What changes have you made to Selvadorada?

"elanorbreton;c-16411500" wrote:

"FKM100;c-16401770" wrote:
Well, I finally gave in and bought Outdoor Retreat on Saturday (I should have known I would eventually), so I have bulldozed the museum lot and converted it into a campground. It now serves as the base camp for new arrivals (and cheapskate sims), instead of the field station near the trail-head. I have given it the convivial trait, plus the creepy-crawlies one, which should be good for a laugh.

Could you please tell me how well this works?

I just got the pack and have been looking at each of the Lots in build mode and cringed when I got to the museum as it seems such a waste. I have an idea for recreating the base camp Lot from TS3 Egypt world. I think it would look great there and there are no other camping Lots in that world yet.

Like you, my original intention was to try and recreate the base camp from TS3 Egypt, although with a more jungly look. What I ended up with looks nothing like that, but I am quite happy with it all the same. I deliberately kept everything very basic - there is not one wall or proper structure on the lot. Instead of building an ablution block (like in Egypt), I took advantage of the pre-made one that came with the game pack and I added a couple of pee-bushes. I made a little lean-to at the rear of the lot, using the gazebo-type thing that comes with the pack, where I put in a small fridge and stove (both CC) and a sink for washing dishes. I also put in an archaeology table. The rental is a little over 500 simoleans per day. Probably the biggest cost factor comes from all the vegetation and other decor items I used on the lot. I could have used less, but I wanted it to look nice.

Basic as it is, it's very livable. I have had sims staying there for a week and they were quite happy. I haven't seen much evidence of the creepy-crawlies trait, but I'm not too sure what it is supposed to do - my sims keep shooing away insects from their faces, but they do that anyway. I haven't had any instances of insect attack. What I like about it is that sims can get to the market and buy supplies without going through a loading screen, so it is a good landing site for new arrivals. Here are some screenshots.

Overview:
https://i.imgur.com/Xk0ntS0.png

The rear of the lot, with the lean-to and ablution facility:
https://i.imgur.com/ggWTzO0.png

And this is the villa I built on the original field-station lot:
https://i.imgur.com/Ry5svue.png

On a different subject, I still feel the need to make another public venue in place of the museum (probably on the lot where the 3 bedroom villa is now), but I haven't been able to settle on anything that would please me. I thought it would be nice to create a trading area with mixed shops (something like the market in TS3 Egypt), but the retail lot option is not available at all. I have also found that it is not possible to own a vet clinic or restaurant in Selvadorada - you can build them, but not own them. Basically, EA has ruled out any possibility of cheating the game so as to allow sims to stay indefinitely in Selvadorada, which is fair enough I suppose, but rather a pity all the same.