Can I fix this Sims build using EA's weird restrictions?

Renovating a horrible starter home in StrangerVille, but with EA's weird restrictions
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[@emo8071]

It's so weird when EA use really expensive furniture in a starter home... like why not just use that money to make the whole place look good instead... :/

[@starpupilsx]

bc it's EA

[@sloweddown4u]

Or make it smaller. There’s only 8 sims to a household (if you don’t have mods) and these large houses do not fit them. It’s still far too large even for that many sims.

[@starpupilsx]

@@sloweddown4u plus way too skinny 😭

[@rachelsuegoodman]

Because theirs an older idea that you put your money into items as an investment. Its an old persons way of having "savings"

[@arbood26]

Bcs good design doesn't always require expensive stuffs, the most important thing is ✨️good taste✨️

[@eadenjensen2259]

I hate empty rooms. They just rub me that wrong way honestly. Like I need a space to feel like someone actually lives there.

[@Milkythefawn]

I agree, clutter is such a human thing

[@yuhhbiscuit]

Not to mention that irl my room is a fire hazard 😂

[@buttons256]

Ok but question, I literally genuinely don’t own any cluttery things so yeah my house is just furniture and nothing else, but if I have nothing to put there, what do I put there 😂 I’ve just embraced the minimalist life because I have no ideas 😭

[@kimberlyscheyhing9114]

me too!!! usually when i build sims houses i plan to actually play in, i will leave a “garage” or extra bedroom empty for items my sims might need in gameplay. right now it has a woodworking table, a treadmill, and the robotics workstation from university

[@DarklightAmy]

@@buttons256 i mean if you like it that way?? Why change it. I have pictures on the wall and little figurines and stuff as decoration. Some things my friends made for me.

[@christenvalentino640]

I really wish EA had leaned more into the 50s retro alien movie vibe thats hinted around strangerville. it would have been so cool and the builds could have been so fun

[@Amazon_213]

Oh yeah, make more mid-century modern builds… retro-future vibes with the space age looking stuff

[@My-name-is-Kit]

Especially since atomic style buildings are so prevalent in warmer climates.

[@kathaai]

Yasss give us that mid century space age moment

[@ceciliap5336]

omg they totally should have!!!! that would been so cool

[@chloewebb5526]

Yeah, Trailer vibes is fine, but alien camp could totally be worked more into it

[@Christine-zb6ml]

“It might be kind of fun to use a more cherry colored wood” I think Kayla is being held hostage and this is her subtle way of asking for help

[@Blankphotograph5799]

Right?! I was thinking that just the other day she was talking about how much she hated the red swatches of the wood

[@AlexaFaie]

@@Blankphotograph5799 Its the orangey red swatch she really hates.

[@plasticoctopus6287]

i'm one of the three people who plays the sims who absolutely loooves strangerville, so i actually DO appreciate any renovations done to it! strangerville is awful and poorly done but it gives me so much nostalgia for strangetown in the sims 2 so i can't help but love it.

[@erinhammo9291]

The world is also so much fun to play in! I make a holiday to remember the heros of strangerville lol

[@reeseweeber946]

same here! strangerville reminds me of stranger things and i can’t help but love it. the only reason i don’t play with it often is because of how BAD the builds look.

[@tallulahbrown5864]

Should I get strangerville, what's the replay ability

[@Kteanhle]

@@tallulahbrown5864 I have never wanted the play the main storyline twice, but it’s not my kind of thing anyway. But I love the world and the doors, windows, columns etc that come with the pack

[@martavibo]

Oh look! An alien!!

[@Naruneyl]

People who make games usually suck at their own stuff. I made a platform game as my final project in college and I sucked at playing, but I knew the game was fine because my partner, who was doing the documentation (no code for him, only for me) would just speedrun it everytime. Folks who work at EA suck at building because they're programmers, not designers or players (or so I think). I'm not defending them, because there's no reason for EA to not hire a small team to work on building designs + in-game build, but could be an explanation on why the buildings are hard on the eyes :)

[@kathaai]

But then why don't they let the ones who design the objects (that look good so they have taste and know how to make stuff look nice) build the houses...

[@BonaparteBardithion]

@@kathaai Because a sculptor is not an architect or interior decorator. Making the objects and flooring/paint is a different set of skills. Like a designer that only knows how to arrange fashion shows instead of back to school lines.

[@AlexaFaie]

@@BonaparteBardithion Though CC creators often make amazing rooms to showcase the CC they made so I don't think it can only be that since they have way more people on the art team than any of the others so there's bound to be someone amongst them who is good at decorating. I think one of the real reasons they suck so much is because if they looked fantastic there would be no reason to renovate them for new players. I don't mind empty houses too much (like kitchen and bathroom done, but the rest empty) because that's really realistic to what happens when you move house IRL. You either bring your furniture with you or buy new stuff if you don't yet have it.

[@skeletoninyourbody9896]

You realize there's not only programmers? There needs to be someone who makes the concept and the final models/ideas.

[@skeletoninyourbody9896]

@@BonaparteBardithion as someone who sculpts yes we aren't but we should have more sense than average person in decoration, because that's art as well. If you only sculpt, you're doing it wrong and should indulge in other arts and hobbies.

[@pinkcupcake4717]

What's crazy is that Shotgun style houses, which are very affordable as houses go, can be really cute and charming! Why EA couldn't manage having somewhat appealing homes is beyond me.

[@yuhhbiscuit]

My grandma lived in Texas once and I think these houses were common there at the time but I do get the vibes that they were going for.

[@broccolycowboy3016]

EA thinks all lower class people live in moldy hovels

[@bonniejackson9949]

It’s a really popular style in warm climates areas of the US in older homes because you could open the front and back doors and windows and a breeze would blow through the house keeping it cool before air conditioning was the norm.

[@ellahere2300]

Judging by the room builds you can use, EA isn't bad at building. I have no idea why the houses suddenly suck too

[@catkittycatcatkittycatcat9652]

maybe they make the house look bad on purpose so you're encouraged to fix it up a bit?

[@Hiro_Trevelyan]

What if EA's restrictions were mostly about time ? EA is pretty cheap on lots of things (considering the quality of some game packs and additions or how bugged some packs are and still get released), so it wouldn't surprise me they have a very limited time to put a bunch of buildings to make the game "functional" without needing the players to build anything. If I had only one hour to rebuild the entirety of a neighborhood, it would probably look bad. But that's just a theory.

[@madisoncunigan3601]

A Game Theory

[@crazysquirrel6022]

Thanks for watching

[@ellaart7083]

I'm Matpat and goodbye!

[@jaycaspian2137]

i found my people

[@Hiro_Trevelyan]

@@madisoncunigan3601 Omg why didn't I think of that

[@flawed1]

I’m guessing that the houses in the earlier packs are bad because they didn’t give people enough time to build them properly. It was probably programmers who had other things to do and spent a few hours last minute building houses

[@valentinaercolani2520]

I work in a game company, I don't know how EA works, but I can imagine, and yes, how you did it, probably is a matter of time. When we play and we see the counter that doesn't match in colors, or how is build an house, we see only that thing that annoys us so much. But they don't, they have sooo much else to think about, to see, to make work. They have priorities and deadlines, that often are really strict and person and time are never enough. Maybe they have seen it, later, but is on the bottom of the priorities that they have to do. "The game works right?". Also "who's in charge" want to add more and more, more game packs, more kit, more stuff packs! and the list of priorities grows. Could be sad, but watch the game from the top, watch the beautiful thing they created, they did such a good job! With some creativity you can create so many different stories! So I wanted to share my little knowledge that I learned in my experience on my job :) P. S. Sorry if I made some errors, English isn't my mother tongue

[@yuhhbiscuit]

Strangerville builds are like my soul, cold and empty but even my soul has more furniture.

[@malami4891]

It could be so nice of a house…

[@yuhhbiscuit]

@@malami4891 right? They all could’ve have been so cute and had a little farmhouse Texas vibe but they didn’t do it.

[@ShadoeLandman]

@@yuhhbiscuit I think they wanted things to look plain and cheap, like the people there didn't have much money. The whole town looks ready to fall apart (a grittiness that I love).

[@junerussell6972]

That was probably the most significantly better reno I've seen in a long time. The reno made the house actually pretty. I think I'd rather have that one in Willow Creek than some that are there. (I don't play in Strangerville, so I don't need it there.)

[@ascheparker2340]

Video idea, what if you take a lot from a newer pack that creators made (like you or James, etc) and change them to look like EA made it. I feel like it would be fun

[@marissaosman]

Omg yes

[@kokokretin]

I definitely understand the desire to have some rooms that are a little plain or toned down so that you can slowly fill up those spaces and it can be really satisfying, especially for people like me who can't build my own shells or furnish a house completely from scratch ( I never know where the kitchen should go or which way the sofas should face :( )

[@Naruneyl]

At 9:30 : There's no way anyone would ever convince me to live in a house with no external walls/fences and where the bedroom has a door leading straight outside. There's no guarantee no one would just walk up to that door and that would be really unnerving. But maybe that's because I live in a country where people literally walk through your property like it's a public space if you don't put up property walls made out of bricks and concrete.

[@meikeido]

I was about to say: Yeah, me too. I could never live in a house with a bedroomdoor that leads outside. Then I realized, I have an outsidedoor in my bedroom😅 But it's always locked and there is no actual way to it.

[@bearoqueiro8905]

I was like jeez where do u live and then I read the username and remembered: yeah brazil sucks I live here too lmao

[@xmoreganox]

i have a sliding door that doesn't lock and requires me to put a metal pipe in the track so it can't be opened. The struggle and fear is real lmao

[@BonaparteBardithion]

Would definitely have made that a side door off the hall or kitchen. Secondary entrances are important for fire safety (both in game and for realism), but a bedroom is not an ideal location.

[@Naruneyl]

@@bearoqueiro8905 high-five sis

[@Kualinar]

StrangerVille was a normal town before the Plant. So, why have «strange» houses in it ? ALL the strangeness is a recent event. It don't affect the architecture, JUST the residents.

[@TheMeganExperience]

To be fair to EA- when Strangerville came out they didn't have those mini recessed lights and the larger recessed light was like 250- in one of the updates like 2-3 years ago they added the mini recessed light and changed the price of the original to match it at 50 simoleons.

[@kathaai]

That price for the lights would have still been fine if they didn't use a whole 2000 simoleon painting in a STARTER home lol

[@TheMeganExperience]

@@kathaai FACTS you’re not wrong 😂

[@ShadoeLandman]

@@kathaai That's the kind of thing that makes the place feel real, though. Like it's a family heirloom that was brought along. Plus, the environment rating would've been crap without it because everything else is cheap junk someone buys to make their first home functional. And it always allows you to sell the painting to pay for other things if you want.

[@TheMeganExperience]

@@ShadoeLandman that’s a good perspective.

[@lydiahubbard7039]

In my legacy save, that family has 5 children and a cat thanks to story progression. I had to rebuild their house just because it drove me crazy that they outgrew their house. 😂😂 and the cat needed a bowl! Couldn’t let it starve!

[@violettiger5346]

Strangerville was one of the last packs before they decided to cut the 32 bit version, the 32 bit version was the main issue w restricting items and stuff in lots, and strangerville ended up getting the short end of the stick bc they really couldnt add much more to the game otherwise 32 bit version would be a lot worse. This isn't to excuse them, they should've prob cut the 32 bit version before that, but it explains a little of why strangerville and realm of magic worlds are so lacking

[@ShadowWorldSam]

I know you normally don't build with cc, but since you're trying to rebuild strangerville for not so berry - my lifesaver has been peacemakerCCs stranger ville build extension. It just adds more doors and windows and I can't live without it anymore ^^

[@malami4891]

Simsie is just good at everything in the sims

[@rllyrosie]

“ Ok no longer is this a game about trying to scrounge up items, this is a game about scrounging up money” oh how the tables have turned lol

[@laurenimani26]

And she said that like 2 minutes after saying she had all this extra money 😆

[@rllyrosie]

@@laurenimani26 EXACTLY YEAH

[@archerfen]

I love this mini series, strangerville is SO messed up lmao. Can’t wait to see more!!

[@patriciahummel3401]

I have to let you know that I had my cow plant grow today and the first suggested name was "Little Simzee" Cracked me up😂

[@Christine_990]

All cowplants use that as their default first name, I always leave it 😂

[@janey27701001]

That’s every cow plant. They are, by default, named Little Simzee. Kayla had a whole ‘justice for cow plants’ thing happening a little while ago because we couldn’t give Cowplants names.

[@MorganaR9135]

Yeah I have a long, skinny, twisty hallway in my current house. I’ve been living here for about 2 years, and I genuinely despise that hallway. God help me when I have to move furniture again… I barely got it down there.

[@shonathonlawson5145]

I have some therorys to why the worlds are weird and empty. First it could be because they want to encentivise you to rebuild them. I also know because im going to school for game desigh that there is most likely there is not a dedicated builder. But I still love the game and this video.

[@ChrisJohnsonCJs-Kitchen]

I've always disliked the floorplan of this house. There is a house in Forgotten Hollow that I'm pretty sure was reused in Britechester too. Your floorplan is exactly what I go for when re-modeling this house. I like to add back doors when I can make it work with the floorplan, most irl homes do have more than one exit. Oh, and I liked the grey & red.

[@Danimeows]

Love the red! It has look a southern charm vibe!

[@Danimeows]

The kid has a wabbit tablet they don't need

[@KM-ld9ln]

You should give us the simsie restriction challenge- you give us a build and we redo it. You can tour it like shell challenges!

[@simsellie9685]

I changed most of the houses in strangerville when dream home decorator came out, always save so much money by changing the windows and doors :) love this build Kayla

[@misslyntheena]

Also I just remembered that in the Sims too we had such amazing houses? Especially family homes in the catalog. In the Sims 4 I‘m scared to even look in the catalog/gallery

[@user-mc5qd6hc7n]

I love that Strangerville door, it really made this build to me. That and the improved layout! I find suburban homes a challenge to build.

[@Amelie629]

Watching those videos is always so relaxing and gives me lots of ideas for improving my sims houses 😊

[@remremiya]

The Sims 2 houses are usually 90% empty - I've never even thought that it's caused by some restrictions/so the game runs smoothly (ofc TS2 is an old game so it makes sense those restrictions were more strict than in case of TS4). I've always thought it was done in purpose - it makes sense that when you move to a new house (at least in my country), it has only most essential stuff like fridge or toilet and it's basically... empty. So I thought those empty houses are made to add some realistic aspect to them

[@Lemony123]

The problem is, The starter house that she used to renovate actually came from an occupied lot.

[@p_kix]

Love all the Strangerville builds recently, as I recently finished playing through the pack for the first time. Now I'm having fun redoing the world, and after saving the awesome library build from the other day, I'm going for more of a Texas vibe for the town center. I wish you'd used the Strangerville painting in this house, though - it has some great swatches!

[@kaisachu]

I think this is actually one of my fave builds you’ve done! It’s so pretty on the outside 🤩

[@kellyredmond7004]

This was a great video. Thanks for working hard Simsie! Love you girl!

[@kimberleymcmillan682]

I love how you always say it's not good and I'm looking at what you renovated... and I'm like "that's so cute! I love it!"

[@Claire-eo8wx]

i LOVE these house redos for stranger ville cause now my stranger ville actually looks good🥰

[@deatricelewellyan9572]

I love the redesign of strangerville! Keep up the good work!

[@ronireeves910]

This honestly looks amazing! I love it!

[@frankbacon1002]

Love these vids even tho we have extremely different styles! I personally love making my homes feel like fortresses for example. I don't like having open backyards at all, maaaybe in the front sometimes. I also tend to either go for an extremely modernist/futuristic or extremely victorian look, I'm not huge on any other style really. I like having as much sitting space as possible so you'll always see random ass sitting space everywhere! Love foyers, love closed gardens, love indoor terraces and so on.

[@hollyharman9813]

My 5 month old baby smiles at your face every time I put it on tv. Without fail just beams at the beginning of your videos, but only yours

[@sloweddown4u]

EA’s builds look like someone who has never touched a sims game (or building game in general) and this was their first house.

[@strawberryj3lly]

I built my first house in sims 4 and I was so happy it came out just the way I wanted.

[@kamouille12]

it turned how sooo cute, i love it !!

[@chevvy427]

I had no idea you designed some of the snowy escape houses!! They really are some of my favorite was builds, that's so cool!

[@morgaine2005]

StrangerVille as a world is gorgeous, but the builds need all the help they can get. Renovate away! (This is also SUCH an improvement over what was there, so thank you!)

[@hexopolis7078]

the real reason, more than likely, is that they more than likely rush them to finish, often its only one person with a 48hr or 24hr deadline.

[@amandasmithson5459]

I think you did an amazing job, I love the revamped house!

[@14xx07]

That actually look really liveable! Will love to see more of these with the base game :)

[@RayBMore.]

Thank you so much for updating the Strangerville lots

[@elizabethanyan8249]

The snowy escape homes are beautiful. so cool you got to build them.

[@sharicemcclendon9350]

Always love when you upload ❤️

[@dianapocalypse]

You did such a nice job with this one!

[@yazbee8736]

So glad I saved this content for today great as always 🙏

[@iris8861]

Strangerville gives off Stranger Things vibes to me🤔 Loving the builds Kayla👍👍

[@captainwatercress]

Simsie you’ve worked some magic on this house!

[@SylviaRustyFae]

Whats weird is that Strangerville has that crashed airplane lot which is honestly one of their coolest lots in the game i feel.

[@NikkiV.]

I love playing the Strangerville families thanks for the updates

[@your_fireplace]

the strangerville furniture is actually pretty ok, and the world is beautiful! the cas is ok, but i wish there was more. i’m kinda disappointed with the pack tho

[@TP-bw5jx]

Maybe terrible EA builds are meant to stir up creativity borne of outrage, cause what's more motivational than spite?

[@AlexFrank02]

Definitely one of my favorite worlds in the game it reminds me so much of the town I live in

[@cheyennerickley7795]

It’s so good! I’m going to download this!

[@danydear4334]

I love doing this as the home renovator job! it makes me feel less like a god hahaa

[@KYUDO12345]

Omg I feel ya on all the items causing you stress hahahaha. I always put them in inventory when I'm doing reno's

[@MrTaryns]

I just followed a tutorial on how to defeat the mother so now I can play in StrangerVille. so I think its great your upgrading the lots and I can use them, Thanks

[@EmpressEmbeth]

Ah yes, the salvation of Strangerville continues

[@CherylMcMinorrr]

I used to leave an empty room in some of my old builds so that they could be turned into whatever depending on the household but it was nothing like the EA builds 😅

[@Ratchie76]

Ea builds always look like someone realised their homework was due in ten minutes so they just panic build and hope for the best.

[@stephaniehanley1016]

I hope you are feeling good today and aren’t pushing yourself to upload all the time. From your updates I know a lot is going on so be sure you are giving yourself a break.

[@nallukka2002]

You did this build exactly like i would’ve done it. Yayyy

[@andsteven1440]

thanks for the fun video

[@woahjosiii12]

That cardboard Rick Astley, lurking behind the plant, is slightly creepy............

[@anthony6451]

i love your builds

[@daltons_doodles8089]

‘An Unnatural time in StrangerVille’ - lil simsie 2022 Idk why I love this sentence so much. Already a great video 😂

[@youwish685]

okay we love the strangerville slander but its very disheartening to see the wind spinner air thing slander. it's not a chimney. it's for air flow into the roof every house in australia has them yall i- tHEY DESERVE MORE LOVE.

[@Frenchaboo]

The funny thing about Strangerville is that if EA actually tried, their natural effort would've given stranger results than leaving things empty. Just mix and match all of their awful unusable swatches, add in cupcake machine and future cube and stairs to nowhere...

[@BonaparteBardithion]

That's good for one of those eccentric multigenerational manors, but most of Strangerville is the cheaply finished prefab look. Gotta make the houses look like mindless drones to match the population.

[@Shauma_llama]

Looks a lot better. These chimneys on the houses, what are they connecting to? There's no furnace, or fireplace.

[@nicholasjames695]

Poor Christie Sigworth... gets hit with the worst genetics when she becomes a teen.

[@jadedmage1375]

Every time! At least roll a die or something. Give that poor sim a chance,,,

[@kenniey5285]

Kill was definitely Simsies favorite word in this video.

[@Ava-wr2pq]

It's 5am in the morning I woke up to a lilsimsie notification and had to get up😭😭😭

[@woahmoe4288]

EA’s logic is so weird to me. I specifically remember roaring heights in the Sims3 and how much I loved the original builds. I’m sure a lot of that was because of the custom colors but there were those fun apartments in the uptown area with secret basements or storefronts… I just miss that level of detail and how flushed out the worlds were.

[@Briekenberry]

Totally unrelated but your eyebrows look amazing in this video ❤️

[@Necrobatix]

I don’t have strangerville but I think imma look for this and reno it into a werewolf lot bc it looks great

[@AndroidOverlord]

You made this house so hecking charming thooooo

[@FerrariCarr]

This particular house reminds me of those lots where someone awkwardly plops down a double-wide mobile home and turns it into a “house” by sealing off the bottom foundation and adding extensions to the house. 😂

[@Dhips.]

The very thought of having a windowed door from the outside leading into my bedroom spikes my anxiety.

[@claudiakarlsson6936]

Love the reno look on this house. Btw, have you shared that Library reno you did last time? Can't seem to find it amongst your builds in the Gallery. And I so wanna add that to a save file I'm remarking where I'm changing the townies myself but adding builds from talented creators.

[@spencerallegra]

I haven’t played strangerville since sims 2 but it was my favorite town back in the day. I loved playing with the aliens 🤣

[@malami4891]

Well, ea says that it just „Adds to the strange” 🤷‍♀️

[@yuhhbiscuit]

They said the reasons the houses are so empty is to add to the Strangerville theme, like no bish you stopped caring 😂

[@tallulahbrown5864]

@@yuhhbiscuit exactly it's not strange just looks like people moved there and were to lazy to finish the furnishings

[@marykalter13]

I think I'm the most impatient person in the world I can't wait until your background changes to your new office hahahahaha. Maybe I'm more excited for your move even than you lmao

[@strawberrycoww]

I never get sick of watching kayla renovate sims builds. Ever.

[@LovelyLyrics02022]

If the sims had a “ghetto” strangerville would be it

[@marinadela1361]

The red accents look marvelous.

[@lizziebozzie2418]

it's midnight, watching this video is giving me the sims bug. im very tired but i also really want to play the game again... *sighs and turns on pc*

[@maqy01]

something you never asked for: ceiling lights are so bad irl, no atmosphere except manic laboratory, so I wouldn't want to expose my sims to that

[@BrookeAzgard]

a collab between you and kate emerald would be amazing! :)

[@katherineclausen3437]

This looks fab. The problem I have with newer worlds like strangerville etc is that they don’t populate with harvestables and collectibles. Like, wtf EA?

[@sonjasamuelson4133]

kaylas videos are the reason im still alive 😭😭

[@wendyhubble1383]

Strangerville reminds me of West Texas, East New Mexico so I do love playing there.