Actually, there's quite a lot of stuff in the neighborhood space, you just need to look for it and see what each neighbourhood has to offer. Most of them have vendors for food, picnic areas, the skating rink, water buckets, public toilets, fishing spots, digging spots, harvestable plants. Then in some you will find wedding arches, art easels, dog training equipment, horse training course, the splash pad, the amusement park, the various festivals, rock climbing course, basketball court, swimming spots, places to visit and objects that you can interact with to some degree, rabbit hole buildings. Then you can always bring and place stuff from inventory, fireplaces, tents, cooler boxes, jet skis, picnic blankets, chairs and tables, fireworks, telescope, etc. if you want some extra interactions.
For the secret lots you can't attract sims to the lots with lot traits, but you can invite them over once your sim is there. Yes, you need to use a cheat to build on those lots, and you need to be creative with how you use the small space, but your sim won't live there everyday, so it doesn't need to be a mansion. And again, you can place stuff from inventory in the neighbourhood space, outside the small lot, so the available space is rather flexible.
I don't need mansions everywhere, that's not what I mean. I don't usually play large houses.
I was looking around one of the neighbourhoods in the most recent world for example and it just felt so empty and fake. There was the gnome to click on, the fishin hut, and the gnome stall. That was all I remember finding.
But the area is fairly large. It's full of buildings that are basically like the frontages you'd find in the backdrop of an old western (i.e. they look like a shop but go behind and it's just a picture of the front with wooden beams holding it up at the back).
These streets just felt so fake and lifeless. Not even clickable rabbit holes.
There was a large open area with a tree that looked like it could be a market space but there was nothing there (I don't remember seeing any events that spawn here).
Most of the time when I venture off my lot into the world it's to harvest these collectibles after I've first made new sims, and to go jogging or biking or swimming (if the water in the area is swimmable).
The Cottage Living world is one I use fairly often and there's fake ruins that don't do anything, a snail statue that has some interactions but I'm long since bored of him, bird trees, mushrooms and other harvestables to collect, the normal grills and benches, and fishing spots. That's just not enticing enough for me. It's things that I might look at or interact with once or twice but then I don't really need to again.
I'd like some more variety and the ability to use up some of these empty areas. Like I said with creating custom little movie hangout areas or something. If EA don't add things to the neighbourhoods themselves I'd at least like to do it myself. Like with the examples simsplayer818 said they've added to their world. Having all of that just there and accessible would make me much happier when playing, and more motivated to get off my home lot.
Sylvan Glade was mostly disappointing because it had a fairy mystical vibe already. I expected they might add something to it to give a nod to that. Now we have fairies and mystical stuff, they could have gone back in and added pack features to it. But they didn't. It's still just that teeny tiny lot with a pond on it in a pink hue glade.
If anything these discussions have convinced me to reinstall T.O.O.L
For places where you feel like there's not much to do there, you can use stuff from inventory. A picnic blanket, a firepit, a telescope, take some pictures with the camera, do some yoga, sunbath on a towel, paint a picture, knit, play an instrument or a game, you can write in sand and make sand castles, etc. Yes, sometimes it feels easier to just find them there, but I feel like it would also be annoying to just find stuff everywhere you turn.
In my game I turned Sylvan Glade into a Japanese inspired picnic spot, with a tiny pavilion and a koi pond. I thought it fitted best the quiet and secluded nature of the lot. If you want the fairies to hang out there, you could add some fairy houses so they could meet their needs and some other interesting activity that doesn't requite much space, maybe an open air classroom of some sort and have a school for fairies only?
This is precicely why I'd like an "edit neighbourhood" button to place things. When you bring things yourself and place from inventory, they are placed somewhere next to your sim.
I placed a tent recently and it was not accessible to the sim who just placed it. She threw her hands up and complained she couldn't reach it. So i had to pick it back up and place it again.
I'd like to be able to create areas like this very specifically. Being able to place them like I place things on lots. It's much easier. Even using TOOL I always rotate and angle my items on my lot then move them with TOOL later into the position I want - because it's so much easier than doing it with a menu.
