Saturday, March 13, 2010

EAxian Reboot:: Shearwater

This is a dumpy ugly little crappy stupid lot by EA, made fancy and ultra modern. I changed nothing about the physical structure of the lot, but simply redecorated the hell out of it. This house is the first time I tried making a house based on a single color theme. Because of that, it's completely chrome inside. Don't like it, but like the outside? Then buy it unfurnished :p It's a lot more fun to look at than you'd think. It feels very sterile and futuristic.

Anyway!

Original house:


Revamped:



Changes: Everything. Well, no. The house is the same shape, size, everything. Anything different is a recolor or an addition. Fences, terrain, plants, furniture, pretty much. The lot now features "Infinity Sand". Like an infinity pool, but with raked sand. It looks pretty cool. There's a pathway down to a pool, which has little "planters" in it. It's mostly decorative, but it can be used just fine. The front pathway has a small decorative pool with a light in it, with some fancy lighting tricks used to make the light extend outside of hte pool instead of just inside it(since the light inside the pool is, after all, considered on another floor). The house does have beautiful vista by default, but might not when you replace it. 

For some reason, some things aren't shiny in the pics. The counters should be brighter and shinier, as should the bed, tables, etc. But they aren't. Not sure why. It's prettier in-game.



White, white, chrome, and white. A painting and some plants add some green and yellow accents, but everything else is shiny and sterile. Neat sim paradise?

I won't bother with lot size because of this important fact: This lot can ONLY be placed where the original Shearwater is. If you try to place it anywhere else, it will sink into the ground, so that the highest point will be at ground level. I feel bad uploading lots that can only go in one place, but I didn't make this one to upload initially, so eh.

Requires:
-World Adventures
-HELS is not *required* but you won't have the stairs or fish tank without it!
-Half Walls
-This fridge, which removes basically all the texture of the cheapo fridge. The original fridge has a disgustingly ugly smudgy stain looking texture on it, and in trying to remove it, I made a super clean super shiny version. It doesn't replace the original and it can be recolored just fine, it's simply really bright and pristine. It's not required.

Have fun. :D

Crystal Spring Lake UFO Crash (Residential Home)

This lot is extremely...unconventional. Some might like it, some might not. But keep this in mind: I will be retooling it into an explorable tomb and uploading a second version, so keep an open mind!


I recently played with the idea of making every single thing in a home the same color. It was actually pretty fun to look at, to me. So I tried it with shiny metal. And I freaking loved it. So I built a house around it.

Crystal Spring Lake is a pretty popular fishing spot.


Sims come here all the time to catch some fish and hang out on the dock, or to play on the cliff by the water.


But something showed up recently that kinda gets in the way of the view.


A UFO! From deep within the reaches of SimSpace, a massive UFO made an emergency half-crash landing on the edge of the lake.


From the outside, it glows an eerie glow and seems to send a beacon out to space from the top.


And from the inside...well, it glows a bit too. Because in space, EVERYTHING IN CHROME.



The living area is chrome!


The kitchen is chrome!


The control room is chrome!


The toilets are chrome!


EVERYTHING IS CHROME.


The entrance to the house is an extended walkway from just inside the doors. One of these walkways exists on 4 of the 8 sides, but only one is extended.

The nature trail along the edge of the lot is frequently used by whoever lives here- sims will actually route up and down the little paths of grass along the rocks. :D


 The inside of the house may be too much for some people, but I think the lot itself adds a really interesting piece of decoration to Sunset Valley. It has a dock, it has cliffs, it has water, it has something out of the ordinary. The lighting on the outside of the UFO is actually pool lights- which don't light outside the pool- with invisible WA lights aimed at them to make them glow. I'm not trying to sound artsy, but I do love the contrast between the middle-of-the-woods mountain landscape outside and the everything-is-chrome inside.

 Required: 
These counters
World Adventures


Lot size: 64x64, DO NOT TRY AND PLACE IT ANYWHERE BUT WHERE THE ORIGINAL LAKE IS. The lake, by default, has rised rock edges...and you can't get rid of them. You can not. So there is no way to place this lot anywhere else without it sinking down into the ground to compensate, which sucks, but is unavoidable. If it doesn't place properly on the lot, tell me and I'll try to fix it or remove it...there shouldn't be a problem though, as long as you rotate it properly.

Melanie Warn's Recurve Strand Beach House For The Amusement Of The Community

Melanie Warn, great giver of things, once lived in this house by the beach. But after noticing all the people who had to walk past his home to get to the beach, he felt bad. They had to walk behind his house, they had to walk near his posessions, and surely they were disappointed that there were no beach parties or beautiful views for them.

So he donated it. He packed up most of his things and donated the home to the community, which quickly filled it with their own leftover stuff.




The intended use of this home is as a community lot. To make the home into a community lot, still keeping all of its objects, requires AwesomeMod. With Awesomemod installed, go to the cheat console and type "setconfig NeverRemoveOnLotTypeChange true". Then change it to a community lot.

Doing this opens the lot up for anyone to visit and use! They can sleep there, eat there(though not serve meals), read, write, browse the internet, play games, work out, watch TV, have parties, anything. This is what the lot was built for, as evidenced by the strange furniture layout and all the cheapo items.



The following skills can be raised on this lot:
-Fishing, from a small pond of ocean water left from the tide
-Dancing, from various stereos
-Hacking, from computers
-Gardening, from books and TV
-Cooking, from books and TV
-Painting, from one of two easels
-Guitar, from guitars laying around house
-Tinkering, from any appliances/electronics
-Logic, from chess table
-Athletic, from small workout room and stereos and tvs
-Writing, from computers
-Charisma, from mirrors on the decks that are intended as mirrored windows :p
-Video games, from video games.
-Foosball, from Foosball
-Homework, from just doing homework
-Chess, from chess tables
-Air Guitar, from being a sim with traits to use it and doing it.

Guess what? That's every single skill in the base game. Every one!


Notable Usable Object counts:
-Computers, 3
-TVs, 3
-Foosball tables, 2
-Stereos, 3
-Fridge, 1
-Beds, 4
-Dresser, 1
-Toilet, 2
-Tub, 1
-Shower, 1
-Swings, 2
-Barbecue, 1
-Bar, 1
-Fire pit, 1
-Various childrens toys
-Telescopes, 2
-Mirrors, many

Now, for the lot!

The lot is located at Recurve Strand, the beach just beyond the hill at the side of town.

It opens to a yard maintained by the community- raked sand and stones. Around the back is a path used to reach the rest of the beach, as well as a few bike racks. There's also a stairway to a small basement- not pictured. There's nothing much here, but there are things down there to have fun with. It's where the teens hang out. :D

The house opens to the living room and kitchen, which leads upstairs, to the bedroom, and to the children's room. The children's room has a view of the deck, which likewise has a view of the kids. Good for keeping an eye on them.

Upstairs are 3 donated cheap computers anyone can use, some storage boxes, a treadmill, and some weights. There's a room off to the side which has a tomb marker in it- this is to keep it dark. The complicated roof of the building means that the biggest roof, the big triangle, starts on the first floor. That means the roof is visible inside that room- rendering it usable, but unpleasant to look at. So I have closed it off.

Some people don't like the green walls. Here's a hint: You can change them! ;D

Around the deck is a couch with a TV, leading up stairs to the second deck, which has laundry drying and some food storage. Above that deck is more storage and a wonderful view for the telescope, and above THIS is the final deck, a widows wharf with a dining table and easel on it.

Outside is a large seating area with a stereo, some balloons, a fire pit, some outdoor furniture, and a bar. This area is great for parties. Everyone tends to gather in it, and it looks very lively.


This lot is really best used as a community lot, and it works perfectly. Sims come and visit and the lot has people at it almost any time of the day.

NOTE that teens cannot stay overnight at the house unless an adult is with them, or they'll be breaking curfew!

Requires World Adventures
 
Lot Size: 40x30
Price Furnished: 127,091
Price Unfurnished: 52,211

Lot Size: 4x3
Lot Price: Furnished: 127,091

Sims Console for Sims 3: Reality Bites

This lot is the second level of The Sims for console.

Here, you've just moved into this little lot and are paying rent. But, uh, Malcolm Landgraab's son Dudley had a party here recently. The place is covered in trash(this version isn't), and...the kitchen burnt down! The walls are missing and parts of the floor have melted away(That is still here :D)


The home has a big living/dining area and one large bedroom, as well as a small den.
The bedroom has a state-of-the-art Prettyness Modification System, AKA a counter with some beauty products and a mirror. This is to replicate the vanity table from the game.

But most importantly, THE KITCHEN BURNED DOWN! What a pain, it's up to you to clean it up.

Size: 30x30
Cost: 44,644 Simoleons (And with a burned down kitchen?! Ripoff!)
21,344 unfurnished

Apologies for poor console game image quality.

Lot Size: 3x3
Lot Price: 44,644 Furnished

Sims Console for Sims 3: Mom's House

In The Sims for console, the only mode available when you start the game is "Get a Life". You start out in a luxurious mansion...but quickly wake up to find you're asleep on the couch in Mom's House.

Your goal is to do various things to get out of her house, and move in with someone else- and over and over, until you make your way back to the mansion. But this place is the first step and the first house you spend extended time at in the game.

I tried as hard as possible to CAST things in this house to match their console counterparts and I think I got it pretty close! Playing it makes me feel like I'm playing an updated version of the console game.

Mom's House is violently small. There are only two rooms, and the kitchen/dining/living/bed areas are all the same room!



You're stuck napping on the couch if mom beats you to bed, and as soon as you wake up she forces you to fix the broken TV(which is broken here, too).
The lot is 32x32 in size, just like in the console game. There's lots of room for expansion on one half of the lot.

I used this house for a challenge family- a mother and son, the son earning his way out of the house by making friends with a neighbor and hoping to be invited to move in. Or to earn enough money to expand it and make it YOUR house...with a room for mom. It's really intended for making up challenges. But it works for an elderly couple or a couple just starting out, too.

It costs 27,910 Furnished, and 20,600 unfurnished.

Enjoy :D

Apologies for the crappy photographs of the real house :p


Lot Size: 3x3
Lot Price: 27,910 Furnished