I'm back to complex building structures again. It has all those strange side effects I need to work on.

070115 The Curve by Volvenom, on Flickr

Here you can see what my basement will look like from below, it's not going to be much. My issue is:

1. I can close it up and have just doors to enter the outside.
2. have some planting outside still in the basement to distract from the black void.
3. I can use ITF expansion and have the semi translucient light slides covering up even more.
4. just give a f**** and have windows and decorate to my hearts content on the inside and think it will be much better looking from the outside, which it will. I could possibly find some blinds or something.

Then a bit more about my new creation so you can take a decition on what you think.



The outside structure. What you see below all green is basement, don't let yourself be confused. Below green ground is basement, not foundation. You can see the foundation above.

Negative things:

1. A sim entering the basement will probably be visible but everything below those staircases is not visible. They will be cooking on something you can't see.
2. The black void inside

Positive things:

1. It gives more floors to work with, 5 above still, but the basement is below ground.
2. light in the basement.
3. open to the outside, go straight to the garden from the basement.
4. fun with technical things me thinks.

This is what I can come up with now.



Then the issue for me is floorplan. Above is the dark in the middle my basement.
Considering the black void outside what options do you think is most interesting to play in?

Vote:
Agree: Have bedrooms and more closed in, and then more open entertainment area with the black void and direct access to the outside with pool and such.
Disagree: Nevermind the black void, put in fancy kitchen with access to the outside, pools and bbq, perhaps use some blinds to cover up some of it.
Helpful: Cover it up totally, use it for bedrooms or something and only decorate outside to be outside.

This is just my first sketch more or less. Read more about my options and how I think on my blog here: http://www.volvenomtullarask.com/mi...slim-line-cross

Okay, this was a bit hard to follow, but I get it. The whole 'first' floor is the basement, including the structure. So, you'd put a grill and furniture in the 'outside' part of the basement, so you're worried about how that would look when the second floor and up were the floors you're on and not just the basement floor. Understandable worry.

I think the positives outweigh the negatives, and it's definitely better to keep what you have. You should try to cover the black void if possible, but I wouldn't stress about it (on a side note, it's odd that EA did that to basements, even when there's light down there). I had the black void showing on one tile on my last build, but it wasn't a central focus point. Not sure what it looks like from the front of the lot, but as long as it's not super obvious I think you're okay.

Hmm, I am sure my advise isn't sufficient and I'm still confused. I think it would help me, as well as others, to show more what you mean with sims, and maybe circling and pointing out things directly on the picture.

Oh, and I did indeed read the post on your blog.

Hm lol, still not understandable *scratching my head*, and you even bothered to read my blog post :lovestruc

070115 The Curve by Volvenom, on Flickr

This is the curve, my last project. The basement is has this same basement, but open on two sides only. This is the same as the black basement picture on the first post, just with some light and furniture.

070115 The Curve by Volvenom, on Flickr

The same basement from outside. Fokus on what's not right. There is no furniture visible from the outside, even though I do have a chesstable and chairs there. Una playing chess would just sit there on nothing basically.

070115 The Curve by Volvenom, on Flickr

Then again this is from inside. As you can see on the other pictures there should be plants, chairs, trees a fountain etc on the outside, but the only thing you can see is stairs, floor and a big black void.

To my new build this means:



It looks very fancy on the outside, but I'm a bit worried that black void might be a bit too much for a player to handle. I'm thinking it can be fancy for people who are into technical stuff, and I could perhaps use it as an entertainment area and walk straight out to the garden. Bedrooms as well could be fancy, lots of lights, but otherwise more curtains or blinds.

I'm a bit worried that my techincal basement is just that step too gloomy for most people


Thanks a lot for taking the time to look at it, I hope this is more understandable.

EA is probably not to blame for this, they didn't intend a basement to be used like this. It's perfectly alright with me, I like to explore things the developers didn't intended to be used.

Edit: so you think it's not that bad? I can use some curtains and stuff, it depends on how people play I guess. If you play from above it's fully possible to play without even seeing the black void.

I think I get you a bit more. If you stay in the basement with the sim starting from there, and you direct him to the garden, they will disappear above into the void? It probably depends on how people play sims. When I play, I switch between sims by double clicking on them, so they come into full view no matter where they are. I'm the case of your basement, that would mean seeing them completely. You simply couldn't look at the sim 'correctly' at the same time as another sim up above. For me this would be okay, and for others this would be fine too. I would probably point this out in a few screenies with examples in gameplay, so people who this would be a problem for could download this lot. Part of the appeal of the lot is the uniqueness in that way, so I wouldn't get rid of it. And I don't know about anyone else, but sometimes I download houses that I don't even use, just to place in my neighborhood, therefore it's playability isn't even that important, it's the outside architecture that matters.

If you double click on the sims you would just change floors and location as normal. From the hood it would look very nice I expect, depending on the decoration of cause. The Curve house had a bug, this one seems fine that way, so it's just the predictable black void.

I can try to post some pictures on the download, I have explained it to you now, so I have some idea how to put it down. Thanks.