I see them without any problems. I will try to re-attach them and see if it solves the problem. Is it working now?

@ Yvelotic2001 - yes! I can see them in the post now

Edit: Karen, I see your got your pics to show up, yay! I'm totally digging the red/black,white unit and especially the yellow/purple one that's my fave complimentary color scheme <3

Thank you

That moment when you're almost done taking pictures and then you realize you forgot curtains on random windows in more than one apartment. Anyone else have those moments? Anyone else nearly breakdown when faced with the dilemma to retake pictures and make a new-new final version of the lot or to leave things alone? I guess it's just as well, though, because in my old pictures I had testing cheats on and I hate when I leave that in my pictures. Anywho, this round is finally done! Phones checked, alarms checked, trash, dishwasher and curtains, have all been checked. No more fiddling with snap objects and quarter tile placement, no more looking at other entries and going, "oo, why didn't I do something like that?" Yup, here it is, better late than never:

Round 3: Simply Country

A little inspired by all the previous entries with a house turned into an apartment complex, my round 3 is meant to be a country manor in Riverblossom Hills turned into apartments for recent grads. I was going for a plantation style look--I guess ya'll can let me know if I achieved that. The parking lot is decorative; invisible driveways can be added later to match up with the parking spots and cars can be placed before move in to allow residents to drive.



I kept it to two floors for playability--I tend to get sick of high rises after a while--though there is a dummy floor to give the building proper height between the columns and the roof. The complex features public space on both floors with a tv lounge, gym, poker table, computers, and the grand piano left behind from when the old owners moved out/abandoned the place. There's space for an atm and laundry to be added later (replace the arcade machine on the ground floor with the atm and place a washer & dryer where the ! signs are on the second floor). Outside, there's a hot tub, a grill and tables for those all important Saturday parties, a bar, and chess. Since there's a dishwasher placed out there (so the public spaces don't get too messy or take too long to clean up), all residencies also have a dishwasher.



Units on the ground floor, A and B, have two bedrooms and 1 bathroom while units on the 2nd floor, C and D, have 3 bedrooms and 1 bathroom. I thought that seemed a little boring, however, and so designed the apartments with specific sims in mind--the students of La Fiesta Tech. I didn't have time for staging pictures, but I planned for all the students (I think I got all of them, anyway) to have a space to live after graduation & story behind moving there. All units have at least one phone (should be visible in the pictures), a burglar alarm, a trash cute, a dishwasher (so they don't go wandering outside to use the one out there), and a fire alarm (above the fridge).









And I think that's it. Hopefully I didn't go over pictures! And please excuse any typos; I'm super tired right now.

so far the pics are showing up for everyone now :3

oh crud, I keep making studio or loft units that could've been perfect for round 2 when I need to make big complexes this round hahaha oh gee what to do

I've just had a message from Gummilutt to say she is still having major computer issues. She apologises for her absence and will be back as soon as possible.

Round 3 is now officially closed.

@Treehawk
@HugeLunatic

Round 3 has closed are you still going to get an entry in or have I missed it?

I sent a message to Gummilutt but I suppose they haven't received it yet since the computer problems are continuing. Due to health problems I'm not going to have a round 3 entry. Thanks.

Yeah she is experiencing quite bad computer problems but hopes to have them sorted soon. I managed to get a message through to her. So sorry that you are dropping out

Is there an official time countdown status or are the due dates for judging on round 3 and round 4 submissions in limbo until further notice?

Judging should be happening now. Gummi said she would contact the judges and ask them to judge. Please submit your Round 4 entries and I will link them until Gummi can get online properly to do it herself

When is round 4 due then?

Round 4 deadline is 27 August 12mn London time unless Gummi changes it

Any word on Gummi?

I'm really lacking motivation on this last round. I'm 'apartmented' out. It's like furnishing six houses each time with Maxi's ugly objects and I'm tired of it. Hopefully, I can find some inspiration soon.

I can definitely relate to that. I haven't even started the last round, I'm so tired! I've been dreading it a little because 1. I don't have a clear shape in mind and 2. Like you mentioned, with all the units, decorating gets a little tedious. My round 2 had 11 units though, and you wouldn't believe how sick of that place I was by the end, trying to come up with unique furnishing in every apartment.

All I can say is that when you have a large number of apartments to design, first you should gather/write down/note all the design ideas you want to do and try. Then, spread them out, one per unit if necessary, instead of cramming everything into one unit. Like, apartment A's nook is a meditation spot and apartment B has the tinkering garage, and apartment C's got the great view of the lake, so the deck is perfect for entertaining, etc., etc. This way, instead of putting all the cool things in one unit, forcing you to come up with new ideas, every unit has one or two special/unique spot(s).

And finally, when all else fails, remember hobbies and aspiration. Ask yourself who is living in the apartment? A fortune, knowledge, family, romance, popularity, pleasure, or grilled cheese sim(s)? What type of furniture might they need/want because of their aspiration? And what do they like to do? Check out the hobbies and interest lists (or read some sim bios, especially if they're premades). I also find it easier to decorate if I have an idea of the sims living there and the stories behind them.

Round 4, Big Complex
 

11 E. Ocean St.

With three one-bedroom, three two-bedroom, and two three-bedroom units and reasonable rents, this is a typical Nova Colonia complex for young marrieds and working-class families. Landscaping in the common areas is colorful and well-kept, but plays second fiddle to the playground, where children and adults alike can socialize and enjoy themselves in good weather.

And now, on with the required shots!


Common Area Pics:



Note that I only used four common area pictures. This frees me up to use floor plan shots of each of the units I didn't move people into.
I trust that it's not too confusing to have two Traveller families in the complex. My game suddenly started loading the BV stealth hood into Nova Colonia, and kept on doing it. It's solved now and I figured they could help me with playtesting. So if the inhabitants of 1B and 1D look familiar - now you know why.

First Floor:


2nd Floor


Anybody who counts better than me and notices that I still don't have the right number of pictures, please speak up! The attachments are still acting wonky so I gave up trying to caption them. You'll just have to open the spoilers if you want to see me editorialize.

Thanks to Gummilutt for hosting, the judges for judging, and my fellow competitors for creating such beautiful lots in such a labor-intensive genre. May no more computer disasters strike any of us.

Hey everyone. I'm really sorry for vanishing. After posting round 3 scores I went to bed and when I woke up the next day my computer was dead. Still not entirely clear on what happened. To make it even worse I was running my usual monthly full hd backup at the time and at first it seemed it had fried both the internal hd and my backup drive so seemed I'd lost all of my data once again. It's been a never-ending session of troubleshooting one problem after another.

Thank you very much Karen for helping, I really appreciate it. Haven't had room in my brain for more stuff over the last couple of weeks. August 27th is correct, though may be changed depending on judges and how far along the judging they are. I will check in with them and let you guys know.

I know there's some round 3 score things to be fixed, I will go over thread and pms and fix the things that need fixing.

If you've got inbox access - I've got scores

I'm glad your back! I know how devastating PC problems can be. If it's not all sorted now, hopefully it will be soon. Good luck to you


ETA: You mean fixing R2 scores right? R3 is the one we are/just finished judging now, and haven't been posted yet.

Does anyone know of any really, really obscure things that could make the lot not want to change to an apartment one? Because I have a build, all units have one exit (wih the regular, unique seperator door) in and out, all walls are closed but yet it doesn't let me change lot type claiming there's an invalid apartment. I did manage to change it after just like, removing all the doors to the patios (which are self contained to the unit) and putting the doors back in but then ONE single unit, which I cannot for the life of me figure out why, was considered public space. Since I couldn't find any gaps or second doors, I was wondering if anyone ever had any obscure things that ever prevented it from changing?

Okay well I think I found it! The issue was I had a big patio in one unit that could be accessed through two different bedrooms so the game doesn't like that the outside area, though still only accesible to the residents in one overall unit, can be accessed through two doors. One outside area should have one door, basically.

Thanks to help of Peni and Phantom, it was determined custom doors from pre-AL that weren't updated can cause this issue.

@Charmful, I don't know; the game seems to just be completely arbitrary with zoning issues sometimes. Is the patio area enclosed? Because the second floor of my round 3 (pictures should still be further up this page) has two doors, one in each bedroom, to a patio/balcony area.

Maybe it was the type of door?

Sorry replied to the hail on my PMs, but I will try exchanging doors because I was using custom ones. I do see what you mean in your pics above so perhaps it is a fault of the custom door.

I bet that's it. If you get a door or an archway that were made prior to AL and never updated, the apartment code is confused by them.

Ahhhh, I bet my dollar that's the issue too. If I recall they were older custom doors. Thanks for sussing this out with me! :D