Resource For Floor Plans of All PreBuilt Game Houses?

[AriaGirl77]

If you're just looking for floor plans why not do a google search for them?  Generally I like to get ideas from floor plans for actual houses.  One great site I visit is http://www.dreamhomesource.com/

[Pam]

It's located under challenge concepts.

But that quote doesn't say you can't use pre-made houses during the challenge.  I don't see why you couldn't use a pre-built house once the family funds are enough to pay for it.

[LlamaMama]

But that quote doesn't say you can't use pre-made houses during the challenge.  I don't see why you couldn't use a pre-built house once the family funds are enough to pay for it.

That's what my question has been all along. But since I'm not sure of the mechanics, I don't know if you need to evict them first in order to place the house...and that means Edit Town mode, right? Isn't that disallowed?

[Pam]

That's what my question has been all along. But since I'm not sure of the mechanics, I don't know if you need to evict them first in order to place the house...and that means Edit Town mode, right? Isn't that disallowed?

I just read through Pinstar's Legacy rules (again) and I saw nothing that indicated Edit Town is disallowed.  It's just not mentioned one way or the other.  It says that the Legacy family cannot live on any other lot.  If you go into Edit Town and evict the family, they go to the clipboard.  Nowhere else.  As long as you don't put them on another lot, you should be ok.  Once you have the pre-made house in place, you put the family back onto the Legacy lot.  I've read through these rules several times now and I don't see anything that would disallow this.  I think the hard part would be finding a pre-made house that meets the Legacy requirements.  It can't have any mods or anything to give unfair advantage to the player.  But all store items are allowed.  I did a search through the Exchange for Legacy houses and came up dry, so it will be a challenge to find something suitable.  Once you find it, though, I don't see anything in the rules that won't allow you to use it.

[LlamaMama]

Here is an example of a rule-compliant legacy starter house. I think this user has made several, as well as video tutorials.

As for buying and placing a premade house once it can be afforded, I haven't been able to evict and still preserve the garden while a new house is being placed. Am I missing something?

[Pam]

As for buying and placing a premade house once it can be afforded, I haven't been able to evict and still preserve the garden while a new house is being placed. Am I missing something?

No, there's no way you could keep the garden because the new lot/house will replace everything.

[malteser60]

Pam, Pinstar's legacy rules used to specifically state that you had to build the house (using pretty much those exact words). As I mentioned in my previous post, it's been a while since I last read the rules as I pretty much knew them by heart, so I'm not too sure when the rules were changed. Reason I know the rules were like that is that I'm not that great at building and I prefer modifying somebody elses design. However when I played my first legacy I was forced to build my own house. That got me into searching for real-life floor plans and modifying them for the sims. And I discovered that I really enjoyed that! Still not that great at it but getting better. Once I'm settled down again in the new house, work calms down, etc I'm definitely going to give the construction challenge a go.

[LlamaMama]

What construction challenge are you referring to? I can't seem to find it in the challenge forum.

[wildredchild]

@ LlamaMama
The new home building contest (not challenge) that AriaGirl has been posting about.  It started July 1 and can be found here, http://www.carls-sims-3-forum.com/index.php/topic,1388.0.html

[Pam]

Pam, Pinstar's legacy rules used to specifically state that you had to build the house (using pretty much those exact words). As I mentioned in my previous post, it's been a while since I last read the rules as I pretty much knew them by heart, so I'm not too sure when the rules were changed.

Was it for Sims 3 when you last read them?  Didn't he also write a Legacy Challenge for Sims 2?  I'm just wondering if maybe he made the changes when he modified the Sims 2 rules for Sims 3.

[samoht04]

Pinstar originally made the Legacy Challenge in the Sims 2 and then Re-Wrote the Challenge to fit the Sims 3 as it was so Popular. 

[Joria]

Would you please quote the spot in Pinstar's rules where it says you're not allowed to move into a pre-built house and put a link to where you found it?  If I'm missing it somehow, I'd like to know where it is that I'm missing.

Ok, Pam, it is an assumption based on the section where he says Placing the Founder.  He says you have to buy a certain lot in each of two towns then goes on to say it doesn't leave much money left to build a house with.  So the assumption is you must build a house.  However, it is the only place that even comes close to mentioning what the house should be and nowhere does it specifically say you can't buy a prebuilt house.

I checked out that house that we were linked to and it's pretty easy to see what the builder did.  He simply stacked deck blocks to make walls which left a lot of cash left for buying the beginning furniture.  Roofs are free so no expense there.  It's a good concept.  You still have to start off small because the deck/foundation blocks cost but I bet you can come up with some pretty creative houses that way, including some large, roofed over open areas to be patios.  I do a lot of my landscaping with the terrain paint and pond making feature and use the cheapest items for both landscape and decor.  I think the use of the foundation feature is brilliant.  Think I'll go make one for fun that you guys can use if you wish.  Ach!  My head is now whirling with ideas.

[Joria]

Ok.  My down and dirty house was ugly so I'm not posting it but I did come up with some nice concepts and discoveries.  First of all, if you try to stack foundation blocks it doesn't work.  Anyway I haven't found a way to make it work without using cheats and that's not allowed in legacy.  However, you can build an adequate "house" by using the roof on the ground!  You take the "on", off, and just start drawing your roof.  I used the half roof and wound up with a basic lean to shape that was quite large and very tall.  At the short end the space is unusable as it is not tall enough for a Sim to stand in.  However the rest of the space is quite usable and the cost of that "room" is ZERO.  Roofs are free, and the game thinks you are just putting on a roof.  I added a door, put in flooring and had all the basics for a legacy starter house.  Not attractive, mind you, although I didn't fool with it much and I bet I could have made it prettier.   Later on in life this "building" can be demolished or used as a shed or studio.

Now I'm wondering if you could still stack foundation blocks by using the terrain tool to raise the ground, add a block and remove the terrain under it.  Much like you do for floating houses only using terrain.  Then build up the terrain again, just low enough to add a foundation block UNDER the first one, rinse and repeat till you have a column or series of columns to form a wall.  Seems like an awful lot of work for very little return though.

I'm still experimenting with how high you can go too.  So my trial house also was built on top of a step pyramid and was quite tall.  If I didn't have challenges to finish I would be having so much fun with this!

[LlamaMama]

I can't wait to see what you come up with.

[Archer0]

Would you please quote the spot in Pinstar's rules where it says you're not allowed to move into a pre-built house and put a link to where you found it?  If I'm missing it somehow, I'd like to know where it is that I'm missing.

Oh, and if you do like to keep score in your legacy, here's a link to a Sims 3 forum post with an image of a scorecard that you could print out and use.  Or if you have Excel or OpenOffice, another person has created Pinstar & Aaroc(apparently a harder challenge) Legacy scorecards for those apps here.  

Your first link is fine, but the link to download that particular scorecard is no longer valid.  The Excel or OpenOffice one does work just fine.

^{Edit by Archer0:}  You can right click the image in the thread and save it, then print it.  No idea how that looks, I don't own a printer.  I did not check the download link to the full sized pic for validity.