Hi! I completely understand if you’d rather not, but would you consider sharing your beach pier lot? I’m completely obsessed with it!

Hi hi friend! Normally I wouldn’t mind, but beach lots can be so finicky sometimes with their placement and all. I’ve had to use HoodReplace several times in the making of this lot because I kept destroying the shoreline every time I tried to make a spot to place it. D: I’m sorry!

However, I will happily share some tips and overview pictures under the cut if you’d like to remake it (or create your own!):

As you can see, the lot is only comprised of the boardwalk and the pier. The ferris wheel, narrower piers, rocks, and some of the trees are all strategically placed hood deco! I use this mod to enable hood deco to be placed within lots.

I used the Maxis deck foundation to make the boardwalk slightly elevated, and then I was able to use Mustluvcatz’s tutorial to extend it into a usable pier. 🙂

Some must-have objects can be found in this set and this set! And I’m fairly sure I answered quite a few WCIFs for this lot if you’d like to look through my tag.

If you have any other questions or WCIFs, feel free to send them my way! Hope this helps!

Hi Fi! If it’s not too much trouble, can I ask what kind of computer you have or the specs of it? I’ve been looking for a new computer that can handle Sims 2, 3 & 4 and yours seems to do a good job of 2 and 4. Thank you in advance and have a nice day! :)

Hello hello! No trouble at all. 😀

The computer itself is a Gateway that I bought online for $550 about three years ago. It came with 6 GB of RAM, 1 TB hard drive, and a fairly decent graphics card. I played TS2 for quite some time with the factory components, but I’ve since upgraded it to add an NVIDIA GTX 560 card, new power supply, and a 250 GB SSD. If your financial situation allows you to swing it, I cannot emphasize enough what a difference the SSD has made in my life! ❤ I originally bought it exclusively for simming, but it’s so fast and lovely I use it for everything. 😛

Aside from needing the motherboard replaced less than a year after I got the computer, I haven’t had any problems with it and it runs TS2 perfectly on the highest settings (and loads my 17 GB of custom content in 20-25 minutes). Slight lag on large/crowded lots, but that’s to be expected. All in all, no complaints. 🙂 I’ve only tried TS3 once (and it was before I had the SSD), but I remember the game taking forever to load, even with only two expansion packs and minimal CC. And even once I was in-game, it took forever for things to render. :

TS4 also runs wonderfully from what I’ve experienced so far – negligible loading time, even though I already have 3-4 GB of CC. 🙂

Hope this helps! 🙂

How does your neighborhood / neighborhood deco look so nice from lot view? In my game it looks horrible; trees are pixelated and even the water doesn’t show up. I have my settings on highest everything, am I missing something? Thanks & BTW, I love your simblr and all your pics <3

Thank you for the kind words! ❤ 🙂

Well, in my experience, all lots (aside from the active lot) and most of the Maxis hood deco trees tend to look pixelated from lot view, there’s really nothing to do about that no matter how high the graphics settings are. :

(adding a cut because pictures)

You can see the difference between the house on the left (the active lot I was on) and the one in the background, which is an identical lot but not active. The trees look funky, too. : Some trees translate better in lot view than others – I like using the pine/evergreen trees as opposed to the deciduous ones for that reason.

As for other neighborhood deco, it’s really just trial and error – I’ve downloaded deco buildings from various creators, and some of them have crisper textures in lot view than others (as you can see above). I play around a bit in order to get the best views from various lots. 😉 Also (as you may know if you’ve been following my blog for awhile) I am obsessed with these trees because they look FANTASTIC from lot view. 😀

I’m not sure what the issue with the water could be. It’s been awhile since I’ve played a lot that was near water without being a beach lot. Unless you’re talking about beach lots?

*fires up test hood*

Ah. Eek. Well, there it is – that’s what water looks like from lot view on a non-beach lot in my game. XD Not very pretty, and I also have all the settings on high and a good graphics card. Does yours resemble this?

So unless there’s something we’re both missing, I’m pretty sure those are just the limitations of the game. I hope this helps, I was really just taking a shot in the dark here without reference pictures of the problem to go on. :3 For me, it’s just all about strategic placement of hood deco and playing around with camera angles to get a good shot! 😉

Hey, sorry for asking! My Sims 2 game stopped working all of a sudden, I have Windows 8.1 and i’ve tried changing the paul.dll file, deleting cache files and messing around with the compatibility settings but nothing works and i’m just getting really upset – The Sims 2 is one of the things that’s been helping me cope with life lately :( Do you have any suggestions?

Hi there! I’m really sorry, but I’m not sure why your game would have stopped working. 😦 For me, deleting the cache files usually works in instances where the game just won’t start. Have you tried taking out all your CC and trying to start it? Or looked through this FAQ? I’ve found that following those steps fixes most of my problems.

I’m afraid I have Windows 7 on my computer and have little-to-no experience with Windows 8. 😦 I had to fiddle around a bit to get TS2 to work properly on my sister’s laptop (which has Windows 8) – I tried so many things but finally got it to work after following the instructions in this post. But this was more an issue with getting the game to recognize the dedicated graphics card, it still ran after installing. I’m not sure what the problem is if you used to be able to run it and then it suddenly stopped working. : I guess anything is worth a try though? I’m sorry I couldn’t be of more help! 😦

Do you mind posting a overall picture of your neighborhood please? :)

Oh gosh, now everyone gets to see how terrible I am at decorating/filling up neighborhoods! 😉

I’m making a photoset for easier viewing purposes – I’ll link to the post in a few moments. 🙂

EDIT: Here is the post!

Hi, how do I install Spookymuffin’s lighting mod? I can’t seem to figure out how to do it – do I just put it into downloads… or…? :D

Hi there! 😀 The lighting mod is actually a .txt file that will replace the Maxis lighting file. I spoke about it a little bit here. If you play TS2 on discs, just follow the instructions in the GoS thread to install it – remember to rename your Maxis lighting file to something else (like “lightingbackup.txt”) so the game will no longer recognize it (but you still have it as a backup), and remember to rename Spookymuffin’s mod to “lighting.txt” so the game will recognize it. 🙂

If you installed TS2 using the Ultimate Collection, the install path will be a bit different – I mentioned that in my other ask. 🙂 But you will still have to rename the file either way!

I hope this helps! And I’m sorry I took so long to reply to your ask D: you’ve probably figured out how to do this without my help! :3

Hi! Sorry if i’m being dumb but, that lighting mod you use, I installed it to my game but.. There’s no changes? :( Like, all the lighting is the same, there’s no dawn or dusk, I don’t know what I’ve done wrong, do I have to start on a new lot to see the changes?

Hmmm, I’m not really sure. Did you make sure to rename the file to “lighting.txt”? (Spookymuffin’s comes with a different name, you have to rename it yourself because the game will only recognize “lighting.txt”. This enables you to rename the Maxis lighting to something else and you can just keep it in your folder as a backup.)

Are you using the Ultimate Collection? The install path looks a bit different than what’s listed in the GoS thread. For example, mine is in K:Program Files (x86)Origin GamesThe Sims 2 Ultimate CollectionDouble DeluxeBaseTSDataResLights.

The only other suggestion I have is to make sure your game is closed, reinstall the file, then restart.

I’m sorry if any of this came across as condescending, I don’t mean for it to. D: I just literally went through everything step by step myself to make sure I wasn’t missing something. I hope you’re able to get it to work, anon!

Does anyone else have suggestions that I might’ve missed?

Hi! Could you please share the floorplan of the apartment complex Sheila lives in? I’d love to recreate it in my game. 😜

Hi anon! Here you go:

There are five units – the first and second floor have two apartments each, and the top floor is one large apartment (2 bed, 2 bath). The apartments on the second and third floors have balcony access. 🙂 For reference, I gave Tabitha the left apartment on the ground floor, and Sheila has the right apartment on the second floor.

A few words of warning if you plan to rebuild it yourself: the only means of transportation between floors is a single elevator, which causes a lot of route failures ~~and is most definitely not up to code~~. (I was clearly going for appearance and not efficiency. :P) If Sims are being annoying and getting stuck, I just use move_objects and move them myself, but I realize this may be a pain. 😛 Also, I was not smart about the layout of the adjoining bedrooms and Sims might be awoken in the middle of the night by noisy neighbors. D:

Well, this is only the third apartment I’ve ever built, so – learning experience!

Do you know if there is a way to fix the Sims 2 screen tearing glitch? It happens every time I move my screen, and the screen blocks up and glitches out on me. I have a really new computer, which might be the problem, but I’m not sure how to fix it. If you don’t know, that’s fine! I’m just asking around

Hi there! I’m sorry to say I don’t have much experience with this issue. 😦 In case you haven’t already seen it, hambergersims posted a response you might find helpful!

I haven’t had any graphical issues with my Sims 2 game at all except for the black box shadow problem (fixed by setting my shadows to medium). My sister had some issues with her new laptop (the game wasn’t recognizing the main video card even though it’s compatible), but we were able to fix it using the steps outlined here. So perhaps fixing your graphic rules will help? This seems to be an issue with newer computers and/or Windows 8. :

I’ve been playing the sims forever and I still don’t know how to get that “selfie” interaction that you used on your graduation pictures. Help?

Hi! Unfortunately, it’s not really an interaction. 😦 It’s actually part of the graduation cut scene that happens after your sim throws a graduation party after finishing their last semester of college. (Maybe it also happens even if you don’t throw a party? I’m not really sure.) Anyway, did you ever toggle an option to disable cut scenes (first woohoo, first kiss, etc.)? That might be why it’s not showing up for you.