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Tutorial:
Making Starter Homes Using the Depreciation Method, Without Killing
Any Sims
"A
Golden Opportunity"
Starter Lot I made for a contest at
The SIMposium.
(Click Thumbnails to see Larger Versions)
Learning
to make starter homes--lots with a move-in cost of $20,000 or
less--that look really nice and contain everything a Sim needs for
life and then some, is an art. There are several methods of creating
starter lots:
-
Using the smallest lot, create a tiny house with unpainted
walls, no foundation, cheap floors (or just use the ground
and some terrain paint to color it), one window, one door, a
teensy 1s3 bathroom, and the bare necessities of life...not
very pretty, and rather boring for your Sims.
-
Using the smallest lot, create a tiny house and paint the
walls and cover the floors with HomeCrafter content that is
set at $0 for the purchase price. Then put in one window,
one door, a teensy 1x3 bathroom, and the bare necessities of
life...prettier, but still rather boring for your Sims.
-
Using one of the smaller lots, create a medium-sized house
and use walls and floors that cost $8-$12 per panel/tile.
This will keep your Sims from being bored by being much more
environmentally happy than they will with either of the
above choices. In order to give your Sims the necessities of
life, however, you'll have to learn how to depreciate the
lot value.
You also
have a couple of choices when using the #3 option. You are going to
have to go through more than one Sim to live temporarily on your lot
while you build, decorate, and depreciate it. You can choose to kill
off your Sim when you need to move in a new one (you can't just move
the Sim out, or you'll lose all of your decorating efforts in one
fell swoop), or you can be merciful and use the following method (Sims2Pack
Clean Installer required). Also, you'll need to be using
NightLife or above, in order to be able to easily ascertain the Lot
Value from within the lot.
-
Use any Sim in your Family Bin, or create a new one. Then
begin your lot, using Option #3 above. It's OK to use the
"motherlode" cheat if you want, in order to have enough
money with which to build a pretty, nicely-furnished home.
You aren't going to end up with a Sim in the house, anyway.
It's the lot value alone that is going to be depreciated.
-
While you're building and decorating the first stage, don't
put in much lighting, and leave wall decorations and
sculptures out. They don't depreciate well, and will just
make your job more difficult.
-
Start with the necessities of life: (a) fridge; (b) phone;
(c) fire alarm; (d) bed; (e) table; (f) chair; (g) toilet;
(h) sink; (i) counter; (j) bookcase; (k) radio; (l) shower.
Don't use the cheapest ones unless you really want to. You
want your choices to be able to depreciate (lose their
value) and still look nice in the long run. In other words,
if you start with a small fridge (which will limit your
Sims' food choices), you will end up with a small fridge.
Use one of the big ones, keeping to the medium-price-range
models if you like. You need the radio for fitness or fun.
You don't need the TV unless you can afford it at this
point. If you put in the bookcase, your Sim will be able to
study or just read for fun. You'll probably want two chairs
if you can afford it--one for company. One counter space is
needed for creating some foods. For the shower, feel free to
use the cheapest one, because you can build a nice shower
stall with walls and curtains (or a glass door), and the
shower works just as well as any of the others.
-
Be
sure to put in at least a modicum of windows, for light.
Your Sims appreciate windows in their environmental scores.
-
Once you have established a pleasant little house, check out
the lot value by going into either Build or Buy mode. You'll
find the little blue Lot Value icon in the top left corner.
Chances are that you've gone at least somewhat over the
$20,000 marker that makes up a true Starter Home.
-
Now's the time to play your initial Sim for a while. Give
the Sim a chance to check things out on the lot, to be sure
all your paths are open and clear for Sim use. You can
choose to play at regular speed, or set the speed to 3 and
watch the hours fly by. If you do that, you'll probably want
to use the "maxmotives" cheat to keep your Sim going strong
while the lot is depreciating.
-
Right after midnight on the lot clock, check the Lot Value
again. You'll see that it has dropped significantly. Keep
using this method for several days, until you find that the
value isn't dropping very much from one day to the next.
-
Go
out to the neighborhood, saving your lot.
-
Package the lot to a file.
-
Move the existing lot (Sim and all) to the Lots Bin. Do NOT
just move your Sim out! You'll lose all your hard work, if
you do.
-
Quit the game.
-
Go
to your game folders, find your packaged lot, and install it
to the game, using Clean Installer. Use the house option
icon (top left line of icons in Clean Installer) to Install
Lot File Only. Since you made the lot, you don't need to
reinstall any custom content, and you don't want the Sim to
be on the lot.
-
Go
back into the game, and into the neighborhood. Make sure you
have a free Sim in the Family Bin.
-
Move any free Sim into your re-installed, unoccupied lot.
All the furnishings will be just as you left them.
-
Play this Sim and refine your furnishings, decorations,
lighting, landscaping, and whatever else you want to do,
keeping an eye on the Lot Value. While this is happening,
you MAY have to get an appliance or two repaired. Feel free
to borrow the $$$ to do that, if you need to. Do NOT buy new
appliances if one has problems. If you do, you'll have to
depreciate it all over again. A repaired appliance keeps
lowering in value until it reaches the bottom of the range
that is set for it in the game. Once the Lot Value seems to
not be going any lower again, after a night or two, repeat
steps H-O until you get your lot where you want it to be.
With each new Sim you move in, you will have at least a
SMALL chance at depreciation. You'll want to save plants,
wall decorations, sculptures, and yard lighting until you
have depreciated at least once, because those things all
depreciate more slowly than most other things. Terrain
Paints, by the way, don't cost you anything to apply, so go
to town with those, to raise environmental scores for your
Sims and make your lot look more friendly and natural.
-
There will come a point when moving in a new Sim isn't going
to help. At that point, you may have to remove a few items
to get your ending value down to the $20,000 Starter Home
level. By then, however, you'll be removing luxury items,
not necessity items, and your lot should look very nice. You
should be able to have a nicely-landscaped yard, a small
car, a swimming pool, some fun items, beautiful walls and
floors, and lots of luxuries inside the house.
-
I've been reminded (thank you hillcrest1414) that it's a
good thing right before you "lose" your final Sim, to make
sure the housecleaning is done! Make sure there are no holes
in the yard (if you have Pets), and that no dirty plates
have been left anywhere, and all the trash has been emptied,
and all sorts of little things like that. Also, you may want
to make sure all visitors have LEFT the lot before you go
out to the neighborhood and package it. Packaging while
visitors (human or animal) are on the lot can cause some
confusion and possibly some strange things floating around
when you install the lot WITHOUT Sims for the final version.
-
Also, the final step to save the Starter Home for others to
upload, is to install it that one last time--without Sims.
Then place the lot in the neighborhood, and package it for
the final time (to save yourself a copy). Then upload it to
the Exchange, or to any place where you have your lots
hosted.
By the
way...the lots that you moved into your Lots Bin during all the Sim
changes, are great to put into other neighborhoods, or even into the
same neighborhood, to help populate the hood. Also, you can use them
to choose different depreciation paths, to see if one thing works
better than another.
Above all,
have fun Simming! :-) |
