So I've been a lurker around here for a long while, downloading some custom content browsing even more. One of the things I've always kept an eye out for is custom content that helps give you that "big city" feeling.

I'm from Boston, and went to college in NYC and lived there for a year and a half afterwards, so when I think of cities these are the two "go to" places that I use for inspiration. I got kind of tired of how the default Late Night stuff was, as it really didn't feel like a "city" to me, merely just a bigger version of the regular Sims suburb, except your home happened to be a few floors higher than usual.

So to that end I've started completely redesigning Bridgeport to feel like the cities that I think about when someone says "big city".

One of the things I've started doing is making everything SMALL. It kinda weirded me out that the basic starter apartment for Late Night is like 10 times bigger than any apartment I've ever lived in. Apartments in New York and Boston, especially "in the city" are either tiny, or ludicrously expensive (and still not all that big).

Secondly, I started designing stuff to have more of a mixed development feeling. With community lots and residential lots being completely separate, this isn't 100% possible, but I've sort of found a few ways around it if you use your imagination (which is what half of playing the Sims is about anyway, right?) For instance, on many apartment buildings in NYC or Boston, the first floor often hosts a small business of some kind. So in my lots, I've been making several first floor businesses like laundromats or gyms on the first floor. In one I even added a "coffee shop" as a public room, which is sort of like a self serve coffee place with all the best coffee makers in the game.

Thirdly, I'm trying to move everything to be as closely and densely packed as possible. Part of the huge draw to living in the city is that everything is mere steps from your doorstep. Playing the default Bridgeport city, I felt that my Sim was wasting just as much time getting from A to B as she was living in the previous Sim suburb type areas. So I've started laying out a lot of places like grocery stores, bars, and whatnot so that it's not like an hour long trek across town to run errands or meet up with friends.

And lastly, repetition. If you've ever been to NYC or Boston, you've probably noticed that a lot of neighborhoods are more or less the same building over and over and over again that have grown unique over two centuries of subtle customization. In building my new neighborhoods in my redesigned Bridgeport, I start by using the same cookiecutter buildings over and over again. Once I have the whole lot built to basic specifications, I go into each building and customize it just ever so slightly so that each building looks just different enough.

Here's my screenies so far:

















Anyway, I guess let me know what you think. I'm really looking for some pointers on this, so if anyone has tried to make a city in this type of style before please give me some pointers!

Wow, fantastic! I love what you've done. It even feels like certain parts of Chicago to me, like the Lincoln Park neighborhood. I think you did a great job! Are those actually apartments that you made (using the cheats like restrictbuildbuyinbuildings) or are they houses? Do you have anyone living in them yet?

Wow! Those are lovely! I love what you did with the place!

Try downloading a custom town, there are some really good cities made already

After reading your post, I was expecting to see the same high-rise shell again and again and again, like so many builders have done before. You actually have put regular buildings next to the shells, and made it look natural.

Bridgetown may one day be a good town with your endevour. Otherwise its an absolute shambles.

Really nice. Definitely has the city feel. Keep up the good work!

I do like your style! But what would make LN cities feel even more alive would have been to have more traffic and more pedestrians out on the streets! I guess EA thought our computers couldn't handle it :D

It's kind of funny that in order to make the "big city" feel, I'm actually tossing out most of the high-rises. It's realistic though... the vast majority of residential buildings in Boston, and even New York City, are under 5 floors.

Also yes, I do have livable apartments in the neighborhood now. I haven't started officially playing my new creation yet, as I'm still trying to work out all the bugs. One problem I've run into is that on the uppermost floor of a few of the structures (where I made a cheapy apartment), the roof slant makes the very front of the apartment unusable. So I'm having to redesign some stuff based on that.

Also, I can't seem to get NPCs to move into the doors that I mark as NPC apartments. Though maybe I should give them more time.

And yes, one of the things that's always bugged me is that there's never many people around in Late Night. Unless you go to the bar that's the "spot" for a given night, everywhere is dead. I might just make some huge 8 person families and plop them in a few houses just to add some extra people to the neighborhood.

I love the buildings, it does remind me of Chicago also. Uptown area have apartments like those, Wrigleyville area too. Might make me play some of the new CC cities out there if I could get those buildings.

It is true, big cities have reproductions of the same building up and down the block. Just a little change of the bricks outside. Good job!

This is the same kind of thing I wanted to do in my game but was never able to correctly execute. I think your buildings look great, and I love the idea of having "businesses" on the first floor of the apartments. Also, I like how the rabbit hole buildings blend in with your buildings; it took me a minute to realize they were even there. In EA's version, some of the rabbit holes stick out like a sore thumb and are in the middle of nowhere (the grocery store comes to mind). I also agree that everything should be closer together. It takes way too long to get from one place to another the way everything's spread out, which can be problematic if your Sims want to visit 5 hot spots or get drinks at X number of bars.

I think you're doing a great job of capturing the big city feel so far; I hope you decide to release your version of Bridgeport for download sometime!

Oh, wow. That looks incredible. Excellent job in blending everything in.

Are all the row houses linked together? Like, are they apartment shells with only one usable apartment, a large home on one lot designed to appear as a row of houses or single houses on their own lots that have been edited to be right next to each other?

Each lot has one apartment in it. It's generally squeezed into the tight space of one of the row houses. I've also made a top floor apartment in one of the row houses that takes up the space of two row houses' upper floor.

All of the apartments are very small, though. You really have to be creative in laying them out. A 2x4 room as a kitchen is especially fun!





Furnished it's about 11k, unfurnished it's just 1.7k! That's the apartment I designed as the "starter" apartment in my redesigned neighborhood. I may make another starter apartment just to add some variety. The other apartment I've already made is a true townhouse, occupying the first two floors of one of the rowhouses.

Wow I'm loving what you've got going on there.

Your city is amazing, hopefully you will consider putting it up for download.



Emptiness is really a problem in LN. Adding "townie" families into the town does help, I did the same thing in my own town because I got bored of all the default faced sims the game generates, as well as never having anybody in the clubs. Basically I shifted everybody from Bridgeport and twinbrooks and put them into empty lots that I hid in the forest so they are out of sight, but still there to keep the town populated.

Also, what helps in having more people in the clubs, is limiting the number of clubs in the hood. It's also not only clubs that attract sims during the night, but Hangout lots as well, even thou technically they are not bars.

Great apartments, I would probably download this world.

This is really great! I seriously hope that you upload this project when you're done, I would love to download it.

So I guess I'll eventually upload this when I'm done, since people seem to want it! hehe

A few things though... I'd like someone to help me out with like beta testing it, and also to help me remove some of the Store and custom content stuff. There's some custom content that will be left in, but not much.

Also, I'm looking for ideas for what to fill in with the rest of the city hehe.

One idea I've been working on is redesigning one of the skyscrapers as an office building on the inside (redoing the gym skyscraper actually), but it will be zoned as a library. It could be a neat place for your author sims feel like they're actually going to work. Or other sims that would benefit from the library motives.

you should put the world on the website it looks very nice

Y'know, Sarah did a little of this on Redcliffs Late-Night edition. You may find some ideas in her designs or vice-versa: http://awesims.sixty-ten.net/2010/1...for-the-sims-3/ Its only a few buildings in the downtown, but she was creative in mixed-use type of thing...

This is FANTASTIC. Seriously, you should upload this.

Looks Awesome! I definitely see a lot of the Chicago references, especially in the coffee shop picture. Oh how I miss it

It would nice to try out the world if and when you upload it

This I like. Great job man.

i would surely download or test this if u upload it, AWESOME JOB MAN, KEEP UP

if you want we could create a neighbourhood like that, im prety good in CAW, and i like american rowhouse style

Last edited by ThEtYrOnEgUy : 26th Mar 2011 at 12:47 PM.

bumpy bump

OMG Is this finished?!?! Are you gonna upload it!!!! It looks like a real "big city", really good!!

Has this been abandoned?