As much as I love Sunset Valley, it isn't quite right for what I want. So, I've decided to make-over it. I think at least a few others might have done this. I'm just really bad at CAW, and I like the map, so why not fix it to how I see fit?

I'm right now removing ALL of the families. I gotta be honest- most of them are ugly. Some of them are pretty-ish though, like Connor Frio.. Mmm, he's a cutie.. I only wish he would actually LIKE to flirt.. The first house I'm gonna remodel is the Goths'. I'm gonna turn it into like a farm-house type of thing. I'm also gonna move the graveyard and turn it into a very happy & pretty one, a cheerful springtime feel. So that's what I've got planned so far. I'm gonna make-over ALL of the houses and place down some families, mostly single people and couples though because I have Story Progression.

How have you made-over Sunset Valley?

P.S. Last time I posted this in the TS2 board. Woops! I had both forums open at the same time.

I use this http://simsums.tumblr.com/post/6419...thought-omg-the makeover, but I've berrified the entire town for the last month or two. :p

I haven't played in SV for few of months now, since I found the perfect small custom world. And I'm too lazy to get the fixed version of the neighbourhood.. But when I did/do play there I always get rid of the art gallery and place some kinda of pub or bar. Ironically the art gallery usually is the hot spot in my games and the bar the least visited place lol.

I also get rid of the diner and replace it with swimming pool and delete the one behind the houses that are across the street and replace that one with community garden. I also add wedding venue, equestrian center and training ground. Add childrens objects to the park etc. I never do anything to the families or the houses. I move around alot so the houses get moveover anyway.

In all EA worlds, I demolish all of the houses and community lots and replace them with nice player made lots. I either leave the small rabbit hole lots alone (like the bistro and day spa) simply because the lots are too small to do much with them. The large rabbit hole lots with the school, bookstore, theater and grocery have to go. Those get replaced with community lots where my sims can do stuff. Rabbit hole rugs and doors are a good thing, especially for the rabbit holes that I don't use much, like the bookstore and grocery.

I learned a few years ago that in Sunset Valley bulldozing the underlying property lots and replacing them with new lots is an exercise in frustration primarily because of all the mystery 'can't place on lots' messages even though there is no lot there to get in the way. I think that has to do with the way Sunset Valley was originally built; but I'm a CAW idiot, so whatever.

I also always eliminate all of the EA pre-made sims and let StoryProgression immigrate a whole new batch of pudding people. Yum, pudding. My favorite flavor is butterscotch.

I just get around that by flattening the area I want to build on as much as possible to avoid causing routing areas, then placing the building with the MO cheat. Then I landscape around the building.

I'm currently making over my sunset valley (again, my game likes to stop working if I don't play it for a while )
Something I nearly always do is put down seaside chalets.

They're not finished yet, but you get the picture

I hate that almost all Sunset Valley makeovers require all expansion packs. Does everyone but me have a super computer? And honestly expansion packs are not cheap. That's why I did my own makeover. Downloaded Town Life SP and changed the school and the bistro. Added the Skylight Studio of Performing Arts near the beach. Added a laundromat and a firestation, both custom. I did not really do that much yet because they wen't off to University the first thing they did. Also removed the fugly consignment store and the stylist lot.

The lots I downloaded and used:

I didn't really make it over. I just added some more lots and demolished a few that were unseemly. That's about it

I was referring to trying to do something like delete the 64x64 Central Park and trying to replace it with 3 or 4 smaller lots. Can't place on lots. Can't place on lots. Can't place on lots. Know why? Because there are lots across the street. Across the friggin' street. And apparently extending under the street to cross over to where I want my new lot. So, you have to delete those properties as well. At that point I might as well try to work in CAW.

If I can plop a new lot down where there was no lot before, I do that. For example, there's room behind the art gallery where I can fit a 20x30 and that's where I usually place my fire station. I leave existing lots alone and just replace the EA built structure.

I hate Sunset Valley.... Almost never play it

Zigersimmer - now I understand, I've had that problem too. Sometimes I find that the angle from which I'm viewing the lot I'm placing can cause an issue, if that makes any sense. Sometimes when placing it a gap or overlap isn't visible from where I'm looking.
I can't say how to fix the problem with lots across the road, though
I find the unroutable terrain message likes to plague me and limit my choices, too.

@zigersimmer

I highly doubt I'm going to delete any lots myself, 3 maximum, maybe. If there's a building I truly hate, I'm just going to bulldoze the building and leave the lot. I might add one or two in the countryside, though. That's what I meant by 'make-over'. Leave most of the walls, and fix it so it isn't ugly Maxis/had a rodent live in it for a century, have babies, eat a burrito, then die in it. Their style was like cheap, found in a dumpster-summer. I'm revamping it and making it modern luxury. I like the idea of what they were going for, but not only is it not my play-style, but also they didn't execute it well...

@CooCooCoo Why? What's so bad about it other than what I said?

Most of the time I leave the community lots alone unless I get a really great player made one to replace it. The rest - houses and families... most get dozed and replaced, houses that don't get dozed and replaced are in for major renovations. I don't play EA families so I mostly leave them alone but I do make sure I have at least 1 stylist in the world to make over all the EA sims until I can get around to aging them up and having them die of natural causes

I just started on redoing Sunset Valley. I'm working on turning it into a Victorian historical district. :3

I have a neutron bomb policy in gutting: Remove all the old families, leave the buildings in that world standing. With the new buildings from expansion packs and stuff packs, I augment Sunset Valley's real estate and replace the eliminated family with celebrities. I enjoy musicians, action stars, comedians, artists, athletes and of course, scientists. The science facility is headed by co-CEOs Dr. Bill Nye and Dr. Neil Degrasse Tyson, of course.

This is my latest pet project. So far I have my Adam and Eve, Alice Cooper and my Simself. I have yet to get to the elimination of the citizens of Sunset Valley.

EDIT 1: In spite of my previous plans, I spared only Agnes Crumplebottom as she would be great to experiment social dynamics with Dr. Bill Nye and Dr. Neil DeGrasse Tyson as her housemates. So the population is up to 5 Sims, Agnes and 4 CAS-made Sims. (technically, Alice was made by a member of this site, but I am NOT going to split hairs)

I play in an unedited SV except for the addition of the EA Ambitions lots. I also have added a resort where the Stoney Falls fishing spot is (deleting spawners was a pain >.>) and my mansion is on the legacy lot. I don't see anything wrong with Sunset Valley and it is, oddly enough, my favorite world.

Sunset Valley and Twinbrook were the first two worlds I did make-overs in, back when I hadn't really gotten the hang of individualizing Sims. They all ended up looking really related.


River McIrish.


Dorothy Mayo.


Anne Song, first incarnation.

Anne's second incarnation.


Jared Frio.

As for the town itself, I completely remodeled the Frio and Bunch houses, added several hangouts, and remodeled the beach. I also tried to lose the semi-tropical look, by removing all the palms and replacing them with pines.

I recently gave Sunset Valley a makeover. I left the rabbit holes like the school and hospital alone, but I bulldozed all the EA houses since Sims in them always get stuck thanks to EA's bad routing, and replaced them all with nice player-made houses. I also renovated the community lots like the park, places some new houses around the beach, and then deleted the townies. Then, I placed around 10 Sims I created in town and let them repopulate the town with pretty babies on their own using story progression.

I've been toying with the idea of revamping Sunset Valley ever since my game decided to stop downloading sims3packs and worlds. (It's an excuse to over-utilize baufive's Grant Park set.)

Most of the attempts have been stymied by a short attention span, but I like to try and make nice wedding venues. And apartment/boarding houses that wouldn't stand out so jarringly against the (created by me) Craftsman aesthetic. And military housing near the base.

Hm.........


I am now inspired to make a renovation to SV myself.....


To start off, both apartment lots from LN are going on the 30x40 lots on the southern cliff. My Legacy Manor lot will be next to them on the 30^2 lot. Next, the firehouse will be along the road on the beach.

I will update later on what all I've done!

Here's another vote for demolishing everything and replacing with custom sims and lots. I never play it any other way, for the last couple of years. Sertioustly, I even bulldoze the city hall.

Personally I tend to not delete the lots themselves, though, so that avoids that kind of problems. Since you can have more than one rabbithole on a community lot, I just leave the lot as it is and place a combined lot there.

E.g., a combo of (regular) science facility and (regular) hospital works perfectly for me on a central 64x64 or 60x60 lot, and doesn't require any EPs or EA maps (some of which have the combination in one building.) And it looks ok to me, tbh.

Or once I made a 64x64 central lot with a large pub, and cinema, bookstore, grocery store and spa around it. Lemme tell you, that pub was never empty.

Or one of those big event centres fits just right on such a lot, and has an excuse to be in a prime estate position in the middle of the town.

The first thing I always do when starting in Sunset Valley is to get rid of the fishing spots plopped down in the middle of nowhere along with those two small beach spots with nothing on them. The Goth household is moved to the large lot near their house (I think it's Pinochle Point - EP lots are always auto-placed there) using this and rotated so the front gate faces the road. Usually the pool behind the apartments is turned into something else, like a laundromat or hangout/bar.

I recently found Sunset Valley 2 (http://forum.thesims3.com/jforum/posts/list/427474.page) though and am having a lot of fun starting from scratch there.