Placing lots in towns

[Harpua]

Now that I have all the expansions and a few store venues, starting a game has become a chore. It seems like it takes 20-30 minutes to place everything. I suppose I could save the town after placing everything. But often, I'm not happy with the way the placement works out. Some things fit real well. Others are hard to place. And if a game goes off the rails, it's hard to get motivated to start up again.

I usually play in Bridgeport because of the nightclubs. They just don't fit very well in other towns. But it seems like there are never enough lots to place things. Monte Vista is very nice and has plenty of empty lots. But the lounges don't really fit there. And since I'm still trying to complete that elusive dynasty, I can't create a 1 story lounge to place.

I guess I just have to accept that you can't have everything. But I thought I'd post here to see what others do. What kind of stuff do you place? Are some towns better than other? Any tips or suggestions? I know it's kind of a broad topic, but anything could help.

[Susinok]

Lucky Palms seems to have plenty of space to place lots. I'm not playing a challenge game, so I change my lots to fit my playing. So far I've built a pool club, a salon/tattoo parlor, an outdoor show venue on the golf course, and a Spanish Mission style Alchemy shop. I still need more lounges and clubs. There are still plenty of empty space to place or build those.

In Monte Vista I added a salon, an Alchemy shop, and a fire station. I used the Veronaville one and recolored the outside. It also needs some more nightlife and a few show venues.

[Zyffyr]

If your system can handle it, Union Cove has pretty much everything pre-Supernatural, and there are areas where you can reasonably fit in lots for the Supernatural stuff that you want. I am currently playing a game there and I added a Fortune teller and a potion store just outside the main business core.

[Turoskel]

The more expansions I get and the more I try to place as much as possible the more I hardly see anybody, they all get spread out too thin around town.

My main play town is Riverview and i've cut back down to what I consider just the essentials now, also because the older town was getting ignored in favour of the newer shinier places I decided to change some things about. As a rule I don't have vampires or celebrities on when I play there so lounges and exclusive clubs are pointless, what I do have is a dance club and dive bar.

I've always used Ausette's All The Rave dance club from the swap shop and until recently also used the O'Kelly dive bar from there as well. After I got showtime I added in the buildings that came with that but there's too many and most of it didn't get used so I decided i'd give the now unused Water Hole Juice Bar a makeover and turn it into a proper local watering hole. It now functions as a bar and showtime venue, the original room now has a professional bar foosball and shuffleboard, a new upstairs floor has a pool table, arcade tables and dj booth and on the enclosed rooftop (thought ahead about Seasons when I made this) I put karaoke, rodeo and skeeball. The new basement has toilets and a show stage plus a band stage, I know the show stage works because a regular npc gig often gets scheduled but I admit i've not tested the band part myself.

As for the dance club well Seasons also uses the warehouse, at first I put the club elsewhere but frankly as much as I like the Cannery festival lot I wanted a half pipe and it just wont fit on that lot so I built my own on the plot next to Dogwood Playland, that park never gets used an awful lot so I bulldozed it and now the new festival plot is Dogwood Playland, when it isn't a festival it's got swings and toddler toys, and it seems to attract the town populace more than the old park did.

I also got Pets when I got Seasons and have ended up making a combined equestrian center and training grounds on the 60x60 lot near the fishery, that was using up two lots that I felt it didn't need, the petite pony rabbithole will fit on and leave plenty of space for jumps and room to put some stalls.

Another combined building I did was laundromat/consignment shop, I copied the laundry from Twinbrook, I liked the building and it has an unused second floor which I turned into a consignment shop as long as the lot is set to laundry both parts work fine, people go in and use the machines and I can sell stuff upstairs.

Also if you use move objects on you can get the movie studio rabbit hole onto a 40x30 lot, that's the smallest size i've managed to squeeze it on to. Other than those I just add the firestation, junkyard and salon.

My dynasty file though is a bit more of a hodge podge, mismatched buildings and oddly placed lots. I do wish some of the rabbitholes were smaller but not much you can do really. So I think the best thing is to think ahead, will one of your heirs be likely to supermax mixology? if not don't place all the clubs. Will you have a performer and do you really need all those show venues, can they manage with just a couple. My current fun game they have both decided they want to be a magician and an acrobat but I shall just stick to my Juice Bar stage, I know they could earn a bomb at a big show venue but it just doesn't fit unless I slap a 64x64 lot in and it looks an eyesore in my country town.

[MoMoll]

Now that I have all the expansions and a few store venues, starting a game has become a chore. It seems like it takes 20-30 minutes to place everything. I suppose I could save the town after placing everything. But often, I'm not happy with the way the placement works out. Some things fit real well. Others are hard to place. And if a game goes off the rails, it's hard to get motivated to start up again.

I usually play in Bridgeport because of the nightclubs. They just don't fit very well in other towns. But it seems like there are never enough lots to place things. Monte Vista is very nice and has plenty of empty lots. But the lounges don't really fit there. And since I'm still trying to complete that elusive dynasty, I can't create a 1 story lounge to place.

I guess I just have to accept that you can't have everything. But I thought I'd post here to see what others do. What kind of stuff do you place? Are some towns better than other? Any tips or suggestions? I know it's kind of a broad topic, but anything could help.

Go into Bridgeport, as I have done, and make it how you want it. I have different saves (BP-Horses; where I added stuff for horses); (BP-showtime), etc. I save these files and use them according to how I want to play my games.

I only play Bridgeport, because I like the townies. Delete, the apartment across from the Fresco resident (it's a useless apartement and is 40 x 50). Then change it to "No visitors allowed", click on it and in build choose a smaller plumbob studio and place it.

The problem is, not every town can handle all of the expansion lots, so you have to decide what kind of town you want. The more expansion lots added the more lag on the game. Also, the more lots that are overloaded with furniture (mansions, etc.) the more lag. Keep it simple. Can't play Union Cove, it is way too big and there are too many oversized mansions full of stuff that take forever to load (sorry to the developers, but everytime I use it I spend forever waiting for it to load).  Others say Bridgeport lags too much for them; but, I don't have showtime lots, equestrain centers, supernatural lots, etc. in one town. I have the town saved for what I plan on playing. 
I also use a mod to travel to the towns with those other things (Starlight Shores, Appaloosa, etc.), so I can keep Bridgeport as is, with a few minor changes.

[Janna]

This is all new to me, and I don't have CAW, so I am limited on what I can do.

The main thing that I find frustrating is when I create the town I like and start a new game, I will get the default one.  Not the one that I want.

How I want and hope to set it up is in MF, my favorite town.  I don't want the buildings I add or use to replace the default ones to be so out of place it change the feel of the town.

Most small towns, villages, have a main street that has the businesses on it; the grocery store, bookstore, spa if they have one (usually just a beauty parlor though) a upscale (fancy) and casual dinning close to the movie theater. 
Military are usually in larger areas, not in a small town, but for the game, the careers, I think it needs more than an office in the City Hall; there you would find the recuiting offices for all the branches.
So a military base is needed for the game.

I want to get rid of the ugly rabbit hole businesses and place on the same area as City Hall and the Park the different buinesses.  In another area I would place a small diner, such as the one in SV as residents outside the town main area, maybe near the baseball field so those who don't want to travel to town can find a place to eat at.  The criminal headquarters, to me the saloon from AP would fit in nice, placed outside of town in a remote location it would fit in. 

 
I don't have the late night, or other type of expansions, just Pets, WA, and Seasons, and RV from the download from EA, but they give me what I see fits into a village, some of those would just not fit. 

The same with RV, there are some that I like but some that are a waste of space. 
 

[MarianT]

If you don't want the default town, here is what I do:

Go in Edit Town and place all your lots. Save as "Riverview blank" or whatever the name of your town is.

Start your game, and as soon as you've moved in your household, do another "Save as" with the name of your game file.  Then, if you want a different game in the same version of Riverview, instead of going to "New town", look in your saved games for "Riverview blank."

It should be a pale blue square with a house in the center instead of showing people. But remember, as soon as you start playing, do another "Save as"

[Janna]

MarianT,

Thanks for that info, as soon as I get the towns set up as I want them I can do that.  I love MF first, then RV, AP and SV are ties on how I feel about them.  The only thing that AP has that I like are the lot sizes and how far apart the lots are.  If I could have that in SV, I would like it better, but the limited sizes in the lots and how close they are together has me frustrated lots of the time. 
I am getting some good tips here on buildings to use. 

[Ellenser]

For expansion content, I place some lots via edit town then place lots that came with the expansions/store worlds on those and then do a little bit of adjustments, landscaping and smoothing out the terrain. I've already built a lot of community lots just for that reason, with room around the building to smooth out hills and slopes. I also look at some of the flattened and empty 30x30 and 40x40 lots that neighborhoods come with and see if I can delete it and place a bigger one for some of the larger lots that I don't feel like replicating myself. I rarely move empty houses around for better arrangement and more realistic positioning, but I have done that a few times.

I do this all before I choose the active household, then save the game and back up the saved world and community lots I've made so I don't have to re-do the neighborhood every single time. Then I have a completely blank neighborhood with no active household ready to go that I just copy every time I start a new game. I've even managed to fit all the expansion content that I can think of into Sunset Valley (which was one of the most difficult to do) with room to spare, having everything connected to the road and without looking like a complete piece of junk.

If you don't want the default town, here is what I do:

Go in Edit Town and place all your lots. Save as "Riverview blank" or whatever the name of your town is.

Start your game, and as soon as you've moved in your household, do another "Save as" with the name of your game file.  Then, if you want a different game in the same version of Riverview, instead of going to "New town", look in your saved games for "Riverview blank."

It should be a pale blue square with a house in the center instead of showing people. But remember, as soon as you start playing, do another "Save as"

Another option is when you're given the option to select the world from the saved games, click the "Copy" option a few times so you have a few copies of the blank neighborhood. Also, be sure to back up that blank neighborhood in case you need to reinstall!