get my lots closer together like on these pics ?http://lakesideheights.blogspot.com...-sims-live.html
I want my town to feel like that one how do i go about that? With businesses I get frustrated just because I want to take my sims to custom places but someone always owns them because of that so it takes a lot of time to set up ik it is worth it but i'm low on ideas for businesses that can be unique for the town.
I have already started some takeout resturants (a cupcake shop, hamburger, cake, pizza, and an ice cream shop).

Why don't you download premade lots to save time?

Most of the time you should be able to place lots right next to one another. If you find you can't do this that means the terrain is not even enough. It doesn't matter if it is on a slope but I find if the grid lines parallel to the road are fairly even there is no problem placing lots. There might be more to it than that but doing that is working for me atm.

How about a bar, or grocery store, clothing stores, public swimming pool, local library (for sims to go when they need to study or a study date with someone), a romantic restaurant, a gym, bowling alley, beauty palour and/or spa, plastic surgeon, toy shop, robot shop, pet store, ice skating rink, fishing spot and marina that sells fresh fish with a seafood restaurant by the shore. A witches lair.

I want to make a photography studio with premade settings and backdrops and nice lighting so my families can go get professional family photos. There's a downloadable camera on a tripod on this site. You could even do glamour photography, like have them pose in front of a blank fashion magazine cover (made with custom wallpaper) then hang that on their wall. There is a photoframe on this site where you can click on it and browse for any photo from your computer or sims folder and have it in your game. Quite cool. You could make a sim who is a professional photographer to manage the store. You could also do this on any community lot by calling the photograher and ask them to take photos. Only problem is the photographer is doing some pro bono work. Same could be done with an artist. There is the build buy enabled on community lots mod that would allow you to take an easel to any lot.

There are carnival stuff to download. Rebecah's riding stuff like her hot air balloon.

Maxon mentioned recently a beach neighbourhood that you can download here where you could have a retirement village or a new upmarket estate. If you are a little savvy you could add beach lots to your main hood. I managed it. If you computer is not great this might cause your computer to crash a few times while making it allegedly. Mine didn't.

Smaller lots, built closer together. If you're using enormous lots, with a small building in the middle, your neighbourhood is going to look pretty empty. There are tons of lovely lots you can download here, plus empty, custom tiny lots as small as 1x1.

Yep. Small lots built closer together. A great tool is the Lot Adjuster which allows you to build pseudo row houses. i don't build unless I have to, I use plasticbox homes a lot.


Here's a photo to show how you can get a tightly built look using small lots. Most of these lots are 2x1.





And here is a street view:





The Castle (on the little island) is the biggest lot by far at 4x4:




Most parks are 3x3.

What really helps make hood seem tight-knit as it were is the terrain. The terrain makes all the difference, because if you have 3x3 squares (I mean the squares that make up your city blocks) between roads instead of 5x5 or 7x7 you will not have the empty space in the middle of a full block of houses. (If you understood that, have a cookie.)

I would not be able to achieve such a look with the terrain that pleasantview came on, for example.

Your hood looks beautiful Liv! Is the terrain a downloadable?

There are times where flat empty spots in my hood still don't allow lots to be places. Is that a problem with anyone elses hood?

I had that problem. It's something to do with the maximum slope of the ground having a maximum of 35%... or something like that. It can be altered (I think I made mine about 60% because I was sick of tiny bumps in my terrain making thinkgs unplaceable) but I cannot for the life of me remember HOW I did it. I'll have to go and look.

who made the photo frame that lets me pick any picture from my sim photos i need that because i wanted to make that business too! also if you can tell me where you found magazine wallpaper because that would go great for my modeling agency! I'm going to turn bluewater village into my beach themed neighborhood im currently working with the neighborhood of pleasantview.
i understand what you mean exactly because i was having the issue of having spacing the middle of a block and i didn't know how to solve that issue so i will take that advice thank you that has helped me alot.
I do use some premade buildings for things that i know for surei can't build myself like a movie theater. I'm going to do a wedding reception area next and maybe make it bright and vegas like because i'm going to use the elvis arch .
I use some of simlogical business hacks my main concern is when playing a business lot and my workers quit how can i stop that?

This can be caused by deco (even a stop sign can block a lot), incompatible terrain, etc.

If worse comes to worse, you can move a lot into place using the LotAdjuster.

That used to happen to me, even when I don't place a lot near a junction.

It occurred to me that when this issue happened, the area where I am trying to place the lot is somewhat dark green and won't allow me to lace a lot, while the ares that don't have the dark-green-shaded area are fully useable.

The photo frames are here: http://www.aussietopenders-sims2.com/hackedobjects.htm

The four frame is cool as it takes a photobooth style set of anyone in the neighbourhood without needing to go to the photobooth. The other three let you browse anywhere on your computer. They have more great stuff. Check out their programs too.

The fashion magazine cover is something I thought of the other day. I don't know if anyone has made this. It should be easy to do homecrafter. I'll make some. Did you play the Urbz? When your sim became popular they would appear on celebrity posters throughout the neighbourhood. You could do something like that too.

I'd recommend doing a tutorial on editing the neighbourhood terrain elevation. There is only four buttons to learn. You can't undo the actions so best to practice on a testhood until you get confident. And get Mootilda's lot adjuster too for stubborn areas or if you want to place a lot away from the road to fill in blank spaces. In miscellaneous flooring there are road tiles to make decorative roads. There's no gutters on these roads though but someone probably has made one. It wouldn't be difficult to do with homecrafter.

Thank you for the link i can't wait to try it out! Yes i do remember the Urbz and that idea was something i wanted to implement in the town so my models would advertise businesses or schools and such or just be celebrities.

Dwn2ridehtchck, I remember you were making a daycare centre and wanted to make custom books. Did you figure out how to do that?

I started building my photography/modelling studio and downloaded some simlish fonts. For the fashion magazine covers the magazine name could go on the wall behind the model and have a transparent overlay that could be added to the image later in gimp or paint (otherwise the model will cover up the headline text). It could be done ingame but mines getting a little heavy on cc.

We could even make our own magazines and magazine racks to sell them.

It's a business that could get really involved and lots of sims could be hired as models. I'm not sure how it would make money to cover expenses though. Mine has a Starbucks which could have a bakery section. There is also a bar, function hall and fashion runway. Do you have the fashion show controller? This business will need a lot of employees. Is there a way to get sims to do more than one task autonomously?

I've also built several rooms and outdoor areas where photoshoots will be set up. Do you have the cas lights? They are perfect. Another problem though, the lights on my lots stop working when there's about 50. I could reuse the CAS lights but still I need a heap more lights. Maybe there is a way to adjust the lighting limit?

I'd like a bead curtain too like they had in Bustin' Out.

Edit: I made magazine titles with a transparent background using the silversurfer posters. That way you can choose your own wallpaper and mix n match. Then copy and pasted the overlay with gimp. The overlay design is copied from a Cleo magazine. Let me know what you think.