, so I can see the lovely scenery from inside the lots.
I'll put my comments behind a spoiler below, apologies if it's stuff you already fixed. A lot of the comments are suggestions for changes but, of course, some of these may have been intentional design choices on your part, so just ignore those comments if so! I am pointing out everything that occured to me as I was playing.
I tested using the Beta 2.1 hotfix version, using the CC you uploaded plus the essentials you mention. I added nothing else, but the install I used does have a vesion of Gunmod's lighting in it hence the colours may look slightly different on the fotpaths and roads.
RESIDENTIAL LOTS:
Hart Randy: Randy remembers Chett's A+ grade; cruelty doesn't.
Hart Chett:
Frenz Satya: Oh wow this family is difficuly, I sold the hot tub to hire a maid! I love that the dog chews the cinderblocks. Neemor has a memory of, and knows, Keith Henrickson from when he was a toddler; neither of his parents know this sim so it's unclear how this sim would have been invited in.
Cortez Elisa: (Hilarious how Elisa has a memory of meeting Sim Sample, directly followed by a memory of learning anger management! )
Landgraab Mimi: I feel like Terome might have woohooed with a Mystery sim, so perhaps his woohoo with Mimi wouldn't have been his first? There is no wardrobe, I feel like Mimi might have one! I swapped Ikea side table in lounge for the Ikea chest of drawers.
Clone Cassidy: Front door and bathroom doors stick open. Kitchen cabinet next to the oven doesn't corner correctly, suggest rearranging? The garden sprinklers don't seem to work when the garden is planted until error is forced on them.
Boulder Francine: Timothy's got a job, quit job and got a promotion memories have blank images. Timothy's memory of did woohoo with Francine has service sim symbol, is that right? No potty or changing table, though this might be intentional. Can't plant the far row of garden, sim gets a 'cannot navigate steep terrain' icon. Sprinklers seemed to need a reset.
Maple Barry: I think June would have a LTW relating to owned businesses rather than athletics, due to her bio?
Maple Katherine: Trent likes golf, but his one true hobby is not sports. Front door sticks open.
Landgraab Dudley:
Mackenson Gerald: Gerald's got a job, got a promotion, got fired and got pickpocketed memories have no thumbnail. I think I would remove the extra fridge in the lounge as sims go into that room to put leftovers away.
Babybat Rogue: Blank memory icons for got a job, got a promotion x2, was overachiever, maximised creativity, made dean's list, maximised charisma, maximised logic, maximised mechanical, earned 10,000, maximised cooking, maximised cleaning and got a big bonus. Has four made first BFF memories all with different people. I would remove the side door from the garage; fast food and grocery people go to that door, as does the paper delivery, this often results in the sims chasing each other around the lot to accept the delivery. Door into garage from house sticks open. House has no wardrobe, I feel like Rogue would definitely have one being so wealthy, maybe even a dressing room! When someone is singing on the karaoke machine, sims can't get past to or from the front door which causes them to route the long way round. The garden can't be planted due to that steep slope error.
Cowl Alabaster: Cynthia has three 'made first BFF' memories with different people. Alabaster has blank icon on 'had a great party' memory and three 'made first BFF' memories with different people. All of the prickly pears are dead, although that may have been intentional due to their personalities!
Babybat Lucien II: Lucien II has blank memory icons- got A+ report card x2, got into private school, won scholar's grant, went to college, completed freshman year, completed sophomore year, completed junior year, graduated with honours. Lucien III has blank memory icons- got A+ report card, got rejected from private school, got D report card, had an accident, passed out. Routing is odd in house ground floor by stairs- tell a sim in the kitchen to have a bath upstairs, they go outside! It means that sims can take quite a long time to do things. Lucien II woke in the night when it was raining to complain that there was weather in the house! There are no floor tiles under the mansard roof objects, tiling that area fixed this. Tending the flower borders causes some hissy fits but it all seems to get done eventually.
COMMUNITY LOTS:
Coot's chapel:
Heckuva Plaza:
Thrift Shop:
Red Fist: No lights in the back room with the mini fridge.
GENERAL/ NEIGHBOURHOOD COMMENTS:
Re: The sloping terrain errors I'm seeing on some of the garden plots- could this be due to the lot adjustment done during two click foundation creation? I tried to replace the garden plots on Rogue's lot and the ground did some weird things like sinking down, and even replacing the plots didn't work. On other lots some or all work okay. Maybe you can figure it out?
On many of the lots, when I have the hood deco visible I can see the dirt tracks going over the roads. This looks okay in many instances but in some places it looks like someone has driven through a house or over a garden, so maybe it's not desirable? If you wanted to change this you could move the road objects a bit or perhaps try lowering the z height of the hood deco as suggested here:
https://criquette-was-here.tumblr.c...-and-your-hoods
I personally found that this causes a lot of z-fighting though.
Is BoilingOil's NoSimLoaded really necessary? I would not recommend this mod.
Is there a mod affecting napping? Sims all prefer to nap on couches and loungers instead of sleeping in beds.
Neighbourhood deco streetlights on lots- The hood object streetlights have a glow effect 'cone', causing a transition line on lot objects when loading lot at night. This persists throughout daylight hours too. The cone glow ends above the ground, so looks slightly odd in-lot as you can zoom beneath it. You can see this most noticeably on Mimi's lot, if you save, exit to hood and re-enter after dark and play until morning. I would suggest to remove them and replace with on-lot lights that turn off during daylight, but you might like the effect? (Of course this would probably be affected by the z height thing I mentioned earlier too).
Road textures- I noticed that you are using custom versions of the road textures and discrete concrete. Why don't you unlock the in-game versions of these tiles, then you won't have to have those floor tiles in your custom content pack? They are almost identical. This might also solve an issue I've noticed where sims tend to wander into the road when passing by. I think the in-game asphalt textures are coded so that sims prefer to stay on the footpath and don't stand in the road so much. Of course, you might like this behaviour, in which case ignore!
You have such a lot of detail in this world, I wonder if you'd consider using a default replacement for the reflection envcube? For example, the maid van reflects a grassy terrain with trees, unless you replace it with a desert reflection.
I have the Maxis desert one on my profile, or you could make your own. I did this for Lacuna D as it was always snowing there!
The music is really cool- I put the tracks in the neighbourhood music folder, it was nice to have them play in between loading lots!
I hope these help!
I'll put my comments behind a spoiler below, apologies if it's stuff you already fixed. A lot of the comments are suggestions for changes but, of course, some of these may have been intentional design choices on your part, so just ignore those comments if so! I am pointing out everything that occured to me as I was playing.
I tested using the Beta 2.1 hotfix version, using the CC you uploaded plus the essentials you mention. I added nothing else, but the install I used does have a vesion of Gunmod's lighting in it hence the colours may look slightly different on the fotpaths and roads.
RESIDENTIAL LOTS:
Hart Randy: Randy remembers Chett's A+ grade; cruelty doesn't.
Hart Chett:
Frenz Satya: Oh wow this family is difficuly, I sold the hot tub to hire a maid! I love that the dog chews the cinderblocks. Neemor has a memory of, and knows, Keith Henrickson from when he was a toddler; neither of his parents know this sim so it's unclear how this sim would have been invited in.
Cortez Elisa: (Hilarious how Elisa has a memory of meeting Sim Sample, directly followed by a memory of learning anger management! )
Landgraab Mimi: I feel like Terome might have woohooed with a Mystery sim, so perhaps his woohoo with Mimi wouldn't have been his first? There is no wardrobe, I feel like Mimi might have one! I swapped Ikea side table in lounge for the Ikea chest of drawers.
Clone Cassidy: Front door and bathroom doors stick open. Kitchen cabinet next to the oven doesn't corner correctly, suggest rearranging? The garden sprinklers don't seem to work when the garden is planted until error is forced on them.
Boulder Francine: Timothy's got a job, quit job and got a promotion memories have blank images. Timothy's memory of did woohoo with Francine has service sim symbol, is that right? No potty or changing table, though this might be intentional. Can't plant the far row of garden, sim gets a 'cannot navigate steep terrain' icon. Sprinklers seemed to need a reset.
Maple Barry: I think June would have a LTW relating to owned businesses rather than athletics, due to her bio?
Maple Katherine: Trent likes golf, but his one true hobby is not sports. Front door sticks open.
Landgraab Dudley:
Mackenson Gerald: Gerald's got a job, got a promotion, got fired and got pickpocketed memories have no thumbnail. I think I would remove the extra fridge in the lounge as sims go into that room to put leftovers away.
Babybat Rogue: Blank memory icons for got a job, got a promotion x2, was overachiever, maximised creativity, made dean's list, maximised charisma, maximised logic, maximised mechanical, earned 10,000, maximised cooking, maximised cleaning and got a big bonus. Has four made first BFF memories all with different people. I would remove the side door from the garage; fast food and grocery people go to that door, as does the paper delivery, this often results in the sims chasing each other around the lot to accept the delivery. Door into garage from house sticks open. House has no wardrobe, I feel like Rogue would definitely have one being so wealthy, maybe even a dressing room! When someone is singing on the karaoke machine, sims can't get past to or from the front door which causes them to route the long way round. The garden can't be planted due to that steep slope error.
Cowl Alabaster: Cynthia has three 'made first BFF' memories with different people. Alabaster has blank icon on 'had a great party' memory and three 'made first BFF' memories with different people. All of the prickly pears are dead, although that may have been intentional due to their personalities!
Babybat Lucien II: Lucien II has blank memory icons- got A+ report card x2, got into private school, won scholar's grant, went to college, completed freshman year, completed sophomore year, completed junior year, graduated with honours. Lucien III has blank memory icons- got A+ report card, got rejected from private school, got D report card, had an accident, passed out. Routing is odd in house ground floor by stairs- tell a sim in the kitchen to have a bath upstairs, they go outside! It means that sims can take quite a long time to do things. Lucien II woke in the night when it was raining to complain that there was weather in the house! There are no floor tiles under the mansard roof objects, tiling that area fixed this. Tending the flower borders causes some hissy fits but it all seems to get done eventually.
COMMUNITY LOTS:
Coot's chapel:
Heckuva Plaza:
Thrift Shop:
Red Fist: No lights in the back room with the mini fridge.
GENERAL/ NEIGHBOURHOOD COMMENTS:
Re: The sloping terrain errors I'm seeing on some of the garden plots- could this be due to the lot adjustment done during two click foundation creation? I tried to replace the garden plots on Rogue's lot and the ground did some weird things like sinking down, and even replacing the plots didn't work. On other lots some or all work okay. Maybe you can figure it out?
On many of the lots, when I have the hood deco visible I can see the dirt tracks going over the roads. This looks okay in many instances but in some places it looks like someone has driven through a house or over a garden, so maybe it's not desirable? If you wanted to change this you could move the road objects a bit or perhaps try lowering the z height of the hood deco as suggested here:
https://criquette-was-here.tumblr.c...-and-your-hoods
I personally found that this causes a lot of z-fighting though.
Is BoilingOil's NoSimLoaded really necessary? I would not recommend this mod.
Is there a mod affecting napping? Sims all prefer to nap on couches and loungers instead of sleeping in beds.
Neighbourhood deco streetlights on lots- The hood object streetlights have a glow effect 'cone', causing a transition line on lot objects when loading lot at night. This persists throughout daylight hours too. The cone glow ends above the ground, so looks slightly odd in-lot as you can zoom beneath it. You can see this most noticeably on Mimi's lot, if you save, exit to hood and re-enter after dark and play until morning. I would suggest to remove them and replace with on-lot lights that turn off during daylight, but you might like the effect? (Of course this would probably be affected by the z height thing I mentioned earlier too).
Road textures- I noticed that you are using custom versions of the road textures and discrete concrete. Why don't you unlock the in-game versions of these tiles, then you won't have to have those floor tiles in your custom content pack? They are almost identical. This might also solve an issue I've noticed where sims tend to wander into the road when passing by. I think the in-game asphalt textures are coded so that sims prefer to stay on the footpath and don't stand in the road so much. Of course, you might like this behaviour, in which case ignore!
You have such a lot of detail in this world, I wonder if you'd consider using a default replacement for the reflection envcube? For example, the maid van reflects a grassy terrain with trees, unless you replace it with a desert reflection.
I have the Maxis desert one on my profile, or you could make your own. I did this for Lacuna D as it was always snowing there!
The music is really cool- I put the tracks in the neighbourhood music folder, it was nice to have them play in between loading lots!
I hope these help!
I will choose a path that's clear- I will choose free will
-RUSH- -RADIO- -RADIO- -EON- -ARCHIVES-
Simpeople and Me Archive- 11Dots Archive- My Sims World Archive- Adele Archive- Sims 1 Archive
HHG to the G --- More HHG --- Angel Classic Rock --- Be seeing you
-RUSH- -RADIO- -RADIO- -EON- -ARCHIVES-
Simpeople and Me Archive- 11Dots Archive- My Sims World Archive- Adele Archive- Sims 1 Archive
HHG to the G --- More HHG --- Angel Classic Rock --- Be seeing you
#29
Today at 8:26 PM
Posts: 3,459
Thanks: 298 in 4 Posts
I admit, some of those are actually funny (like the weather inside the house) But I will fix it though!
BO No Sim Loaded is an accidental included thing that I use simply for testing purposes, I'll be updating the CC collection to remove it definitely since it's not really intended for normal gameplay!
For napping I did include "Numenor_Sleep-on-comm-lot_AllGames.package" which is a mod that lets Sims sleep on community lots. As far as I can tell that's the only one that effects sleeping directly. Maybe try removing that from the zzHACKS folder and see if that will help? If it does help, then I'll remove it from the collection.
The 'blank' thumbnail memories are something I was actually aware of, but haven't got around to fixing quite yet, they'll definitely be fixed by the time BETA 3 drops. They are due to not having a proper subject sim selected, In my rush to get the memories done I did overlook things sadly. For service sim on Francine Boulder though, I'm not sure what that's about, unless somehow, I chose the wrong version of that memory. I will look into it. For the Keith Hendrickson memory I intended to remove those memories from the entire family, guess I must have missed that particular memory. Keith Hendrickson is the local deliveryman, iirc.
Streetlights - I changed this already.
Wandering into the street, well, this is an odd behavior, but I oddly like it! Makes the neighborhood feel more rural. The discrete concrete is actually the original Maxis flooring, it's one the few I didn't hide with the Wall and Floor hider extra. Custom road tiles, yes though, and I explained why I did that earlier in the thread.
Doors getting stuck - I noticed this several times, but I'm unsure how to fix it. Deleting the door and replacing it only fixes it for a short time.
Neighborhood dirt road deco - This might sound odd, given the amount of detail I put into it, but I never use the neighborhood deco view from lot feature. I always leave it disabled because of Pink Soup. But it's nice to have this brought to my attention for those that do play with it on. I'll look into fixing it but can make no guarantees.
Prickly cactus dead on Cowl lot - intentional.
No changing table or potty chair on boulder lot - also intentional. Idea is to make them feel like a starter family.
Um, hmm, all else that I didn't specifically mention (as not to make this post too long) are things I will look into changing/fixing.
Thanks for you feedback @simsample this means a lot to me!
BO No Sim Loaded is an accidental included thing that I use simply for testing purposes, I'll be updating the CC collection to remove it definitely since it's not really intended for normal gameplay!
For napping I did include "Numenor_Sleep-on-comm-lot_AllGames.package" which is a mod that lets Sims sleep on community lots. As far as I can tell that's the only one that effects sleeping directly. Maybe try removing that from the zzHACKS folder and see if that will help? If it does help, then I'll remove it from the collection.
The 'blank' thumbnail memories are something I was actually aware of, but haven't got around to fixing quite yet, they'll definitely be fixed by the time BETA 3 drops. They are due to not having a proper subject sim selected, In my rush to get the memories done I did overlook things sadly. For service sim on Francine Boulder though, I'm not sure what that's about, unless somehow, I chose the wrong version of that memory. I will look into it. For the Keith Hendrickson memory I intended to remove those memories from the entire family, guess I must have missed that particular memory. Keith Hendrickson is the local deliveryman, iirc.
Streetlights - I changed this already.
Wandering into the street, well, this is an odd behavior, but I oddly like it! Makes the neighborhood feel more rural. The discrete concrete is actually the original Maxis flooring, it's one the few I didn't hide with the Wall and Floor hider extra. Custom road tiles, yes though, and I explained why I did that earlier in the thread.
Doors getting stuck - I noticed this several times, but I'm unsure how to fix it. Deleting the door and replacing it only fixes it for a short time.
Neighborhood dirt road deco - This might sound odd, given the amount of detail I put into it, but I never use the neighborhood deco view from lot feature. I always leave it disabled because of Pink Soup. But it's nice to have this brought to my attention for those that do play with it on. I'll look into fixing it but can make no guarantees.
Prickly cactus dead on Cowl lot - intentional.
No changing table or potty chair on boulder lot - also intentional. Idea is to make them feel like a starter family.
Um, hmm, all else that I didn't specifically mention (as not to make this post too long) are things I will look into changing/fixing.
Thanks for you feedback @simsample this means a lot to me!
Because the earth is standing still, and the truth becomes a lie
A choice profound is bittersweet, no one hears Cassandra Goth cry
A choice profound is bittersweet, no one hears Cassandra Goth cry
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