Legacy Building

[Devin]

I've made it pretty clear that I prefer to play legacy challenges over any other type of game play in The Sims. I'm not sure why this is other than the fact that I feel like any other type of play is, for me, purely for the purpose of discovery (how things in the game work) so that I can then apply that to challenge families.

Every time, however, I hit a major snag, and my legacies wind up dying out in the fourth or fifth generation because they are still living on the lawn with a small bathroom and master bedroom. The Sims 4 Legacy Challenge rules make it clear that the size and scope of the home is a huge component in this new version of the challenge, and so I'm feeling stuck.

I hate to build, because I'm so terrible at it.

Even when I'm building a home from start to finish, I'm so bad at it that I've learned to dread doing it. I've tried everything from examining houses other people have made to watching speed builds for inspiration. And yes, I have both viewed the guide on here and used floor plans to help me to come up with ideas. Nothing works, and the harder I try to get good at building, the more frustrated I get and therefore the more likely I am to give up early on.

I guess that what I'm asking is if anybody could share their progress on a legacy challenge house, how it develops over time and how you add onto it through the generations. I'm playing TS4, but this obviously applies to all versions of the game in which the Legacy Challenge is playable (which means TS2-TS4). I'd love screen shots, video builds, anything you have that might help me out with this. Tips and advice are of course also appreciated!

[justproud2b]

Unfortunately I don't really have any screenshot examples for your but when I do a legacy challenge I think basic needs. Then you come up with a $$ goal for a new area/room. Then expand once you have it. A good part about sims is you know you can only have 8 sims in a house and if you have 2 parents that only leaves room for 6. For a typical legacy home your thinking long term so upgrade your items when you can and gather and sell all you can. Then it's just time and patients to get to your goal of a pretty self sufficient home that future generations just continue to add to.

[Devin]

My problem isn't what to build: It's how to build it. My homes are always cluttered and disorganized and rarely look good either inside or out. I'm almost always stuck with routing problems because the bathroom is too far away from the living room or whatnot. It's the organization of the home I have trouble with, not what to build and when.

I've always had a particular order in which I purchase things. For example, I never scrimp on a nice bed, right from the start. I usually try to give them a fridge and trash can as well, because that way they don't spend money to grill on community lots. They can shower, pee, and raise fun pretty much on any lot, but a quick, good night's sleep is important for work and I don't want them to spend the amount of money necessary to grill.

Unfortunately, when it comes to putting up walls, that's where I run into problems.

[justproud2b]

Does something like this help? I don't have original screenshots of my building but figured this might make do until someone else posted. Figured I'd ask before I added too much detail lol



I then push a pull my walls as I get room eventually making room for steps and adding a second floor.


Second Floor has 2 bathrooms as I can't stand when sims pee themselves. The boys room has room for 2 beds the girls room does as well then I have the spare.



I like my sims to do things outside so I am a big fan of porches so eventually I swap my porch to the front and expand it and now have something like this...

[Devin]

YES! That's pretty much exactly what I was looking for, thank you.

It's hard enough building an entire house in one go, but when you're trying to make something that can be easily modified, it's difficult. Less so with the ability to push and pull walls, but still difficult.

[Marilynzelha]

In my latest legacy game I used the predesigned rooms to hodge-podge a house together until the fourth generation. Then, when I had an afternoon with nothing else I needed to do and the family had plenty of money, I put all the important stuff I wanted to save into the family inventory, demolished the whole mess and spent a day building them a proper house from a floor plan. I just can't seem to make a house on the fly that I really like.

[Tipi]

I am not much of a builder but I will show how I have expanded my legacy house if anyone is interested . I have used the premade rooms in the game and in the gallery.



The initial house is marked by the red line. It consisted of a combined living room-bedroom-kitchen I downloaded from the gallery and a bathroom that is found in Styled Rooms in the game. I think it is easier now to add and modify roofs than in Sims 3 so it was pretty easy to make the house look decent.



Next I added a study and a bedroom for the kids (yellow line). The exterior looked like this:



Third phase was to expand the living area by adding a kitchen from the build mode (removed the partition wall), two bedrooms I built myself and adding also a long overdue second bathroom at the back of the house (the blue line).

Finally, I have added an artist's studio full of inspirational items for my painter and writer sims.

Here is the present version of the house of which I am pretty happy:



Next stage will be to move the one bedroom with no windows to some other spot and build more"mood-specific" rooms needed for different aspirations and jobs.

I hope this encourages both Becki and other not-so-great builders. If I can make a decent house you all can!

[Devin]

Tipi, that is absolutely amazing. I love what you've done with your rooms and how you've expanded. It's incredibly helpful to see this progress I'm going to take pictures of mine as I go as well to make sure that I can keep track of how I did it for in the future.

Thank you!