In a word, Yes, especially for a livable lot for your sim. As is evident in the slide show below a 1 square foot (sf) lot really just doesn't work. Not only are the trash can & mailbox bunched on top of each other, the child who delivers your paper will have a full on hissy fit & your sim get's no paper to read. Oh and Angelica was never able to actually stand on/in her lot. So she got to move, but not to the huge 64x64 (4,096 sf) lot on the other side of the map. Angelica got to move to the nearby 5x10 (50 sf) lot. Essentially I want to know how small I can go with a living space that only includes base game objects. Even though the ITF objects and Generations bunk beds do make life for a sim easier, I wanted base game only answers. It took some tweaking but here is an overview of the almost final design. Yes that is a fully functional 2x2 (4 sf) bathroom; total space 16 sf (3x6). In this overview there are two items that need to get moved back to a previous position. That bathroom will not work with a square shower, it has to be a rounded shower. (See slideshow below.) As evidenced from this earlier position, the only place that works for the tv is the wall at the foot of the bed. This was a 15 sf build, she didn't like having the head of the bed by the door which is why I added a foot to the length. Yes I could have flipped the bed around, which would mean moving a lot of other items around. In this picture we see that the counter and chair work best if facing towards the back of the lot. Yes, Angelica really was able to move between the end table & counter to access the bathroom and sink. There are a few more things to play with but overall I'm content that a 5x10 lot with a 16 sf efficiency will work, for enlisted personnel quarters on the tiny world I mapped out. For those who might wonder yeah but did you try ...? Here is a slide show (49 pictures) covering everything I tested today. Enjoy. :) A point of interest, I was hoping to dome the pagoda roof, or use the dome roof, neither roof will work on a build this small unless the lot is wider than the 5 squares I was working on. Was hoping for a semi quonset hut look, instead settled on a flat roof. You'll notice that Angelica seems fairly cross in most of the pictures; she's athletic so kept trying to autonomously work out to the tv/radio. Now that I know several build related answers, my next step is to play Moonlit Falls (but not today) and test the crime track for conflict. After that my next step is to kidnap 3 sims from uni, for their level 10 social statuses and see where those careers work from. I know from the Stones that art appraisal works out of the crime warehouse.
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Feeling a bit daunted by the medium map I jumped to. I've stepped back towards the tiny map 256x256 to get a better handle on how some of the tools work. Such as roads, lot sizes, and what not. I've also been exploring the internet for any existing resources that provide information on rabbit hole sizes and information. In terms of sites with rabbit hole information so far the most comprehensive I've found yet is Frozen oj's Community Lots Compendium, the only thing not included is the size of the rabbit hole itself. For those either caw wiki which does not include s3 store world rabbit holes; or Faith and Kaela's blog have to do, sadly has not been updated past 2013, but does include store worlds. For honorable mention there is a list floating at the MTS in the forums, not comprehensive but it's good if you're working base game only with caw. Roads and sidewalks. There is a limit on curving, I'm not sure what it is yet since I accidentally made a tiny circle the other day. The one thing I'm noticing is that placement, curved or straight, works best if you put down the intersections first, then connect the intersections with your road/sidewalk. I suspect all of this is covered in a caw guide somewhere. ;) Lot sizes To be clear it is possible in caw to create a lot as small as 1x1 in total size, just big enough for a sim to stand on. In terms of game play you don't want to do this, especially not as a residential lot. All residential lots auto spawn a mailbox (1x2) and trash can (1x2). So theoretically the smallest it's safe to go is a 2x2 lot, will provide space for the mailbox, trash can, and your sim to stand, for a homeless sim challenge that might work. Out of curiosity I tried to assign a negative nice view value to a lot as well as a cost of 16,500. In the short trial run I did it didn't seem to work, at least not how I wanted it to, although I was more interested in the work-ability of a 5x5 lot or up to 5x10. Poor Alvara, I randomly grabbed her from my in game library for testing purposes. Her she stands on a 5x5 lot which can give a 9 square foot living quarters, not I didn't say home nor am I trying to place more than one sim on such a small lot. A note of interest with Uni & ITF installed. The uni bucket & itf time portal go straight to family inventory if you get the living space walled before they spawn. Another note on the itf portal, it spawns near the mailbox. So if you want it at the back, center, or side of a lot away from the main house place your mailbox at that spot until after it's spawned. I quickly built a small shelter around her. You can see some of the different size lots I drew behind and to the sides of the current lot. I suspect in terms of game not freaking out 5x5 might be the smallest to go, even for homeless challenges. As you can see a 5x5 is a snug lot. Nope, not going to work. Why? The chair is blocking acces to the itf food replicator, which also doubles as a dishwasher. Why ea/maxis, why? And no I'm not referring to the papergirl who is upset with the door placement. I'm referring to the fact that to climb into her bed, Alvara walked outside and to the back of her abode to climb up to her bunk. Sheesh! Windows blocked but now she can use the food replicator. Time to test out the next size I'm considering, this one is a 5x10. Decidedly a bit more flexibility. This is a 3x5 (15 sf) accommodation. For kitchen I've used the mini fridge & a dishwasher. Oh and hey look, she's climbing up on the inside. The trash can & mailbox mark the end of the property, so there is more space to work with. Back to the 5x5, micro lot. As you can see a few tweaks have been made. Itf fridge gone, but now dirty dishes have to be dragged to the trash, so that's not such a good idea. Yes that's a tv on the wall. Alvara has no problems watching it. I had her test roof access. Getting to the roof is no problem. Gee look at all the paparazzi's. :p So on a 5x5 a 3 or 4 story tower might work, especially if sticking to base game objects. That however defeats the premise of barracks that I'm considering. I'm also toying with the idea of a boarding house style barracks, but ts3 apartments are very different in nature to build than the old ts2 system. So it would have to be a uni dormitory style build. I tested a few other build notions while I was in game. The theater is from Midnight Hallow, which somewhere I read included crime. It doesn't. Although the fault for that lies with me. I miss remembered MH instead of Moonlight Falls, sigh, headdesk. So now I need to test for the MF's rabbit hole, grumble, my fault! Miffed at myself, no worries I'll forgive myself. ;) lol The tiling underneath is because I was trying to determine rabbit hole size. Of the ones I was measuring:
The smallest are as follows in terms of civic/education: DV city hall, Aurora Skies school as well as the military & police combo building. As to why small, tiny worlds are 256x256, with a 254x254 workable area with leaving a minimum of a 2 square border around the perimeter, because npc's spawn in odd places. So to pack a punch into a small town/city you need to work with small as much as possible. Even then to get a good mix of lot sizes, it's looking like roughly 60 lots total for what I want to attempt before returning to work on the medium world which is equal to 4 tiny worlds. Horses & are the other critters that seem to spawn fast with an empty world, so I had Alvara plunk a food & water spot for them nearby, even though I had no plans for saving this test run. It does help show off the boundaries of the neighboring 5x6 nicely though.
I've taken the plunge into sims 3 create a world program. I don't know that I'll ever have the finesse of some of my favorite builders like Rflong I do hope however to get half way decent at worlds in the tiny to medium range. My first attempt at a tiny world was every definition of the words clunky and noobie. As you can see from the second and third pictures below I had a few issues. The wonky road was a result of learning how to place roads. The one bit that worked exactly as I wanted was Rflong's trick of placing the dumpsters in the open world. I've learned that there is one other handy item I can place in the open world, the showtime trailer for sleeping in. I also figured out that all of those sculpting tricks from the ZooU threads in the main ea s3 builders forums are very helpful for world building. I've upped the ante on myself, and jumped straight from the tiny world above to a medium world. I started with a flat map under water and have sculpted out a decent sized island. It will take me several days to finish, but my end goal is a playable empty world with roughly 31 empty residential lots of assorted sizes, and a nice range of commercial lots. One particular bit that I took note of in all the tutorials and threads I was reading on working with caw ... Layers, specifically different layers for different elements. So now that I've got the terrain sculpted to my satisfaction, I'm adding and labeling the layers according to what I'm going to want on them. It will be interesting to see how much of what I want to do I'll be able to do. Update, here's where I left off the other night.
This space is at the base on the back of the big cliff in the above picture. I've got the mine, actor trailer, and a street light. Along with 4 lots, 1 micro 4x4 (?2x2) lot for a homeless sim to start out on, a slightly bigger lot which will feature an abandoned mine worker locker room, a 20x20 criminal community lot - just right for the Rustler's den & a few items, and a 20x30 junkyard designated lot. |
Mama Dragon
40s almost 50s mother and grandmother, who also enjoys sims. Handy Reference Links
Links Eventually
Rosemow's thread for Building Tips & Tricks on the forums.
Hotkeys List for Sims 4 Carl's Guide for Sims 4 Builds SimsVIP Guide Ruthless_KK - Simply Ruthless guide for Sims 4 Archives
April 2019
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