Can the recreation centre act as library. Will sims go read there. I would like to replace the library with another type of lot.

If the recreation centre has a bookshelf, your sims can read there and if it has a pc your sims can use that as well. Basically sims in your active household can do the same as they can in a library if the necessary objects are present. The main difference with a library is the behaviour of other visiting sims. In a library other visitors will autonomously read books. In a recreation centre NPC's will focus on other activities, for example they will autonomously play games or play music.

One of the things about the recreation centre is that each day sims do different things there. One day they do art, other day exercising etc.So if you are there at the right day, you will see sims reading books.Edit. Looking into the tuning files, I got somewhat confused on info there. The activities aren't tied to certain days, thus can happen randomly. However, I did find out that most of the visitors mostly show up between 7 AM to 10 PM. Children and teens however how up 7 AM to 4 PM on weekends and 4 PM to 22 PM on school days.

Thank you @Atreya33 and @EgonVM for your answers. I think I will change the library for something else then. Il like the idea of a place with many different activities better. Here in Québec we have Cultural centres (maisons de la culture) that house a library and have many other activities (Internet, a place for coffee, a theater. Each has his own flavor.

Another difference will be that Libraries has a Librarian working there. I think s/he mainly tidy up books, which is not that essential, but maybe they also come with other features. I thin k the only reason why so many worlds have libraries is that the lot category comes with he base game. I'd gladly replace most of them with recreation centers with room for a mini library :)

I have two cafes with bookcases in my game and they work well if you just want a place where your sims can come to read a book and browse the internet. The only downside is that sometimes they leave the books scattered around the place but you can easily put them back so that's not much of an issue. You can build the lot to fit requirements for both a library and other lot type and then change the lot type as needed when you play. Depending on their aspirations, sometimes sims have wants to visit a certain lot type, so if that comes up you can easily switch it back to library lot type.

Growing together, and the recreation centre

JesLet40
Seasoned Ace
2 years ago
I find that when I make multi purpose lots, the easiest way to get visiting sims to do things other than the original lot designated activities is to create clubs for the activity and place. So for Desert Bloom park I have a pool club. For my library with café I have a book club who drinks coffee and talk to each other. For my restaurant with cinema, I have a film club using it. That way visiting sims will use the place the way I designed it and not necessarily the way the game wants them to.
SheriSim
Seasoned Hotshot
2 years ago
"JAL;c-18267011" wrote:
I find that when I make multi purpose lots, the easiest way to get visiting sims to do things other than the original lot designated activities is to create clubs for the activity and place. So for Desert Bloom park I have a pool club. For my library with café I have a book club who drinks coffee and talk to each other. For my restaurant with cinema, I have a film club using it. That way visiting sims will use the place the way I designed it and not necessarily the way the game wants them to.

My daughter makes a lot of clubs for this reason too, and much of the time she has two opposing clubs going to the same place. She was telling me the other day that she wishes she could make clubs easier to start, so that she could start them with townies that are not played because she finds she needs to house each of the townie club leaders of and that wastes her lots.
JesLet40
Seasoned Ace
2 years ago
"SheriSim57;c-18267193" wrote:
"JAL;c-18267011" wrote:
I find that when I make multi purpose lots, the easiest way to get visiting sims to do things other than the original lot designated activities is to create clubs for the activity and place. So for Desert Bloom park I have a pool club. For my library with café I have a book club who drinks coffee and talk to each other. For my restaurant with cinema, I have a film club using it. That way visiting sims will use the place the way I designed it and not necessarily the way the game wants them to.

My daughter makes a lot of clubs for this reason too, and much of the time she has two opposing clubs going to the same place. She was telling me the other day that she wishes she could make clubs easier to start, so that she could start them with townies that are not played because she finds she needs to house each of the townie club leaders of and that wastes her lots.

I wish that too, it's extremely annoying that you cannot make clubs from the world map. It is so much work entering each household to create clubs your own sims are not even a part of, but worth while once it is done.
SheriSim
Seasoned Hotshot
2 years ago

"Ziafar;c-18266964" wrote:
Do your Sims use all of this even if the building is a library?

A
If I’m playing them they do. The sim kids may invite some friends to the library and do a puppet show or play voidcritters with them while the parents with toddlers or infants are in a different room. My politicians may use the podium. My Artists can paint on the wall, and while my sims are there they can dumpster dive. If my sims get hungry they can go outside and grill something for the family to eat. At some of my of my libraries I have a speech and debate podium, or I may have some easels. I’m not sure if they can use the scout board, but it looks good in the area anyway.

I do know that when I make the Eco lifestyle community lots, I tend to put stuff from all 3 lots there, and I have seen other sims using different things. They were planting things in the garden and selling things on tables. I also learned from someone else that you can have 2 food stands at community lots, although they may only have NPC’s, if it’s considered a market lot, I’m not sure, I haven’t tried that out yet.
EmmaVane
Seasoned Veteran
2 years ago
"SheriSim57;c-18267193" wrote:
"JAL;c-18267011" wrote:
I find that when I make multi purpose lots, the easiest way to get visiting sims to do things other than the original lot designated activities is to create clubs for the activity and place. So for Desert Bloom park I have a pool club. For my library with café I have a book club who drinks coffee and talk to each other. For my restaurant with cinema, I have a film club using it. That way visiting sims will use the place the way I designed it and not necessarily the way the game wants them to.

My daughter makes a lot of clubs for this reason too, and much of the time she has two opposing clubs going to the same place. She was telling me the other day that she wishes she could make clubs easier to start, so that she could start them with townies that are not played because she finds she needs to house each of the townie club leaders of and that wastes her lots.

Once the clubs are created she can evict the sims and mark them as unplayed. She'd need to move in the leader to edit the club later though, but can evict again after any edits are made.

You can have one unused Residential lot set up like a park with only outdoors activities (no need to knock) to use as a temp home for sims like this. That way it can be visited and useful even if nobody is currently living there.
atreya33
Seasoned Ace
2 years ago
"crocobaura;c-18266850" wrote:
I have two cafes with bookcases in my game and they work well if you just want a place where your sims can come to read a book and browse the internet. The only downside is that sometimes they leave the books scattered around the place but you can easily put them back so that's not much of an issue. You can build the lot to fit requirements for both a library and other lot type and then change the lot type as needed when you play. Depending on their aspirations, sometimes sims have wants to visit a certain lot type, so if that comes up you can easily switch it back to library lot type.

When do you switch lots? Is it something you can do while you are visiting the lot? When I change lot types, I always make sure my current active household is not visiting there.
Ziafar
New Scout
2 years ago
Do your Sims use all of this even if the building is a library?
Ziafar
New Scout
2 years ago
@EmmaVane Thanks for pointing this out.
Ziafar
New Scout
2 years ago
Great idea! I am stealing it :D
Grevillia
2 years ago
"JAL;c-18267011" wrote:
I find that when I make multi purpose lots, the easiest way to get visiting sims to do things other than the original lot designated activities is to create clubs for the activity and place. So for Desert Bloom park I have a pool club. For my library with café I have a book club who drinks coffee and talk to each other. For my restaurant with cinema, I have a film club using it. That way visiting sims will use the place the way I designed it and not necessarily the way the game wants them to.

That's a great idea. I created a gym & wellness centre that also has a cafe, pool & creche. I think I'll create clubs so that some of those extra activities will happen without me having to keep on changing the lot type.