I recently decided I'd try out the Active Careers that come with the Get To Work expansion. I started the Detective Career, and quickly found the need to update (or backdate?) everything at the Police Station. Sadly, I found very little custom content that filled my little Victorian niche, so I decided to try make stuff myself! How hard could it be, right‽
Not as easy as I thought; but, here I am at the end -- ready to share with you all!
First things first: when your Sim has arrived at the Police Station, use ctrl+shift+c to open the cheat menu, type in: bb.enablefreebuild
This enables you to edit the lot - you can now go into Build/Buy. I went into the Gallery and searched for "Police Station" and chose one that I thought would fit in for the period I play, and replaced the police station already there. Now, time to re-decorate!!
The Police Station requires some items in order to complete the career tasks, and for NPCs to do their various jobs - and, I wasn't able to make period appropriate versions for everything, because some functions are too complicated to try work out how to roll it back 🫠
You will need:
1/ Reception/Security desk with a computer on it
2/ Office area with computers and a Crime Map
3/ Fingerprint/Mugshot/Search station
4/ Lab with analyser
5/ Jail cells - group and single cells
6/ Interrogation table
7/ Gym/work-out area for staff
The gaol (which is pronounced "jail" 🤣), during the Victorian-era, had received some updates, after probably centuries of very poor conditions. So, prisoners were afforded some essential comforts, such as beds, and were kept more in cells rather than chains on a wall.
Looking at pictures of some Victorian-built gaols, I put together an image of what I wanted, which reflect in these items in the set (total of 18 items):
Three sizes of glass-less barred windows (Base Game Compatible)
Prison cell bars - tall, medium, and short (Requires Get To Work)
Divider poles, where you can separate the bars, or put in corners - tall, medium, and short (Requires Get To Work)
Two types of cell doors, group and single - tall, medium, and short (Requires Get To Work)
Reception/security desk (Requires Get To Work)
Interrogation table (Requires Get To Work)
Special oil lamp for the interrogation table (Requires Get To Work)
Download the Gaol Set for free from my Patreon here!
More info under the cut!
Now for details on each item:
Three sizes of barred windows; no glass, with bars on the outside (curved out like I've seen a lot); deco slots for the window-sill, in case you want to put a light, or other decoration at the window. 8 swatches each.
‼️NOTE: there are weird cuts that come out from the curved top of the windows - I've tried various things to try fix this, but even the best creators have had this issue and are unable to fix it! If you use a wall with texture, you really don't notice it much - hopefully this doesn't deter you!!
Three heights of bars, dividers, doors. 6 swatches each.
To ensure your gaol cell is secure, and to ensure the Sims know what is inside and what is outside - always ensure the ARROW, in the green footprint, Points OUTWARDS.
The left side of the bars juts out, so there's not a random empty space between them. And you can use the divider pole however you like - but it fits nicely in the jut-out bit, as well as in corners
Each door size has two versions - single cell (only one Sim can be locked in at a time); and group cell (multiple sims can be locked in).
Next is the reception, or security desk (you should be able to use this in Hospitals as well). 11 swatches.
You need to put a computer here, for the Receptionist to do receptiony things.
There is a telephone there - unfortunately part of the Receptionist's animations is picking up and answering a phone. If I deleted the phone, the animation would still play - and a phone would magically appear in the Sim's hand; so I decided to keep it.
And finally we have the Interrogation Table and Lamp. One swatch each.
The lamp has a double wick, and a shade to try angle and direct a bright light on the suspect (Off-the-grid!).
The game's interrogation table has a lamp attached to it - you can't place anything on the table or remove the lamp. My version has ONE slot on the table, where you need to place the lamp.
I think the interrogation table caused me the most problems. Firstly, I couldn't do what the game table has - a joined lamp, the flame animations just would not work - so this is why there's a separate lamp.
Also, I discovered that, despite having ~6 different swatches, the game interrogation table only works on swatch 1. I almost didn't include it in the set until I figured out where this bit of code was, and changed it to my table.
Now it works perfectly! I am so happy!
As a side note - the detective career is so buggy sometimes, I'm astonished that none of these weird issues have been fixed, considering it was the from the first expansion pack.
Anyway, ENJOYY
Download the Gaol Set for free from my Patreon here!
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