New Lot Traits : Use Residential Rentals shared areas as Community Lots
Over the last few days, I've been working on a project that seemed necessary to bring a little life to some of the residential lots I've built: using shared spaces as community lots, to give my residents access to a bar, cafe, or whatever, without going through a loading screen, while bringing a little more life to these spaces.
I know that LittleMsSam had already made a mod allowing you to always have NPCs on any lot, but what I also needed here was to have visitors, who would use the objects placed on the lot as expected. To this end, I created 5 traits:
🍵 Brewed Delights: the lot functions as a café (if there's an Espresso Bar) or a Thrift Shop (if there's a Bubble Tea stand). It's open from 9am to 9pm.
🍕 Meals on the Go: the lot automatically hires stall vendors (up to 2 stalls) and/or a cafeteria server (using University's Cafeteria Station) for lunch and dinner.
🍸 Drinking Spot: the lot functions as a bar (if there is a bar in the shared spaces). This also includes karaoke if a machine is present. It's open from 2 p.m. to 2 a.m.
🧩 Fun Zone: the lot automatically brings in children and teenagers to enjoy the on-site facilities (outdoor or indoor games) from 10am (weekends)/5pm (weekdays) to 9pm.
🏥 Care Facility: this lot takes car of its tenants by offering them all the comforts they need on a daily basis: a catering services, care and visits from the loved ones.
The traits are located under lot challenges. You need to configure them for each unit separately.
Those traits work on Residential Rentals and community lots. I had to modify all autonomies so that visitors only use objects in the shared areas.
Among visitors, neighbors living on the same lot are used to populate the shared areas, in addition to the other tasks they normally perform.
If the lot trait Private Dwelling is used, only NPCs will be included, and visitors will be limited to Sims from other units. I use this feature, for example, to have a bar in my hotel!
In the current configuration, I favor played sims for visitor groups (not for single visitors). I'll have to see how I adapt this, as it's the most relevant in my way of playing, but I could change this setting.
A Janitor NPC is included except for the Fun Zone, to clean up any leftover glasses and plates at the end of service. I wasn't able to limit them to the shared areas entirely, so they may also clean your active family's home.
I had to alter a tuning (eat_to_clean_from_sit) to make visitors' dirty plates and glasses disappear like on a community lot. It doesn't work 100%, but it helps. As a side effect, this effect also applies to your sims if you have the lot trait, which means less dishes!
The mod should require some expansions packs, at least For Rent, Get to Work, Get Together, University, High School Years.
At the moment, translated in french only (by very limited in terms of strings used)
Last update : 04/02/24 - Addition of a Care Facility trait & small improvements on autonomy for other traits
And if by chance you try it, don't hesitate to provide me with all the feedback you've got 😊
