Existing lot type for graveyard. Graveyard gameplay.

I have used lounge, museum and a cafe but all those lots have a building (cathedral or church) so it's not just a graveyard.

Without mods there is a risk of the ghosts getting culled. My solution is to move the most meaningful ghosts in and create a played ghost household with them. It's nice because the ghosts will haunt their tombstones but you can also create a club to gather at your chosen location.

Edit: Not using a lounge, but arts center.

since almost every world has a park, I usually use them and make a little section for the graveyard :)

I made mine a residential lot homed by ghosts.
Since it was filled with urns and owned tombstones, the nights were pretty amazing. I also didn't have to deal with complete strangers since the only ones that would come around were family, and visiting with a different household was a little more private vs a park.

However, their needs didn't do so hot for the graveyard aesthetic, so I opted for a haunted mansion instead. ...Also it was a little off putting that visitors would have to knock on the mausoleum door.

I have typically 1 graveyard per world. Most are in Parks, but one is on a Spa lot, and another is on a Bar lot. I like that a graveyard can be a corner of most any kind of lot. I never missed a specific graveyard lot trait, because I'd see it as wasting my lots - we already have way too few lots.

I have a few traditions when sims die. The family will normally keep the stone/urn at home for 1 year. It gives them plenty time to mourn. Within 1 year they have a funeral gathering, moving the grave to the graveyard and releasing the spirit. Yupp, in my game it's not allowed to keep a spirit, there are a few graves around and about though, of very old residents who were never released, so a couple lots are haunted. Besides, Windenburg is outside my Region 12, so most rules don't apply to them.

I never build a church or other monumental building on my graveyards. The ceremony only takes place next to the grave and is normally just a quick gathering for relatives. There will normally be a "floral wreath" decorating a new grave for about 1 year, then graves are mostly decorated with a living plant. I remove those plants for very old graves with no relatives around to tend.

In the future I might build underground chamber(s) for storing urns - if graveyards become full. Then there might also be a ceremony chapel room, sort of. That's not gonna happen very soon, though.

I generally use the park lot trait. I like it because when visiting other sims will be there sitting on benches, or speaking to the gardener, whom I pretend is the cemetery grounds keeper. I usually include some statues, and a fountain, and some landscaping. I will put park items that aren’t appropriate for a cemetery such as playground equipment in a second level basement reserving the first level basement for an underground crypt with a mausoleum up top, should I need extra space. I tend to put the haunted and vampire nexus traits on the lot too. I usually put one in Newcrest that serves that town, Willow Creek, and San Myshuno as I see them as being all connected. Then I put one on Oasis Springs to serve that town, Strangerville, and Del Sol Valley and another in Windenburg to serve it, Forgotten Hollow, Brindleton Bay and now Glimmerbrook. I really have never missed not having a specific graveyard lot.

"FurSimsOfficial;c-17277128" wrote:

One of my sims mother died and I created a club with family members and close friends to visit the funeral and place her graveyard stone I kept in my sims inventory. In the club i gave sims the task to hug each other and be friendly. I set the clothing setting to black. It was pretty neat!

That's something I was thinking of doing - using clubs for funerals and then holidays for mourning.

"Simmerville;c-17277144" wrote:

I never build a church or other monumental building on my graveyards. The ceremony only takes place next to the grave and is normally just a quick gathering for relatives. There will normally be a "floral wreath" decorating a new grave for about 1 year, then graves are mostly decorated with a living plant. I remove those plants for very old graves with no relatives around to tend.

I was thinking about something like a funeral house. As a matter of fact I had one long-long ago (set with some cc). And was trying to throw something like a funeral event there.
https://66.media.tumblr.com/27e6bf9f884dde80b34ffdcf522ac1bc/tumblr_nmr6oyGEI31s6ulk8o1_1280.jpg
But mostly sims were just roaming around doing nothing or doing nonsense. Now I want to makeover it with all new packs and make sims behavior there more appropriate with clubs system. And I guess as most of you mentioned Park is a nice lot type for it.

Probably a separate club can be set for a single sim to appear as a caretaker there.

"Simmerville;c-17277452" wrote:
I don't recall if any club activities would relay to funeral ceremonies.

I believe there's a Give Speech activity, so you can pretend that sims are giving eulogies. Also, you can give the club a strong sad vibe - not an activity, but it could make sims cry and let your sim offer support to others.

"Simmerville;c-17277452" wrote:
Nice pic, btw!

Agreed.

My graveyard is a bar... Is that bad? :|

I have a graveyard as a generic lot but it's a small one in Newcrest. I didn't want to make it a park by adding a grill or bathrooms at the time especially since there are some nearby in the landscape. It's just a quiet place with fountains.

Recently, a religious wave has come over the save and several new churches have been built in different styles. This means that I will start having more public funerals as well as weddings and maybe other stuff. I added bird feeders as baptismal fonts. Some sims are religious and some aren't so this gives them some differentiation. I know it's a sensitive subject for people. I've said that the churches cannot be torn down.

I ended up downloading very pretty churches from the gallery, so I have an old Victorian pioneer church in StrangerVille, a small Catholic chapel on the Windenburg Island and a church in Oasis Springs that is newer and modern. Anyway, more funerals will happen in those and if there is space for a graveyard, some sims may end up in those lots. The other graveyard continues to be a general town graveyard, so sims have some end of pixelated life options.

I usually set my cemetery as a museum. Urns count toward the decorative objects needed, and it means that Sims who show up tend to walk around and look at things. It was great until a celebrity showed up. Oh. My God, Judith. Why are you jumping on that grave and whooping? So disrespectful.