Hi there! You are currently browsing as a guest. Why not create an account? Then you get less ads, can thank creators, post feedback, keep a list of your favourites, and more!
Mad Poster
Original Poster
#1 Old 5th Apr 2014 at 6:35 AM
Default Charles Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters... What do Superheroes Need?
Having finally seen several of the X-Men films after somehow missing them for years, one of the many many projects I'm working on is a new X-Men inspired boarding school/superhero headquarters (the two that are on the site already are ancient uploads, and I want to take a fairly different approach), and I like how it's going so far quite well, so I eventually hope to upload it, but I want feedback before I get too far along. I'm basing it more on the building from the recent iteration of the franchise in film much more than the comic or cartoon versions of the mansion, but I'm also letting the creative process direct the design of the building quite a bit too, so it can go pretty much anywhere at this point. Right now I have virtually no interior, but the exterior is roughed out pretty well (loosely based on the wide-angle shots from "First Class"), so there's a couple shots of it below.

My goal is to make a residential lot that can easily house a full complement of 8 Sims and provide the resources any different life-states would need (i.e., large greenhouses and sunlamps for plantsims, darkrooms for vampires, etc., since Supernatural Sims seem like an appropriate way to emulate the mutants of the Marvel Universe), while at the same time providing the types of accommodations you'd expect from any high-end boarding school (dorm rooms, rec rooms, athletic field, gymnasium, etc, as well as a variety of classrooms and professor's offices). I'm less concerned with these aspects since I'm pretty happy with my ideas so far, though I'd still love suggestions for things to include in these aspects of the lot

This next bit is the part where I'm really hitting a wall. Staying true to the idea of a home base for superheroes, the house also needs to provide them with all the resources they need for an active life of crime-fighting and world-saving, and aside from a few obvious things (large round room for CEREBRO, landing pad for the "X-Jet" black helicopter) I'm drawing a blank on the kinds of things that should fill the basement and locked wings of the building.... if you were to see a superhero headquarters, whether X-Men or anyone else, what kinds of rooms, labs, cells, etc. would you expect to find? What kinds of designs would you want to see? What ideas am I missing out on by not having the comic books as a reference to draw from?

As is my custom, this is just one of many projects I'm bouncing between, so it may still be a while before I make much progress, or I could get really drawn into it and it'll appear as one of my next uploads- I don't know! It kind of depends whether I get good ideas to fill this building with, so any suggestions from the community would be great! Thanks!
Screenshots
Advertisement
Mad Poster
#2 Old 5th Apr 2014 at 4:06 PM
The centerpiece of Charles Xavier's school is the Danger Room, a safe environment in which both the established X-men and the rising generation can hone their skills and, in particular, work out combat maneuvers. This is where the Colossus/Wolverine "cannonball special" was developed (Colossus acts as an atlatl for Wolverine, basically, launching him, claws extended, over the heads of mooks at the Big Bad who thinks he's much too far to reach, over inconvenient walls, into orbit, whatever is necessary).

Xavier, of course, has access to advanced holographic technology and sophisticated engineers who can rig all kinds of special equipment that can be changed out at a moment's notice, simulating a variety of contingencies. This would be difficult to build within the confines of the game. But it's not Xavier's School without it, and it's certainly an interesting challenge to build.

Ugly is in the heart of the beholder.
(My simblr isSim Media Res . Widespot,Widespot RFD: The Subhood, and Land Grant University are all available here. In case you care.)
Mad Poster
Original Poster
#3 Old 6th Apr 2014 at 12:20 AM
OK, both of those would certainly be fitting, I'm just curious to hear a little more detail about what they really are- the Danger Room sounds like it would be something of a gym for honing superpowers instead of muscles, correct? I'll have to think about how to portray that... And then for holographic simulations, since it obviously can't change dramatically with the push of a button, what would you think best fits the ideas there? My first thought is to make a facsimile of a war-torn city street that could play host to battle simulations for the residents, but, having not read the comics, that could be horribly off-base for all I know! What kinds of simulations would that really serve for as you see it?
Mad Poster
#4 Old 6th Apr 2014 at 4:03 AM
It's years since I read the X-men, but what I remember was that they simulated a number of different scenarios, particularly against foes they came up against regularly, like Magneto, the mutant-hunting Sentinel robots, etc. Or they might simulate a running battle in a populated civilian neighborhood - you know how important it is to do property damage without hurting innocent bystanders in a superhero battle.

I have no ideas for duplicating this without a lot of specialized CC, but the key goals of the Danger Room were honing teamwork and developing usable strategies, so you'd want them to be group activities, and gain skills. Logic and body would be the chief ones.

Ugly is in the heart of the beholder.
(My simblr isSim Media Res . Widespot,Widespot RFD: The Subhood, and Land Grant University are all available here. In case you care.)
Mad Poster
Original Poster
#5 Old 7th Apr 2014 at 5:53 AM
I'm still inclined towards making a room that's done as a Sim simulation of some public area that might play host to a superhero battle, and have Sims practice their unique skills there, but I'll put that on the back burner for a while and hope that some burst of inspiration comes to me before I finish the rest of the lot... Aside from the Danger Room though, what other kinds of things would you think necessary for a superhero headquarters?

Also, I'd be much obliged if anyone could point me in the direction of a trick so that career rewards can be included in lots without having to use CC clones of them... For example, things like the science and criminal career rewards are perfectly suited for high-tech labs, and the military obstacle course is ideal for any kind of training ground, but I don't see how to include them without the issues that come from Sims being attached to a lot. It seems like there must be some trick to it, since the items themselves aren't CC in any way, but thus far I haven't found direction for being able to include them without downloading some mod or hack.
Mad Poster
#6 Old 7th Apr 2014 at 3:17 PM
If, during building, you download a cloned aspiration reward, and put it into the lot, you will not have to package any CC in order for it to appear in the lot when downloaded. That's how Rich Mann got a Closet of Ill-Gotten Gains - Elixir of Life, Cool Shades, Lie Detector, etc. - in Widespot. I downloaded the buyable aspiration rewards, and once bought, they stayed and behaved normally, because they are base game items and the game has all the codes, textures, and meshes necessary to use them. As long as their function hasn't changed, you won't have to include them as CC.

Ugly is in the heart of the beholder.
(My simblr isSim Media Res . Widespot,Widespot RFD: The Subhood, and Land Grant University are all available here. In case you care.)
Mad Poster
Original Poster
#7 Old 7th Apr 2014 at 7:10 PM
Is this what you're talking about? http://modthesims.info/download.php?t=374017 It's the only MTS download I see that looks like what you're talking about... Hope it is- that would open up a lot more design opportunities for some of my projects!
Mad Poster
#8 Old 7th Apr 2014 at 8:01 PM
Yup, that's the ones. I downloaded the ones for Base Game, stuck them in Rich's closet, and they all work even for people who don't have them in buyable form. If you read the text you'll find that some of them have fiddly bits, but unless otherwise specified in the text they should be fine.

Ugly is in the heart of the beholder.
(My simblr isSim Media Res . Widespot,Widespot RFD: The Subhood, and Land Grant University are all available here. In case you care.)
Mad Poster
Original Poster
#9 Old 9th Apr 2014 at 4:05 AM
OK, that certainly helps with the molecular biology and pathogen analysis lab in the "superhero HQ" part, as well as the drafting and design classroom in the "boarding school" part... any other ideas for things to include in the public parts of the school or the basement headquarters from anyone? What kinds of things would you put in a school for your Sims? What resources would your superheroes need to have available to call on in the world-saving efforts?
Mad Poster
Original Poster
#10 Old 15th Apr 2014 at 7:01 AM
OK, shameless bump here- I realized the next X-Men movie is out next month, so it seems like a perfect goal to try to finish this lot and have it ready for upload when the movie comes out. That gives me plenty of time to work on the lot, (since I don't start work for the season until then either!) and hopefully plenty of time to get feedback from the community... I'd hope to see this lot become one of my better ones, so any suggestions are welcome, scholarly or superheroic! Thanks!
Needs Coffee
retired moderator
#11 Old 15th Apr 2014 at 8:39 AM
What is in the lot already? Is it more geared to be a movie lot or more towards being a school? Is it a boarding school or a day school?

"I dream of a better tomorrow, where chickens can cross the road and not be questioned about their motives." - Unknown
~Call me Jo~
Mad Poster
Original Poster
#12 Old 15th Apr 2014 at 6:16 PM
Quote: Originally posted by joandsarah77
What is in the lot already? Is it more geared to be a movie lot or more towards being a school? Is it a boarding school or a day school?


Definitely more of a school than a movie set. I'm setting it up so that it could be used as a "boarding school" of sorts, but it's going to be a residential lot like any other, so that'll depend how people choose to play it- I think I'd probably fill it with various supernatural life states, since that seems like the best way to create the mutants that this school is meant to house.
At this point, I think I've figured out the upstairs portions fairly well, since for the most part they would look like a normal school (classrooms, dormitories, rec rooms, professor's offices, that sort of thing), so even if it's not perfected yet, I have fairly good ideas there... not that I wouldn't welcome suggestions for the upstairs too!
Aside from a few isolated rooms in the basement though , I'm finding that my attempts at superhero headquarters rooms seem to always end up just looking like a bunch of computers in a sterile white room, and that gets boring! I also still have a good half of the basement unfurnished altogether, since I'm still hoping for inspiration for the Danger Room that hasn't yet come to me... Obviously, any suggestions people have for the basement would be welcome, whether they're ideas that you liked from the films, the comics, or just things you think the X-Men would have somewhere in their hidden HQ!
Needs Coffee
retired moderator
#13 Old 15th Apr 2014 at 10:46 PM
Do you have sick rooms or recovery rooms for the super naturals? I'm assuming this is like a highschool or college so I bet those kids do things that they shouldn't like dares and get themselves into trouble because they don't fully know what they are doing.
A room for strange experiments.
The basement probably needs a few cells and some secrets like a cow plant locked away.
Not sure what the danger room is. I asked dh as well and he doesn't have a clue either.

"I dream of a better tomorrow, where chickens can cross the road and not be questioned about their motives." - Unknown
~Call me Jo~
Mad Poster
Original Poster
#14 Old 16th Apr 2014 at 1:09 AM
Quote: Originally posted by joandsarah77
Do you have sick rooms or recovery rooms for the super naturals? I'm assuming this is like a highschool or college so I bet those kids do things that they shouldn't like dares and get themselves into trouble because they don't fully know what they are doing.
A room for strange experiments.
The basement probably needs a few cells and some secrets like a cow plant locked away.
Not sure what the danger room is. I asked dh as well and he doesn't have a clue either.


One of the rooms that I've changed more times than I can count has occasionally been a sickroom, but I've never really been happy with it. I want there to be one, since you're right, it's an important thing for a school to have, but I don't like any of my designs so far. At this point, aside from that maybe-sickroom, the basement has the garage and a storage closet as "publicly" accessible areas, and then has a room for CEREBRO, a small cell with a lie detector in it, a double-containment laboratory with the science reward medicine/virus creator, plus a few other rooms that get changed constantly... All these are to the left of the garage in the picture higher up on this thread- to the right, the entire basement is undeveloped as I wait for inspiration on the Danger Room. If you're familiar with Star Trek, imagine a holodeck, and if that still doesn't help, just imagine a training room that can be tailor-made to various scenarios the X-Men might find themselves confronted with. Peni commented above that this is a tricky piece, and I agree, but I won't use CC in any of my lots- hence my conundrum!

Any suggestions on any of this are most welcome!
Needs Coffee
retired moderator
#15 Old 16th Apr 2014 at 2:34 AM Last edited by joandsarah77 : 16th Apr 2014 at 2:55 AM.
No cc would make a project like this tricky. I do prefer cc free builds myself, but sometimes a build really needs it.

For a sick room I would have an area for wilting plansims to sun and water themselves and a dark room for vampires.

I do know Star Trek-the original. I think under paneling there is some green square lined wall which you could use. Dark green background and pale bright green lines. Maybe with the industrial looking floor. Then put a double archway at one end with a small room off that and the metal modern door off that so you see through the arch to the metal door. Does that make any sense?

Edit: Okay after looking I think that green wall I was thinking of must have been cc but there is some blue paneling.

"I dream of a better tomorrow, where chickens can cross the road and not be questioned about their motives." - Unknown
~Call me Jo~
Mad Poster
Original Poster
#16 Old 16th Apr 2014 at 3:24 AM
Yeah, that makes perfect sense. I've tried something kind of like that before, and scrapped it- it might be time to try it again! My favorite attempt at that room so far has actually used the blue paneling you're talking about (if I'm thinking of the right one), along with the projector lights that usually show up in Nightlife clubs- the effect was kind of like the training room from the Catching Fire movie, if you allowed yourself a little imagination... good, but still not really what I'm looking for, since for all practical purposes it was still just an empty room. I may have to try mixing that effect with some of my other ideas next time I work on that part of the lot.

A sun/water room for plantsims is a good idea for one of the smaller basement spaces... and one of the rear towers is already walled off from the rest of the school behind a rotating bookcase- perfect spot for a vampire's coffin... I'm trying to think what rooms would suit werewolves, and how to make a room for a witch or warlock that doesn't look like it's from the 17th Century...
Mad Poster
#17 Old 16th Apr 2014 at 4:38 AM
One thing that was in the original X-Mansion was a secret underground hangar for their Lockheed stealth aircraft. Another was a connection to the ocean. Again, both hard to simulate. They could have a helipad, but I doubt it's easy to make an underground one!

You should have places for learning those superpowers that sims can in fact get, such as teleportation. A meditation room where "psychically talented" students could groom the zen garden and meditate till they can levitate and teleport.

You need the Education bookcase so students can study advanced subjects, too.

Ugly is in the heart of the beholder.
(My simblr isSim Media Res . Widespot,Widespot RFD: The Subhood, and Land Grant University are all available here. In case you care.)
Mad Poster
Original Poster
#18 Old 16th Apr 2014 at 5:25 AM
I'm trying to strike a balance between staying true to the ideas of the X-Men stories, and staying practical for TS2 gameplay... certainly a tricky tightrope to walk! I'd tried things like an underground helipad, hoping to stay that much closer to the source material, but it just didn't translate into the game well, and it really just made the lot more complicated than it needs to be... bummer, but I don't really want to clutter the lot with things that don't really add much to it, if I can help it. (I figure it's not too far outside the realm of possibilities for a fancy private boarding school to have an on-site helipad!)

A meditation room is a good idea though- I'd forgotten about the superpowers, like that kind of teleportation, that Sims can get without being tied to a special life state! I may need to check into a few more of those, and see if I get any other ideas!

There's a couple Education bookcases in various rooms around the lot, so that's already covered- My current stumbling block with the school portion of the lot is trying to make the classrooms actually functional for something, without having them all end up being identical to one another... I wish there were more Sim schools that people had uploaded, just so I could see how other creators had handled this kind of thing!
Needs Coffee
retired moderator
#19 Old 16th Apr 2014 at 5:40 AM
Do you have a science lab? I used the metal uni benches, added the medical career reward, a teleprompter at the front, a couple of those atom and microscope sculptures and a few finger print scanners. I also made a plant hydroponic experiment area on some stage with blue tile for water and cactus with water lilies plus a couple of the hydroponic career rewards in there as well. Bottom left thumbnail. https://www.modthesims.info/d/505831 I also did a library, music room and an art room.

"I dream of a better tomorrow, where chickens can cross the road and not be questioned about their motives." - Unknown
~Call me Jo~
Mad Poster
Original Poster
#20 Old 17th Apr 2014 at 4:49 AM
OK, I've added a few of your suggestions into the "school" portion of the building- thanks for that! (Not sure how I didn't think of a science classroom, but I didn't!) Now, this is the basement as it stands right now for the school... some things I like, some things not so much, but at least you guys can kind of see some of what's showing up on that part of the lot at this point. I tagged the rooms so you can kind of see what they are, but I'm open to changing virtually any of them if you have better ideas than me (not hard to imagine- I don't really like any of these rooms too much, (except the isolation lab), at this point. The "Danger Room" may end up being smaller than the entire half of the basement that it takes up right now, but until I figure out what I want to do there, I want to make sure I have enough space!

Screenshots
Back to top