After a long break to do other things, making an interlude post to talk about the upcoming stuff before I upload the next main set of lots and sims
The LFT Students:
The first expansion of Sims 2 added three universities, full of both NPC students and playable students, and all three universities were themed after the original three towns; SSU has a very normal university, similar to the single Sims 3 university in many ways. ALT had none of the silly fratboy stuff and was a much more serious and foreign-themed university, and several of the premades were serious artistic types. LFT was a desert university, and had an alien student, thus it paired wonderfully with Strangetown.
The issue was that Strangetown itself was so small, and after moving in the two family bin families, you had only an empty lot left, and a big empty home that noone fresh out of CAS or Uni could live in, and thus the LFT premades had basically nowhere to go after graduating unless you expanded the town manually. My solution here is the same as what I did in Sims 2 itself; copy the small home Ajay is meant for, making three new 'units', plop down a few Lot Bin homes, and utilise the rental homes from LFT as 'full' starter homes.
The breakdown:
The Worthington family = Still living in that private residence from LFT. Ive built this home twice in Sims 3 now, a desert 'accurate' version, and an expanded version I built in the university that has a garage and fences
Shifting Paradymes = Split up into three seperate families, as they met and formed the band AFTER going to university. They each live in a different type of house too. Jasmine lives in one of the three Land Lane units, Zoe lives in a Ranch Retreat from the lot bin, and Gunnar lives in the Dusty Drive units.
Fraternity household = Guy lives in a much nicer copy of Ajay's home, due to his family status, Mickey lives in a trashy Dusty Drive unit, and Matthew lives in a 'Just Right' from the Lot Bin with Sarah
Sorority household = Monica lives in Land Lane unit, not as upscale as she'd like, Jessica lives in a Dusty Drive unit and DJ lives in a copy of Ajay's home.
Student Housing household = All three are split up, Klara has a massively furnished 'rich person' edit of Ajay's house that puts the rest to shame, William has the final Land Lane unit, and Blossom is in a Dusty Drive unit
Terrano family = Stella is in the final Dusty Drive unit.
Davis family = They live in the 'Strangetownhouse', the small weird home with the basement.
The Land Lane and Dusty Drive units are all intentionally sparse outdoors; this reflects how basic the lots are in Sims 2 itself, as rental lots, and also gives plenty of room for each resident to landscape and build upon. First things first though, they should all go and get a degree :p
The PS2 content:
This stuff is kinda weird really. Only one part of the PS2 content actually fits in Strangetown, and that's the household of aliens living next door to a suspicious xenophobic military enthusiast. The Freebers family is described as being in Strangetown, but as soon as you load thier lot, its pretty clear it might as well be Downtown Pleasantview. The grass is green, theres no desert in sight, and the surroundings are urban. I made them anyway, and will include them in the thread. The artist household can technically fit; the lot is a strange desert commune of artists basically living on a community lot, trying to make an Art Gallery. Thus I could simply make their home, set it to Art Gallery, and have the artists live elsewhere. The final household is an abandoned movie set where a depressed movie star down on his luck is moping around, due to the death of his girlfriend, whos grave is on the lot alongside two other ghosts. As the lot was western themed, and theres a stuff pack with a buttload of western themed items, it should be doable...but where would it fit in?
The PSP content:
This stuff fits the best with the original PC content, as this game was made to be a sequel to Strangetown's PC 'storyline'. The only residents that dont show up in the game are Olive (who is dead by then) and Buck (who would be a teenager, likely not able to casually be at Division 47). The Singles and Loner households were forgotten about entirely, since they are kinda hidden to casual new players. The PSP-exclusive characters will be treated as earlier incarnations of themselves, due to the game being set later. Thus the Dente household will not have Roland, and Dennis will be alive, the Beakers wont be living in that second home, Bella Goth will still be living in the Espiritu Estate, and so on. I am making PSP-timeline versions though, for an alternative game so that people can roleplay the PSP story.
The GBA and DS content:
This stuff is the messiest. All of the lots and sims aren't even remotely comparable, as the games were basically part of a handheld quadrilogy that was barely connected to the Sims series we know. The tone and feel was entirely different, and each game was basically a sequel to the previous one, so many of the sims started back in Busting Out for GBA. Someone out there HAS made the majority of the lots and sims from the GBA and DS Strangetown for a custom Sims 2 world though, and I'll likely reference those lots for remakes. Ive already made some of the characters, but I must warn you: The sheer differences in the game styles means that some characters will lose a LOT of their visual identity, and I cant even make Optimum Alfred as anything less than a Plumbot, as hes basically a very advanced Servo. Several of the non-human characters cannot be made fullstop, like the Yeti and Bigfoot (Who CAN be made in Sims 2..), and some cant be made in Sims 2 accurately, but CAN in Sims 3 (I already made the mummy, as there's not too much variation possible there)
The Townies and NPCs:
This stuff is where I stall forever, as these are really not fun to make, whatsoever. I will however at least force myself to make the 'relevant' NPCs and Townies (Crystal Vu is referenced in other games, and one of the Curious brothers has a crush on her, and Circe Beaker knows a townie and an NPC bartender), and I'll also make the PSP-exclusive Townies, as they have more personality than any of the townies in Sims 2 thanks to the Secret system
