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Lab Assistant
Original Poster
#1 Old 17th Sep 2011 at 1:00 PM
Default Things you can do
I was unsure whether to put this under gameplay or information. I chose information to keep it safe. A little while ago we had a thread discussing kitchens and what not.

There's quite a bit you can do in the game. I made the two gardens on each side of the castle. One is a meditation garden and the other is a chess garden. With buydebug on I was able to use the herb spawners to pseudo landscape with. And it gives my Master Spy plenty of places to gather herbs that are quite close buy without having to take days to travel the kingdom. These also regenerate faster, than if you use the ones that come in the game. I was able to use the Jacoban cathedral windows in the throne room and in my spy's private quarters. No other windows are available in buydebug on which is odd since the Peteran windows and the plain windows should show up but don't You will have to use your ?key to lower the windows as they start out quite high.

I used mineral spawners and herb spawners around the blacksmith shop and the merchants yard. If you use wildflowers to landscape the merchant yard she/he will not have to wander from literally one end of the kingdom to the other gathering them. I also added an extra mail drop. It is usable but the Sims will walk right through it so it's a little freaky.

But a word of warning using the buydebug on. Whatever you put in the game will stay in the game. You have to use the undo function to get rid of whatever you placed, so choose wisely. If you have saved, have auto save, or have gone on to another piece of property, you're stuck with what you did. You will still be able to move whatever it is, but you can't sell/delete it.

The fountain in the meditation garden was created with the move objects on and I added the two statues on each side of the fountain.
I found that with the tavern I could sink the corner fireplace well into the wall thus saving space and still retaining function. If you do this in a room that has another room directly to the side, it will cut through the wall and show on the other side. The wine casks can be sunk into the wall by quite a bit as well and still function creating much more room upstairs for the Bard.

There are a number of rabbit warren hallways that are behind walls and rooms that you can accidentally get into when trying to deal with camera views when decorating. Should you find yourself in one of these, add a wall lamp and a chamber pot. I think the Sims are programmed with certain functions and will use your personal quarters less when they have these stupid chamber pots left randomly in these empty hallways. At least I've had fewer staff wandering into the Queen's private chamber since I started doing that.

Anybody else got any creative uses for stuff someone hasn't shared yet? I'd sure like to hear it. It keeps the game from getting boring.
Screenshots
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Scholar
#2 Old 17th Sep 2011 at 1:41 PM
Personally I've misused the merchant's place for such extra items, since he has a lot of buildable place outside there.

So I've placed for a start a tactical map in the middle of his "garden", so he can check what each province buys and sells right there. Makes sense, I think, since sailing and trading IS his primary occupation. Yeah, I could just exit to kingdom and check the map there, but this seemed more in-character that he'd buy and check his own physical, in-game map.

Then I've placed a second mailbox right outside his fence, on the right side as he exits (or your left as you look at his house), towards the smiths hut. The congestion at the lone post box in the town square got on my nerves at times, especially as some sims seem to hog it for an hour in a row. So the good merchant now sponsored a second pigeon nest, and everyone living around that market rejoiced. Plus, it seemed sorta in-character, as a merchant would do a lot of business correspondence. And since it's placed against the fence, nobody walks through it either.

Third, he's also invested in a card game table and chess table placed in front of the house, inside his market's fence, to draw in the customers. Seems to actually work pretty well too, as between the tactical map and those, quite a few people seem to wander in from the town square to play. Then they can be persuaded to buy a brand new map to Effenmont or Gastrobury or other such vital items that no peasant should be without

Fourth, as a devout Peteran, he's provided an evangelism podium right in front of his gate. Helps a lot with the evangelism, because between the people in the town square and those at the market, it provides quite the audience. Besides, it's a Peteran kingdom with a Peteran king, so who's gonna complain to whom about evangelizing in the town square? :p

Well, that's about it for the merchant.

Windows... yeah, I've added a few windows to some of the taller buildings too, because honestly, it looks silly to live in a room with torches and without fresh air. Sounds like a recipe to, you know, wake up dead. I'll concur that more windows available would be very nice.

Another thing I found very useful is the chandelier on a short beam and short chain, as seen in the doctor's clinic. It's quite bright and it's high up, so it doesn't block my view, nor does it make me desperately turn the camera to click on a sim behind the chandelier. The normal ones tend to be either too low or have a too long chain, so if placed higher, the chain pokes through the roof. This one is perfect for a bunch of buidlings, including the smithy, barracks, etc, even without adjusting the height. (But not so much for places with a one-tile wall height.)
Lab Assistant
Original Poster
#3 Old 17th Sep 2011 at 1:53 PM
Cool. Love the ideas. I've got an herb garden and some gambling tables and an evangelism podium in my practice grounds. Another great place to find wholly usable wasted space.

(Sigh) I guess I lived in too many basement apartments. I love windows.

I would absolutely love it if there was a way to put huge rocks over all the broken up stuff in my kingdom but the game doesn't let me into buy mode unless I'm furnishing a property. I wonder if there's a way to overcome that. Ah well.
Scholar
#4 Old 17th Sep 2011 at 4:40 PM
Ah, right. Great idea. I should definitely have a look at those training grounds.

Edit: Also, good thinking with those drapes at the windows. I'll definitely have to do that for my added windows too.
Test Subject
#5 Old 19th Sep 2011 at 4:27 AM
Oh wow - what wonderful suggestions! I've got most of the mods in my game, but please tell me what the herb and mineral spawners are and how to place windows. Thanks so much!
Instructor
#6 Old 19th Sep 2011 at 4:30 AM
you need to enable buy debug.
Lab Assistant
Original Poster
#7 Old 19th Sep 2011 at 5:18 PM
Quote: Originally posted by GayleForceM
Oh wow - what wonderful suggestions! I've got most of the mods in my game, but please tell me what the herb and mineral spawners are and how to place windows. Thanks so much!


You need to open your cheat bar, and type in buydebug on.
This will open up a number of things that are used in the game and make them available to be gotten in buy mode. The herb spawners are labeled as such and shouldn't be confused with the graphic of the plant as it appears in your inventory. You can see both with buydebug on. Herb spawners are the things that are placed around your kingdom where the various herb plants are. They allow you to harvest the herbs over and over again in a specific place. There are also fish and mineral spawners. Before I closed the last time I was going to see if you could put a fish spawner on dry land, but my brain blew it off.

The windows are in buy debug on. You can use those big cathedral windows on walls that span two stories. Not so much in say the upstairs room of the bard or the doctor. You will have to use your ?key to lower the windows to the place you want them on your wall. They start out quite high. These are the blue stained glass Jacoban Cathedral windows. They are the only ones available.

There are also several buildings in it. You can put any of the buildings on your practice ground, but you can't use them. They just sit there like big useless statues taking up space.

You have to use your undo button to remove things you've placed but don't like, when you put them there. You can neither sell them or delete them, you must undo them. DO NOT save until you have what you want. If you have gone into Kingdom mode and gone to another piece of property, you will have to exit the game without saving to get rid of what you did if you don't like it. IF YOU SAVE YOU ARE REALLY, REALLY STUCK WITH WHAT YOU DID. You will have to delete your Kingdom if you save something you did in buydebug on and don't want to keep it. So be cautious when you use it.
Test Subject
#8 Old 10th Oct 2011 at 4:34 PM
Default Water Mill Resting Spot
This thread really inspired me to get into the world of building "outside the box," so thank you for that! I'll get more into depth later, but one thing that made me pretty excited was that I found out I could make a little drinking/resting spot at the water mill in my kingdom of Rivens Rook (using shift-click and then "Buy on this lot").

Bigger pics and more to come on Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/rivens_rook
Screenshots
Lab Assistant
Original Poster
#9 Old 10th Oct 2011 at 4:38 PM
Wow, that's really cool! I'll have to do something there.

I like playing The Sims. I don't like to be played like a Sim.
Lab Assistant
#10 Old 10th Oct 2011 at 6:12 PM
To the training grounds I added a public screened bath complete with tub and chamber pot. I also did the same in the town square. That seems to keep non hero sims happy and not so much underfoot.

Yes it is the clothes that makes the Sim
Lab Assistant
#11 Old 11th Oct 2011 at 3:14 PM
Quote: Originally posted by lirien
This thread really inspired me to get into the world of building "outside the box," so thank you for that! I'll get more into depth later, but one thing that made me pretty excited was that I found out I could make a little drinking/resting spot at the water mill in my kingdom of Rivens Rook (using shift-click and then "Buy on this lot").

Bigger pics and more to come on Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/rivens_rook


Yes, I will have to steal this idea.

Yes it is the clothes that makes the Sim
Lab Assistant
Original Poster
#12 Old 11th Oct 2011 at 6:22 PM Last edited by ladyskye : 11th Oct 2011 at 7:03 PM.
Thanks to lirien I thought of something else. I remodeled the watcher's pavilion.

I deleted the fountain. I then used moveobjects on to back up the watcher ladies into the columns after aligning them. I aligned the couches and butted them up against the stone as far as I could without the stone showing through. I sank the candlesticks of the floorlamps into the stone. I added the circular carpet and did the 3 center channels in the same star pattern. I added the planters at the 2 entries and added the Peteran and Jacoban (watcher doesn't play favorites here) vow palls. Finally at the center of the round rug, I added a fish spawner.

So you can sit, relax, sleep on the couches, meditate or pray at the stones, and fish if you so desire. I will probably develop the rest of the property later, but for now I have to get some sleep.

Thank you again, lirien for the idea.
Screenshots

I like playing The Sims. I don't like to be played like a Sim.
Test Subject
#13 Old 11th Oct 2011 at 9:22 PM Last edited by lirien : 12th Oct 2011 at 5:06 PM.
Default Even more building insanity...
Aw, I'm glad people are getting inspired! And that use of fish spawners is brilliant, LadySkye - I'm stealing that next

Here are a few more ideas that may help get that creativity going (get comfortable, because this is a long one):

1. 30% less useless Kingball Court: I used moveobjects on to stack one of the two dirt-and-stone courts into the other, and then moved the fancy one over, creating an open space in the back. It's now a medieval gym of sorts Which is helpful because my training grounds no longer resembles anything close to a training grounds. (The seats are there for Sims to ostensibly watch Kingball matches, but they can actually only watch standing up...)

2 and 3. The Lighthouse: Again, I made a little area for Sims to drink, relax, and enjoy an amazing view of the docks. Popular with courting Sims.

4. The Training Grounds: Very much a work in progress, but I added a Watcher's Pavilion (with buydebug), as an outdoor library (in my head, it's called the "Royal Pavilion"). Sims WILL walk through it, so I buried vases along the perimeter to help with routing. Also, as you see, there is nary a training dummy in sight - I buried the one required one in the fountain.

5 and 6. Reception Hall: I began to notice that dignitaries were always loitering OUTSIDE the reception hall, where there was nothing, so I built them a courtyard! Now at least they look like they have a purpose. After building this courtyard, I got a little obsessed and built everyone courtyards. Also, as you can see, you can lower one of the wall lights to make makeshift fence lights, but the bracket part will still peek out at the bottom. You can determine how much that bugs you.

WORD OF WARNING: Those venturing for the first time into the world of "illegal building" need to do so with caution. Building too far past the boundaries will make the game recognize what you put there as part of the world, which means it will be permanent, irremovable, and will often toggle weirdly between invisibility and visibility (learned a lot the hard way...). What I do is take a piece of fencing and use it to determine the very edges of the lot (just how far it takes before the green becomes red), and then take care to only build ONE HALF TILE behind it.
Screenshots
Lab Assistant
Original Poster
#14 Old 17th Oct 2011 at 4:31 PM Last edited by ladyskye : 17th Oct 2011 at 5:42 PM.
These are really, really great ideas! Somehow we have managed building on a limited basis even when no build function has been allowed. Awesome.

I like playing The Sims. I don't like to be played like a Sim.
Lab Assistant
#15 Old 17th Oct 2011 at 9:45 PM Last edited by ripple : 17th Oct 2011 at 9:55 PM.
Thanks for starting this thread ladyskye, I've finally gotten around to playing with buydebug and moveobjects.

I've always found the blacksmith's stall to be an eyesore and a camera annoyance, so here's what I have attempted to do:





I've moved the stall into the building and covered the wooden walls on the side of the building with stone ones where the stall use to be (and placed a bench there). No longer do I need to angle the camera to get a better view of the stall nor does it zoom out automatically when I rotate it a certain way. This is still a 'work in progress.' Initially I was just trying to find a 'work around' for non-paying customers standing in front of the stall, blocking paying ones. It didn't help so much with that, but it did help to raise my blacksmith's focus when she is hustling customers after the interior of the blacksmithy was decorated, and she no longer has to walk outside to 'open shop' but can forge and sell at the same time.

I did find that if you put an obstacle in front of the stall where the purchase transactions take place, and move it just after your blacksmith succeeds in 'asking a customer to buy', it does help to address the issue of 'stall blocking sims', until we come up with a TSM hack that allows the blacksmith and the merchant to forgo walking to the stall to complete transactions. I am entertaining screenshot suggestions on how the smithy can be better decorated. While the high 'room environment' rating is there to generated the 'beautifully decorated' moodlet, it still looks kind of sparse right now.

Also, has anyone experimented with 'tinting' from Grim's Core mod?

Also, does anyone mind posting caps of their clinics? I've moved the operating table to the entrance room and expedite patient care, but I don't know what to do with the other first floor room now.
Lab Assistant
Original Poster
#16 Old 18th Oct 2011 at 2:58 PM Last edited by ladyskye : 18th Oct 2011 at 3:56 PM.
Great idea for the blacksmith stall. I'm going to have to give that one a go. I have used the tinting for quite a number of things but mainly the fireplaces and the cask. I also tinted the Jacoban cathedral a slightly darker gray and the Peteran church a brighter white since most of that kingdom has turned out to be Peteran. Sometimes the tinting works very well, but if you try tinting the tavern wood then it turns the entire tavern brown and looks a little wierd.

I'm not sure what I would do with the doctors second room other than put the archive and the crafting table there. Of course if your doctor is married and has kids I guess you could put a sitting room and dining room downstairs and put the bedrooms upstairs. That way you could make it private to the household. But since children aren't involved in any of my games, that's one thing I don't have to make space for. But it's my best idea for what to do with the doctor's second room.

I do have some pics of my clinic in my albums listed on the page set aside for our pics, but my operating table is in that second room, so I don't know how helpful that will be. The link to the album is here if you want to look. I think there are 3 of them having to do with the doctor.
https://picasaweb.google.com/111279...feat=directlink

Any thoughts, anybody? Need pics of unique Clinics. Ripple's looking for ideas...

I like playing The Sims. I don't like to be played like a Sim.
Lab Assistant
Original Poster
#17 Old 18th Oct 2011 at 7:13 PM
Ripple; I threw this together just to give you an idea of what I was talking about. It isn't decorated very well, but I hope it gives you an idea or two of what to do with that second room. My doctor is earthy and scholarly so doing the outdoor garden he has a place to read and still get the great outdoors buff. He can collect the herbs he needs without wandering all over the kingdom. I added two leech spawners over by the message box so he doesn't have to walk half a day to get leeches.
Screenshots

I like playing The Sims. I don't like to be played like a Sim.
Lab Assistant
#18 Old 24th Oct 2011 at 9:41 AM
These are all awesome suggestions! I'm going to have to play around some with making courtyards and gardens especially! I'd love to see more screenshots of fun things people have done.
Test Subject
#19 Old 29th Oct 2011 at 12:38 AM
I used all the ideas here thanks and nice work How did you modify the game lot?
Instructor
#20 Old 29th Oct 2011 at 2:07 AM
I've had so much fun modifying my kingdom, thanks for the awesome ideas. anyone recreated the Watcher's Pavilion from the dream demon quest?
Lab Assistant
Original Poster
#21 Old 2nd Nov 2011 at 12:00 PM
Quote: Originally posted by ShadowTek
I used all the ideas here thanks and nice work How did you modify the game lot?


I did it when playing my Monarch. I used shift+click and then chose buy on this lot. I imagine you can do it with any Hero, but in my experimental Kingdom (in the Eternal Kingdom) that I only use for playing with lots and whatnot, there is only a monarch. The money for the modifications come out of the money of the Hero you're playing when you do it. So far my Monarch in my other games has had the biggest pot. Otherwise you can use a 'motherlode' or two to do it.

I like playing The Sims. I don't like to be played like a Sim.
Lab Assistant
#22 Old 2nd Nov 2011 at 5:41 PM
In the spaces behind the lower level of the castle I added wall lights, 2 pistores, 2 back room beds and 2 bath tubs.
To do this you need buydebug on and moveobjects on. The back room bed is a grey cube. Since I now have 4 advisors, this keeps them from filling all the benches up when they need a nap. It also keeps traffic down outside the monarch's bathroom.
Since I now have 4x the guards, I also bought some more guard positions for the castle. In buydebug this is the shield icon which becomes a red cube in furnish mode. It is invisible in play mode.

By the by, has anyone figured out what the green cube is?

Yes it is the clothes that makes the Sim
Lab Assistant
Original Poster
#23 Old 2nd Nov 2011 at 6:42 PM Last edited by ladyskye : 2nd Nov 2011 at 7:03 PM.
Quote: Originally posted by Outfit_Planner
In the spaces behind the lower level of the castle I added wall lights, 2 pistores, 2 back room beds and 2 bath tubs.
To do this you need buydebug on and moveobjects on. The back room bed is a grey cube. Since I now have 4 advisors, this keeps them from filling all the benches up when they need a nap. It also keeps traffic down outside the monarch's bathroom.
Since I now have 4x the guards, I also bought some more guard positions for the castle. In buydebug this is the shield icon which becomes a red cube in furnish mode. It is invisible in play mode.

By the by, has anyone figured out what the green cube is?


Not sure what the green cube does. You can add guard posts anywhere when you use the shield icon, but when I tried cloning the red cubes themselves I had to use ctrl+alt+delete to shut my game down because it froze. I'll fool with the green cube tomorrow. I have to work tonight but have tomorrow and friday off.

I like playing The Sims. I don't like to be played like a Sim.
Lab Assistant
#24 Old 2nd Nov 2011 at 7:32 PM
One thing I've done (very minor) is I've put a bard's stage in the reception hall. Now my bard spends more time at the castle than at the tavern. Makes sense, I suppose.
Lab Assistant
Original Poster
#25 Old 2nd Nov 2011 at 8:49 PM
Quote: Originally posted by venusdemilosimmer
One thing I've done (very minor) is I've put a bard's stage in the reception hall. Now my bard spends more time at the castle than at the tavern. Makes sense, I suppose.


I guess if it gets really busy there you can get more inspiration and make more money that way. If you were able to hide an archive there somewhere you could write there as well. I guess you could put one outside or something. Can a bard use a scribe's desk to write or just an archive? Never tried the scribes desk.

I like playing The Sims. I don't like to be played like a Sim.
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