Pool Lots

I have a pool lot where I send my sims during heatwaves to chill and cool down. The lot itself doesn't add anything special and pools need more love from the devs but I couldn't imagine playing in summer without said lot now. My sims seem to love going there and it's good for families, or for teens to hang out, or anyone really.
I get them to swim, slide, bbq, play with sprinkles, water balloon fights, and so on.

I found an insane looking "water park" on the gallery and it just looks cool. Sims have bbqs and hang out as a family here - I wouldn't say theres a perk to them but it's a cool and sometimes fun place to hang out instead of a park

I think pool lots are the only lots where townies will use pools autonomously. Gyms originally did not have programming for pools, they might have added that in or chose to use a dedicated pool lot instead. In general you can eliminate it without any consequences, all activities there are available other places. It’s mostly just a hangout for clubs, there’s no new gameplay side from the diving board which is available other locations as well.

I have two pool lots in my game, one is a upscale indoor/outdoor public swimming pool with adult entertainment facilities as well, bar, dj booth, dance floor. The other is an outdoorsy natural looking pool with some other outdoorsy things to do, like picnic tables, campfires, etc. that I set as a teen hangout.

I think the main purpose of it depends on how you approach gameplay. I like to have a world for my sims to experience, and in the world there are places to swim that are not gyms and reasons to go swimming that aren't related to getting fit.

The main "pro" I would say is that AI behaviour of sims that you do not control is determined by the lot type, so on a gym lot, pools won't get used much by the AI, whereas on a pool lot they do. Additionally, what non-active sims are generated to come to the lot is determined by lot type, pools will get children as well as adults, for example.

If you approach the game more in terms of "i need objects x, y and z for my sims to gain skills a, b and c", and couldn't care less about what other non-active sims come and what they do, then a pool lot type doesn't really serve a purpose.

Children don't seem to go to a Gym on their own.

I've made a Pool lot, and often times when I go there, Child Sims will file in to play at the Pool.

It can be a good place for your Children to make friends and work on their Motor skills.

I don't know if it's a good idea to have a Pool lot loaded during Cold Weather though.
Not sure if townies are smart enough to not dive into a Pool when it's cold out and they're at a Pool-type Lot.

@drbelanger I'm not sure; I have a mod that handles assignments of jobs like that and I have used the mod for so long that I cannot recall what the default game behaviour is.

Edit to add: I'd disable mods and go check, but it is freezing outside in my game atm....and I don't dare visit a pool lot when it's freezing out. lol

"Dannydanbo;c-16870695" wrote:
I tend to think that a pool in a gym would be indoors for year round use, whereas a pool alone might be outside for fun in the sun with the family.

I am thinking of making a dual season water park. We shall see.

I added "Simoreal Day" in early summer, "Simdependence Day" in midsummer, and "Simlabor Day" in late summer, all of which have the travel/vacation, barbecue, drink, and water fun requirements. So yes I have a pool lot that gets lots of use in summer. Plus I alter the number of vacation days for teens and children so they have enough to take summers off.

I love pool lots but they'd be better if we had more pool items like pool slides and pool waterfalls.

Pool lots to me only seem to function best for cooling off during the Summer now; that and where to find lots of children or elders.