Friday 22 October 2010

Novak Hall - a lot tour

Some of you will have already seen this lot tour at N99, so please feel free to skip this post if you have! I was asked to share it here too though, so for those of you who haven't seen it yet, enjoy!

Novak Hall is an extensive makeover of the Apple Plaza dorm by Babbelsim. I'll stress that the original lot is fantastic but for the way I personally move the camera around when I play, it didn't work well for me. I also wanted larger rooms, because I was keen to try out double beds, and roommates.

Here's the floor plan of the first storey.

And the second storey. Let's all just ignore all that empty space!

The entrance. Currently, this dorm is home to Malcolm, Nathan, Susannah and Julia, so I'll point out their rooms as we get to them.

Boring hallway. Most of the posters you'll see in the hallways were made by me.

There are lockers in the hallway, mainly because I find it handy to have a dresser right by the entrance. I use coat stands in a lot of my houses but that didn't seem as realistic for a dorm.

The common room.

Yeah, there are fights for those computers when everyone rolls up the "Do Term Paper" want on the first day of classes (so realistic, EA - I don't think I rolled a term paper want the entire time I was at uni).

You can tell this was before I moved anyone in. The floor around the couch is now littered with books. Most of them were left there by Malcolm and Nathan really does clean them all up!

The girls' bathroom.

I had to swap these showers out for the Maxis ones. They aren't cloned from the public showers, so Sims will shoo each other out of the room when using them, so they got annoying. I still prefer these though.

The boys' bathroom is basically identical, so just a quick peek.

I still like the cafeteria a lot.

It's nice and bright. If I ever want to make custom things for Suffolk University, they'll be red and whtie

An as yet unoccupied room. This is one of the roommate dorms. They're all "customised" but if I need to move in somebody who doesn't suit the room, I'll just switch things around.


Another unoccupied room. A little more gender neutral than the last one. I've made a rule for myself that I'm not allowed to change the walls or floors in the dorms on a whim, so I made them all neutral looking.

This one should look familiar to you. This is Nathan and Malcolm's room. That's Nathan's bed.

And Nathan's desk.

And there's Malcolm's bed, before he got to it. That's his chair there - his desk is identical to Nathan's. But he tends to do his assignments in the cafeteria anyway.


This would be Julia's room.

Another unoccupied room.

This is Hope's room. I may have swapped out that dresser, but I can't remember.

Another empty one. At least two of these empty rooms will be filled next year, when Audrey, Jack and Charlie move in.

And this is where Susannah has lived for the past two years and will probably remain for the next two.

Outside, there's an indoor pool. I have a lot of Fitness Sims right now, so this gets a lot of use.

There's a basketball court. I've used the benches on the side for gossip sessions more than I've used the basketball court but Charlie is a Sports Sim, so he'll probably want to use this a lot.

And finally, a garden patch, for any Nature Sims who might move in. Hope is a Fitness Sim, but she's a bit of an environmentalist as well, so I should really get her started on the veggie patch!

Okay, I'm hoping to have a real update for you guys tomorrow! I should get to write it today. :)

9 comments:

  1. Really lovely! I love how you spend time with decorating the rooms. I do have a question for you though. I have to redo my dorms, mainly the freshman dorm. I wanted room mates, and so I place two uni doors on each of my double rooms. It worked fine for the first year, but now the dorm is all wonky. So how who doors do you use for room mates?

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  2. I don't think I've ever posted a comment this soon after you posted the update, but then again it's almost 1am here, and I really should be getting to bed because I have to work tomorrow :)

    Anyway this looks great!! When I see your sims in their dorms it always gives me ideas to build one of my own, but I'm never inspired enough!
    I love the lay out, the decoration, the though you've put in to it all,.. I love it all! As always you keep inspiring me to try these kind of things in SimsVille too :)
    I absolutly love the idea of room mates!
    Lots of thinking and sketching to do at work tomorrow :)
    Thanks for sharing!

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  3. Thanks for your comments, guys. :)

    Riverdale, I just use the regular EA dorm doors. Nothing special there.

    Have you tried moving the whole household out and then in again? All the furnishings will be exactly as they were when you move them back in again. That might reset the wonkiness and it's what I'm planning to do if I ever run into issues and can't fix it any other way.

    Some people report problems with townie roommates, others have no issues, so making sure only two playables or two townies share a room might help head off any problems. Leaving the second door off until you know you need it might help with that.

    Tanja, I'm glad to hear I've inspired you! You've certainly given me some inspiration over the past couple of months with the awesome lots you've been building! I'd love to see what comes of your sketching. :) And I'm glad to know I'm not the only one who writes and sketches Sim stuff at work!

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  4. The dorm really came out great. I love the way you furnished the rooms, and the indoor pool is quite nifty as well :D
    If only our dorms would have been this pretty.
    I think I will be sneaking some of your ideas for my own dorms. Thank you for the inspiration :)

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  5. Thank you for the compliment about me inspiring you!
    And no, you're not the only one who does those things at work. I think about my sims a little bit too much I think, because I think about it most of the time :)
    By the way, work can be boring, I need to keep myself busy :p

    I forgot to say that I really think the pool looks amazing, indoor and kind of outdoor too. I might steel that from you :)

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  6. What a great lot! I love the little book nook of the common room, and the dorm rooms are so spacious! You seem to have every type of sim taken care of with the indoor pool and garden plot to boot!

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  7. Karolin, glad you enjoyed the tour! I never lived in the dorms at uni (they're mostly for interstate and international students here, and most people go to uni in their hometown) but they definitely didn't look this nice from the outside!

    Tanja, oh well, it's true! I just got inspired again when I saw your office building tour at N99!

    I'm the same. If my mind starts to wander, it usually wanders somewhere Simmish, lol!

    gallowaytownship, thanks! Ah, if only the students would use the book nook, instead of scattering the books all over the floor!

    I think I have something for almost every type of Sim. I might add a telescope for Science Sims.

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  8. Wow! This all looks so good. I love the looks of the common rooms and the individual rooms.

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  9. Lunar, thank you! It's a pleasure for me to play and take photos in, and that's the main aim for me when I do a lot. I get bored with a household if they're in a lot I don't like.

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