Hiya,
I'm in the process of creating a world, and I was wondering if the Big Show Venue is required for the showtime professions or if I can skip it, because it's MASSIVE and I'm building on a small map. I have the Private Venue, Coffeehouse, Live Show Venue, and Performance Park. But if you don't HAVE to have the Big Show Venue for the professions to progress properly then I don't want to use up the space. I would make my own but that exceeds my building capabilities.

I am not sure if you can max the career or not? I will guess no but may be totally wrong and others can say. I maxed a few sims and so at this point do not care if others max or not so I do not put them in my worlds generally. I just let my performers use the other types of venues. I enjoy listening to the singers sing and am not focused on how high they get level-wise now.

You can max the careers out w/o one. I've done so with the acrobat, I don't see why it would be any different for the others.

Good to know. Thank you!

I've maxed the Singer career with only one performance stage, situated in a dive bar/karaoke place. So, none of the "official" venue types at all. It just takes a lot longer (because performing at the bigger venues gives you more experience or whatever it is) and you make a lot less money. I suspect that you could max the Showtime careers without any performance stages at all, but again it'd take longer and wouldn't be nearly as lucrative. I suppose if you're playing someone who's supposed to be a rock star or the next Penn Jillette or whatever, it wouldn't exactly be "realistic" for them to never perform in larger venues, but if you don't care about all that... I like playing the Showtime careers, but I also tend to stick to playing small worlds. They just don't have the room for all those different venues.

You could probably make your own on a smaller lot, like 30x30 or 40x40. The only reason the ones in Showtine are so big is because of the shell but I see no reason you can't make a smaller lot marked as the Big Show Venue if you don't use the shell just create your own.

I have made my own and/but I do not remember the lot sizes I had to use. The stage is pretty darn big, but I know my lots were smaller than what EA used.

It's not necessary but you may want to add it anyway because the shows at those venues pay 20K or more per show. You can make your own using the objects in buydebug (including the one that creates a fake crowd).

Is the massive stage really needed? Can't you just put it on a 20x20 lot zoned as a big stage. I don't remember, but with small worlds making these big venues arn't realistic.

The expansion pack has only one stage object, which is what dictates the behavior for performers to perform. The premade big show venues inside the hell contains (for aesthetics) a stage rig, that's might or might not be put on foundation, and the crowd thing object that simulates silhouette of the audience. While I don't know how actually it operates, but I strongly believe those other things that construct a "massive stage" are only for the looks. You can however use show benches and crowd markers to place where you would love the audience to stand/sit.