(Part 2) Best products from r/thesims

Warning: Novel incoming.

One option for finding floor plans is the archive of Sears catalog houses here.

However, I'm going to take a different approach with the rest of my response, because it sounds like you have a lot of the same issues with gallery houses that I do.

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The easiest way to get around this is to understand the design process so that you don't need to copy other's plans. I suggest two of my text books from design school:

• The Interior Plan by Robert J. Rengel. Amazon. A used 2011 version can be had for less than $20.
  
  It's a professional book, but it's meant for 1st and 2nd year students so it's not overly technical. I like it because the drawing style is loose and approachable, and it's a very comprehensive. It will walk you through the creative process and will give you planning tools you can use to come up with your own floor plans later on. There are sections on both commercial and residential design, separate sections on individual rooms, and then how those rooms fit together into a whole building. It even talks about furniture placement!
  
  
• A Field Guide to American Houses by Virginia & Lee McAlester Amazon. Again, get the old version used. Less than $10.
  
  This one focuses on exteriors and has both photographs of homes in styles throughout history and line drawings showing what elements make those homes an example of that style. Because it separates out the elements, it's easier to adapt them to new buildings.
  
  If you really want to get into it, I think it's worth it to get the books. They'll have a depth of information you just can't get online - especially in terms of picking up the design process and explaining why things work.
  
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  In terms of adapting real-world measurements into the Sims...I don't advocate for it. Every time I try, the proportions are messed up visually and/or the room sizes don't translate well for sims furniture and activities. I find that it's much, much better to base room sizes on the furniture layout you want and how much open space you need around those arrangements. In other words - work from the inside out.
  
  Say you see a floor plan with furniture on it - a couch, chair and coffee table. It doesn't matter how big those pieces are in real life and it doesn't matter how big the room is, either. Why? Because you know how big that furniture is in the sims and that's all that matters. You need a room that will accomodate a 3x1 tile couch, a 1x1 tile chair, and a 2x1 tile coffee table, plus walking space. You can do a similar thing by translating building facades into 1 or 2-tile windows and doors. I usually work from what minimums I know work in the game and then add space depending on how luxurious I want it to be. Just keeping in mind how much space each item takes up in the game is immensely helpful.
  
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  I like to harp the most central part of really good design: build for your clients' reality.
  
  Don't build a house for humans. Build a house for Sims. Maybe it's just me, but it annoys the crap out of me when I see fake garages and storage rooms in TS4 houses. It's a waste of potentially useful space and family funds. Also, Embrace the weirdness and don't forget about cool things like bubble blower lounges and rocket ships! If your sim has a weird hobby, don't forget to dedicate space for it.
  
  One last thing! Minimize your corridor space! It's dead space so please, please don't make long rambling hallways. Looking at good plans will help you avoid that. Our professors nagged us on this all the time.
  
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  Ninja Edit: I thought it might be helpful to list out my process steps, so here it goes.
  
  

1. Make a written list of spaces and equipment needed based on the family who will be living in the house. Be sure to include hobbies and activities. This is meant to force you to think about details. For example, how many kitchen applicances you want will change the size of your kitchen - so decide early!
   
   
2. Draw a bubble diagram (loose circles) to figure out room placement and room relationships. How do you want the house to flow?
   
   
3. Start adding shape to the rooms. Include doorways, windows, furniture.
   
   
4. Use sims furniture size and walking space requirements to determine total tile dimensions for each room. Then add together for the whole building. Note: I draw plans inside out. Then build it in the game outside in.
   
   
5. Choose a lot size based on the house size and desired yard size. So this is where I start building in the game.
   
   
6. Refine room dimensions based on exterior details you want. Make sure that the windows and doors will space properly on the facade. Make small changes based on furniture sizes, activities, etc.
   
   I know it's a lot of front-end work, but it saves so many issues down the road. You never have to run out of room, or have too much of it, or have to go back and re-do stuff if you plan a little.

This is CDN 40 more than your budget but will run TS4 in medium to high settings. Packs and CC included.

https://www.amazon.ca/Acer-Aspire-i3-8130U-Memory-E5-576-392H/dp/B079TGL2BZ/

You can upgrade the internal storage to SSD and Memory later to improve loading times. This is what I like about Acer, they make these parts easy to access and replace.

Memory first, adding more to RAM is always best.

You said that in the above comment, sorry! Are you at all comfortable building your own? /r/buildapcforme can give you great ideas. Otherwise I'd imagine something like this might work for you. Some people crap on Dells, but I've had several that have been good. This one is a pretty good deal, I think, if you can't build your own.

I’ve never used a macbook, but I’ve seen another ask like this before about overheating. I think someone suggested a cooling pad like this one.

Oh, and for the lagging, there’s plenty of posts out there about cutting the lag down... most which consist of renaming your cc to exclude special characters like ( _ and what not. Try googling it. Good luck!

That laptop might be able to run TS4 without any problems, but it will struggle with TS3, especially if you plan on using many DLCs (expansions).

Here you have a better option.
Here there’s another one which is also quite good.
And another one rather similar.

In this comment you can find the ideal specs for TS3 + expansions.

Don't look at those guys saying you need gtx970 or more than 8gb of ram


RAM : Got all extension + something like 1000 packages (mods) and my sims 4 use 1,2gb so even 4gb might be fine... but 8gb is a must if you want to run other things in background like youtube...

Used GTX 970? not really needed, again, if you don't want to max out graphics, the 1030 you linked is enough, but well if you could afford some kind of GTX1050 it might be better and you could max out graphics. [Here is one at 119$](
https://www.amazon.com/Gigabyte-Geforce-GDDR5-Graphic-GV-N1050OC-2GD/dp/B01MG0733A/ref=sr_1_2?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1506454462&sr=1-2&keywords=1050&th=1)

If it's a surface 3 and not a surface pro 3 I think sims 2-4 would all not run very well on it. If it's a pro, it should run sims 4 fine.

Sims 4 tends to run better than 2 and 3, especially with settings turned down. I'd recommend just trying the free trial for sims 4 on origin to see how it does.

Edit: Just to add, I've played my Sims 4 on this tablet before with settings turned down all the way, it was playable. It's slower than yours so I think yours could do Sims 4.

I just have a really cheap gaming mouse by a company called HAVIT that I got from Amazon. (https://amzn.com/B00KKAQYXM) It does the job very nicely and was a fantastic deal. :)

This one is pretty close. You could buy it to fit your bottom half and then spend 20 bucks having the top tailored to fit.

I don't have this particular Laptop but I think this will be more than good enough to play all expansions on High settings: https://www.amazon.com/Lenovo-i5-8300H-GeForce-Keyboard-Bluetooth/dp/B07P7MDH6X/ref=sr_1_4

Anything with similar specs should work, I think!

Woah, until you brought it to my attention, I didn't even realize that the Katy Perry Sweet Treats Stuff Pack isn't available on Steam or Origin anymore. I wonder why? However, you can get the game legitimately here. They probably still have it in stores like Wal-mart, too.

$60 for the Katy Perry expansion now. Holy cow. I never thought I wanted it.... but now that I can't have it, that kind of makes me want to scratch an itch. lol

my laptop sticker says i have:

•8 GB DDR3 L memory

•2 GB Dedicated VRAM

• 1000 GB HDD

whatever all of that means. it is this laptop. the sims 4 runs great on it.

Omg ok, so I found listings for it on amazon, but I'm not sure if it has the little booklet! Someone posted a picture of it in their reviews. Is this the right one? I'm legitimately going to buy it lmao.

There is also a PC version. Your best bet might be secondhand or charity shops. I see an Amazon listing for a new copy for $80 (ouch, used is about $50).

If you still want to use disc's on the pc you can buy a USB dvd driver. It's just an external one you connect to your computer or laptop.


https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00ODDE7K4/ref=mp_s_a_1_14?ie=UTF8&qid=1486037151&sr=8-14&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_FMwebp_QL65&keywords=disc+drive

For example. (On phone now so shortening the link is hard)

You should also be able to contact origin on this issue but perhaps you like still having a driver( I certainly do).

Looks like Dine Out is 50% off as well!
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01GW139N0/

They have it here on Amazon

One of the answers says it may work. I think there is a fix to Simcity 4 on windows 10 but I’m unsure, it’s worth a google search though :)

Why not just link to the actual page itself instead of a tweet that leads to a referral Amazon link?

Amazon has it - http://www.amazon.com/The-Sims-Complete-Collection-PC/dp/B000BAVN14/ref=dp_ob_title_vg

You can get the complete edition, used, on Amazon