*smacks head*

Wall lights! Why didn't I think of that. One day I'd like to figure out where my brain gets to sometimes...

I'm glad you like it. This is actually the only house I've played with dummy levels, and it just felt like something that people might get really annoyed by. (Kind of like 10-digit dialing...) But you're right, it is just one extra click. And if you play with object hiding off you might even be able to play from the dummy level itself since it doesn't have a floor.

Decorating with Maxis stuff can be annoying as hell because it's all either really stylized or really bland, and the stuff that looks normal tends to have really low motive/environment stats. But this house was just screaming out for the atomic age (or whatever it's called) Pets furniture, I think.

Keirra and Vod Kaknockers, if you end up playing the house at any point, please let me know if there's any weirdness. I did playtest a clone of the house, but with the game I used to build it, so I wouldn't notice if I accidentally used a custom object or something. (Although I'm pretty sure I didn't.)

And I've got one more question. The front of the house looks really... bland I guess. I'm assuming it's because the entry is off a hallway, but there aren't any windows on the front face (except one I added for the bathroom), and if I put some in it looks funny because they intersect with stairs and stuff. Totally not an issue as far as gameplay (the only dark room is the little computer room upstairs), but since MTS2 requires a screenshot of the house from the street, should I jazz it up a bit, and if so, how? Tack on some pointless windows? Move the palm tree so it fills more of the dead space? Or does it not really look that terrible and I'm just being over-sensitive?

I checked out a few of the samples. It's a lot like watching MTS3K, I think, but with occasionally-better movies and without the silhouettes in the foreground. I think if I ever sit down to watch a full one, I might need a few cutouts to put in front of the TV screen.

The model on the right has a full-on beard! 

So I'm looking for opinions on a house. One of my favourite things to do with TS2 is to take actual building floorplans and turn them into Sim houses. (It gets me away from the generic rectangles I tend to build otherwise.) A week or two ago I saw an ad for one of the suites in a new high-rise in my city - a 1700 square-foot, two story, one bedroom condo. Way too extravagant, IMHO, for a normal person, but perfect for a Sim living the good life. It's got two TV areas (plus one in the bedroom), a pool table, a hot tub, a bar, and tons of places to sit and eat.

After ages of fighting with it (I said I liked building Sim houses, not that I was particularly good at it. ) I've finally come up with this. Excuse all the nighttime shots. I've just recently installed the Radiance Lighting mod and am still in awe of the pretty.



Kitchen/Dining Area


Upstairs Game Room


Bedroom

*edit*
I just remembered that I use default replacement bedding in my game, so the bed will look slightly different.

Main Floor Plan
Upstairs Floor Plan

I'm rather fond of it and am tempted to submit it to MTS2, but.... I don't know. There are just a couple of things that I think people might find too annoying. The first is that the large hedge outside isn't accessible, so you have to move it before it can be trimmed. The second is that I used a dummy level to build the stairs, because any other way was messing with the house layout too much. I think it was worth all the hassle, but the result is that you have to click twice to go up or down a level. Do you think people would hate that?

Here's the lot if anyone wants it. I've tested the download, and it should be fine.
It has no CC, because I personally hate houses that are full of custom downloads I don't want, and as you can see from the images it relies heavily on objects from Pets. I've got all the EP's up to and including Seasons, so I imagine you'll need all of those to make it work properly.

Any comments/notes/suggestions?

They look like the drugged out offspring of our dear Clerosvalda, no?

I didn't notice anyone address this for you. (You kind of got overshadowed by Nouk's latest drool-worthy hair. ) From the neighbourhood screen, click on the house and select the icon that has an arrow pointing to an asterisk. (If you have Sims living there, you might have to click the info "i" icon to see that option.) Select the option to save the lot to your hard drive (I can't remember the exact wording, but it's the one that doesn't reference the Exchange). It'll tell you where it was saved.
If the lot has Sims in it, open the package with Clean Installer, de-select Sims/pets, and re-save it. Then just upload it to Medaifire or... one of those other file-sharing sites. I can't remember names right now.
(Oh, and if you like us, please let us know what EP's you have so that we'll know if the lot will crash our game.)

That dancing girl thing is freaking me out. At first she was stubbornly refusing to turn counter-clockwise, but I eventually realised that I can make her change direction by staring just past the left-hand edge of my monitor and visualizing myself grabbing her leg and spinning her the other way. (She has yet to change direction 'live'.) The weirdest part is that once I've turned her, if I go away and come back she'll be spinning in the same direction I left her in (as opposed to reverting to clockwise, which is what I would have guessed).


Celligirl, I was kind of the same way with math in school, especially with geometry. I used to frustrate my teachers because I'd usually get the right answer but never be able to show my work. How was I supposed to do that, though, when my method consisted of drawing random shapes and moving them around in my head for a while until I suddenly knew the answer was 42 degrees?

As for me, I really like that one. I've got a couple of Sims who will be wearing that one all the time once I get my hands on it. Frankly, I love that there's a ton of diversity here. Sure there are one or two that I'll probably never use, but chances are they're someone else's favourites. The more variety the better, I say.

And for the record, I love the teensy bit of tummy peeking out on some of the shirts. I think that's really cute.

Could be worse. I've had this stuck in my head for days! (The sample cuts out right at the very beginning of the R2-D2 noises.) Wanna trade?

Which is cool and stuff, but wouldn't it be easier to just add an asterisk and change the text to red?

So,
(Love those code tags!)
would make:
I want this!

And I love just about everything on that page, especially the peeing table. I could maybe get away with one of the more normal dressers, but The Boy would never
feel comfortable sharing a house with that table. *sigh* In everything else, he's a keeper. I swear!

Sooo,
1) could you just wipe your hands on the Sim to save time and mess?
2) would that be considered child labour?

Millie, it could be that one. I recall way more ass-crack though. I can remember seeing a part where she's kind of dancing in a circle (spinning I guess, but really slowly), being horrified but unable to look away and thinking sure she's in great shape, especially for her age, but that much plumber's crack is not sexy! Maybe we got a different video up here or something. (I also don't remember so many images of 'average Americans', but it's been a long time so maybe my memory is failing me.)
Or maybe it was actually another video entirely. I also seem to remember watching in the living room of a house we moved from in late '97, and she does seem to have a lot of music videos that basically involve her dancing around in front of some sort of screen/backdrop.

I'm afraid that old(ish) Madonna video turned me off butt cleavage forever. I just about lost my lunch the first time I saw that.   (Which one was it? American Pie? I'm pretty sure it was late 90's, but I'm too scared to go check.)