Me personally, as a British kid who grew up reading the works of Cathy Cassidy and Jacqueline Wilson, have always wanted to create a neighborhood filled with her characters. Maybe one day I'll do it, but right now it just seems far too ambitious!

I'd really like the patience and time it takes to build a Bridgeport (TS3) -like neighborhood. I love densely packed neighborhoods, and it looks so strange to me to see such wide spaces between lots in "regular" gameplay (e.g. Pleasantview, with one house per street, basically).

I came somewhat close to achieving my horror vacui dreams with my Felicity Island, but now I want that for a modern world. There are probably some great custom neighborhoods out there, but the last time I checked I'm not sure I found my "pipe dream" world.

An actual dream neighbourhood, as in, based on my dreams. People I've dreamed up and their stories. Names out of dreams on the playables, townies and NPCs alike. Same for the houses and other lots. I feel like a lot of my dreams take place in the same area that I have a vague mental map of, and it would be amazing to see it realised in some capacity. And it'd make for some pretty cool-looking sims with fun genetics, too. But of course it would be an enormous undertaking. And I'm not that good of a builder. And I don't think my ancient laptop would appreciate it...

I have a bunch of CC downloaded, and even some lots, for an Al Simhara vacation 'hood inspired by Egypt and Morocco. I want to build a tomb sims can raid with a wishing well or genie or something cool at the bottom, and a history museum full of artifacts, and a Roman/Turkish bath. But I'd need to do a new install or something first because I don't want to install all this CC on my current game. There are a lot of great Moroccan inspired Buy mode items and even residential lots that come with TS2 base game so it would be cool to lean into that architectural style for a whole hood.

A bit like topp, my first pipe dream hood is a densely packed city-type hood. Except my dream is to renovate Downtown or Belladonna Cove. I didn't used to think this would be unobtainable--I thought the only thing stopping me was my own and time and ambition, but the pink flashing got to me. I spoke about this before elsewhere, but ever since I was forced to upgrade to Windows 10, my game just can't handle the same amount of cc and objects. Sometimes just loading my Belladonna or one lot can cause pink flashing and it seemed like no matter what I did or how much cc I took out, the game did not like too many items on a map. Which is a shame because I like clutter, I want to have densely packed buildings or use neighborhood deco, and I love lurking on Tumblr, looking for new cc that might fit in my game. (Seriously, I've got like 700+ tabs open on my desktop right now, pages for cc I mean to go back and download. You never know when that one thing or mod is the perfect item for that lot, or when that one outfit or hair truly fits your sims' vibe! ) Because of the sucky game performance, I've actually stepped waaay back from simming in the past few years. (I mean, there's some health and job reasons, too, but I'd probably make way more time for simming if my game ran better!) So instead I've been spending the last year or two looking for new performance tips to try, as well as trying to cut down & organize my cc to get my game running smoothly again. That's going about meh--it has been years of organizing at this point. What can I say? I was a 20+ GB cc user on Windows 7 and trying to figure out what to keep and what to toss has been a trial. And even when I cut my folder in half for testing or building, etc. I still get flashing sometimes. It also doesn't help that TS2 simmers just do not stop creating new things! I need all creators to take like, a week or two off at the same time.

Anywho, every now and then I find new things to try to improve computer performance. This week, it's the DXVK fix (not sure how I missed this one, since it's stick-ied in the Help section, but mmkay) and so far so good, actually! Haven't seen much flashing. I've just been using my Build Only CC folder (just under 10 GB), but I'll take that. I'm hoping that it'll at least let me have fun building lots while I research more about Linux and see about trying a distribution or two. So I actually have some pics to share of what I mean! I was taking pictures today anyway, to help with planning. I've moved the parks around (because no city needs four giant parks all in one spot!), but since I've moved around some buildings, I've no idea what to do with the empty space between the park and my Town Hall. Seems wrong to stick a parking lot in my city center (I consider the statue the center of the city and am trying to keep it and the radio tower in the same place).

I've been working on Belladonna a long time (years!), so now that I'm coming back to revisit the hood, I'm think of switching up some plans. I really want to embrace apartment living. I'm toying with the idea of limiting residential lots and having sims move to another apartment when I get bored or tired of their current lot. I'm also thinking about trying detached townhouses for apartments--think those lots in Veronaville where there are two houses in one lot. I think it could be a fun change of gameplay to make my sims move when they run out of space, instead of just renovating the house. Hence all the building and extra houses! I've got 3-4 areas of Belladonna in mind and each suburb will have its own architectural style and community lots for residents--think clothing stores, coffee shops, restaurants, clubs hangouts, etc. The goal is to embrace AL's social classes and have sims primarily visit the lots appropriate for their class. Not that they won't ever visit other hoods, but you know, Chastity Gere needs a bar to lurk in and meet suspicious types, and it isn't going to be the same place Mrs. Cleveland goes to have afternoon tea and harangue her brother. And Geoff needs a bunch of spots to party at, to live that party boy/socialite lifestyle his sister looks down on.

Then I want to sprinkle some public buildings throughout the hood--schools, banks, hospital, church, etc. I have kinda the same idea for Downtown, but Belladonna is a lot further along, as I worked on more lots for it. I checked on my Downtowns today and apparently I have two different layouts going! I'll need to reconcile that at some point. I build lots based on whatever mood or inspiration strikes me, plus I tend to rearrange things so it's a miracle the tech center is so close to finished! But as you can probably tell, having so many buildings isn't the easiest on the graphics. Plus I want to either build or renovate every lot so things look cohesive--even if I download a lot, I usually rearrange it to suite the neighborhood's needs and my personal gameplay style. So yeah, it's a pipe dream because it's taking a while and my computer has limitations.

Now, my second, lesser hood pipe dream is to build a hood for a boarding school or military base. Instead of trying to do mega lots, like a big base or castle where you try to live and work and learn on the same lot, I'm thinking about breaking up the lots and splitting up functions. So sleeping areas in one building, cafeteria in another, then gym, lab, and so on. But this, too, is a pipe dream, mostly because I'm lazy and partly because I know nothing about military bases. I'm someone that needs to do research, plan layouts, and get inspired by existing facades and buildings and I haven't got any good ideas yet. Idk why, but both of these seem more tiring to me than renovating Belladonna or Downtown! So I'll stick to main hoods for now and then I'll see about subhoods.

Moroccan architecture is beautiful. I hope some day you get the motivation to make it! I'm sure it'll look lovely!


I'm actually doing an Al-Simharan neighborhood myself, it's been in the works for quite some time now. Though my story is a play on the ancient Egyptian mythology, with the lot architecture inspired heavily by what I saw during my holiday in IRL Egypt circa 2018. ...So it doesn't actually use any of the Maxis Moroccan content for sake of authenticity.

"Unearthly" neighborhoods in the literal sense of the word, whether that means various afterlives, other alien planets, or metaphysical locations like Faerie... there's something interesting in the idea of trying to make a setting that feels like it has a completely different history than the normal 2000's-Suburbia that TS2 is actually geared for, while still being big enough to have the interpersonal and geographic dynamics that make a full neighborhood more interesting than just a single lot or set of lots can do.

@Phantomknight - Are we the same person?? My BACC hood is full of apartments, densely packed houses, and neighbourhood deco so unfortunately I get frequent massive pink flashing. I figure it's a tradeoff though because when the flashing disappears it looks amazing, if I say so myself. (Which I do!) Single sims in Portland typically move out of their parents' houses into an apartment, as do newcomers from CAS. I have Cyjon's mod so all the other apartment residents are townies, which is a great way for them to meet new people. Still, I hate the bugginess of apartments (mine frequently crash) so I'm currently working on a series of small "fake" rowhouses to simulate a close living environment without all the problems apartments have. There are also lots of civic buildings in Portland due to the way I'm playing my BACC that add to the community feel.

I'm currently working on a military base subhood as well. So far I have the map all laid out and I'm working on the community lots. I've also been separating buildings by function as well - barracks for single sims, a mess hall, gym/training area, church and cemetery, strip mall with basic essentials like groceries, emergency services building (ambulance, fire, military police), park, and bar. I also have a series of house for sims with multiple family members based on size and military rank. Next up is an assembly square for military rallies, etc.

Aaaah so my own Via Pokémon. Its more of a kinda outside/inside road, its like inside an archway and has a Plaza on it, but it could be done using the neighborhood decors.

But Theres a recurring house with a dark red main room, and a recurring girl with black hair in an half ponytail.

Other dreams of mine include, not just me and other people I know, but luvic of traken from Doctor Who and Susan Wainwright from the sims 3 (also known as Susvic) have become recurring characters in my dreams.

I know for a fact this'll sound mean, but you're still on about Susan Wainwright? If she was a more central character like Bella Goth as an example, maybe I could understand... but why a random pudding? Was she your first?

She wasnt my first. I started with ts2 and mostly played custom hoods often named Gaiopoli (Gaiaburgh or Gaiaburg is the translation) but i always got angry. I often made myself with my imaginary friends the magical girls called MIX. But also made other families usually weird and all my kids got taken away by the social worker.

Also I often wanted to do legacies but couldnt, one of them legacy founders literally named Simmetta Legacy, instead befriended Meadow Thayer but didnt get married or have much of an house and ended up dying instead, i wanted to pair her up with benjamin long. If I had more integrity i would propably have saved, brought meadow to college, married meadow and simmetta to each other, have them adopt, and not be a legacy founder anymore. At one point i accidentally got gifted mysims twice because i talked about it without realizing i had talked about it before because i got obsessed and remembered that I was going to have it but wasnt in me.

In fact often i took the sims way too seriously same thing for doctor who including luvic who is also a very minor character, i was and still often am very unhealthy to both Susan and luvic and want to heal from them, and have more thoughts related to the real world and to the real people around me, but it’s hard to do. Its hard to not end up in them, theyre basically my cage. Along with other stuff that used to be in my cage in the past: Pokémon, simpsons, sailor moon, Kingdom Hearts, total drama island, my little pony friendship is magic, homestuck, voltron legendary defender, Overwatch, and Georgia 🇬🇪 (but in a way completely separate than Georgia SaKartvelo caucasus how it actually is in real life, but a version of it that only really existed in my mind. Basically i found it through armenia who i found out through simpsons, like how i found out doctor who through my little pony. Same with the others, they were about researching the lore and hanging out on social media and immerge myself in those worlds, than actually watching and playing those tv shows and videogames. So with doctor who, I knew luvic was going to die but i couldnt admit it and rebelled from it, i literally couldnt stop 🛑 reading about those stuff, i wasnt calm or autonomous enough to click that X on top at the right!)

Basically they werent just fictional to me, theyre (Susan and luvic) still kinda my special interests although theyre fictional from stuff i don’t want to consume and i dont actually care about them as characters or topics, i want more thoughts about real life stuff and the people around me, but its literally hard to me, its literal decolonization. Its like how Gandhi added a door for central and south asian people before actually making a door for everyone.

I need to make door for the world of physical activity, the world of burocratic stuff, and the world of the actual real life people around me who make me happy and calm and who I get along with. But my mind instead gets angry for stuff that doesnt even exist, i still often end up 🆙 taking it too seriously, i know its all fake and gay but i still get angry over it, im still not over it.

Its not the case of “Zuko is my special interest because his woes and war hes entrenched in, is similiar to a religious conflict, like the ones in real life I care about and which are my special interest too, such as Israel-Palestine” which ive seen before and am a bit jealous because thats about a real life event? While I when I do something that also exists in real life, like the Caucasus, its not about how its actually is IRL, i just got nosy and Curious and wasnt able to leave, same thing with Susan and luvic now, i ended up studying them too much, i also studied the IRL events and also shipped Zukosan which was the Zuko x Susan ship (i made Blair and izumi be the same age and added Honora a child from both of them) but then I realize. Its a kinda brownish sim with a name that means or meant several flowers (such as rose or lily) in several languages in the middle east and/or spoken by jews, and the voice actress was also jewish (deborah ben eliezer) so Technically… it wouldnt end the conflict it would make maybe, Susan Blair honora also jewish, or they could be like, central asian nibiru worshipper, and whatever. Zuko is also not necessarily the characters who end religious conflicts, but who converts to bahai’i. I also realize in the middle of ships there also X like the X to close thebtabs, or the names of the Talaxians, even the typo thebtabs, sounds like eta beta AKA eega beeva!

It is the case of, Susan and luvic still enter my mind confusing me to keep on doing them, but it goes beyond to how they are in canon and they still confuse me and I want my mind to rotate more about things that actually exist, i want my fiction to remind me of my real life instead of viceversa!

My big dream neighbourhood to make is a large Downtown on a desert map. Sleek, hyper-modern, and full of neon light, with cyberpunk vibes (the genre, not necessarily the game). Ideally it would also have many residential/apartment lots so that Sims could live there. Maybe even with beach lots.

Unfortunately I'm not really good at creating the type of lots that would be needed for this. And even less good at creating enough neighbourhood decoration or lot shells that would be needed to give the neighbourhood just the right vibe.

I feel this lol- at one point I was convinced I'd make Cascadia (my consolidated city neighborhood for all my skyscrapers and urban lots and whatnot) have a full cyberpunk district, but given how much time it took to just make the two lots of mine that catch that cyberpunk vibe in the way I'd hoped for, I pretty solidly dropped that idea! Hence... "pipe dreams" lol.

Calabruhsas was once this soft of dream I had, but now that I've made and released it, I'm still thinking of doing a version 2 with improvements to make it better. I don't think it'll happen very soon because I've had great trouble of finding any energy after work these days to even relax, let alone do something ambitious like this.