Community Center

A number of years ago when I spent most of my free time playing the original Sims, I created the above lot, which I titled "the Community Center". It was one of my favorite two lots, a must in any neighborhood I played, and saw a lot of use. The design was rather simple, but I was able to put a lot of stuff on the lot -- a pool, basketball court,  playground for children, blankets for the sun-worshipers, and so on. Families could buy food from vendors or grill outside: a telescope attracted a lot of attention, some of it extraterrestrial. I liked the idea of a family being able to come here and spend the day doing a variety of things, interacting with their neighbors.



Today I decided to rebuild in in The Sims 2, and the above is the result. It's not done yet: I imagine repeated visits to the lot will give me ideas for how to make it look or work better, but it's a very solid start, I think. I called it the "Gene Debs Community Center" after one of my Sims, the former mayor of the town who recently died. He was named after a real-world personality and shared the same politics, although probably not the same personality. My idea in the original lot was that the "Green Gaians" -- a petitioner group from SimCity 3000 Unlimited, which always asked the mayor for more parks and recreation -- sponsored the center. In The Sims 2, it's "sponsored" by the Debs family (he married into wealth).



The above is the center proper. I wasn't able to translate all of its elements, but I tried. This building is actually more useful than the Sims 1 version, allowing Sims to buy clothing and groceries. An in-store diner takes the place of vendors and is much more efficent. Sims can also dance, watch television, and read while a bird and fish stare at them.




Here we see the playground area. A basketball hoop is mounted on the end of the building, while a playground for children and Sims who are young at heart is immediately near. There are showers behind that wall, a carryover from the original game.  At the other end of the lot, you can see a soccer goal: this replaces a stretch of payment with a smoothie vendor from the original. This is an improvement. Note areas where grass can no longer live because of heavy foot traffic: this is one of those little touches you can add to make appearances more realistic.



Behind the center is the garden, an area which recquires more work. My original idea was for a twisting path lined by hedges, with plenty of flowers and the odd pocket or so where couples in love could sit on a bench and talk by themselves. The hinterarea isn't quite as large as that would recquire, but I'm making do. Still, I want to revisit this area.



This is one of my favorite areas: families can grill meals and then enjoy them under shade trees. I wish Sims 2 had picnic benches as the original game did, but this is lovely nonetheless. I would put a telescope in this area, but they don't seem to be available in Community mode.



Here we have a little open area and the stage, which Sims can use to play instruments or get married on. Nearby is the phone "booth", a little room with a phone and a place to sit to wait for the taxi. In the original game I tried for a "gazebo" effect, but here I just went with a little shack. This is the only building on the lot with a pitched roof, by the way: the rest are straight asphalt. I put pet beds nearby for Sims who bring their dogs.







This is the neighborhood view. I've sent a few Sims to this lot to test out its functions and it seems to work all right, although I haven't yet tried the grill or marriage arch out yet.  Comparing the two, I see Sims 2 has a lot less pavement.