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The Star Hermit · 25-09-2007, 10:43 AM

Which terrains are the best for placing beach lots?

If you enjoy creating your own neighbourhoods but are not sure which of the terrains available provide the best opportunity for placing the most beach lots, the listing below should help you.

Creating Neighbourhoods

If you have not created your own neighbourhood before and want to try it, go to the neighbourhood screen and click the 'Main Menu' button to bring up the main neighbourhood chooser screen, scroll right until you see the large blue 'Create Custom Neighbourhood' button, click this button to bring up a list of default terrains available. If you click on a terrain you can see a thumbnail image of it to the right, make your selection and click the blue triangle 'Load Template' button, enter a name, description and terrain type, finally click the 'Tick' button to create your new neighbourhood.

You are not limited to just creating your own main neighbourhoods, the same technique can be used to create your own University, Downtown, Business and Vacation districts, assuming you had the relevant expansions installed. Beach lots can be placed in any neighbourhood type, for example you could create your own University college town on an island, using only beach lots. Lucky Students!

Placing Beach Lots

There are several important considerations when placing beach lots:

One side must be placed against the road
One side must be placed in water
No more than half of the lot can be in water

As when placing normal lots, the game will try to raise or lower a bit of land for you when placing the lot, if there's not enough land to build on though you will have to find another location.

The best terrains to use for beach lots, based on my experimentations are listed below. I have excluded any terrains that don't have any water, I've also excluded terrains that have water but can't place beach lots as they don't quite meet the criteria above. I have included terrains that can hold at least one beach lot.

Please note that this is not a precise assessment based on an exact number of lots, it's a general average because it depends on how wide the lots are that you choose, it also depends on the spacing between lots.

Poor Terrains

These terrains can all hold at least one beach lot each, some one or two more, however they are pretty limited.

Arbordale
Driftwood
Isla Segundo*
Oasis Valley
Three Lakes

*this is a tricky terrain to use as you have to go right to the edge and rotate the neighbourhood to just the right direction, however there are several locations you can place 3x5 size lots.

Good Terrains

Depending on size and spacing of lots, these terrains have a pretty reasonable amount of places to put beach lots.

Bluewater
Twikkii Island

Excellent

Depending on size and spacing of lots, these terrains are the best locations for placing larger numbers of beach lots.

Crescent Island
Moon Islands

Of the two, I'd say Crescent Island is the best choice, all of the road/coast locations shown below are usable (click to enlarge):

Of course, this only takes account of the default terrains provided with the game and expansions, you may be able to download custom terrains which meet the criteria, or if you have a copy of Sim City 4 you could create your own instead. See Creating Custom Neighborhoods for The Sims 2 Using SimCity 4 on the exchange.

25-09-2007, 10:43 AM	#10 (permalink)
The Star Hermit Fleet Commander Join Date: Sep 2005 Location: Sol 3 - Sector 001 Age: 40 Gender: Male Posts: 25,916	Which terrains are the best for placing beach lots? If you enjoy creating your own neighbourhoods but are not sure which of the terrains available provide the best opportunity for placing the most beach lots, the listing below should help you. Creating Neighbourhoods If you have not created your own neighbourhood before and want to try it, go to the neighbourhood screen and click the 'Main Menu' button to bring up the main neighbourhood chooser screen, scroll right until you see the large blue 'Create Custom Neighbourhood' button, click this button to bring up a list of default terrains available. If you click on a terrain you can see a thumbnail image of it to the right, make your selection and click the blue triangle 'Load Template' button, enter a name, description and terrain type, finally click the 'Tick' button to create your new neighbourhood. You are not limited to just creating your own main neighbourhoods, the same technique can be used to create your own University, Downtown, Business and Vacation districts, assuming you had the relevant expansions installed. Beach lots can be placed in any neighbourhood type, for example you could create your own University college town on an island, using only beach lots. Lucky Students! Placing Beach Lots There are several important considerations when placing beach lots: One side must be placed against the road One side must be placed in water No more than half of the lot can be in water As when placing normal lots, the game will try to raise or lower a bit of land for you when placing the lot, if there's not enough land to build on though you will have to find another location. The best terrains to use for beach lots, based on my experimentations are listed below. I have excluded any terrains that don't have any water, I've also excluded terrains that have water but can't place beach lots as they don't quite meet the criteria above. I have included terrains that can hold at least one beach lot. Please note that this is not a precise assessment based on an exact number of lots, it's a general average because it depends on how wide the lots are that you choose, it also depends on the spacing between lots. Poor Terrains These terrains can all hold at least one beach lot each, some one or two more, however they are pretty limited. Arbordale Driftwood Isla Segundo* Oasis Valley Three Lakes this is a tricky terrain to use as you have to go right to the edge and rotate the neighbourhood to just the right direction, however there are several locations you can place 3x5 size lots. Good Terrains* Depending on size and spacing of lots, these terrains have a pretty reasonable amount of places to put beach lots. Bluewater Twikkii Island Excellent Depending on size and spacing of lots, these terrains are the best locations for placing larger numbers of beach lots. Crescent Island Moon Islands Of the two, I'd say Crescent Island is the best choice, all of the road/coast locations shown below are usable (click to enlarge): Of course, this only takes account of the default terrains provided with the game and expansions, you may be able to download custom terrains which meet the criteria, or if you have a copy of Sim City 4 you could create your own instead. See Creating Custom Neighborhoods for The Sims 2 Using SimCity 4 on the exchange.