Feedback (wish?) for lots
Hello, first of all, i'd like to apologize for my english, is not my first language, so forgive me. I play the sims from the day one, and, i don't mean the sims 4, but, the entire saga, i pratically...
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@kaze_____90 I love your thoughts as it is a dream of mine as well to have a business and home combo. I have built lots (and put a couple of them in the gallery) which I used extensively as a combination lot. I also play with large households, and combining running the large household and a business well is a great challenge. Having said all of that, it would be so wonderful if it didn't have to be done in a 'workaround' manner, as @PugLove888 mentioned.
In one lot (combined vet clinic/home) I even ran tests on managing to get the vets I hired to rent from the home the family 'lived in' (be roommates - though I managed the household from the vet lot for all of their needs, aside from them spawning at the home after work or school... I just had to 'summon' them to the vet lot.). I made notes about what worked and what didn't in that situation:
Spoiler
Overall notes on gameplay: I tested the home/vet clinic combo lot by having the Sims 'own' a separate small home (where children who go to school and Sims that return home from work turn up) and I play from the clinic as if it was their home, opening the clinic when I wanted to. When a household Sim leaves the lot and turns up at the 'home', I simply click the lightning bolt on them to have them come to the clinic lot. I was able to assign them beds. They tended the animals, would work in the vet clinic if I have them, plus I could hire vets and run the vet clinic as normal (for cats & dogs). It was built in Henford-on-Bagley. My Sims did all of the Country Living stuff on the lot, including the crops, farm animals, plus having fox, rabbits (stump) and birds (tree) on the lot. All of those functions worked fine. A few things to note:
• You cannot add functioning laundry aspects to the lot. It breaks.
• You cannot add a butler.
• You cannot ban vampires, though they also did not bother me.
• You can advertise for roommates (after you add sufficient beds for all family members and roommates on the 'home' lot (I used a blocked basement room to put a bunch of beds on, then added a bunk to the regular bedroom of the waterfall cottage in game), but they will not answer the ad on the clinic lot. I assume they went to the home. I was able to place the ad (after adding extra the beds to the other 'home') and ask Sims that came to the clinic lot (for other reasons), or other acquaintances, to be a roommate while the add was active. In my test I actually had both of the vets I hired living in the (waterfall) home, paying rent as roommates. I was receiving over $3000 each time for rent.
• I could hire a maid and gardener. However, at first they came to the clinic and after I visited the home they stopped coming to the clinic. They were still hired though. If I fired and rehired they did not come to the clinic lot. I assumed they had started going to the home. This would help for a maid, though, as they will make sure the renters don't destroy the home. I kept the maid.
• You cannot add functioning laundry aspects to the lot. It breaks.
• You cannot add a butler.
• You cannot ban vampires, though they also did not bother me.
• You can advertise for roommates (after you add sufficient beds for all family members and roommates on the 'home' lot (I used a blocked basement room to put a bunch of beds on, then added a bunk to the regular bedroom of the waterfall cottage in game), but they will not answer the ad on the clinic lot. I assume they went to the home. I was able to place the ad (after adding extra the beds to the other 'home') and ask Sims that came to the clinic lot (for other reasons), or other acquaintances, to be a roommate while the add was active. In my test I actually had both of the vets I hired living in the (waterfall) home, paying rent as roommates. I was receiving over $3000 each time for rent.
• I could hire a maid and gardener. However, at first they came to the clinic and after I visited the home they stopped coming to the clinic. They were still hired though. If I fired and rehired they did not come to the clinic lot. I assumed they had started going to the home. This would help for a maid, though, as they will make sure the renters don't destroy the home. I kept the maid.
I have run several retail stores in this manner as well. I did have one case where I had to deal with situation where mom was pregnant and 'living' on the retail lot in this manner. Notes on how to manage that, as far as my experiment went:
Spoiler
My Sim was pregnant and 'living' in this workaround manner (owning a home they 'technically' lived in but running them from the retail lot - see details on this in the other spoiler tag). Once my family's twin infants were born mom was forced to give birth in the hospital (I tried twice, this is how it works automatically. I normally do a home birth, but it just wouldn't work that way on the retail lot.) The babies teleported to their other small home they 'technically' lived in. (They must own property to own a retail store so my family has a 2nd home they technically live in.) So... The parents went to the other lot/home and aged the babies to toddlers so they could travel to the retail lot with the parents (babies cannot travel to the retail lot, but as toddlers they can). I was later given the tip that you can drag your baby (crib with baby in it) to your inventory, then go to the retail lot and drag the baby back out of inventory into a waiting bassinet in the retail lot? I never tried it, though. Also, note that a toddler and adults (unemployed) will stay on a retail lot for you to play them from there - and run the retail store when you have it opened.
Just make careful use of door locking to protect the family's privacy or customers will make you crazy going through the home area. I did try having my Sim household live in the large penthouse (City Living) and run a restaurant out of it, and I thought it was going fine until they started glitching out, so that was the only time I combined a home and restaurant.
Have fun experimenting, and you have my "XP" that I, too, would love to see combined owned business/home options to be part of the game and user-friendly (by design) in their respective packs. 🙌
If EA expanded on the lot types then there would be so many more possibilities, but right now the lot type restrictions limit the sort of combinations that players can make. As an example, I once tried to make a big multi-purpose lot but most of what I added got ignored by inactive sims since the objects didn't fit into the lot type I had selected. I wanted the main function to be a gym while also having a place for my sim to live, plus a club type area where sims could relax after their workouts or possibly just go straight there instead of doing anything with the gym side. Since I made the lot type a gym, almost every object for the club side was ignored. If I tried setting the lot type to something like a nightclub, bar or lounge then the gym side was ignored.
So here's my idea that will make multi-purpose lots possible, simply allow for multiple lot types to be selected. Obviously having too many could break things, especially seeing as how EA can struggle at times with basic concepts lol, but I'd say no more than 4 lot types at once which could potentially produce something like the example that @kaze_____90 gave. Heck even just 2 lot types at once could be nice.
EA_SolaireCommunity Manager
Hey there @kaze_____90,
Super great suggestion, thanks for taking your time to write this up!
Building is my favorite part of The Sims, and I personally have always wanted an All-in-One type of lot like this so we could create our own little mini-communities. I'll be sure to get this feedback sent on up! 🙂
Yeah, I "cheat" the system sometimes. I have "businesses" that I don't open that are my conservationist's home base for work, and our off-site collectable storage (my game got pretty laggy with everything on lot), etc. I've also had a family "living" over a vet clinic, their official residential lot is a tiny house but they don't actually go there and eat and sleep over the vet clinic. You just have to bring the kids there after school with the little lightning arrows, bring the spouse home after work with the lightning arrows, etc. (The advantage of this is that they have a designated "tot training tiny lot." I find toddlers stressful and love giving them tiny home benefits to skill them up faster!)
I also often don't move in Realm of Magic sages if my Sims marry them and instead have them move in as "roommates" so as not to break them. I've also seen people on YouTube, etc., build "apartments" or "duplexes" and use the roommate system to fill the other units and just lock the doors accordingly.
That said, you can live over a business/restaurant/cafe/vet clinic by owning an empty lot that's your "residential lot," but you can't have roommates on a non-residential lot.
In short: seconding the request for a "mixed use" lot where I can have a cafe/bakery/vet, live over it, and maybe even have a roommate!
I agree with you. For example I've just tried to make University dorms more interesting and the lot requirements were so restrictive I couldn't do anything I wanted to do so I get exactly what you mean. It would be great to be able to have multi use lots especially because it's not an open world it's a pain having to travel just to go into every single lot. The Generic option for lots hasn't worked well in my game as NPC Sims won't go there and I don't know why but they remain deserted if I've designated it as a Generic lot.
There are so many rules and restrictions. I don't know if it's the same on PC (probably not) but I'm on console.
In the university dorms I wanted to add a nice big kitchen and vending machines, entertainment area plus living quarters in the dorms but one dorm couldn't be edited and the one that I did edit just caused confusion for the NPC Sims for some reason. The same thing happened when I built an ice rink with a cafe area and a bowling rink with a bar and entertainment area, NPC Sims won't use it for some weird reason.
I have made some lots that combine stores and living areas plus craft spaces though and they've worked. I add an apartment or if there is space, a little house next to it. I've also made a large library/internet cafe with an outdoor art space. I've tried to add a vet's office to a ranch with a dog rescue shelter and training area and that only half worked. The vet office was deserted.
One lot that is ideal is in Island Living. There is one right above the road at the top left of the screen. It's big enough to add a retail store and a house with a garden and pool. I've called my store The Cavern and used the Island Living rock wall styles and stone flooring on an underground store. I've fenced off the house and locked the gate and had no problems with shoppers getting into the house. So it's a weekend retreat for my Sim family as well as a retail store.
The front street in Willow Creek is another good space to redevelop with retail lots with living spaces added. I've added an art gallery with a retail space plus small cottage on a larger lot there and it worked.
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