Water World I've been converting from a normal house to a combination greenhouse-swimming pool (indoor and outdoor). Right now the lot is about half and half with several small pool sections both inside and outside, much of it winding, with corners and long narrow connections. (I need a few people to die so I can get rid of a few other rooms and finish the project.) My question was how people would get around. Some people walk allllllll the way around the pool parts, but some swim through! I'm so happy about this. The hired gardener works in the front yard, changes to her swimsuit, swims to the back yard, and then finishes gardening in her swimsuit! Many people spontaneously go swimming when they have nothing else to do. Of course, those with high body scores do great dives! I deliberately put the diving board over a tiny part of the pool, so they do high flips and swan dives into a little bitty space. I hope that as the amount of pool area increases, more people will choose to swim from one room to the next.
The big logistical problem is that the game won't allow you to build swim-throughs with walls or windows. The pool has to stop at a wall, including greenhouse walls. I do have one greenhouse where there is a pool ladder instead of a door, but I think for the house I'm going to have to simply separate the rooms completely and enclose them, forcing people to go outside and through a pool and back inside to get to the bathroom. I can't post shots; different computer with no link. It is very pretty, but I don't think snapshots do it justice; this is an action thing. People are now swimming across the pool instead of going around it like they used to do - it's almost like they're learning new straight lines. Still waiting for Ananda to die a natural death... meanwhile I'm filling the flat roof storage with everything I can get for his aspiration points and having all the other family members suck up his skill points with the little insuck-ubus thingie. This seems like natural family behavior....
Mwah-ha-ha-ha... I love it when they take turns distracting the old person and stealing their skills with the wicked vacuum. It's like going around putting your name on vases and chairs before the will is read. But when Ananda died, he got the hula dancers and the coconut rum drink, so he's okay! Now the maid is swimming from room to room and doing housework in her bikini. And when I told Joe Pye, the new plantbaby, to go play in another room (forgetting about the pool), the cute little thing toddled alllllll the way around the house to get there. Alvin just swims straight across the yard now instead of using the walk.
Enough, already! I can't keep up with your ephemeral avatar! Whatever happened to that nice stern looking power guy?
I want to see pictures of your watery paradise. It sounds very fun. Sorry to hear it got buggy: probably because the game doesn't like unexpected stuff like all water lots . . .
The bugs seemed to disappear, sort of (see other thread about working all the time). I'm running into some other tricky things with a watery lot. Think of me as the product tester for you all. If you want to try this, a true moat doesn't work. It hadn't occurred to me that they can't carry groceries in or trash out. You can 'move' the grocery basket, but not the trash. I'm going to have to put in one narrow pathway; I'll make it the furthest possible route and see how much they swim otherwise. I have discovered that they don't need to do any other exercise; they get body points just from going around the "house" -
Use 'moveobjects on" and then you can move the trash can inside your moat. Then you don't have to leave a path.
I'd love to try something like this in my game, but I haven't been able to play TS2 in a couple of weeks. The basement, where the gaming computer is, just has way too many spiders for my sanity. They will often drop down on their webs right in front of my face and the computer screen. *Shudder* How much has building the lot cost so far, and how big is the lot?
Hi, person, cost is a little hard to figure. My original Water World family was rich to start with and keeps getting richer. (Ain't it always like that? This began as my single-teen-raising-child challenge and now they have over 600,000 legitimate simoleans.) I started over with a new lot, partly to have more room and also to see about cost. The basic lot was about 65,000 to move in. It has one two-story house with elevator, a separate bathroom building and two greenhouses, all separated by a crazy wandering swimming pool. Plus orchard. Building pools is not that expensive if you do it instead of housing. I don't want to 'moveobjects' every time I have trash! And it cheats the purpose, which is to make them swim around. Here's my current brilliant idea: have a pathway to the house (a winding path) and put all the fun stuff on islands - television, swing set, computer, etc. - in little greenhouses. That means they will choose to swim! Some of them choose to dive in every time, too. Marco Polo, anyone?
No, you only need to use it once to move the actual trash can inside your moat area. You could even put it in the kitchen and then they don't have to worry about trying to take the trash out to the curb.
I've run into a few other glitches. This was easier with my established, platinum aspiration, high skill, mostly plant family. With new sims, there are unexpected problems. 1) they get really tired! with low body scores, they swim poorly and often resist it; 2) they get cold (less common with plant sims) especially since they stand around outside complaining about not wanting to go swimming; 3) it can be hard to catch up to someone for interactions; 4) they're always stopping to shake water out of their ears!! 5) they go to work in their swimsuits sometimes!
Two more observations about this lifestyle: Sims will play catch in a greenhouse. I thought it was only my sons who played catch around big windows. (They - my sons - broke four windows one day before they figured out it was a bad idea. Four.) Even with a footpath right next to them, some sims will swim. "Some sims will swim" - say it three times fast. Some sims will climb down a ladder, swim one foot, and climb up a ladder in order to talk to the sim who just walked the same foot on a path.
LOL JIKO You are a mad scientist with your sims. And I think they are your lab rats. I wish I had that much imagination. :rotfl::banghead:
Here's my summary report for anyone wanting to try a mostly-watery world. 1) it's easier with plant sims, who want to swim a lot anyway, and don't get cold as easily. Since they don't need to eat, pee, sleep, etc., the fact that getting around is slower is less of a problem; 2) getting around is slower; it takes a while to go anywhere on the lot, depending on how many paths you have (and even with paths, some will choose to swim even very short distances); 3) the higher the body score, the more likely they are to swim - or dive - or slide in spontaneously, but they don't need to do anything else for exercise and naturally develop high body scores anyway; 4) they do get cold if they stay in too long, but I went through a winter with heavy snow and did okay; also it's beautiful in the snow at night, swimming along with underwater lights; 5) interactions are slower, as the people you want to talk to keep swimming off or climbing out just as you climb in and so on; I've learned to meet people out at the street and try to stop them from swimming; 6) it is a lot easier to start a new lot this way than to rebuild an existing house! 7) children and toddlers are perfectly safe, and they know how to swim naturally once they become school-age; 8) I put a dance sphere and a swing set on separate islands, and a greenhouse with the piano and easel on another, and they spontaneously go to all these places; 9) it really is very beautiful and I wish I could figure out how to post photos! any advice is appreciated - the game is on a computer without internet - what do I do to get photos over here? Signed, Evil Mad Scientist/Genius Sim Artist Jiko
