Smaller Farm Field 'Hood Deco

[genlisae]

One of my biggest pet peeves in TS2 is that the farm fields are "effects" and thus can't be seen from within the lot. I mean really? That is a pretty major piece of atmosphere adding deco there, which a lot of us have spent a long time setting up to have exactly the right feel to it, and yet once you are in the lot your atmosphere just vanishes. It is also more than a little annoying that the farm fields are huge and you can't make anything but a square out of them.

I finally got tired of my atmosphere having to be "close enough" and going *poof*.

Really, with the size of these now it is closer to 1/4 of an acre, but who is really counting? I cloned the dirt road from Criquette's Decorative Road Set and applied textures from the Maxis Farm fields.

These fields are the width of the roads and only a bit longer than they are wide. They come in 4 flavours: Light Green, Half Dirt/Half Green, Green and Dirt (named Brown in the catalogue).

What can you do with them?

You can make big fields next to houses and right up against the edge of the map or smaller fields in those awkward places a lot won't fit.

You can make fields around corners and in shapes other than perfectly square. They also rotate like all other neighbourhood objects so you could build those same fields around corners in shapes other than perfectly square and on an angle!

You can use them to fill in those little left over bits at the ends of roads. I would recommend taking more than the 2 seconds I did here to get them to blend a little more. You get the idea though.

Probably most importantly ...

You can see them from within lots!

Even the ones across town that you dropped down haphazardly.

And, of course you can download them here.

Credit goes to Criquette for making the original object and Maxis for the textures. I do have this mod installed. I do not believe it is required for these to be placed as close to lots as I have them, but it may be. I would recommend you get it anyway because trees do not have an invisible wall next to a house or a road beyond which they can not grow ... just sayin'.

Have fun, use for whatever, don't upload them to paysites but other than that, knock yourself out. Let me know if you have any issues. I have never created 'hood deco before and it is possible I did something wrong somewhere. I don't think I did, but it is possible.

*Update to answer questions: These do NOT follow the existing terrain like the effect based fields do, they are an object. As an object they will clip through hills or float above the edges of hills like any other objects. There is no way to "fix" that. On the other hand they are very small so you can level the terrain where you want to put them, overlap them to kind of stair-step down hills or place a rock or a group of trees next to the floating or clipping part to hide any weirdness.

Comments

[simlili]

And just like that, you stopped sim rural exodus.
Thank you!

[genlisae]

You're welcome :)

[vimpse]

Eeeek, this is excellent! Thank you ^_^

[genlisae]

:) You're welcome.

[(Anonymous)]

I needed this so badly! Thank you!!! <3

[genlisae]

:) Enjoy.

[hurricanetaylor.livejournal.com]

This is something I've wanted for ages. I was getting tired of not being able to see my farms....Thank you :)

[genlisae]

You're welcome. Glad they are useful. :)

[(Anonymous)]

Thank you so much! It's always bugged me that you can't see a lot of neighborhood objects from your lot. Are you going to make more effects visible? There are so many I've been wanting to see! All the things that go on the ground, just like the farm fields, and all the other things that don't show up. I don't understand why Maxis didn't make them visible from lots.

And I always wished there was snow deco so I could have a snowy area in my hood without covering the entire neighborhood in Seasons snow. The only thing I've seen like that is the one at MTS, but it's really old and doesn't look very great.

http://classic.modthesims.info/download.php?t=103560

[genlisae]

You are very welcome :)

I had thought of making a few of the flowers effects as soon as I worked out how to best go about it. The main issue is that this is a flat object. It will not bend to the terrain like the current effects do. This works okay for things you would generally expect to be flat, like farm fields (they happen on hills, sure, but when most think of a farm field they think a few gently rolling hills at most so flat is okay). Snow and flowers are not things you would expect to be flat. I could certainly give it a try and see how it goes if flat is okay with you.

[fuzzyspork]

Thank you so much! I was thinking just the other day how I wish I could see crops from my legacy lot for photo purposes. :)

[genlisae]

You're welcome. :) Story photos were exactly why I made them.

[shastakiss.livejournal.com]

What a great idea! I'm very excited about these, thank you so much :)

[genlisae]

:D You're welcome.

[(Anonymous)]

I've wanted this in my game for years. Thank you so much.

[genlisae]

:) You're welcome.

[vuokkosims.livejournal.com]

You made my farmer sims's dream come true! I wanted this so bad, thank you so much ♥

[genlisae]

:D You're welcome.

[suaper.livejournal.com]

this is fabulous :o do you think you'd do the same with the concrete and grasses/muds/colour things

thank you for the download :D

[genlisae]

Thank you.

I have list of different terrains and effects to try out and see if they work. Hopefully they will. :)

[curiousb]

Genius! Thank you!

[genlisae]

:D Thank you, and you're welcome.

Thanks ever so much

[cheshirekatttt.livejournal.com]

After wanting these for years, you have made this dream a reality. I knew sticking to flat terrains would be best in the long run. Especially for objects such as these.

[(Anonymous)]

Thank you so much for this!