#oak hill

[hazelpuff]

Very random gameplay photos from Spooky Hill, Oak Hill and Fairlake University

[unteriors]

Lee Road, Oak Hill, New York.

[aondaneedles]

So curious if you have any real life places inspiration for each of your neighborhoods? Oak Hill is Pacific Northwest, right? How do you pick architectural style and stick to it? Sorry for so many questions. I tried to play bacc once and boy the houses were a mess. Never looked coherent.

Hi! I definitely take inspiration from real-life places. For regions I'm familiar with - like Rodeburg - it can be something I've seen previously, for unfamiliar regions I do a lot of googling and usually decide on a town or city and use Google Maps to find interesting places.

Other than a general geographical area, I also look at what else is important to the "story" of the place. For example, my original inspiration for Oak Hill was a non-fiction book I read about economic devastation in rural America. I knew that I wanted my town to be also a "forgotten" town, but not as economically devasted as the inspiration behind it (and let's be real, I don't many people want a reminder of the opioid epidemic in their Sims game). I also drew inspiration from a(n adult) book series I read about rural West Virginia as a kid. So I took to Google Maps and had a look around Yamhill, Oregon (the town featured in said non-fiction book), took screenshots of interesting structures and kind of merged that with the idea of that other town in the book series. Then it's just finding similar-looking buildings and kind of creating a mood board of sorts. This usually lets you spot similarities and more often than not I wind up with an idea of what kind of architecture distinctly marks that area. I often also look at the lots section of MTS and the floorplans I can find there and "adapt" them to what I've settled on for the exterior. Charts about different architectural styles help as well. I've got a few about different American building styles saved on my PC (since I'm decidedly non-American). A few even feature little comments on where and when these styles were popular, which helps - for example, a ranch-style house works for the Southwest but would stick out like a sore thumb in, let's say, something urban Boston-inspired. Being somewhat aware of the history of the place you're taking inspiration from helps, too (says the historian).

Some notes on the inspiration between a few of my other hoods under a read more because this is already long enough.

Rodeburg - Germany. But a fairytale version of Germany, with a lot of timbered houses, almost like what you can find in Alsace-Lorraine. That plus several estates from my general area (Greater Ruhr Area) since plenty of the Sims that live there are very rich and influential. Direct inspiration from several famous estates nearby (Villa Hügel for example). Since I was a beginner, there are several lots where I just decided to "wing it" and that shows. Those are the lots that stick out.

Cactus Canyon University - I googled "ugliest college campuses", "Brutalist College campus" and stuff like that and went from there. Interestingly enough, most of my inspo was from the East Coast. Also looked at in-game college campuses to see what community lots I'd need to provide my Sims with (college campuses are rare where I come from, my alma mater being one of few exceptions. Universities here are usually spread around town). Once again, somewhat cutified because it is the Sims after all.

Saguaro Desert - a lot of googling southern US ghost towns and those tourist trap-type Western towns. I also looked at floor plans on MTS for this one (mostly the Navarro farm and the Research Station).

Jubilee - went traipsing around Google Maps until I found an interesting tiny small town in hilly desert terrain (unfortunately don't remember the town name anymore). Jubilee ended up flat but I definitely took inspiration from the houses there.

Kersey Cove - started off with a general idea of what I wanted to do with Plasticbox's Elsewhere on MTS as my inspiration, went into a Google rabbit hole and ended up in Rockport, Massachusetts on Google Maps. That was the biggest inspiration. Also, Moby Dick. And some book about teenagers spending a summer in a coastal small town overrun by teenage vampires (?) which I did not finish but inspired the Kersey Cove mermaid myth. From then on I went pretty Lovecraftian (putting my other university major to good use) and here we are.

[doubleclutch]

It’s always MJ Monday but since Carmelo retired on a Monday AND “Melo Monday” has a nice ring to it. Let’s start it with today.

[nef-ar10us]

Currently building/setting up a new uberhood made out of custom populated neighborhoods that I like to play, because I can never decide and stick to one thing. It's mostly desert setting so I'll probably make "empty" subhoods containing only the Sims out of the non-desert ones, so I can just add the Sims and move them in somewhere else. Main hood is gonna be Strangetown, but because I'm a completionist I've downloaded the Overkill-Strangetown SC4 Terrain by @chrisnewbie and plan to put all the Strangetown Sims from all the games in there, possibly add La Fiesta Tech and maybe even the TS2 Stories Sims (probably not though. Or maybe only Pet Stories).

So my current set-up looks like this:

- Main: Strangetown (uber version, no or few townies)

- Downtown: Emerald Heights

- University: Cactus Canyon, Quadington, LFT (Playable Sims + Secret Society only)

- Vacation: Winter Wonderland (mountain), possibly Felicity Island (tropical), ??? (far east). Maybe turn Nekojima into vacation hood? Hmm.

- Subhood 1: Sedona Deluxe + Copperhead City (Sims only) + maybe Pitstop Valley

-Subhood 2: Jeans Shaker Oasis

- Subhood 3: Service Area

- Subhood 4: Saguaro Desert + Douglasville + maybe Blackrock (no or few townies)

- Subhood 5: Softpines (on a dirt terrain) + Oak Hill + Oaken Valley

- Subhood 6: Arkhelios + Winterose (Sims only) + Nekojima (if not Vacation Hood)

I also got the Sims of Polgannon, Nekojima (not sure what to do with them yet) ... I've removed the bulk of dead ancestors from all the hoods to strip them down a little [edited to add I've also removed excess NPCs from all the hoods so far, in particular those stupid useless drivers] but still feel like this *might* be slightly overkill. Lol.

[saralynnx]

Oak Hill

“Settled on the side of Wright Mountain, Oak Hill is little more than a hamlet you may drive through if you accidentally got off the Interstate too early, but for the people who live there, it’s home. For years, rumors of a secret pack of werewolves have been spread around the area, and many locals are sceptic of the Sims that live there. A suspicious string of deaths over the past 15 years only added to the suspicion of the townspeople. However, if you look past the surface, you will find a town that deeply cares about each other and the future of their little community.”

Oak Hill is by @aondaneedles and is a hood I’ve loved since it was released last summer! I think it’s a perfect little hood for easing back into my return, and I plan to play it through this summer at least! <3

[jennicortricousviolin]

And just like that, thanks to one of my favorite episodes of Bones, I'm back to @aondaneedles Oak Hill 💚

[cardinalfandom]