Absolutely with the secret lots needing a bit more pizass, as well as off-lot neighboorhood areas needing more to do.
(Honestly, I think more neighborhoods should incorporate big objects that aren't necessarily practical to keep on the home lot, if they're going to have so much empty lotless space. I like that Chestnut Ridge did this with the horse training equipment, and was saddened that, for example. San Sequoia didn't do this with the big treehouse object. Considering Everdew is home to not just fairies but plantsims, it would've made sense for them to include the plantsim challenge stump hidden somewhere in the neighborhood. Et cetera.)
On the topic of secret lots... can I say something?
The harvestibles on those lots should be immune to seasons. Sylvan Glade is an eternal fey-like paradise with no bad weather, while Forgotten Grotto is literally sheltered away in a cave. The wild plants there should always be in season the way that plants placed under a roof are.
That is true, that special lots have advantages like that. Though personally if I'm making use of plants, I will usually shelter them all at home myself. We even have a full greenhouse kit to make a sheltered area for plants that can be productive in all seasons.
So unfortunately for me, that still falls into the "I have plants at home" 🙁 issue
As I mentioned in a previous reply, I decided to reinstall TO.O.L. from participating in this discussion. I've already started adding some things around my house to try and liven up the surrounding area and filling some gaps. I'm in the main market nieghbourhood of the Cottage Living world.
This small area I've added to used to only have 1 bench in it, and nothing else. Now there's a fish & chips vendor, a flower vendor, a busking area and a table and chairs with nearby bin. It already feels so much better! (mod needed to make vendors tend the stalls though)
*Sorry I took the photo at night, I felt it showed the vendors better with their stall lights on
Without my newly crafted little area this world only has a bench, plants, a dig spot, a picnic table (no nearby grill), a fishing spot, skating rink, window shopping buildings I never use, grocery stalls, and other tables. (also has the regular fair events that spawn in the centre).
It would benefit so highly if you could be at your home lot over the road, and just walk over to the bustling pub by the river without a loading screen, watching other sims gathering and getting drinks. It's such a huge shame it doesn't work this way 😢
I was just thinking about how the Seasons pack adds various things around areas that are outside of lot boundaries and are usually just bare patches of land. So we get ice/roller rinks and seasonal food stalls here and there. It would be cool if a feature was added to give us some control over things like that to allow us to have them all the time. They're there for a time and then vanish as things currently work. In Oasis Springs for example in Mirage Canyon I've filled all those lots with public lots by adding a Garden Centre, spa and nightclub but the surrounding area is quite barren except for when the roller rink pops up for a while. I can place roller rinks on vacant lots myself, but this is an example of a space that needs livening up a bit.
I always quite liked the City festivals (from the CL pack I think?) like the spice festival or the one with the sakura tea?
Those are consistently quite fun to do - I don't do them all the time by any means but I usually enjoy them when I go.
We need more things like this!
For me it's more a matter of.... I like using those areas to get plants for free on fresh saves. Since wild plants are always normal quality, they're not a substitute for a garden, so much as a place to forage for specific plants to plop in one's own greenhouse. And also, aesthetically, it just stinks that the flowers and mushrooms, which are arguably just as much an aesthetic part of those areas as a functional one, usually aren't even visible. The "fairy circle" of mushrooms in Sylvan Glade just isn't the same when it's just dormant clumps of dirt!
Then again, I also like to use "community gardens" in Willow Creek, Moonwood Mill, etc to house plants that would take up too much space on my own lot, so this might just be a difference of playstyle regarding gardening.
I've been thinking that the same way seasons causes empty areas of some neighborhoods to seasonally spawn food stalls and skating rinks, it would make sense if installing some relevant nature and occult packs would add some extra stuff to the hidden worlds? It would make sense, for example, for Sylvan glade to have, at the very least, to spawn in interactive ambient birds (Cats & Dogs birds) a tree and rabbit stump (Cottage living) and some EBN fairy related plants/objects, like a fairy house near the existing "fairy circle" of wild mushrooms. Since I brought up the plantsim stump earlier in relation to EBN, I think the "completed" version - which looks like a pink weeping willow or weeping cherry - might also look nice somewhere in there.
Not sure what ideas I have for Forgotten Grotto... it's got a bit of a different atmosphere. Gloomy, but not quite gothic. A sense that human sims used to be here, but aren't any more.
I feel like they should probably both have some kind of "restroom" inside them - a "party bush" type object for sylvan glade, and an abandoned outhouse (probably a new object) for forgotten grotto.
... on an unrelated note, I like that the new world has rabbitholes for various kinds of ordinary shopping - groceries, garden supplies, used books, and (on the coastal area) a fish market - that sell things you can't necessarily get from buying on the computer or from build/buy (at least without cheats). I like being able to buy the romance festival planter and hydroponic planter without cheats now, for example. I think more worlds' shell buildings could, at the very least, be converted into these kinds of places? Maybe also throw in a hardware store that sells handiness related stuff as an option, too.
