How are your house building skills?

I like building, but I definitely have a specific set of priorities that make it hard for me to take a real house and turn it into a Sims house. Especially when I'm playing a large family, I don't want to be constantly spinning around trying to figure out what my Sims are doing, so when I build and decorate, almost everything tends to be oriented so I can see it from one angle.

I did recreate my own house in the Sims once, but that house is basically just a box in real life, with a little porch stuck on, so it wasn't terribly difficult.

"catmando830;c-18152345" wrote:

"PenguinFoop;c-18152300" wrote:
@catmando830 Here's the link. I was wrong, she calls it the fancy box.

https://youtu.be/-4h8DICJuzM you can really get an idea of how to make truly unique houses with very little imagination. The boxes to most of the work.

Thanks for the link. These EA EE's make it look so easy, but it's not. I'll try the 'box' thing next time I build.

Yeah, I agree. They're all like "it's super easy." They stop shy of saying "if you can't do it, then you're just dumb." My words, not theirs but that's how it feels after watching them. But with her video, for me at least, it makes it really easy to wrap my head around the whole building concept.

I hope it helps you as well.

When I was a kid, I went through an architect phase. Even took a couple of classes (aimed at my age level at the time) at the Frank Lloyd Wright studio.

Then I started playing D&D in high school. Dungeons, castles, inns - I needed maps, I had graph paper and time in Study Hall.
In college, I switched to TTRPGs about superheroes, modern horror and Urban Fantasy. So I needed creepy old houses and villain's lairs. The only reason I don't do that now is because I've switched to system lite games that require fewer maps.

I also at some point started picking up floor plan software, and working with that. It was also a good way to get maps for said modern TTRPGs.

So floorplans and layouts? I'm generally pretty good at figuring out what I need looking from the top down, though I may be a bit generous with routing allowances. Exteriors, I'm pretty decent at, though I do tend to fall into style ruts (I like houses with porches and pitched roofs, and I love me a good Victorian Painted Lady.) My biggest weakness is probably landscaping, because I'm not an outdorsy person at all. I love landscapes - I love looking at them through picture windows. Don't love being outside in them that much. (Too much glare on the pages of my books.)

It ain't easy... I was a seasoned builder in Sims 2 and 3. I initially said meh to building in Sims 4. Fast forward a few years and I do ok builds, mostly focus on how path design is within the house... I'm kinda anti-clutter and do not like seeing so much stuff in a small space. Likely going back to Sims 2 on that one, where pathing issues could be bad...

I've done a few decent houses, a couple on the Gallery...

I also have a tendency to make houses with glass windows every possible place. Its amusing how sims dont care about privacy inside their own house/room, not noticing the massive wall sized window in their bedroom.... You'd think they'd change that at some point...

"blaq797;c-18152474" wrote:
It ain't easy... I was a seasoned builder in Sims 2 and 3. I initially said meh to building in Sims 4. Fast forward a few years and I do ok builds, mostly focus on how path design is within the house... I'm kinda anti-clutter and do not like seeing so much stuff in a small space. Likely going back to Sims 2 on that one, where pathing issues could be bad...

I've done a few decent houses, a couple on the Gallery...

I also have a tendency to make houses with glass windows every possible place. Its amusing how sims dont care about privacy inside their own house/room, not noticing the massive wall sized window in their bedroom.... You'd think they'd change that at some point...

You remember in Sims 3 when you could peek through people's windows? Ah the good old days of watching people. ?

I feel almost conceited picking this option but I've been building in the sims games ever since I was 6 years old. I have a lot of fun building, especially in TS4 as it's the best game in the series for builders. I like it so much I even considered becoming an architect for like 5 seconds aha. Almost every single lot in every single one of my worlds was made by myself, with a few homes in Willow Creek from the gallery I slapped down just to get rid of some of the unsightly premade buildings that I didn't have a reason to rebuild myself. Lately I've been working on remodeling all the CL apartments just for fun.

For family homes specifically, sometimes I'll look online for inspiration or even occasionally look up some floor plans. You can't just copy floor plans 100% though because the size of them does not translate over to the sims grid system very well. Also you have to keep in mind certain things that have to be worked around like staircase sizes, making sure sims have enough room to move around. Not having so much room that the house feels cavernous. It's a bit of a fine line to walk. I've been using grid paper to plan my builds since TS2. It works great, I recommend it! I find it easier to visualize that way, then alter it while building if need be.

But all of my public lots are made 100% without reference or inspiration. I especially like making multi-purpose lots. I just finished building my new high school for the HSY pack, and made sure it has a music room, an art room, and a centrally located auditorium so I can make some artsy after school clubs. It's a decent size, but also tried to make it as small as I could so sims don't take forever to get anywhere. Just waiting to actually get the pack so I can decorate it.

I build and decorate with move objects, but since I'm also a player I need to make sure every single lot is functional and not overly cluttered. That's really the biggest reason that I don't use the gallery all that much, because there are so many untested, overly decorated lots.

I have a few of my University lots on the gallery (under thespacemaid, an old username). It's cool to see the few I have posted receive double digit downloads since I didn't even expect anyone to see them honestly. I've always meant to post more of my builds, but I play offline most of the time so it just doesn't really happen. But I am really proud of my builds ? I put a lot of attention and care into each and every one of them.

But in Sims 3, they actually had a window you could get that basically was reminiscent of the medieval times arrow slot in castles... Sims 4 has no such window for the shortest wall height .

I chose the getting off the ground as I tend to build as I get inspiration or have a sudden idea--here are my builds/photos for those curious: https://forums.thesims.com/en_US/discussion/935554/ashcrash19s-creations-july-16th-17th-cat-cuddles-cafe-barkleys-dog-cafe-with-roof-faces#latest (I believe it will show most recent page)

I'd give myself a 5 out of 10, and that's being generous.

I admire those who are good at building and who share their love of it on the gallery, because I can’t do it and find it incredibly frustrating. I can do a mild renovation of a building. I can do functional, but basic, interiors with a shell. And I usually do some redecorating. But ground up architectural design? Nope.